TRAVELS
to discover the
SOURCE  OF  THE NILE.
TRAVEL
TO  DISCOVER THE
SOURCE   OF   THE NILE,
thAthe Years J76^ *769> x77o, 17713 I772, and 1773.
BIBiilOXHEK
IN FIVE VOLUMES.
BY JAMES BRUCE OF KINNAIRD, ESQ. F. R. S.
Mad J,
VOL. III.
Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orlemt Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet.——-
Ovid. Metam.
EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY J. RUTHVEN, FOR G. C. J. AND J. ROBINSON, PATERNOSTER-ROW,
LONDON.
M.DCC.XC.
CONTENTS
of the
THIRD VOLUME.
BOOK V.
account of my journey  from  masuah  to gondar-
transactions  there—manners  and customs of the abyssinians.
CHAP. I.
^ranfaclions at Mafuah and Arkceko, P. i
CHAP. II.
Direclions to Travellers for prcferving Health—Difcafes of the Country—Mufic—Trade, &c. of Mafuah—Conferences with the Naybe. 31
Vol. III. a CHAP.
CHAP. III.
yourttcy from Arkecko over the Mountain Taranta, to Dixau,        P. 64
CHAP. IV.
Journey from Dixan to Adoiva, Capital ofTigre, 93
CHAP. V.
Arrive at Adouva—Reception there—Vifit Fremona—'•And Ruins of Axum_Arrive at Sirr,       * , n8
CHAP. VI.
Journey from Sire to Addergey,and TranfacTwns there, 152
C H A P. VII.
Journey over Lamalmon to Gondar, 172
C H A P.
C H A P. VIII.
Reception at Gondar—Triumphal Entry of the King—The Author s jirjl Audience, *■ r97
CHAP. IX.
Tranfaclions at Gondar, 233
CHAP. X.
Geographical Div'fion of Abyjfinia into Provinces, 24^
CHAP. XI.
Various Cujloms in Ahyfinia, fmilar to thofe in Perfia, &c.—A bloody Banquet deferibed, &c. 262
CHAP. XII. State of Religion-~~Circumci/iou—Excfion, &c. 313
BOOK
BOOK VI.
first attempt to discover the  source ofthe nile
frustrated-a successful journey thither, with"
a full account of everything relating to that celebrated river.
CHAP. I.
The Author made Governor of Ras el Feel, P. 359
CHAP. II.
.Battle of Ban/a—Covfplracy againft Michael—The Author retires to Enijras—Dejcription of Gondar, Fjnfras, and Lake cl%ana, 373
CHAP. III.
The King encamps at Lamguc—Tranfaclions there—-Pafjcs the Nile, and encamps at Derdera—The Author follows the King, 389
C H A P. IV.
Pafs the River Gomara—Remarkable Accident there—^Arrive at
X)ara
Dara—Viftt tbe Great Cataracl of Autia—Leave Dara, and refine our Journey, V. 405
CHAP. V.
Pafs the Nile, and encamp at Tfoomwa—Arrive at Derdera—Alarm on approaching the Army—-Join the King at Karcagna, 432
CHAP. VI.
Kings Army retreats towards Gondar_Memorable Pajfage cf the
Nile—Dangerous Situation of the Army—Retreat if Kfa IFafous —Battle of Limjour—UuexpccJed Peace with Fuji!—Arrival at Gondar, 446
CHAP. VII.
King and Army retreat to Tigre— Interefing Events following that Retreat—The Body of Joas is found—Socinios, a new King, proclaimed at Gondar, 470
CHAP. VIII.
Sicond Journey to difcover the Source of the Nile—Favourable turn of
the:
the Kings Affairs in Tigre—We fall in with Faffs Army at Bamba, p, ^
CHAP. IX.
Interview with Fafil—Tranfaclions in the Camp, 509
CHAP. X.
Leave Bamba, and continue our Journey Southward—Fall in with Fafil V Pagan Galla—Lncamp on the Kelti. 532
C II A P. XI.
Continue our Journey—Fall in with a Party of Galla—Prove our Friends—Pafs the Nile—Arrive at Gout to, and vfit the ftrf Cataract, 550
CHAP. XII.
Leave Gout to—Mountains of the Moon—Roguery of Woldo our Guide —Arrive at the Source of the Nile. 577
CHAP. XIII.
Attempts of the Ancients to difcovcr the Source of the Nile—No d'feo-
very
CONTENTS, vii
very made-in latter Times—No Evidence of the Jejfmts having arrived there—Kircbers Account jaUuious—Difcovety completely made iy the Author, 603
CHAP. XIV,
Defeription of the Sources of the Nile—Of Geejh—Accounts rf its fever al Cataracls—Courfe from its Rife to the Mediterranean, 632
CHAP. XV.
Various names of this River-—Ancient Opinion concerning the Caufe of its Inundation—Real Manner by which it is effected—Remarka-ablc D'lfpofition of the Peuinfula of Africa, 654
CHAP. XVI.
Egypt not the Gift of the Nile—Ancient Opinion refuted—Modern Opinion contrary to Proof and Experience, 0~2
CHAP. XVIT.
The fame Subjeel continued—Nihmctcr what—II ^ divided and ineafuredy, 68 9
C H A P.
viii
CONTENTS,
CHAP. XVIII.
Inquiry about the Pojfibility of changing the Courfe of the Nik— Caufe of the NucJa, P. 712
CHAP. XIX.
Kind reception among the Agows—Their Number, Trade, Character, &c. 726
TRAVELS
TRAVELS
TO DISCOVER
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.
BOOK V.
account of my transactions abyssinians.
CHAP. I.
Tranfaclions at Mafuah and Arkcclo.
MASUAH, which means the port or harbour of the Shepherds, is a fmall rfland immediately on the Abyi-finian more, having an excellent harbour, and water deep enough for mips of any frze to the very edge of the iiland: here they may ride in the utmoft fecurity, from whatever point, or with whatever degree of ilrength, the wind blows, As it takes its modern, fo it received its ancient name from its harbour. It was called by the Greeks Scbaficum Or, from Vol. III. A the
journey   from    masuah   to gondar-
there-manners and  customs of the
the capacity of its port, which is diilributed into three divi-fions. The ifland itfelf is very fmall, fcarce three quarters of a mile in length, and about half that in breadth, one-third occupied by houfes, one by cifterns to receive the rain-water, and the laft is refcrved for burying the dead.
Ma sua h, as we have already obferved, was one of thofe towns on the weft of the Red Sea that followed the conquer! of Arabia Felix, by Sinan Bama^ under Selim emperor of Conftantinople. At that time it was a place of great commerce, polTemng a fhare of the Indian trade in common with the other ports of the Red Sea near the mouth of the Indian Ocean. It had a conllderable quantity of exports brought to it from a great tract of mountainous country behind it, in all ages very unhofpitable, and almoft inac-ceiilble to ftrangers. Gold and ivory, elephants and buffaloes hides, and, above all, flaves, of much greater value, as being more fought after for their perfonal" qualities than any other fort, who had the misfortune to be reduced to that condition, made the principal articles of exportation from this port. Pearls, confiderable for fize, water, or colour,, were found all along its coafl.. The great, convenience of commodious riding for vclTc-ls, joined to thefe valuable articles of trade, had overcome the inconvenience of want of water, the principal necefTary of life, to which it had been, fubjected from its creation.
Masuah continued a place of much re fort as long as com* mcrcc fTouridicd, but it fell into obfeurity very fuddenly under the oppreflion of the Turks, who put the fmifhing-hand to the ruin of the India trade in the Red Sea, begun fome years before by the difcovcry of the Cape of Good
Hope^
Hope, and the fettlcments made by the Portuguefe on the continent of India,
The firft government of Mafuah under the Turks was by a ba(ha fent from Conftantinople, and from thence, for a time, the conqueft of Abyflinia was attempted, always with great confidence, though never with any degree of fuccefs; fo that, lofing its value as a garrifon, and, at the fame time, as a place of trade, it was thought no longer worth while to keep up fo expenfrve an eftabliihment as that of a ba-fhalik.
The principal auxiliary, when the Turks conquered the place, was a tribe of Mahometans called Belowee, fhepherds inhabiting the coaft of the Red Sea under the mountains of the Habab, about lat. 14°.   In reward for this ailiflancc, the Turks gave their chief the civil government of Mafuah and its territory, under the title of Naybe of Mafuah ; and, upon the bafha's being withdrawn, this officer remained in fact fovereign of the place, though, to fave appearances, he held it of the grand fignior for an annual tribute, upon receiving a firman from the Ottoman Porte.
The body of Janizaries, once cflahliihcd there in garrifon, "Were left in the ifland, and their pay continued to them from Conftantinople.   Thefe marrying the women of the country, their children fuccccdcd them in their place and pay as Janizaries ; but being now, by their intcrmarriagi Moors, and natives of Mafuah, they became of courfe relations to each other, and always fubjccT: to the influence of the Naybe.
A z The
The Naybe linking the great diftance, he was from liis protectors, the Turks in Arabia, on the other.fide of the Red tea, whofe garrifdns were every day decaying in ftrcngthy and for the moit part reduced ;■ fcniible, too, how much he was in the power of the AbvHinians, his enemies and ncarelt neighbours, began to think that it was better to fecure him-felf at home, by making fome advances to thofe in whole power ]ie was. Accordingly it was agreed between them, that one half of the cuftoms mould be paid by him to the king of Abyflinia, who was to fuller him to enjoy his government unmolefted ; for Mafuah, as I have before faid, is absolutely deftitute of water ; neither can it be fupplied with any fort of provifions but from the mountainous coun-try of Abyflinia.
The fame may be faid of Arkeeko, a large town on the bottom of the bay of Mafuah, which lias indeed water,, but labours under the fame fcarcity of provifions; for the tract of flat land behind both, called Samhar, is a perfect defert, and only inhabited from the month of November to April, by a variety of wandering tribes called Tora, Hazorta, Shiho, and Doba, and thefe carry all their cattle to the Abyflinian fide of the mountains when the rains fall there, which is the oppofitc fix months. When the feafon is thus reverfed, ihey and their cattle are no longer in Samhar, or the dominion of the Naybe, but in the hands of the Abyflinians, efpc-cially the governor of Tigre and Baharnagafh, who thereby, without being at the expence and trouble of marching againft Mafuah with an army, can make a line round it, and ftarve all at Arkeeko and Mafuah, by prohibiting any fort of provifions to be carried thither from their fde. In the courfe of this hiftory we have fcen tins practifed with
great
great fuccefs more than once, Ci'pccialiy againft the Na) be Mufa in the reign of Yafous 1.
The friendlhip of Abyffinia once fecured, and the power of the Turks declining daily in Arabia, the Naybe began by degrees to withdraw himfelf from paying tribute at all to the bam a of Jidda, to whole government his had been annexed by the porte. He therefore received the finnan as a mere form,and returned trifling prefents,but no tribute; and in troublcfomc times, or a weak government happening in Tigre, he withdrew himfelf equally from paying any con-flderation, either to the baiha in name of tribute, or to the king of Abyflinia, as fhare of the cuftoms.   This was prc-ciiely his iituaiion when I arrived in Abyflinia.   A great revolution^ we have already fecn, bad happened in that kingdom, of which Michael had been the principal author. When he was called to Gondar and made minifler there, Tigre remained drained of troops, and without a governor.
Nor was the new king, Hatze Hanncs, whom Michael had placed upon the throne alter the murder of Joas. his predeceflbr, a man likely to infufe vigour into the new government. Hanncs was pall feventy at his acceflion, and Michael his minifler lame, lb as fcarccly to be able tofland, and within a few years of eighty. The Naybe, a. man of about forty-eight, judged of the debility of the Abyllinian government by thole circumflances, but in this he was miilaken.
Already Michael had intimated to him, tha^, the next campaign, he would lay wafte Arkceko and Mafuah, till they fhould be as de'ert as the wilds of Samhar; and as he had been all his life very remarkable for keeping his promi-
2. fes
fes of this kind, the flranger merchants had many of them fled to Arabia, and others to Dobarwa *, a large town in the territories of the Bahamagafh. Notwithilanding this, the Naybe had not lhewn any public mark of fear, nor fent one penny either to the king of Abyflinia or the bafha of Jidda.
On the other hand, the bafha was not indifferent to his own interefl; and, to bring about the payment, he had made an agreement with an officer of great credit with the SherrifFc of Mecca. This man was originally an Abyflinian flave, his name Metical Aga, who by his addrefs had raifed himfelf to the poll of Selictar, or fword-bcarer, to the Sher-rifle; and, in fact, he was abfolute in all his dominions. He was, moreover, a great friend of Michael governor of Tigre, and had fupplied him with large ftores of arms and ammunition for his lail campaign againft the king at Gondar.
The bafha had employed Metical Aga to inform Michael of the treatment he had received from the Naybe, de-firing his afliftancc to force him to pay the tribute, and at the fame time intimated to the Naybe, that he not only had done fo, but the very next year would give orders throughout Arabia to arreft the goods nnd perfons of fuch Mahometan merchants as mould come to Arabia, either from motives of religion or trade. With this meflage he had fent the firman from Conflantinople, denting the return both of tribute and prefents.
Maho-
* Suppofcd from its name to have been formerly the capital of the Dobas.
Mahomet Gibberti, Metical Aga's fervant, had come in the boat with me ; but Abdelcader, who carried the mef-fage and firman, and who was governor of the ifland of Da-halac, had failed at fame time with me, and had been fpectator of the honour which was paid my fhip when flic left the harbour of Jidda,
Running ftraight over to Mafuah, Abdelcader had proclaimed what he had feen with great exaggeration, according to the cuflom of his country ; and reported that a prince was coming, a very near relation to the king of England, who was no trader, but came only to vifit countries and people.
It was many times, and oft agitated (as we knew afterwards) between the Naybe and his counfellors, what was to be done with this prince.   Some were for the moil expeditious, and what has long been the moll cuftomary method of treating ftrangers in Mafuah, to put them to death, and divide every thing they had among the garrifon. O-thers infilled, that they mould flay and fee what letters I had from Arabia to Abyflinia, left this might prove an addition to the ftorm juft ready to break upon them on the part of-Metical Aga and Michael Suhul.
But Achmet,. the Nay he's nephew, faid, it was folly to doubt but that a man, under the defcription I was, would have protections of every kind ; but whether I had or not,, that my very rank mould protect mc in every place where there was any government whatever; it might do even a-mong banditti and thieves inhabiting woods and mountains; that a fullicient quantity of ftrangcrs blood had been air
h readr-
ready fhed at Mafuah, for the purpofeof rapine, and he believed a curfc and poverty had followed it; that it was im-poilible for thofe who had heard the firing of thofc fhips to conjecture whether I had letters to Abyflinia or not; that it would be better to confider whether I was held in efteem by the captains of thofe fhips, as half of the guns they fired in compliment to me, was fuflicient to deftroy them all, and lay Arkeeko and Mafuah as defolate as Michael Suhul had threatned to do ; nor could that vengeance coft any of the mips, coming next year to Jidda, a day's failing out of their way ; and there being plenty of water when they reached Arkceko at the fouth-weft of the bay, all this deftruction might be cllectxd in one afternoon, and repeated once a-year without difficulty, danger, orexpencc, while they were -watering.
Ac it met, therefore, declared it was his refolution that I fhould be received with marks of confideration, till upon infpecting my letters, and converfing with me, they might fee what fort of man I was, and upon wdiat errand I was come; but even if I was a trader, and no prieft or Frank, fuch as came to difturb -he peace of the country, he would not then confent to any perfonai injury being done me ; if I was indeed a prieft, or one of thofe Franks, Gehenmm, they might fend me to hell if they chofe ; but he, for his part, would not, even then have any thing to do with it.
Before our veffel appeared, they came to thefe conclu-fions; and though J have fuppofed that hoifting the colours and faluting me w'!h guns had brought me into this danger,, on tue other hand it may be laid, perhaps with greater
reafon,
reafon, they were the means Providence kindly ufed to fave my life in that flaughter-houfe of ftrangcrs.
Achmet's father had been Naybe before, and, of courfe, the fovereignty, upon the prefent incumbent's death, was to devolve on him.   And what made this lefs invidious, the fons of the prcfent Naybe had all been fwept away by the fmall-pox; fo that Achmet was really, at any rate, to be con-fideredas his fon and fucceffor. Add to this, the Naybe had received a ftroke of the palfy, which deprived him of the ufe of one of his fides, and greatly impeded his activity, unlefs in his fchemes of doing ill; but I could not perceive, when intending mifchief, that he laboured under any infirmity. All this gave Achmet fovereign influence, and it was there-lore agreed the reft mould be only fpedtators, and that my fate fhould be left to him.
Achmet was about twenty-five years of age, or perhaps younger; his ftaturc near five-feet four; he was feebly made, a little bent forward or Hooping, thin, long-faced, long-necked; fmall,but tolerably well-limbed,agile and active enough in his motions, though of a figure by no means athletic; he had a broad forehead, thick black eye-brows, black eyes, an aquiline nofe, thin lips, and fine teeth; and, what is very rare in that country, and much defircd, a thick curled beard. This man was known to be-very brave in his perfon, but exceedingly prone to anger.   A near relation to the Bahar-nagafh having faid fomething impertinent to him wdiile he was altering the pin of his tent, which his fervant had not placed to his mind, in a paflion he ftruck the Abyflinian with a wooden mallet, and killed him on the fpot and although this was in the Abyflinian territory, by getting Vol. HI. B nimbly
nimbly on horfeback, he arrived at Arkeeko without being intercepted, though clofely purfued almoil to the town.
It was the 19th of September 1769 when we arrived at Mafuah, very much tired of the fea, and defirous to land. But, as it was evening, I thought it advifeable to fleep on board all night, that we might have a whole day (as the firft is always a bufy one) before us, and receive in the night any intelligence from friends, who might not choofe to venture to come openly to fee us in the day, at leall before the determination of the Naybe had been heard concerning us.
Mahomet Gibberti, a man whom we had perfectly fc-cured, and who was fully inftrucred in our fufpicions as to the Naybe, and the manner we had refolved to behave to him, went alliore that evening; and, being himfelf an Abyflinian, having connections in Mafuah, difpatched that fame night to Adowa, capital of Tigre, thofe letters which I knew were to be of the greatcft importance; giving our friend Janni (a Greek, confidential fervant of Michael, governor of Tigre) advice that we were arrived, had letters of Metical Aga to the Naybe and Ras Michael; as alfo Greek letters to him from the Greek patriarch of Cairo, a duplicate of which I fent by the bearer. We wrote likewife to him in Greek, that we were afraid of the Naybe, and begged him to fend to us ihftantly fome man of confidence, who might protect us, or at leaft be a fpectator of what mould befal us. We, befides, inftructed him to advife the court of Abyflinia, that we were friends of Metical Aga, had letters from him to the king and the Ras, and diftrufled the Naybe of Mafuah.
Mahomet Gibberti executed this commiffion in the infant, with all the punctuality of an honeft man, who was
faithful
faithful to the inftructions of his mailer, and was independent of every perfon elfe.   He applied to Mahomet Adulai, (a perfon kept by Ras Michael as a fpy upon the Naybe, and in the fame character by Metical Aga); and Adulai, that very night, difpatchcd a trufty mcflcnger, with many of whom he was conflantly provided.   This runner, charged with our difpatches, having a friend and correfpondent of his own among the Shiho, pafled, by ways bed known to himfelf, and was fafely efcorted by his own friends till the fifth day, when he arrived at the cuftomhoufe of Adowa, and there delivered our difpatches to our friend Janni.
At Cairo, as I have already mentioned, I met with my friend father Chriilopher, who introduced me to the Greek patriarch, Mark.   This patriarch had told mc, that there were of his communion, to the number of about twenty, then in Abyflinia ; fome of them were good men and becoming rich in the way of trade ; fome of them had fled from the feverity of the Turks, after having been detected by them in intimacy with Mahometan women ; but all of them were in a great degree of credit at the court of Abyf-flnia, and poflcfling places under government greatly beyond his expectation. To thefe he wrote letters, in the man*, ncr of bulls from the pope, enjoining them, with regard to mc, to obey his orders ftrictly, the particulars of which I fliall have occafion to fpeak of afterwards.
Janni, then at Adowa in Tigre, was a man of the firft character for good life and morals. He had ferved two kings of Abyflinia with great reputation, and Michael had appointed him to the cuftomhoufe at Adowa, to fuperintend ■ the affairs of the revenue there, while he himfelf was occu-
B 2       . pied
pied at Gondar. To him the patriarch gave his firft injunctions as to watching the motives of the Naybe, and preventing any ill-ufage from him, before the notice of my arrival at Mafuah mould reach Abyflinia.
Mahomet Adulai difpatched his mcflenger, and Mahomet Gibberti repaired that fame night to the Naybe at Arkeeko, with fuch diligence that lulled him afleep as to any prior intelligence, which otherwife he might have thought lie was charged to convey to Tigre ; and Mahomet Gibberti, in his converfation that night with Achmet, adroitly confirmed him in all the ideas he himfelf had firft ftarted in council with the Naybe. He told him the manner I had been received at Jidda, my protection at Conftantinople, and the firman which I brought from the grand fignior, the power of my countrymen in the Red Sea and India, and my perfonal friendlhip with Metical Aga. He moreover infinu-ated, that the coafts of the Red Sea would be in a dangerous fituation if any thing happened to mevas both the flierrifTe of Mecca and emperor of Conftantinople would themfelves, perhaps, not interfere, but would mod certainly confidcr the place, where fuch difobediencc fhould be fhewn to their commands, as in a ftate of anarchy, and therefore to be a-bandoned to the juft correction of the Englifh, if injured..
On the 20th, a perfon came from Mahomet Gibberti to conduct me on fhore. the Naybe himfelf was ft ill at Arkceko, and Achmet therefore had come down to receive the. duties of the merchandifc on board the veiled which brought mc. There were two elbow-chairs placed in the middle of the marketplace.   Achmet fat on one of them, while the
fcveral
fevcral officers opened the bales and packages before him ; the other chair on his left hand was empty.
He was drelTed all in white, in a long Banian habit of muflin, and a clofe-bodied frock reaching to his ancles, much like the white frock and petticoat the young children wear in England.   This fpecies of drefs did not, in any way, fuit Achmet's fhape or fize; but, it feems, he meant to be in gala.   As foon as I came in fight of him, 1 doubled my pace: Mahomet Gibberti's fervant whifpered to me, not to kifs his hand; which indeed I intended to have done.   Achmet Hood up, jufl as I arrived within arm's length of him ; when we touched each other's hands, carried our fingers to our lips, then laid our hands crofs our breads : I pronounced the falutation of the inferior Sdam Ali-cum! Peace be between us; to which he anfwered immediately, Alicum Salam! There is peace between us.   He pointed to the chair, which I declined; but he obliged me to fit down.
In thefe countries, the greater honour that is fhewn you at firft meeting, the more confldcrable prefent is expected. He made a fign to bring coiTee directly, as the immediate offering of meat or drink is an aiFurance your fife is not. in danger.   He began with an air that feemed rather fcrious-:
Xv - bave expected you here fome time ago, but thought you had changed your mind, and was gone to India."— " Since failing from Jidda, I have been in Arabia Felix, the G« if of Mocha, andcrofted laft from Loheia."—" Are you not afraid," faidhev " fo thinly attended, to venture upon ihefc long, and dangerous voyages..?"—"The countries where I have be^n are either fubject. 'to the emperor of Conftanii-mople, wh ,fe firman I have now. the honour to prefent you,
or.
or to the regency of Cairo, and port of Janizaries—here are their letters—or to the iherrilFe of Mecca. To yon, Sir, I prefent the fherrifTe's letters; and, befides thefe, one from Metigal Aga your friend, who, depending on your character, allured me this alone would be fuflicient to preferve me from ill-ufage fo long as I did no wrong: as for the dangers of the road from banditti and lawlefs perfons, my fcrvants are indeed few, but they are veteran foldiers, tried and exercifed from their infancy in arms, and I value not the iuperior mimber of cowardly and difordcrly perfons."
He then returned me the letters, faying, u You will give thefe to the Naybe to-morrow ; I will keep MeticaEs letter, as it is to me, and will read it at home." He put it accordingly in his bofom; and our coffee being done, I rofe to take my leave, and was prefently wret to the fkin by deluges of orange flower-water ihowered upon me from the right and left, by two of his attendants, from filver bottles.
A very decent houfe had been provided ; and I had no fooner entered, than a large dinner was fent us by Achmet, with a profufion of lemons, and good frefli water, now become one of the greatefl delicacies in life ; and, inflantly after, our baggage was all fent unopened ; witli which I was very well-pleafed, being afraid they might break fome-thing in my clock, telefcopes, or quadrant, by the violent manner in which they fatisfy their curiofity.
Late at night I received a vifit from Achmet; he was then in an undrcfs,his body quite naked, a barracan thrown loofcly about him; he had a pair of calico drawers; a white coul, or cotton cap, upon his head, and had no fort of
3 arms
arms whatever. I rofe up to meet him, and thank him for his civility in fending my baggage; and when I obfervcd, beftdes, that it was my duty to wait upon him, rather than fuffcr him to give himfelf this trouble, he took me by the hand, and we fat down on two cuihions together.
" All that you mentioned," faid he," is perfectly good and well; but there are queftions that I am going to afk you which arc of confequence to yourfelf.   When you arrived at Jidda, we heard it was a great man, a fon or brother of a king, going to India.   This was communicated to me, and to the Naybe, by people that faw every day the refpect paid to you by the captains of the fhips at Jidda.   Metical Aga, in his private letter delivered to the Naybe lafl night by Mahomet Gibberti, among many unufual expreflions, faid, The day that any accident befals this perfon will be looked; upon by me always as the mofl unfortunate of my life. Now, you are a Chriflian, and he is a Mufiulman, and thefe are expreilions of a particular regard not ufed by the one when writing of the other. He fays, moreover, that, in your firman, the grand fignior fliles you Bey-Adze, or Mofl Noble. Tell me, therefore, and tell mc truly, Are you a prince, fon, brother, or nephew of a king ? Are you banifhed from your own country; and what is it that you feek in our's, ex-pofmg yourfelf to fo many difficulties and dangers?"
" I am neither fon, nor brother of a king. I am a private Englifhman. If you, Sidi Achmet, faw my prince, the eldeft, or any fon of the king of England, you would then be able to form a jufler idea of them, and that would for ever hinder you from confounding them with common men like me.  If they were to choofe to appear in this part
of the world, this little fea would be too narrow for their iliips : Your fun, now fo hot, would be darkened by their fails; and when they fired their terrible wide-mouthed cannon, not an Arab would think himfelf fafe on the diflant mountains, while the houfes on the fhore would totter and fall to the ground as if fhaken to pieces by an earthquake. I am a fervant to that king, and an inferior one in rank; only worthy of his attention from my afFec~tion to him and his family, in which I do not acknowledge any fupe-rior. Yet fo far your correfpondents fay well: My anceftors were the kings of the country in which I was born, and to be ranked among the greateft and moll glorious that ever bore the crown and title of King. This is the truth, and nothing but the truth. I may now, I hope, without offence, afk, To what does all this information tend?"
" To your fafety " faid he, " and to your honour, as long as I command in Mafuah ;—to your certain death and deftruction if you go among the Abyflinians; a people without faith, covetous, barbarous, and in continual war, of which nobody yet has been able to difcover the rcafon. But of this another tune."
" Be it fo," faid I. " I would now fpeak one word in fe-cret to you, (upon which every body was ordered out of the room): All that you have told me this evening I already know; afk me not how t but, to convince you that it is truth, I now thank you for tire humane part you took a-gainfl thefe bloody intentions others had of killing and plundering me on my arrival, upon Abdelcader governor *>f Dahalac's information that I was a prince, becaufe of the
i honour
nour that the Englifh fhips paid me, and that I was loaded with gold.'1
Ullah Acbar! (in great furprife) "Why, you was in the middle of the fea when that palled."
" Scarcely advanced fo far, I believe ; but your advice was wife, for a large Englifh fliip will wait for me all this winter in Jidda, till I know what reception I meet here, or in Abyflinia. It is a 64 gun fhip ; its name, the Lion ; its captain, Thomas Price. 1 mention thefe particulars, that you may inquire into the truth. Upon the firft news of a difaller he would come here, and deftroy Arkceko, and this iiland, in a day. But this is not my bufincfs with you at prefent.
It is a very proper cuflom, eflablifhed all over the eaft, that Grangers mould make an acknowledgement for the protection they receive, and trouble they arc to occafion. I have a prefent for the Naybe, whofe temper and difpofition I know perfectly,—(Ullah Acbar! repeats Achmet).—I have like wife a prefent for you, and for the Kay a of the Janizaries ; all thefe I fhall deliver the firft day I fee the Naybe ; but 1 was taught, in a particular manner, to rcpofe upon you as my friend, and a fmall, but feparate acknowledgement, is due to you in that character.   I was told, that your a-gent at Jidda had been inquiring everywhere among the India fhips, and at the broker of that nation, for a pair of Englifh piftols, for which he offered a very high price ; though, in all probability, thofe you would get would have been but ordinary, and much ufed; now I have brought you this feparate prcfent, a pair of excellent workmanfhip ; Vol -III. C here
T R A V ELS TO DISCO V E R
here they are : my doubt, which gave rife to this long private conversation, was, whether you would take them home yourfelf; or, if you have a confidential fervant that you can milt, let him take them, fo that k be not known ; for if the Naybe"-
" I understand every thing that you fay, and every thing , that you would fay. Though I do-not know men's hearts that 1 never faw, as you do, 1 know pretty well the hearts of thofe with whom I live. Let the piftols remain with you, and fhew them to nobody till I fend you a man to whom you may fay any thing, and he fhall go between you and me; for there is in this place a number of devils, not men; but, Ullah Kcrhn., God is great. The perfon that brings you dry dates in an Indian handkerchief, and an earthen bottle to drink your water out of, give him the piflols. You may fend by him to me any thing you chppfe. In the mean time, flcep found, and fear no evil; hut never be pcrfuaded to trull yourfelf to the Cafrs of Habefh at.Mafuah."
On the coth of September a female ftave came and brought with her the proper credentials, an Indian handkerchief full of dry dates, and a pot or bottle of unvarnifh-cd potter's earth, which keeps the water very cool., I had fome doubt upon this change of fex; but the Have, who was an Abyilinian girl, quickly undeceived me, delivered the dates, and took away the piilols deilincd for Achmet, who. had himfelf gone to his uncle, the Naybe, at Arkeeko.
On the 2ill, in the morning, the Naybe came from Arkeeko,   The ufual way is by fea; it is about two leagues
ftraight..
flraight acrofs the bay, but fomcwhat more by land. The palTagc from the main is on the north fide of the ifland, which is not above a quarter of a mile broad; there is a large cittern for rain-water on the land-fide, where you embark acrofs. He was poorly attended by three or four fer-vants, miferably mounted, and about forty naked favages on foot, armed with lhort lances and crooked knives.
The drum beat before him all the way from Arkeeko to Mafuah.   Upon entering the boat, the drum on the land-fide ceafed, and thofe, in what is called the Cattle of Mafuah, began.   The cattle is a fmall clay hut, and in it one fwivel-gun, which is not mounted, but lies upon the ground, and is fired always with great trepidation and fome danger. The drums arc earthen jars, fuch as they fend butter in to Arabia ; the mouths of which are covered with a fkin, fo that a ftranger, on feeing two or three of thefe together, would run a great rifk of believing them to be jars of butter, or pickles, carefully covered with oiled parchment.
All the procellion was in the fame flilc. The Naybe was drelled in an old fhabby Turkifh habit, much too lhort for him, and fecmed to have been made about the time of Sultan Selim. He wore alfo upon his head a Turkilh cowkc, or high-cap, which fcarccly admitted any part of his head. In this drefs, which on him had a truly ridicul ms appearance, he received the caftan, or invcttiture, of the ill and of Mafuah; and, being thereby rcprcfentativc of the grand fignior, confented that day to be called Omar Aga, in honour of the commiilion.
Two
Two ftandards of white filk, ftriped with red, were carried before him to the mofquc, from whence he went to his own houfe to receive the compliments of his friends. In the afternoon of that day I went to pay my refpeels to him, and found him fitting on a large wooden elbow-chair, at the head of two files of naked favages, who made an avenue from his chair to the door. He had nothing upon, him but a coarfe cotton fhirt, fo dirty that, it feemed, all pains to clean it again would be thrown away, and fo lhort that it fcarcely reached his knees. He was very tall and lean, his colour black, had a large mouth and nofe; in place of a beard, a very fcanty tuft of grey hairs upon the point of his chin; large, dull, and heavy eyes; a kind of. malicious, contemptuous, fmile on his countenance; he was altogether of a moll ilupid and brutal appearance. His character perfectly correfponded with his figure, for he was. a man of mean abilities, cruel to excefs, avaricious, and a# great drunkard.
I presented my firman.—The g re ate ft bafha in the Tur-kifh empire would have rifen upon feeing it, killed it, and carried it to his forehead; and I really expected that Omar-Aga, for the day he bore that title, and received the caftan, would have lhewn this piece of refpect to his mailer. But he did not even receive it into his hand, and pufhed it back, to me again, faying, " Do you read it all to me word for word."_-" I told him it was Turkifh; that I had never learned to read a word of that language."—" Nor I either," fays fie; " and I believe I never flialL" I then gave him Metical Aga's letter, the SherrifFe's, Ali Bey's, and the Janizaries letters. He took them all together in both his hands, ^ud laid them unopened beilde him, faying, " You fhould
have
Itave brought a moullah along with you.   Do you think I fhall read all thefe letters ? Why, it would take mc a month." And he glared upon me, with his mouth open, fo like am idiot, that it was with the utmofl difficulty I kept my gravity, only anfwering, "-Juft as you pleafe ; you know bell;"
He afFected at firft not to under Hand Arabic; fpoke by an interpreter in the language of Mafuah, which is a dialect of Tigre; but feeing I underftood him in this, he fpoke Arabic, and fpoke it well.
A silence followed this lhort converfation, and I took the1 opportunity to give him his prefent, with which he did not fecm difpleafed, but rather that it was below him to tell me fo; for, without faying a word about it, he afked me, where, the Abuna of Habefh was ? and why he tarried fo long ? I. faid, The wars in Upper Egypt had made the roads dangerous; and, it was eafy to fee, Omar longed much to fettle accounts with him..
1 took my leave of the Naybe, very little pleafed with my reception, and the fmall account he feemed to make, or my letters, or of myfelf; but heartily fatisfied with having fcnt mY clifpatches to Janni, now far out of his power.
The inhabitants of Mafuah were dying of the fmalbpox^ fo that rhere was fear the living would not be fumcient to bCiry the dead. The whole illand was filled with fhrieks ai^l lamentations both night and day. They at lall began m throw ihe bodies into the fea, which deprived us of our great fuppprt, nib, of which we had ate fome kinds that
were
were excellent. I had fupprcfTed my character of phyfician, fearing I mould be detained by reafon of the multitude of fick.
On the 15th of October the Naybe came to Mafuah, and difpatched the veffei that brought me over; and, as if he had only waited till this evidence was out of the way, he, that very night, fent me word that I was to prepare him a handfomc prefent. He gave in a long lift of particulars to a great amount, which he defired might be divided into three parcels, and prcfented three feveral days. One was to be given him as Naybe of Arkeeko ; one as Omar Aga, representative of the grand fignior; and one for having palled our baggage gratis and unvifited, efpecially the large quadrant. For my part, 1 heartily wifhed he had feen the whole, as he would not have let great value on the brafs and iron.
As Achmet's affurance of protection had given me courage, I anfwercd him, That, having a firman of the grand fignior, and letters from Metical Aga, it was mere generofky in me to give him any prefent at all, either as Naybe or O-mar Aga, and 1 was not a merchant that bought and fold, nor had merchandifc on board, therefore had no cuftoms to pay. Upon this he fent for me to his houfe, where I found him in a violent fury, and many ufelefs words palled on both fides. At lafl he peremptorily told me, That unlefs I had 300 ounces of gold ready to pay him on Monday, upon his landing from Arkeeko, he would confine mc in a dungeon, without light, air, or meat, till the bones came through my fkin for v\ant.
THE SOURCE OF T H E Nil- E.
An uncle of his, then prcfent, greatly aggravated this affair.   He pretentcd that the Naybe might do what he pleated with his prefents ; but that he could not in i»y ihape give away the prefent due to the janizaries, which was 40 ounces of gold, or 400 dollars ; and this was all they contented thcmfelvcs to take, on account of the letter 1 brought from the port of janizaries at Cairo; and in this they only taxed mc the fum paid by the Abuna for his pailage through Mafuah.   I anfwered firmly,—" Since you have broken your faith with the grand fignior, the government of Cairo, the hatha at Jidda, and Metical Aga, you will no doubt do as you pleafe with me ; but you may expect to fee the Englifh man of war, the Lion, before Arkceko, fome morning by day-break."—" I mould be glad," faid the Naybe, " to fee that man at Arkeeko or Mafuah that would carry as much writing from you to Jidda as would lie upon my thumb nail; I would Itrip his Hurt off iirfl, and then his fkin, and hang him before your door to teach you more wifdom."—" but my wifdom has taught me to prevent all this.   My letter is already gone to Jidda ; and if, in twenty days from this, another letter from me docs not follow it, you will fee what will arrive. In the mean time, I here announce it to you, that 1 have letters from Metical Aga and the Sherriffe of Mecca, to Michaei Suhul governor of Tigre, and the king of Abyflinia.   1, therefore, would wifli that you would leave oil thefe unmanly altercations, which fervc no fort of purpofe, and let mc continue my journey." The. Naybe faid in a low voice to himfelf**" What, Michael too ! then go your journey, and think of the ill that's before you." I turned my back without any anfwer or falutation, and was fcarce arrived at home when a menage came from the Naybe, defiring I would.fend him two bottles of aquavita.%
1 gave
I gave the fervant two bottles of cinnamon-water, which he ■rcfufed till I had firft tailed them ; but they were not agreeable to the Naybe, fo they were returned.
All this time I very much wondered what was become of Achmet,who, with Mahomet Gibberti, remained at Arkceko: at lafl I heard from the Naybe's fervant that he was in bed, ill of a fever. Mahomet Gibberti had kept his promife to me; and, faying nothing of my fkill in phyfic, or having medicines with me, I fent, however, to the Naybe to defire leave to go to Arkeeko. He an fwe red me furlily, 1 might go if I could find a boat; and, indeed, he. had taken his mea-■furcs fo well that not a boat would flir for money or per-fuafion.
On the 29th of October the Naybe came again from Arkceko to Mafuah, and, I was told, in very ill-humour with mc. I foon received a meHage to attend him, and found him in a large wade room like a barn, with about fixty people with him. This was his divan, or grand council, with all his janizaries and officers of Hate, all naked, aflembled in parliament. There was a comet that had appeared a few days after our arrival at Mafuah, which had been many days viiible in Arabia Felix, being then in its perihelion; and, after palling its conjunction with the fun, it now appeared at Mafuah early in the evening, receding to its aphelion. I had beemobferved watching it with great attention; and the large tubes of the telefcopcs had given offence to ignorant people.
The firft qucflion the Naybe afked me was, What that comet meant, and why it appeared ? And before I could an-
a fwer
forer him, he again faid, " The firft time it was vifible it brought the fmall-pox, which has killed above 1000 people in Mafuah and Arkeeko. It is known you converfed with it every night at Loheia; it has now followed you again to finifh the few that remain, and then you are to carry it into Abyf-finia.   What have you to do with the comet r"
Without giving mc leave to fpeak, his brother Emir Achmet then faid, That he was informed I wras an engineer going to Michael, governor of Tigre, to teach the Abymnians to make cannon and gunpowder; that the firft attack was to be againft Mafuah. Five or fix others fpoke much in the fame drain ; and the Naybe concluded by laying, That he would fend me in chains to Conftantinople, unlefs I went to Hamazcn, with his brother Emir Achmet, to the hot-wells there, and that this was the refolution of all the janizaries; for I had concealed my being a phyfician.
I had not yet opened my mouth.   I then afked, If all thefe were janizaries ; and where was their commanding officer ?   A well-looking, elderly man anfwered,   " I am Sardar of the janizaries."—" If you are Sardar, then," laid I, " this firman orders you to protect me.   The Naybe is a man of this country, no member of the Ottoman empire." Upon my firft producing my firman to him, he threw it afide like wallc-paper.    The greateft Vizir in the Turkilh dominions would have received it Handing, bowed his head to the ground, then killed it, and put it upon his forehead. A general murmur of approbation followed, and I continued,—" Now I muft tell you my refolution is, never to go to Hamazen, or elfewhere, with Emir Achmet.   Both he and the Naybe have Ihewed themfclvcs my enemies; and, 1 bc-Vol. III. 1 J) licve.
lievc, that to fend me to Hamazen is to rob and murder me out of fight."—" Dog of a Chriilian !" fays Emir Achmet, putting his hand to his knife, " if the Naybe was to murder you, could he not do it here now this minute ?"—" No," fays the man, who had called himfelf Sardar, " he could not; I would not fuller any fuch thing. Achmet is the granger's friend, and recommended me to-day to fee no injury done him; lie is ill, or would have been here himfelf."
" Achmet," faid I, " is my friend, and fears God ; and were I not hindered by the Naybe from feeing him, his fick-nefs before this would have been removed. I will go to Achmet at Arkceko, but not to Hamazen, nor ever again to the Naybe here in Mafuah. Whatever happens to mc mult befal me in my own houfe. Conlider what a figure a few naked men will make the day that my countrymen afk the rcafon of this either here or in Arabia." I then turned my back, and went out without ceremony. " A brave man !" i heard a voice fay behind me, " W&ffeb Eugfefe! True Englifh, by G—d !" I went away exceedingly dillurbed, as it was plain my affairs were coming to a crilis for good or for evil. I- obferved, or thought I obferved, all the people fhun me. I was, indeed, upon my guard, and did not wifli them to come near me ; but, turning down into my own gateway, a man palled clofe by mc, faying distinctly in my ear, though in a low voice, firft in Tigre and then in Arabic, u Fear nothing,o\\ Be not afraid." This hint, fliort as it was, gave me no fmall courage.
I had fcarccly dined, when a fervant came with a letter from Achmet at Arkeeko, telling me how ill he had been, and how forry he was that I reiufed to come to fee him, as
Mahomet
Mahomet Gibberti had told him I could help him. He dc~ fired me alfo to keep the bearer with mc in my houfe, and give him charge of the gate till he could come to Mafuah himfelf.
I soon faw the treachery of the Naybe.   He had not, indeed, forbid me to go and fee his nephew, but he had forbid any boat to carry me; and this I told the fervant, appealing to the Sardar for what I faid in the divan of my willing-nefs to go to Arkeeko to Achmet, though I pofitively refu-fed to go to Hamazen.   I begged the fervant to Hop for a moment, and go to the Sardar who was in the caftlc, as I had been very eflentially obliged to him for his interpofi-tion at a very critical time, when there was an intention to take away my life.   I fent him a fmall prefent by Achmet's fervant, who delivered the menage faithfully, and had heard all that had palled in the divan.   He brought me back a pipe from the Sardar in return for my prefent, with this meflagc, That he had heard of my countrymen, though he had never fcen them ; that he loved brave men, and could not fee them injured; but Achmet being my friend, I had no need of him.   That night he departed for Arkeeko, defiring us to lhut the door, and leaving us another man, with orders to admit nobody, and adviling us to defend ourfelves if any one offered to force entrance, be they who they would, for that nobody had bufincfs abroad in the night.
I now began to refume my confidence, fcc"ng that Providence had Mill kept us under his protection; and it was not long when we had an opportunity to excrciie this confidence.   About 12 o'clock at night a man came to the door, and dciired to be admitted ; which retrueil was refufed
D 2 without
without any ceremony. Then came two or three more, in the name of Achmet, who were told by the fervant that they would not be admitted. They then aiked to fpeak with me, and grew very tumultuous, preiling with their backs againft the door. When I came to them, a young man a-mong them faid he was fon to Emir Achmet, and that his father and fome friends were coming to drink a glafs of aracky (fo they call brandy) with me. I told him my rcfo> lution was not to admit either Emir Achmet, or any other perfon at night, and that I never drank aracky..
They attempted again to force open the door, which was ilrongly barricaded.   But as there were cracks in it, I put the point of a fword through one of them, defrring them to he cautious of hurting themfelves upon the iron fpikes.. Still they attempted to force open the door, when the fervant told them, that Achmct^when he left him the charge of that door, had ordered us to fire upon them who offered tQ force an entrance at night. A voice aiked him, Who the devil he was ? The fervant anfwered, in a very fpirited manner, That he had greater reafon to afk who they were, as he took them for thieves, about whole names he did not trouble himfelf, " However," fays he, " mine is Abdelcader, (the fon of fomebody elfe whom I do not remember). Now you know who I am, and that I do not fear you; and you^ Ya-goube, if you do not fire upon them, your blood be upon your own head.   The Sardar from the caflle will foon be up with the reft,"   I ordered then a torch to be brought,, that they might have a view of us through the cracks of tire door ; but Abdelcader's threat being fully fufheient, they reared, and we heard no more of them..
It
fr was the 4th of November when the fervant of Achmet returned in a boat from Arkeeko, and with him four janizaries. He was not yet well, and was very defirous to fee mc. He fufpected either that he was poifoned or bewitch, ed, and had tried many charms without good effect. We arrived at Arkeeko about eleven, paflcd the door of the Naybe without challenge, and found Achmet in his own houfe, ill of an intermitting fever, under the very word of regimens.
cCkjma. i-A-.j ; j;-»a [B'jirAVi vd mid oj fnul tajyb$Yi&tf He was much apprehenfive that he mould die, or lofe the ufe of his limbs as Emir Achmet had done : the fame woman, a Shiho, and a witch, was, he faid, the occafron of both. " If Achmet, your uncle, had loll the ufe of his tongue, faid i, it would have faved him a great deal of improper difcourfc in the divan." His head ached violently, and he could only fay, " Aye! aye! the old mifcrcant knew I was ill, or that would not have happened." I gave Ach* met proper remedies to eafe his pains and Ins flomach, and the next morning began with bark.
This medicine operates quickly here; nay, even the bark that remains, after the llronger fpiritous tincture is drawn from it, feems to anfwer the purpofe very little worfc than did the firft. I tlaid here till the 6th in the morning, at which time he was free from the fever. I left him, however, fome dofes to prevent its return; and he told me, on the 7th, he would come to Mafuah with boats and men to bring us With our baggage to Arkeeko, and free us from the bondage of Mafuah,
Upojt
Upon the 6th, in the morning, while at breakfail, I was told that three fervants had arrived from Tigre; one from Janni, a young man and Have, who fpoke and wrote Greek perfectly; the other two fervants were Ras Michael's, or rather the king's, both wearing the red lhort cloak lined and turned up with mazarine-blue, which is the badge of the king's fervant, and is called Jhalaka. Ras Michael's letters to the Naybe were very llrort. He faid the king Hatze Hanncs's health was bad, and wondered at hearing that the phyfician, fent to him by Metical Aga from Arabia, was not forwarded to him inllantly at Gondar, as he had heard of his being arrived at Mafuah fome time before. He ordered the Naybe, moreover, to furniih me with necelTaries, and difpatch me without lofs of time; although all the letters were the contrivances of Janni, his particular letter to the Naybe was in a milder Hilc. He cxpreflcd the great neceflity the king had for a phyfician, and how impatiently he had waited his arrival. He did not fay that he had heard any fuch perfon was yet arrived at Mafuah, only wilhed he might be forwarded without delay as foon as he came.
To us Janni fent a meffagc by a fervant, bidding us a hearty welcome, aknowlcdging the receipt of the patriarch's letter, and advifing us, by all means, to come fpecdily to him, for the times were very unfettled, and might grow worfe.
In the afternoon I embarked for Mafuah. At the ihorc 1 received a merlagc from the Naybe to come and fpeak to him ; but I returned for anfwer, It was impollible, as I was obliged to go to Mafuah to get medicines for his nephew, Achmet.
a CHAP.
CHAP. II.
Directions to Travellers for prefcrving Health—Difeafes of the Country—— Mufie—Trade, t£c. of Mafuah—Conferences with the Naybe,
WE arrived in the ifland at eight o'clock, to the great joy of our fervants, who were afraid of fome ftratagem of the Naybe. We got every thing in order, without interruption, and completed our obfervations upon this inhof-pitable iiland, infamous for the quantity of Chriftian blood Hied, there upon treacherous pretences.
Masu ah, by a great variety of obfervations of the fun and liars, we found to be in hit. 150 35' 5", and, by an obfervation of thefecondfatelliteof Jupiter, on the 22d of September 1769, we found its longitude to be g<£ 31/ 30" call or the meridian of Greenwich: the variation of the needle was obferved at mid day, the 23d or September, to be 120 48'. W. From this it
follows, that Loheia, being nearly oppolitc, (for it is in lat.
150 40' 52") the breadth of the Red Sea between Mafuah and.
Loheia is 4" lb' 22".   Suppoling, then, a degree to be equal
to 66 ilatute miles, this, in round numbers, will bring the
breadth
breadtli to be 276 miles, equal to 92 leagues, or thereabouts.
Again, as the generality of maps have placed the coafl of Arabia where Loheia Hands, in the 440, and it is the part of the peninfula that runs farthefl to the weftward, all the weft coafl of Arabia Felix will fall to be brought farther eail about 3° 46' o".
Before packing up our barometer at Loheia, I filled a tube with clean mercury, perfectly purged of outward air; and, on the 30th of Auguil, upon three feveral trials, the mean of the remits of each trial was, at fix in the morning, 260 8' 8"; two o'clock in the afternoon, 260 4' 1"; and, half pall fix in the evening, 26° 6' 2", fair, clear weather, with very little wind at well.
At Mafuah, the 4th of October, I repeated the fame experiment with the fame mercury and tube; the means were as follow: At fix in the morning 250 8' 2"; two o'clock in the afternoon, 250 3' 2" ; and, at half pall fix in the evening, 25° 3' 7"j clear, with a moderate wind at well, fo that the barometer fell one inch and one line at Mafuah lower than it was at Loheia, though it often rofe upon violent llorms of wind and rain; and, even where there was no rain, it again fell initantly upon the florm ceafmg, and never arrived to the height it flood lafl at on the coafl of Arabia. The greatcfl height I ever obferved Fahrenheit's thermometer in the fhade, at Mafuah, was on the 22d of October, at two in the afternoon, 930, wind N. E. and by N. cloudy; the lowcflwas on the 23d, at four in the morning, 82°, wind weft. It was, to fcnlb, much hotter than in any part of Arabia Felix; but
1 we
we found no fuch tickling or irritation on our legs as we had done at Loheia, probably becaufe the foil was here lefs impregnated with fait.
We obferved here, for the firft time, three remarkable circumflances (hewing the increafe of heat.   I had carried with me feveral fteel plates for making fcrews of different fizcs.   The heat had fo fwelled the pin, or male fcrew, that it was cut nearly one-third through by the edge of the female.   The fealing-wax, of which we had procured a frelh. parcel from the India fhips, was fully more fluid, while lying in our boxes, than tar. The third was the colour of the fpirit in the thermometer, which was quite di("charged, and (licking in mafTes at unequal heights, while the liquor was clear like fpring-water.
Masuah is very unwholefome, as, indeed, is the whole coafl of the Red Sea from Suez to Babelmandeb, but more efpecially between the tropics.   Violent fevers, called there nedady make the principal figure in this fatal lift, and generally terminate the third day in death. If the patient fur-vives till the fifth day, he very often recovers by drinking water only, and throwing a quantity of cold water upon him, even in his bed, where he is permitted to lie without attempting to make him dry, or change his bed, till another deluge acids to the firft.
There is no remedy fo fovereign here as the bark ; but it mull be given in very different times and manners from thofe purfucd in Eairopc. Were a phyfician to take time to prepare his patient for the bark, by firft giving him purgatives, he would be dead of the fever before his preparation
Vol. Ill, E was
was completed.   Immediately when a naufca, or avcrHon to eat, frequent fits of yawning, llraitnefs about the eyes, and: an unufual,but not painful lenfatibn along the fpine, comes., on, no time is then to be loll; fmall doles of the bark mufl be frequently repeated,, and perfect: abliinence obferved, un^ kfs from copious draughts of cold water.
I never dared to venture, or feldom, upon the deluge of water, but am convinced it is frequently of great ufe. The fecond or third dofe of the bark, if any quantity is fwallowed, never fails to purge; and, if this evacuation is copious, the patient rarely dies, but, on the contrary, his recovery is generally rapid. Moderate purging, then, is for the moll part to be adopted; and rice is a much better food than fruit.
I know that all this is heterodox in Europe, and contrary to the practice, becaufe it is contrary to fyltem. For my own part, I am content to write faithfully what I carefully obferved, leaving every body afterwards to followr their own way at their peril..
Bark, I have been told by Spaniards who have been in South America, purges always when taken in their fevers. A diiferent climate, different regimen, and different habit of body or exercife, may furely fo far alter the operation of a drug as to make it have a different effect in Africa from what it has in Europe.   Be that as it may, flill I fay bark is . a purgative when it is fuccefsful in this fever; but bleeding,. at no liage of this diflemper, is of any fervice ; and, indeed, if; attempted the fecond day, the lancet is feldom followed by, blood.   Ipecacuanha both fatigues the patient and heightens the fever, and 16 conducts the patient more fpcedily to his
z. end
end. Black (pots are frequently found on the breaft and belly of the dead perfon. The belly fwells, and the flench, becomes infufferable in three hours after death, if the per* fon dies in the day, or if the weather is warm.
The next common difeafe in the low country of Arabia, the intermediate ifiand of Mafuah, and all Abyllinia, (for the difeafes are exactly fimilar in all this tract) is the Tertian fever, which is in nothing different from our Tertian, and is fuccefsfully treated here in the fame manner as in Europe. As no fpecies of this difeafe (at leafl that I have feen) me*, naces the patient with death, efpecially in the beginning of the diforder, fome time may be allowed for preparation to thofe who doubt the effect of the bark in the country. But ftill I apprehend the fafeft way is to give fmall dofes from the beginning, on the firft intermiffion, or even remilfion, though this fhould be fomewhat obfcure and uncertain.   To fpeak plainly;   when the flomach nau-feates, the head akes, yawning becomes frequent, and not an excefuve pain in the nape of the neck, when a fliiver-ing which goes quickly off, a coldnefs down the fpine, a more than ordinary cowardlinefs and inactivity prevails, (the heat of the climate gives one always enough of thefe laft fenfations); I fay, when any number of thefe fymptoms unite, have recourfe to the powder of bark infufed in water ; (hut your mouth againft every fort of food; and, at the crifts, your difeafe will immediately decide its name among the clais of fevers.
All fevers end in intcrmittents; and if thefe intermittents continue long, and the firft evacuations by the bark have not been copious and conftant, thefe fevers generally end
E 2 in
in dyfenteries,which are always tedious and very frequently prove mortal. Bark in fmall quantities, ipecacuanha, too, in very fmall quantities fo as not to vomit, water, and fruit not over ripe, have been found the moll fuccefsful remedies.
As for the other fpecies of dyfentery, which begins with a conllant diarrhoea, when the guts at lafl are excoriated, and the mucus voided by the llools, this difeafe is rarely cured if it begins with the rainy feafon. But if, on the contrary, it happen either in the funny fix months, or the end of the rainy ones immediately next to them, fmall dofes of ipecacuanha either carry it off, or it changes into an intermitting fever, which yields afterwards to the bark. And it always has fecmed to mc that there is a great affinity between the fevers and dyfenterics in thefe countries, the one ending ia the other ahnofl perpetually*
The next difeafe, which wc may fay is endemial in the countries before mentioned, is called ho?i%ecr, the hogs or the fwint, and is a fwelling of the glands of the throat, and under the arms. This the ignorant inhabitants endeavour to bring to a fuppuration, but in vain; they then open them in feveral places ; a fore and running follows, and a difeafe very much refembling what is called in Europe the Evil.
The next (though not a dangerous complaint) has a very terrible appearance. Small tubcrcules or fwellings appear all over the body, but thicker! in the thighs, arms, and legs. Thefe fwellings go and come for weeks together without pain ; though the legs often fwell to a monflrous fize as in the dropfy.   Sometimes the patients have ulcers in their
nofes
rtofes and mouths, not unlike thofe which are one of the malignant confequences of the venereal difeafe. The fmall fwellings or eruptions, when fqueezed, very often yield blood j in other refpects the patient is generally in good health, faving the pain the ulcers give him, and the Mill greater uneafinefs of mind which he fullers from the fpoil-ing of the fmoothnefs of his fkin; for all the nations in Africa within the tropics are wonderfully affected at the fmalleft eruption or roughnefs of the fkin. A black of Sen-naar will hide himfelf in the houfe where dark, and is not to be feen by his friends, if he fhould have two or three pimples on any part of his body.   Nor is there any remedy, however violent, that they will not fly to for immediate relief.   Scars and wounds are no blemiihcs ; and I have feen them, for three or four pimples on their bracelet arm, fufTer the application of a red-hot iron with great refolution and conftancy.
These two lad dtfeafes yielded, the firft flowly, and fome-times imperfectly, to mercurials; and fublimate has by no-means in thefe climates the quick and dccifive clfedts it has m Europe. The fecond is completely and fpjcdily cured by antimonials.
The next complaint 1 dial! mention, as common in thefe countries, is called Farcnteit, a corruption of an Arabic word, which figniiies the worm of Pharaoh ; all bad things being by the Arabs attributed, to thefe poor kings, who feem to be looked upon by poftcrity as the evil genii of the country which they once governed.
This
This extraordinary animal only afflicts thofe who are in -conftant habit of drinking flagnant water, whether that water is drawn out from wells, as in the kingdom of Sennaar, or found by digging in the fand where it is making its way to its proper level the fea, after falling down the fide of the mountains after the tropical rains. This plague appears indifcriminately in every part of the body, but ofteneft in the legs and arms. I never faw it in the face or head ; but, far from affecting the fief by parts of the body, it generally comes out where the bone has leafl flefh upon it.
Upon looking at this worm, on its firft appearance, a fmall black head is extremely vifible, with a hooked beak of a whitifh colour. Its body is feemingly of a white filky texture, very like a fmall tendon bared and perfectly cleaned. After its appearance the natives of thefe countries, who are ufed to it, feize it gently by the head, and wrap it round a thin piece of filk or fmall bird's feather. Every day, or feveral times a-day, they try to wind it up upon the quill as far as it comes readily; and, upon the fmalleft refiftance, they give over for fear of breaking it. I have feen five feet, or fomething more of this extraordinary animal, winded out with invincible patience in the courfe of three weeks. No inflammation then remained, and fcarcely any rednefs round the edges of the aperture, only a fmall quantity of lymph appeared in the hole or puncture, which fcarcely iifued out upon prefling. In three days it was commonly well, and left no fear or dimple implying lofs of fubftanoe,
I myself experienced this complaint. I was reading upon a fofa at Cairo, a few days after my return from Upper Egypt, when I felt in the fore part of my leg, upon the
bone,
bone, about feven inches below the center of my knee-pan, an itchingrefembiingwhat follows the bite of a murcheto. Upon fcratching, a fmall tumour appeared very like a mufcheto bite.   The itching returned in about an hour afterwards; and, being more intent upon my reading than my leg, I fcratched it till the blood came.   I foon after obferved fomething like a black fpot, which had already men confiderably above the furface of the fkin.   All medicine proved ufelefs ; and the difeafe not being known at Cairo, there was nothing for it but to have recourfe to the only received manner of treating it in this country. About three inches of the worm was winded out upon a piece of raw fdk in the firft week, without pain or fever : but it was broken afterwards through the carelefihefs and rafhnefs of the furgeon when changing a poultice on board the fhip in which I returned to France: a violent inflammation followed ; the leg fwellcd fo as to fcarce leave appearance of knee or ancle ; the fkin, red and diftended, feemed glazed like a mirror. The wound was now healed, and diicliarged nothing; and there was every appearance of mortiiicaiion coming on.   The great care and attention procured me in the lazaretto at Marfeilles, by a nation always foremolt in the acts of humanity to ftrangers, and the attention and fkill of the furgeon, recovered me from this troublefome complaint..
Fifty-two days had elapfed ^nce it firft begun; thirty-five of which were fpent in the greateft agony. It fuppura-ted at laft; and, by enlarging the orifice, a good cpuantity of matter was difcharged.. 1 had made conftant ufe of bark, both in fomentations and inwardly; but I did not recover the. flrength of my leg entirely till near a year after, by
ufing
ufmg the baths of Poretta, the property of my friend Count Ranuzzi, in the mountains above Bologna, which I recommend, for their efficacy, to all thofe who have wounds, as I do to him to have better accommodation, greater abundance of, and lefs impofition in, the neceflaries of life than when I was there, It is but a few hours journey over the mountains to Piitoia,
The laft I fhall mention of thefe endemial difeafes, and the molt terrible of all others that can fall to the lot of man, is the Elephantiafis, which fome have chofen to call the Le-profy, or Lepra Arabum ; though in its appearance, and in all its circumftances and Rages, it no more refembles the leprofy of Paleftine, (which is, I apprehend, the only le-profy that we know) than it does the gout or the dropfy. I never faw the beginning of this difeafe. During the courfe of it, the face is often healthy to appearance ; the eyes vivid and fparkling: thofe affected have fometimes a kind of dry-nefs upon the lkin of their backs, which, upon fcratching, I have feen leave a mealinefs, or whitcnefs; the only circumstance, to the belt of my recollection, in which it rc-fembled the leprofy, but it has no fcalinefs.   The hair, too, is of its natural colour; not white, yellowifh, or thin, as in the leprofy, but fo far from it that, though the Abyffi-rhans have very rarely hair upon their chin, I have feen people, apparently in the laft ftage of the elephantiafis, with a very good beard of its natural colour.
The appetite is generally good during this difeafe, nor docs any change of regimen affect the complaint. The pulfe is only fubject to the fame variations as in thofe who have no declared nor predominant illnefs; they have a con-
4 Rant
Rant thirfl, as the lymph, which continually oozes from their wounds, probably demands to be replaced.  It is averred by the Abyffinians that it is not infectious.   I have feen the wives of thofe who were in a very inveterate ftage of this illnefs, who had born them feveral children, who were yet perfectly free and found from any contagion. Nay, I do not remember to have feen children vifibly infected with this difeafe at all; though, I rnuft own, none of them had the appearance of health. It is faid this difeafe, though furcly born with the infant, does not become vifible till the approach to manhood, and fometimes it is faid to pafs by a whole generation.
The chief feat of this difeafe is from the bending of the knee downwards to the ancle; the leg is fwellcd to a great degree, becoming one fize from bottom to top, and gathered into circular wrinkles, like fmall hoops or plaits; between every one of which there is an opening that feparates it all round from the one above, and which is all raw flefh, or perfectly excoriated.   From between thefe circular divi-fions a great quantity of lymph conflantly oozes. The fwell-ing of the leg reaches over the foot, fo as to leave about an inch or little more of it feen. It mould fecm that the black colour of the fkin, the thicknefs of the leg, and its fhapelcfs form, and the rough tuberculcs, or excrefcences, very like thofe feen upon the elephant, give the name to this difeafe, and form a linking refemblance between the diflempercd legs of this unfortunate individual of the human fpecies, and thofe of the noble quadruped the elephant, when in full vigour.
Vol. III. E Ah
An infirmity, to which the AbyfTinians arc fubject, of much worfe confequencc to the community than the ele-phantiafis, I mean lying, makes it impoflible to form, from their relations, any accurate account of fymptoms that might lead the learned to difcover the caufes of this extraordinary diftemper, and thence fuggeil fome rational method to cure, or diminifh it.
It was not from the ignorance of language, nor from want of opportunity, and lefs from want of pains, that I am not able to give a more diftinct account of this dreadful dif-order.   I kept one of thofe infected in a houfe adjoining to mine, in my way to the palace, for near two years; and,, during that time, I tried every fort of regimen that I could devife.   My friend, Dr Ruffel, phyfician at Aleppo, (now in the Eaft Indies), to whofe care and Ikill I was indebted for my life in a dangerous fever which I had in Syria, and whofe friendfhip I mult always confider as one of the greatelt ac-quifitions I ever made in travelling, defired me, among other medical inquiries, to try the effect of the cicuta upon this difeafe ; and a confiderable quantity, made according to the direction of Dr Storke, phyfician in Vienna, was fent mc from Paris, with inftructions how to. ufe it..
Having firft explained the whole matter, both to the king, Ras Michael, and Azage Tecla Haimanout, chief juftice of the king's bench in Abyflinia, and told them of the con-fcquences of giving too great a dofe, I obtained their joint pcrmiffions to go on without fear, and do what I thought requifite. It is my opinion, fays the Azage, that no harm that may accidentally befal one miferable individual, now already cut off from fociety, mould hinder the trial (che
only
only one we ever fhall have an opportunity of making) of a medicine which may fave multitude;) hereafter from a difeafe fo much worfe than death.
It was foon feen, by the conftant adminiftration of many ordinary dofes, that nothing was to be expc&ed from violent or dangerous ones; as not the fmalleft degree of amendment ever appeared,  either outwardly or inwardly, to the fenfation of the patient.   Mercury had no better effect   Tar-water alfo was tried ; and if there was any thing that produced any feeming advantage, it was whey made of cow's milk, of which he was exceflively fond, and which the king ordered him to be furnifhed with at my defire, in any quantity he plcafed, during the experiment.
The troubles of the times prevented further attention. Tr Storke's cicuta, in feveral inftances, made a perfect, cure of the hanzeers improperly opened, though, in feveral other cafes, without any apparent caufe, it totally mifcarried.   I fcarce ever obferved mercury fuccccd in any complaint.
It is not for me to attempt to explain what are the can fes of thefe diftempers.   Thofe whofe ftudics lead them to fuch inveftigations will do well to attach themfelves, for firft principles, to the difference of climate, and the abufes that obtain under them; after this, to particular circum-ftances in the neceffaries of life, to which nature has fubjected the people of thefe countries.   Under the firft, we may rank a feafon of fix months rains, fucceeded, without interval, by a cloudlefs iky and vertical fun; and cold nights which as immediately follow thefe fcorching
Y 2 days.
days. The earth, notwithstanding the heat of thefe days, is yet perpetually cold, fo as to feel difagrceably to the folcs of the feet; partly owing to the fix months rains, when no fun appears, and partly to the perpetual equality of nights and days; the thinnefs of the cloathing in the better fort, (a mullin fhirt) while the others are naked, and fleep in this manner expofed, without covering in the cold nights, after the violent perfpiration during the fultry day. Thefe may be reckoned imprudences, while the conftant ufe of ftagnant putrid water for four months of the year, and the quantity of fait with which the foil of thofe countries is impregnated, may be circumflances lefs conducive to health; to which9 however, they have been for ever fubject by nature.
It will be very reafonably expected, that, after this unfavourable account of the climate, and the uncertainty of remedies for thefe frequent and terrible difeafes, I fhould fay fomething of the regimen proper to be obferved there, in order to prevent what it feems fo doubtful whether we can ever cure.
My firft general advice to a traveller is this, to remember well what was the flate of his conftitution before he vifit-ed thefe countries, and what his complaints were, if he had any ; for fear very frequently feizes us upon the firft fight of the many and hidden deaths we fee upon our firft arrival, and our fpirits are fo lowered by perpetual perfpiration, and our nerves fo relaxed, that we are apt to mif-takc the ordinary fymptoms of a difeafe, familiar to us in our own country, for the approach of one of thefe terrible diitempers that are to hurry us in a few hours into eternity.   This has a bad effect in the very flighteft diforders;
fo
fo that it hath become proverbial—If you think you fliall die, you fhall die.
If a traveller finds, that he is as well after having been fome time in this country as he was before entering it, his bell way is to make no innovation in his regimen, further than in abating fomething in the quantity.   But if he is of a tender conftitution, he cannot act more wifely than to follow implicitly the regimen of fober, healthy people of the country, without arguing upon European notions, or fubflituting what we confider as fuccedaneums to what we fee ufed on the fpot. All fpirits are to be avoided; even bark is better in water than in wine.   The flomach, being relaxed by prof ufe perforation, needs fomething to ftrcngthen, but not inflame, and enable it to perform digellion.   For this reafon (inffinct we fhould call it, if fpeaking of beafls) the natives of all eaflern countries feafon every fpecies of food* even the fimpleft, and mildeft, rice, fo much with fpiccs, especially pepper, as abfolutely to blifter a European palate.
These powerful antifeptics Providence has planted in thefe countries for this ufe; and the natives have, from the earlieft times, had recourfe to them in proportion to the quantity that they can procure.   And hence, in thefe dangerous climates, the natives are as healthy as we are in our northern ones.   Travellers in Arabia are difgufled at this feemingly inflammatory food; and nothing is more common than to hear them fay that they are afraid thefe quantities of fpices will give them a fever.   But did they ever feel themfelves heated by ever fo great a quantity of black pepper? Spirits they think, fubftituted to this, anfwer the fame purpofe.   But docs not the heat of your fkin, the
violent
violent pain in your head, while the fpirits arc filtering through the vefTels of your brains, ihew the difference ? and when did any ever feel a like fenfation from black pepper, or any pepper ate to excefs in every meal?
I lay down, then, as a pofitive rule of health, that the warmed difhes the natives delight in, arc the moil whole-fome firangers can ufe in the putrid climates of the Lower Arabia, Abyilinia, Sennaar, and Egypt itfelf; and that fpirits, and all fermented liquors, fhould be regarded as poifons, and, for fear of temptation, not fo much as be carried along with you, unlefs as a menftruum for outward applications.
Spring, or running water, if you can find it, is to be your only drink. You cannot be too nice in procuring this article. But as, on both coails of the Red Sea you fcarcely find any but ftagnant water, the way I practifed was always this, when I was at any place that allowed me time and opportunity—I took a quantity of fine fand, warned it from the fait quality with which it was impregnated, and fpread it upon a flieet to dry ; I then lilled an oil-jar with water, and poured into it as much from a boiling kettle as would ferve to kill all the animalcula and eggs that were in it. I then fifted my dried fand, as flowly as poflible, upon the iurfacc of the water in the jar, till the fand flood half a foot in the bottom of it; after letting it fettle a night, we drew it off by a hole in the jar with a fpigot in it, about an inch a-bovc the fand; then threw the remaining fand out upon tire cloth, and dried and wafhed it again.
This procefs is fooner performed than defcribed. The water is as limpid as the pure ft fpring, and little in-
i ferior
p
ferior to the fined Spa.   Drink largely of this without fear, according as your appetite requires.   By violent pcrfpira-tion the aqueous part of your blood is thrown oif; and it is not fpiritous liquor can reftore this, whatever momentary flrength it may give you from another caufe.   When hot, and almoft fainting with weaknefs from continual perforation, I have gone into a warm bath, and been immediately reftored to ftrength, as upon firft rifmg in the morning. Some perhaps will object., that this heat mould have weakened and overpowered you; but the fact is otherwife ; and the reafon is, the quantity of water, taken up by your ah* forbing vefTels, reftored to your blood that finer fluid which was thrown off, and then the uneafinefs occafioned by that want ceafed, for it was the want of that we called unealincfst
In Nubia never fcruple to throw yourfelf into the coldeft river or fpring you can find, in whatever degree of heat you are. The reafon of the difference in Europe is, that when by violence you have raifed yourfelf to an extraordinary degree of heat, the cold water in which you plunge yourfelf checks your perfpiration, and fhuts your pores fuddcnly. The medium is itfelf too cold, and you do not ufe force fullicient to bring back the perfpiration, which nought but action occafioned; whereas, in thefe warm countries, your perfpiration is natural and conftant, though no action be ufed,only from the temperature of the medium ; therefore, though your pores are fhut, the moment you plunge yourfelf in the cold water, thefimple condition of the outward air again covers you with pearls of fweat the moment you emerge ; and you begin the expence of the aqucoii* part of your blood afrefh from the new ftock that you have laid in by joms immerfion*
For tills reafon, if you are well, deluge yourfelf from head to foot, even in the houfe, where water is plenty, by directing a fervant to throw buckets upon you at leaft once a-day when you are hotteft; not from any imagination that the water braces you, as it is called, for your bracing will laft you only a very few minutes ; but thefe copious inundations will carry watery particles into your blood, though not equal to bathing in running ftreams, where the total immerfion, the motion of the water, and the action of the limbs, all confpire to the benefit you are in queft of. As to cold water bracing in thefe climates, I am perfuaded it is an idea not founded in truth. By obfervation it has appeared often to me, that, when heated by violent exercife, I have been much more relieved, and my ftrength more completely reftored by the ufe of a tepid bath, than by an equal time palled in a cold one.
Do not fatigue yourfelf if poflible. Exercife is not either fo necefTary or falutary here as in Europe. Ufe fruits fparingly, efpecially if too ripe. The mufa, or banana, in Arabia Felix, arc always rotten-ripe when they are brought to you. Avoid all fort of fruit expofed for fale in the markets, as it has probably been gathered in the fun, and carried miles in ityand all its juices are in a ftate of fermentation. Lay it firft upon a table covered with a coarfe cloth, and throw frequently a quantity of water upon it; and, if you have an opportunity, gather it in the dew of the morning before dawn of day, for that is far better.
Rice and pill aw are the beft food; fowls are very bad, eggs are worfe ; greens are not wholefomc. In Arabia the mutton is good, and, when roafted, may be eaten warm with
3 fafety;
fafety; perhaps better if cold. All foups or broths are to be avoided ; all game is bad.
I have known many very fcrupulous about eating fup-pers, but, I am perfuaded, without reafon. The great perfpiration which relaxes the ftomach fo much through the day has now ceafed, and the breathing of cooler air has given to its operations a much ftrongcr tone, 1 always made it my moll liberal meal, if I ate meat at all. While at Jidda, my fupper was a piece of cold, roafted mutton, and a large glafs of water, with my good friend Captain Thornhill, during the dog-days.
After this, the exceflive heat of the day being part, covering our heads from the night-air, always blowing at that time from the eaft and charged with watery particles from the Indian Ocean, we had a luxurious walk of two or three hours, as free from the heat as from the noife and impertinence of the day, upon a terrafled roof, under a cloud-lefs iky, where the fmalleft ilar is vifible. Thefe evening walks have been looked upon as one of the principal plea-fures of the eaft, even though not accompanied with the luxuries of aftronomy and meditation. They have been adhered to from early times to the prefent, and we may therefore be allured they were always wholefome; they have often been mifapplicd and mifpent in love.
It is a cuftom that, from the firft ages, has prevailed in the eaft, to fhriek and lament upon the death of a friend or relation, and cut their faces upon the temple with their nails, about the breadth of a lixpence, one of which is left long for that purpofe. It wras always practifed by the Jews, Vol. Ill, G and
and thence adopted by the Abyflinians, though exprefsly forbidden both by the law and by the prophets*. At Mafuah, it feems to be particular to dance upon that occafion. The women, friends, and vifitors place themfclves in a ring; then dance flowly, figuring in and out as in a conn try-dancer This dance is all to the voice, no inftrument being ufed upon the occafion ; only the drum (the butter-jar before mentioned) is beat adroitly enough, and feems at once necef-fary to keep the dance and fong in order. In Abyflinia, too, this is purfued in a manner more ridiculous. Upon the death of an ozorov or any nobleman, the twelve judges, (who are generally between 60 and 7c years of age) ling the fong, and dance the figure-dance, in a manner fo truly ridiculous, that grief muft have taken fail hold of every-fpeetator who docs not laugh upon the occafion. There needs no other proof the deccafed was a friend.
Mahomet Gibberti married at Arkeeko. For fifteen days afterward, the hufband there is invifible to everybody but the female friends of his wife, who in that fultry country do everything they can, by hot and fpiced drinks, to throw the man, flewed in a clofe room, into a fever. I do believe that Mahomet Gibberti, in the courfe of thefe fifteen days,, was at leafl two flone lighter. It puts mcmuch in mind of fome of our countrymen fweating themfclves for a horfe-race with a load of flannel on. I conceive that Mahomet Gibberti, had it not been for the fpicc, would have made a bad figure in the match lie was engaged in. One of thefe nights of his being fequcftcrcd, when, had I not providentially
* l^vk. chap, xix. vcr. 28.   Jercm. chap, xvi, Kr. 6.
dally engaged Achmet, his uncle the Naybe would have cut our throats. I heard two girls, profefibrs hired for fuch occafions, fing alternately verfe for vcrfe in reply to each other, in the mod agreeable and melodious manner I ever heard in my life. This gave me great hopes that, in Abyf-finia, I mould find mufic in a ftate of perfection little expected in Fairope. Upon inquiry into particulars I was miferably disappointed, by being told thefe muficians were all ftrangers from Azab, the myrrh country, where all the people were natural muficians, and fung in a better flile than that 1 had heard; but that nothing of this kind was known in Abyflinia, a mountainous, barbarous country, without inflrumcnt, and without fong; and that it was the fame here in Atbara; a miferable truth, which I afterwards completely verified. Thefe fingers were Cufhites, not Shepherds.
I, however, made myfelf mailer of two or three of thefe alternate fongs upon the guitar, the wretched inflrument of that country; and was furprifed to find the words in a language equally flrangc to Mafuah and Abyflinia. I had frequent interviews with thefe muficians in the evening ; they were perfectly black and woolly-headed. Being flaves, they fpoke both Arabic and Tigre, but could fing in neither; and, from every pofhble inquiry, I found every thing, allied to counterpoint, was unknown among them. I have fome-times endeavoured to recover fragments of thefe fongs, which I once perfectly knew from memory only, but unfortunately I committed none of them to writing. Sorrow, and various misfortunes, that every day marked my flay in the barbarous country to which I was then going, and the neceffary part I, much againft my will, was for felf-pref<. r-
G a vation
variori forced to take in the ruder occupations of thofe times, lrave, to my very great regret, obliterated long ago the whole from my memory.
It is a general cuftom in Mafuah for people to burn myrrh and incenfe in their houfes before they open the doors in the morning; and when they go out at night, or early in the day, they have always a fmall piece of rag highly fumigated with thefe two perfumes, which they Huff into each noftril to keep them from the unwhole-fome air.
The houfes in Mafuah are, in general, built of poles and bent grafs, as in the towns of Arabia; but, befides thefe, there are about twenty of ilone, fix or eight of which are two ftoreys each ; though the fecond feldom confifts of more than one room, and that one generally not a large one. The Rones are drawn out of the fea as at Dahalac; and in thefe we fee the beds of that curious muilel, or fhell-fiih, found to be contained in the folid rock at Mahon, called Dattoli da mare, or fea-dates, the fifh of which I never faw in the Red Sea; though there is no doubt but they are to be found in the rocky iflands about Mafuah, if they break the rocks for them.
Although Mafuah is fituatcd in the very entrance of A-byilinia, a very plentiful country, yet all the neceilaries of life are fcarce and dear. Their quality, too, is very indifferent. This is owing to the difficulty, expencc, and danger of carrying the feveral articles through the defert Hat country, called Samhar, which lies between Arkeeko and the mountains of Abyflinia ; as well as to the extortions
2 excrcifed
\
excrcifed by the Naybe, who takes, under the name of cuftoms, whatever part he pleafes of the goods and prbvifioos brought to that ifland; by which means the pr >fit of the feller is fo fmall, as not to be worth the pains and rifle of bringing it: 20 rotol of butter coft a pataka and a half, 3$ harf; or, in one term, 45! harf. A goat is half of a pataka ; a Iheep, two-thirds of a pataka; the ardep of wheat, 4 pa-takas ; Dora, from Arabia, 2 patakas.
--Venit, vilijjima rerum,
Hie aqua. Horat. lib. 1. Sat. 6. v. 88.
Water is fold for three diwanis, or paras, the 7 gallons. The fame fort of money is in ufe at Mafuah, and the op-pofite coafl: of Arabia ; and it is indeed owing to the commercial intercourse with that coafl: that any coin is current in this or the weftern fide. It is all valued by the Venetian fequin. But glafs beads, called Contaria, of all kinds and colours, perfect and broken, pafs for fmall money, and are called, in their language, Borjookc.
Tjblb of the relative value of Monet.
Venetian Sequin, — Pataka,
Pataka or Imperial Dollar, 28 Harf.
1 Harf,          — .— 4 Diwani.
ioKibeer,      —         — 1 Diwani,
1 Kibcer,       —         — 3 Borjookc, or Grains.
The Harf is likewife called Dahab, a word very equivocal, as it means, in Arabic, gold, and frequently a fcqain. The liarf is 120 grains of beads.
The
The zermabub, or fequin of Conftantinople, is not current here. Thofe that have them, can only difpofe of them to the women, who hang them about their temples, to their necklaces, and round the necks of their children. The fraction of the pataka is the half and quarter, which pafs here like wife.
There is a confidcrable deal of trade carried on at Mafuah* notwithstanding thefe inconveniencies, narrow and confined as the ifland is, and violent andunjuft as is the government. But it is all done in a llovenly manner, and for articles where a fmall capital is inverted. Property here is too precarious to rilk a venture in valuable commodities, where the hand of power enters into every tranfao tion.
The goods imported from the Arabian fide are blue cotton, Surat cloths,and cochineal ditto, called Kermis, fine cloth from different markets in India; coarfe white cotton cloths from Yemen ; cotton unfpun from ditto in bales ; Venetian beads, chryflal, drinking, and looking-glafles; and cohol, or crude antimony. Thefe three laft articles come in great quantities from Cairo, firft in the coffee fhips to Jidda, and then in fmall barks over to this port. Old copper too is an article on which much is gained, and great quantity is imported.
The Galla, and all the various tribes to the weftward of Gondar, wear bracelets of this copper; and they fay at times, that, near the country of Gongas and Guba, it has been fold, weight for weight, with gold. There is a fhell like-wife here, a univalve of the fpecies of volutes, which fells
4 at
at a cuba for 10 paras. It is brought from near Hodcida, though it is fometimes found at Konfodah and Loheia. There are a few alfo at Dahalac, but not efteemed : thefe pafs for money among the Djawi and other weftern Galla.
The cuba is a wooden meafure, containing, very exactly, 62 cubic inches of rain water. The drachm is called Calia; there is 10 drachms in their wakea.
Gold, 16 patakas per wakea.
Civet, 1} paiaka the wakea.
Elephants teeth, 18 patakas for 35 rotol..
Wax, 4 patakas the faranzala.
Myrrh, 3 patakas per ditto.
Coffee, 1 pataka the 6 rotol.
Honey, i of a pataka the cuba..
The Banians were once the principal merchants of Ma--fbah ; but the number is now reduced to fix.   They are filver-fmiihs, that make ear-rings and other ornaments for the women in the continent, and are aflayers of gold; they make, however, but a poor livelihood.
As there is no water in Mafuah, tlie number of animals belonging to it can be but fmall. The fea-fowl have nothing lingular in them, and are the grey and the white guilj and the fmall bird, called thefea-lark, or pickerel. The iky lark is here, but is mute the whole year, till the firH r.r.nr> fall in November; he then mounts very high, and fings in the very heat of the day. 1 faw him in the Tehama. But he did not fing there; probably for the reafon' given above, as there was no rain.
Titebje
There arc no fparrows to be feen here, or on the oppofite fhore, nor in the iilands. Although there were fcorpions in abundance at Loheia, we found none of them at Mafuah. Water and greens, cfpccially of the melon and cucumber kind, fecm to be neceffary to this poifonous infect. Indeed it was only after rains we faw them in Loheia, and then the young ones appeared in fwarms; this was in the end of Auguft. They are of a dull green colour, bordering upon yellow. As far as I could obferve, no perfon apprehended any thing from their fling beyond a few minutes pain.
We left Mafuah the ioth of November, with the foldiers and boats belonging to Achmet. We had likewife three fervants from Abyflinia, and no longer apprehended the Naybe, who feemed, on his part, to think no more of us.
In the bay between Mafuah and Arkeeko are two iflands, Toulahout and Sbekh Seide ; the firft on the weft, the other on the fouth. They are both uninhabited, and without water. Shekh Seide has a marabout, or faint's tomb, on the well end. It is not half a mile in length, when not overflowed, but has two large points of fand which run far out to the eaft and to the weft. Its weft point runs fo near to Toulahout, as, at low-water, fcarce to leave a channel for the- breadth of a boat to pafs between.
There is a chart, or map of the ifland^of Mafuah, handed about with other bad maps and charts of the Red Sea, (of which I have already fpoken) among our Englifh captains from India. It feems to be of as old date as the firft landing of the Portuguefc under Don Roderigo de Lima, in the time of David III. but it is very inaccurate, or rather erroneous,
♦
roneous, throughout. The map of the ifland, harbour, and bay, with the foundings, which I here have given, may be depended upon, as being done on the fpot with the grcateft attention.
Achmet, though much better, was, however, not well. His fever had left him, but he had fome fymptoms of its being followed by a dyfentery. In the two days I relied at his houfe, I had endeavoured to remove thefe complaints, and had fucceeded in part; for which he teftified the ut-mofl gratitude, as he was wonderfully afraid to die.
The Naybe had vifitcd him feveral times every day ; but as I was defirous to fee Achmet well before I left Arkeeko, 1 kept out of the way on thefe occafions, being refolved, the firft interview, to prefs for an immediate departure.
On the 13th, at four o'clock in the afternoon, I waited upon the Naybe at his own houfe. He received me with more civility than ufual, or rather, I fhould have faid, with lefs brutality; for a grain of any thing like civility had never yet appeared in his behaviour. He had jufl received news, that a fervant of his, fent to collect: money at Hamazen, had run off with it. As I faw he was bufy, I took my leave of him, only afking his commands for Habefh ; to which he anfwercd, " We have time enough to think of that, do you come here to morrow."
On the 14th, in the morning, I waited upon him accord* ing to appointment, having firft flruck my tent and got all my baggage in readinefs. He received mc as before, then told mc with a grave air," that he was willing to further my
Vol. III. H journey
•
journey into Habefh to the utmoft of his power, provided I fhewed him that confideration which was due to him from all paflfengers ; that as, by my tent, baggage, and arms, he faw I was a man above the common fort, which the grand fignior's firman, and all my letters teftified, lefs than iooo patakas offered by me would be putting a great affront upon him; however, in confideration of the governor of Tigre, to whom I was going, he would confent to receive 300, upon my fwearing not to divulge this, for fear of the fliame that would fall upon him abroad.
To this I anfwered in the fame grave tone,u That I thought him very wrong to take 300 patakas with fhamc, when receiving a thoufand would be more honourable as well as more profitable ; therefore he had nothing to do but put that- into his account-book with the governor of Tigre, and fettle his honour and his intcreR together. As for myfelf, 1 was fent for by Metical Aga, on account of the king, and was proceeding accordingly, and if he oppofed my going forward to Metical Aga,, I fhouM return; but then again I fhould expect ten thoufand patakas from Metical Aga, for the trouble and lo£s of time I had been at, which he and the Ras would no doubt fettle with him." The Naybe faid nothing in reply, but only muttered, clofing his teeth, fiei* tan afrit, that devil or tormenting fpirir.
" Look you, (fays one of the king's fervants, whom I had not heard fpeak before) 1 was ordered to bring this man to my matter; 1 heard no talk of patakas; the army is ready to mareh againfl Waragna Fafil, I mull not lofe my time fcfcre." Then taking his fliort red cloak under his arm, and: giving it alhake to make the dull fly from it, he put
hr
it upon his fhoulders, and, ftretching out his hand very familiarly, faid, " Naybe, within this hour I am for Habefh, my companion will (lay here with the man; give me my dues for coming here, and I fhall carry any anfwer either of you has to fend." The Naybe looked much difconcerted. " Befides, faid I, you owe me 300 patakas for faving the life of your nephew Achmet."—" Is not his life worth 300 patakas ?" He looked very filly, and faid, " Achmet's life is worth all Mafuah." There was no more talk of patakas after this. He ordered the king's fervant not to go that day, but come to him to-morrow to receive his letters, and he would expedite us for Habefh.
Those friends that I had made at Arkceko and Mafuah, feeing the Naybe's obftinacy againft our departure, and, knowing the cruelty of his nature, advifed me to abandon all thoughts of Abyflinia; for that, in palling through Samhar, among the many barbarous people whom he commanded, difficulties would multiply upon us daily, and, cither by accident, or order of the Naybe, we fhould furely be cut off.
I was too well convinced of the embarraflmciit that lay behind me if left alone with the Naybe, and too determined upon my journey to hentate upon going forward. I even flattered myfclf, that his flock of flratagems to prevent our going, was by this time exhaufted, and that the morrow would fee us in the open fields, free from further tyranny and controul. In this conjecture I wras warranted by the vifible impreflion the declaration of the king's fervant had made upon him.
On the 15th, early in the morning, I itruck my tent again, and had my baggage prepared, to lhew we were determined to Ray no longer.   At eight o'clock, I went to the Naybe, and found him almoft alone, when he received me in a manner that, for him, might have pafTed for civil.   He began with a confiderable degree of eloquence, or fluency of fpeech, a long enumeration of the difficulties of our journey, the rivers, precipices, mountains, and woods we were to pals; the number of wild beafts every where to be found; as alfo the wild lavage people that inhabited thofe places ; the mofl of which, he faid, were luckily under his command, and he would  recommend to them to do us all manner of good offices.   He commanded two of his fecre-tarics to write the proper letters, and, in the mean time, ordered us coffee; converfmg naturally enough about the king and Ras Michael, their campaign againft Fafil, and the great improbability there was, they fhould be fuccefs-ful.
At this time came in a fervant covered with duft and feem-ingly fatigued, as having arrived in bade from afar. The Naybe, with a confiderable deal of uneafinefs and confufion, opened the letters, which were faid to bring intelligence, that the Hazorta, Shiho, and Tora, the three nations who pollened that part of Samhar through which our road led to Dobarwa, the common paffage from Mafuah to Tigre, had revolted, driven away his fervants, and declared themfelves independent. He then, (as if all was over) ordered his fecre-taries to flop writing; and, lifting up his eyes, began, with great fecming devotion, to thank God we were not already on our journey ; for, innocent as he was, when we fhould
have
have been cut off, the fault would have been imputed to him.
Angry as I was at fo barefaced a farce, I could not help burfting out into a violent fit of loud laughter, when he put on the fevereft countenance, and defired to know the reafon of my laughing at fuch a time. It is now two months, anfwered I, fince you have been throwing various objections; in my way ; can you wonder that I do not give into fo grofs an impofition ? This fame morning, before I ft ruck my tent, in prefence of your nephew Achmet, I fpoke with two Shihojuil arrived from Samhar, who brought letters to Achmet, which faid all was in peace. Have yoiv earlier intelligence than that of this morning ?
Hit was for fome time without fpcaking ; then faid, " If you are weary of living, you are welcome to go ; but I will do my duty in warning thofe that are along with you of their and your danger, that, when the mifchief happens, it may not be imputed to me." " No number of naked Shi-ho," faid I, " unlefs inftructed by you, can ever be found on our road, that will venture to attack us. The Shiho have no fire arms ; but if you have fent onpurpofe fome of your foldiers that have fire arms, thefe will difcover by what authority they come. For our part, we cannot fly; we neither know the country, the language, nor the watering-places, and we mail not attempt it. We have plenty of different forts of fire-arms, and your fcrvants have often feen at Mafuah we arc not ignorant in the ufe of them. We, it is true, may lofe our lives, that is in the hand of the Almighty ; but wc fhall not fail to leave enough on the fpor, to give fufficient indication to the king and Ras Michael,
3 who.
who it was that were our aiTallins, Janni of Adowa will explain the reft."
I then rofc very abruptly to go away. It is impofhble to give one, not converfant with thefe people, any conception what perfect mafters the moll clownifh and beaftly among them are of dimmulation. The countenance of the Naybe now changed in a moment. In his turn he burft out into a loud fit of laughter, which furprifed me full as much as mine, fome time before, had done him. Every feature of his treacherous countenance was altered and foftened into complacency ; and he, for the firft time, bore the appearance of a man.
" What I mentioned about the Shiho, he then laid, was but to try you ; all is peace. I only wanted to keep you here, if poftiblc, to cure my nephew Achmet, and his uncle Emir Mahomet; but fince you arc refolved to go, be not a-fraid; the roads are fafe enough. I will give you a perfon to conduct you, that will carry you in fafcty, even if there was danger; only go and prepare fuch remedies as may be proper for the Emir, and leave them with my nephew Achmet, while I finifh my letters." This I willingly confent-ed to do, and at my return I found every thing ready.
Our guide was a handfome young man, to whom, though a Chriftian, the Naybe had married his filler; his name was Saloome. The common price paid for fuch a conductor is three pieces of blue Sural cotton cloth. The Naybe, however, obliged us to promife thirteen to his brother-in-law, with which, to get rid of him with fome degree of good grace, we willingly complied.
i Before
Before our letting out I told this to Achmet, who faid, that the man was not a bad one naturally, but that his uncle the Naybe made all men as wicked as himfelf. He fur-niihed me with a man to fhew me where I mould pitch my tent; and told me he mould now take my final deliverance upon himfelf, for we were yet far, according to the Naybe's intentions, from beginning our journey to Gondar.
Arkeeko confifts of about 400 houfes, a few of which are built of clay, the reft of coarfe grafs like reeds. The Naybe's houfe is of thefe lafl-named materials, and not dif-tinguifhed from any others in the town ; it ftands upon the S. W. fide of a large bay. There is water enough for large fhips clofe to Arkeeko, but the bay being open to the N. E. makes it uneafy riding in blowing weather. Beudes, you are upon a lee-fhore; the bottom is compofed of foft fand. In Handing in upon Arkeeko from the fea through the canal between Shekh Seide and the main land, it is neceffary to range the coafl about a third nearer the main than the ifland. The point, or Shekh Seide, ftretches far out, and has mallow water upon it.
The Cape that forms the fouth-we ft fide of the large bay is called Ras Gedem, being the rocky bale of a high mountain of that name, feen a confiderable diflancc from fea, and di~ ilinguiflied by its form, which is that of a hog's back.
CHAP.
CHAP. III.
Journey from Arkeeko, over the mountain Taranta, to Dixan.
ACCORDING to Achmct's dcfirc, we left Arkeeko the 15th, taking our road fouth ward, along the plain, which is not here above a mile broad, and covered with lhort grafs nothing different from ours, only that the blade is broader. After an tour's journey I pitched my tent at Laberhey, near a pit of rain-water. The mountains of A-byflinia have a fingular afpecr. from this, as they appear in three ridges. The firft is of no confiderable height, but full of gullies and broken ground, thinly covered with fhrubs ; the fecond, higher and fteeper, Rill more rugged and bare; the third is a row of fharp, uneven-edged mountains, which would be counted high in any country in Europe. Far above the top of all, towers that ftupendous mafs, the mountain of Taranta, I fuppofe one of the higheft in the world, the point of which is buried in the clouds, and very rarely feen but in the clcarcft weather; at other times abandoned to perpetual mift and darknefs, the feat of lightning, thunder, and of norm.
Taranta
Taranta is the higheft of a long, ftcep ridge of mountains, the boundary between the oppofite feofons. On its eaft fide, or towards the Red Sea, the rainy feafon is from October to April; and, on the weftern, or Abyflinian fide, cloudy, rainy, and cold weather prevails from May to October.
In the evening, a meflenger from the Naybe found us at our tent at Laberhey, and carried away our. guide Sa-loome. It was not till the next day that he appeared again, and with him Achmet, the Naybe's nephew. Achmet made us deliver to him the thirteen pieces of Surat cloth, which was promifed Saloouie for his hire, and this, apparently, with that perfon s good-will. He then changed four of the men whom the Naybe had fUrnifhed us for hire to carry our baggage, and put four others in their place; this, not without fome murmuring on their part; but hfl peremptorily, and in fceming anger, difpatched them back to Arkeeko.
Achmet now came into the tent, called for coffee, and while drinking it, faid, " You are fufficiently perfuaded that I am your friend ; ir you are not, it is too late now to convince you. It is neceflary, however, to explain the reafons of what you fee. You are not to go to Dobarwa, though it is the be ft road, the fafeil being preferable to the caficft. Saloomc knows the road by Dixan as well as the other. You will be apt to curie me when you are toiling and fweating afcending Taranta, the higheil mountain in Abyflinia, and on this account worthy your notice. You arc then to coniider if the fatigue of body you then fuller in that pallitge is not overpaid by the abfolute fafety you will find yourielves in. Dobarwa belongs to the Na)be, and I
Vol. 111. I cannot
cannot anfwer for the orders he may have given to his owns-fervants; but Dixan is mine, although the people are much worfe than thofe of Dobarwa. I have written to my officers there ; they will behave the better to you for this; and, aa you are flrong and robuft, the bcft I can do for you is to fend you by a rugged road, and a- fafe one.
Achmet again gave his orders to Saloome; and wc, all rifing, faid the fedtah, or prayer of peace; which being over, his fervant gave him a narrow web of mullin, which, with his own hands, he wrapped round my head in the manner the better fort of Mahometans wear it at Dixan. He then parted, faying, " He that is your enemy is mine alfo; you fhall hear of me by Mahomet Gibberti."
This finifhed a feries of trouble and vexation, not to fay danger* fuperior to any thing I ever before bad experienced, and of which the bare recital (though perhaps too minute a one) will give but an imperfect idea. Thefe wretches poffefs talents for tormenting and alarming, far beyond the power of belief; and, by laying a true fkctch of them ber-fore a traveller, an author does him the moft real fervice. In this country the more truely we draw the portrait of man, the more we feem to fall into caricatura.
On the i6th,in the evening, we left Laberhey; and, after continuing about an hour along the plain, our grafs endued, the ground becoming dry, firm, and gravelly, and we then entered into a wood of acacia-trees of confiderablc fize. We now began to afcend gradually, having Gcdem, the high mountain which forms the bay of Arkeeko, on our left, and thefe fame mountains, which bound the plain of Arkeeko to
the.
the weft, on our right. Wc encamped this night on a riling-ground called Shillokeeb, where there is no water, though the mountains were everywhere cut through with gullies and water courfes, made by the violent rains that fall here in winter.
The 17th, we continued along the fame plain, ft ill Covered thick with acacia-trees. They were then in bloffom, had a round yellow flower, but we law no gum upon the trees: Our direction had hitherto been fouth. We turned wefter-ly through an opening in the mountains, which here Hand fo clofc together as to leave no valley or plain fpaee between them but what is made by the torrents, in the rainy feafon, forcing their way with great violence to the fea.
The bed of the torrent was our only road; and, as it was all fand, we could not wiih for a better. The moifture it had ftrongly imbibed protected it from the fudd 1 efl s of the fun, and produced, all alongft its courfe, a great degree of vegetation and verdure. Its banks were* full of rack-trees, capers, and tamarind.^; the two laft bearing larger fruit than I had ever before feen, though not arrived to their greater! fize or maturity.
We continued this winding, according to the courfe of the river, among mountains of no great height, but bare, ftony, and full of terrible precipices. At half paft eight o'clock we halted, to avoid the heat of the fun, under made of the trees before mentioned, for it was then exccffively hot, though in the month of November, from ten in the morning till two in the afternoon. We met this day with large numbers of Shiho, having their wives and families
I 2 along
along with them, defcending from the tops of the high mountains of Habefh, with their flocks to pallure, on the plains below near the fea, upon grafs that grows up in the months of October and November, when they have already confu-med what grew in the oppolite feafon on the other fide of the mountains.
This change of domicil gives them a propenfity to thieving and violence, though otherwife a cowardly tribe. It is a proverb in Abyflinia, " Beware of men that drink tuD» M waters,'* meaning thefe, and all the tribes of Shepherds^ who were in fearch of pafture, and who have lain under the fame imputation from the remoteft antiquity.
The Shiho were once very numerous; but, like all thefe nations having communication with Mafuah, have fuffered much by the ravages of the fmall-pox. The Shiho are the blacked of the tribes bordering upon the Red Sea. They were all clothed ; their women in coarfe cotton fhifts reaching down to their ancles, girt about the middle with a leather belt, and having very large fleeves ; the men in fhort cotton breeches reaclj/ng to the middle of their thighs, and a goat's fkin crofs their fhoulders. They have neither tents nor cottages, but either live in caves in the mountains under trees, or in fmall conical huts built with a thick grafs like reeds.
This party confided of about fifty men, and, I fuppofe» not more than thirty women ; from which it feemed probable the Shiho arc Monogam, as afterwards, indeed, I knew them to be. hach of them had a lance in his hand, and a knife at the girdle which kept up the breeches. They
had
THE S O D U C    O F T H E NIL E. 69
had the fuperioriry of the ground, as coming down the mountain which we were aiccnding; yet I obferved thi m to feem rather uneafy at meeting us; and fo far from any appearance of hoflility, that, I believe, had we attacked brifkly, they would have fled without much refiflancc. They were, indeed, incumbered with a prodigious quantity of goats and other cattle, fo were not in a righting trim. I faliited the man that feemed to be their chief, and aiked him if he would fell us a goat. He returned my falute ; bit either could not fpeak Arabic, or declined further con-verfation. However, thofe of our people behind, that were of a colour nearer to themfclves, bought us a goat that was lame, (dearly they faid) for fome antimony, four large needles, and fome beads. Many of them afked us for kijftrah, or bread. This being an Arabic word, and their having no other word in their language fignifying bread, convinces me they were Icthyophagi; as, indeed, hiilory fays all thofe Tro-glydite nations were who lived upon the Red Sea. It could not indeed be othcrwife: the rich, when trade flourifhed in thefe parts, would probably get corn from Arabia or Abyf-fmia; but, in their own country, no corn would grow.
V
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon we rcfumed our journey through a very lion), uneven road, till $ o'clock, when we pitched our tent at a place called Hamhammou, on the fde of a fmall green hill iome hundred yards from the bed of the torrent. Tire weather had been perfectly good fmce we left Mafuah : this afternoon, however, it fecmed to threaten rain; the high mountains were quite hid, and great part of the lower one^ covered with thick clouds ; the lightning was very frequent, broad and deep-tinged with blue *, and long peaia of timadei were heard, but at a dif-
tance.
tancc. This was the firft fample we had of Abyflinian bad weather. ^
The river fcarcely ran at our palling it; when, all on a fudden, we heard a noife on the mountains above, louder than the loudeft thunder. Our guides, upon this, flew to the baggage, and removed it to the top of the green hill ; which was no fooner done, than we faw the river coming down in a flream about the height of a man, and breadth of the whole bed it ufed to occupy. The water was thick tinged with red earth, and ran in the form of a deep river, and fwelled a little above its banks, but did not reach our Ration on the hill.
An antelope, furprifed by the torrent, and I believe hurt by it, was forced over into the peninfula where we were, fecmingly in great diftrefs. As foon as my companions faw there was no further danger from the river, they furround-ed this innocent comrade in misfortune, and put him to death with very little trouble to themfclves. The acquifi-tion was not great; it was lean, had a mufky taflc, and was worfe meat than the goat we had bought from the Shiho. The torrent, though now very fenfibly diminifhed, Thill pre-ferved a current till next morning.
Between Hamhammou and Shillokecb we firft faw the dung of elephants, full of pretty thick pieces of indigciled branches. We like wife, in many places, faw the tracks thro' which they had paffed; fome trees were thrown down from the roots, fome broken in the middle, and branches half-..eaten lire wed on the ground.
7, Hamhammou
Hamhammou is a mountain of black Rones, almoft calcined by the violent heat of the fun. This is the boundary of the diRricf; Samhar, inhabited by the Shiho from Ham-hammou to Taranta, is called Hadalfa ; it belongs to the Ha-zona.
This nation, though not fo numerous as the Shiho, are yet their neighbours, live in conffant defiance of the Naybe, and are of a colour much refembling new copper; but arc inferior to the Shiho in.frze, though very agile. All their fubftance is in cattle ; yet they kill none of them, but live entirely upon milk. They, too, want alfo an original word for bread in their language, for the fame reafon, I fuppofe, as the Shiho. They have been generally fuccefsful againft the Naybe, and five either in caves, or in cabannes, like cages, juft large enough to hold two perions,and covered with an ox's hide. Some of the better fort of women have copper bracelets upon their arms, beads in their hair, and a tanned hide wrapt about their moulders.
The nights are cold here even in fummer, and do not allow the inhabitants to go naked as upon the reft of the \ coaft ; however, the children of the Shiho, whom we; met firft, were all naked.
The i 8th, at half paft five in the morning, wc left our Ration on the fide of the green hill at Hamhammou: for fome lime our road lay through a plain fo thick fet with acacia-trees that our hands and faces were all torn and bloody with the ftrokes of their thorny branches. We then re-fumed.our ancient road in the bed of the torrent, now near-
ly dry, over Rones which the rain of the preceding night had made very llippery.
At half paft feven we came to the mouth of a narrow valley, through which a Rream of water lan very fwiftly over a bed of pebbles. It was the firfl: clear water we had feen fince we left Syria, and gave us then unfpeakable plea-fure. It was in tafte excellent. The fhade of the tamarind-tree, and the coolncfs of the .air, invited us to reR on this delightful fpot, though otherwife, perhaps, it was not exactly conformable to the rules of prudence, as we faw feveral huts and families of the Hazorta along the fide of the Rream, with their flocks feeding on the branches of trees and bufhes, entirely neglectful of the grafs they were treading under foot.
The caper-tree here grows as high as the tallefl Englifh elm ; its flower is white, and its fruit, though not ripe, was fully as large as an apricot.
I went fome diftance to a fmall pool of water in order to bathe, and took my firelock with me ; but none of the favages ftirred from their huts, nor feemcd to regard me more than it 1 had lived among them all their lives, though furely I was the moft extraordinary fight they had ever feen ; whence I concluded that they are a people of fmall talents or genius, having no curiofity.
*
At two o'clock we continued our journey, among large timber trees, till half pad three, along the fide of the 1 i vu et, whvii wc loll it. At half pail four we pitched our tent at Sadoon, by the fide of another Rream, as clear, as fhallow,
4 and
and as beautiful as the firft; but the night here was exceedingly cold, though the fun had been hot in the day-time. Our defxre for water was, by this time, confiderably abated. We were everywhere furrounded by mountains, bleak, bare, black, and covered with loofe Rones, entirely deftitute of foil; and, bcfides this gloomy profpecT, we faw nothing br the heavens.
On the 19th, at half paft fix in the morning, we left Sa-doon, our road Rill winding between mountains in the 1 or torrent of a river, bordered on each fide with rack and fycamore trees of a good fize. I thought them equal to the largeft trees I had ever feen ; but upon confidering, and roughly mcafuring fome of them, I did not find one y'2 feet diameter; a fmall tree in comparifon of thofe that fome travellers have obferved, and much fmaller than I expected ; for here every caufe concurred that mould make the growth of thefe large bodies exceflivc.
At half paft eight o'clock, we encamped at a place called Tubbo, where the mountains are very ftecp, and broken, very abruptly, into cliffs and precipices. Tubbo was by much the moft agreeable Ration we had feen; the trees were thick, full of leaves, and gave us abundance of very dark fliadc. There was a number of many different kinds fo clofcly planted that they feemed to be intended for natural arbours. Every tree was full of birds, variegated with an infinity of colours, but deftitute of fong; others, of a more homely and more European appearance; diverted us with a variety of wild notes, in a tlile of mufic Rill diftincf. and peculiar to Africa ; as different in the compofition from our linnet and goldfinch, as our Englifh language is to that
Vol. III. K of
of Abyffinia : Yet, from very attentive and frequent observation, I found that the fky-lark at Mafuah fang the fame notes as in England. It was obfcrvable, that the greateft part of the beautiful painted birds were of the jay, or mag-pic kind: nature feemed, by the finenefs of their drcfs, to have marked them for children of noife and impertinence, but never to have intended them for pleafure or meditation.
The reafon of the Hazorta making, as it were, a fixed Ration here at Tubbo, feems to be the great exuberancy of the foliage of thefe large trees. Their principal occupation feemed to be to cut down the branches moR within their reach ; and this, in a dry feafon, nearly Rripped every tree ; and, upon failure of thefe, they remove their flocks, whatever quantity of grafs remained.
The fycamorcs conftitutc a large proportion of thefe trees, and they arc everywhere loaded with figs; but the procefs of caprification being unknown to thefe lavages, thefe figs come to nothing, which elfe might be a great rc-fourcc for food at times, in a country which feems almoR dellitute of the ncceflaries of life.
We left Tubbo at th ree o'clock in the afternon, and we wilhed to leave the neighbourhood of the Hazorta. At four, We encamped at Lila, where we paffed the night in a narrow valley, full of trees and brufhwood, by the fide of a rivulet. Thefe fmall, but delightful ftreams, which appear on the plain between Taranta and the fea, run only after October. When the hammer rains in Abyflinia arc ceafing, they begin again on the eaR fide of the mountains ; at other
3 times,
times, no running water is to be found here, but it remains Ragnant in large pools, whilft its own depth, or the made of the mountains and trees, prevent it from being exhaled by the heat of the fun till they are again replenifhed with frelh fupplies, which are poured into them upon return of the rainy feafon. Hitherto we had conftantly afcended from our leaving Arkeeko, but it was very gradually, indeed almoR imperceptibly.
On the 20th, at fix o'clock in the morning, we left our Ration at Lila, and about feven we began to afcend the hills, or eminences, which ferve as the roots or fkirts of the great mountain Taranta. The road was on each fide bordered with nabca, or jujeb trees of great beauty, and fycamores perfectly deprived of their verdure and branches.
We faw to-day plenty of game. The country here is everywhere deprived of the fhade it would enjoy from thefe fine trees, by the barbarous axes of the Hazorta. We found everywhere immenfc flocks of antelopes; as alfo partridges of a fmall kind that willingly took refuge upon trees ; neither of thefe feemed to confider us as enemies. The antelopes let us pafs through their flocks, only removing to the right or to the left, or ftanding Rill and gazing upon us till we palEed. But, as we were then on the confines of Tigre, or , rather on the territory of the Baharnagafh, and as the Hazorta were in motion everywhere removing towards the coall, far from the dominions of the Abyffinians to which we were going, a friend of their own tribe, who had joined us for fafcty, knowing how little trufl was to be put in his countrymen when moving in this contrary direction, advi-fed us by no means to fire, or give any unneceflary indicate 2 tion
tion of the fpot where we were, till we gained the mountain of Taranta, at the foot of which we halted at nine in the morning.
At half paft two o'clock in the afternoon we began to afcend the mountain, through a moft rocky, uneven road, if it can deferve the name, not only from its incredible fteep-nefs, but from the large holes and gullies made by the torrents, and the huge monftrous fragments of rocks which, loofened by the water, had been tumbled down into our way. It was with great difficulty we could creep up, each man carrying his knapfack and arms; but it feemed beyond the pofhbility of human ftrength to carry our baggage and inftruments. Our tent, indeed, fullered nothing by its falls; but our telefcopes, time-keeper, and quadrant, were to be treated in a more deliberate and tender manner.
Our quadrant had hitherto been carried by eight men, four to relieve each other ; but thefe were ready to give up the undertaking upon trial of the firft few hundred yards. A number of expedients, fuch as trailing it on the ground, (all equally fatal to the inftrument) were propofed. At lafr, as I was incomparably the ftrongeft of the company, as well as the moft interefted, I, and a flranger Moor who had followed us, carried the head of it for about 400 yards over the moft difficult and ftccpeft part of the mountain, which before had been confidered as impracticable by all.
Yasine was the name of that Moor, recommended to me by Metical Aga, of whom 1 have already fpoken a little, and flia.ll be obliged to fay much more ; a perfon whom I had discovered to be a man of a moft Sagacious turn of mind,
firm
firm heart, and ftrenuous nerves; never more diftinguifhed for all thefe qualities than in the hour of imminent danger; at other times remarkable for quietnefs and filence, and a conftant Rudy of his Koran.
We carried it Readily up the Reep, eafed the cafe gently over the big Rones on which, from time to time, we refted it; and, to the wonder of them all, placed the head of the three-foot quadrant, with its double cafe, in Safety far above the Rony parts of the mountain. At Yafine's requeft we again undertook the next moR difficult talk, which was to carry the iron foot of the quadrant in a fingle deal-cafe, not fo heavy, indeed, nor fo liable to injury, but Rill what had been pronounced impoflible to cany up fo Reep and rugged a mountain ; and refufing then the faint offers of thofe that Rood gazing below, excufing themfelves by foretelling an immediate and certain mifcarriage, we placed the fecond cafe about ten yards above the firft in perfect good condi*-tion.
Declaring ourfelves now without fear of contradiction, ar d,by the acknowledgment of all, upon fair proof, the two beft men in the company, we returned, bearing very vifibly the characters of fuch an exertion; our hands and knees were all cut, mangled, and bleeding, with Riding down and clambering over the Sharp points of the rocks; our clothes torn to pieces; yet we profeffed our ability, without any reproaches on our comrades, to carry the two telefcopes and time-keeper alfo. Shame, and the proof of fuperior con-Rancy, fo much humbled the reR of our companions, that one and all put their hands fo brifkly to work, that, with infinite toil, and as much pleafure, we advanced fo far as to
l place
place all our inRruments and baggage, about two o'clock in the afternoon, near half way up this terrible mountain of Taranta.
i
There were five affes, two of which belonged to Yafine and thefe were fully as difficult to bring up the mountain as any of our burdens. JVloR of their loading, the property of Yafine, we carried up the length of my inRruments ; and it was propofed, as a thing that one man could do, to make the unladen light affes follow, as they had been well taken care of, were vigorous and young, and had not fullered by the fliort journics we had made on plain ground. They no fooncr, however, found themfelves at liberty, and that a man was compelling them with a Rick to afcend the mountain, than they began to bray, to kick, and to bite each o-thcr; and, as it were with one confent, not only ran down the part of the hill we had afcended, but, with the fame jovial cries as before, (fmclling, I fuppofc, fome of their companions) they continued on at a brifk trot; and, as we fup-pofed, would never flop till they came to Tubbo, and the huts of the Hazorta.
All our little caravan, and cfpecially the maftcrs of thefe animals, faw from above, in defpair, all our eagcrnefs to pafs Taranta defeated by the fecefiion of the moR obfti-nate of the brute creation. But there was no mending this by reflection; at the fame time, we were fo tired as to make it impofliblc for the principals to give any affiflance. Bread was to be baked, and fupper to be made ready, after this fatiguing journey.
At
At length four Moors, one of them a fervant of Yafme, with one firelock, were fent down after the affes ; and the men were ordered to fire at a diftance, fo as to be heard in cafe any thing difhonefl was offered on the part of the Hazorta. But luckily the appetite of the affes returning, they had fallen to eat the bufhes, about half way to Lila, where they were found a little before fun-fet.
The number of hyaznas that arc everywhere among the bufhes, had, as we fuppofed, been feen by thefe animals, and had driven them all into a body. It was probable that this, too, made them more docile, fo that they fullered themfelves to be driven on before their mafters. The hyenas, however, followed them ftep by ftep, always incrcafing in number ; and, the men, armed only with lances, began to be fully as much afraid for themfclves as for the affes. At laft the hyamas became fo bold, that one of them feized the afs belonging to the poor Moor, whofe cargo was yet lying at the foot of Taranta, and pulled him down, though the man ran to him and relieved him with lances. This would have begun a general engagement with thchyamas,. had not Yafme's man that carried the firelock difcharged it amongft them, but miffed them all. However, it anfwer-ed the purpofe; they difappcared, and left the affes and afs-drivers to purfue their way.
The fhot, for a moment, alarmed us all upon the mountain. Every man ran to his arms to prepare for the coming of the Hazorta; but a moment's reflection upon the fhort time the men had been away, the diftance between us and Tubbo, and the fmall fpace that it feemed to be from where the gun was fired, made us all conclude the man had only intended
tended by the fliot to let us know they were at hand, tho' it was not till near midnight before our long-eared companions joined their rnaRers.
We found it impofhble to pitch our tents, from the extreme wearinefs in which our laR night's exertion had left us: But there was another reafon alfo; for there was not earth enough covering the bare fides of Taranta to hold faR a tent-pin; but there were variety of caves near us, and throughout the mountain, which had ferved for houfes to the old inhabitants ; and in thefe found a quiet and not inconvenient place of repofe, the night of the 20th of November.
■1
All this fide of the mountain of Taranta, which we had parled, was thick-fet with a fpecies of tree which we had never before feen, but which was of uncommon beauty and curious composition of parts; its name is kol-quaIl*. Though we afterwards met it in feveral places of Abyflinia, it never was in the perfection we now faw it in Taranta.
On the 21R, at half paft fix in the morning, having encouraged my company with good words, increafe of wages, and hopes of reward, we began to encounter the other half of the mountain, but, before we fet out, feeing that the afs of the Rranger Moor, which was bit by the hyaena, was incapable of carrying his loading further, I defired the rcR every one to bear a proportion of the loading till we fhould
arrive
* See the article kul-quall in tin; appendix.
arrive at Dixan, where I promifed to procure him another which might enable him to continue his journey.
This propofal gave univerfal fatisfaetion to our Mahometan attendants. Yafine fwore that my conduct was a reproach to them all, for that, though a Chriftian, I had fet them an example of charity to their poor brother, highly necefTary to procure God's blefling upon their journey, but which fhould properly have come firft from themfelvcs. After a great deal of ftrife of kindnefs, it was agreed that I fhould pay one-third, that the lame afs fhould go for what it was worth, and the Moors of the caravan make up the difference.
This being ended, I foon perceived the good effect. My baggage moved much more brifkly than the preceding day. The upper part of the mountain was, indeed, fteepcr, more craggy, rugged, and flippery than the lower, and impeded more with trees, but not cmbarrallcd fo much with large Rones and holes. Our knees and hands, however, were cut to pieces by frequent falls, and our faces torn by the multitude of thorny bufhes. I twenty times now thought of what Achmet had told me at parting, that I fhould curfe him for the bad road fliewn to me over Taranta; but blefs him for the quiet and fafety attending mc in that paffage.
The middle of the mountain was thinner of trees than the two extremes; they were chiefly wild olives which bear no fruit. The upper part was clofe covered with groves of the oxy ccdrus, the Virginia, or berry-bearing cedar, in the language of the country called Arze. At laft we gained the top of the mountain, upon which is fituatcd a fmall vil-
VoL, 111. L lage
Lige called Halai, the lull we had feen fmcc our leaving Mafuah. It is chiefly inhabited by poor fervants and ihep-lierds keeping the Rocks of men of fubflanee living in the town of Dixan.
The people here are not black, but of a dark complexion bordering very much upon yellow. They have their head bare ; their feet covered with fandals; a goat's fkin upon their moulders; a cotton cloth about their middle; their hair lhort and curled like that of a ncgroe's in the well part of Africa; but this is done by art, not by nature, eaeh man having a wooden Rick with which he lays hold of the lock and twills it round a fcrewT, till it curls in the form he defires*. The men carry in their hands two lances and a large inield of bull's hide. A crooked knife, the blade in the lower part about three inches broad, but diminifhing to a point about fixteen inches long, is Ruck at their right fide, in a girdle of coarfe cotton cloth, with which their middle is fwathed, going round them fix times. .
All forts of cattle are here in great plenty; cows and bulls of exquifite beauty, efpecially the former; they are, for the moft part, completely wdiite, with large dewlaps hanging d jwii to their knees; their heads, horns, and hoofs perfectly well-turned; the horns wide like our Lincolnfbire kine ; and their hair like filk. Their fheep are large, and all black. I never faw one of any other colour in the province of Tigre. Their heads are large ; their ears remarkably
I appehend this is the fame inflrument ufed by the ancients, and cenfured by the pro phets, which, in our. tianihuian, is rendered crifpiug-pins,   Ifa. chap, iii. yer. zz...
bly lliort and fmall; inftead of the wool they have hairT as all the (heep within the tropics have, but this is remarkable for its luilre and foftnefs, without any briflly quality, fuch as thofe in Beja, or the country of Sennaar ; but they are neither fo fat, nor is their flelh fo good, as that of the iheep in the warmer country. The goats here, too, are of the largefl fize; but they are not very rough, nor is their hair long.
The plain on the top of the mountain Taranta was, in many places, fown with wheat, which was then ready to be cut down, though the harveff was not yet begun. The grain was clean, and of a good colour, but inferior in fize to that of Egypt. It did not, however, grow thick, nor was the ftalk above fourteen inches high. The water is very bad on the top of Taranta, being only what remains of the rain in the hollows of the rocks, and in pits prepared for it.
Being very tired, we pitched our tent on the top r f7ie mountain. The night was remarkably cold, at lean appeared fo to us, whofe pores were opened by the exe. (five heat of Mafuah ; for at mid-day the thermometer flood 6i°, and at fix in the evening yf ; the barometer, at the fame time, i8V inches French. The dew began to fall ftrongly, and fo continued till an hour after fun fet, though the Iky was perfectly clear, and the fmalleft liars difcernibie.
I killfd a large eagle here this evening, about fix feet ten inches from wing to wing. It feemed very tame till fhot. The ball having wounded it but flightly, when on the ground it could not be prevented from attacking the
L 2 men
men or bcafts near it with great force and fiercenefs, fo that I was obliged to flab it with a bayonet. It was of a dirty white; only the head and upper part of its wings were o f a light brown.
On the 22d, at eight in the morning, we left our ftation on the top of Taranta, and foon after began to defcend on the fide of Tigre through a road the mod broken and uneven that ever I had feen, always excepting the afcent of Taranta. After this we began to mount a fmall hill, from which we had a diftincl view of Dixan,.
The cedar-trees, fo tall and beautiful on the top of Taram-ta, and alfo on the ealt fide, were greatly degenerated when we came to the welt, and moftly turned into fmall fhrubs and fcraggy bullies. We pitched our tent near fome marfhy ground for the fake of water,, at three quarters pall ten, but it was very bad, having been, for feveral weeks, flagnant. We faw here the people bufy at their wheat harveft; others, who had finillied theiis, were treading it out with cows or bullocks. They make no ufe of their ftraw; fometimes they burn it, and fometimcs leave it on the fpot to rot.
We fet out from this about ten minutes after three, de-fcending gently through a better road than we had hitherto feen. At half pad four in the evening, on the 22d of November, we came to Dixan. Halai was the firfl village, fo is this the firft town in Abyflinia, on the fide of Taranta* Dixan is built on the top of a hill, perfectly in form of a. iugar loaf; a. deep valley lurrounds it everywhere like a
trench ;
trench, and the road winds fpirally up the hill till it ends among the houfes.
This town, with a large diftrie*t, and a confidcrable number of villages, belonged formerly to the Baharnagafh, and was one of the ftrong places under his command. Afterwards, when his power came to be weakened, and his office in difrepute by his trcafonable behaviour in the war of the Turks, and civil war that followed it, during the Portuguefe fettlement in the reign of Socinios, the Turks pofTeHing the fea-ports, and being often in intelligence with him, it was thought proper to wink at the ufurpations of the governors of Tigrd, who, little by little, reduced this office to be dependent on their power, -
EJixan, prcfuming upon its ftrength, declared for independence in the time the two parties were contending; and, as it was inhabited moffly by Mahometans, it was fecretly fupported by the Naybe. Michael Suhul, however, governor of Tigre, in the reign of king Yafous II. in veiled it with a large army of horfe and foot; and, as it hadnowatcr but what was in the valley below, the general defect of thefe lofty fituations, he furrounded the town, encamping upon the edge of the valley, and inclofed all the water within his line of circumvallation, making flrong polls at every watering-place, defended by lire-arms.
He then fent to them a buffoon, or dwarf, defining them to-fiirrender within two hours. The paflions of the inhabitants were, however, raifed by expectations of fuccour from the Naybe ; and they dctefled Michael above every.thing that could be imagined,. They, therefore, whipt the dwarf,
and
and inflicted other marks of contumely upon him. Michael bore this with feeming indifference. He fent no more fum-monfes, but llrengthencd his polls, and ordered them to be continually vifited. Several attacks of no confequence were made by the beiicgcd following large Hones, which were rolled down into the trench, but all to no purpofe. A general attack, however, from the town, wras tried the third day, by which one well was carried, and many relieved their third ; many died there, and the reil were forced back into the town. A capitulation was now offered; but Michael anfwered, he waited for the coming of the Naybe. About 700 people are faid to have died, during thefiege, with third ; and at laft, there being no profpect of relief, twelve of the leaders were delivered and hanged up at the wells. The town furrendered at difcretion, and the foldiers nnilhed thofe whom thirft had fpared.
Michael then farmed Dixan to the Naybe, who repco-pled it. There was a high and low town, divided from each other by a confidcrable fpacc. In the lower abode Christians, at leaft fo calling themfclves; on the top of the hill were the Nay he's party, who had dug for themfclves a fcan-ty well. Saloomc, our guide, was ion of the governor for the Naybe. Achmet was the perfon the Moors in the low town had confided in ; and the Chridian chief was a dependent upon Janni, our Creek friend at Adowa, who had direction of all the cuftom-houfes in Tigre, and of that at Dixan among the reft.
Our baggage had palled the trench, and had reached the low town through which Saloome had conducted me, under pretence of getting a fpeedy Inciter from the heat :
2 but
but he overacted his part; and janni, his fervant, who fpoke Greek, giving mc a hint to go no farther, I turned lhort towards the houfe, and fat down with my firelock upon a Hone at the door. Our baggage quickly followed, and ail was put fafe in a kind of a court inclofcd with a fufhcicnt Hone-walk
It was not long till Hagi Abdelcader, Achmet's friend, came to us, inviting me civilly to his houfe, and declaring to me the friendly orders he had received from Achmet concerning me; bringing along with him alfo a goat, fome butter and honey. I excufed myfclf from leaving Janni's friend, the Chriftian, where I had firft alighted ; but I recommended Yafine to him, for he had begun to lhevv great attachment to me. In about a quarter of an hour came Saloome, with about twenty men, and demanded us, in the name of the Naybe, as his Grangers: he faid we owed him money for conducting us, and likewife for the cuftomhoufe dues. In a moment near a hundred men were ailcmbled round Hagi Abdelcader, all with fhields and lances, and we expected to fee a fray of the moft ferious kind, hut Abdelcader, with a fwitch in his hand, went gravely up to Saloome, and, after chiding his party with great authority, he held up his flick twice over Saloome's head, as if to ftrike him; then ordered him, if he had any demands, to come to him in the evening; upon which both parties difperfed, and left us in peace.
The matter was fettled in the evening with Saloome in an amicable manner.   It wa,s proved that thirteen pieces of blue cloth were the hire agreed on, and that it had been paid by his order to Achmet; ,and, though he deierved nothing
thing for his treacherous inclinations towards us, yet, for Achmct's fake, and our friend Hagi Abdelcaders, we made him a prefent of three pieces more.
It is true of Dixan as, I believe, of mofl frontier towns, that the bad people of both contiguous countries refort thither. The town, as I before have laid, confills of Moors and Chriitians, and is very well peopled ; yet the only trade of either of thefe fedls is a very extraordinary one, that of felling of children. The Chrillians bring fuch as they have llolen in AbyfTmia to Dixan as to a fure depofit; and the Moors receive them there, and carry them to a certain market at Mafuah, whence they are fent over to Arabia or India. The pricfls of the province of Tigre, efpccially thofe near the rock Damo, are openly concerned in this infamous practice ; and fome of thefe have been licenfed by Michael to carry it on as a fair trade, upon paying fo many firelocks for each dozen or fcorc of {laves,
, Nothing can elucidate the footing upon which this trade Hands better than a tranfaction which happened while I was in Ethiopia, and which reached Gondar by way of complaint from Mafuah, and was told me by Michael himfelf.
Two pricfls of Tigre, whofe names I have forgot, had been long intimate friends. They dwelt near the rock Damo. The youngcfl was married, and had two children, both fons ; the other was old, and had none. The old one reproved his friend one dayt for keeping his children at home idle, and not putting them to fome profeflioii by which they might gain their bread. The married priefl 4 pleaded
pleaded his poverty and his want of relations that could af-fift him; on which, the old prieft offered to place his eldefl fon with a rich friend of his own, who had no children, and where he fhould want for nothing. The propofal was accepted, and the young lad, about ten years of age, was delivered by his father to the old prieft, to carry him to this friend, who fent the boy to Dixan and fold him there. Upon the old prieft's return, after giving the father a fplendid account of his fon's reception, treatment, and profpects, he gave him a piece of cotton cloth, as a prefent from his fon's patron.
The younger child, about eight years old, hearing the good fortune of his elder brother, became fo importunate to be allowed to go and vifit him, that the parents were obliged to humour him, and confent. But the old prieft had a fcru-plc, faying he would not take the charge of fo young a boy, unlefs his mother went with him. This being fettled, the old prieft conveyed them to the market at Dixan, where he fold both the mother and the remaining child.
Returning to the father, the old prieft told him, that his wife would flay only fo long, and expected he would then fetch her upon a certain day, which was named. The day being come, the cwo pricfls went together to fee this happy family; and, upon their entering Dixan, it was found that the old prieft had fold the young one, but not to the fame Moor to whom he had fold his family. Soon after, thefe two Moors, who had bought the Chriftians, becoming partners in the venture, the old prieft was to receive forty cotton-cloths, that is, L. 10 Sterling, for the hufband, wife, and children.
Vol. III. M The
The payment of the money, perhaps the refentment of the family trepanned, and the appearance of equity which the thing itfelf bore, fuggefted to theMoorifh merchants that there was fome more profit, and not more rifle, if they carried off the old prieft likewife. But as he had come to Dixan, as it were under public faith, in a trade that greatly interefted the town, they were afraid to attempt any thing againft him whilft there. They began then as it were to repent of their bargain, from a pretended apprehenfion that they might be flopped and queftioned at going out of town, unlefs he would accompany them to fome fmall diftance ; in confideration of which, they would give him, at parting, two pieces of cloth to be added to the other forty, which he was: to take back to Tigre with him upon his return.
The beginning of fuch expeditions is in the night. When-all were alleep, they fct out from Dixan ; the buyers, the feller, and the family fold ; and, being arrived near the mountain where the way turns off to the defert, the whole party fell upon the old prieft, threw him down, and bound him. The woman infilled that fhe might be allowed to cut, or tear off the little beard he had, in order, as fhe faid, to make him look younger; and this demand was reckoned too juft to be denied her. The whole five were then carried to Mafuah ; the woman and her two children were fold to Arabia ; the two priefts had not fo ready a market, and they were both in the Naybe's houfe when I was at Mafuah, though I did not then know it.'
The Naybe, willing to ingratiate himfelf with Ras Michael at a fmall expence, wrote to him an account of the tranfaftion, and offered, as they were priefts, to reftore them
to
THE SOURCE OF THE
NILE.
to him.   But the Ras returned for anfwcr, that the Nabyc
ihould keep them to be his chaplains ; as
day, he would be converted to the Ghrift i;
if not, he might fend them to Arabia W -   >■ t& ; they
would ferve to be carriers of wood and drawers d
and that there Hill remained at Damo enough of their kind
to carry on*thc trade with Dixan and Mafuah.
Tins flory I heard from Ras Michael himfelf, at his granddaughter's marriage, when he was fcafting, and in great fpirits. He, and all the company, laughed heartily ; and although there were in the room at leaif two dozen of priefts, none of them feemed to take this incident more fcrioufly than the reft of the company. From this we may guefs at the truth of what the Catholic writers advance, with regard to the reflect and reverence fhown to the priefthood by the government and great men in Abyflinia.
The prieft of Axum, and thofe of the monaftery of Abba Garima, are equally infamous with thofe of Damo for this practice, which is winked at by Ras Michael, as contributing to his greatnefs, by furnifhing fire-arms to his province of Tigre, which gives him a fupcriority over all Abyflinia. As a return for this article, abput five hundred of thefe unfortunate people are exported annually from Mafuah to Arabia; of which three hundred are Pagans, and come from the market at Gondar ; the other two hundred are Chriftian children, kidnapped by fome fuch manner as this we have fpoken of, and in times of fcarcity four times that -number. The Naybe receives fix patakas of duty for each one exported. Dixan is in lat. 14° 57' 55" North, and long. 40* Y 30'' eaft of the meridian of Greenwich.
M 2 From
From Dixan we difcovered great part of the province of Tigre full of high dreadful mountains. We, as yet, had feen very little grain, unlefs by the way-fide from Taranta, and a fmall flat called Zarai, about four miles S. S. W. of the town.
C II A 1\
CHAP. IV.
Journey from Dixan to Adowa, Capital of Tigre.
IT was on Nov. 25th, at ten in the morning, we left Dixan, defcending the very fteep hill on which the town is fitu-atcd. It produces nothing but the Kol-quall tree all around ir. We palled a miferable village called Hadhadid, and, at eleven o'clock, encamped under a daroo tree, one of the fi-ncll I have feen in Abyffmia, being j{- feet diameter, with a head fpreading in proportion, Handing alone by the fide of a river which now ran no more, though there is plenty of fine water Hill Hagnant in its bed. This tree and river is the boundary of the territory, which the Naybe farms from Tigre, and Hands within the province of Baharnagafh, called Midre Bahar.
Hagi Abdelcader had attended us thus far before he left us ; and the noted Saloome came likewifc, to fee if fome occafion would offer of doing us further mifchief ; but the king's fervants, now upon their own ground., began to take upon them a proper confcqucncc.   One of them went
to
to meet Saloome at the bank of the river, and making a mark on the ground with his knife, declared that his patience was quite exhauiled by what he had been witnefs to at Mafuah and Dixan ; and if now Saloome, or any other man belonging to the Naybe, offered to pafs that mark, he would bind him hand and foot, and carry him to a place where lie fhould be left tied to a tree, a prey to the lion and hyaena, They all returned, and there our persecution from the Naybe ended. But it was very evident, from Achmct\s behaviour and difcourfe, had we gone by Dobarwa, which was the road propofed by the Naybe, our fufferings would not have been as yet half fmifhed, unlcfs they had ended with our lives.
We remained under this tree the night of the 25th ; it will be to mc a flation ever memorable, as the firft where I recovered a portion of that tranquillity of mind to which I had been a ftrangcr ever fince my arrival at Mafuah. Wc had been joined by about twenty loaded affes driven by Moors, and two loaded bulls ; for there is a fmall fort of this kind called Ber, which they make ufe of as beads of burden. I called all thefe together to recommend good order to them, dcfiring every one to leave me that was not refolvcd to obey implicitly the orders I fhould give them, as to the hours and places of encamping, keeping watch at night, and fetting out in the morning. I appointed Yafine the judge of all difputes between them ; and, if the difference mould be between Yafine and any one of them, or, if they fhould not be content with his dccifion, then my determination was to be final. They all confented with great marks of approbation. We then repeated the fed tab, and fwore to Hand by each other till the laft, without confidcr-
3 ing
ing who the enemy might be, or what his religion was, if lie attacked us.
The 26th, at feven in the morning, we left our molt plca-fant quarters under the daroo-tree, and fet forward with great alacrity. About a quarter of a mile from the river we crolfed the end of the plain Zarai, already mentioned. Though this is but three miles long, and one where broaden, it was the largcft plain we had feen fmce our palling Taranta, whofe top was now covered wholly with large, black, and very heavy clouds, from which we heard and faw frequent peals of thunder, and violent ftreams of lightning. This plain was fown partly with wheat, partly with Indian corn ; the firft was cut down, the other not yet ripe. Two miles farther we paffed Addicota, a village planted upon a high rock; the fides towards us were as if cut perpendicular like a wall. Here was one refuge of the Jefuits. when banifhed Tigre by Facilidas, when they fled to the rebel John Akay. We after this paffed a variety of fmall villages on each fide of us, all on the top of hills; Darcotta and Embabuwhat on the right, Azaria on the left.
At half an hour paft eleven we encamped under a mountain, on the top of which is a village called Hadawi, confifting of no more than eighty houfes, though, for the prefent, it is the feat of the Baharnagafh. The prefent Ba-harnagafh had bought the little diftricT that he commanded, after the prefent governor of Tigre, Michael Suhul, had annexed to his own province what he plcafcd of the old domains, and farmed the other part to the Naybe for a larger revenue than he ever could get from any other tenant.
♦ The
The Naybe had now no longer a naval force tofupport him, and the fear of Turkilh conqueft had ceafed in Tigre. The Naybe could be reduced within any bounds that the governor of Tigre might pleafc to prefcribe him ; and the Bahar-nagafli was a fervant maintained to watch over him, and llarve him into obedience, by intercepting his provifions whenever the governor of Tigre commanded him.
This nobleman paid me a vifit in my tent, and was the firft Abyflinian I had feen on horfeback ; he had feven attendant horfemen with him, and about a dozen of others on foot, all of a beggarly appearance, and very ill-armed and equipped. He was a little man, of an olive complexion, or rather darker; his head was fhaved clofc, with a cowl, or covering, upon it; he had a pair of fhort troufers ; his feet and legs were bare; the ufual coarfe girdle was wrapt feveral times about him, in which he ftuck his knife; and the ordinary web of cotton cloth, neither new nor clean, was thrown about him. His parts feemed to be much upon the level with his appearance. He aiked me, if I had ever feen horfes before ? I faid, Very feldom. He then defcribed their qualities in fuch a maimer as would never have given me any idea of the animal if I had feen it feldom. He ex-CUfed himfelf for not having fent us provifions, becaufe he had been upon an expedition againft fome rebellious villages, and was then only j uft returned.
To judge by his prefent appearance, he was no very re-fpcchible perfonagc ; but in this 1 was miftaken, as I afterwards found. I gave him a prcfent in proportion to the firft idea, with which he feemed very well content, till he obferved a number of fire-arms tied up to the pillar in the
j middle
middle of the tent, among which were two large fhip-blun-derbulTes. He aiked me if there was no danger of their going off? I faid, that it happened every now and then, when their time was come. A very little after this, he took the cu-ion upon which he fat, went out, and placed himfelf at the door of the tent. There the king's fervant got hold of him, and told him roundly, he mull furnifh us with a goat, a kid, and forty loaves, and that immediately, and write it off in his deftar, or account-book, if he pleafed. He then went away and fent us a goat and fifty cakes of teff bread.
But my views upon him did not end here. His feven horfes were all in very bad order, though there was a black one among them that had particularly flruck my fancy. In the evening I fent the king's fervants, and Janni's, for a check, to try if he would fell that black horfe. The bargain was immediately made for various pieces of goods, part of which I had with me, and part I procured from my companions in the caravan. Every thing was fafhionable and new from Arabia. The value was about L. 12. Sterling, forty millings more than our friend at Dixan had paid for a whole family of four perfons. The goods were delivered, and the horfe was to be fent in the evening, when he proved a brown one, old, and wanting an eye. I immediately returned the horfe, infilling on the black one; but he pro-tefted the black horfe was not his own ; that he had returned it to its mailer ; and, upon a little further difcourfe, faid, that it was a horfe he intended as a prefent for the king.
My friends treated this with great indifference, and de-fired their goods back again, which were accordingly delivered. But they were no foonerin the tent, when the black Vol. Hi. N horfe
horfe was fent, and refufcd. The whole, however, was made up, by fending,us another goat, which I gave to Valine, and two jars of bouza, which we drank among us, promifmg, according to the BaharnagailVs rcqucH, we would reprefcnt him well at court. We found, from his fervants, that he had been upon no expedition, nor one ilep from home i\;r three months pad.
I was exceedingly pleafed with this firft. acquifition. The horfe was then lean, as he Hood about iixtcen and a half hands high, of the breed of Dongola.   Yafine, a good horfeman, recommended to mc one of his fcrvants, or companions, to take care of him.   He was an Arab, from the neighbourhood of Medina, a fuperior horfeman himfelf, and \vcdl-vcrfed in every thing that concerned the animal, I took him immediately into my fervice.   We called the horfe Mirza, a name of good fortune.   Indeed, I might fay, I acquired that day a companion that contributed always to my pleafurc, and more than once to my fafery ; and was no llender means of acquiring me the full attention of the king.   I had bronght my Arab flirrups, laddie, and bridle ' with me, fo that 1 was now as well equipped as a horfeman could be.
On the 27th we left Hadawi, continuing our journey d )wn a very Hecp and narrow path between two ilony hills; then tfcefwW one Hill higher, upon the top of which Hands the lai".;c village of Goumbubba, whence we have a profpect ovcr a considerable plain all fown with the different grain, this country produces, wheat, barley, teff, and tocuub; fim-"fim, (or fefame) and nook,; the lait is ufed for oil.
We palled the village of Dcrgate, then that of Rcgticat, on the top of a very high hill on the left, as the other was on our right. We pitched our tent about half a mile oif the village called Barranda, where we were overtaken by our friend the Baharnagafh, who was fo well pleafed \ Ift our laft interview, efpecially the bargain of the hffffe, that he lent us three goats, two jars of honey-wine, and for.it wheat-flour. I invited him to my tent, which he immediately accepted. He was attended by two fcrvants on foot, with lances and fhields; he had no arms himfelf, but, by way of amends, had two drums beating, and two trumpets blowing before him, founding a charge.
He feemed to be a very fimplc, good-narured man, indeed, remarkably fo ; a character rarely found in any degree of men in this country. He afked me how I liked my horfe ? laid, he hoped I did not intend to mount it mylelf ? I an-fwcred, God forbid ; I kept him as a curiofrty. He commended my prudence very much, and gave mc a long detail a-bout what horfes had done, and would do, on occalions. Some of the people without, however, fhe wed his fervants my faddlc, bridle, and flirrups, which they well knew, from being neighbours to the Arabs of Scnnaar, and prai-fed me as a better horfeman by far than any one in that country; this they told to the Baharnagafh, who, nothing offended, laughed heartily at the pretended ignorance I had fhewn him, and fhook me very kindly by the hand, and told me he was really poor, or he would have taken no money from mc for the horfe. lie (hewed fo much go d rfature, and open honcft behaviour, that I gave him a prefent better than the fifffc, and which was more agreeable, as lcfs expected.   Razor;;, knives, Heels for ftriking lire, Sttre
N 2 the
the molt valuable prefents in this country, of the hardware kind.
The Baharnagaih now was in fuch violent good fpirits, that he would not go home till he had feen a good part of his jar of hydromel flnifhed ; and he little knew, at that time, he was in the tent with a man who was to be his chief cu-ilomer for horfes hereafter. I faw him feveral times after at court, and did him fome fcrvices, both with the king and Ras Michael. He had a quality which I then did not know: With all his fimplicity and buffoonery, no one was braver in his own perfon than he; and, together with his youngefl fon, he died afterwards in the king's defence, fighting bravely at the battle of Serbraxos.
At five o'clock this afternoon we had a violent lhower of hailftones. Nothing is more common than aggravation about the fize of hail; but, ftooping to take up one I thought as large as a nutmeg, I received a blow from another juft under my eye, which I imagined had blinded me, and which occafioned a fwclling all the next day.
I had gained the BaharnagahYs heart fo entirely that it was not poffible to get away the next day. We were upon the very verge of his fmall dominions, and he had ordered a quantity of wheat-flour to be made for us, which he fent in the evening, with a kid. For my part, the fhare I had taken yefterday of his hydromel had given me fuch a pain in my head that I fcarce could raile it the whole day.
It was the 29th we left our ftation at Barranda, and had fcarcely advanced a mile when we were overtaken by a
party
party of about twenty armed men on horfeback. The Shangalla, the ancient Cufhites, are all the way on our right hand, and frequently venture incurfions into the flat country that was before us. This was the lad piece of attention of the Baharnagafh, who fent his party to guard us from danger in the plain* It awakened us from our fecuri-ty; we examined carefully the date of our fire-arms ; cleaned and charged them anew, which we had not done fmcc the day we left Dixan.
The firft part of our journey to-day was in a deep gully; and, in half an hour, we entered into averypleafantwoodof acacia-trees, then in flower. In it likewifc was a tree, in frnell like a honeyfuckle, whofe large white flower nearly refcmbles that of a caper. We came out of this wood into the plain, and afcended two eafy hills; upon the top of thefe were two huge rocks, in the holes of which, and within a large cave, a number of the blue fork-tailed fwrallows had begun their nefts. Thefe, and probably many, if not all the birds of palfage, breed twice in the year, which feems a provifion a-gamft the loffes made by emigration perfectly confonant to divine wifdom. Thefe rocks arc, by fome, faid to be the boundaries of the command of the Baharnagafh on this fide ; though others extend them to the Balczat.
We entered again a draggling wood, fo overgrown with wild oats that it covered the men and their horfes. The plain here is very wide. It reaches down on the wred to Serawe, then didant about twelve miles. It extends from Goum-bubba as far fouth as Balczat. The foil is excellent; but fuch flat countries are very rare in Abyflinia. This, which is one of the fined and widelt, is abandoned without
culture
culture, and is in a date of wade. The reafon of this is, an inveterate feud between the villages here and thofe of Serawe, fo that the whole inhabitants on each fide go armed to plow and to fow in one day ; and it is very feldom either of them complete their harved without having a battle with their enemies and neighbours.
Before we entered this wrood, and, indeed, on the preceding day, from the time we left Hadawi, we had feen a very extraordinary bird at a didance, refembling a wild turkey, which ran exceedingly fad, and appeared in great flocks. It is called Erkoom % in Amhara ; Abba Gumha., in Tigre ; and, towards the frontiers of Sennaar, Tier elNaci-ba, or, the Bird of Dcdiny.
Our guides aflembled us all in a body, and warned us that the river before us was the place of the rendezvous of the Serawe horfe, where many caravans had been entirely cut olf. The cavalry is the bed on this fide of Abyffinia. They keep up the breed of their horles by their vicinin to Sennaar whence they get fupply. Neverthelcfs, they behaved very ill at the battle of Limjour ; and I cannot ia\ I remember them to have didinguifhed themfclves any where elfe. They were on our right at the battle of Ser-braxos, and were beat by the horfe of foggora and the Galla.
Ajter pafTmg the wood, we came to the river, which was then 11 anding in pools.   I here, for the full time, mounted on horfeback, to the great delight of my companions,
* See the aruck* ErkoOBQ in thcA i pendix.
mons from Barranda, and alfo of our own, none of whom had ever before feen a gun fined from a horfe galloping, excepting Yafine and his fervant, now my groom, but neither of thefe had ever feen a double-barrelled gun. We paffed the plain with all the diligence confident with the fpecd and capacity of our long-cared convoy ; and, having now gained the hills, we bade defiance to the Serawe horfe, and fent our guard back: perfectly content, and full of wonder at our firearms, declaring that their mailer the Baharnagafh, had he feen the black horfe behave that day, would have given me another much better.
We entered now into a clofc country covered with brufh-wood, wild exits, and high bent-grafs ; in many places rocky and uneven, fo as fcarce to leave a narrow part to pais, j ufe in the very entrance a lion had killed a very line animal called Agazan. It is of the goat kind ; and, excepting a fmall variety in colour, is precifely the fame animal 1 had feen in Barbary near Capfa. It might be about twelve done weight, and of the fize of a large afs. (Whenever I mention a ftonc weight, I would with to be uuderflood horfeman's weight, fourteen pound to the done, as mod familiar to the generality of thofe who read thefe Travels.) The animal was fcarcely dead ; the blood was running ; and. the noii'e of my gun had probably frightened its conqueror away :.every one with their knives cut off a large portion of deih ; Moors and Chridians did the fame ; yet the Abyiltnians avcrflon to any thing that is dead is fuch, unlefs killed regularly by the knife, that none of them would lift any bird that was ihot, unlefs by the point or extreme feather of its v^ing. Hunger was not the excufe, for they had been plentifully fed all this journey ; fo that the dillinflion, in this pariicu-
2^ lar
lar cafe, is to be found in the manners of the country. They fay they may lawfully eat what is killed by the lion, but not by the tiger, hyxna, or any other beafl. Where they learned this doctrine, I believe, would not be eafy to an-fwer; but it is remarkable, even the Falafha themfelves admit this diftinction in favour of the lions.
At noon we crofTed the river Balezat, which rifes at Ade Shiho, a place on the S. W. of the province of Tigre ; and, after no very long courfe, having been once the boundary between Tigre and Midre Bahar, (for fo the country of the Baharnagafh was called) it falls into the March, or ancient Aftufafpes. It was the firft river, then actually running, that we had feen fince we paffed Taranta; indeed, all the fpace is but very indifferently watered. This flream is both clear and rapid, and feems to be full of fijlh. We continued for fome time along its banks, the river on our left, and the mountains on our right, through a narrow plain, till wc came to TomumbufTo, a high pyramidal mountain, on the top of which is a convent of monks, who do not, however, refide there, but only come hither upon certain feafts, when they keep open houfe and entertain all that vilit them. The mountain itfelf is of porphyry.
There we encamped by the river's fide, and were obliged to flay this and the following day, for a duty, or cuflom, to be paid by all paflengers. Thefe duties are called Awides, which fignifies gifts; though they are levied, for the moll part, in a very rigorous and rude manner ; but they are c-flablilhcd by ufage in particular fpots ; and arc, in fadl, a regality annexed to the eflatc. Such places are called Ber, faflkst which arc often met with in the names of places
3 through-
■throughout Abyflinia, as Dinglebcr, Sankrabcr; and fo ibrth.
There are five of thefe Awides which, like turnpikes, arc to be paid at palling between Mafuah and Adowa; one at Samhar, the fecond at Dixan, the third at Darghat, the fourth here at Balczat, and the fifth at Kella. The fmall village of Sebow was diltant from us two miles to the call; Zarow the fame dill a nee to the S. S. E. and Noguet, a village before us, were the places of abode of thefe tax-gatherers, who farm it for a fum from their fupcrior, and divide the profit pro rata of the fnms each has advanced. It is much of the fame nature as the caphar in the Levant, but levied in a much more indifcrect, arbitrary manner. The farmer of this duty values as he thinks proper what each caravan is to pay; there is no tariff, or reftraint, upon him. Some have on this account been detained months ; and o-thers, in time of trouble or bad news, have been robbed of every thing : this is always the cafe upon the leaf! refinance; for then the villages around you rife in arms; you are not only ltript of your property, but fure to be ill-treated in your perfon.
As I was fent for by the king, and going to Ras Michael, in whofe province they were, 1 affected to laugh when they talked of detaining mc ; and declared peremptorily to them, that I would leave all my baggage to them with great plca-furc, rather than that the king's life fhould be in danger by my flay. They were now flaggcicd, and feemed not prepared for an incident of this kind. As I kept up a high tone, we were quit with being detained a day, by paying five pieces of blue Surat cotton cloth, value % of a pataka
Voj,. III. O each,
each, and one piece of white, value one pataka. Our companions, rather than flay behind, made the bell bargain they could ; and we all decamped, and fet forward together. I was furprifed to fee, at the fmall village Zarow, feveral families as black as perfect negroes, only they were not woolly-headed, and had prominent features. I aiked if they defcended from flaves, or fons of flaves I They faid, No; their particular families of that and the neighbouring village Scbow, were of that colour from time immemorial; and that this did not change, though either the father or mother were of another colour.
On the iff of December we departed from Balczat, and afcended a lleep mountain upon wdiich Hands the village Noguet, which we paffed about half an hour after. On the top of the hill were a few iields of teiE Haxveft was then ended, and they were treading out the teff with oxen. Having palled another very rugged mountain, we defcended and encamped by the fide of a fmall river, called Mai Kol-quall, from a number of thefe trees growing about it. This place is named the Kella, or Caftlc, becaufe, nearly at equal dif-tanQes, the mountains on each fide run for a confidcrablc extent, flraight and even, in lhape like a wall, with gapes at certain dillances, refembiing embraftires and baiUons.. This rock is otherwifc called Damo, anciently the prima of the collateral heirs-male of the royal family.
The river Kof-quall rifes in the mountains of Tigre, and,, after a courfe nearly N. W. falls into the Mareb, It was at fcella we faw, for the iiril time, the roofs of the houfes made in form of cones ; a fttre proof that the tropical rainfr grow more violent as they proceed well ward..
I About
About half a mile on the hill above is the village Kai-bara, wholly inhabited by Mahometan Gibbcrtis; that is, native Abyfhnians of that religion. Kella being one of thefe hers, or paffages, we were detained there three whole days, by the extravagant demands of thefe farmers of the Awide, who laughed at all the importance we gave ourfelves. They had reafons for our reafons, menaces for our menaces, but no -civilities to anfwer ours. What increafed the awkwardnefs of our fituation was, they would take no money for provifions, but only merchandife by way of barter. We were, indeed, prepared fift this by information ; fo we began to open fhop by fpreading a cloth upon the ground, at the fight of which, "hundreds of young women poured down upon us on every fide from villages behind the mountains which we could not fee. The country is furprifingly populous, notwith-flanding the great emigration lately made with Michael. Beads and antimony are the ftandard in this way-faring commerce; but beads are a dangerous fpeculation. You lofe fomctimes every thing, or gain more than honeiUy youffiould do; for all depends upon fafhion ; and the fancies of a brown, or black beauty, there, gives the ton as decifively as does the example of the faircft in England.
To our great disappointment, the perfon employed to buy our beads at Jidda had not received the laft lift of fashions from this country; fo he had bought us a quantity beautifully flowered with red and green, and as big as a large pea; alfo fome large oval, green, and yellow ones; whereas the ton now among the beauties of Tigre were fmall fky-colourcd blue beads, about the fize of fmall lead fhot, or feed pearls ; blue bugles, and common white bugles, were then in demand, and large yellow
O 2
glafs, flat in the fides like the amber-beads formerly- ufed by the better fort of the old women-peafants in England; All our beads were then rejected, by fix or feven dozen of the flirillcll tongues I ever heard. They decried our merchandize in fuch a manner, that I thought they meant to condemn them as unfaleable, to be confifcated or dcflroyed.
Let every man, travelling in fuch countries as thefe, re-' member, that there is no perfon, however mean, who is-in his company, that does not merit attention^ kindnefs,1 and complacency. Let no man in travelling cialt himfelf above the lowcfl, in a greater degree than he is able to do fuperior fervice; for many that have thought tnemfelves fafe, and been inattentive to this, have perifhed by the un-fu(peeled machinations of the lowelt and meaner! wretch among them. Few have either made fuch long or fuch frequent journics of this kind as I, and I fcarcely recollect any perfon fo infignificant that, before the end of a moderate-journey, had not it in his power to return you like for like> for your charity or unkindnefs, be the difference of yoMr quality and condition what it would.'.
Of all the men in our company, none had any flock of the true fmall fky-blue beads, and no one had one grain of the large yellow-glafs ones, but the poor Moor, whofe afs was bit by the hyama near Lila, and whofe cargo, likely to be left behind at the foot of Taranta, 1 had diftributed a-mong the refl of the affes of the caravan; and, leaving the wounded one for the price he would fetch, had next day bought him another at Halai, with which, hnce that time, he continued his journey. That fellow had felt the obligation in (Hence; /and not one word, but Good-day, and Good-
e*enfc
e'en, had paffed between us fmce conferring the favour.' Understanding now what was the matter, he called Yafine, and gave him a large package, which he imprudently opened, in which was a treafure of all the beads in fafhion, all" but the white and blue bugles, and thefe Yafine himfelf fur-* nifhed us with afterwards,
♦
A great fhout was fet up by the women - purchafer^,' and a violent fcramble followed. Twenty or thirty threw? themfelves* upon the parcel, tearing and breaking all the firings as if they intended to plunder us. This joke did not feem to be relifhed by the fervants. Their hard-heart iednefs before, in piofefling they would let us' flarve rather tharr give us a handful of flour for all our unfafhionable beads,' had quite extinguifhed the regard we elfe would have unavoidably fliewn to the fair fex. A dozen of whips and flicks were laid unmercifully upon their hands and arms, till each dropped her booty. The Abyflinian men that came with them feemed to beperfedtly unconcerned at the fray, and flood laughing without the leafl fign of wifhing td interfere in favour of either fxde. I believe the reditution would not have been complete, had not Yafine, who knew the country well, fired one of the-fhip-blundcrbufles into the air behind their backs. At hearing fo unexpectedly this dreadful noife, both men and women fell flat on their faces; the women were immediately dragged off the cloth; a'ul I do not believe there was ftrength left in any hand to grafp or carry a way afingle bead. My men immediately wrapi ped the whole in the cloth, fo for a time our market ended;
For my part, at the firft appearance of the combat I had awn m/idf, and fat a quiet fpectaior under a tree,
Some
Some of the women were really fo difordercd with the fright, that they made but very feeble efforts in the market afterwards. The reft befeeehed me to transfer the market to the carpet I fat on under the tree. This I confented to; but, growing wife by misfortune, my fervants now produced fmall quantities of every thing, and not without a very fharp conteft and difpute, fomewhat fuperior in noife to that of our nfli-women. We were, however, plentifully fup-plied with honey, butter, flour, and pumpkins of an exceeding good tafte, fcarcely inferior to melons.
Our caravan being fully victualled the firft and fecond day, our market was not opened but by private adventurers, and fecmingly favoured more of gallantry than gain. There were three of them the moft diftinguifhed for beauty and for tongue, who, by their difcourfe, had entertained mc greatly. I made each of them a prefent of a few beads, and aiked them how many kiffes they would give for each ? They anfwered very readily, with one accord, " Poh! wc don't fell kiffes in this country: Who would buy them? We will give you as many as you with for nothing." And there was no appearance but, in that bargain, they meant to be very fair and liberal dealers.
The men feemed to have no talent for marketing; nor do they in this country either buy or fell. But we were furprifed to fee the beaux among them come down to the tent, the fecond day after our arrival, with each of them a lingle firing of thin, white bugles tied about their dirty, black legs, a little above their ancle ; and of this they feemed as proud as if the ornament had been gold or jewels.
3 easily
I easily faw that fo much poverty, joined to fo much avarice and pride, made the pofieilbr a proper iubject to be employed. My young favourite, who had made fo frank an offer of her kindnefs, had brought me her brother, begging that I would take him with me to Gondar to Ras Michael, and allow him to carry one of my guns, no doubt with an intention to run off with it by the way. I told her that was a thing cafdy done; but I mufl firft have a trial of his fidelity, which was this, That he would, without {peaking to anybody but mc and her, go ftraight to Janni at Adowa, and carry the letter I fhould give him, and deliver it into his own hand, in which cafe I would give him a large parcel of each of thefe beads, more than ever flic thought to pof-fefs in her lifetime. She frankly agreed, that my word was more to be relied upon than either her own or her brother's ; and, therefore, that the beads, once fhewn to them both, were to remain a depofit in my hand. However, not to fend him away wholly deftitute of the power of charming, I prefented him the finglc firing of white bugles for his ancle. Janni's Greek fervant gave him a letter, and he made fuch diligence that, on the fourth day, by eight o'clock in the morning, he came to my tent without ever having been miffed at home..
At the fame time came an officer from Janni, with a violent mandate, in the name of Ras Michael, declaring ro the perfon that was the caufe of our detention, That, was it not for ancient friendfhip, the prcfent tacJGfenger mould have carried him to Ras Michael in irons ;. discharging mc from all awides ; ordering him, as Shum of the place, to furnifh me with provifions; and, in regard to the time he hod can-fed us to lofe, fixing the awides o£ the whole caravan at
eight
eight piaflers, not the twentieth part of what he would hare exacted. One reafon of this feverity was, that, while I was in Mafuah,Janni had entertained this man at his own houfe ; and, knowing the ufual vexations the caravans met with at Kella, and the long time they were detained there at conn-dcrablc cxpcnce, had obtained a promife from the Shum, in confideration of favours done him, that he fhould let us pafs freely, and, not only fo, but fhould fhew us fome little civility. This promife, now broken, was one of the articles pf delinquency for which he was punilhcd. /
Cohol, large needles, goats fkins, coarte fcifTars, razors, and Heels for linking fire, are the articles of barter at Kella. An ordinary goat's fkin is worth a quart of wheat-flour* As we expected an order of deliverance, all was ready upon its arrival. The Moors with their affes, grateful for the benefit received, began to blefs the moment they joined us.; hoping, in my confideration, upon our arrival at the cuftomhoufe of Adowa, they might meet with further fa-your.
Yasine, in the four days wc had Maid at Kella, had told me his whole hillory. It feems he had been fettled in a province of Abyflinia, near to Sennaar, called Ras el Feel; had married Abd el Jiliccl, the Shekh's daughter; but, growing more popular than his fathcr-in-law, he had been pcr-fecutcd by him, and obliged to leave the country. Fie began now to form hopes, that, if I wras well received, as he faw, in all appearance, I was to be, he might, by my intcrefl, be appointed to his father-in-law's place ; efpccially if there was war, as every thing feemed to indicate. Abd el Jiliccl was a coward, and incapable of making himfelf of perfonal
4 value
valued to any party. On the contrary, Yafine was a tried man, an excellent horfeman, itrong, active, and of known courage, having been twice with the late king Yafous in his inva-fions of Sennaar, and both times much wounded there. It was impollibie to difpute his title to preferment; but I had not formed that idea of my own fuccefs that 1 mould be able to be of any ufe or alliftance to him in it. Kella is in lat. 14° 24/34" North.
It was in the afternoon of the 4th that we fet out from Kella; our road was between two hills covered with thick wood. On our right was a cliff, or high rock of granite, on the top of which were a few houfes that feemed to hang over the cliif rather than Hand upon it. A few minutes after three o' clock we palled a rivulet, and a quarter of an hour afterwards another, both which run into the March. We flill continued to defcend, furrounded on all fides with mountains covered with high grafs and bruflrwood, and a-bounding with lions. At four, we arrived at the foot of the mountain, and paffed a fmall flream which runs there.
We had feen no villages after leaving Kella. At half paft four o'clock we came to a confiderable river called Anglican, which we croffed, and pitched our tent on the farther fide of it. It was about lift)' feet broad and three in depth. It was perfectly clear, and ran rapidly over a bed of white pebbles, and was the largcft river we had yet feen in Habefh. In fummer there is very little plain ground near it but what is occupied by the flream ; it is full of fmall fifli, in great repute for their;goodncfs.
Vol. III.
Tins
This river has its name from a beautiful tree, which covers both its banks. This tree, by the colour of its bark and richnefs of its flower, is a great ornament to the banks of the river. A variety of other flowers fill the whole level plain between the mountain and the river, and even fome way up the mountains. In particular, great variety of jeffa-min, white, yellow, and party-coloured. The country feemed now to put on a more favourable afpect; the air was much frefher, and more pleafant, every ftep we advanced after leaving Dixan; and one caufe was very evident; the country where we now paffed was well-watered with clear running dreams ; whereas, nearer Dixan, there were few,, and all ftagnanu.
The 5th, wc defcended a fmall mountain for about twenty minutes, and palled the following villages,Zabangella, afyout a mile R W.; at a quarter of an hour after, Moloxito,. hall? a mile further S. E. ; and Manfuetemen, three quarters of a. mile E. S. E. Thefe villages are all the property^of the A-b.una; who has alfo a duty upon all merchandife palling there ; but Ras Michael had confifcatcd thefe lafl villages on account of a quarrel he had with the laft Abuna, sff-Ta-.. gonbe.
We now began firft to fee the high mountains of A-dowa, nothing rcfembling in fhape to thofe of Europe, nor, indeed, any other country. Their fides were all perpendicular rocks, high like fteeples,. or obelilks, and broken into a thoufand different forms*
At half paft eight o'clock we left the deep valley, wherein runs the Marcb \y. N. W. j at the diftance of about nine miles
4. above
above it is the mountain, or high hill, on which Hands Zarai, now a collection of villages, formerly two convents built by Lalibala ; though the monks tell you a ftory of the queen of Saba refiding there, which the reader may be perfectly fatisficd Ihe never did in her life.
The Mareb is the boundary between Tigre and the Baharnagafh, on this fide. It runs over a bed of foil; is large, deep, and fmooth ; but, upon rain falling, it is more dangerous to pafs than any river in Abyflinia, on account of the frequent holes in its bottom. We then entered the narrow plain of Yeeha, wherein runs the fmall river, which either gives its name to, or takes it from it. The Yeeha rifes from many fources in the mountains to the weft ; it is neither confiderable for fize nor its courfe, and is fwal-lowed up in the Mareb.
The harveft was in great forwardnefs in this place. The wheat was cut, and a confiderable fhare of the teff in ano* ther part; they were treading out this 1 aft-mentioned grain with oxen. The Dora, and a fmall grain called telba, (of which they make oil) was not ripe.
At eleven o'clock we reftcd by the fide of the mountain whence the river falls. All the villages that had been built here bore the marks of the juftice of the governor of Tigre. They had been long the moft incorrigible banditti in the province. He furrounded them in one night, burnt their houfes, and extirpated the inhabitants; and Would never fuller any one fmce to fettle there. At three o'clock in the afternoon we afcended what remained of the mountain of Yeeha; came to the plain upon its top; and^ at a quarter bc-
P a fore
fore four, palled the village of that name, leaving it to the-S. K. and began the mod rugged and dangerous defcent wc had met with fmce Taranta.
At half paft five in the evening we pitched buivtent at the foot of the hill, clofe by a fmall, but rapid and clear flream, which is called kibieraini. This name was given it by the banditti of the villages before mentioned, becaufe from this you fee two roads; one leading from Gondar, that is, from the wellward ; the other from the Red Sea to the eatlward. One of the gang that ufed to be upon the outlook from this ftation, as foon as any caravan came in fight, cried out, Ribieraini, which in Tigre fignifics they are coming this way; upon which notice every one took his lance and ihield, and ftationcd.himfelf properly to fall with advantage upon the unwary merchant; and it was a current report, which his prcfent greatnefs could not ftifle, that, in his younger days, Ras Michael himfelf frequently was on thefe expeditions at this place. On our right was the high, fleep, and rugged mountain of, Samayat, which the fame Michael, being in rebellion, chofc for his place of ftrength, and was there befieged and taken prifoner by the late king Yafous,
The rivulet of Ribieraini is the fource of the fertility of the country adjoining, as it is made to overflow every part, of this plain, and furnifhes a perpetual ftore of grafs, which is the reafon of the caravans chufing to flop here. Two or three harvefts are alfo obtained by means of this river; for, provided there is water, they fowin Abyflinia in all feafons,, We perceived that we were now approaching fome confiderable town, by the great care with which every fmall piece of
ground,.
ground, and even the flecp fides of the mountains, were cultivated, though they had ever fo little foil.
On Wcdnefday the 6th of December, at eight o'clock in the morning, we let out from Ribieraini; and in about three hours travelling on a very plcafant road, over eafy hills and through hedge-rows of jciTamin, honey-fucklc, and many kinds of flowering flirubs we arrived at Adowa, where once refided Michael Suhul, governor of Tigre. It was this day we faw, for the firfl time, the fmall, long-tailed green pa-rocmet, from the hill of Shillodee, where, as I have already mentioned, we firft came in fight of the mountains of A* dowa.
v. m. p
CHAP.
•
CHAP. V.
Arrive at Adowa—Reception there—Vifit Fremona and Ruins of Axum*—
Arrive at Sire.
ADOWA is fituated on the declivity of a hill, on the well fide of a fmall plain furrounded everywhere by mountains. Its fituation accounts for its name, which fignifies pafsy orpajfage, being placed on the flat ground immediately below Ribieraini; the pafs through which every body mufh go in their way from Gondar to the Red Sea.
Tins plain is watered by three rivulets which are never dry in the midft of fummer ; the AfTa, which we crofs jnft below the town when coming from the eailward ; the Mai Gogua, which runs below the hill whereon Hands the village of the fame name formerly, though now it is called Tremona,from the monaflcry of the Jefuks built there ; and the Ribieraini, which, joining with the other two, falls into the river Mareb, about %% miles below Adowa. There arc fifh in thefe three ftreams, but none of them remarkable
for
s
for their fize, quantity, or goodnefs. The bell arc thofe of Mai Gogua, a clear and plcafant rivulet, running very violently and with great noife. This circumftance, and ignorance of the language, has milled the reverend father Jerome, who fays, that the water of Mai Gogua is called fo from the noife that it makes, which, in common language, is called guggling. This is a miftake, for Mai Gogua fig-liifies the river of owls*
There are many agreeable fpots to the fouth-eaft of the convent, on the banks of this river, which are thick-fliadcd with wood and bullies. Adowa confifts of about 300 houfes, and occupies a much larger fpace than would be thought neceffary for thefe to ftand on, by reafon that each houfe has an inclofure round it of hedges and trees ; the laft chiefly the wanzey. The number of thefe trees fo planted in all the towns, fcreen them fo, that, at a diftance, they appear fo many woods. Adowa was not formerly the capital of Tigre, but has accidentally become fo upon the accef-fion of this governor, whofe property^ or paternal eftatc, lay in and about it. His manlion-houfe is not diflinguifh-cd from any of the others in the town unlefs by its fize ; it is fituated upon the top of the hill. The perfon who i& Michael's deputy, in his abfencc, lives in it. It refcmbles a prifon rather than a palace; for there are in and about it above three hundred pcrfons in irons, fome of whom have been there for twenty years, moftly with a view to extort money from them ; and, what is the moft unhappy, even when they have paid the-fum of money which he afks, do-not get their deliverance from his mercilcfs hands; moft of them are kept in cages like wild beafts, and treated every way in the fame manner,
But
But what defcrvedly intcrefted us moil was, the appearance of our kind and hofpitable landlord, Janni. He had fent fervants to conduct us from the paflage of the river, and met us himfelf at the outer-door of his houfe. I do not remember to have feen a more refpectable figure. He luul his own lhort white hair, covered with a thin muflin turban, a thick wclMhapcd beard, as white as fnow, down to his waift. He was clothed in the Abyflinian drefs, all of white cotton, only he had a red lilk fafh, embroidered with gold, about his waift, and fandals on his feet; his upper garment reached down to his ancles. He had a number of fervants and flaves about him of both fexes; and, when I approached him, feemed difpofed to receive me with marks of humility and inferiority, which mortified me much, confider-ing the obligations I was under to him, the trouble I had given, and was unavoidably Hill to give him. 1 embraced him with great acknowledgments of kindnefs and gratitude, calling him father; a title I always ufed in fpeaking cither to him or of him afterwards, when I was in higher fortune, which he conftantly remembered with great plea-fure.
He conducted us through a court yard planted with jef-famin, to a very neat, and, at the fame, time, large room, fur-nifhed with a filk fofa; the floor was covered with Perfian carpets and cufhions. All round, flowers and green leaves were ftrewed upon the outer yard; and the windows and fides of the room ftuck full of evergreens, in commemoration of the Chriftmas fcftival that wTas at hand. I ftopt at the entrance of this room; my feet were both dirty and bloody ; and it is not good-breeding to fliow or fpeak of your feet in Abyflinia, especially if any thing ails them,
2 and
arid, at all times, they are covered. He immediately perceived the wounds that were upon mine. Both our cloaths and nelh were torn to pieces at Taranta, and feveral other places ; but he thought we had come on mules furnilhed us by the Naybe. For the young man I had fent to him from Kella, following the genius of his countrymen, tho* telling truth was juft as profitable to him as lying, had chofen the latter, and feeing the horfe I had got from the Baharnagafh, had figured in his own imagination, a multitude of others, and told Janni that there were with me horfes, affes, and mules in great plenty; fo that when Janni faw us palling the water, he took me for a fervant, and expected, for feveral minutes, to fee the fplendid company arrive, well mounted upon horfes and mules caparifoned.
He was fo fliocked at my faying that I performed this terrible journey on foot, that he burft into tears, uttering a thoufand reproaches againft the Naybe for his hard hearted nefs and ingratitude, as he had twice, as he faid, hindered Michael from going in perfon and fweeping the Naybe from the face of the earth. Water was immediately procured to walfi our feet. And here began another contention, Janni infilled upon doing this himfelf; which made me run out into the yard, and declare I would not fuffer it. After this, the like difpute took place among the fervants. It was always a ceremony in Abyllinia, to wafli the feet of thofe that come from Cairo, and who are under-ftood to have been pilgrims at Jerufalem.
Tins was no fooner finifhed, than a great dinner was brought, exceedingly well dreffed. But no confideration or intreaty could prevail upon my kind landlord to fit down
Vol. III. and
and partake with me. He would (land, all the time, with a clean towel in his hand, though he had plenty of fcrvants ; and afterwards dined with fome vifitors, who had come out of curiofity, to fee a man arrived from fo far. A-mong thefe was a number of priefts; apart of the company which I liked Jeaft, but who did not ihew any hoftile appearance. It was long before I cured my kind landlord of thefe rcfpectful observances, which troubled mc very much ; nor could he wholly ever get rid of them, his own kindnefs and good heart, as well as the pointed and particular orders of the Greek patriarch, Mark, conilantly fuggefting the fame attention;
In the afternoon, I had a vifit from the governor, a very graceful man, of about iixty years of age, tall and well favoured. He had juft then returned from an expedition to the Tacazze, againft fome villages of Ayto Tesfos * which he had deftroyed, flain 120 men, and driven off a number of cattle. He had with him about fixty mufquets, to which, I undcrftood, he had owed his advantage. Thefe villages were about Tubalaque, juft as you afcend the farther bank of the Tacazze. He faid he doubted much if wc ihould be allowed to pafs through Woggora, unlefs fome favourable news came from Michael; for Tesfos of Samen, who kept his government after Joas's death, and rcfufed to acknowledge Michael, or to fubmit to the king, in conjunction with the people of Woggora, acted now the part of robbers, plundering all forts of people, that carried either provifions,
or
* A rebel governor of Samcn,of which I Jhall after have occafion tafpeak.
or any thing elfc, to Gondar, in order to diflrefs the king and Michael's Tigre foldicrs, who were then there.
The church of Mariam is on the hill S. S. W. of the town, and call of Adowa; on the other fide of the river, is the other church, called Kedus Michael. About nine miles north, a little inclined to the call, is Bet Abba Garima, one of the ■mofl celebrated monafleries in Abyflinia. It was once a re-fidence of one of their kings ; and it is fuppofed that, from this circumflance ill underflood, former travellers *, have ■faid the metropolis of Abyllinia was called Gcrme.
Adowa is the feat of a very valuable manufacture of coarfe cotton cloth, which circulates all over Abyflinia in-flcad of fdver money ; each web is fixtccn peek long of i-J width, their value a pataka; that is, ten for the ounce of gold. The houfes of Adowa arc all of rough Hone, cemented with mud inflcad of morter. That of lime is not ufed but at Gondar, where it is very bad. The roofs arc in the form of cones, and thatched with a reedy fort of grafs, fomething thicker than wheat flraw. The Falaiha, or Jews, enjoy this profeilion of thatching cxclulively ; they begin at the bottom, and finifh at the top.
Excepting a fewfpots taken notice of as we came along from Ribieraini to Adowa, this was the only part of Tigre where there was foil fuflicient to vield corn ; the whole of the province befides is one entire rock. There arc no timber trees in this part of Tigre unlefs a daroo or two in the valleys, and wranzeys in  towns about the houfes.
Q^2 At
* Gol. p. 12. proem.
At Adowa, and all the neighbourhood, they have three harvefts annually. Their firft feed time is in July and Au-gufl; it is the principal one for wheat, which they then fow in the middle of the rains. In the fame feafon they fow tocufTo, teiT, and barley. From the 20th of November they reap firft their barley, then their wheat, and laft of all their tefF. In room of thefe they fow immediately upon the fame ground, without any manure, barley, which they reap in February; and then often fow tefF, but more frequently a kind of veitch, or pea, called Shimbra; thefe are cut down before the firft rains, which are in April. With all thefe advantages of triple harvefts, which coft no fallowing, weeding, manure, or other expenfive proceffes, the farmer in Abyflinia is always poor and mifcrable.
In Tigre it is a goodharveft that produces nine after one,, it fcarcely ever is known to produce ten ; or more than three after one, for peas. The land, as in Egypt,, is fetto the higheft bidder yearly ; and like Egypt it receives an additional value, depending on the quantity of rain that falls and its fuuation more or lefs favourable for leading water to it. The landlord furnilhes the feed under condition to receive half the produce; but I am told he is a very indulgent mailer that does not take another quarter for the rifle he has run; fo that the quantity that comes to the fhare of the hufbandman is not more than fufficient to afford fu-ftenance for his wretched family.
The foil is white clay, mixed with fand, and has as good appearance as any I have feen. 1 apprehend a deficiency of the crop is not from the barrennefs of the foil, but from the imrnenfe quantity of field-rats and mice that over-run;
the
the whole country, and live in the fillures of the earth. To kill thefe, they fet fire to their draw, the only ufe they make of it.
TttE cattle roam at difcrction through the mountains. The hcrdfmen fet fire to the grafs, bent, and brulhwood, before the rains, and an amazing verdure immediately follows. As the mountains arc very ileep and broken, goats are chiefly the flocks that graze upon them.
The province of Tigre is all mountainous; and it has been faid, without any foundation in truth, that the Pyrenees, Alps, and Apennines, are but mole-hills compared to them. I believe, however, that one of the Pyrenees above St John Pied dc Port, is much higher than Lamalmon; and chat the mountain of St Bernard, one of the Alps, is full as high as Taranta, or rather higher. It is not the extreme height of the mountains in Abyffinia that occafions fur-prife, but the number of them, and the extraordinary forms they prefent to the eye. Some of them are flat, thin, and fquare, in fhape of a hearth-done, or flab, that fcarce would feemto have bafe fuflicient torefid the action of the winds. Some arc like pyramids, others like obelifks or prifms, and fome, the mod extraordinary of all the red, pyramids pitched upon their points, with their bafe uppcrmod, which, if it was poilible, as it is not, they could have been fo formed in the beginning, would be drong objections to our received ideas of gravity.
They tan hides to great perfection in Tigre, but for one purpofe only. They take olf the hair with the juice of two plants, a fpecics of folanum, and the juice of the kol-quall
v., iii. q both.
both thefe are produced in abundance in the province. They are great novices, however, in dyeing ; the plant called Suf produces the only colour they have, which is yellow. In order to obtain a blue, to weave as a border to their cotton clothes, they unravel the blue threads of the Marowt, or blue cloth of Surat, and then weave them again with the thread which they have dyed with the fu£
It was on the ioth of January 1770 I vifitcd the remains of the Jefuits convent of Frcmona. It is built upon the even ridge of a very high hill, in the middle of a large plain, on the oppofite fide of which Hands Adowa.   It riles from the call to the well, and ends in a precipice on the eaft: it is alfo very lleep to the north, and Hopes gently down to the plain on the fouth. The convent is about a mile in circumference, built fubHantially with Hones, which arc cemented with lime-morter.   It has towers in the flanks and angles; and, notwithftanding the ill-ufage it has  fullered, the walls remain Hill entire to the height of twenty- five feet. It is divided into three, by crofs walls of equal height. The firfi divifion feems to have been deHined for the convent, the middle for the church, and the third divifion is fcpara-ted from this by a wall, and Hands upon a precipice. It feems to me as if it was dcfigncd for a place of arms. All the walls have holes for muikcts, and, even now, it is by far the moil defcnfible place in Abyilinia>   It refemblcs an ancient caHle much more than a convent.
I can fcarce conceive the reafon why thefe reverend fathers miircprefent and mifplacc this intended capital of Catholic Abyllinia. Jerome Lobo calls this convent a collection of miferable villages.   Others place it fifty miles, when it is
but
but two, from Adowa to the north-caft. Others fay it is only five miles from the Red Sea, while it is an hundred, it is very extraordinary, that thefe errors mould occur in the fttuation of a place built by their own hands, and where their body long had its relidence; and, what makes it more extraordinary Hill, it was the domicil wdiich they firft occupied, and quitted laft.
The kindnefs, hofpitality, and fatherly care of Janni ne--ver ccafed a moment. He had already rcprefented mc in the moft favourable light to the Iteghe, or queen-mother, (whofe fervant he had long been) to her daughter Ozoro Efther, and Ozoro Altafh ; and, above all, to Michael, with whom his influence was very great; and, indeed, to every body he had any weight with ; his own countrymen, Greeks, Abyflinians, and Mahometans; and, as we found afterwards, he had raifed their curioftty to a great pitch.
A kind of calm had fpread itfelf univerfally over the country, without apparent reafon, as it has been in general obferved to do immediately before a ftorm. The minds of men had been wearied rather than amufed, by a con^ ftant feries of new things, none of which had been fore-feen, and which generally ended in a manner little expected. Tired of gucfting, all parties feemed to agree to give it over, till the fuccefs of the campaign fhould afford them furer grounds to go upon. Nobody loved Michael, but nobody neglected their own fafety fo much as to do or fay any thing againft him, till he either fhould lofc or eftablifh his good fortune, by the gain or lofs of a battle with Fafik
This
This calm I refolved to take advantage of, and to fet out immediately for Gondar. But the 17th of January was now at hand, on which the Ahyllinians celebrate the feafl of the Epiphany with extraordinary rejoicings, and as extraordinary ceremonies, if we believe what their enemies have faid about their yearly repetition of baptifm. This I was refolved to verify with my own eyes ; and as Alvarez, chaplain to the cmbafly from Don Emanuel, king of Portugal, to king David III. fays he was likewife prefent at it, the public will judge between two eyc-witnefles which is likelier! to be true, when I come to give an account of the religious rites of this people. Adowa is in lat. 140 7' 57" north.
On the 17th, we fet out from Adowa, refuming our journey to Gondar; and, after palling two fmall villages Adega Net, and Adega Daid, the firfl about half a mile on our left, the fecond about three miles diflant on our right, we decamped at fun fet near a place called Bet Hannes, in a narrow valley, at the foot of two hills, by the fide of a fmall flream.
On the 8th, in the morning, we afcended one of thefe hills, through a very rough ilony road, and again came into the plain, wherein flood Axum, once the capital of Abyf-fmia, at leafl as it is fuppofed. For my part, I believe it to have been the magnificent metropolis of the trading people, or Troglodyte Ethiopians called properly Cufhites, for the reafon I have already given, as the Ahyllinians never built any city, nor do the ruins of any exift at this day in the whole country. But the black, or Troglodyte part of it, called in the language of fcripture Cufh, in many places
3 have
have buildings of great ftrength, magnitude, and expence, efpecially at Azab, worthy the magnificence and riches of a ftatc, which was from the iirfl ages the emporium of the Indian and African trade, whofe fovcreign, though a Pagan, was thought an example of reproof to the nations, and chofen as an inftrument to contribute materially to the building of the firft temple which man credlcd to the true God.
The ruins of Axum arc very cxtcnfivc; but, like the cities of ancient times, confid altogether of public buildings. In one fquare, which I apprehend to have been the center of the town, there are forty obelilks, none of which have any hieroglyphics upon them*. There is one larger than the red dill dauding, but there are two dill larger than this fallen. They are all of one piece of granite; and on the top of that which is danding there is a patera exceedingly well carved in the Greek tade. Below, there is the door-bolt and lock, which Poncet fpeaks of, carved on the obelifk, as if to reprcfent an entrance through it to fome building behind. The lock and bolt are precifely the fame as thofe ufed at this day in Egypt and Paledinc, but were never feen, as far as I know, in Ethiopia, or at any time in ufe there.
I apprehend this obelifk, and the two larger that are fallen, to be the works of Ptolemy Evergetes. There is a great deal of carving upon the face of the obelifk in a Go-
Vol. III. R thic
* Poncet fays that thefe obelilks are covered with hieroglyphics; but in tins he is wrongs he has miftaken the carving, I fhall direclly mention, for hieroglyphics. London edit. i2nio, j 709, p. 106.
tliic tnllc, fomething like metopes, triglyphs, and gutta^. difpofed rudely, and without order, but there are no characters or figures. The face of this pyramid looks due fouth ; has been placed with great exaftnefs, and preferves its perpendicular pofition till this day. As this obelifk has been otherwife defcribed as to its ornaments, I have given a geometrical elevation of it fcrviiely copied, without fha-din.ee or perfpeetivc, that all kind of readers may under-fland it.
After palling the convent of Abba Pantalcon, called in Abyifmia, Mantillcs, and the fmall obelifk iituatcd on a rock above, we proceed fouth by a road cut in a mountain of red marble, having on the left a parapet-wall about five-feet high, iblid, and of the fame materials.. At equal diftances there arc hewn in this wall folic! pedcllals, upon the tops of which we fee the marks where flood the ColofTal flames of Syrius the Latrator Anubis, or Dog Star.   One hundred and thirty-three of thefe pedcllals, with the marks of the flames I juil mentioned, are   ill in their places ; but only two figures of the dog remained when I was there, much mutilated, hut of a taflc eafily diflinguifhcd to be Egyptian, Thefe arc compofed of granite, but fome of them appear to have been of metal,   Axum, being the capital of Siris, or Sire, from this we eafily fee what connection this capital of the province had with the dog-liar, and confequently the abfurdity of fuppofmg that the river derived its name from a Hebrew word*, fignifying black.
There
* Shihor.
///// '.
/,,•'!./,'/! /WAA/M Av:rf?'{jA'<f.AyA'.>A//t.>.''■' '■'
There arc likewife pedcllals, whereon, the figures of the Sphinx have been placet!. Two magnificent flights of Heps, feveral hundred feet long, all of granite, exceedingly well-faihioned, and llill in their places, are the only remains of a magnificent temple. In the angle of this platform where that temple flood, is the prefent fmall church of Axum, in the place of a former one deilroyed by Mahomet Gragnc, in the reign of king David Iff.; and which was probably remains of a temple built by Ptolemy Evergctes, if not the work of times more remote.
,,,, ■* -~ \ rj \t I f ft r f i p r t 'iff   'i^^riVA   "tl   V/OJ.!jCl tin : I   " fU ilU.'TM
The church is a mean, fmall building, very ill kept, and full of pigeons dung. In it are fuppofed to be preferved the ark of the covenant, and copy of the law which Menilck fon of Solomon is faid, in their fabulous legends, to have ftolen from his father Solomon in his return to Ethiopia, and thefe were reckoned as it were the palladia of this country. Some ancient copy of the Old Teliament, I do believe, was depofitcd here, probably that from which the firft verfion was made, hut whatever this might he, it was deftroyed, with the church itfelf, by Mahomet Gragnc, though pretended falfely to fubfiil there flill. This I had from the king himfelf.
Theiu: was another rchquc of great importance that happened to efcape from being burnt, by having, in time, been transferred to a church in one of the iflands in the lake Tzana, called Sele Qiiarat Rafou. It is a picture of Chrift's head crowned with thorns, faid to be painted by St Luke, which, upon occafions of the utmofl importance, is brought, out and carried with the army, cipccially in a war with Mahometans and Pagans.   Wc have jufl feen, it was taken,
R 2 upon.
upon Yafous's defeat at Sennaar, and reftored afterwards upon an embafly fent thither on purpofe, no doubt, for a valuable confideration.
Within the outer gate of the church, below the ftcps, are three fmall fquare inclofures, all of granite, with fmall octagon pillars in the angles, apparently Egyptian ; on the top of which formerly were fmall images of the dog-ftar, probably of metal. Upon a ftone, in the middle of one of thefe, the king fits, and is crowned, and always has been fmce the days of Paganifm ; and below it, where he naturally places his feet, is a large oblong flab like a hearth, which is not of granite, but of free ftone. The inscription, though much defaced, may fafely be reftored..
riTOAEMAIOT EVERTETOT BAi I A E aX
Ponxet has miftaken this laft word for Bafdius; but he did not pretend to be a fcholar, and was ignorant of the hiftory of. this country. ,
Axum is watered by a fmall flream, which flows all the year from a fountain in the narrow valley, where ftandi the rows of obelilks. The fpring is received into a magnificent hafon of 150 feet fquare, and thence it is carried, a< plcafure, to water the neighbouring gardens, where, there; is little fruit, excepting pomegranates, neither are thefe very excellent.
The prefent town of Axum Hands at the foot of the hilt, *nd may have about fix hundred houfes.   There are feveral
manufacturer
manufactures of coarfe cotton cloth ; and here too the bcfl parchment is made of goats fkins, which is the ordinary employment of the monks. Every thing feemed later at Axum, and near it, than at Adowa ; the telf was Handing yet green.
On the 19th of January, by a meridian altitude of the fun, and a mean of feveral altitudes of ftars by night, I found the latitude of Axum to be 140 6; 36" north..
The reader will have obferved, that Ihave taken -great* pains in corredting the geography of this country, and illuttrating the accounts given us by travellers, as well ancient as modern, and reconciling them to each other. There are, however, in a very late publication, what I mult fup-pofe to be errors,, at leaft they are abfolutely unintelligible to me, whether they are to be placed to the account of Jerome Lobo, the original, or to Dr Johnfon the tranflator, or to the bookfeller, is what I am not able to fay. But as the book itfelf is ufhered in by a very warm and particular recommendation of fo celebrated an author as Dr Johnfon, and as I have in the courfe of this work fpoke very contemptibly of that Jefuit, I mult,.in my own vindication, make fome obfervations upon the geography of this book, which, introduced into the world by fuch authority, might elfe bring the little we know of this part of Africa into con-ftifion,.from.which its maps are as yet very far from being cleared.
Caxume * is faid to mean Axum, to be a city in Africa, capital of the kingdom of Tigre Mahon in Abyflinia. Now,,
_____ ]°ng
* Sec Johnfon's translation of Jerome Lobo, p. 29.
long ago, MrLudolf had (hewn, from die tcftimonyof Gregory the Abyflinian, that there was no fuch place in Abyf-finia as Tigre Mahon. That there was, indeed, a large province called Tigre, of which Axum was the capital ; and Le Grande, the firft publifhcr of Jerome Lobo, has repeatedly faid the fame. And Ludolf has given a very probable conjecture, that the lirft Portuguefe, ignorant of the Abyiiinian language, heard the officer commanding that province called Tigre Mocuonen, which is governor of Tigre, and had miftaken the name of his office for that of his province. Be that as it will, the reader may reft affined there is no fuch kingdom, province, or town in all Abyflinia.
Tin; re ftill remains, however, a difficulty much greater than this, and an error much more difficult to be corrected. Lobo is faid to have failed from the peninfula of India, and, being bound for Ze) la, to have embarked in a vcflel going to Caxumc, or Axum, capital of Tigre, and to have arrived therefafely,and been wtdl accommodated. NowZeyla,hc fays, is a city in the kingdom of Add, at the mouth of the Red Sea * ; and Axum, being two hundred miles inland, in the middle of the kingdom of Tigre, a fhip going to Axum muft have paffed Zeyla 300 miles, or been 300 miles to the well-ward of it. Zeyla is not a city, as is faid, but an ifland. It is not in the kingdom of Add, but in the bay of Tajoura, opposite to a kingdom of that name ; but the ifland itfelf belongs to the Imam of Sana, fovereign of Arabia Felix ; fo that it is inexplicable, how a fhip going to Zeyla fhould choofe to land 300 miles beyond it; and iii 11 more fo, how, being once
arrived
See page ?8.
arrived at Axum, they fhould leek a fliip to carry them back again to Zeyla, 300 miles eaflward, when they were then going to Gondar, not much above a hundred miles well of Axum. This feems to mc abfolutely impoflible to explain.
Still, however, another difficulty remains;Tigre is faid, by the Jefuits, and by M. Le Grande their hifforian, to be . full of mountains, fo high that the Alps and Appenincs were very inconfiderable in com pari fon. And fuppofe it was otherwife, there is no navigable river, indeed no river at all, that: runs through Tigre into the Red Sea, and there is the clefert of Samhar to pafs, where there is no water at all. How is it poffible a fliip from the coafl of Malabar mould get up 200 miles from any fea among the mountains of Tigre ? 1 hope the publifhcr will compare this with any map he pleafes, and correct it in his errata, otherwife his narrative is unintelligible, unlefs all this was intended to be placed to the account of miracles—Peter walked upon the water, and Lobo the Jefuit failed upon dry land.
Dr Johnson, or his publifhcr, involves his reader in another ftrange perplexity. " Dancala is a city of Africa in Upper Ethiopia, upon the Nile, in the tract of Nubia, of which it is the capital;" and the emperor wrote, " that the miffionarics might eafily enter his dominions by the way of Dancala*." It is very difficult to underfland how people, in a fhip from India, could enter Abyflinia by the way of Dancala, if that city is upon the Nile ; becaufe no where, that I
v. iii. r know,
* Pnge 2.3.
know, is that river in Abyflinia within 300 miles of any fea; and, ftill more fo, how it could be in Nubia, and yet in Upper Ethiopia.   Dongola is, indeed, the capital of Nubia; it is upon the Nile in 200 north latitude; but then it cannot be in Upper Ethiopia, but certainly in the Lower, and is not within a hundred miles of the Red Sea, and certainly not the way for a fliip from India to get to Abyflinia, which, failing down the Red Sea, it mutt have palled feveral hundred miles, and gone to the northward : Dongola, befides, is in the heart of the great dcfert of Beja, and cannot, with any degree of propriety, be faid to be eafily accefhble to any, no, not even upon camels, but impoflible to flapping, as it is not within 200 miles of any fea. On the other hand, Dan-cali, for which it may have been miftaken, is a fmall kingdom on the coaft of the Red Sea, reaching to the frontiers of Abyflinia; and through it the patriarch Mendes entered A-byfTmia, as has been faid in myhiflory; but then Dancali is in lat. 12% it is not in Nubia, nor upon the Nile, nor within feveral hundred miles of it.
Again, Lobo has faid, (p. 30. 31.) "that aPortuguefe galliot was ordered to fet him afhore at Pate, whofe inhabitants were man eaters." This is a very whimfical choice of a place to land flrangers in, among man-eaters. I cannot conceive what advantage could be propofed by landing men going to Abyffinia fo far to the fouthward, among a people fuch as this, who certainly, by their very manners, muft be at war, and unconnected with all their neighbours. And many ages have paffed without this reproach having'fallen upon the inhabitants of the eaft coaft of the pcninfula of Africa from any authentic tedimony ; and I am confident, after the few fpecimens juft given of the topographical knowledge of this 4 author,
author, his prcfent teflimony will not weigh much, from whatever hand this performance may have come.
M. de Montesquieu, among all his other talents a mod excellent and accurate geographer, obferves, that man-eaters were firft mentioned when the fouthern parts of the eaft coaft of the peninfula of Africa came to be unknown. Travellers of Jerome Lobo's eaft, delighting in the marvellous, did place thefe unfociable people beyond the promontory of Praffum, becaufe nobody, at that time, did pafs the promontory of PraiTum.
Above 1200 years, thefe people were unknown, till Vafques de Gama difcovered their coaft, and called them the. civil or kind nation. By fome lucky revolution in lhat long-period, when they were left to themfelvcs, they feem mod unaccountably to have changed both their diet and their manners. The Portuguese conquered them, built towns a-mong them, and, if they met with confpiracies and treachery, thefe all originated in a mixture of Moors fromSpain and Portugal, Europeans that had fettled among them, and not a-mong the natives themfelvcs. No man-eaters appeared till after the difcovery of the Cape of Good Hope, when that of the new world, which followed it, made the Portuguefe abandon their fettlemcnts in the old ; and this coaft came as unknown to them as it had been to the Romans, when the) traded only to Raptum and Praffum, and made Anthropophagi of all the reft. One would be almoft tempted to believe that Jerome Lobo was a man-cater himfelf, and had taught this cuftom to thefe favages. They had it not before his coming ; they have never had it fmce; and it muft have been with fome finifter intention like this, that a ftrangcr would vo-
Vol. III. S luntarily
hmtarily leek a nation of man-eaters. It is nonfenfe to fay, that a traveller could propofc, as Lobo did, going into a far dillant country, fuch as Abyflinia, under fo very que-llionable a protection as a man-cater.
I will not take up my own, or the reader's time, in gc^ ing through the multitude of errors in geography to be found in this book of Lobo's; I have given the reader my opinion of the author from the original, before I faw the translation. I faid it was a heap of fables, and full of ignorance and preiumption ; and I confefs myfelf difappointed that it lias come from fo celebrated a hand as the tranflator, fo very little amended, if indeed it can be faid to be amended at all.
Dr Johnson, in the preface to the book, cxprcfTes him-felf in thefe words :—" The Portuguefe traveller (Jerome Lo-ho, his original) has aniufed his reader with no romantic abfurdities, or incredible fictions. He feems to have defcri-bed tilings as he law them ; to have copied nature from the life; and to have consulted his fenfes, not his imagina>-tion. He meets with no baflliIks that deitroy with their eyes ; and his cataracts fall from the rock, without deafening the neighbouring inhabitants."
At firft reading this paffage, I confefs I thought it irony. 'As to what regards die cataract, one of the a-rticles Dr John-ion has condefceiidcd upon as truth, I had already fpokcry, wlulc compofing thefe memoirs in Abyifinia<, long before t'nis new publication faw the light; and, upon a cool rcvifa-l of the whole that I have faid, 1 cannot think of receding from any part of it, and therefore recommend it to the
reader's
reader's perufal. What we have now only to note, is the fidelity of Jerome Lobo, fo ff rongly vouched in the words I have juft cited, in the article of bafilifks, or ferpents, which Dr Johnfon has chofen as one of the inftances of his author's adhering to fact, contrary to the cuftom of other writers on fuch fubjechs.
" In crofTing a dcfert, which was two days journey over,' " I was in great danger of my life; for, as I lay on the " ground, I perceived myfelf feized with a pain which for-" ced me to rife, and faw, about four yards from me, one of " thofe ferpents that dart their pot/on from a diftance. Although ** I role before he came very near me, I yet felt the effects of " his poifonous breath ; and, if I had lain a little longer, " had certainly died. I had recourfe to bczoar, a fovereign u remedy againft thofe poifons, which I always carried " about me. Thefe ferpents are not long, but have a body " fhort and thick, their bellies fpeckled with brown, black, " and yellow. They have a wide mouth, with which they " draw in a great quantity of air, and, having retained it " fome time, eject it with fuch force, that they kill at four
yards diftance. I only efcapcd by being fome what farther *' from him."   (Chap. xii. p. 124.)
Now, as this is warranted, by one of fuch authority as Dr Johnfon, to be neither imagination nor falfehood, we mull think it a new fyftem of natural philofophy, and con-fider it as fuch; and, in the firft place, I would wilh to know from the author, who feems perfectly informed, what fpe-cies of ferpent it is that he has quoted as darting their poi-fon at a diftance. Again, what fpecies it is that, at the diftance of 12 feet, kills a man by breathing on his back; v. iii. S 2 alio,
alfo, what they call that fpecics of ferpent that, drawing in the fame outward air which Jerome Lobo breathed, could fo far pervert its quality as with it to kill at the diftance of four yards. Surely fuch a ferpent, if he had no other cha-ractcriftic in the world, would be defcribed by a naturaiift as the ferpent with the foul ftomach.—I never faw a poi-fonous ferpent in Abyflinia whofe belly is not white ; fo this one being fpcckled, brown, black, and yellow, will be a direction when any fuch is found, and ferve as a warning-not to come near him, at leaft within the diftance cf four-yards.
Jerome Lobo continues, " that this danger was not to be " much regarded in companion of another his negligence " brought him into. As he was picking up a fkin that " lay upon the ground, he was flung by a ferpent that left " its lling in his finger; he picked out an extraneous fub-" ftancc about the bignefs of an hair, which he imagined " was the fling. This llight wound he took little notice of,, w till his arm grew inflamed all over; his blood was infect-u ed; he fell into convullions, which were interpreted as " the figns of inevitable death."   (Chap. xii. p. 125.)
Now, with all fubmiftion to Jerome Lobo, the firft ferpent had brought him within a near view of death; the fecond did no more, for it did not kill him ; how comes it that he fays the firft danger was nothing in comparifon to> the fecond ? The firft would have certainly killed him, by blowing upon his back, if he had been nearer than 12 feet.. The other had nearly killed him by a (line;. Death was the end of them both. I cannot fee the difference between the two dangers.
TliE,
The firft ferpent was of a new fpecies, that kills a man at the diftance of 12 feet by breathing upon him. The fecond was alfo new, for he killed by a fling. We know of no fuch power that any of the ferpent kind have. If Dr Johnfon believes this, I will not fay that it is the moll improbable thing he ever gave credit to, but this I will fay, that it is altogether different from what at this day is taught us by natural philofophy. We eaiily fee, by the flrain in which thefe llories are told, that all thefe fables of Lobo would have paffed for miracles, had the converfion of Abyflinia followed. They were preparatory fleps for receiving him as confellbr, had his merit not been fufheient to have entitled him to a higher place in the kalcndar. Rainy, miry, and cold countries, are not the favourite habitation of ferpents. Abyflinia is deluged with fix months rain every year while the fun is palling over it. It only enjoys clear weather when the fun is farthcfl diftant from it in the fouthcrn hemifphere; the days and nights are always nearly equal. Vipers are not found in a climate like this. Accordingly, I can teftify, I never faw one of the kind in the high country of Abyflinia all the time I lived there; and Tigre, where Jerome Lobo places the fcenc of his adventures, by being one of the highcfl provinces in the country, is furely not one of the moil proper.
It was the 20th of January, at feven o'clock in the morn-ing,we left Axum; our road was at firft fufliciently even, thro' fmall vallies and meadows ; we began to afcend gently, but through a road exceedingly difficult in itfelf, by reafon of large flones flanding on edge, or heaped one upon another ; apparently the remains of an old large caufeway, part of the magnificent works about Axum,
The
The lad part of the journey made ample amends for the difficulties and fatigue we had fufFered in the beginning. For our road, on every fide, was perfumed with variety of flowering fhrubs, chiefly diiferent fpecies of jeffamin; one in particular of thefe called Agam (a fmall four-leaved flower) impregnated the whole air with the mofl delicious odour, and covered the fmall hills through which we paffed, in fuch profufion, that we were, at times, almofl overcome with its fragrance. The country ail round had now the mofl beautiful appearance, and this was heightened by the fineft of weather, and a temperature of air neither too hot nor too cold.
Not long after our lofing fight of the ruins of this ancient capital of Abyffmia, we overtook three travellers driving a cow before them ; they had black goat fkins upon their fhoulders, and lances and fhields in their hands, in o-thcr refpeels were but thinly cloathed ; they appeared to be foldiers. The cow did not feem to be fatted for killing, and it occurred to us all that it had been flolen. This, however, was not our bufmefs, nor was fuch an occurrence at all remarkable in a country fo long engaged in war. We faw that our attendants attached themfclves in a particular manner to the three foldiers that were driving the cow, and held a fhort converfation with them. Soon after, we arrived at the hithcrmofl bank of the river, where I thought we were to pitch our tent. The drivers fuddenly tript up the cow, and gave the poor animal a very rude fall upon the ground, which was but the beginning of her fuf-ferings. One of them fat acrofs her neck, holding down her head by the horns, the other twilled the halter about her forefeet, while the third, wdio had a knife in his hand, to my very great furprife, in place of taking her by the throat got a-
1 flride
\
s
ftride upon her belly before her hind-legs, and gave her a very deep wound in the upper part of her buttock.
From the time I had feen them throw thebeaft upon the ground, I had rejoiced, thinking, that when three people were killing a cow, they mud have agreed to fell part of her to us ; and I was much difappointed upon hearing the AbyiTmians fay, that we were to pafs the river to the other fide, and not encamp where I intended. Upon my propofing they mould bargain for part of the cow, my men anfwercd what they had already learned in convcrfation, that they were not then to kill her, that (lie was not wholly theirs, and they could not fell her. This awakened my curiofity; I let my people go forward, and ltaid myfelf, till I faw, with the ut-moft aftonifhment, two pieces, thicker, and longer than our ordinary beef ftcaks, cut out of the higher part of the buttock of the beaft. How it was done I cannot pofitively fay, becaufe judging the cow was to be killed from the moment I faw the knife drawn,. I. was not anxious to view that catattrophe, which was by no means an object, of curiofity; whatever way it was done, it furely was adroitly, and the two pieces were fprcad upon the outildc of one of their fhiclds.
One of them Hill continued holding the head, while the other two were buficd in curing the wound. This too was done not in an ordinary manner; the fkin which had covered the flelh that was taken away was left entire, and Happed over the wound, and was fattened to the - corresponding part by two or more fmall Ike wars, orpins. Whether -they had put any thing under the fkin between that and the woundedileih I know not, but at the river fide where they were, th y had prepared a cataplafm of clay, with which they covered ihe
wound;.
wound ; tliey then forced the animal to rife, and drove it on before them, to furnilh them with a fuller meal when they fhould meet their companions in the evening.
I could not but admire a dinner fo truly foldier-like, nor did I ever fee fo commodious a manner of carrying provifions along on the road as this was. I naturally attributed this to neccllity, and the love of expedition. It was a liberty, to be fure, taken with Chriftianity; but what tranfgref-fion is not warranted to a foldier when diftreffed by his enemy in the field? I could not as yet conceive that this was the ordinary banquet of citizens, and even of priefts, throughout all this country. In the hofpitablc, humane houfe of Janni, thefe living fcalts had never appeared. It is true we had feen raw meat, but no part of an animal torn from it with the blood. The firft fhocked us as uncommon, but the other as impious.
When firft I mentioned this in England, as one of the fingularities which prevailed in this barbarous country, I was told by my friends it was not believed. I aiked the reafon of this dilbclief, and was anfwercd, that people who had never been out of their own country, and others well acquainted withthc manners of the world,for they had travelled as far as Prance, had agreed the thing was impollible, and therefore it was fo. My friends counfelled me further, that as thefe men were infallible, and had each the leading of a circle, I mould by all means obliterate this from my jour* rial, und not attempt to inculcate in the minds of my readers die belief of a thing that men who had travelled pronounced to be impolliblc. They fuggeflcd to me, in the moft friendly manner, how rudely a very learned and wor-3 thy
thy traveller had been treated for daring to maintain that he had eat part of a lion, a ftory I have already taken notice of in my introduction. They faid, that, being convinced by thefe connoilfeurs his having eat any part of a lion was hnpojfibk, he had abandoned this aifertion altogether, and after only mentioned it in an appendix; and this was the farther! I could pofhbly venture.
Far from being a convert to fuch prudential reafons, I mull for ever profefs openly, that I think them unworthy of me. To reprefent as truth a thing I know to be a falfe-hood, not to avow a truth which I know I ought to declare^ the one is fraud, the other cowardice; I hope I am equally diflant from them both; and I pledge myfelf never to retract, the fact, here advanced, that the Ahyllinians do feed in common upon live flefh, and that I myfelf have, for feveral years, been partaker of that difagreeable and beaflly diet. On the contrary, I have no doubt, when time fhall be given to read this hillory to an end, there will be very few, if they have -candour enough to own it, that will not be alhamcd of ever having doubted.
At i i o'clock of the 20th, we pitched our tent in a fmall *plain, by the banks of a quick clear running ilream; the ipot is called Mai-Shum. There are no villages, at leafl that we faw, here. A peafant had made a very neat little garden on both fides of the rivulet, in which he had fown -abundance of onions and garlic, and he had a fpecies of pumpkin, which I thought was little inferior to a melon. This man ^netted by our arms and horfes that we were hunters, and he brought us a prefent of the fruits of his garden, and begged our afliftancc againft a number of wild boars, which
V-ol. III. T carried
carried havoc and defolation through all his labours], marks of which were, indeed, too viable everywhere. Sucli inlbinces of induftry arc very rare in this country, and demanded encouragement. I paid him, therefore, for his greens ; and fent two of ■ my fervants with him into the wood, and got on horfeback myfelf. Mirza, my horfe, indeed, as well as his mailer, had recruited, greatly during our Hay at Adowa, under the hofpitablc roof of our good friend Janni.
Amongst us we killed five boars, all large ones, in the fpace of about two hours ; one of which meafurcd fix feet nine inches ; and, though he ran at an amazing fpeed near two miles, fo as to be with difficulty overtaken by the horfCj and was ilruck through and through with - two heavy lances loaded at the end with iron, no perfon dared to come near him on foot, and he defended himfelf above half an hour, till, having no other arms left, I Ihot him with a horfe-pillol. But the misfortune was, that, after our hunting had been crowned with fuch fuccefs, we did not dare to partake of the excellent venifon we had acquired ; for the Ahyllinians hold pork of all kinds in the utmoll deteflation; and I was now become cautious, left I fhould give offence, being at no great diilance from the capital.
On the 21ft we left Mai-Shum at feven o'clock in the morning, proceeding through an open country, part fown with teff, but mofliy overgrown with wild oats and high grafs. We afterwards travelled among a number of low hills, afcending and defcending many of them, which occa-fioned more pleafure than fatigue. The jeflamin continued to increafe upon us, and it was the common bulh of the
country,
country. Several new fpecies appeared, with five, nine, eleven petals, and plenty of the agam with four, thefe being all white. We found alfo large bufhes of yellow, and orange and yellow jeffamin, befides fine trees of kummel, and the boha, both of the largefl fize, beautifully covered with fruit and flowers, which we never before had feen.
We now defcended into a plain called Selechlecha, the village of that name being two miles eafl of us. The country here has an air of gaiety and chearfulnefs fuperior to any thing we had ever yet feen. Poncet * was right when he compared it to the mofl beauteous part of Provence. Wc croffed the plain through hedge-rows of flowering fhrubs, among which the honeyfuckle now made a principal figure, which is of one fpecies only, the fame known in England ; but the flower is larger and perfectly white, not coloured on the outfide as our honeyfuckle is. Fine trees of all fizes were everywhere interfperfed; and the vine, with fmall black grapes of very good flavour, hung in many places in fefloons, joining tree to tree, as if they had been artificially twined and intended for arbours.
ArrER having paffed this plain, we again entered a clofe country through defiles between mountains, thick covered with wood and bufhes. Wc pitched our tent by the water-fide judicioufly enough as travellers, being quite furrounded with bullies, which prevented us from being feen in any direction.
v. 111.
As
* Poncet's voyage to Ethiopia, p, 99,
As the boha was the principal tree here, and in great beauty, being then in flower, I let the caravan pafs, and a-lighted to make a proper choice for a drawing, when I heard a cry from my fervants, " Robbers ! Robbers !" 1 immediately got upon my mule to learn what alarm this might be, and faw, to my great flirprife, part of my baggage flrewcd on the ground, the fervants running, fome leading, others on foot driving fuch of their mules as were unloaded before them; in a word, every thing in the greatefl confufion pof-fiblc.   Having got to the edge of the wood, they faced a-bout, and began to prepare their fire-arms ; but as 1 faw the king's two fervants, and the man that Janni fent with us, endeavouring all they could to pitch the tent, and my horfe (landing peaceably by them, I forbade our fugitives to fire, till they fhould receive orders from me.    I now rode immediately up to the tent, and in my way was faluted from among the bulhcs with many Hones, one of which gave me a violent blow upon the foot. At the fame inflant I received another blow with a fmall unripe pumpkin, jull upon the belly, where I was flrongly defended by the coarfe cotton cloth wrapped feveral times about me by way of fafh or girdle.   As robbers fight with other arms than pumpkins, when I faw this fall at my feet I was no longer under ap-prchenfion.
Notwithstanding tins difagrceablc reception, I advanced towards them, crying out, We were friends, and Has Michael's friends; and dcfircd only to fpeak to them, and would give them what they wanted. A few flones were the only anfwer, but they did no hurt. I then gave Yaline my gun, thinking that might have given offence. The top of the tent being now up, two men came forward making great 3 complaints,
complaints, but of what I did not underfland, only that they feemed to accufc us of having wronged them. In mort, we found the matter was this ; one of the Moors had taken a heap of ftraw which he was carrying to his afs, but the proprietor, at feeing this, had alarmed the village. Every body had taken lances and fhields, but, not daring to approach for fear of the fire-arms, they had contented themfelvcs with fhowering ftones at us from their hiding-places, at a diftance from among the bufhes. We immediately told them, however, that though, as the king's gueft, I had a title to be furnilhed with what was neceffary, yet, if they were averfe to it, I was very well content to pay for every thing they furnifhed, both for my men and hearts ; but that they muft throw no ftones, otherwife we would defend our-felves..
Our tent being now pitched, and everything in order, a treaty foon followed. They confented to fell us what we wanted,, but at extravagant prices, which, however, I was content to comply with. But a man of the village, acquainted with one of the king's fervants, had communicated to him, that the pretence of the Moor's taking the flraw was not really the reafon of the uproar, for chey made no ufe of. it except to burn ; but that a report had been fprcad abroad, that an action had'happened between Fafil and Ras Michael, in which the latter had been defeated, and the country no longer in fear of the Ras, had indulged themfelvcs in their ttfnal exceffes, and, taking us for a caravan of Mahometans with merchandife, had refolved to rob us.
Wellkta Michael, grandfon to Ras Michael, commanded this pari of the province ; and.being but thirteen years
of
of age, was not with his grandfather in the army, nor was he then at home, but at Gondar. However, his mother, Ozoro Welleta Michael, was at home, and her houfe juft on the hill above. One of the king's fervants hadftolcn away privately, and told her what had happened. The fame evening, a party was fent down to the village, who took the ringleaders and carried them away, and left us for the night. They brought us a prcfent alfo of provifions, and excufes for what had happened, warning us to be upon our guard the reft of the way, but they gave us poiitivc af-furance, at the fame time, that no action had happened between Fafil and Ras Michael; on the contrary, it was confidently reported, that Fafil had left Bure, and retired to Met-chakcl, where, probably, he would repafs the Nile into his own country, and ftay there till the rains mould oblige Michael to return to Gondar.
On the 22d, we left Selech-lecha at feven o'clock in the morning, and, at eight, palled a village two hundred yards on our left, without feeing any one ; but, advancing half a" mile further, we faw a number of armed men from fixty to eighty, and we were told they were refolved tooppofe our paffage, unlefs their comrades, taken the night before, were rcleafed. The people that attended us on the part of Welleta Michael, as our cfcort, confidered this as an infult, and advifed me by all means to turn to the left to another village immediately under the hill, on which the houfe of Welleta Michael, mother to Welleta Gabriel their governor, was fituated ; as there we mould find fufficicnt aftiftance to force thefe opponents to reafon. We accordingly turned to the left, and marching through thick bullies, came to the top of the hill above the village, in fight of the governor's
4 ho life,
Xioufe, juft as about twenty men of the enemy's party reach-* ed the bottom of it.
The governor's fervants told'us, that now was the time if they advanced to fire upm them, in which cafe they would inftantly difperfc, or elfe they would cut us off from the village. But I could not enter into the force of this reafoning, becaufe, if this village was ftrong enough to protect us, which was the caufe of our turning to the left to feek it, thefe twenty men, putting themfclves between us and the village, took the moft dangerous ftep for themfclves poflible, as they muft unavoidably be deftroyed; and, if the village was not ftrong enough to protect us, to begin with bloodfhed was the way to lofc our lives before a fupcrior enemy. I therefore called to the twenty men to flop where they were, and fend only one of their company to me; and, upon their not paying any attention, I ordered Yafine to fire a large blunderbufs over their heads, fo as not to touch them. Upon the report, they all fled, and a number of people flocked to us from other villages; for my part, I believe fome who had appeared againft us came afterwards and joined us. We foon feemed to have a little army, and, in about half an hour, a party came from the governor's houfe with twenty lances and fhields, and fix firelocks, and, pre-fently after, the whole multitude difperfed. It was about ten o'clock when, under their efcort, we arrived at the town of Sire, and pitched our tent in a ftrong fituation, in a very deep gulley on the weft extremity of the town.
CHAP.
CHAP. VI.
Journey from Sire to Addergey, and Tranfaclions thefe*
TH E province of Sire, properly fo called, reaches from Axum to the Tacazze. The town of Sire is fituated on the brink of a very fteep, narrow valley, and through this the road lies which is almofl impalfable. In the midft of this valley runs a brook bordered with palm-trees, fome of which are grown to a confiderable fize, but bear no fruit; they were the firft we had feen in Abyflinia.
The town of Sire is larger than that of Axum; it is in form of a half-moon fronting the plain, but its greatelt breadth is at the welt end.; all the houfes are of clay, and thatched ; the roofs are in form of cones, as, indeed, are all in Abyflinia. Sire is famous for a manufacture of coarfe cotton cloths, which ;pafs for current money through all the province of Tigre, and arc valued at a drachm, the tenth-part of a wakea of gold, or near the value of an imperial dollar each ; their breadth is a yard and quarter. Bciides
2 thefe
thefe, beads, needles, cohol, and incenfe at times only, arc confulered as money. The articles depend greatly on chance, which or whether any are current for the time or not; but the latter is often not demanded ; and, for the firft, there are modes and falhions among thefe barbarians, and all, except thofe of a certain colour and form, are ufelefs. We have already fpoken of the falhions, fuch as we have found them, at Kella, and we heard they were the fame here at Sire. But thefe people were not of a humour to buy and fell with us. They were not perfectly fatisfied that Michael was alive, and waited only a confirmation of the news of his defeat, to make their own terms with all ftrangers unfortunate enough to fall into their hands. On the other hand, wc were in polfeilion of fuperior force, and, knowing their inclinations, we treated them pretty much in the manner they would have done us.
On the 22d of January, at night, I obferved the paflagc of many liars over the meridian, and, after that, of the fun on the 23d at noon; taking a medium of all obfervations, I determined the latitude of Sire to be 140 4/ 35" north. The fame evening, I obferved an immerlion of the firft fatellice of Jupiter, by which I concluded its longitude to be 38° o' 15" eaft of the meridian of Greenwich.
Although Sire is fituateel in one of the fined, countries in the world, like other places it has its inconveniencies. Putrid fevers, of the very worft kind, are almoft conftant here; and there did then actually reign a fpecies of thefe that fwept away a number of people daily. I did not think the behaviour of the inhabitants of this province to me was fuch as required my expofing myfelf to the infection for
Vol. III. U the
the fake of relieving them ; I, therefore, left the fever and them to fettle accounts together, without anywife interfering.
At Sire we heard the good news that Ras Michael, on the ioch of this month, had come up with Fafd at Fagitta, and entirely difperfed his army, after killing 10,000 men. This account, though nof confirmed by any authority, flruck all the mutinous of this province with awe ; and every man returned to his duty for fear of incurring the difpleafure of this feverc governor, which they well knew would in-flantly be followed by more than an adequate portion of vengeance, efpecialiy againfl thofe that had not accompa^ nied him to the field.
On the 24th, at feven o'clock in the morning, we flruck, our tent at Sire, and paffed through a vail plain. All this day we could difcern no mountains, as far as eye could reach, but only fome few detached hills, Handing feparate on the plain, covered with high grafs, which they were then burning, to produce new with the firft rains. The country to the north is altogether flat, and perfectly open; and though we could not difcovcr one village this day, yet it feemed to be well-inhabited, from the many people we faw on different parts of the plain, fome at harvcfl, and fome herding their cattle. The villages were probably concealed from us 011 the other fide of the hills.
At four o'clock, we alighted at Maifbinni at the bottom of a high,fteep, bare cliff of red marble, bordering on pur-pic, and very hard. Behind this is the fmall village of Maifbinni; and, on the fouth, another flill higher hill,
whofe
whofe top runs in an even ridge like a wall. At the bottom of this clifF, where our tent was pitched, the fmall rivulet Maifbinni rifes, which,gentle and quiet as it then was, runs very violently in winter, firft north from its fource, and theft winding to S. W. it falls in feveral cataracts, near a hundred feet high, into a narrow valley, through which it makes its way into the Tacazze. Maifbinni, for wild and rude beauties, may compare with any place wc had ever feen.
Tins day was the firft cloudy one we had met with, or obferved this year. The fun was covered for feveral hours, which announced our being near the large riverTacazze,
On the 25th, at feven in the morning, leaving Maifbinni, ^ve continued on our road, fhaded with trees of many different kinds. At half an hour after eight we palfed the river, which at this place runs weft; our road this day was thro' the fame plain as yefterday, but broken and full of holes. At ten o'clock we refted in a large plain called Dagafhaha ; a hill in form of a cone flood fingle about two miles north from us ; a thin ftraggling wood was to the S. E ; and the water, rifmg in fpungy, boggy, and dirty ground, was very ■indifferent; it lay to the welt of us.
Dag ash ah a is a bleak and difagreeable quarter ; but the mountain itfelf, being feen far off, was of great ufe to us in adjufting our bearings; the rather that, taking our departure from Dagafhaha, we came immediately in fight of the high mountain of Samen, where Lamalmon, one of that ridge, is by much the moft confpicuous; and over this lies the paffage, or high road, to Gondar. Wc like wife fee the rugged, hilly country of Salcnt, adjoining to the foot of the
U 2 mountain
mountains of Samen. Wc obferved no villages this day from Maifbinni to Dagafhaha ; nor did wc difcern, in the face of the country, any figns-of culture or marks of great population. Wc were, indeed, upon the frontiers of two provinces which had for many years been at war.
On the 26th, at fix o'clock in the morning,* we left Daga* fhaha. Our road was through a plain and level country, but, to appearance, defolated and uninhabited, being overgrown with high bent grafs and bullies, as alfo dcllitutc of water. We paffed the folitary village Adega, three miles on our left, the only one we had feen. At eight o'clock we came to the brink of a prodigious valley, in the bottom of which runs the Tacazze, next to the Nile the larger! river in Upper Abyilinia. It rifes in Angot (at leafl its principal branch) in a plain champain country, about 200 miles S. E. of Gondar, near a fpot called Sou ami Midre. It has three fpring heads, or fources, like the Nile ; near it is the fmall village Gourri *...
Angot is now in poffeflion of the Galla, whofe chief; Guangoul, is the head of the wcflcrn Galla, once the mofl formidable invader of Abyflinia. The other branch of the Tacazze rifes in the frontiers of Begemder, near Dabuco; whence, running between Gouliou, Lafla, and Belcflen, it joins with the Angot branch, and becomes the boundary between Tigre and the other great divifion of the country called Amhara. This divifion arifes from language only, for the Tacazze paflcs nowhere near the province of Amhara; only all to the call of the Tacazze is, in this general way of dividing the country, called Tigre, and all to the
we ft ward,
* It fignifies cold.
weftward, from the Tacazze to the Nile, Gojam, and the Agows, is called Amhara, becaufe the language of that pro* vince is there fpoken, and not that of Tigre or Gccz. But I would have my reader on his guard againfl the belief that n > languages but thefe two are fpoken in thefe diviiions; many different dialects arc fpoken in little diftriefs in bvJth, and, in fome of them, neither the language of Tigre nor that of Amhara is underllood.
I have already luffieiently dwelt upon the ancient hiftory, the names, manners, and people that inhabit the banks of this river. It was the Siris (or river of the dog-Ilar) wdrilfl that negro, uncivilized people, the Cufhites of the ifland of Mcroe, rcfided upon its banks. It was then called the Tan-nulh Abay, or the letter of two rivers that fwelled with the tropical rains, which was the name thepeafants, or unlearned, gave it, from companion with the Nile. It was the Tacazze in Derkin or the dwelling of the Taka, before it joined the Nile in Beja, and it was the Aftaboras of thofe of the ancients that took the Nile for the Siris. It is now the Atbara, giving its name to that peninfula, which it inclofcs on the call as the Nile docs on the well, and which was formerly the ifland of Mcroe ; but it never was the Tekefel, as authors have called it, deriving the name from the Ethiopic word. Taka, which undoubtedly fignifics, fear, terror, diflrefs, or fadnefs; I mean^ this was never the derivation of its name. Far from this idea, our Tacazze is one of the pleafantefl rivers in the world, (haded with fine lofty trees, its banks covered with bufhes inferior in fragrance to no garden in the univerfe ; its dream is the moil limpid, its water excellent, and full of good hlh of great variety, as its coverts are of all forts of game.
3.   " It
It mufl be eonfelTed, that, during the inundation, theft things wear a contrary face. It carries in its bed near one-third of all the water that falls in Abyflinia ; and we faw the mark the ltream had reached the preceding year, eighteen feet above the bottom of the river, which we do not know was the higher! point that it arrived at. But three fathoms it certainly had rolled in its bed ; and this prodigious body of water, palling furiouily from a high ground in a very deep defcent, tearing up rocks and large trees in its courfe, and forcing down their broken fragments fcat-tcred on its flream, with a noife like thunder echoed from a hundred hills, thefe very naturally fuggeft an idea, that, from thefe circumftanees, it is very rightly called the terrible. jBut then it mufl be confidered, that all rivers in Abyflinia at the fame time equally overflow: that every flream makes thefe ravages upon its banks; and that there is nothing in this that peculiarly affects the Tacazze, or fhould give it this fpecial name : at leafl, fuch is my opinion; though it is with great willingnefs I leave every reader in poffeflion of his own, efpecially in etymology.
At half an hour paft eight we began a gradual defcent, at firft eafily enough, till we crofted the fmall brook called Maitcmquetj or, the wafer of baptijm, We then began to cle-fcend very rapidly in a narrow path, winding along the fide of the mountain, all fhaded with lofty timber-trees of great beauty. About three miles further we came to the edge of the flream at the principal ford of the Tacazze, which is very firm and good ; the bottom coniills of fmall pebbles, without either fand or large ftones. The river here at this time was fully 200 yards broad, the water perfectly clear, and running very fwiftly; it was about three feet deep. This was the dry
1 feafon
feafon of the year, when mofl rivers in Abyflinia ran now no more.
In the middle of the flream we met a deferter from Ras Michael's army, with his firelock upon his moulder, driving before him two miferable girls about ten years old, ftark-naked, and almofl famifhed to death, the part of the booty which had fallen to his fhare in laying wafle the country of Maitfha, after the battle. We afked him of the truth of this news, but he would give us no fatisfaction ; fometimes he faid there had been a battle, fometimes none. He apparently had fome diflrufl, that one or other of the facts, being allowed to be true, might determine us as to fome defign we might have upon him and his booty. lie had not, in my eyes, the air of a conqueror, but rather of a coward that had fneaked away, and flolen thefe two miferable wretches he had with him. I afked where Michael was ? If at Bure ? where, upon defeat of Fafil, he naturally would be. He faid, No ; he was at Ibaba, the capital of Maitfha; and this gave us no light, it being the place he would go to before, while detachments of his army might be employed in burning and laying wafle the country of the enemy he had determined to ruin, rather than return to it fome time after a battle. At laft we were obliged to leave him. I gave him fome flour and tobacco, both which he took very thankfully; but further intelligence he would not give.
The banks of the Tacazze are all covered, at the water's edge, with tamarifks ; behind which grow high and llraiglit trees, that feem to have gained additional ftrength from having often refilled the violence of the river. Few of thefe
ever
ever lofe their leaves, but are cither covered with fruit, (lower, or foliage the whole year ; indeed, abundantly with all three during the fix months fair weather. The Boha-bab, indeed, called, in the Amharic language, Dooma, lofes its leaf; it is the larger! tree in Abylhnia; the trunk is never high ; it diminilhcs very regularly from the top to the bottom, but not beautifully; it has the appearance of a large cannon, and puts out a multitude of ftrong branches, which do not fall low, or nearly horizontal, but follow a direction, making all of them fmaller angles than that of 450. The fruit is of the fhape of a melon, rather longer for its thicknefs ; within are black feeds in each of the cells, into which it is divided, and round them a white fubftance, very like fine fugar, which is fwcet, with a fmall degree of very pleafant acid. I never faw it either in leaf or flower; the fruit hang dry upon the branches when they are deprived of both. The wood of this tree is foft and fpungy, and of no ufe. The wild bees perforate the trunk, and lodge their honey in the holes made in it; and this honey is preferred to any other in Abyflinia.
Beautitul and pleafant, however, as this river is, like every thing created, it has its di(advantages, from the falling of the firft rains in March till November it is death to deep in the country adjoining to it, both within and without its banks; the whole inhabitants retire and live in villages on the top of the neighbouring mountains; and thefe arc all robbers and affaflins, who defcend from their habitations on the heights to lie in wait for, and plunder the travellers that pafs. Notwithftanding great pains have been taken by Michael, his fon, and grandfon, governors of
Tigre
Tigre and Sire, this paflage had never been fo far cleared but, every month, people are cut off.
The plenty of nfh in this river occafions more than an ordinary number of crocodiles to refort hither. Thefe arc fo daring and fearlefs, that when the river fwells, fo as to be palTablc only by people upon rafts, or fkins blown up with wind, they are frequently carried off by thefe voracious and vigilant animals. There are alfo many hippopotami, which, in this country, are called Gomari. I never faw any of thefe in the Tacazze ; but at night we heard them fnort, or groan, in many parts of the river near us. There are alfo vail multitudes of lions and hyaenas in all thefe thickets. Wc were ver/ much difturbed by them all night. The fmcll of our mules and horfes had drawn them in numbers a-bout our tent, but they did us no further harm, except o-bliging us to watch. I found the latitude of the ford, by many obfervations, the night of the 26th, taking a medium of them all, to be if 42' 45" north.
The river Tacazze is, as I have already faid, the boundary of the province of Sire. Wc now entered that of Samen, which was hoftile to us, being commanded by Ayto Tesfos, who, fincc the murder of Joas, had never laid down his arms, nor acknowledged his neighbour, Michael, as Ras, nor Hannes the king, laft made, as fovereign. He had remained on the top of a high rock called the Jews Rock, about eight miles from the ford. For thefe reafons, as well as that it was the moft agreeable fpot we had ever yet feen, we left our ftation on the Tacazze with great regret.
Vol. III. X On
On the 27th of January, a little paft fix in the mornings we continued fome lhort way along the river's fide, and, at forty minutes paft fix o'clock, came to Ingerohha, a fmall rivulet rifing in the plain above, which, after a lhort courfe through a deep valley, joins the Tacazze. At half paft feven we left the river, and began to afcend the mountains, which forms the fouth fide of the valley, or banks of that river. The path is narrow, winds as much, and is as fteep as the other, but not fo woody. What makes it, however, ftill more difagrceable is, that every way you turn you have a perpendicular precipice into a deep valley below you. At half paft eight we arrived at the top of the mountain; and, at half pall nine, halted at Tabulaque, having all the way paffed among ruined villages, the monuments of Michael's cruelty or juftice ; for it is hard to fay whether the cruelty, robberies, and violence of the former inhabitants did not deferve : the fevereft chaftifement.
f ■        irit'tiMwlftiutiiiMiwjiiiiMi■!> 1.ill
We faw many people feeding cattle on the plain, and we again opened a market for flour and other provifions, which we procured in barter for cohol, incenfe, and beads. None but the young women appeared.   They were of a lighter colour, taller, and in general more beautiful than thofe at\ Kella.   Their nofes feemed flatter than thofe of the Abyf-finians we had yet feen.   Perhaps the climate here was beginning that feature fo confpicuous in the negroes in general, and particularly of thofe in this country called Shan-galla, from whofe country thefe people are not diftant above two days journey.   They feemed inclined to be very hard in all bargains but thofe of one kind, in which they were moft reafonable and liberal.   They all agreed, that thefe favours ought to be given and not fold, and that all coynefs
and
and courtfhip was but lofs of time, which always might be employed better to the fatisfaction of both. Thefe people are lefs gay than thofe at Kella, and their converfation more rough and peremptory. They underflood both the Tigre language and Amharic, although we fuppofed it was in compliance to us that they converfed chiefly in the former.
Our tent was pitched at the head of Ingerohha, on the north of the plain of Tabulaque. This river rifes among the rocks at the bottom of a little eminence, in a fmall flream, which, from its fource, runs very fwiftly, and the water is warm. The peafants told us, that, in winter, in time of the rains, it became hot, and fmoked. It was in tafle, however, good ; nor did we perceive any kind of mineral in it. Tabulaque, Anderaffa, and Mentefcgla belong to the Shum of Addergcy, and the viceroy of Samen, Ayto Tesfos. The large town of Hauza is about eight miles fouth-and-by-eaft of this.
On the 28th, at forty minutes paft fix o'clock in the morning, we continued our journey ; and, at half paft feven, faw the fmall village Motechaon the top of the mountain, half a mile fouth from us. At eight, we crofted the river Aira; and, at half paft eight, the river Tabul, the boundary of the di-flricl of Tabulaque thick covered with wood, and efpccially a fort of cane, or bamboo, folid within, called there Shemale, which is ufed in making fhafts for javelins, or light darts thrown from the hand, either on foot or on Jiorfeback, at hunting or in war.
We alighted on the fide of AndcralTa, rather a fmall flream, and which had now ccafed running, bin which
X 2 gives
gives the name to the diftrict. through which we were pairing, its water is muddy and ill-tatted, and falls into the Tacazze, as do all the rivers we had yet paffed. Dagafhaha bears N. N. E. from this Ration. A great dew fell this night; the firft we had yet obferved.
The 29th, at fix o'clock in the morning, we continued our journey from Anderafta, through thick woods of fmall trees, quite overgrown, and covered with wild oats, reeds, and long grafs, fo that it was very difficult to find a path through them. We were not without confiderable appre-henfion, from our nearnefs to the Shangalla, who were but two days journey diftant from us to the W. N. W. and had frequently made excurfions to the wild country where we now were. Hauza was upon a mountain fouth from us ; after travelling along the edge of a hill, with the river on our left hand, we crofTcd it: it is called the Bowiha, and is the largcil we had lately feen.
At nine o'clock we encamped upon the fmall river An-gari, that gives its name to a diftrict. which begins at the Bowiha where Andcrafla ends. The river Angari is much fmaller than the Bowiha: it rifes to the weftward in a plain near Montefegla ; after running half a mile, it falls down a ftecp precipice into a valley, then turns to the N. E. and, after a courfe of two miles and a half farther, joins the Bowiha a little above the ford.
The fmall village Angari lies about two miles S. S. W on the top of a hill.   Hauza (which feems a large town formed by a collection of many villages) is fix miles fouth, plcalamly fttuated among a variety of mountains, all of different
ferent and extraordinary fhapcs; fome are ftraight like columns, and fome fharp in the point, and broad in the bafe, like pyramids and obelilks, and fome like cones. All thefe, for the moft part inacccftiblc, unlefs with pain and danger to thofe that know the paths, are places of refuge and fafe-ty in time of war, and are agreeably feparated from each other by fmall plains producing grain. Some of thefe, however, have at the top water and fmall flats that can be fown, fuflicient to maintain a number of men, independent of what is doing below them. Hauza fignifies delight, or pleafure, and, probably, fuch a fituation of the country has given the name to it. It is chiefly inhabited by Mahometan merchants, is the entre-pot between Mafuah and Gondar, and there are here people of very confiderable fubftancc
The 30th, at feven in the morning, wc left Angari, keep • ing along the fide of the river. We then afcended a high hill covered with grafs and trees, through a very difficult and fteep road; which ending, we came to a fmall and a-grecable plain, with pleafant hills on each fide ; this is called Mentefegla. At half paft feven we were in the middle of three villages of the fame name, two to the right and one on the left, about half a mile diilancc. At half paft nine we paffed a fmall river called Daracoy, which ferves as the boundary between Addergey and this fmall diftrict Mentefegla. At a quarter paft ten, we incamped at Addergey, near a fmall rivulet called Mai-Lumi, the river of limes, or lemons, in a plain fcarce a mile fquare, furrounclcd on each fide with very thick wood in form of an amphitheatre. Above this wood, are bare, rugged, and barren mountains. Midway in the cliff is a mifcrable village, that feems rather to hang than to Hand there, fcarce
a yard
a yard of level ground being before it to hinder its inhabitants from falling down the precipice. The wood is full of lemons and wild citrons, from which it acquires its name. Before the tent, to the weftward, was a very deep valley, which terminated this little plain in a tremendous precipice.
The river Mai-Lumi, rifing above the village, falls into the wood, and there it divides itfelf in two; one branch fur-rounds the north of the plain, the other the fouth, and falls down a rock on each fide of the valley, where they unite, and, after having run about a quarter of a mile further, are precipitated into a cataradt of 150 feet high, and run in a direction fouth-well into the Tacazze. The river Mai-Lumi was, at this time, but fmall, although it is violent in winter; beyond this valley are five hills, and on the top of each is a village. The Shum refides in the one that is in the middle. He bade us a feeming hearty welcome, but had malice in his heart againft us, and only waited to know for certainty if it was a proper time to gratify his avarice. A report was fpread about with great confidence, that Ras Michael had been defeated by Ealil; that Gondar had rebelled, and Woggora was all in arms; fo that it was certain lofs of life to attempt the paftage of Lamalmon.
For our part, we conceived this flory to be without foundation, and that, on the contrary, the news were true which we had heard at Sire and Adowa, visa That Michael was victorious, and laid beaten; and we were, therefore, refolved to abide by this, as well knowing, that, if the contrary had happened, every place between the Tacazze and Gondar was as fatal to us as any thing we were to meet with onLamal-
2 mon
irron could be ; the change of place made no difFerence ; the difpofitions of the people towards Michael and his friends we knew to be the fame throughout the kingdom, and that our only fafety remained on certain and good news coming from the army, or in the finilliing our journey with expedition, before any thing bad happened, or was certainly known.
The hyaenas this night devoured one of the beft of our mules. They are here in great plenty, and fo are lions ; the roaring and grumbling of the latter, in the part of the wood nearelt our tent, greatly dillurbed our beafts, and prevented them from eating their provender. I lengthened the firings of my tent, and placed the beads between them. Ihe white ropes, and the tremulous motion made by the impreilion of the wind, frightened the lions from coming near us. I had procured from Janni two fmall brafs bells, fuch as the mules carry. 1 had tied thefe to the ftorm-ftrings of the tent, where their noife, no doubt, greatly contributed to our beafls fafety from thefe ravenous, yet cautious animals, fo that we never faw them; but the noife they made, and, perhaps, their fmell, fo terrified the mules, that, in the morning, they were drenched in fweat as if they had been a long journey.
The brutifh hyaena was not fo to be deterred. I fhot one of them dead on the night of the 31ft of January, and, on the 2d of February, I fired at another fo near, that I was confident of killing him. Whether the balls had fallen out, or that I had really miffed him with the firft barrel, I know not, but he gave a marl and a kind of bark upon the firft fhot, advancing directly upon me as if unhurt.   The fecond
fhot,
fhot, however, took place, and laid him without motion on the ground. Yafine and his men killed another with a pike; and fuch was their determined coolnefs, that they flalked round about us with the familiarity of a dog, or any other domeftic animal brought up with man.
But we were Hill more incommoded by a lefTer animal, a large, black ant, little lefs than an inch long, which, coming out from under the ground, demolifhcd our carpets, which they cut all into flireds, and part of the lining of our tent likewife, and every bag or fack they could find. We had firft feen them in great numbers at Angari, but here they were intolerable. Their bite caufes a confiderable inflammation, and the pain is greater than that which arifes from the bite of a fcorpion ; they are called ptndam
On the ift of February the Shum fent his people to value, as he faid, our merchandife, that we might pay cultom. Many of the Moors, in our caravan, had left us to go a near way to Hauza. We had at moft five or lix afles, including thofe belonging to Yafine. I humoured them fo far as' to open the cafes where were the telefcopes and quadrant, or, indeed, rather mewed them open, as they were not fhut from the obfervation I had been making. They could only wonder at things they had never before feen.
On the 2d of February the Shum came himfelf, and a violent altercation enfued. He infilled upon Michael's defeat: I told him the contrary news were true, and begged him to beware led: it fhould be told to the Ras upon his return that he had propagated fuch a falfehood, I told him alfo we had advice that the Ras's fervants were now waiting for us
4 at
at Lamalmon, and infilled upon his fuffering us to depart. On the other hand, he threatened to fend us to Ayto Tesfos. I anfwered, " Ayto Tesfos was a friend to Ayto Aylo, under whofe protection I was, and a fervant to the Iteghe, and was likelier to punifh him for ufing me ill, than to approve of it, but that I would not fuffer him to fend me either to Ayto Tesfos, or an inch out of the road in which I was going." He faid, " That I was madand held a confultation with his people for about half an hour, after which he came in again, feemingly quite another man, and faid, he would difpatch us on the morrow, which was the 3d, and would fend us that evening fome provifions. And, indeed, we now began to be in need, having only flour barely fufficicnt to make bread for one meal next day. The mifcrable village on the clift had nothing to barter with us ; and none from the five villages about the Shum had come near us, probably by his order. As he had foftened his tone, fo did I mine. I gave him a fmall prefent, and he went away repeating his promifes. But all that evening paffed without provifion, and all next day without his coming, fo we got every thing ready for our departure. Our fupper did not prevent our fleeping, as all our provifion was gone, and wc had tailed nothing ail that day fince our breakfaft.
The country of the Shangalla lies forty miles N. N. W. of this, or rather more weilerly. All this diftrict. from the Tacazze is called, in the language of Tigre, Salent, and Talent in Amharic. This probably arifes from the name being originally fpelled with (Tz), which has occafioned the difference, the one ^language omitting the firft letter, the other the fecond.
Vol. IIL Y At
At Addergey, the 31ft day of January, at noon, I obferved the meridian altitude of the fun, and, at night, the pailage of feven different liars over the meridian, by a medium of all which, I found that the latitude of Addergey is 130 24 56" North. And on the morning of the ill of February, at the fame place, I obferved an immerfion of the fecond fatellite of Jupiter, by which I concluded the longitude of Addergey to be 370 57'call of the meridian of Greenwich.
On the 4th of February, at half paft nine in the morning*-we left Addergey : hunger prefling us, we were prepared to do it earlier, and for this we had been up fince five in the morning ;. but our lofs of a mule obliged us, when we packed up our tent, to arrange our baggage differently. While employed at making ready for our departure, which was juft in the dawn of day, a hyaina-, unfeen by any of us, fattened upon one of Yafme's afles, and had almoft pulled his tail away. I was bulled at gathering the tent-pins into a fack, and had placed my nmfket and bayonet ready againft a tree, as it is at that hour, and the clofe of the evening, you are always to be on guard againft banditti. A boy, who was fervant to Yafine, faw the hyaena firft, and flew to my mufket. Yafine was disjoining the poles of the tent, and, having one half of the larger! in his hand, he ran to the afliftance of Jiis afs, and in that moment the mufket went off, luckily charged with only one ball, which gave Yafine a flefh wound between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. The boy inftantly threw down the mufket, which had terrifieil the hyama and made him let go the fft ; but he flood ready to fight Yafine, who, not amu-4ng lumicif with the choice ox weapons, gave him fo
rude
rude a blow with the tent-pole upon his head, that it felled him to the ground ; others, with pikes, put an end to his life.
We were then obliged to turn our cares towards the wounded. Yafine's wound was foon feen to be a trifle; befides, he was a man not eafdy alarmed on fuch occafions. But the poor afs was not fo eafily comforted. The flump remained, the tail hanging by a piece of it, which we were obliged to cut off. The next operation was actual cautery; but, as we had made no bread for brcakfafl, our fire had been early out. We, therefore, were obliged to tie the flump round with whipcord, till we could get fire enough to heat an iron.
What fufliciently marked the voracity of thefe hearts, the hyenas, was, that the bodies of their dead companions, which wc hauled a long way from us, and left there, were almoft entirely eaten by the furvivors the next morning; and I then obferved, for the firft time, that the hyaena of this country was a different fpecies from thofe I had feen in Europe, which had been brought from Afia or America.
Y 2 CHAP,
CHAP. VII.
Journey over Lamalmon to Gondar.
IT was on account of thefe delays that wc did not leave Addergey till near ten o'clock in the forenoon of the 4th of February. We continued our journey along the fide of a hill, through thick wood and high grafs; then defcended into a Reep, narrow valley, the fides of which had been fhaded with high trees, but in burning the grafs the trees were confumed likewife ; and the fhoots from the roots were fome of them above eight feet high fince the tree had thus fuifered that fame year. The river Angueah runs through the middle of this valley; after receiving the fmall flreams, before mentioned, it makes its way into the Tacazze. It is a very clear, fwift-running river, fomething lefs than the Bowiha,
When we had juft reached the river-fide, we faw the Shum coming from the right hand acrofs us.   There were
nine
nine horfemen in all, and fourteen or fifteen beggarly footmen. He had a well-drefFed young man going before him carrying his gun, and had only a whip in his own hand; the relf had lances in theirs; but none of the horfemen had Ihields. It was univerfally agreed, that this feemed to, be a party fet for us, and that he probably had others before appointed to join him, for we were fure his nine horfe would not venture to do any thing. Upon the firft appearance, we had Hopped on this fide of the river; but Welleta Michael's men, who were to accompany us to Lamalmon, and Janni's fervant, told us to crofs the river, and make what fpeed we could, as the Shum's government ended on this fide.
Our people were now all on foot, and the Moors drove the beafts before them. I got immediately upon horfeback, when they were then about five hundred yards below,, or fcarcely fo much. As foon as they obferved us drive our beafts into the river, one of their horfemen came galloping up, while the others continued at a fmart walk. When the horfeman was within twenty yards diftance of me, I called upon him to flop, and, as he valued his life, not approach nearer. On this he made no difficulty to obey, but feemed rather inclined to turn back. As I faw the baggage all laid on the ground at the foot of a fmall round hill, upon the gentle afcent of which my fervants all flood armed, I turned about my horfe, and with Yafine, who was by my fide, began to crof> the river. The horfeman upon this again advanced ; again I cried to him to flop. He then pointed behind him, and faid, " The Shum !" i defircd him peremptorily to flop, or I would fire ; upon which he turned round, and the others joining him, they held a minute's
counfcl.
counfel together, and came all forward to the river, where they pauled a moment as if counting' our number, and then began to enter the llream. Yafine now cried to them in Amharic, as I had done before in Tigre, defiring them, as they valued their lives, to come no nearer. They ftopt, a figa of no great refolution ; and, after fome altercation, it was agreed the Shum, and his fon with the gun, fhould pafs the river.
The Shum complained violently that wc had left Addergey without his leave, and now were attacking him in his own government upon the high-road. " A pretty fituation," faid I, " was ours at Addergey, where the Shum left the king's flranger no other alternative but dying with hunger, or being ate by the hyrena."
" This is not your government," faysjanni's fervant; " you know my mailer, Ayto Aylo, commands here."—" And who is attacking you on the road ?" fays the Sire fervant. " Is it like peaceable people, or banditti, to come mounted on horfeback and armed as you are ? Would not your mules and your foot-fervants have been as proper ? and would not you have been better employed, with the king and Ras Michael, fighting the Galla, as you gave your promife, than here molefting palTengcrs on the road " You lie," fays the Shum, " I never promifed to go With your Ras;" and on this he lifted up his whip to llrike Welleta Michael's fervant ; but that fellow, though quiet enough, was not of the kind to be beaten. " By G—<1 ! Shum," fays he, " offer to llrike me again, and 1 will lay you dead among your horfe's Feet, and my mailer will fay 1 did well. Never call for your men ; you fhould have taken the red flip off your
j gun
gun before you came from home to-day to follow us. Why* if you was to fhoot, you would be left alone in our hands, as all your fellows on the other lide wrould run at the noife even of your own gun.
" Friends, faid I, you understand one another's grievances better than I do. My only bufinefs here is to get to Lamalmon as foon as poflible. Now, pray, Shum, tell me what is your bufinefs with me ? and why have you followed me beyond your government, which is bounded by that river ?"—He faid, " That I had flolen away privately, without paying cuftom."—" I am no merchant, replied I; I am the king's gueft, and pay no cuftom ; but as far as a piece of red Surat cotton cloth will content you, I will give it you, and wc fhall part friends."—He then anfwered, " That two ounces of gold were what my dues had been rated at, and would either have that, or he would follow mc to Debra. Toon."—" Bind him and carry him to Debra Toon, fays the Sire fervant, or I mail go and bring the Shum of De-bra Toon to do it. By the head of Michael, Shum, it ihali not be long before I take you out of your bed for this."
I now gave orders to my people to load the mules. Ar hearing this, the Shum made a fignal for his company to> crofs; but Yafine, who was oppofitc to them, again ordered them to Hop. " Shum, faid I, you intend to follow us, apparently with a delign to do us fome harm. Now wc arc going to Debra Toon, and you are going thither. If you chufc to go with us, you may in all honour and fafety ; but your fervants fhall not be allowed to join you, nor you join them ; and if they but attempt to do us harm, wc will for certain revenge ourfelvcs on you.  There is a piece
v*iik.y of
of ordnance," continued I, fhewing him a large blunderbufs, " a cannon, that will fwecp fifty fuch fellows as you to eternity in a moment. This mall take the care of them, and we fhall take the care of you; but join you fhall not till we arc at Debra Toon."
The young man that carried the gun, the cafe of which had never been off, defired leave to fpeak with his father, as they now began to look upon themfclves as prifoners. The converfation laftcd about five minutes ; and our baggage was now on the way, when the Shum faid, he would make a propofal:—" Since I had no merchandife, and was going to Ras Michael, he would accept of the red cloth, its value being about a crown, provided wc fwore to make no complaint of him at Gondar, nor fpeak of what had happened at Debra Toon ; while he likewife would fwear, after having joined his fcrvants, that he would not again pafs that river."   Peace was concluded upon thefe terms. I gave him a piece of red Surat cotton cloth, and added fome co-hol, incenfe, and beads for his wives.   I gave to the young man that carried the gun two firings of bugles to adorn his legs, for which he feemed mod wonderfully grateful. The Shum returned, not with a very placid countenance; his horfemen joined him in the middle of the flream, and away they went foberly together, and in filence.
Hauza was from this S. E. eight miles diftant. Its mountains, of fo many uncommon forms, had a very romantic appearance. At one o'clock we alighted at the foot of one of the higheft, called Debra Toon, about half way between the mountain and village of that name, which was on the fide of the hill about a mile N.W. Still further to the N. W.
is
is a defert, hilly didricl, called Adebarca, the country of the Haves, as being the neighbourhood of the Shangalla, the whole country between being wafle and uninhabited.
The mountains of Walclubba, rcfembling thofe of Adebarca, lay north of us about four or five miles. Waldubba, which fignifies the Valley of the Hyana, is a territory entirely inhabited by the monks, who, for mortification's fake, have retired to this unwholcfome, hot, and dangerous country, voluntarily to fpend their lives in penitence, meditation, and prayer. This, too, is the only retreat of great men in difgrace or in difgufl. Thefe firfl fliavc their hair, and put on a cowl like the monks, renouncing the world for foli-tude, and taking vows which they refolve to keep no longer than exigencies require; after which they return to the world again, leaving their cowl and fanctity in Waldubba.
These monks are held in great veneration ; arc believed by many to have the gift of prophecy, and fome of them to work miracles, and arc very active inRruments to flir up the people in time of trouble. Thofe that I have feen out of Waldubba in Gondar, and about Kofcam, never flic wed any great marks of abllinencc; they ate and drank every thing without fcruple, and in large quantities too. They fay they live otherwife in Waldubba, and perhaps it may be fo. There are women, alfo, whom we fhould call Nuns, who, though not redding in Waldubba, go at times thither, and live in a familiarity with thefe faints, that has very little favour of spirituality ; and many of thefe, who think the living in community with this holy fraternity has not in it perfection enough to fatisfy their devotion, retire, one of each fcx, a hermit and a nun, fequeilering themfclves for months,
Vol. Ill Z to
, 78 TRAV E LSTOD1SCOVE R
to cat herbs together in private upon the top b£ the moun-tains. Thefe, on their return, are {hewn as miracles of iio-linefs,—lean, enervated, and exhauftcd. Whether this is wholly to be laid to the charge of the herbs, is more than I will take upon me to decide, never having been at thefe retirements of Waldubba.
Violent fevers perpetually reign there. The inhabitants are all of the colour of a corpfe ; and their ueighhours, the Shangalla, by conftant inroads, deftroy many of them, though lately they have been Hopped, as they fay, by the prayers of the monks. I fuppofe their partners, the nuns, had their lharc in it, as both of them are faid to be equally fuperior in holincfs and purity of living to what their predeceftbrs formerly were. But, not to derogate from the efricaciouf-nefs of their prayers, the natural caufe why the Shangalla moleft them no more, is the fmalbpox, which has greatly reduced their ftrength and number, and extinguilhcd, to a man, whole tribes of them.
The water is both fcarce and bad at Debra Toon, there being but one fpring, or fountain, and it was exceedingly ill-tailed. We did not intend to make this a ftation ; bv»-, having lent a fervant to Hauza to buy a mule in room of that which the hyaena had eaten, we were afraid to leave our man, who was not yet come forward, left he fhould fall in with the Shum of Addergey, who might flop the mule for our arrears of cuftoms.
The pointed mountain of Dagalliaha continued ftill vifible; I fet it this day by the compafs, and it bore due N.E. We had not feen any cultivated ground fincc we paffed the Tacazze.
Thje
The 5th, at feven o'clock in the morning, we left Debra Toon, and came to the edge of a deep valley bordered with wood, the defcent of which is very ilecp. The Anzo, larger and more rapid than the Angucah, runs through the middle of this valley; its bed is full of large, fmooth Hones, and the fides compofed of hard rock, and difficult todefcend; the flream is equally clear and rapid with the other. We af-cended the valley on the other fide, through the mofl difficult road we had met with lince that of the valley of Sire. At ten o'clock we found ourfelvcs in the middle of three villages, two to the right, and one on the left; they arc called Adamara, from Adama a mountain, on the eafl fide of which is Tchober. At eleven o'clock we encamped at the foot of the mountain Adama, in a fmall piece of level ground, after palling a pleafant wood of no confiderable extent. Adama, in Amharic, fignifies pleafant; and nothing can be more wildly fo than the view from this Hation.
Tchober is clofe at the foot of the mountain, furround-;ed on every fide, except the north, by a deep valley covered with wood. On the other fide of this valley are the broken hills which conftitute the rugged banks of the Anzo. On the point of one of thefe, molt extravagantly fhaped, is the village Shahagaanah, projecting as it were over the river; and, behind thefe, the irregular and broken mountains of Salcnt appear,efpecially thofe around Hauza, in forms which European mountains never wear; and Hill higher, above thefe, is the long ridge of Samen, which run along in an :even Hretch till they arc interrupted by the high conical top of Lamalmon, reaching above the clouds, and reckoned to be the highefl hill in Abyflinia, over the lleepeH part of
Z 2 which
which, by fome fatality, the reafon I do not know, the road of all caravans to Gondar mull lie.
As foon as we paffed the Anzo, immediately on our right is that part of Waldubba, full of deep valleys and woods, in which the monks ufed to hide themfclves from the in-curfions of the Shangalla, before they found out the more convenient defence by the prayers and fuperior fanctity of the prefent faints. Above this is Adamara, where the Mahometans have confiderable villages, and, by their populouf-nefs and ftrength, have greatly added to the fafety of the monks, perhaps not altogether completed yet by the purity of their lives. Still higher than thefe villages is Tchober. where we now encamped, <
On the left hand, after palling the Anzo, all is Shahagaanah, till you come to the river Zarima. It extends in an eaft and weft direction, almoft parallel to the mountains of Samen, and in this territory are feveral confiderable villages; the people are much addicted to robbery, and rebellion, in which they were engaged at this time. Above Salent is Ab-bergale, and above that Tamben, which is one of the principal provinces in Tigre, commanded at prefent by Kefla Ya-fo.us, an officer of the greater! merit and reputation in the Abyftinian army. ,
On the 6th, at fix o'clock in the morning, wc left Tchober, and palled a wood on the lide of the mountain. At a quarter paft eight we crofted the river Zarima, a clear flream running over a bottom of ftones. It is about as large as the Anzo. On the banks of this river, and all this day, wc,-p.aiTcd under trees larger .and more beautiful than any
wc
we had feen fince leaving the Tacazze. After having croff. ed the Zarima, we entered a narrow defile between two mountains, where ran another rivulet: we continued advancing along the fide of it, till the valley became fo narrow as to leave no room but in the bed of the rivulet itfelf. It is called Mai-Agam, or the wrarer or brook of jeffamini and falls into the Zarima, at a fmall diftance from the place wherein we palled it. It was dry at the mouth, (the water being there abforbed and hid under the fand) but above, where the ground was firmer, there ran a brifk ftrcam of excellent water, and it has the appearance of being both broad, deep, and rapid in winter. At ten o'clock we encamped upon its banks, which arc here bordered with high trees of cummeJ, at this time both loaded with fruit and flowers. There are alfo here a variety of other curious trees and plants ;.in no place, indeed, had we feen more, except on the banks of the. Tacazze. Mai-Agam confills of three villages; one, two miles diftant, eaft-and-by-north, one at fame diftance, N. N. \V.; the third at one mile diftance, S. -E. by fouth.
On the 7th, at fix o'clock in the morning, we began to ' afcend the mountain ; at a quaiter paft feven the village Li'k lay eait of us. Murafs, a country full of low but broken mountains, and deep narrow valleys, bears N. W. and Wal-kayt in the fame direction, but farther off. At a quarter, paft eight, Gingerohha, diftant from us about a mile S. W. it is a village fituated upon a mountain that joins Lamalmon. Two miles to the N. E. is the village Taguzait on the mountain which wc were afcending. It is called Guza by the jefuits, who ltrangely fay, that the Alps and Pyrencans are inconfidcrablc eminences to it.   Yet, with all deference to
this
this obfervation,Taguzait, or Guza, though really the bafe of Lamalmon, is not a quarter or a mile high. \
Ten minutes before nine o'clock we pitched our tent on a fmall plain called Dippebaha, on the top of the mountain, above a hundred yards from a fpring, which fcarcely was abundant enough to fupply us with water, in quality as indifferent as it was fcanty. The plain bore llrong marks of the exceflivc heat of the fun, being full of cracks and chafms, and the grafs burnt to powder.. There are three fmall villages fo near each other that they may be faid to compofe one. Near them is the church of St George, on the top of a fmall hill to the caflward, furrounded with large trees.
Since palling the Tacazze we had been in a very wild country, left fo, for what I know, by nature, at leaf! now lately rendered more fo by being the theatre of civil war. The whole was one wildernefs withotit inhabitants, unlefs at Addergey. The plain of Dippebaha had nothing of this appearance ; it was full of grafs, and interfperfed with flowering fhrubs, jclTamin,and roles, feveral kinds of which were beautiful, but only one fragrant. The air was very frefh and pleafant; and a great number of people, palling to and fro, animated the fcene.
We met this day feveral monks and nuns of Waldubba, I fhould fay pairs, for they were two and two together. They faid they had been at the market of Dobarke on the iide of Lamalmon, juft above Dippebaha. Both men and women, but efpecially flic latter, had large burdens of provifions on their moulders, bought that day, as they
faid, at Dobarke, which fhewed me they did not wholly depend upon the herbs of Waldubba for their fnpport. The women were tout and young, and did not fcem, by their complexion, to have been long in the mortifications of Waldubba. I rather thought that they had the appearance of healthy mountaineers, and were, in all probability, part of the provifions bought for the convent; and, by the fample, one would think the monks had the firft choice of the market, which was but fit, and is a cuftom obferved like wife in Catholic countries. The men feemed very mi-ferable, and ilhclothed, but had a great air of ferocity and pride in their faces. They are diftinguifhcd only from the laity by a yellow cowl, or cap, on their head. The cloth they wear round them is likewife yellow, but in winter they wear fkins dyed of the fame colour.
On the 8th, at three quarters paft Hx o'clock in the morning, we left Dippebaha, and, at feven, had two fmall villages on our left; one on the B, E. diftant two miles, the other on the fouth, one mile off. They arc called Wora, and fo is the territory for fome fpace on each fide of them ; but, beyond the valley, all is Shahagaanah to the root of Lamalmon. At a quarter paft feven, the village of Gingerohha was three miles on our right; and we were now afcending Lamalmon, through a very narrow road, or rather path, for it fcarcely was two feet wide any where. It was- a fpiral winding up the ftde of the mountain, always on the very brink of a precipice. Torrents of water, which in winter carry prodigious ftones down the fide of this mountain, had divided this path into feveral places, and opened to us a view of that dreadful abyfs below, which few heads can (mine at leaft could not) bear to look down upon. Wc were here
a - obliged
obliged to unload our baggage, and, by flow degrees, crawl up the hill, carrying them little by little upon our moulders round thefe chafms where the road was interfered. The mountains grow flecper, the paths narrower, and the breaches more frequent as we afcend. Scarce were our mules, though unloaded, able to fcramble up, but were perpetually falling; and, to increafe our difficulties, which, in fuch cafes, feldom come lingle, a large number of cattle was defcending, and feemed to threaten to pulh us all into the gulf below. After two hours of conflant toil, at nine o'clock wc alighted in a fmall plain called Kedus, or St Michael, from a church and village of that name, neither beafl nor man being able to go a ftep further.
The plain of St Michael, where we now were, is at the foot of a ftcep cliff which terminates the well fide of Lamalmon. It is here perpendicular like a wall, and a few trees only upon the top of the cliff. Over this precipice flow two flreams of water, which never are dry, but run in all feafons. They fall into a wood at the bottom of this cliff, and preferve it in continual verdure all the year, tho' the plain itfelf below, as I have faid, is all rent into chafms, and cracked by the heat of the fun. Thefe two flreams form a confiderable rivulet in the plain of St Michael, and arc a great relief both to men and cattle in this tedious and difficult pafTage over the mountain.
The air on Lamalmon is pleafant and temperate. We found here our appetite return, with a chearfulncfs, light-nefs of fpirits, and agility of body, which indicated that our nerves had again refumcd their wonted tone, which they had loll in the low, poifonous, and fultry air on the 4 coafl
coafl: of the Red Sea. The fun here is indeed hot, but in the morning a cool breeze never fails, which increafes as the fun rifes high. In the fhade it is always cool. The thermometer, in the fhade, in the plain of St Michael, this day, was 76", wind N. W,
Lamalmon, as 1 have faid, is the pafs through Which the road of all caravans to Gondar lies. It is here they take an account of all baggage and merchandife, which they tranfmit to the Negade Ras, or chief officer of the cuftoms at Gondar, by a man whom they fend to accompany the caravan. There is alfo a prefent, or awide, due to the private proprietor of the ground; and this is levied v/ith great rigour and violence, and, for the moft part, with injuftice; fo that this ftation, which, by the eftablifhmcnt of the cuftomhoufe, and ncarnefs to the capital, fhould be in a particular manner attended to by government, is always the place where the firft robberies and murders are committed in unfettled times. Though wre had nothing with us which could be confider-cd as fubject. to duty, we fubmittcd every thing to the will of the robber of the place, and gave him his prefent. If he was not fatisficd, he feemed to be fo, which was all we wanted.
We had obtained leave to depart early in the morning of the 9th, but it was with great regret we were obliged to abandon our Mahometan friends into hands that feemed difpofed to flicw them no favour. The king was in Maitfha, or Damot, that is to fay, far from Gondar, and various reports were fpread abroad about the fuccefs of the campaign; and thefe people only waited for an unfavourable event to
Vol. IIL A a make
make a pretence for robbing our fellow-travellers of everything they had.
The perfons whofe right it was to levy thefe contributions were two, a father and fon ; the old man was drefled very decently, fpoke little, but fmoothly, and had a very good carriage. He profefled a violent hatred to all Mahometans, on account of their religion, a fentimcnt which feemed to promife nothing favourable to our friend Yafine and his companions: but, in the evening, the fon, who feemed to be the active man, came to our tent, and brought us a quantity of bread and bouza, which his father had ordered before. He feemed to be much taken with our fire-arms,, and was very inquifitivc about them. I gave him every fort of fatisfaction, and, little by little, faw I might win his heart entirely ; which I very much wilhed to do, that I might free our companions from bondage.
The young man it feems was a good foldicr; and, having been in feveral actions under Ras Michael, as a fulileer, he brought his gun, and infilled on mooting at marks. I humoured him in this; but as I ufed'a rifle, which he did not underftand, he found himfelf overmatched, efpecially by the grcatnefs of the range, for he fhot flraight enough. I then fhewed him the manner we fhot flying, there being quails in abundance, and wild pigeons, of which I killed feveral on wing, which left him in the utmoft aflonifhmcnt. Having got on horfeback, I next went through the exercife of the Arabs, with a long fpear and a fhort javelin. This was more within his comprehcnfion, as he had feen fomething like it; but he was wonderfully taken with the fierce and fiery appearance of my horfe, and, at the fame time, with
his
his docility, the form of his faddle, bridle, and accoutrements. He threw at laft the fandals oil his feet, twilled his upper garment into his girdle, and fet olT at fo furious a rate, that I could not help doubting whether he was in his fobcr underftanding.
It was not long till he came back, and with him a man-fervant carrying allieep and a goat, and a woman carrying ajar of honey-wine. I had not yet quitted the horfe ; and when I law what his intention was, I put Mirza to a gallop, and, with one of the barrels of the gun, fhot a pigeon, and immediately fired the other into the ground. There was nothing after this that could have furprized him, and it was repeated-feveral times at his deftre ; after which he went into the tent, where he invited himfelf to my houfe at Gondar. There I was to teach him every thing he had feen. We now fwore perpetual friendfhip ; and a horn or two of hydromel being emptied, I introduced the cafe of our fellow-travellers, and obtained a promife that we fhould have leave to fet out together. He would, moreover, take no awide, and faid he would be favourable in his report to Gondar.
TVIatteus were fo far advanced, when a fervant of Michael's arrived, fent by Pctros, (janni's brother) who had obtained him from Ozoro Efthcr. This put an end to all our difficulties. Our young foldier alfo kept his word, and a mere trifle of awide was given, rather by the Moor's own de-iire than from demand, and the report of our baggage, and dues thereon, were as low as could be wifhed. Our friend likewife fent his own fervant to Gondar with the billet to accompany the caravan. But the news brought by his fervant were ft ill better than all this.   Ras Michael had actual-
A a 2 ly
ly beaten Fafil, and forced him to retire to the other fide of the Nile, and was then in Maitfha, where it was thought he would remain with the army all the rainy feafon. This was juft what I eould have wifhed, as it brought me at once to the neighbourhood of the fources of the Nile, with* out the fmalleft fhadow of fear or danger.
On the 9th of February, at feven o'clock, we took leave of the friends whom we had fo newly acquired at Lamalmon; all of us equally joyful and happy at the news. We began to afcend what ftill remained of the mountain,which, though fteep and full of bullies, was much lefs difficult than that which we had paffed. At a quarter paft feven we arrived at the top of Lamalmon, which has, from below, the appearance of being fharp-pointcd. On the contrary, we were much furprifed to find there a large plain, part in pafturc, but more bearing grain. It is full of fprings, and feems to be the great refervoir from whence arife moft of the rivers that water this part of Abyflinia. A multitude of flreams iffue from the very fummit in all directions; the fprings boil out from the earth in large quantities, capable of turning a mill. They plow, fow, and reap here at all feafons; and the hufbandman muft blame his own indolence, and not the foil, if he has not three harvefts. We faw, in one place, people bufy cutting down wheat; immediately next to it, others at the plough; and the adjoining field had green corn in the car; a little further, it was not an inch above the ground.
Lamalmon is on the N. W. part of the mountains of Samen. That of Gingerohha, with two pointed tops, joins it on the north, and ends thefe mountains here, and is fepara<.
i ted
ted from the plain of St Michael by a very deep gully. Neither Lamalmon nor Gingerohha, though higher than the mountains of Tigre, are equal in height to fome of thofe of Samen. I take thofe to the S. E. to be much higher, and, above all, that lharp-poimed hill Amba Gideon, the prefent refidence of the governor of Samen, Ayto Tesfos. This is otherwife called the Jews-Rock, famous in the hiftory of this country for the many revolts of the Jews againlt the Abyf-fmian kings.
The mountain is everywhere fo Reep and high, that it is not enough to fay againft the will, but without the af-fiftance of thofe above, no one from below can venture to afcend. On the top is a large plain, affording plenty of paf-ture, as well as room for plowing and fowing for the maintenance of the army; and there is water, at all feafons, in great plenty, and even frfh in the flreams upon it; fo that, although the inhabitants of the mountain had been often bciicged for a confiderable time together, they fuffcrcd little inconvenience from it, nor ever were taken unlefs by trea-fon ; except by Chriftophcr de Gama and his Portugucfc, who are faid, by their own hiftorians, to have flormcd this rock, and put the Mahometan garrifon to the fword. No mention of this honourable conqucil is made in the annals of Abyflinia, though they give the hiftory of this campaign of Don Chriftophcr in the life of Claudius, or Atzenaf bc-gued.
On the top of the cliiT where we now were, on the left hand of the road to Gondar, we filled a tube with quick-filvcr, and purged it perfectly of outward air ; it flood this day at 2o£ Englifh inches. Dagafhaha bears N.E. by E. from our prcfent
v. iii. a a flation
ftation upon Lamalmon. The language of Lamalmon is Am-Italic; but there are many villages where the language of the Falalha is fpoken.  Thefe are the ancient inhabitants of the mountains, who Hill preferve the religion, language, and manners of their anceitors, and live in villages by themfelvcs.    Their number is now confiderably diminifhed, and this has proportionally lowered their power and fpirit.. They are now wholly addicted to agriculture, hewers of wood and carriers of water, and the only potters and ma-fons in Abyflinia.    In the former profeflion they excel-greatly, and, in general, live better than the other Ahyllinians ; which thefe, in revenge, attribute to a fkill in magic, not to fuperior induftry.    Their villages are generally ftrongly fituated out of the reach of marching armies, o-therwife they would be conftantly rifled, partly from hatred,, and partly from hopes of finding money..
On the joth, at half paft. feven in the morning, we con--tinucd along the plain on the top of Lamalmon ; it is called Lama; and a village of the fame name bore about two miles call from us. At eight o'clock we palled two villages, called Mockcn, one W. by N. at one mile and a half, the other S. E. two miles diftant. At half paft eight we croffed ihe river Macara, a confiderable flream running with a very great cur--rent, which is the boundary between Woggora and Lamalmon. At nine o'clock we encamped at fome fmall villages called Macara, under a church named Yafous. On the nth of February, by the meridian altitude of the fun at noon, and that of feveral fixed liars proper for observation, I found the latitude of Macara to be 130 6' 8". The ground was everywhere burnt up; and, though the nights were very cold, we had not obferved the fmalleft dew fince our firft amending
ihg the mountain. The province of Woggora begins at Macara; it is all plain, and reckoned the granary of Gondar on this fide, although the name would denote no fuch, thing, for Woggora fignilies the Jlony, or rocky province.
The mountains of Lafta and Beleffen bound our view to the fouth ; the hills of Gondar on the S. W.; and all Woggora lies open before us to the fouth, covered, as I have faid before, with grain. But the wheat of Woggora is not good, owing probably to the height of that province. It makes an indifferent bread, and is much lefs efteemcd than that of Foggora and Dembea, low, flat provinces, fheltered with hills, that lie upon the fide of the lake Tzana.
On the 12th we left Macara at feven in the morning, IT ill travelling through the plain of Woggora. At half puff feven faw two villages called Erba Tenia, one of them a mile diftant, the other half a mile on the N. W. At eight o'clock we came to Woken, five villages not two hundred yards diftant from one another. At a quarter paft eight we faw five other villages to the S. W. called Warrar, from one to four miles diflant, all between the points of eaft and fouth. The country now grows inconceivably populous ; vaft flocks of cattle of all kinds feed on every fide, having large and-beautiful horns, exceedingly wide, and bofles upon their backs like camels; their colour is moftly black.
At a quarter paft eight we palled Arena, a village on our left. At nine wc palled the river Girama, which runs N. N. W. and terminates the diftrict. of Lamalmon, beginning that of Giram. At ten the church of St George remained on our right, one mile from us; wc crofTcd a river called
Shimbnk
Shimbra Zuggan, and encamped about two hundred yards from it. The valley of* that name is more broken and uneven than any part we had met with fince we afcended Lamalmon. The valley called alfo Shimbra Zuggan, is two miles and a half N. by E. on the top of a hill furrounded with trees. Two fmall brooks, the one from S. S. E. the other from S. E. join here, then fall into the rivulet.
The 13th, at feven in the morning, we proceeded Hill along the plain ; at half pall feven came to Arradara ; and afterwards faw above twenty other villages on our right and left, ruined and deflroycdfrom the lowefl foundation by Ras Michael in his late march to Gondar. At half pall eight the church of Mariam was about a hundred yards on our left. At ten wc encamped under Tamamo. The country here is full of people ; the villages arc moflly ruined, which, in fome places, they are rebuilding. It is wholly fow 11 with grain of different kinds, but more efpecially with wheat, for the production of this, they have everywhere extirpated the wood, and now labour under a great fcarcity of fuel. Since wc paffc ed Lamalmon, the only fubilitute for this was cows and mules dung, which they gather, make into cakes, and dry in the fun. From Addergey hither, fait is the current money, in large purchafes, fuch as Ihcep or other cattle; cohol, and pepper, for fmaller articles, fuch as flour, butter, fowls, &c. At Shimbra Zuggan they firft began to inquire after red Surat cotton cloth for which they offered us thirteen bricks of fait; four peeks of this red cloth arc efteemcd the price of a goat. Wc began to find the price of provifions augment in a great proportion as we approached the capital.
3 This
This day we met feveral caravans going to Tigre, a certain fign of Michael's victory ; alfo vail flocks of cattle driven from the rebellious provinces, which were to pafturc on Lamalmon, and had been pui chafed from the army. Not only the country was now more cultivated, but the people were cleanlier, better dreffed, and apparently better fed, than thofe in the other parts we had left behind us. Indeed, from Shimbra Ztiggan hither, there was not a foot, excepting the path on which we trode, that was not fown with fome grain or other.
On the 14th, at feven o'clock in the morning, we continued our journey. At ten minutes pafi feven, we had live villages of Tamamo three miles on 'our left; our road was through gentle rifing hills, all pafture ground. At half pall feven, the village of Woggora was three miles on our right; and at eight, the church of St George a mile on our left, with a village of the fame name near it; and, ten minutes after, Angaba Mariam, a church dedicated to the virgin, fo called from the fmall territory Angaba, which we are now entering. At fifty minutes pad eight, we came to five villages called Angaba, at fmall diflances from each other. At nine o'clock we came to Koffogue, and entered a fmall diftrict. of that name. The church is on a hill furrounded with trees. On our left are live villages all called KolTo-gue, and as it were on a line, the farther! at 3 miles diftance; near ten we came to fhe church of Argiff, in the midft of many ruined villages. Three miles on our left hand are feveral others, called Appano.
After having fufFered, with infinite patience and perfe-verance, the hardfhips and danger of this long and painful Vol. III. B b journey,
journey, at forty minutes part ten we were gratified, at lalf:J with the Tight of Gondar, according to my computation about ten miles diftant. The king's palace (at leafl the tower of it) is diftinctly feen, but none of the other houfes, which arc covered by the multitude of wanzcy-trees growing in the town, fo that it appears one thick, black wood, behind it is Azazo, likewife covered with trees. On a hill is the large church of Tecla Haimanout, and the river below it makes it diftinguimable; Hill further on is the great lake Tzana, which terminates our horizon.
At forty-five minutes paft ten wc began to afcend about two miles through a broken road, having on our right, in the valley below, the river Tchagafla; and here begins the territory of that name.. At fifty-five minutes paft ten, defending ftill the hill, we palled a large fpring of water, call-cd Bambola, together with feveral plantations of fugar-cancs which grow here from the feed*. At eleven o'clock the village Tchagafla was about half a mile diftant from us on our right, on the other fide of the river. It is inhabited by Mahometans, as is Waalia, another fmall one near it. At: twelve o'clock we paffed the river Tchagafla over a bridge of three arches, the middle of which is Gothic, the two lefler Roman. This bridge, though fmall, is folid and well cemented, built with ftone by order of Facilidas, who probably employed thofe of his fubjeets who had retained the arts of the Portugucfe, but not their religion..
The Tchagafla has very fteep, rocky banks *. It is fo deep, though narrow, that, without this bridge, it fcarce would be paifable.   We encamped at a fmall diftance from it, but
nearer?
nearer Gondar. Here again wc met with trees, (fmall ones indeed) but the firft we had feen fmce leaving Lamalmon, excepting the ufual groves of cedars. It is the Virginia cedar, or oxy-ccdros, in this country called Ar%, with which their churches are conftantly furrounded.
On the 15th, at ten minutes paft feven, we began to af-cend the mountain; and, at twenty minutes after feven, paffed a village on our left. At feven and three quarters we palled Tiba and Mariam, two churches, the one on our right, the other on our left, about half a mile diftant; and near them feveral fmall villages, inhabited by Ealafha, mafons and thatchers of houfes, employed at Gondar. At half paft eight we came to the village Tocutcho, and, in a quarter of an hour, paffed the river of that name, and in a few minutes relied on the river Angrab, about half a mile from Gondar.
Tchacassais the laft of the many little diftricts which, together, compofe Woggora, generally underftood to be dependent on Samen, though often, from the turbulent fpirit of its chiefs, ftruggling for independency, as at the prcfent time, but fure to pay for it immediately after. In fact, though large, it is too near Gondar to be fullered to continue in rebellion; and, being rich and well cultivated, it derives its fupport from the capital, as being the mart of its produce. It is certainly one of the fruitfuleft provinces in Abyflinia, but the inhabitants arc miferably poor, not-\vithftanding their threefold harvefts. Whereas, in Egypt, beholden to this country alone for its fertility, one moderate harveft gives plenty everywhere,
Bb 2
Woggora
.. Woggora is full of large ants, and prodigious fwarms of rats and mice, which confume immcnfe quantities of grain; to thefe plagues may be added Rill one, the greateft of them all, bad government, which fpeedily deflroys all the advantages they reap from nature, climate, and fituation.
CHAP.
CHAP. VIIL
Reception at Gondar-—Triumphal Entry of the King—The Authors firft
Audience,
WE were much furprifed at arriving on the Angrab, that no perfon had come to us from Petros, Janni's brother. We found afterwards, indeed, that he had taken fright upon fome menacing words from the pricfls, at hearing a Frank was on his way to Gondar, and that he had, foon after, fet out for Ibaba, where the Ras was, to receive his direct ions concerning us. This was the mofl difagreeable accident could have happened to me. I had not a fingle perfon to whom I could addrefs myfelf for any thing. My letters were for the king and Ras Michael, and could be of no ufe, as both were abfent; and though I had others for Petros and the Greeks, they, too, were out of town.
Many
Many Mahometans came to the Angrab to meet the caravan. They all knew of my coming perfectly, and I foon explained my fituation. I had Janni's letters to Negade Ras Mahomet, the chief of the Moors at Gondar, and principal merchant in Abyflinia, who was ab fent like wife with the army. But one of his brethren, a fagacious, open-hearted man, defired me not to be difcouraged; that, as I had not put off my Moorifh drefs, I mould continue it; that a houfe was provided for Mahomet Gibberti, and thofe that were with him, and that he would put me immediately into pof-fcilion of it, where I might flay, free from any intercourse with the priefts, till Petros or the Ras fhould return to Gondar. This advice I embraced with great readinefs, as there was nothing I was fo much afraid of as an encounter with fanatical prieft* before I had obtained fome protection from government, or the great people in the country. After having concerted thefe meafures, I reiigned myfelf to the direction of my Moorifh friend Hagi Saleh.
We moved along the Angrab, having Gondar on our right fituated upon a hill, and the river on our left, proceeding down till its junction with a fmaller flream, called the Kahha, that joins it at the Moorifh town. This fituation, near running water, is always chofen by the Mahometans on account of their frequent ablutions.   The Moorifh town at Gondar may confift of about 3000 houfes, fome of them fpacious and good,   I was put in poffeflion of a very neat one, dellincd for Mahomet Gibberti.   Flour, honey, and fuch-like food, Mahometans and Chriflians eat promifcu-ouily, and fo far 1 was well fituated.   As for flefh, although there was abundance of it, I could not touch a bit of it, being killed by Mahometans, as that communion would have 2 been
been looked upon as equal to a renunciation of Christianity.
By Janni's fervant, who had accompanied us from Adowa, his kind and friendly mailer had' wrote to Ayto Aylo, of whom I have already fpoken. He was the conftant patron of the Greeks, and had been fo alfo of all the Catholics who had ventured into this country, and been forced after to leave it. Though no man profciled greater veneration for the prielthood, no one privately detefted more thofe of his own country than he did; and he always pretended that, if a proper way of going to Jerufalem could be found, he would leave his large cffates, and the rank he had in Abyflinia, and, with the little money he could mu-Iter, live the remaining part of his days among the monks, of whom he had now accounted himfelf one, in the convent of the holy fepulchre. This perhaps was, great part of it, imagination; but, as he had talked himfelf into a belief that he was to end his days either at jerufalem, which wars a prctence,or at Rome, which was his inclination, he willingly took the charge of white people of all communions ■who had hitherto been unhappy enough to lira} imo Abyf-fmia.
It was about feven o'clock at night, of the 15th, when Flagi Saleh was much alarmed by a number of armed men at Ins door; and his furprife was Hill greater upon feeing Ayto Aylo, who, as far as I know, was never in the Moorilh town before, defcend from his multyand uncover his head and moulders,. as if he had been approaching a perfon of the firft diftinction. I had been reading the prophet Enoch, which Janni had procured mc ax Adowa; and Wemmer's
and
and Ludolf's dictionaries were lying upon it. Yafine was fitting by mc, and was telling me what news he had picked up, and he was well acquainted with Ayto Aylo, from feveral commilhons he had received for his merchants in Arabia. A contention of civilities immediately followed. I offered to Hand till Aylo was covered, and he would not fit till I was feated. This being got over, the firft curiofity was, What my books were ? and he was very much aftonifh-ed at feeing one of them was Abyflinian, and the European helps that I had towards underftanding it. He underftood Tigre and Amharic perfectly, and had a little knowledge of Arabic, that is, he underftood it when fpoken, for he could neither read nor write it, and fpoke it very ill, being at a lofs for words.
The beginning of our difcourfe was in Arabic, and em-barraffed enough, but wc had plenty of interpreters in all languages. The firft bafhfulnefs being removed on both lides, our convcrfation began in Tigre, now, lately fincc Michael had become Ras, the language moft ufed in Gondar. Aylo was exceedingly aftonilhed at hearing me fpeak the language as I did, and faid after, " The Greeks are poor creatures ; Peter does not fpeak Tigre fo well as this man." Then, very frequently, to Saleh and the by-ftanders, "Come, come, he'll do, if he can fpeak ; there is no fear of him, he'll make his way."
He told us that Welled Hawaryat had come from the camp ill of a fever, and that they were afraid it was the imall pox: that Janni had informed them I had faved many young people's lives at Adowa, by a new manner of treating them; and that the Iteghe dclircd I would come the 4 next
next morning, and that he fhould carry me to Kofcam and introduce me to her. I told him that I was ready to be directed by his good advice ; that the abfencc of the Greeks, and Mahomet Gibberti at the fame time, had very much diftreffed me, and especially the apprehenfions of Petros. He faid, mailing, That neither Petros nor himfelf were bad men, but that unfortunately they were great cowards, and things were not always fo bad as they apprehended. What had frightened Petros, was a converfation of Abba Salama, whom they met at Kofcam, expreffing his difpleafure with fome warmth, that a Frank, meaning me, was permitted to come to Gondar. " But,1' fays Ayto Aylo, " we fhall hear tomorrow, or next day. Ras Michael and Abba Salama arc nor friends ; and if you could do any good to Welled Fla-waryat his fon, I fhall anfwer for it, one word of his will flop the mouths of a hundred Abba Salamas." I will not trouble the reader with much indifferent converfation that paffed. He drank capillaire and water, and fat till pail midnight.
Abba Salama, of wdiom we fhall often fpeak, at that time filled the poll of Acab Saat, or guardian of the fire. It is the third dignity of the church, and he is the firft religious officer in the palace. He had a very large revenue, and ft ill a greater influence. He was a man exceedingly rich, and of the very worll life pollible ; though he had taken the vows of poverty and chaility, it was faid he had at that time, above feventv millrcfles in Gondar. His way of fc-ducing women was as extraordinary as the number fedu* ccd. It was not by gifts, attendance, or flattery, the ufual means employed on fuch occafions; wdien he had fixed his defires upon a woman, he forced her to comply, under pain
Vol. III. C< of
of excommunication. He was exceedingly eloquent and bold, a great favourite of the Iteghe's, till taken in to be a counfellor with Lubo and Brulhe. He had been very in-ftrumental in the murder of Kafmati Efhtc, of which he vaunted, even in the palace of the queen his filler. He was a man of a pleafing countenance, lhort, and of a very fair complexion ; indifferent, or rather averfe to wine, but a monftrous glutton, nice in what he had to eat, to a degree fcarcely before known in Abyfhnia; a mortal enemy to all white people, whom he claffed under the name of Franks, for which the Greeks, uniting their interefls at favourable times, had often very nearly ovcrfet him.
The next morning, about ten o'clock, taking Hagi Saleh and Yafme with me, and drelfcd in my Moorifh drefs, I went to Ayto Aylo, and found him with feveral great plates of bread, melted butter, and honey, before him, of one of which he and I ate; the reft were given to the Moors, and other people prefent. There wras with him a prieft of Kofcam, and we all fet out for that palace as foon as we had ate brcakfafl. The refl of the company were on mules. I had mounted my own favourite horfe. Aylo, before his fright at Sennaar, was one of the firft horfemen in Abyflinia ; he was fhort,of a good figure, and knew the advantage of fuch make for a horfeman ; he had therefore a curiolity to fee a tall man ride ; but he was an abfolute ftranger to the great advantage of Moorifh furniture, bridles, fpurs, and flirrups, in the management of a violent, ftrong, high-mettled horfe. It was with the utmoft fatisfaefion, when Ave arrived in the plain called Aylo Meydan, that I lhewed him the different paces of the horfe.   He cried out with fear
when
when he faw hirn fUnd upright upon his legs, and jump forward, or a fide, with-all four feet olf the ground.
We paffed the brook of St Raphael, a fuburb of Gondar, where is the houfe of the Abuna; and upon coming in fight of the palace of Kofcam, we all uncovered our heads, and rode ilowly. As A) lo was all-powerful with the Itcghe, indeed fu t firfl counfeilor and friend, our admittance was cafy and immediate. We alighted, and were fhewn into a low room in the palace. Ayto Aylo went immediately to the queen to inquire about Welled Hawaryat, and his audience lafled two long hours. He returned to us with thefe news, that Welled Hawaryat was much better, by a medicine a faint from Waldubba had given him, which confifted in fome characters written with common ink upon a tin plate, which characters were wafhed off by a medicinal liquor, and then given him to drink. It was agreed, however, that the complaint was the fmall-pox, and the good it had done him was, he had ate heartily of brind, or raw beef after it, tho' he had not ate before fince his arrival, but called perpetually for drink. Aylo faid he was to remain at Kofcam till towards evening, and defired me to meet him at his own houfe when it turned dark, and to bring Petros with me, if he was returned.
Petros was returned when I arrived, and waited for mc at Hagi Saleh's houfe. Although heihewed all the figns of my being welcome, yet it was eafy to read in his countenance he had not fucceeded according to his wifh, in his interview with Michael, or that he had met fomething that had ruffled and frightened him anew. And, indeed, this laft was the cafe, for going to the Ras's tent, he had feen the Ruffed fkin
C c 2 of
of the unfortunate Woofficka, with whom he was well acquainted, fwinging upon a tree, and drying in the wind. He was fo terrified, and flruck with fuch horror, at the fight, that he was in a kind of hyfteric fit, cried, ftarted, laughed hideoufly, and feemed as if he had in part loft his fenfes.
I was fatisfied by the ftate I faw him in, though he had left Ibaba three days, that, as the firft fight of Woofheka's Huffed fkin muft have been immediately before he went to the Ras, he could not have had any diftinct. or particular converfation with him on my account; and it turned out after, that he had not fpoken one word upon the fubje<5fc from fear, but had gone to the tent of Negade Ras Mahomet, wdio carried him to Kefla Yafous ; that they, too, feeing the fright he was in, and knowing the caufe, had gone without him to the Ras, and told him of my arrival, and of the behaviour of Abba Salama, and my fear thereupon, and that I was then in the houfe of Magi Saleh, in the Moorifh town. The Ras's anfwer was, " Abba Salama is an afs, and they that fear him are wrorfc. Do I command in Condar only when I flay there ? My dog is of more confe-quence in Gondar than Abba Salama." And then, after paufing a little, he faid, " Let Yagoube flay wdiere he is in the Moors town ; Saleh will let no priefts trouble him there." Negade Ras Mahomet laughed, and faid," We will anfwer for thatand Petros let Out immediately upon his return, haunted night and day with the ghoft of his friend Woolheka, but without having feen Ras Michael.
I thought, when we went at night to Ayto Aylo, and he had told the ftory diilinctly, that Aylo and he were equally a-fraid, for he had not, or pretended he had not, till then
heard
heard that Woofheka had been flayed alive. Aylo, too, was well acquainted with the unfortunate perfon, and only faid, " This is Either, this is Either; nobody knew her but I." Then they went on to inquire particulars, and after, they would flop one another, and defire each other to fpeak no more ; then they cried again, and fell into the fame converfation. It was impoffible not to laugh at the ridiculous dialogue. " Sirs," faid I, " you have told me all I want; I fhall not flir from the Moors town till Ras Michael arrives; if there was any need of advice, you are neither of you capable of giving it; now I would wifh you would mew mc you are capable of taking mine. You are both extremely agitated, and Peter is very tired; and will befides fee the ghoft of Woofheka making to and fro all night with the wind ; neither of you ate fuppcr, as I intend to do; and 1 think Peter fhould flay here all night, but you mould not lie both of you in the fame room, where Woofheka's black fkin, fo flrongly impreffed on your mind, will not fail to keep you talking all night in place of fleeping. Poil about a quart of gruel, I will put a few drops into it; go then to bed, and this unufual operation of Michael will not have power to keep you awake.
The gruel was made, and a good large doze of laudanum put into it. I took my leave, and returned with Saleh ; but before I went to the door Aylo told me he had forgot Welled Hawaryat was very bad, and the Iteghe, Ozoro Al-tafh, his wife, and Ozoro Eflhcr, dclired I would come and fee him to-morrow. One of his daughters, by Ozoro Altafh, had been ill fome time before his arrival, and fhe too was thought in great danger. " Look," faid I, " Ayto Aylo, the fmall-pox is a difeafe that will have its courfe ; and, during
the
the long time the patient is under it, if" people feed them and treat them according to their own ignorant prejudices, my feeing him, or advifmg him, is in vain. This morning you faid a man had cured him by writing upon a tin plate; and to try if he was well, they crammed him with raw beef. 1 do not think the letters that he fwallowcd will do him any harm, neither will they do him any good ; but I fhall not be furpi ifed if the raw beef kills him, and his daughter AVelleta Selafte, too, before I fee him to-morrow.
On the morrow Petros was really taken ill, and fevcrifh, from a cold and fatigue, and fright. Aylo and 1 went to Kofcam, and, for a frcih amufement to him, I fhewed him the manner in which the Arabs ufe their firelocks on horfe-back; but with this advantage of a double-barrelled gun, which he had never before feen. I £hot alfo feveral birds from the horfe; all which things he would have pronounced impollible if they had been only told him. He arrived at Kofcam full of wonder, and ready to believe I was capable of doing every thing I undertook.
We were juft entering into the palacc-door, when wc faw a large proceilion of monks, with the priefts of Kotcam at their head, a large crofs and a picture carried with them, the laft in a very dirty, gilt frame. Aylo turned alide u hen he faw thefe ; and, going into the chamberlain's apartment, called Ayto Heikel, afterwards a great friend and companion of mine. He informed us, that three great faints from Waldubba, one of whom had neither ate nor drank for twenty years of his life, had promifed to come and cure Welled Hawaryat, by laying a picture of the Virgin IVlary and the crofs upon him, and therefore they would not wifh
3 nie
me to be feen, or meddle in the affair. " I affure you, Ayto Aylo," faid I, " I fhall ftridtly obey you. There is no fort of reafon for my meddling in this affair with fuch affociatcs. If they can cure him by a miracle, I am fure it is the eafieft kind of cure of any, and will not do his conftitution the leafl harm afterwards, which is more than I will promife for medicines in general; but, remember what I fay to you, it will, indeed, be a miracle, if both the father and the daughter are not dead before to-morrow night." We feemed all of us fatisfied in one point, that it was better he fhould die, than I come to trouble by interfering.
After the proccfTion was gone, Aylo went to the Iteghe, and, I fuppofe, told her all that happened fmce he had feen her laft. I was called in, and, as ufual, proftrated myfelf upon the ground. She received that token of refpect. without offering to excufc or to decline it. Aylo then faid, " This is our gracious miftrefs, who always gives us her afliftance and protection. You may fafcly fay before her whatever is in your heart."
Our firft difcourfe was about Jerufalem, the Holy Sepulchre, Calvary, the City of David, and the Mountain of Olives, with the fituations of which the was perfectly well acquainted. She then afked me to tell her truly if I was not a Frank ? " Madam," faid I, " if I was a Catholic, which you mean by Frank, there could be no greater folly than my concealing this from you in the beginning, after the affurance Ayto Aylo has juft now given ; and, in confirmation of the truth I am now telling, (fhe had a large bible lying on the table before her, upon which I laid my hand), I declare to you, by all thofe truths contained in this book, that my religion is
more
more different from the Catholic religion than your's is: that there has been more blood Ihed between the Catholics and us, on account of the difference of religion, than ever was between you and the Catholics in this country; even at this day, when men are become wifcr and cooler in many parts of the world, it would be full as fafe for a Jcfuit to preach in the market-place of Gondar, as for any prieft of my religion to prefent himfelf as a teacher in the moft civilized of Frank or Catholic countries."—" How is it then," lays Ihe, " that you don't believe in miracles ?"
" I fee, Madam," faid I, " Ayto Aylo has informed you of a few words that fome time ago dropt from me. I do certainly believe the miracles of Chrift and his apoftles, other* wife I am no Chriftian; but I do not believe thefe miracles of latter times, wrought upon trifling occafions, like fports, and jugglers tricks."—"And yet," fays fhe, " our books are full of them."—" I know they are," faid I, " and fo are thofe of the Catholics: but I never can believe that a faint converted the devil, who lived, forty years after, a holy life as a monk ; nor the ftory of another faint, who, being fick and hungry, caufed a brace of partridges, ready-roafted, to fly upon his plate that he might cat them."—" He has been reading the Synaxar," fays Ayto Aylo. " I believe fo," fays fhe, fmiling.; " but is there any harm in believing too much, and is not there great danger in believing too little ?"—" Certainly," continued I; " but what I meant to fay to Ayto Aylo was, that I did not believe laying a picture upon Welled Hawaryat would recover him when delirious in a fever." 'She anfwered, " There was nothing impoflible with God." I made a bow of alfent, wifhing heartily the converfation might end there.
i I returned
I returned to the Moors town, leaving Aylo with the queen. In the afternoon I heard Welleta Selaffe was dead; and at night died her father, Welled Hawaryat. The contagion from Mafuah and Adowa had fpread itfelf all over Gondar. Ozoro Ayabdar, daughter of Ozoro Altafh, was now fick, and a violent fever had fallen upon Kofcam. The next morning Aylo came to me and told mc, the faith in the faint who did not cat or drink for twenty years was perfectly abandoned fince Welled Hawaryat* s death : That it was the defire of the queen, and Ozoro Eft her, that I fhould tranfport myfelf to Kofcam to the Iteghe's palace, where all their children and grandchildren, by the different men the queen's daughters had married, were under her care. I told him, " I had fome difficulty to obey them, from the pofitive orders I had received from Petros to flay in the Moors town with Hagi Saleh till the Ras fhould arrive; that Kofcam was full of priefts, and Abba Salama there every day; notwithftanding which, if Petros and hefoadvifed me, I would certainly go to do any poffible fervicc to the Iteghe, or Ozoro Elmer,"
He deftred half an hour's abfence before he gave mc an anfwer, but did not return till about three hours afterwards, and, without alighting, cried out at fome diftance, " Aya,comc, you muft go immediately." "I told him, that new and clelin clothes in the Gondar fafhion had been procured for me by Petros, and that I wifhed they might be fent to his houfe, where I would put them on, and then go to Kofcam, with a certainty that I carried no infection with me, for I had attended a number of Moorifh children, wtiile at Hagi Salch's houfe, moft of whom happily went on doing well, but that there was no doubt there would be infection
Vol. III. D d in
in my clothes." He praifed me up to the flues for this precaution, and the whole was executed in the manner propo-fed. My hair was cut round, curled, and perfumed, in the Amharic fafhion, and I was thenceforward, in all outward appearance, a perfect Abyflinian.
My firft advice, when arrived at Kofcam, was, that Ozoro Either, and her fon by Mariam Barea, and a fon by Ras Michael, fhould remove from the palace, and take up their lodging in a houfe formerly belonging to her uncle Bafha Eufebius, and give the part of the family that were yet well a chance of efcaping the difeafe. Her young fon by Mariam Barea, however, complaining, the Iteghe would not fuffer him to remove, and the refolution was taken to abide the iffue all in the palace together.
Before I entered upon my charge, I defired Petros (now recovered) Aylo, Abba Chrittophorus, a Greek prieft who acted as phyfician before I came to Gondar, and Armaxikos-prieft of Kofcam, and favourite of the Iteghe, to be all prefent. I flated to them the difagreeable talk now impoled upon me, a flranger without acquaintance or protection, having the language but imperfectly, and without power or controul among them. I profefled my intention of doing my utmoft, although the difeafe was much more ferious and fatal in this country than in mine, but I infilled one condition fhould be granted me, which was, that no directions as to regimen or management, even of the moil trilling -kind, as they might think, fhould be fullered, without my permif-iion and fuperintendencc, otherwife I warned my hands of the confeqticnce, which I told before them would be fatal. They allaffented to this, and Armaxikos declared thofe excommunicated
mcated that broke this promife; and I faw that, the more fcrupulous and particular I was, the more the confidence of the ladies increafed. Armaxikos promifed me the affiftancc of his prayers, and thofe of the whole monks, morning and evening ; and Aylo faid lowly to me, " You'll have no objection to this faint, I allure you he eats and drinks heartily, as I lhall ihew you when once thefe troubles are over."
I set the fervants all to work. There were apartments enough. I opened all the doors and windows, fumigating them with incenfe and myrrh, in abundance, warned them with warm water and vinegar, and adhered flricf ly to the rules which my worthy and Ikilful friend Doctor Ruftel had given me at Aleppo.
The common and fatal regimen in this country, and in moil parts in the eafl, has been to keep their patient from feeling the fmalleft breath of air; hot drink, a fire, and a quantity of covering are added in Abyflinia, and- the doors lhut fo clofe as even to keep the room in darknefs, whilft this heat is further augmented by the conftant burning of candles.
Ay abd ah, Ozoro Altafh's remaining daughter, and the fon of Mariam Barea, were both taken ill at the fame time, and happily recovered. A daughter of Kafmati Boro, by a daughter of Kafmati Eflites, died, and her mother, though fhe furvived, was a long time ill afterwards. Ayabdar was very much marked, fo was Mariam Barea's fon.
At this time, Ayto Confu, fon of Kafmati Netcho by Ozoro Eft her, had arrived from Tcherkin, a lad of very
D d 2 great
great hopes, though not then fourteen. He came to fee his mother without my knowledge or her's, and was infected likewife. Laft of all the infant child of Michael, the child of his old age, took the difeafe, and though the weakeftj of all the children, recovered beft. I tell thefe actions for brevity's fake altogether, not directly in the order they happened, to fatisfy the reader about the reafon of the remarkable attention and favour fliewcd to mc afterwards upon ib lhort an acquaintance
The fear and anxiety of Ozoro Efthcr, upon fmallcr occa-fions, was cxccflivc, and fully in proportion in the greater that now cxiftcd ; many promifes of Michael's favour, of riches, grcatnefs, and protection, followed every in^ fiance of my care and attention towards my patients. She did not eat or lleep herfelf; and the ends of her fingers were all broke out into puftules, from touching the feveral iick pcrfons. Confu, the favourite of all the queen's relations, and the hopes of their family, had fymptoms which all feared would be fatal, as he had violent convulfions, which were looked upon as forerunners of immediate death; they ecafed, however, immediately on the eruption. The attention 1 mewed to this young man, which was more than overpaid by the return he himfelf made on many oc— calions afterwards, was greatly owing to a prepofteftion in his favour, which I took upon his firft appearance. Policy, as may be imagined, as well as charity, alike influenced me in the care of my other patients; but an attachment, which providence feemed to have infpired mc with for my-own prefervation, had the greateft fliarc in my care'for Ay--Confu.
Though
Though it is not the place, I mull not forget to tell the reader, that, the third day after I had come to Kofcam, a horfeman and a letter had arrived from Michael to Hagi Saleh, ordering him to carry me to Kofcam, and like wife a fliort letter written tome by Negade Ras Mahomet, in Arabic, as from Ras Michael, very civil, but containing pofrtivc orders and command, as if to a fervant, that I mould repair to the Itcghe's palace, and not fhir from thence till future orders, upon any pretence whatever..
I cannot fay but this pofitivc, peremptory dealing, did very much fhock and difpleafe me. 1 (hewed the letter to Petros, who approved of it much; faid he was glad to fee it in that flile, as it was a fign the Ras was in earned. I fhewed it to Ayto Aylo, who faid not much to it cither the one way or the other, only he was glad that I had gone to Kofcam before it came ; but he taxed Ozoro Either with being the caufe of a proceeding which might have been proper to a Greek or ilave, but was not fo to a free man like me, who came recommended to their protection, and had, as yet, received no favour, or even civility. Ozoro Either laughed heartily at all this, for the mil time fhe had fhewn any inclination to mirth ; ihe confciTed Ihe had fent a mclTcnger every day, fometimes two, and fometimes three, ever fmce Welled Hawaryat had died,- and by every one of them Ihe had prciled the Ras to enjoin me not to leave Kofcam, the confequcncc of which was the. order above mentioned; and, in the evening, there was a letter to Petros from An-thulc, Janni's fon-in-law, a Greek, and trcafurer to the king, pretty much to the fame purpofe as the firft, and in no fofter terms, with direction, however, to furnifh mc with every thing I fhould want, on the king's account.
On*.
One morning Aylo, in prcfence of the queen, fpeaking to Ozoro Either of the flile of the Ras's letter to me, fhe confeiTcd her own anxiety was the caufe, but added, " You have often upbraided me with being, what you call, an un-chriflian enemy, in the advices you fuppofe I frequently give Michael; but now, if I am not as good a friend to Ya-goube, who has faved my children, as I am a Ready enemy to the Galla, who murdered my huiband, fay then Either is not a Chriflian, and I forgive you." Many converfations of this kind palled between her and me, during the illnefs of Ayto Confu. I removed my bed to the outer door of Confu's chamber, to be ready whenever he fhould call, but his mother's anxiety kept her awake in his room all night, and propriety did not permit me to go to bed. From this frequent communication began a friendfliip between Ozoro Either and me, which ever after fubfiilcd without any interruption.
Our patients, being all likely to do well, were removed to a large houfe of Kafmati Efhtc, which flood ftill within the boundaries of Kofcam, while the rooms underwent another luftration and fumigation, after which they all returned ; and I got, as my fee, a prcfent of the neat and convenient houfe formerly belonging to Bafha Eufebius, which had a feparate entry, without going through the palace. Still I thought it better to obey Ras Michael's orders to the letter, and not ftir out of Kofcam, not even to Hagi Salch's or Ayto Aylo's, though both of them frequently endeavoured to perfuade me that the order had no fuch ftrict meaning. But my folitudc was in no way difagreeable to me, I had a great deal to do, I mounted my inftruments, my thermometer  and  barometer, telefcopes and quadrant.
2 Again
Again all was wonder. It occafioncd me many idle hours before the curiofity of the palace was fatisficd. I faw the queen once every day at her levee, fometimes in the evening, where many priefts were always prefent. I was, for the moft part, twice a-day, morning and evening, with Ozoro Either, where I feldom met with any,.
One day, when I went early to the queen, that I might get away in time, having fome other engagements about noon, juft as I was taking my leave, in came Abba Salama. At firft he did not know me from the change of drefs; but, foon after recollecting me, he faid, as it were, palling, " Arc you here ? I thought you was with Ras Michael." I made him no anfwer, but bowed, and took my leave, when he called out, with an air of authority, Come back, and beckoned me with his hand.
Sever ax people entered the room at that inftant, and I ftood Hill in the fame place where I was, ready to receive the Iteghc's orders : ihe faid, " Come back, and fpeak to Abba Salama," 1 then advanced a few paces forward, and faid, looking to the Iteghe, " What has Abba Salama to fay to me?" He began directing his difcourfe to the queen, " Is he a prieft ? Is he a prieft?" The Iteghe anfwered very gravelyr "Every good man is a prieft to himfelf ; in that fenfe, and no other, Yag >ube is a prieft."—"Will you anfwer a quc-ftion that I will aik you ?" fays he to me, with a very pert tone of voice. " I do not know but I may, if it is a difcreet one," laid i, in Tigre. " Why don't you fpeak Amharic ?" fays he to me in great hafte, or fecming impatience. " Be-eaufe I cannot fpeak it well," faid I. " Why don't you, on the other hand, fpeak Tigre to me? it is the language
the
the holy fcriptures are written in, and you, a prieft, fhould undcrftand it."—" That is Geez," fays he ; " I underftand it, though I don't fpeak it."—" Then," replied I," Ayto Heikel," the queen's chamberlain, who flood behind me, " fhall interpret for us; he underftands all languages."
" Ask him, Heikel," fays he, " how many Natures there are in Chrift." Which being repeated to me, I faid, " I thought the queftion to be put was fomething relating to my country, travels, or profeffion, in which I poflibly could inftruct. him ; and not belonging to his, in which he fhould inftruct mc. I am a phyfician in the town, a horfeman and foldier in the field. Phyfic is my fludy in the one, and managing my horfe and arms in the other. This I was bred to; as for difputes and matters of religion, they are the province of pricfls and fchoolmen. I profefs myfelf much more ignorant in thefe than I ought to be. Therefore, when I have doubts I propofe them to fome holy man like you, Abba Salama, (he bowed for the firft time) whofe profeflion thefe things are. He gives me a rule and I implicitly follow it." " Truth ! truth!" fays he; " by St Michael, prince of angels, that is right; it is anfwered well; by St George ! he is a clever fellow. They told me he was a Jefuit. Will you come to fee me ? Will you come to fee me ? You need not be afraid when you come to me" " I trull," faid I, bowing, " I fhall do no ill, in that cafe fhall have no reafon to fear." Upon this I withdrew from among the crowd, anc} went away, as an cxprefs then arrived from Ras Michael.
It was on the 8th or 9th of March I met him at Azazo. He was dreifed in a coarfe dirty cloth, wrapt about him like # blanket, and another like a table-cloth folded about his
4 head;
head: He was lean, old, and apparently much fatigued; fat Hooping upon an excellent mule, that carried him fpeedily without making him; he had alfo fore eyes. As we faw the place where he was to light by four crofs lances, and a cloth thrown over them like a temporary tent, upon an eminence, we did not fpeak to him till he alighted. Petros and the Greek prieft, beftdes fervants, were the only people with me, Francis * had joined us upon our meeting the Ras.
We alighted at the fame time he did, and afterwards, ^with anxiety enough we deputed the Greek prieft, who was a friend of Michael, to tell him who I was, and that I was come to meet him. The foldiers made way, and I came up, took him by the hand, and killed it. He looked me broad in the face for a fecond, repeated the ordinary falutation in Tigre. " How do you do ? I hope you are well;" and pointed to a place where I was to fit down. A thoufand complaints* and a thoufand orders came immediately before him, from a thoufand mouths, and we were nearly fmothcred; but he took no notice of me, nor did he afk for one of his family. In fome minutes after came the king, who paffed at fome diftance to the left of him; and Michael was then led out of the flicker of his tent to the door, where he was fupport-ed on foot till the king paffed by, having firft pulled off the towel that was upon his head, after which he returned to his feat in the tent again.
Vol. III. E e Tub
* a man much attached to Michael, and had been preferred by him to many commands,, Sod confc'iuently was the only Greek that could be culled a good foldkr.
The king had been paft about a quarter of a mile, when Kella Yafous came from him with orders to the Ras, or rather, as I believe, to receive orders from him. He brought with him a young nobleman, Ayto Engedan, who, by his drefs, having his upper garment twilled in a particular manner about his wailt, fhewed that he was carrier of a fpecial melTagc from the king. The crowd by this time had fhut us quite out, and made a circle round the Ras, in which we were not included. We were upon the point of going away, when Kella Yafous, who had feen Francis, faid to him, " 1 think Engedan has the king's command for you, you mull not depart without leave." And, foon after, wc underftood that the king's orders were to obtain leave from the Ras, to bring me, with Engedan, near, and in light of him, without letting me know, or introducing me to him. In anfwer to this, the Ras had faid, " I dont know him; will people like him think this right ? A Ik Petros ; or why fhould not the king call upon him and fpeak to him ; he has letters to him as well as to me, and he will be obliged to fee him to-morrow."
Engedan went away on a gallop to join the king, and we proceeded after him, nor did we receive any other meffagc either from the king or the Ras. We returned to Kofcam, very little pleafed with the reception we had met with. All the town was in a hurry and confufton; 30,000 men were encamped upon the Kahha; and the full horrid fcene Michael exhibited there, was caufing the eyes of twelve of the chiefs of the Galla, whom he had taken prifoners, to be pulled out, and the unfortunate fuffercrs turned out to the fields, to be devoured at night by the hyecna.   Two of thefe
1. 1 took
I took under my care, who both recovered, and from them I learned many particulars of their country and manners.
The next day, which was the 10th, the army marched into the town in triumph, and the Ras at the head of the troops of Tigre. He was bareheaded; over his moulders, and down to his back, hung a pallium, or cloak, of black velvet, with a fdver fringe. A boy, by his right ftirrup, held a fdver wand of about five feet and a half long, much like the Haves of our great officers at court. Behind him all the foldiers, who had llain an enemy and taken the fpoils from them, had their lances and firelocks ornamented with fmall fhreds of fcarlet cloth, one piece for every man he had flain.
Remarkable among all this multitude was Hagos, doorkeeper of the Ras, whom we have mentioned in the war of Begcmder. This man, always well-armed and well-mounted, had followed the wars of the Ras from his infancy, and had been fo fortunate in this kind of fingle combat, that his / whole lance and javelin, horfe and perfon, were covered over with the fhreds of fcarlet cloth. At this lait battle of Fagitta, Hagos is faid to have llain eleven men with his own hand. Indeed there is nothing more fallacious than judging of a man's courage by thefe marks of conquefts. A good horfeman, armed with a coat of mail, upon a ftrong, well-fed, well-winded horfe, may, after a defeat, kill as many of thefe wretched, weary, naked fugitives, as he pleafes, confining himfelf to thofe that are weakly, mounted upon tired horfes, and covered only with goatVikins, or that are flying on foot.
E c 2
Behind
Behind came Gulho of Amhara, and PowufTen, lately made governor of Begemder for his behaviour at the battle of Fagitta, where, as I have faid, he purfued Fafil and his army for two days. The Ras had given him alfo a farther reward, his grand-daughter Ayabdar, lately recovered from the fmall-pox, and the only one of my patients that, neither by herfelf, her mother, nor her hufband, ever made me the leafl return. PowufTen was one of the twelve officers who, after being delivered to Lubo by the Galla, together with Mariam Barea, had fled to Michael's tent, and were protected by him.
One thing remarkable in this cavalcade, which I obferved, was the head-drefs of the governors of provinces. A large broad fillet was bound upon their forehead, and tied behind their head. In the middle of this was a horn, or a conical piece of fdver, gilt, about four inches long, much in the fhape of our common candle extinguifhers. This is called klm, or horn, and is only worn in reviews or parades after victory. This I apprehend, like all other of their ufages^ is taken from the Hebrews, and the feveral allufions made in fcripture to it arife from this practice:-—" I faid unto fools, Deal not foolifhly ; and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn—"Lift not up your horn on high; fpeak not with a Riff neck*"—" For promotion cometh," &c.—" But my horn fhalt thou exalt like the horn of an. unicorn"—u And the
horn
* The crooked manner in which they hold their neck when this ornament is on their fore-htad, for fear it fhould fall forward, perfectly (hews the meaning of fpeaking with afliffneck-«len you hold Uu horn on high, or erect like the horn of the unicorn.
horn of the righteous fhall be exalted with honour." And fo in many other places throughout the Pfalms.
Next to thefe came the king, with a fillet of white mufl in about three inches broad, binding his forehead, tied with a large double knot behind, and hanging down about two feet on his back. About him were the great officers of Rate, fuch of the young nobility as were without command ; and after thefe, the houfehold troops*
Then followed the Kanitz Kitzera, or executioner of the campv, and his attendants ; and, laft of all, amidit the King's and the Ras's baggage, came a man bearing the fluffed fkin of the unfortunate Woofheka upon a pole, which he hung upon a branch of the tree before the king's palace appropriated for public executions.
Upon their arrival at Gondar, all the great men had waited both upon the Ras and the King. Aylo had been with them, and Ozoro Efther was removed to Gondar; but, by my advice, had left the child at Kofcam. Her fon Confu, though recovered of the fmall-pox, had evident figns of a dyfentery, and took no care of himfelf in point of regimen,, or avoiding cold.
It was now the 13th of March, and 1 had heard no word from Ozoro Efther, or the Ras, though removed to a houfe in Gonadal* near to Petros. I had gone every day once to fee the children of Kofcam ; at all which times I had been receivec? with the greateft cordiality and marks of kindnefs by the Iteghe, and orders given for my free admittance upon all occafions like an officer of her houfehold.   As to the reft,
I never
I never was in appearance more neglected, than in this prefent moment, by all but the Moors. Thefe were very grateful for the fuccefsful attention I had lhewed their children, and very defirous to have me again among them, Hagi Saleh, in particular, could not fatiate himfelf with curling the ingratitude of thefe cafers, and inlidels, the Chrillians. He knew what had palled at Kofcam, he faw what he thought likely to happen now, and his anger was that of an honefl man, and which perhaps many former inflances which he had been witnefs of might have jullified, but in the prefent one he was millakcn.
In the evening, Negade Ras Mahoment came to my houfe; he faid Mahomet Gibberti was arrived, had been twice on private bufinefs with the Ras, but had not yet delivered him his prefents; and he had not informed me of this, as he thought I was ilill at Kofcam, and that Saleh his brother knew nothing of it, as he had not feen him fince he came home. He alfo informed me that Ayto Aylo was with the Ras twice the day after he entered Gondar, and once with Mahomet Gibberti: all this was about me ; and that, at Ayto Aylo's propofal, it was agreed that I mould be appointed Palambaras, which is mailer of the king's horfe. It is a very great office, both for rank, and revenue, but has no bufinefs attending it; the young Armenian had before enjoyed it. 1 told Mahomet, that, far from being any kindnefs to me, this would make me the mofl unhappy of all creatures ; that my extreme defire was to fee the-coun-try, and its different natural productions; to converfc with the people as a Rranger, but to be nobody's mailer nor fervant; to fee their books ; and, above all, to viiit the fources of the Nile; to hvc as privately in my own houfe, and have as
much
much time to myfelf as poilible ; and what I was mofl anxious about at prefent, was to know when it would be convenient for them to admit me to fee the Ras, and deliver my letters as a Rranger.
Mahomet went away,.and returned, bringing Mahomet Gibberti, who told me, that, belides the letter I carried to Ras Michael from Metical Aga his mailer, he had been charged with a particular one, out of the ordinary form, dictated by the Englifh at Jidda, who, all of them, and particularly my friends Captain Thornhill, and Capt. f homas Price of the Lyon, had agreed to make a point with Metical Aga, devoted to them for his own profit, that his utmoft exertion of friendfhip and interelt, fhould be fo employed in my recommendation, as to engage the attention of Ras Michael to provide in earncfl for my fafety and fatisfac-tion in every point.
This letter I had myfelf read at Jidda ; it informed Michael of the power and riches of our nation, and that they were abfolute mailers of the trade on the Red Sea, and flrictly connected with the Shcrriffc, and in a very particular manner with him, Metical Aga ; that any accident happening to me would be an infamy and difgrace to him, and worfe than death itfelf, becaufe, that knowing Michael's power, and relying on his friendfhip, he had become fecurity. for my fafety, after I arrived in his hands ; that I was a man of confideration in my own country, fervant to the king of it, who, though himfelf a Chriilian, governed his fubjects Muiltilmen and Pagans, with the fame impartiality andjuf-tice as he did Chrillians. That all my defire was to examine fprings and rivers, trees and flowers, and the liars in the
heavens^
heavens, from which I drew knowledge very ufeful to pre-ferve man's health and life ; that I was no merchant, and had no dealings whatever in any fort of mercantile matters; and that I had no need of any man's money, as he had told Mahomet Gibberti to provide for any call I might have in that country, and for which he would anfwer, let the fum be what it would, as he had the word of my countrymen to repay it, which he confidered better than the written fecurity of any other people in the world. He then repeated very nearly the fame words ufed in the beginning of the letter; and, upon this particular requeft, Metical Aga had fent him a diflindt prcfent, not to confound it with other political and commercial affairs, in which they were concerned together.
Upon reading this letter, Michael exclaimed, " Metical Aga docs not know the fituation of this country. Safety! where is that to be found ? I am obliged to fight for my own life every day. Will Metical call this fafety ? Who knows, at this moment, if the king is in fafety, or how long I mail be fo ? All I can do is to keep him with me. If I lofemy own life, and the king's, Metical Aga can never think it was in my power to preferve that of his ftranger."—" No, no," fays Ayto Aylo, who was then prefent, " you don't know the man; he is a devil on horfeback; he rides better, and Ihoots better, than any man that ever came into Abyffinia; lofe no time, put him about the king, and there is no fear of him. He is very fober and religious ; he will do the king good. " Shoot!" fays Michael, " he won't moot at me as the Armenian did ; will he ? will he ?" " Oh," continued Aylo, " you know thefe days are over. What is the Armenian ? a boy, a Have to the Turk. When you fee this man, you'll not
2 think
think of the Armenian." It was finally agreed, that the letters the Greeks had received mould be read to the king; that the letters I had from Metical Aga to the Ras mould be given to Mahomet Gibberti, and that I fhould be introduced to the King and the Ras immediately after they were ready.
The reader may remember that, when I was at Cairo, I obtained letters from Mark, the Greek patriarch, to the Greeks at Gondar ; and particularly one, in form of a bull, or refcript, to all the Greeks in Abyflinia. In this, after a great deal of paf-toral admonition, the patriarch faid, that, knowing their pro-penfity to lying and vanity, and not being at hand to impofe proper penances upon them for thefe fins, he exacted from them, as a proof of their obedience, that they would, with a good grace, undergo this mortification, than which there could be no gentler impofed, as it was only to fpeak the truth. He ordered them in a body to go to the king, in the manner and time they knew bed, and to inform him that I was not to be confounded with the reft of white men, fuch as Greeks, who were all fubject to the Turks, and flaves ; but that I was a free man, of a free nation ; and the belt of them would be happy in being my fervant, as one of their brethren, Michael, then actually was. I will not fay but this was a bitter pill; for they were high in office, all except Petros, who had declined all employment after the murder of Joas his mailer, whofe chamberlain he was. The order of the patriarch, however, was fairly and punctually performed ; Petros was their fpokefman; he was originally a Ihoemaker at Rhodes, clever, and handrome in his perfon, but a great coward, though, on fuch an occalion as the prefent, forward and capable enough.
Vol. III. Ff I think
t
I think it was about the 14th that thefe letters were to* be all read I expected at the ordinary hour, about live in the afternoon, to be fent for, and had rode out to Kofcam with Ayto Heikel, the queen's chamberlain, to fee the child, who was pretty well recovered of all its complaints, but very-weak. In the interim I was. fent for to the Ras, with orders to difpatch a man with the king's prefent, to wait for me at the palace, whither I was to go after leaving Michael. It was -anlwercd, That I was at Kofcam, and the errand I had gone on mentioned; which difappointment, and the caufe, did no way prejudice me with the Ras. Five in the evening was fixed as the hour, and notice fent to Kofcam. I came a little before the time, and met Ayto Aylo at the door. He fqueezed me by the hand, and faid, " Refufc nothing, it can be all altered afterwards; but it is very neceffary, on account of the priefts and the populace, you have a place of fome authority, otherwife you will be robbed and murdered the firft: time you go half a mile from home : fifty people have told mc you have chefts filled with gold, and that you can make gold, or bring what quantity your pleafe from the Indies; and the reafon of all this is, becaufe you refufed the queen and Ozoro Efther's offer of gold at Kofcam, and which you mull never do again."
We went in and faw the old man fitting upon a fofa ;; his white hair was drelfcd in many lhort curls. He appeared to be thoughtful, but not difplcafed; his face was lean, his eyes quick and vivid, but feemed to be a little fore from expofure to the weather. He feemed to be about fix feet high, though his lamencfs made it difficult to guefs with accuracy. His air was perfectly free from conftraint, what the French call degagd\. In face and perfon he was-
hker
liker my learned and worthy friend, the Count de Buffon, than any two men I ever faw in the world. They mull have been bad phyfiognomifts that did not difcern his capacity and underftanding by his very countenance. Every look conveyed a fentiment with it: he feemed to have no occafion for other language, and indeed he fpoke little. I offered, as ufual, to kifs the ground before him; and of this he feemed to take little notice, ftretching out his hand and fhaking mine upon my rifmg.
I sat down with Aylo, three or four of the judges, Petros, Heikel the queen's chamberlain, and an Azage from the king's houfe, who whifpered fomething in his ear, and went out; which interruption prevented me from fpeaking as I was prepared to do, or give him my prefent, which a man held behind me. He began gravely, " Yagoubc, I think that is your name, hear what I fay to you, and mark what I recommend to you. Ypu are a man, I am told, who make it your bufinefs to wander in the fields in fearch after trees and grafs in folitary places, and to lit up all night a-lone looking at the liars of the heavens : Other countries are not like this, though this was never fo bad as it is now, Thefe wretches here are enemies to flrangers ; if they faw you alone in your own parlour, their firft thought would be how to murder you; though they knew they were to get nothing by it, they would murder you for mere m if chief." « The devil is ftrong in them," fays a voice from a corner of the room, which appeared to be that of a prieft. " Therefore," lays the Ras, " after a long converfation with your friend Aylo, whofe advice I hear you happily take, as indeed we all do, I have thought that fituation bell which leaves you at liberty to follow your own defigns, at the
F f 2 fame
fame time that it puts your perfon in fafety ; that you will not be troubled with monks about their religious matters, or in danger from thefe rafcals that may feek to murder you for money."
'* Wqat are the monks'?" fays the fame voice from the corner ; " the monks will never meddle with fuch a man as this."—" Therefore the king," continued the Ras, without taking any notice of the interruption, " has appointed you Baalomaal, and to command the Koccob horfe,, which I thought to have given to Erancis, an old foldier of mine ; but he is poor, and we willprovide for him better, for thefe appointments have honour, but little profit." "Sir," fays Francis, who was in prefence, but behind/' it is in much more honourable hands, than either mine or the Armenian's, or any other white man's, fince the days of Hatze Menas, and fo I told the king to-day." " Very well, Francis," fays the Ras ; M it becomes a foldier to fpeak the truth, whether it makes for or againft himfelf. Go then to the king, and kifs the ground upon your appointment. I fee you have already learned this ceremony of our's ; Aylo and Heikel are very proper perfons to go with you. The king expreffed his fur-prife to me laft night he had not feen you ; and there too is Tecla Mariam, the king's fecretary, who came with your appointment from the palace to-day." The man in the corner, that I took for a prieft, was this Tecla Mariam, a fcribe. Out of the king's prefence men of this order cover their heads., as do the priefts, which was the reafon of my mistake.
I then gave him a prcfenf, which he fcarce looked at, as a, number of people were prcfting in at the door from cu-
riofity.
riofity or bufinefs, Among thefe I difcerned Abba Salama. Every body then went out but myfelf, and thefe people were rulhing in behind me, and had divided me from my company. The Ras, however, feeing me Handing alone, cried, " Shut the doorand afked me, in a low tone of voice," Have you any thing private to fay ?" " I fee you are bufy, Sir," faid I; " but I will fpeak to Ozoro Efther." His anxious countenance brightened up in a moment. " That is true," fays he, " Yagoube, it will require a long day to fettle that account with you : Will the boy live ?" " The life of man is in the hand of God," faid I, u but I fhould hope the worft is-over ;" upon which he called to one of his fervants, " Cany Yagoube to Ozoro Efther."
It is necdlcfs for me to take up the reader's time with any thing but what illuftrates my travels ; he may therefore guefs the converfation that flowed from a grateful" heart on that occafion. I ordered her child to be brought to her every forenoon, upon condition llie returned him foon after mid-day. I then took a fpeedy leave of Ozoro Efther, the reafon of which I told her when Ihe was following me to the door. She faid, " When {hall I lay my hands upon that idiot Aylo ? The Ras would have done any thing ; he had appointed you Palambaras, but, upon converling with Aylo, he had changed his mind. He fays it will create envy, and take up your time. What iignifics their envy ? Do not they envy Ras Michael ? and where can you pafs your time better than at court, with a command under the king." 1 faid, "All is for the bell, Aylo did well;, ail is for the beil." I then left her unconvinced, and faying, " I will not forgive this to Ayto Aylo thefe feven years."
44 Aylo
Aylo and Heikel had gone on to the palace, wondering, as did the whole company, what could be my private conference with Michael, which, after playing abundantly with their curioiity, I explained to them next day.
I went afterwards to the king's palace, and met Aylo and Heikel at the door of the prefence-chamber. Tecla Mariam walked before us to the foot of the throne; after which I advanced and proftrated myfelf upon the ground. " I have brought you a fervant," fays he to the king, " from fo diftant a country, that if you ever let him efcape, we fhal! never be able to follow him, or know where to feek him." This was faid facetioufly by an old familiar fervant; but the king made no reply, as far as we could guefs, for his mouth was covered, nor did he fhew any alteration of countenance. Five people were (landing on each fide of the throne, all young men, three on his left, and two on his right. One of thefe, the fon of fecla Mariam, (afterwards my great friend) who flood uppcrmoft on the left hand, .came up, and taking hold of me by the hand, placed me immediately above him ; wdien feeing I had no knife in my girdle, he pulled out his own and gave it to me. Upon being placed, I again killed the ground.
The king was in an alcove ; the reft went out of fight from where the throne was, and fat down. The ufual qucftions now began about Jerufalem and the holy places—where my country was ? which it was impoflible to defcribe, -as they knew the fituation of no country but their own—why I came fo far?—whether the moon ami the liars, but efpecially the moon, was the fame in my country as in theirs?—and a great many fuch idle and tircfomc qucftions. I had feveral times
2 olfcred
offered to take my prefent from the man who held ir, that I might offer it to his Majcfty and go away; but the king always made a fign to put it off, till, being tired to death with Handing, I leaned againft the wall. Aylo was fail aflcep, and Ayto Heikel and the Greeks curling their inafler in their heart for fpoiling the good Hipper that Anthulc his treafurer had prepared for us. This, as we afterwards found out, the king very well knew, and refolved to try our patience to the utmoft. At laft, Ayto Aylo ftole away to bed, and every body elfe after him, except thofe who had accompanied me, who were ready to die with third, and drop down with wearinefs. It was agreed by thofe that were out of fight, to fend Tecla Mariam to whifper in the "king's ear, that I had not been well, which he did, but no notice was taken of it. It was now paft ten o'clock, and he mewed no inclination to go to bed.
Hitherto, while there were ftrangers in the room, he had fpoken to us by an officer called Kal Hat-ze, the voice or word of the king; but now, when there were nine or ten of us, his menial fervants, only prefent, he uncovered his face and mouth, and fpoke himfelf. Sometimes it was about jerufalem, fometimes about horfes, at othertimos about fhoot-ing; again about the Indies; how far I could look into the-heavens with my telefcopes : and all thefe were deliberately and circumftantially repeated, if they were not pointedly an-fwered. I was abfolutely in defpair, and fcarcely able to fpeak a word, inwardly mourning the hardnefs of my lot in this my firft preferment, and fmcercly praying it might be my laft promotion in this court. At laft all the Greeks began to be impatient, and got out of the corner of the room behind the alcove, and flood immediately before the
throne.
throne. The king feemed to be aftonifhed at feeing them, and told them he thought they had all been at home long ago. They faid, however, they would not go without me ; which the king faid could not be, for one of the duties of my employment was to be charged with the door of his bed-chamber that night.
I think I could almofl have killed him in that inflant. At laft Ayto Heikel, taking courage, came forward to him, pretending a meftage from the queen, and whifpered him fomething in the ear, probably that the Ras would take it ill. He then laughed, faid he thought we had fupped, and difmifted us.
CHAP.
CHAP. IX.
'Tranfaclions at Gondar.
WE went all to Authule's houfe to fupper in violent rage, fuch anger as is ufual with hungry men. We brought with us from the palace three of my brother Baalomaals, and one who had Rood to make up the number, though he was not in.office; his name was Guebra Mafcal, he was a filler's fon of the Ras, and commanded one third of the troops of Tigre, which carried fire-arms, that is about 2000 men. He was reputed the beft officer of that kind that the Ras had, and was a man about 30 years of age, fhort, fquare, and well made, with a very unpromifing countenance ; flat nofe, wide mouth, of a very yellow complexion, and much pitted with the fmall-pox; he had a moll uncommon preemption upon the merit of pafl ferviccs, and had the grcat-cft opinion of his own knowledge in the ufe of lire-arms, to which he did not fcruple to fay Ras Michael owed all his victories. Indeed it was to the good opinion that the Ras Vol. III. G g had
had of him as a foldier that he owed his being fufTered to continue at Gondar; for he was fufpected to have been familiar with one of his uncle's wives in Tigre, by whom it was thought he had a child, at leaft the Ras put away his wife, and never owned the child to be his.
This man flipped with us that night, and thence began one of the moft ferious affairs I ever had in Abyflinia. Guebra Mafcal, as ufual, vaunted inceffantly his fkill in fire-arms, the wonderful gun that he had, and feats he had done with it. Petros faid, laughing, to him, " You have a genius for mooting, but you have had no opportunity to learn. Now, Yagoube is come, he will teach you fomething worth talking off." They had all drank abundantly, and Guebra Mafcal had uttered words that I thought were in contempt of me. I believe, replied I pcevifhly enough, Guebra Mafcal, I fhould fufpect, from your difcourfe, you neither knew men nor guns ; every gun of mine in the hands of my fervants fhall kill twice as far as yours, for my own, it is not worth my while to put a ball in it: When I compare with you, the end of a tallow-candle in my gun fhall do more execution than an iron ball in the bell of yours, with all the fkill and experience you pretend to.
He faid I was a Frank, and a liar, and, upon my immediately rifing up, he gave me a kick with his foot. I was quite blind with pallion, feized him by the throat, and threw him on the ground flout as he was. The Ahyllinians know nothing of either wrcflling or boxing. Pic drew his knife as he was falling, attempted to cut mc in the face, but his arm not being at freedom, all he could do was to give me a very trilling flab, or wound, near the crown of the
head,
head, fo that the blood trickled down over my face. I had tript him up, but till then had never ftruck him. I now wrefted the knife from him with a ftdl intention to kill him; but Providence directed better. Inftcad of the point, 1 Hruck fo violently with the handle upon his face as to leave fears, which would be dillinguilhed even among the deep marks of the fmall-pox. An adventure fo new, and fo unexpected, prefently overcame the effects of wine. It was too late to dif-turb anybody either in the palace or at the houfe of the Ras. A hundred opinions were immediately flartcd ; fome were for fending us up to the king, as wc were actually in the precincts of the palace, where lifting a hand is death. Ayto Heikel advifed that I mould go, late as it was, to Kofcam ; and Petros, that I mould repair immediately to the houfe of Ayto Aylo, while the two Baalomaals were for taking me to lleep in the palace. Anthulc, in whofe houfe I was, and who was therefore moll fhocked at the outrage, wifhed mc to flay in his houfe, where I was, from a fuppofition that I was fcrioully wounded, which all of them, feeing the blood fall over my eyes, feemed to think was the cafe, and he, in the morning, at the king's riling, was to Rate the matter as it happened. All thefe advices appeared good when they were propofed ; for my part, I thought they only tended to make bad worfe, and bore the appearance of guilt, of which I was not confeious.
I now determined to go home, and to bed in my own houfe. With that intention, I warned my face and wound with vinegar, and found the blood to be already flaunched. I then wrapt myfelf up in my cloak, and returned home without accident, and went to bed. But this would neither fatisfy Ayto Heikel nor Petros, who went to the houfe of
Gg2 Ayto
Ayto Aylo, then paft midnight, fo that early in the morning, when fcarce light, I faw him come into my chamber. Guebra Mafcal had fled to the houfe of Kefla Yafous his relation ; and the firft news we heard in the morning, after Ayto Aylo arrived, were, that Guebra Mafcal was in irons; at the Ras's houfe.
Every perfon that came afterwards brought up fome new account; the whole people prefent had been examined, and had given, without variation, the true particulars of my forbearance, and his infolcnt behaviour. Every body trembled for fome violent refolution the Ras was to take on my firft complaint. The town was full of Tigre foldiers, and nobody faw clearer than I did, however favourable a turn this had taken for me in the beginning, it might be my deftrucTion in the end.
I asked Ayto Aylo his opinion. He feemed at a lofs to give it me ; but faid, in an. uncertain tone of voice, he could wiih that I would not complain of Guebra Mafcal while I was angry, or while the Ras was fo inveterate ar gainft him, till, fome of his friends had fpoken, and appea-fed, at leaft, his firft refentment. I anfwered, " That I was of a contrary opinion, and that no time was to be loft : re^ member the letter of Mahomet Gibberti; remember his confidence yefterday of my being fafe where he was ; remember the influence of Ozoro Efther, and do not let us lofe a moment." " What, fays Aylo to me in great furprifc, are you mad ? Would you have him cut to pieces in the mid ft of 2o,ooq of. his countrymen ? Would you. be dim* menia, that is, guilty of the blood of all the province of Tigre, through which you mull go in your way home
" Juft
* Juft the contrary, faid I, nobody has fo great a right over the Ras's anger as I have, being the perfon injured ; and, as you and I can get accefs to Ozoro Efther when we plcafe, let us go immediately thither, and flop the progrefs of this affair while it is not yet generally known. People that talk of my being wounded expect, to fee me, I fuppofe, without a leg or an arm. When they fee me fo early riding in the ftreet, all will pafs for aftory as it fhould do. Would you wiih to pardon himentirely ?"—" That goes a-gainft my heart, too, fays Aylo, he is a bad man."—" My good friend, laid I, be in. this guided by me, I know we both think the fame thing. If he is a bad man, he was a bad man before I knew him. You know what you told me yourfelf of the Ras's jealoufy of him. What if he was to revenge his own wrongs, under pretence of giving me fat is faction for mine ?. Come, lofe no time, get upon your mule, go with me to Ozoro Efther, I will anfwer for the confequences."
We arrived there ; the Ras was not fitting,in judgment, he had drank hard the night before, on occafion of Powu£-fen's marriage, and was not in bed when the flory of the fray reached him. We found Ozoro Efther. in a violent anger and agnation, which was much alleviated by my laughing. On her aiking me about my wound, which had been represented to her as dangerous, " I am afraid, laid I, poor Guebra Mafcal is worfe wounded than I." "Is he wounded too ? fays fhe ; I hope it is in his heart." " Indeed, replied I, Ma+ dam, there are no wounds on either fide. He was very drunk, and I gave .him feveral blows upon the face as her deferved, and he has already got all the challifement he ought to have ; it was all a piece of folly." " Prodigious I fays fhe; is this fo ?" " It is fo, fays Aylo, and you fhall.
hear
hear it all by-and-by, only let us Hop the propagation of this foolifh ftory."
The Ras in the inftant fent for us. He was naked, fitting on a ftool, and a Have fwat'hihg up his lame leg with a broad belt or bandage. I afked him calmly and plcafantlv if I could be of any fervice to him ? He looked at me with a grin, the moft ghaftly I ever faw, as half difplcafed. " Whatl fays he, are you all mad? Aylo, what is the matter between him and that mifcreant Guebra Mafcal ?"—" Why, faid I, I am come to tell you that myfelf; why do you afk Ayto Aylo ? Guebra Mafcal got drunk, was infolent, and ftrtick me. I was fober, and beat him, as you will fee by his face ; and I have now come to you to fay I am forry that I lifted my hand againft your nephew; but he was in the wrong, and drunk ; and I thought it was better to chaftife him on the fpot, than truft him to you, who perhaps might take the affair to heart, for we all know your juft ice, and that being your relation is no excufe when you judge between man and man. " I order you, Aylo, fays Michael, as you efteem my friendfhip, to tell me the truth, really as it was, and without difguife or concealment."
Aylo began accordingly to relate the whole hiftory, when a fervant called me out to Ozoro Efther. I found with her another nephew of the Ras, a much better man, called Welleta SclafTe, who came from Kefla Yafous, and Guebra Mafcal himfelf, defiring I would forgive and intercede for him, for it was a drunken quarrel without malice. Ozoro Efther had told him part. " Come in with mc, faid I, and you fhall fee I never will leave the Ras till he forgive him." " Let himpunifh him, fays Welleta Sclaife, he is a bad man,
but
THE SOURCE Of THE KILE, t&
"fcut don't let the Ras cither kill or maim him." « Come* faid I, let us go to the Ras, and he fhall neither kill, maim, nor punifh him, if I can help it. It is my firft requeft ; if he refufes me I will return to Jidda; come and hear."
Aylo had urged the thing home to the Ras in the proper light—that of my fafety. " You are a wife man, fays Michael, now perfectly cool, as foon as he faw me and Welleta Selaffe. It is a man like you that goes far in fafety, which is the end we all aim at. I feel the affront offered you more than you do, but will not have the punifhment attributed to you ; this affair fhall turn to your honour and fecurity, and in that light only I can pafs over his infolence." " Welleta Selaffe, fays he, falling into a violent paflion in an in-Rant, What fort of behaviour is this my men have adop* ted with ft rangers ? and my Jlranger, too, and in the king's palace, and the king's fervant ? What 1 am I dead ? or be* come incapable of governing longer?" Welleta SclafTe bowed, but was afraid to fpeak, and indeed the Ras looked like a fiend.
* Come, fays the Ras, let me fee your head." I fhe wed him where the blood was already hardened, and faid it was a very flight cut. " A cut, continued Michael, over that part, wittt one of our knives, is mortal." " You fee, Sir, faid I, I have not even dipt the hair about the wound ; it is nothing. Now give me your promife you will fet Guebra Mafcal at liberty; and not only that, but you are not to reproach him with the affair further than that lie was drunk, not a crime in this country." " No, truly, fays he, it is not; but that is, becaufe it is very rare that people fight with knives when they are drunk. I fcarce ever heard of it, even v. iii. g g irt
in the camp." " I fancy, faid I, endeavouring to give a light turn to the converfation, they have not often wherewithal to get drunk in your camp." " Not this lad year, fays he/ laughing, there were no houfes in the country." " But let me only merit, faid I, Welleta Selaffe's friendfhip, by making him the meffenger of good news to Guebra Mafcal, that he is at liberty, and you have forgiven him." " At liberty ! fays he, Where is he ?" " In your houfe, faid I, fome-where, in irons." " That is Eflher's intelligence, continued the Ras; thefe women tell you all their fecrcts, but when I remember your behaviour to them I do not wonder at it, and that confideration likewife obliges me to grant what you afk. Go, Welleta Selaffe, and free that dog from his collar, and direct him to go to Welleta Michael, who will give him his orders to levy the meery in Woggora; let him not fee my face till he returns.
Ozoro Esther gave us breakfafl, to which feveral of the Greeks came. After which I went to Kofcam, where I heard a thoufand curfes upon Guebra Mafcal. The whole affair was now made up, and the king was acquainted with the iflue of it. I flood in my place, where he fhewed me very great marks of favour ; he was grave, however, and forrow-ful, as if mortified with what had happened. The king ordered me to Ray and dine at the palace, and he would fend me my dinner. I there faw the fons of Kafmati Efhtc, Aylo, and Engedan, and two Welleta Selafles; one the fon of Tecla Mariam, the other the fon of a great nobleman 'in Go-iam, all young men, with whom I lived ever after in perfect familiarity and friendfhip. The two laft were my brethren Baalomaal, or gentlemen of the king's bed-chamber.
They
They all feemed to have taken my caufe to heart more than I wifhed them to do, for fear it fhould be productive of fome new quarrel. For my own part, I never was fo dejected in my life. The troublefomc profpect before mc pre-fented itfelf day and night. I more than twenty times refolved to return by Tigre, to which I was more inclined by the lofs of a young man who accompanied me through Bar-bary, and aihfled me in the drawings of architecture which I made for the king there, part of which he was Rill advancing here, when a dyfentei y, which had attacked him in Arabia Felix, put an end to his life* at Gondar. A confiderable difturbance was apprehended upon burying him in a church-yard. Abba Salama ufed his utmolt endeavours to raife the populace and take him out of his grave ; but fome exertions of the Ras quieted both Abba Salama and the tumults,
1 began, however, to look upon every thing now as full of difficulty and danger; and, from this conftant fretting and defpondency, I found my health much impaired, and that I was upon the point of becoming ferioufly ill. There was one thing that contributed in fome meaftire to diffipatc thefe melancholy thoughts, which was, that all Gondar was in one fcene of feftivity. Ozoro Ayabdar, daughter of the late Welled Hawaryat, by Ozoro Altafli, Ozoro Eflhcr's fiRcr, and the Iteghe's youngeft daughter, confequently granddaughter to Michael, was married to PowufTen, now governor of Begemdcr. The king gave her large diflricts of land in that province, and Ras Michael a large portion of gold,
Vol. III. H h mulkcts,
* See Imroclu&iont
mufkets, cattle, and horfes. All the town, that wifhed to he well-looked upon by either party, brought fomething confiderable as a prcfent. the Ras, Ozoro Efther, and Ozoro Altalh, entertained all Gondar. A vail number of catcle was flaughtered every day, and the whole town looked like one great market; the common people, in every flrcet, appearing loaded with pieces of raw beef, while drink circulated in the fame proportion. The Ras infilled upon my dining with him every day, when he was fure to give me a head-ach with the quantity of mead, or hydromel, he forced me to fwallow, a liquor that never agreed with me from the firft day to the laft.
After dinner we flipt; away to parties of ladies, where anarchy prevailed as complete as at the houfe of the Ras, Ail the married women ate, drank, and fmoaked like the men ; and it is impoilible to convey to the reader any idea of this bacchanalian fcene in terms of common decency. 1 found it neceilary to quit this riot for a lhort time, and get leave to breathe the freih air of the country, at fuch a diftance as that, once a day, or once in two days, I might be at the palace, and avoid the conftant fucceftion of thofe violent fcenes of debauchery or which no European can form any idea, and which it was impoftible to cfcape, even at Kofcam.
Although the king's favour, the protection of the Ras, and my obliging, attentive, and lowly behaviour to every body, had made me as popular as I could wifh at Gondar, and among the Tigrans fully as much as thofe of Amhara, yet it was cafy to perceive, that the caufe of my quarrel with Guebra Mafcal was not yet forgot.
one
One day, when I was Handing by the king in the palace, he afked, in difcourfe, " Whether I, too, was not drunk in the quarrel with Guebra Mafcal, before we came to blows?" and, upon my faying that I was perfectly fober, both before and after, becaufe Anthule's red wine was finifhed, and I never willingly drank hydromel, or mead, he afked with a degree of kcennefs, " Did you then foberly fay to Guebra Mafcal, that an end of a tallow candle, in a gun in your hand, would do more execution than an iron bullet in his ?" —Certainly, Sir, I did fo."—"And why did you lay this ?" fays the king dryly enough, and in a manner I had not before obferved. " Becaufe, replied I, it was truth, and a proper reproof to a vain man, who, whatever eminence he might have obtained in a country like this, has not knowledge enough to entitle him to the truft of cleaning a gun in mine."—;" O! ho! continued the king; as for his knowledge I am not fpcaking of that, but about his gun. You will not perfuade me that, with a tallow candle, you can kill a man or a horfe."—" Pardon me, Sir, faid 1, bowing very re fpect fully, I will attempt to perfuade you of nothing but what you pleafe to be convinced of: Guebra Mafcal is my equal no more, you are my mailer, and, while I am at your court, under your protection, you arc in place of my fovereign, it would be great prefumption in me to argue with you, or lead to a converfation againft an opinion that you profefs you arc already fixed in."—" No, no, fays he, with an air of great kindnefs, by no means, I was only a-fraid you would expofe yourfelf before bad people ; what you fay to mc is nothing."—" And what I fay to you, Sir, lias always been as fcrupuloufly true as if I had been fpcaking to the king my native fovereign and mailer. Whether
II b 2 I can
I can kill a man with a candle, or not, is an experiment that fhould not be made. Tell me, however, what I mall do before you that you may deem an equivalent ? Will piercing the table, upon which your dinner is ferved, (it was of fyca-more, about three quarters of an inch thick), at the length of this room, be deemed a fufficicnt proof of what I advanced?"
" Ah, Yagoube, Yagoube, fays the king, take care what you fay. That is indeed more than Guebra Mafcal will do at that diftance; but take great care; you don't know thefe people; they will lie themfclves all day; nay, their whole life is one lie; but of you they expect better, or would be glad to find worfe; take care." Ayto Engedan, who was then prefent, faid, " I am fure if Yagoube fays he can do it, he will do it; but how, I don't know. Can you Ihoot through my lhield with a tallow candle ?"—" To you, Ayto Engedan, faid I, I can fpeak freely; I could ihoot thro' your lhield if it was the ftrongeft in the army, and kill the ltrongcft man in the army that held it before him. When will you fee this tried ?"—" Why now, fays the king ; there is nobody here"—"The fooner the better, faid I; I would not wifli to remain for a moment longer under fo difagreeable an imputation as that of lying, an infamous one in mjr country, whatever it may be in this. Let me fend for my gun; the king will look out at the window."—" Nobody, fays he, knows any thing of it; nobody will come"
The king appeared to be very anxious, and, I faw plainly, incredulous. The gun was brought; Engedan's fliield was produced, which was of a ftrong buffalo's hide. I faid to him,, i4 This is a-weak one, give me one ftronger." He fhook his
4 head.,.
head, and faid, " Ah, Yagoube, you'll find it ftrong enough ; Engedan's fhield is known to be no toy." Tecla Mariam brought fuch a fhield, and the Billetana Gueta Tecla another, both of which were mod excellent in their kind. I loaded the gun before them, firft with powder, then upon it flid down one half of what we call a farthing candle ; and, having beat off the handles of three fhields, I put them clofe in contact with each other, and fet them all three againft a poll..
Now, Engedan, faid I, when you pleafe fay—Fire I but mind you have taken leave of your good fhield for ever." The word was given, and the gun fired. It ftruck the three fhields, neither in the moft difficult nor the eafieft place for perforation, fomething lefs than half way between the rim and the bofs. The candle went through the three fhields with fuch violence that it dafhed itfelf to a thoufand pieces againft a ftone-wall behind it. I turned to Engedan, faying very lowly, gravely, and without exultation or triumph, on the contrary with abfolute indifference, " Did not I tell you your fhield was naught ?" A great fhout of applaufe followed from about a thoufand people that were gathered together. The three fhields were carried to the king, who exclaimed in great tranfport, I did not believe it before I faw it, and I can fcarce believe it now I have feen it. Where is Guebra Mafcal's confidence now ? But what do either he or we know ? We know nothing." I thought he looked' abafheck
"Ayto Engedan, faid I, we mufl have a touch at that' table.   It was faid, the piercing that was more than Guebra
Mafcal
Mafcal could do. We have one half of the candle left Rill; it is the thinncft, wcakeft half, and I fhall put the wick fore-mofl, becaufe the cotton is fofteft." The table being now properly placed, to Engcdaus utmoft aflonifhnient the candle, with the wick fore mofl, went through the table, as the other had gone through the three fhields. " By St Michael! fays Engedan, Yagoube, hereafter fay to me you can raife my father Efhte from the grave, and I will believe you." Some pricfls who were there, though furprifed at firft, feemed afterward to treat it rather lightly, becaufe they thought it below their dignity to be furprifed at any thing. They faid it was done (mucktoub) by writing, by which they meant magic. Every body embraced that opinion as an evident and rational one, and fo the wonder with them ceafed. But it was not fo with the king : It made the moft favourable and lading impreilion upon his mind; nor did I ever after fee, in his countenance, any marks either of doubt or diffidence, but always, on the contrary, the moft decifive proofs of friendfhip, confidence, and attention, and the moft implicit belief of every thing I advanced upon any fubject from my own knowledge.
The experiment was twice tried afterwards in prefence of Ras Michael. But he would not rifk his good fhields, and always produced the table, faying, " Engedan and thofe fool if h boys were rightly ferved ; they thought Yagoube was a liar like themfclves, and they loft their ihields; but I believed him, and gave him my table for curiofity only, and fo I faved mine."
As I may now fay I was fettled in this country, and had an opportunity of being informed of the manners, govern-
2 mcnt,
mcnt, and prcfent Rate of it, I fhall here inform the reader of what I think moll worthy his attention, whether ancient or modern, while we are yet in peace, before we are called out to a campaign or war, attended with every difadvantage, danger, and fourcc of confulion.
CHAP.
CHAP. X.
Geographical Divifion of AbyJJinia into Provinces.
AT Mafuah, that is, on the coaft of the Red Sea, begins an imaginary divifion of Abyflinia into two, which is rather a divifion of language than ftriclly to be underftood as territorial. The firft divifion is called Tigre, between the Red Sea and the river Tacazze. Between that river and the Nile, weftward, where it bounds the Galla, it is called Amhara.
Whatever convenience there maybe from this divifion, there is neither geographical nor hiftorical precifion in it, for there are many little provinces included in the firft that do not belong to Tigre; and, in the fecond divifion, which is Amhara, that which gives the name is but a very fmall pai t of it.
Again,
Again, in point of language, there is a variety of tongues {poken in the fecond divifion bcfides thatof Amhara. In Tigre, however, the fcparation as to languages holds true, as there is no tongue known there hut Geez, or that of the Shepherds.
Masuah, in ancient times, was one of the principal places of refidence of the Baharnagafh, who, when he was not there himfelf, conftantly left his deputy, or lieutenant. In fum-mcr he refided for feveral months in the ifland of Dahalac, then accounted part of his territory. He was, after the King and Betwudet, the perfon of the greatefl confideration in the kingdom, and was invefted with fendick and nagarcet, the kettle-drum, and colours, marks of fupreme command.
Masuah was taken, and a bafha eftablifhcd there foon after, as we have feen in the hiftory, in the reign of Menas, when the Baharnagafh, named Ifaac, confederated with the Tnrkifh bafha, and ceded to him a great territory, part of his own government, and with it Dobarwa, the capital of his province, divided only by the river March from Tigre. From this time this office fell into difrepute in the kingdom. The fendick and nagarcet, the marks of fupreme power, wrere taken from him, and he never was allowed a place in council, unlefs fpecially called on by the king. He preferves his privilege of being crowned with gold; but, when appointed, has a cloak thrown over him, the one fide white, the other a dark blue, and the officer who crowns him admonifhes him of what will befal him if he preferves his allegiance, which is fignified by the white fide of the cloak; and the difgrace and punifhmcnt that is to attend his treafon, and which has fallen upon his predcccffors,wh:ch he figures to him by turning up the colour of mourning.
Vol. 111. I i Besides
Besides the dignity attending this office, it was alfo one of the moll lucrative. Frankincenfc, myrrh, and a fpecies of cinnamon, called by the Italians Cannella, with feveral kinds of gums and dyes, all very precious, from Cape Gardefan to Bilur, were the valuable produce of this country : but this territory, though confiderable in length, is not of any great breadth ; for, from fouth of Hadea to Mafuah, it confilts in a belt feldom above forty miles from the fea, which is bounded by a ridge of very high mountains, running parallel to the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, as far as Mafuah.
fApTER Azab begin the mines of foflilc fait, which, cut into fquare, folid bricks of about a foot long, ferve in place of the fdver currency in Abyflinia ; and from this, as from a kind of mint, great benefit accrues alfo.
From Mafuah the fame narrow belt continues to Suakem ; nay, indeed, though the rains do not reach fo far, the mountains continue to the Iflhmus of Suez. This northern province of the Baharnagafh is called the Habab, or the land of the Agaazi, or Shepherds ; they fpeak one language, which they call Geez, or the language of the Agaazi. From ihe carliefl times, they have had letters and writing among them ; and no other has ever been introduced into Abyflinia, to this day, as we have already obferved.
Since the expulfion of the Turks from Dobarwa and the continent of Abyflinia, Mafuah has been governed by a Naybe, himfelf one of the Shepherds, but Mahometan. A treaty formerly fubfified,that the king fhould receive half of
the
the revenue of the cuftomhoufe in Mafuah; in return for which he was fullered to enjoy that fmall ftripe of barren, dry country called Samhar, inhabited by black fhepherds called Shiho, reaching from Hamazen on the north to the foot of the mountain Taranta on the foutli; but, by the favour of Michael, that is, by bribery and corruption, he has poffelfed himfelf of two large frontier towns, Dixan and Dobarwa, by leafe, for a trifling mm, which he pays the king yearly ; this mufl neceflarily very much weaken this ftate, if it lhould ever again have war with the Turks, of which indeed there is no great probability.
The next province in Abyflinia, as well for greatnefs as riches, power, and dignity, and neareft Mafuah, is Tigre. It is bounded by the territory of the Baharnagafh, that is, by the river Mareb on the eaft, and the Tacazze upon the weft. It is about one hundred and twenty miles broad from E. to W. and two hundred from N. to S. This is its prefent fituation. The hand of ufurping power has abolifhed all dif-tinction on the weft-fide of the Tacazze; beiides, many large governments, fuch as Enderta and Antalow, and great part of the Baharnagafh, were fwallowed up in this province to the eaft.
What, in a fpecial manner, makes the riches of Tigre, is, that it lies neareft the market, which is Arabia ; and all the merchandife deftined to crofs the Red Sea mufl pafs through this province, fo that the governor has the choice of all commodities wherewith to make his market. The ftrong-eft male, the moft beautiful female flaves, the pureft gold, the larger! teeth of ivory, all mufl pafs through his hand. Fire-arms, moreover, which for many years have decided
I i 2, who
who is the moft powerful in Abyflinia, all thefe come from Arabia, and not one can be purchafed without his knowing to whom it goes, and .after his having had the: firft refufal of it.
Sire, a province about twenty-five miles broad, and net much more in length, is reckoned as part of Tigre alfo, but this is not a new ufm pation. It loft the rank of a province, and was united to Tigre for the mifbehaviour of its gover* nor Kafmati Claudius, in an expedition againft the Shangalla in the reign of Yafous the Great* In my time, it bcgaia again to get into reputation, and was by Ras Michael's own confent disjoined from, his province, and given firft to his fon Welled Hawaryat, together,with Samen, and, after his death, to Ayto Tesfos, a very amiable man,, gallant foldier, and good officer; who, fighting bravely in the king's fcrvice at the battle of Serbraxos, was there wounded and taken prifbner, and died of his wounds afterwards..
After palling-the Tacazze, the boundary between Site and Samen, we come to that mountainous provinccc ailed by the laft name. A large chain of rugged mountains^ where is the Jews Rock, (which I fhall often mention as the higheft), reaches from the fouth of Tigre down near to ♦ Waldubba, the low, hot country that bounds Abyilinia on the north; It is about So miles in length, in few places 30 broad, and in fome much lefs. It is in great part pofleiled by Jews, and-there Gideon and Judith, king and queen of that nation, and, as they fay, of the houfe of Judah, maintain flill their ancient fovereignty and religion, from, very early times,
On the N. E. of Tigre lies the province of Begemder. Ir borders upon Angot, whofe governor is called Angot Ras<; but the whole province now, excepting a few villages, is conquered by the Galla.
It has Amhata, which runs parallel to it, on the fouth,. and is feparated from it by the river Bafhilo. Both thefe provinces are bounded by the river Nile on the welt. Begem-der is about 180 miles in its. grcateft length, and 60 in breadth, comprehending Laila, a mountainous province, fometimes depending on Begemder, but often in rebellion. The inhabitants are efteerned the beft foldiers in Abyflinia, men of great ftrength and feature, but cruel and uncivilized; fo that they are called, in common converfation and writing, the peafants, or barbarians of Lafta; they pay to the king 1000 ounces of gold,.
Several fmall provinces are now difmcmbercd from Be*-gemder, fuch as Foggora, a fmall ftripe reaching S. and N. about 35 miles between Emfras and Dara, and about 12 miles broad from E. to W. from the mountains of Begemder to the lake Tzana. On the north end of this are two fmall governments, Dreedaand Karoota, the only territory in Abyflinia that produces wine, the merchants trade to Cafta and Narea, in the country of the Galla. We fpeak of thefe territories as they are in point of right; but when a nobleman of great power is governor of the province of Begemder, he. values not lefler rights, but unites them all to his province.
Begemder is the ftrength of Abyftinia in horfemen. It is" faid, that, with Lafta, it can bring out 45,000 men ; but
this
this, as far as ever I could inform myfelf, is a great exaggeration. They are exceeding good foldiers when they arc pleafed with their general, and the caufe for which they fight; otherwife, they are eafily divided, great many private interefts being continually kept alive, as it is thought induf-trioully, by government itfelf. It is well Rocked with cattle of every kind, all very beautiful. The mountains are full of iron-mines ; they are not fo Reep and rocky nor fo frequent, as in other provinces, if we except only Lalta, and abound in all fort of wild fowl and game.
The fouth end of the province near Nefas Mufa is cut into prodigious gullies apparently by floods, of which we have no hiftory. It is the great barrier againft the encroachments of the Galla; and, by many attempts, they have tried to make a fettlement in it, but all in vain. Whole tribes of them have been extinguifhed in this their endeavour.
In many provinces of Abyftinia, favour is rhe only neccf-fary to procure the government; others are given to poor noblemen, that, by fleecing the people, they may grow rich, and repair their fortune. But the confequence of Begemder is fo well known to the ftate, as reaching To near the metropolis, and fupplying it fo conftantly with all forts of provifions, that none but noblemen of rank, family, and character, able to maintain a large number of troops always on foot, and in good order, are trufted with its government.
Immediately next to this is Amhara, between the two rivers Baiinlo and. Gclhen.    The length of this country
-i from
from E. to W. is about 120 miles, and its breadth fomething more than 40. It is a very mountainous country, full of nobility ; the men are reckoned the handfomcil in Abyf-finia, as well as the braveff. With the ordinary arms, the lance and fhield, they are thought to be fuperior to double the number of any other foldiers in the kingdom. What, befidcs, added to the dignity of this province, was the high mountain of Gefhen, or the graffy mountain, whereon the king's fons were formerly imprifoned, till furprifed and murdered there in the Adelan war.
Between the two rivers Gefhen and Samba, is a low, un-wholefome, though fertile province, called Walaka; and fouthward of that is Upper Shoa. This province, or kingdom, was famous for the retreat it gave to the only remaining prince of the houfe of Solomon, who fled from the maffacre of his brethren by Judith, about the year 900, upon the rock of Damo. Here the royal family remained in fecurity, and increafed in number, for near 400 years, till they were reftored. From thenceforward, as long as the king refided in the fouth of his dominions, great tender-nefs and diftinction was fhewn to the inhabitants of this province ; and when the king returned again to Tigre, he a-bandoned them tacitly to their own government.
Amha Yasous, prince at this day, and lineal defendant of the governor who firft acknowledged the king, is now by connivance fovereign of that province. In order to keep himfelf as independent and feparate from the reft of Abyf-linia as poflible, he has facrificed the province of Walaka, which belonged to him, to the Galla, who, by his own dc-ftre, have furrounded Shoa on every fide.   But it is full of
the
l he braveft, beR horfemen, and beft accoutred beyond all com-parifon of any in Abyflinia, and, when they pleafe, they can difpofTcfs the Galla. Safe and independent as the prince of Shoa now is, he is Rill theloyalill, and the friend to monarchy he ever was ; and, upon any fignal dittrefs happening to the king, he never failed to fuccour him powerfully with gold and troops, far beyond the quota formerly due from his province. This Shoa boafls, likewife, the honour of being the native country of Tecla Haimanout, reftorer of the line of Solomon, the founder of the monaftery and Order of the monks of Debra Libanos, and of the power and wealth of the Abuna, and the clergy in general, of AbyfTmia.
Gojam, from north-call to fouth-eaft, is about 80 miles in length, and 40 in breadth. It is a very flat country, and all in paflure; has few mountains, but thefe are very high ones, and arc chiefly on the banks of the Nile, to the fouth, which river furrounds the province; fo that, to a perfon who fhould walk round Gojam, the Nile would be always on his left hand, from where it went fouth, falling out of the lake Tzana, till it turns north through Fazuclo into the country of Sennaar and Egypt.
Gojam is full of great herds of cattle, the largcfl in the high parts of Abyflinia. The men are in the lowcft eflceni a<5 foldiers, but the country is very populous. The Jefuits were fettled in many convents throughout the province, and are no where half fo much detcfled. The monks of Gojam are thofe of St Euftathius, which may be called the Low Church of Abyflinia. They are much inclined to turbulence in religious matters, and are, therefore, always made tools by difcontented people, who have no religion at alb
2 « On
On the fouth-eaft of the kingdom of Gojam is Damot. It is bounded by the Tcmci on the eaft, by the Gult on the weft, by the Nile on the fouth, and by the high mountains of Amid Amid on the north. It is about 40 miles in length from north to fouth, and fomething more than 20 in breadth from call to weft. But all this peninfula, furrounded with the river, is called Gojam, in general terms, from a line down through the fouth end of the lake to Mine, the paff-age of the Nile in the way to Narea.
It is furprifing the Jefuits, notwithftanding their long abode in Gojam, have not known where this neighbouring country of Damot was fituated, but have placed it fouth of the Nile. They were often, however, in Damot, when Sela Chriftos was attempting the conqueft and convcrfion of the Agows.
On the other fide of Amid Amid is the province of the i Agows, bounded by thofe mountains on the eaft ; by Bure and Umbarma, and the country of the Gongas, on the weft ; by Damot and Gafat upon the fouth, and Dingleber on the north.
All thofe countries from Abbo, fuch as Goutto, Aroofi, and Wainadcga, were formerly inhabited by Agows ; but, partly by the war with the Galla beyond the Nile, partly by their own conftant rebellions, this territory, called Ma-itfha, which is the flat country on both fides of the Nile, is quite uninhabited, and at laft hath been given to colonies of peaceable Galla, chiefly Djawi, who fill the whole low country to the foot of the mountains Aformafha, in place of the Agows, the firft occupiers.
Vol. Ilk K k Maitsha,
Ma its ha, from the flatnefs of the country, not draining foon after the rains, is in all places wet, but in many, miry and marfhy; it produces little or no corn, but depends entirely upon a plant called Enfete*, which furnifhcs the people both with wholefome and delicate food throughout the year. For the reft, this province abounds in large fine cattle, and breeds fome indifferent horfes.
Upon the mountains, above Maitfha, is the country of the Agows, the richeft province ftill in Abyflinia, not-with(landing the multitude of devaftations it has fuffered. They lie round the country above defcribed, from Aforma-fha to Quaquera, where are the heads of two large rivers, the Kelti and Branti. Thefe are called the Agows of Damot, from their nearnefs to that province, in contradiflinction to the Agows of Lafta, who are called Tchcratz-Agow, from Tchcra, a principal town, tribe, and diftric"t near Lafta and Begemder.
The Gafats, inhabiting a fmall diftricl adjoining to the Galla, have alfo diftincT: languages, fo have the Galla themfclves, of whom we have often fpoken ; they are a large nation.
From Dingleber all along the lake, below the mountains bounding Guefgue and Kuara, is called Dembea. This low province on the fouth of Gondar, and Woggora the fmall high province on the eaft, are all fown with wheat, and are the granaries of Abyftinia.   Dembea feems once to have
been
"Sec ihe tirtide enfete in the appendix.
been occupied entirely by the lake, and we fee all over it marks that cannot be miitaken, fo that this large extent of Water is vifibly upon the decreafe; and this agrees with what is obferved of ftagnant pools in general throughout the world. Dembea is called Atte-Kolla, the kings food, or maintenance, its produce being ailigned for the fupplying of the king's houfehold. It is governed by an officer called Cantiba; it is a lucrative poll; but he is not reckoned one of the great officers of the empire, and has no place - in council.
South from Dembea is Kuara, a very mountainous province confining upon the Pagan blacks, or Shangalla, called Gongas and Guba, the Macrobii of the ancients. It is a very unwholefome province, but abounding in gold, not of its own produce, but that of its neighbourhood, thefe Pagans—Guba, Nuba, and Shangalla. Kuara fignifies the fun, and Beja (that is Atbara, and the low parts of Sennaar, the country of the Shepherds, adjoining) fignifies the moon, in the language of thefe Shangalla. Thefe names are fome remains of their ancient fuperftitions. Kuara was the native country of the Iteghe, or queen-regent, of Kafmati Efhte, Welled de l'Oul, Gueta, Eufebius, and Palambaras Mammo,
In the low country of Kuara, near to Sennaar, there is a fettlement of Pagan blacks called Ganjar. They are moftly cavalry, and live entirely by hunting and plundering the Arabs of Atbara and Fazuclo. Their origin is this : Upon the invafion of the Arabs after the coming of Mahomet, the black flaves defcrted from their mafters, the Shepherds, and took up their habitation, where they have not confiderably
K k a multiplied,
multiplied, otherwife than by the accefllon of vagrants ami fugitives, whom they get from both kingdoms. They are generally under the command of the governor of Kuara, and were fo when I was in Abyifinia, though they refufcd to follow their governor Caque Abou Barea to right a-gainft Michael, but whether from fear or affection i know not; I believe the former.
The governor of Kuara is one of the great officers of Rate, and, being the king's lieutenant-general, has abfoluto power in his province, and carries -fendick and nagarcet. His kettle-drums are fdver, and his privilege is- to beat thefe drums even in marching through the capital, which no governor of a province is permitted to do, none but the king's nagareets or kettle-drums being fuffercd to be beat there, or any where in a town where the king is ; but the governor of Kuara is intitlcd to continue beating his drums till he comes to the foot of the outer flair of the king's palace. This privilege, from, fome good behaviour of the lirll officer to whom the command was given, was conferred upon the poll by David II. called Degami Daid, who conquered the province from the Shepherds, its old inhabitants,
Nara, and Ras el Feel, Tchelga, and on to Tcherkin, is a frontier wholly inhabited by Mahometans. Its government is generally given to a ftranger, often to a Mahometan, but one of that faith is always deputy-governor. The ufe of keeping troops here is to defend the friendly Arabs and Shepherds, who remain in their allegiance to Abyflinia, from ri-ie refentment of the Arabs of Sennaar, their neighbours ; a^d, by means of thefe friendly Arabs and Shepherds, fecure
a. con-
TH ESOURCEOFTHEN.il E. 261
a conftant fupply of horfes for the king's troops. It is a barren ftripe of a very hot, unwholcfomc country, full of thick woods, and lit only for hunting. The inhabitants, fugitives from all nations, arc chiefly Mahometans, but very bold and expert horfemen, ufing no other weapon but the broad fwortl, with which they attack the elephant and rhinoceros.
There arc many other fmall provinces, which occafion-ally arc annexed, and fometimes are feparated, fuch as Guef-gue, to theeaflward of Kuara ; Waldubba, between the rivers Guangue and Angrab; Tzcgadc and Walkayt on the well fide of Waldubba ; Abcrgalc and Selawa in the neighbourhood of Begemder; Temben, Dobas, Giannamora, Bur, and Engana, in the neighbourhood of Tigre, and many others*: Such at leafl: was the ftate of the country in my time, very different in all refpe&s from what it has been reprefented. As to the precedency of thefe provinces we fhall further fpeak, when we come to mention the officers of Rate and internal government in this country.
CHAP.
(gjfrtttaw-------■ —«Mswa—««lig
CHAP. XI.
Various Cujloms in Abyflinia fuuilar to thofe in p€ffia% &c.—A bloody
Banquet dtfribed, &i\
Tf-^OR the fake of regularity, I (hall here notice what X/ might clearly he inferred from what is gone before. The crown of Abyftinia is hereditary, and has always been fo, in one particular family, fuppofed to be that of Solomon by the queen of Saba, Ncgefla Azab, or queen of the fouth. It is neverthelefs elective in this line; and there is no law of the land, nor cuftom, which gives the cldeft fon an ex-clufive title to fuccccd to his father.
The practice has indeed been quite the contrary: when, at the death of a king, his fons are old enough to govern, and, by fome accident, not yet fent prifoners to the mountain, then the cldeft, or he that is next, and not confined, generally takes pofteftion of the throne by the ftrength of his father's friends ; but if no heir is then in the low country,
the
the choice of the king is always according to the will of the minifter, which paffes for that of the people; and, his inch-nation and intereil being to govern, he never fails to choofe an infant whom thereafter he directs, ruling the kingdom abfolutely during the minority, which generally exhaufts, or is equal to the term of his life.
From this flow all the misfortunes of this unhappy country. This very defect arifes from a dclirc to inffitute a more than ordinary perfect form of government; for the Abyf-finians firft pofition was, " Woe be to the kingdom whofe king is a child ;" and this they know muft often happen when fucceffion is left to the courfe of nature. But when there was a choice to be made out of two hundred pcrfons all of the fame family, all capable of reigning, it was their own fault, they thought, if they had not always a prince of proper age and qualification to rule the kingdom, according to the neceftities of the times, and to prcferve the fucceflion of the family in the houfe of Solomon, agreeable to the laws of the land. And indeed it has been this manner of reafoning, good at firft view, though found afterwards but too fallacious, which has ruined their kingdom in part, and often brought the whole into the utmoft hazard and jeopardy.
The king is anointed with plain oil of olives, which, being poured upon the crown of his head, he rubs into his long hair indecently enough with both his hands, pretty much as his foldiers do with theirs when they get accefs to plenty of butter.
T<IIfr:
The crown is made in the fhape of a prieftY mitre, Or head-piece; it is a kind of helmet, covering the king's forehead, cheeks, and neck. It is lined with blue tafiety; the outride is half gold and half fdver, of the moft beautiful fil-ligranc work.
The crown, in Joas's time, was burnt, with part of the palace, on that day when Ras Michael's dwarf was fhot in his own houfe before him. The prefent was lince made by the Greeks from Smyrna, who have large appointments here, and work with very great tafte and elegance, though they have not near fo much encouragement as formerly.
Upon the top of the crown was a ball of red glafs, or chryflal, with feveral bells of different colours within it. It feems to me to have formerly been no better than part of the ftopper of a glafs-decanter. 13c that as it may, it was loft in Yafous's time at the defeat of Sennaar, It was found, however, by a Mahometan, and brought by Guangoul, chief of the Bertuma Galla, to the frontiers of figrc, where Michael, governor of that province, went with an army in great ceremony to receive it, and, returning with it, gave it to king Yafous, making thereby a great advance towards the king's favour.
Some people *, among the other unwarranted things they have advanced, have faid, That, at the king's coronation, a gold ear-ring is put into his cars, and a drawn fword into his hand, and that all the people fall down and worfhip 2 him;
* Vid. Lc Giandc's Kid. of Aby^ma.
him; hut there is no fuch ceremony in ufe, and exhibitions of this kind, made by the, king in public, at no period feem to have fuited the genius of this people. Formerly his face was never feen, nor any part of him, excepting fometimes his foot. He fus in a kind of balcony, with lattice-window's and curtains before him. Even yet he covers his face on audiences or public occalions, and when in judgment. On cafes of trcafon, he fits within his balcony, and fpcaks through a hole in the fide of it, to an officer called Kal-f latze, the " voice or word of the king/' by whom he fends his queftions, or any thing elfe that occurs, to the judges who are feated at the council-table.
The king goes to church regularly, his guards taking poffeflion of every avenue and door through which he is to pafs, and nobody is allowed to enter with him, becaufe he is then on foot, excepting two officers of his bed-chamber who fupport him. He kiffes the thrcfhold and fidc-pofts of the church-door, the Reps before the altar, and then returns home: fometimes there is fervice in the church, fometimes there is not: but he takes no notice of the dif-ference. He rides up ftairs into the prcfence-chamber on a mule, and lights immediately on the carpet before his throne ; and I have fometimes feen great indecencies committed by the faid mule in the prefence-chamber, up a a Pcrfian carpet.
An officer called Serach Maficry, with a long whip, begins cracking and making a noife, worfe than twenty French poflillions, at the door of the palace before the dawn of day. This chafes away the hyaena and other wild beails; this, too, is the fignal for the king's riling, who fits in judg-
Vol. III. L 1 ment
merit every morning failing, and after that, about eight o'clock, he goes to breakfaft.
There are fix noblemen of the king's own choofing, who are called Baalomaal*, or gentlemen of his bed-chamber ; four of thefe arc always with him. There is a fe-venth, who is the chief of thefe, called Azeleffa el Camifha, groom of the robe, or ftole. He is keeper of the king's wardrobe, and the firft officer of the bed-chamber. Thefe officers, the black flaves, and fome others, ferve him as menial fcrvants, and are in a degree of familiarity with him unknown to the reft of the fubjects.
When the king fits to confult upon civil matters of confe-quence, he is fhut up in a kind of box oppofite to the headpf the council table. The perfons that deliberate fit at the table* and, according to their rank, give their voices, the youngeft or loweft officer always fpeaking firft. The firft that give their votes are the Shalaka, or colonels of the houfehold-troops. The fecond are the great butlers, men that have the charge of the king's drink. The third is the Badjerund, or keeper of that apartment in the palace called the lions houfe; and after thefe the keeper of the banqueting-houfe. The next is called Lika Magwafs, an officer that always goes before the king to hinder the preftlire of the crowd. In war, when the king is marching, he rides conftantly round him at a certain diftance, and carries his fhield, and his lance ; at {eaft lie carries a fdver fhield, and a lance pointed with the fame metal, before fuch kings as do not choofe to expofe their perfon. That, however, was not the cafe in my time, as the king carried the fhield himfelf, black and unadorn-
* IUsJonia.il, wl i.hy literally uajiflat.cd,.,is, Mailer of hu effeils, or goods*
ed, of good buffalo's hide, and his fpcar fharp-pointed with iron. His filver ornaments were only ufed when the campaign was over, when thefe were carried by this oflk-er. Great was the refpecT mewed formerly to this king in war, and even when engaged in battle with rebels, his own iub-jects.
No prince ever loft his life in battle till the coming of the Europeans into Abyftinia, when both the excommunicating and murdering of their fovereigns fcem to have been introduced at the fame time. The reader will fee, in the courfe of this hiftory, two inftances of this refpedt being ftill kept up : the one at the battle of Limjour, where Fafil, pretending that he was immediately to attack Ras Michael, defired that the king might be dreffed in his infignia, left, not being known, he might be llain by the ftranger Galla. The next was after the battle of Scrbraxos, where the king was thrice in one day engaged with the Begemder troops for a confiderable fpace of time. Thefe infignia, or marks of royalty, are a white horfe, with fmall fdver bells at his head, a lhield of filver, and a white fillet of fine filk or muf-lin, but generally the latter, fome inches broad, which is tied round the upper part bf the head over his hair, with a large double or bow-knot behind, the ends hanging down to the fmall of his back, or elfc flying in the air.
After the Lika Magwafs comes thePalambaras; after him the Fit-Auraris ; then the Gcra Kafmati, and the Kanya Kafma-« ti, their names being derived from their rank or order in encamping, the one on the right, the other on the left of the kings tent; Kanya and Cera fignifying the right and the left\ after them the Dakakin Billetana Gueta, or the under
L 1 2 chamberlain.
chamberlain; then the fccretary* for the king's commands; after him the right and left Azages, or generals ; after them Rak Maffery, after him the bafha, after him Kafmati of Damot, then of Samen, then Amhara, and, laft of all, Tigre, before whom Rands a golden cup upon a cu-fhion, and he is called Ncbrit, as being governor of Axum, or keeper of the book of the law fuppofcd to be there.
After the governor of Tigre comes the Acab Saat, or guardian of the fire, and the chief ecclefiaftical officer of the king's houfehold. Some have faid that this officer was appointed to attend the king at the time of eating, and that* it was his province to order both meat and drink to be withdrawn whenever he law the king inclined to excefs. If this was really his office, he never ufed it in my time, nor, as far as I could learn, for feveral reigns before. Bcfides, no king eats in public, or before any perfon but flaves; and lie never would chufe that time to commit excefs, in which he might be controuled by a fubjeer, even if it was that fub-jecl's right to be prefent when the king cats, as it is not.
After the Acab Saat comes the firft maftcr of the houfehold ; then the Betwudet, or Ras; laft of all the king gives his fentence, which is final, and fends it to the table, from the balcony where he is then fitting, by the officer called, as aforementioned, Kal-Hatze.
\Ve meet in Abyftinia with various ufages, which many have hitherto thought to be peculiar tQ thofe ancient nations
* HaUe Asuxe,
tions in which they were firft obferved; others, not fo learned, have thought they originated in Abyflinia. I fhall firft take notice of thofe that regard the king and court.
The kings of Perfia*, like thefe wc are fpeaking of, were eligible in one family only, that of the Arfacidnc, and it was not till that race failed they chofe Darius. The title of the king of Abyftinia is, King of Kings; and fuch Daniel f tells us was that of Nebuchadnezzar. The right of primogeniture does not fo prevail in Abyftinia as to exclude election in the perfon of the younger brothers, and this was like wife the cafe in Perfia J.
In Perfia § a preference was underftood to be due to the king's lawful children; but there were inftanccs of the natural child being preferred to the lawful one. Darius, tho' abaftard, was preferred to Ifogius, Xerxes's lawful fon, and that merely by the election of the people. The fame has always obtained in Abyftinia. A very great part of their kings are adulterous baftards; others are the iftiic of concubines, as we fhall fee hereafter, but they have been preferred to the crown by the influence of a party, always under name of the Voice of the People..
Although the Pcrfian kings || had various palaces to which they removed at different times m the year, Pa£agai> da, the metropolis of their ancient kings, was obferved as
the
* Strabo, lib. xv. p. 7S3. Jo&ph. lib. xviii. cap. 3. Procop. lib. t. de Bel Pets ■f Dan. chap. 1? \ Procop. lib, i. cap. 11. § An'an, Lb. it. rap. 14. |j Flu* in Artax. iii. xv. p. 730.
the only place for their coronation ; and this, too, was the cafe of Abyflinia with their metropolis of Axum.
The next remarkable ceremony in which thefe two nations agreed, is that of adoration, inviolably obferved in A-byflmia to this day, as often as you enter the fovereign's prefence. This is not only kneeling*, but an abfolute pro-ftration. You firft fall upon your knees, then upon the palms of your hands, then incline your head and body till your forehead touch the earth; and, in cafe you have an anfwer to expect:, you lie in that pofture till the king, or fomebody from him, defires you to rife. This, too, was the cuftom of Perfia; Arrian f fays this was firft inftituted by Cyrus, and this was precifely the pofture in which they a-dorcd God, mentioned in the book of Exodus.
Though the refufal of this ceremony would, in Abyftinia and Perfia, be looked upon as rebellion or infult, yet it feems in both nations to have met with a mitigation with regard to ftrangers, who have refufed it without giving any offence. I remember a Mahometan being twice fent by the prince of Mecca into Abyftinia during my flay there, who, neither time, would go farther than to put his hands acrofs upon his breaft, with no very great inclination of his head; and this I faw was not thought fo extraordinary as to give offence, as it was all he did to his own fovereign and mailer.
We read, indeed, of a very remarkable inftance of the difpenfmg with that ceremony being indirectly, yet plain-
4 lY*
* Lucretius, lib. v. Ovid. Metam. lib. i. Lucian, in Navig. | Arrian, lib. iv. cap. 11.   Exod. chap. 4.   Matth. chap. 2.
ly, refufrd in Perfia to ftrangers. Conon *, the Athenian, had occafion for an interview with Artaxerxes, k ng of Perfia, upon matters of great concern to both ftates ; " You fhall be introduced to the king by me, fays the Perfian minifter to Conon, without any delay ; do you only firft confider with yourfelf, whether it is really of any confequence that you fhould fpeak with the king yourfelf, or whether it would not be as well for you to convey to him, by letter, any thing you have to fay; for it is abfolutely neceflary, if you are introduced into the king's prefence, that you fall down upon your face and worfhip him. If this is difagreeable or oilenfive to you, your bufinefs fhall neverthelefs be equally well and quickly done by me." To which Conon very fenfibly replied, " For my part, it never can be oiTeniivc to me to fhew every degree of refpect. poffible to the perfon of a king. I only am afraid that this falutation may be mifintcrpretcd by my citizens, who, being themfelvcs a fovereign Rate, may look upon this fubmiflion of their amballador as a reproach to themfelvcs,and inconfiftent with their independency." Conon, therefore, defired to wave his introduction, and that his bufinefs might be done by letters, which was complied with accordingly.
I have already mentioned tranfiently the circumfiance of the king not being feen when fitting in council. The manner of it is this : When he had bufinefs formerly, he fat conilantly in a room of his palace, which communicated with the audience and council by two folding doors or
large
* Juitin, lib. vi. Orail. Prob,
large windows, the bottom of which were about three Reps from the ground. Thefe doors, or windows, were latticed with crofs bars of wood like a cage, and a thin curtain, or veil of talfety filk was hung within it; fo that, upon darkening the inner chamber, the king faw every perfon in the chamber without, while he himfelf was not feen at all. J aft in * tells us, that the perfon of the king of Perfia was hid to give a greater idea of his majefty ; and under Deioces, king of the Medes, a law was made that nobody might look upon the king ; but the conftant wars in which Abyff has been engaged, fince the Mahometans took poffeflion of Adel, have occafioned this troublefomc cuftom to be wholly laid afide, unlefs on particular public occafions, and at council, when they are ftill obferved with the ancient ftrictnefs. And wc find, in the hiftory of Abyftinia, that the army and kingdom have often owed their fafety to the perfonal behaviour and circumftancc of the king diftinguifhing and expo-fmg himfelf in battle, which advantage they mult have loft had the ancient cuftom been obferved. However, to this day, when he is abroad riding, or fitting in any of his apartments at home where people arc admitted, his head and forehead are perfectly covered, and one of his hands covers his mouth, fo that nothing but his eyes are feen; his feet, too, are always covered.
We learn from Apuleus, that this was a cuftom in Perfia* and this gave an opportunity to the magi to place Oropaf* tus, the brother of Cambyfes, upon the throne, inftcad of Merdis who fhould have fucceeded ; but the covering of the face made the difference pafs unperceived.
* Juftin, lib. 2.
It is the conftant practice in Abyftinia to befet the king's doors and windows within his hearing, and there, from -early morning to night, to cry for juftice as loud as poftible, in a diftreffed and complaining tone, and in all the different languages they are mailers of, in order to their being admitted to have their fuppofed grievances heard. In a country fo ill governed as Abyflinia is, and fo perpetually involved in war, it may be eafily fuppofed there is no want of people, who have real injuries and violence'to complain of: But if it were not fo, this is fo much the conftant ufagc, that when it happens (as in the midft of the rainy feafon) that few people can approach the capital, or Hand without in fuch bad weather, a fet of vagrants are provided, maintained, and paid, whofe fole bufinefs it is to cry and lament, as if they had been really very much injured and oppreffed ; and this they tell you is for the king's honour, that he may not be lonely by the palace being too quiet. This, of all their abfurd cuftoms, was the moft grievous and troublefome to me ; and, from a knowledge that it was fo, the king, when he was private, often permitted himfelf a piece of rather odd diveriion to be a royal one.
There would fometimes, while I was bufy in my room in the rainy feafon, be four or five hundred people, who all at once would begin, fome roaring and crying, as if they were in pain, others demanding juftice, as if they were that moment fullering, or if in the inftant to be put to death; and fome groaning and fobbing as if juft expiring; and this horrid fymphony was fo artfully performed that no car could diftinguifh but that it proceeded from real diftrefs. I was often fo furprifed as to fend the foldiers at the door to bring in one of them, thinking him come from the country,
Vol, III. M m to
to examine who had injured him ; many a time he was a fervant of my own, or fome other equally known; or, if he was a ftrangcr, upon aiking him what misfortune had befallen him, he would anfwer very compofedly, Nothing was the matter with him ; that he had been fteepmg all day with the horfes ; that hearing from the foldiers at the door I was retired to my apartment, he and his companions had come to cry and make a noife under my window, to do me honour before the people, for fear I ihould be melancholy, by being too quiet when alone ; and therefore hoped that I would order them drink, that they might continue with a little more fpirit. The violent anger which this did often put me into did not fail to be punctually reported to the king, at which he would laugh heartily; and he himfelf was often hid not far olf, for the fake of being a fpecfator of my heavy difpleafure.
These complaints, whether real or feigned, have always for their burden, Rctc 0 Jan hoi, which, repeated quick, very much refembles Prete Janni, the name that was given to this prince, of which we never yet knew the derivation; its fignification is, w Do me juftice, O my king!"
Herodotus * tells us, that in Perfia, the people, in great crowds and of both fexes, come roaring and crying to the doors of the palace ; and Intaphcrnes is alfo faid to come to the door of the king making great lamentations.
I HAVl
• Herod, lib. iii.
I have mentioned a council of Rate held in Abyflinia in time of danger or difficulty, where the king fitting inviftble, though prefent, gives his opinion by an officer called Kal-Hatze. Upon his delivering the fentence from the king the whole affembly rife, and Rand upon their feet; and this they muft have done the whole time the council lafted had the king appeared there in perfon. According to the cir-cumftances of the time, the king goes with the majority, or not; and if, upon a divifion, there is a majority againR him, he often punifhes the majority on the other fide, by fending them to prifon for voting againft his fentiments; for tho' it is underftood, by calling of the meeting, that the majority is to determine as to the eligibility of the mcafure, the king, by his prerogative, fuperfedes any majority on the other fide, and fo far, I fuppofc, has been an encroachment upon the original conftitution. This I undcrftand was the fame in Perfia.
Xerxes *, being about to declare war againft the Greeks, affembled all the principal chiefs of Afia in council. " That I may not, fays he, be thought to acl only by my own judgment, I have called you together. At the fame time, I think proper to intimate to you, that it is your duty to obey my will, rather than enter into any deliberation or re-monftrances of your own."
We will now compare fome particulars, the drefs and ornaments of the two kings. The king of Abyflinia wears his hair long ; fo did the ancient kings of Perfia. We learn
M m 2 this
* Herod, lib. vi.
this cireumftancc from Suetonius and Aurelius Victor*. A comet had appeared in the war with Perfia, and was looked-upon by the Romans as a bad omen. Vcfpaiian laughed at. it, and faid, if it portended any ill it was to the king of Perfia, becaufe, like him, it wore long hair.
The diadem was, with the Perfians, a mark of royalty, asr with the Abyffmians, being compofed of the fame materials, and worn in the fame maimer. The king of Abyffmiar wears it, while marching, as a mark of fovercignty, that, does not impede or incommode him, as any other heavier; ornament would do, efpccially in hot weather. This fillet fur rounds his head above the hair, leaving the crown perfectly uncovered. It is an offence of the firft magnitude foi\ any perfon, at this time, to wear any tiling.upon his head,, cfpecially white, unlefs for Mahometans, who wear caps„ and over them a large white turban ; or for priefts, who; wear large turbans of muflin alfo..
This wTas the diadem of the Perfians, as appears from-Lucian f, who calls it a wdiite fillet about the forehead. In; the dialogue between Diogenes and Alexander, the head is faid to be tied round with a white fillet $; and Favorinus,. fpeaking of Pompey, whofe leg was wound round with a wdtite bandage, fays, It is no matter on what part of the body he wears a diadem. We read in Juftin ||, that Alexander, leaping from his horfe,by accident wounded Lyfimachus in the forehead with the point of his fpear, and the blood
gufhed
* Suet. Vefpas.eap. 23, Sex. Anrel. Victor, cap. 23. f Lucian. de Votis ceu in Na-vlgio,   LTdras, jib, iii. % Valer. Maxim, lib. vi. cap. 2. || Juftin lib. xr.
gufhed out fo violently that it could not be Ranched, tiil the king took the diadem from his head, and with it bound up the wound; which at that time was looked upon as an omen that Lyfimachus was to be king, and fa it foon after happened.
The kings of Abyflinia anciently fat upon a gold throne; which is a large, convenient, oblong, fquare feat, like a fmalt bed-Read, covered with Perfian carpets, damafk, and cloth of gold, with Reps leading, up to it. . It is flill richly gilded; but the many revolutions and wrars have much abridged their ancient magnificence. The portable throne was a gold ftool, like that curule Rool or chair ufed by the Romans, which we fee on medals. It wasj in the Begemder war; changed to a very beautiful one of the fame form inlaid with gold. Xerxes is faid to have been fpecfator of a naval fight fitting upon a gold Rool.*.
It is, in Abyflinia, high-treafon to fit upon any feat of the king's ; and he that pre fumed to do this would be in-ftantly hewn to pieces, if there was not fome other collateral proof of his being a madman* The reader will find, in the courfe of my'hiftory, a very ridiculous accident on this fubjeel, in the king's tent, with Guangoul, king of the Ber-tuma Galla.
It is probable that Alexander had heard of this law in Perfia, and disapproved of it; for one day, it being extremely cold, the king, fitting in his chair before the fire, warming
* PhiJoflrat. lib., ii.;
ing and chafllng his legs, faw a foldier, probably a Pcrfian, who had loft his feeling by extreme numbnefs. The king immediately leaped from his chair, and ordered the foldier to be fet down upon it. The fire foon brought him to his fenfes, but he had almoft loft them again with fear, by finding himfelf in the king's feat. To whom Alexander faid, " Remember, and diftinguifh, how much more advantage-" ous to man my government is than that of the kings " of Perfia*. By fitting down on my feat, you have faved " your life; by fitting on theirs, you would infallibly have * loft it."
In Abyflinia it is confidered as a fundamental law of the land, that none of the royal family, who has any deformity or bodily defect, fhall be allowed to fuccced to the crown; and, for this purpofc, any of the princes, who may have cfcaped from the mountain of Wechne, and who are afterwards taken, are mutilated in fome of their members, that thus they may be disqualified from ever fucceeding. In Perfia the fame was obferved. Procopius f tells us, that Za-mcs, the fon of Cabades, was excluded from the throne becaufe he was blind of one eye, the law of Perfia prohibiting any perfon that had a bodily defect to be elected king.
The kings of Abyftinia were feldom feen by their fub-jects, Juftin £ fays, the Perfians hid the perfon of their king to increafe their reverence for his majefty. And it was a law of Dcioccs §, king of the Medcs, that nobody fhould be
permitted
* Val. Max. lib. v, cap. 16.—Curt. lib. viii. t Procop. lib. i. cap. 11.
t Juftin. lib. i. $ IleroJ. lib. i.
permitted to fee the king; which regulation was as ancient as the time of Semiramis, whofe fon, Nmyas,is fud to have grown old in the palace, without ever having been known by being feen out of it.
This abfurd ufage gave rife to many abufes. In Perfia* it produced two officers, who were called the king's eyes, and the king's car, and who had the dangerous employment, I mean dangerous for the fubject,of feeing and hearing for their fovereign. In Abyflinia, as I have juft faid, it created an officer called the king's mouth, or voice, for, being feen by nobody, he fpoke of courfe in the third perfon, " Hear what the king fays to you, which is the ufual form of all regal mandates in Abyllinia; and what follows has the force of law. In the fame ftile, Jofephus thus begins an edict of Cyrus king of Perfia, " Cyrus the king fays I,"—And fpeak-ing of Cambyfes's refcript, " Cambyfes the king fays thus"— And Efdras alfo, " Thus faith Cyrus king of Perfia J,"— And Nebuchadnezzar fays to Holofernes, " Thus faith the Great King, Lord of the whole earth §;"—and this was probably the origin of edicls, when writing was little ufed by fovereigns, and little underftood by the fubject.
Solemn hunting-matches were always in ufe both with the kings of Abyftinia and thofe of Perfia ||. In borh kingdoms it was a crime for a fubject to llrike the game till fuch time as the king had thrown his lance at it. This abfurd cuftom was repealed by Artaxcrxes Longimanus in one
kingdom ;
* Dio. Chryfoll. Orat, 3. pro regno. f Jo(cy\u lib. xi. cap. 1. % Efdra3, cap. 5.
$ Judith., cap. 2. f| Ctcfias in Perlicis.   Xsnephon, lib. L.
kingdom*, and by Yafous the Great in the other, fo late as the beginning of the laR century.
The kings of Abymnia are above all laws. They are fupreme in all caufes ecclefiaflical and civil; the land and perfons of their fubjeefs are equally their property, and every inhabitant of their kingdom is born their Have'; if he bears a higher rank it is by the king's gift; for his neareft relations are accounted nothing better. The fame obtained in Perfia. Ariftotle calls the Pcrlian generals and nobles, flaves of the great king-f. Xerxes, reproving Pytheus the Lydian when feeking to excufe one of his fons from going to war, fays, " You that are my Have, and bound to follow me with your wife and all your family—And Go-bryas§ fays to Cyrus, " I deliver myfelf to you, at once your companion and your flavc."
The-re are feveral kinds of bread in Abyftinia, fome of different forts of tefF, and fome of tocuffo, which alfo vary in quality. The king of Abyflinia eats of wheat bread, though not of every wheat, but of that only that grows in the province of Dembea, therefore called the king's food. It was fo with the kings of Perfia, who ate wheat bread, Herodotus fays, but only of a particular kind, as we learn from Strabo ||.
I have fhewn, in the courfe of the foregoing hiftory, that it always has been, and ftill is the cuftom of the kings of
2 Abyflinia
* Plutarch, in Apothegms, f De Mimdo. J Herod lib. vii. § Xcnc^h, lib. iv. ,|| Strabo lib.xT,
Abyftinia, to marry what number of wives they chooi ; that thefe were not, therefore, all queens ; but that among them there was one who was oniidered particularly as queen, and upon her head was placed the crown, and ihe was called Iteghe.
Thus, in Perfia, we read that Ahafuerus loved Efther*, who had found grace in his fight more than the other virgins, and he had placed a golden crown upon her head. And Jofephus j- informs us, that, when EftherJ was brought before the king, he was exceedingly delighted with her, and made her his lawful wife, and when fhe came into the palace he put a crown upon her head : whether placing the crown upon the queen's head had any civil effceft as to regency in Perfia as it had in Abyftinia, is what hiftory does not inform us.
I n ave already obferved, that there is an officer called Serach Maflery, wdro watches before the king's gate all night, and at the dawn of day cracks a whip to chacc the wild beafts out of the town. This, too, is the fignal for the king to rife, and fit down in his judgment- feat. The fame cuftom was obferved in Perfia. Early in the morning an officer entered the king's chamber, and faid to him " A-rifc, O king! and take charge of thofe matters which Oro-mafdes has appointed you to the care of."
Vol. III. N n The
"* Either, chap. ii. f Jofeph. lib. xi. cap. 6.
J If I remember right, it is D. Pridcaux that fay* Eilher is a Perfian word, of no fig-r.ification. I rather think it is Abyffinian, becaufe it has a fignification in that language. Efhte, the mafculiue, fignifies an agreeable prefent, and is a proper name, of which Either is the feminine.
The king of Abyflinia never is feen to walk, nor to fet his foot upon the ground, out of his palace ; and when he-would difmount from the horfe or mule on which he rides, he has a fervant with a Rool, who places it properly for him for that purpofe. He rides into the anti-chamber to the foot of his throne, or to the Rool placed in the alcove of his tent. We are told by Athenaeus *, fuch was the practice in Perfia, whofe king never fet his foot upon the ground out of his palace.
The king of Abyffinia very often judges capital crimes himfelf. It is reckoned a favourable judicature, fuch as, Claudian fays, that of a king in perfon fhould be, " Piger ad pa?nas, adpramia velox" No man is condemned by the king in perfon to die for the firft fault, unlefs the crime be of a horrid nature, fuch as parricide or facrilcge. And, in general, the life and merits of the prifoner are weighed againft his immediate guilt; fo that if his firft behaviour has had more merit towards the ftate than his prefent delinquency is thought to have injured it, the one is placed fairly againft die other, and the accufed is generally abfolved when the: fovereign judges alone.
Herodotus f praifes this as a maxim of the kings of Perfia in capital judgments, almoft in the very words that I have juft now ufed ; and he gives an inftance of it:—Darius had condemned Sandoces, one of the king's judges, to be crucified for corruption, that is, for having given falfe judgment for a bribe. The man was already hung up on the crofs, when the king, confidering with himfelf how many
good
* Athen^lib. xii. cap. 2.
-J- Herod, lib. via.
good fervices he had done, previous to this, the only ofFencc which he had committed, ordered him to be pardoned.
The Perfian king, in all expeditions, was attended by judges. We find in Herodotus *, that, in the expedition of Gambyfcs, ten of the principal Egyptians were condemned to die by thefe judges for every Perfian that had been llain by the people of Memphis. Six judges always attend the king of Abyflinia to the camp, and, before them, rebels taken on the field are tried and punifhed on the fpot.
People that the king diftinguifhed by favour, or for any public action, were in both kingdoms prefented with gold chains, fwords, and bracelets f. Thefe in Abyflinia are un-dcrflood to be chiefly rewards of military fervice ; yet Poncet received a gold chain from Yafous the Great. The day before the battle of Serbraxos, Ayto Engedan received a filver bridle and faddle, covered with filver plates, from Ras Michael; and the night after that battle I was myfelf honoured with a gold chain from the king upon my reconciliation with Guebra Mafcal, wdio, for his behaviour that day, had a large revenue moft defervedly aftigned to him, and a confiderable territory, conlifting of a number of rich villages, a prefent known to be more agreeable to him than a mere mark of honour.
A stranger of fafhion, particularly recommended as I *was, not needy in point of money, nor depending from day to day upon government for fubftftence, is generally provi-
N n2 ded
* Herod, lib, iii.
f Xenoph, lib. i, Xenoph. lib. viii..
tied with one or more villages to furnifh him with what articles he may need, without being obliged to have recourfe to the king or his minifters for every necelfary. Amha Yafous, prince of Shoa, had a large and a royal village, Em-fras, given him to fupply him with food for his table ; he had another village in Karoota for wine; a village in Dembea, the king's own province, for his wheat; and another in Begemder for cotton cloths for his fcrvants ; and fo of the reft.   After I was in the king's fervice I had the villages that belonged to the polls I occupied; and one called Gccib, in which arifes the fources of the Nile, a village of about 18 houfes, given me by the king at my own rcqucft; for I might have had a better to furnifh me with honey, and confirmed to me by the rebel Waragna Fafil, who never fullered me to grow rich by my rents, having never allowed mc to receive but two large jars, fo bitter with lupines that they were of no fort of ufe to me. I was a gentle mailer, nor ever likely to be opulent from the revenues of that country; and more cfpccially fo, as I had under me, as my lieutenant*, an officer commanding the horfe, whofe thoughts were much more upon Jerufalem and the holy fepulchre than any gains he could get in Abyftinia by his employments.
Thucydides f informs us, that Themiftocles had received great gifts from Artaxcrxes king of Perfia, when fettled at Magnefta; the king had given him that city for bread, Lamp-
facus
* Ammonios, Billctana Gueta to Ayto Confu. t Thucyd. lib. i.   Strabo, lib. xiv,   Thcod. Sic. Jib. si.
facus for wine, and Myuns to furniih him with victuals. To thefe Athenaeus adds two more, Pabefcepfis and Percopc, to yield him clothing and furniture. This precifely, to this day, is the Abyflinian idea, when they conceive they are entertaining men of rank ; for Rrangers, that come naked and vagabond among them, without name and character, or means of fubfiftence, fuch as the Greeks in Abyftinia, arc always received as beggars, and neglected as fuch, till hunger fets their wits to work to provide for the prefent exigency, and low intrigues and practices are employed afterwards to maintain them in the little advancements which they have acquired, but no honour or confidence follows, or very rarely.
In Abyflinia, when the prifoner is condemned in capital cafes, he is not again remitted to prifon, which is thought cruel, but he is immediately carried away, and the fen-tence executed upon him. I have given feveral inftanccs of this in the annals of the country. Abba Salama, the Acab Saat, was condemned by the king the morning he entered Gondar, on his return from Tigre, and immediately hanged, in the garment of a pried, on a tree at the door of the king's palace. Chremation, brother to the ufurper Socinios, was executed that fame morning; Guebra Denghcl, Ras Michael's fon-in-law, was like wife executed that fame day, immediately after judgment; and fa Were feveral others, fhe kune was the practice in Perfia, as we learn from Xcnophon *, and more plainly from Diodorus f.
The
* Xeiujgh. lib. i.
f Diud. iij. xii.
The capital punilhmcnts in AbylTinia arc the crofs. So-cinios * firft ordered Arzo, his competitor, who had Red for ailiftancc and refuge to Pbineas king of the Ealafba, to be crucified without the camp. We find the fame punifh-ment inflicted byArraxcrxes upon Haman !, who was ordered to be affiled to the crofs till he died. And Polycrates of Samos, Cicero tells us j, was crucified by order of Oralis, praetor of Darius.
The next capital punifhmcnt is flaying alive. That this •barbarous execution ftill prevails in Abyftinia is already proved by the fate of the unfortunate Woofheka, taken prifoner in the campaign of 1769 while I was in Abyftinia; a facrifice made to the vengeance of the beautiful Ozoro Efther, who, kind and humane as fhe was in other refpecls, could receive no atonement for the death of her hufband. Socrates § fays, that Manes the heretic was flayed alive by order of the king of Perfia, and his fkin made into a bottle. And Procopius || informs us, that Pacurius ordered Baficius to be flayed alive, and his fkin made into a bottle and hung upon a high tree. And Agathias * mentions, that the fame punifhment was inflicted upon Nachorages more majorum, according to ancient' cuftom.
Lapidation, or ftoning to death, is the next capital puniilimcnt in Abyftinia. This is chiefly inflicted upon ftrangers called Franks, for religious caufes.   The Catholic
priefts
* Vide annals of Abyflinia, life of Socinios. \ Cicero, lib. v. de Finib.
11 Procop. lib. i. cap. 5. de Bell. Pers.
f Either, chap, vii, and viii. § Ecckiiaft. Hiftor. chap. xxii. 4 Agath. lib. iii.
priefts in Abyflinia that have been detected there, in thefe latter days, have been ftoned to death, and their bodies lie ftill in the ftreets of Gondar, in the fquarcs or wafte-places, covered with the heaps of ftones which occafioned their death by being thrown at them. There are three of thefe heaps at the church of Abbo, all covering Francifcan friars; and, beftdes them, a fmall pyramid over a boy who was ftoned to death with them, about the firft year of the reign of David the IV. * This boy was one of four fons that one of the Francifcan friars had had by an Abyflinian woman in the reign of Ouftas. In Perfia we find, that Pa-gorafus (according to Ctefias f) was ftoned to death by the order of the king ; and the fame author fays, that Pharna-cyas, one of the murderers of Xerxes, was ftoned to death likewife.
Among capital punifhments may be reckoned likewife the plucking out of the eyes, a cruelty which I have but too often feen committed in the fhort flay that I made in Abyflinia. This is generally inflicted upon rebels. I have already mentioned, that, after the {laughter of the battle of Fagitta, twelve chiefs of the Pagan Galla, taken prifoncrs by Ras Michael, had their eyes torn out, and were afterwards a-bandoned to ftarve in the valleys below the town. Several prifoncrs of another rank, noblemen of Tigre, underwent the fame misfortune ; and, what is wonderful, not one of them died in the operation, nor its confequences, though performed in the coarfeft manner with an iron forceps, or pincers.
3 Xcnophon
See tliis hiftory of Abyftinia in fit, David IV. f Vide Cttf.ani Ilockerii^.
Xenophon * tells us, that this was one of the punifhments ufed by Cyrus. And Ammianus Marcellinus f mentions, that Sapor king of Perfia baniihcd Arfaces, whom he had taken prifoncr to a certain caflle, after having pulled out his eyes.
The dead bodies of criminals llain for treafon, murder, and violence, on the high-way at certain times, are feldom buried in Abyflinia. The ftreets of Gondar are ftrewed with pieces of their carcafes, which bring the wild beafts in multitudes into the city as foon as it becomes dark, fo that it is fcarcely poflible for any to walk in the night. Too many inftances of this kind will be found throughout my narrative. The dogs ufed to bring pieces of human bodies into the houfe, and court-yard, to cat them in greater fecurity. This was moft difguftful to me, but fo often repeated, that I was obliged to leave them in poilcftion of fuch fragments. We learn from Quintus Curtius J, that Darius having ordered Charidamus to be put to death, and finding afterwards that he was innocent, endeavoured to flop the executioner, though it was too late, as they had already cut his throat; but, in token of repentance, the king allowed him the liberty of burial.
I have taken notice, up and down throughout my hiftory, that the Abfftmiahs never fight in the night. This too was a rule among tne Pcriians ||.
i Notwithstanding
* Xer.c..-h. hb. i. + Amm. Mar. lib. vii. |     Curt. lib. iii. 2,19-
|| Q. Curt. v. 12.
Notwithstanding the AbyfTmians were fo anciently and nearly connected with Egypt, they never feem to have made ufe of paper, or papyrus, but imitated the practice of the Perfians, who wrote upon fkns, and they do fo this day. This arifes from their having early been Jews. In Parthia, likewife, Pliny* informs us, tire ufe of papyrus was ab-folutely unknown ; and though it was discovered that papyrus grew in the Euphrates, near Babylon, of which they could make paper, they obltinately rather chofe to adhere to their ancient cuftom of weaving their letters on cloth of which they made their garments. The Perfians, moreover, made ufe of parchment for their records f, to which all their remarkable tranfactions were trufted ; and to this it is probably owing we have fo many of their cuftoms prcfeived to this day. Diodorus Siculus $, fpcaking of Ctcfias,fays, he verified every thing from the royal parchments themfelvcs, which, in obedience to a certain bw, arc all placed in order, and afterwards were communicated to the Greeks.
From this great refemblancc in cuftoms between the Perfians and Abyftinians following the fafliionable way of judging about the origin of nations, I .fhould boldly conclude that the Abyftinians were a colony of Perfians, but this is very well known to be without foundation. The cuftoms, mentioned as only peculiar to Perfia, were common to all the eaft ; and they were loft when thofe countries were over-run and conquered by thofe who introduced barbarous cuftoms of their own.   The reafon why wc have fo much
Vol. III. O o left
* Plin. nift. Nat. lib. xiii. cap. n.      f Tlin. lib. xiii. cap. ii.      .j. Diod. Sic. lib*ii.
left of the Perfian cuftoms is, that they were written, and fo not liable to alteration ; and, being on parchment, did alfo contribute to their preservation. The hiftory which treats of thofe ancient and polifhed nations has preferved few fragments of their manners entire from the ruins of time ; while Abyftinia, at war with nobody, or at war with itfelf only, has preferved the ancient cuftoms which it enjoyed in common with all the eaft, and which were only loft in other kingdoms by the invafton of ftrangcrs, a misfortune Abyftinia has never fullered fince the introduction of letters,
Before I finifh what I have to fay upon the manners of this nation, having fhewn that they are the fame people with the ancient Egyptians, I would inquire, whether there is the fame conformity of rules in the dietetique regimen, between them and Egypt, that we fhould expect to find from fuch relation? This is a much furer way of judging than, by rcfemblance of external cuftoms..
The old Egyptians, as we are told by facrcd fcripture, did not eat with ftrangcrs; but I believe the obfervation is extended farther than ever fcripture meant. The inftance-given of Jofcph's brethren not being allowed to eat with the Egyptians was, becaufe Jofeph had told Pharaoh that his brethren *, and Jacob his father, were fhepherds, that he might get from, the Egyptians the land of Gofhen, a land*, as the name imports, of pafturage and grafs> which the Nile never overflowed, and it was therefore in polfcffion of the
fhepherds,.
" IJ--j-■ ■■   ... ---------........--.-,---,-—--t
* GeneGs, chap, xlyii. ver. 4.
fhephcrds. Now the fhephcrds, we arc told, were the direct natural enemies of the Egyptians who lived in towns. The ihepherds alfo facriiiced the god whom the Egyptians worfhipped. Wc cannot (fays Mofes *) facrifice in this land the abomination of the Egyptians, left they ftone us. If the Egyptians did not cat with them, fo neither would they with the Egyptians; but it is a miftake that the Egyptians did not eat flefh as well as the fhephcrds, it was only the fteih of certain animals they differed on, and did not eat.
The Egyptians worfhipped the cow f, and die fliephor-Jj lived upon her flefh, which made them a feparate people* that could not eat nor communicate together; and the very knowledge of this was, as we are informed by fcripture, the reafon why Jofeph told Pharaoh, when he afked him what profeftion his brethren were of, " Your fervants, fays Jofeph, are fhepherds, and their employment the feeding of cattle;'* and this was given out, that the land of Gofhen might be allotted to them, and fo they and their defcendents be kept feparate from the Egyptians, and not expofed to mingle in their abominations. Or, though they had abftain-cd from thefe abominations, they could not kill cattle for facrifice or for food.   They would have raifed ill-will a-gainft themfelvcs, and, as Mofes fays, would have been ftoned, and fo the end of bringing them to Gofhen would have been fruftrated, which was to nurfe them in a plentiful land, in peace and fecurity, till they fhould attain to be a mighty people, capable of fubduing and filling the land to which, at the end of their captivity, God was to lead them.
O02 The
• Exod. chap, viii, ver. zC, f Herod, lib. ii. p. 104. fee. 40*
The Abyftinians neither cat nor drink with ftrangers> though they have no reafon for this ; and it is now a meru prejudice, becaufe the old occafion for this regulation is loft; They break, or purify, however, every veiled a ft ranger of any kind dial I have ate or drank in. The cullom then is copied from the Egyptians, and they have preferved it, tho1 the Egyptian reafon docs no longer hold.
Some hiftorians fay, the Egyptian women anciently en* joyed a full liberty of mtercourfe with the males, which was not the cafe in the generality of eallcrn nations ; and we muft, therefore, think it was derived from Abyftinia; for there the women live, as it were, in common, and their enjoyments and gratification have no other bounds but their own will. They, however, pretend to have a principle, that, if they marry, they fhould be wives of one hulband; and yet this principle docs not bind, but, like moft of the other duties, ferves to reafon upon, and to laugh at, in converfation.. Herodotus tells it was the fame with the Egyptians*.
The Egyptians made no account of the mother what her date was; if the father was fiec, the child followed the con-, dition of the father. This is ftrkftly fo in Abyftinia. The king's child by a ncgro-ftave, bought with money, or taken, ill war, is as near in fucceeding to the crown, as any one of twenty children that he has older than that one, and. torn of the nobleft women of the country..
The •
* Herodot. p. 121. feft. 92*
THE SOURCE OF T H E N I L E. 293
The men in Egypt* did neither buy nor fell; the fame is the cafe in Abyflinia at this day. It is infamy for a man to go to market to buy any tiling. He cannot carry w-atcu-or bake bread; but he muft waih the cioaths belonging to both fexes, and, in this function, the women cannot help him. In Abyilinia the men carried their burdens on their heads, the women on their fhouldcrs, and this difference, wc arc told, obtained in Egyptf. it is plain, that this buying', in the public market, by women, mint have ended whenever jealoufy or fequcitration of that fcx began ; for this reafon it ended early in Egypt, but,.for the ogpofite reafon, it fub* fills in Abyilinia to.this day.
It was a fort of impiety in Egypt to eat a calf; and the reafon was plain, they worfhipped the cow. In Abyilinia, to this day, no man eats veal, although every one ver) willingly cats a cow. The Egyptian J reafon no longer fubfiils as in the former cafe, but the prejudice remains, though they have forgot tlie reafon.
The Abyflinians eat no wild or water-fowl, not even the goofe, which was a great delicacy in Egypt. The reafon of this is, that, upon their. convcrfion to judaifrn, they were forced to relinquiih their ancient municipal cuftoms, as far as they were contrary to the Mofaical law ; and the animals, in their country, not correfponding in form, kind, nor name, with thofe mentioned in the Septuagint, or original Hebrew,,
it
*-licrotlot, lib. ii. p. 101. feft. 35. f Herodot. lib. ii. p. 101. fc#. JC.
t Ilerodot. lib. ii, p. ic.f. left', 4C.
♦
it has followed, that there are many of each clafs that know not whether thev are clean or not; and a wonderful confufion and uncertainty has followed through ignorance or miilakc, being unwilling to violate the law in any one inllance through not underilanding it.
The abhorrence of the old Egyptians for the bean is well known, and many filly reafons have been afligned for it; but that which has moil met the approbation of the moil learned men is, in my humble opinion, the weakeft of them all. They fay, the averfion to the bean arofc from its re-fembling the phallus ; but the crux anfata, or the crofs with the handle to it, which is put in the hand of every Egyptian hieroglyphic of Ifis, Ofiris, or whatever the priefls have called them, is likewife agreed by the learned to re-prefent the phallus; and the figure of thefe nudities, without vail or concealment, is plain in all their Ratues. Now, 1 would alk, What is the reafon why they abhor a bean becaufe it rcprefents thefe parts which, at the fame time, by their own option or choice, are expofed in the hand or perfon of every figure which they exhibit to public view ? The bean, however, is not cultivated in Abyflinia, neither is it in Egypt; lupines grow up in both, and lupines in both are eradicated like a weed, and lupines were what is called faba JEgyptiaca*
Though I cannot pretend to know the true reafon of this, yet I will venture to give a guefs :—The origin of great part of religious obfervances of Egypt began with the worship of the Nile, and probably at the head of it. The country of the Agows, as well where the Nile rifes as in parts more diflant, is all a honey country ; not only their whole
fuftenance,
friftenance, but their trade, their tribute to the king, and the maintenance of a great part of the capital, depends upon honey and butter, the common food of the better fort of people when they do not eat flefh; it eompofes their drink alfo in mead or hydromel. Now, this country, when uncultivated, naturally produces lupines, and the bloffoms of thefe becoming food for the bees, gives the honey fuel* a bitternefs that no perfon will eat it, or ufe it any way in food or for drink.—After the king had bcRowcd the village of Geefh upon me, though with the confent of Fafil its governor, that egregious muffler, to make the prefent of no ufe to me, fent me, indeed, the tribute of the honey in very iarge jars, but it all taftcd fo much of the lupines that it was of no earthly ufe whatever. Their conRant attention is to weed out this bitter plant; and, when any of thofe countries are defolated by war, we may expect a large crop of lupines immediately to follow, and, for a time, plenty of bad honey in confequence. It is, then, this deftructive bean, that Pythagoras, who, it is faid, ate no ftelh, regarded as an object of deteftation; it was equally fo among the AbyflinU ans and Egyptians for the fame reafon. Both nations, moreover, have an averfion to hogs flefh, and both avoid the touch. of dogs..
It is here I propofe to take notice of an unnatural cuftom which prevails univerfally in Abyftinia, and which in early ages feems to have been common to. the whole world. I did not think that any perfon of moderate knowledge in profane learning could have been ignorant of this remarkable cuftom among the nations of the eaft. But what ftill more furprifed me, and is the leaft pardonable part of. the whole,, was the ignorance of part of the law of God, the earlieft
4v thai
that was given to man, the moft frequently noted, infilled upon, and prohibited. I have faid,.iri the courfe of the narrative of my journey from Mafuah, that, a fmall diilance from Axum, I overtook on the way three travellers, who feemed to be foldiers, driving a cow before them. They halted at a bro; k, threw down the bead, and one of them cut a pretty large collop of flefh from its buttocks, after which they drove the cow gently on as before. A violent outcry was railed in England at hearing this circumftance, which they did not hclitate to pronounce impojjifrle, when the manners and cuftoms of Abyflinia were to them utterly unknown. The Je-fuits, cflablifhcd in Abyftinia for above a hundred years, had told them of that people eating, wdiat they call raw meat, in every page, and yet they were ignorant of this. Poncet, too, had done the fame, but Poncet they had not read; and if any writer upon Ethiopia had omitted to mention it, it was becaufe it was one ol thofe facts t^o notorious to be repeated to fwell a volume.
It muft be from prejudice alone wc condemn the eating of raw flefh ; no precept, divine or human, that I know, forbids it; and if it is true, as later travellers have difcovered, that there arc nations ignorant of the ufe of fire, any law againft eating raw flefh could never have been intended by God as obligatory upon mankind in general. At any rate, it is certainly not clearly known, whether the eating raw flefh was not an earlier and more general practice than by preparing it with fire; I think it was.
Many wife and learned men have doubted whether it was at firft permitted to man to cat animal food at all. I *lo not pretend to give any opinion upon the fubject, but
2 many
many topics have been maintained fuccefsftilly upon much more Render grounds., God, the author of life, and the bcR judge of what was proper to maintain it, gave this regimen to our firft parents^-" Behold, I have given you every herb " bearing feed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and e-" very tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding feed: to 4< you it fhall be for meat And though, immediately after, he mentions both beafts and fowls, and every thing that crecpeth upon the earth, he does not fay that he has defign-cd any of thefe as meat for man. On the contrary, he feems to have intended the vegetable creation as food for both man and bcaft—" And to every beaft of the earth " and to every fowl of the air, and. to every thing that "crecpeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, 1 have given "every green herb for meat: and it wras fo f." After the Hood, when mankind began to repoftefs the earth, God gave Noah a much more cxtenftve permiflion—" Every moving " thing that liveth fhall be meat for you ; even as the green " herb have I .given you all things J."
As the criterion of judging of their aptitude for food was declared to be their moving and having life, a danger appeared of mifmtcrprctation, and that thefe creatures fhould be ufed living ; a thing which God by no means intended, and therefore, immediately after, it is faid, " hut flefh with u the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, fhall you not ** cat or, as it is rendered by thebeft interpreters, * Flefh, or members, torn from living animals having the blood in them, thou fhalt not eat.' We fee then,by thisprohibition, that
Vol. III. P p this
' Gen. chap. i. vet. 2£. f Gen. chap. i. ver. 30. \ Gen. chap, lx. ver. 3, § Gen. chap. ix. v. f.
this abufe of eating living meat, or part of animals while yet alive, was known in the days of Noah, and forbidden after being fo known, and it isprecifely what is practufed in Abyilinia to this day. This law, then, was prior to that of Mofes, but it came from the fame legiilator. It was given to Noah, and confequently obligatory upon the whole world. Mofes, however, infills upon it throughout his whole law; which not only fhews that this abufe was common, but that it was deeply rooted in, and interwoven with, the manners of the Hebrews. He politively prohibits it four times in one chapter in Deuteronomy *, and thrice in one of the chapters of Leviticus f—" Thou fhalt not eat the blood, for the blood *' is the life ; thou fhalt pour it upon the earth like water."
Although the many inftances of God's tendernefs to the brute creation, that conRantly occur in the Mofaical precepts, and are a very beautiful part of them, and tho' the barbarity of the cuftom itfelf might reafonably lead us to think that humanity alone was a fufticient motive for the prohibition of eating animals alive, yet nothing can be more certain, than that greater confequences were annexed to the indulging in this crime than what was apprehended from a mere depravity of manners. One X °f the moft learned and feniible men that ever wrote upon the facrcd fcrip-tures obferves, that God, in forbidding this practice, ufes more fevere certification, and more threatening language, than againft any other fin, excepting idolatry, with which it is conftantly joined. God declares, " I will fet my face "againft him that eatcth blood, in the fame manner a^ I * will againft him that lacrificeth his fon to Moloch ; 1 will
" let
Deut. chap. xii.
f Lev it. cl ap. xvii.
% Maii;:on. more. Nebochini.
" fet my face againft him that eateth flefh with blood, till I " cut him off from the people."
We have an inrtance in the life of Saul * that fhews the propenfity of the [fraelites to this crime.   Saul's army, after a battle, few, that is, fell voracioufty upon the cattle they had taken, and threw them upon the ground to cut off their flefh, and eat them raw, fo that the army was defiled by eating blood, or living animals.   To prevent this, Saul caufed roll to him a great ftone, and ordered thofe that killed their oxen to cut their throats upon that ftone. This was the only lawful way of killing animals for food ; the tying of the ox and throwing it upon the ground was not permitted as e-quivalent.   The Ifraelites did probably in that cafe as the Abyftinians do at this day ; they cut a part of its throat, fo that blood might be feen upon the ground, but nothing mortal to the animal followed from that wound.   But, after laying his head upon a large ftone, and cutting his throat, the blood fell from on high, or was poured on the ground like water, and fufticient evidence appeared the creature was dead before it was attempted to eat it.   We have feen that the Abyftinians came from Paleftine a very few years after this; and we are not to doubt that they then carried with them this, with many other Jewifh cuftoms, which they have continued to this day.
The author I laft quoted fays, that it is plain, from all the books of the eaftern nations, that their motive for eating flefh with the life, or limbs of living animals cut off with
v. iii. P p 2 the
* i Sam. chnp. xiv. ver. 32. 33.
the blood, was from motives of religion, and for the pur-pofes of idolatry-, and fo it probably had been among the Jews ; for one of the reafons given in Leviticus for the prohibition of eating blood, or living Hem, is, that the people may no longer offer facrilices to devils, after wdiom they have gone a-whoring *. If the reader choofes to be further informed how very common this practice was, he need only read the Halacoth Gedalot'h, or its tranllation, where the whole chapter is taken up with inftances of this kind.
That this practice likewife prevailed in Europe, as well as in Ada and Africa, may be collected from various authors. The Greeks had their bloody feafts and facrifices where they ate living flefh ; thefe were called Omophagia. Ar-nobius | fays, " Let us pafs over the horrid fcenes prefented at the Baccahanlian fcaft, wherein,with a counterfeited fury, though with a truly depraved heart, you twine a number of ferpents around you, and, prerending to be poflefled with fome god, or fpirit, you tear to pieces, with bloody mouths, the bowels of living goats, which cry all the time from the torture they fuller." From all this it appears, that the practice of the Ahyllinians eating live animals at this day, was very far from being new, or, what was nonfenfically faid, hnfajfibk. And 1 fhall only further obfervc, that thofe of my readers that wifh to indulge a fpirit of criticifm upon the great variety of cufloms, men and manners, related in this hiftory, or have thofe criticifms attended tc, fhould furnifh themfelvcs with a more decent flock of reading than, in
this
* Lcvit. chap. xvii. ver. 7. j Arnob. adv. Gent. Clem. Alexan. Stxtus Impiricus, lib. iii. cap. 25. and Selden. de Jur. aatur..and Gent. cap. i.lib,..vii.
this inftance, they fecm to have pofteffed ; or, when another example occurs of that kind, which they call impojfible, that they would take the truth of it upon my word, and believe what they arc not fufficiently qualified to inveltigate.
Consistent with the plan of this work, which is to dc-fcribe the manners of the feveral nations through which I palTed, good and bad, as I obferved them, I cannot avoid giving fome account of this Polyphemus banquet, as far as decency will permit mc ; it is part of the hiftory of a barbarous people ; whatever I might wifh, I cannot decline it.
In the capital, where one is fafe from furprife at all times, or in the country or villages, when the rains have become fo conftant that the valleys will not bear a horfe to pafs them, or that men cannot venture far from home through fear of being furrounded and fweptaway by temporary torrents, occafioned by hidden fhowers on the mountains ; in a word, when a man can fay he is fafe at home, and the fpcar and lhield is hung up in the hall, a number of people of the beft fafhion in the villages, of bothfexes, courtiers in the palace, or citizens in the town, meet together to dine between twelve and one o'clock.
A long table is fet in the middle of a large room, and benches beftde it for a number of guefts who are invited. Tables and benches the Portugucze introduced amongft them ; but bull hides, fprcad upon the ground, ferved them before, as they do in the camp and country now. A cow or bull, one or more, as the company is numerous, is brought, clofe to the door, and his feet ftrongly tied. The fkin that hangs down under his chin and throat, which I think we
caU
call the dew-lap in England, is cut only fo deep as to arrive at the fat, of which it totally coniiils, and, by the reparation of a few fmall blood-vefTels, fix or feven drops of blood only fall upon the ground. They have no Rone, bench, nor altar upon which thefe cruel alfallins lay the a-nimal's head in this operation. I fhould beg his pardon indeed for calling him an aflaflin, as he is not fo merciful as to aim at the life, but, on the contrary, to keep the beaft alive till he be totally eat up. Having fatisfied the Mofaical law, according to his conception, by pouring thefe fix or feven drops upon the ground, two or more of them fall to work; on the back of the beaft, and on each fide of the fpine they cut fkin-deep; then putting their fingers between the flefh and the fkin, they begin to ftrip the hide of the animal half way down his ribs, and fo on to the buttock, cutting the fkin wherever it hinders them commodioufly to ftrip the poor animal bare. All the flefh on the buttocks is cut off then, and in folid, fquare pieces, without bones, or much effufion of blood ; and the prodigious noife the animal makes is a fignal for the company to fit down to table.
There arc then laid before every gueft, inftcad of plates* round cakes, if I may fo call them, about twice as big as a a pan-cake, and fomething thicker and tougher. It is unleavened bread of a fourifh taftc, far from being difagreca-ble, and very eafily digeftcd, made of a grain called telf. It is of different colours, from black to the colour of the whi-teit wheat-bread. Three or four of thefe cakes are generally put uppermolt, for the food of the perfon oppofite to whofe feat they are placed. Beneath thefe are four or five of ordinary bread, and of a blackifh kind. Thefe fcrvc the mailer to
wipe
wipe his fingers upon ; and afterwards the fervant, for bread to his dinner.
Two or three fervants then come, each with a fquare piece of beef in their bare hards, laying it upon the calces of telf, placed like didies down the table, without cloth or any thing elfe beneath them. By this time all the gueRs have knives in their hands, and their men have the large crooked ones, which they put to all forts of ufes during the time of war. The women have fmall clafped knives, fuch as the worft of the kind made at Birmingham, fold ror a penny each.
The company are fo ranged that one man fits between two women ; the man with his long knife cuts a thin piece, which would be thought a good beef-fteak in England, while you fee the motion of the fibres yet perfectly diilinc~t, and alive in the flefh. No man in Abyilinia, of any faihion whatever, feeds himfelf, or touches his own meat. The women take the lleak and cut it length-ways like firings, about the thicknefs of your little finger, then crofaways into fquare pieces, fomething fmaller than dice. This they lay upon a piece of the tefF bread, ftrongly powdered with black pepper, or Cayenne pepper, and foffilc- fait, they then wrap it up in the telf bread like a cartridge. .
In the mean time, the man having put up his knife, with each hand reiiing upon his neighbour's knee, his body fto »ping, his head low and forward, and mouth open very like an idiot, turns to the one whofe cartridge is firft ready, who duffs the whole of it into his mouth, which is fo full that he is in conftant danger of being choked.   This is a
3 mark
mark of grandeur. The greater the man would feem to be, the larger piece lie takes in his mouth ; and the more noife he makes in chewing it, the more polite he is thought to be. They hare, indeed, a proverb that fays, " Beggars M and thieves only eat fmall pieces, or without making a " noife." Having difpatched this morfel, which he does very expeditioufly, his next female neighbour holds forth another cartridge, which goes the fame way, and fo on till he is fatisfied. He never drinks till he has finifhcd eating.; and, before he begins, in gratitude to the fair ones that fed him, he makes up two fmall rolls of the fame kind and form; each of his neighbours open their mouths at the fame time, while with each hand he puts their portion into their mouths. He then falls to drinking out of a large handfome horn ; the ladies eat till they are fatisfied, and then all drink together, " Vive la Joyc et la Jeunefle !" A great deal of mirth and joke goes round, very feldom with any mixture of acrimony or ill-humour.
All this time, the unfortunate victim at the door is bleeding indeed, but bleeding little. As long as they can cut off the flefh from his bones, they do not meddle with the thighs, or the parts where the great arteries are. At laft they fall upon the thighs likewife ; and foon after the animal, bleeding to death, becomes fo tough that the canibals, who have the reft of it to eat, find very hard work to feparate the flefh from the bones with their teeth like dogs.
In the mean time, thofe within are very much elevated ; love lights all its fires, and every thing is permitted with abfolute freedom. There is no coynefs, no delays, no need of appointments or retirement to gratify their willies;
i there
there arc no rooms but one. in which they facrifice both to Bacchus and to Venus*. The two men nearell the vacuum a pair have made on the bench by leaving their feats, hold their upper garment like a ikrecn before the two that have left the bench; and, if we may judge by found, they feem to think it as great a fhame to make love in lilence as to cat.—Replaced in their feats again, the company drink the happy couple's health ; and their example is followed at different ends of the table, as each couple is di'fpofed. All this paffes without remark or fcandal, not a licentious word is uttered, nor the moR diftant joke upon the transaction.
These ladies are, for the moft part, women of family and character, and they and their gallants are reciprocally diftin-guilhcd by the name Woodage, which anfwers to what in Italy they call Ciciihey ; and, indeed,! believe that the name itfelf, as well as the practice, is Htb]:ew; febns chis beiim, fignifies ai> tendants or companions of the bride, or brideV man, as we call it in England, The only difference is, that in Europe the intimacy and attendance continues during the marriage, while, among the Jews, it was permitted only the few days of the marriage ceremony. The avcrfion to Judaifm, in the ladies of Europe, has probably led them to the prolongation of the term. .
It was a cuftom of the ancient Egyptians to purge themfclves monthly for three days; and the fame is ftill in practice in Abyftinia. We fhall fpeak more of the reafon of this
Vol. Ill, Qj] practice
* In this particular they refemble the Cynics of old, of whom it was faid, «' Omnia nuse ad u Bacchum et Venercm penmueiini in publico fuccrc."   Diogenes. Laenius in Yit. Diogeo.
practice in the botanical part of our work, where a drawing of a moil beautiful tree *, ufed for this purpofc, is given.
Although we read from the Jefuits a great deal about marriage and polygamy, yet there is nothing which may be averred more truly than that there is no fuch thing as marriage in Abyflinia, unlefs that which is contracted by mutual confent, without other form, fubfifting only till diftbl-ved by diffent of one or other, and to be renewed or repeated as often as it is agreeable to both parties, who, when they plcafe, cohabit together again as man and wife, after having been divorced, had children by others, or whether they have been married, or had children with others or not, I remember to have once been at Kofcam in prefence of the Iteghe, when, in the circle, there was a woman of great quality, and feven men who had all been her hufbands, none of whom was the happy fpoufe at that time.
Upon fcparation they divide the children. The eldeff fon falls to the mother's firft choice, and the eldeft daughter to the father, if there is but one daughter, and all the reR fons, flic is afligned to the father. If there is but one fon, and all the reR daughters, he is the right of the mother. If the numbers are unequal after the firft election, the reft are divided by lot. There is no fuch diftinction as legitimate and illegitimate children from the king to the beggar; for fuppofing any one of their marriages valid, all the iflue of the reft muft be adulterous baltards.
Onl
* Vide appendix, nrticle Cufio,
One day Ras Michael afked me, before Abba Salama, (the Acab Saat) Whether fuch things as thefe promifcuous marriages and divorces were permitted and practifed in my country ? I excufed myfelf till I was no longer able ; and, upon his infifting, I was obliged to anfwer, That even if fcripture had not forbid to us as Chriftians, as Englifhmcn the law retrained us from fuch practices, by declaring polygamy felony, or punifhablc by death.
The king in his marriage ufes no other ceremony than this :—He fends an Azage to the houfe where the lady lives j where the officer announces to her, It is the king's pleafure that fhe fhould remove inftantly to the palace. She then dreffes herfelf in the beft manner, and immediately obeys. Thenceforward he affigns her an apartment in the palace, and gives her a houfe elfewhere in any part fhe chufes. Then when he makes her Iteghe, it feems to be the neareft refemblance to marriage ; for, whether in the court or the camp, he orders one of the judges to pronounce in his prefence, That he, the king, has chofen his hand-maid, naming her for his queen ; upon which the crown is put upon her head, but ihe is not anointed,.
The crown being hereditary in one family, but elective in the perfon, and polygamy being permitted, mull have multiplied thefe heirs very much, and produced conftant difputes, fo that it was found neceffary to provide a remedy for the anarchy and eflufion of royal blood, which was otherwife inevitably to follow. The remedy was a humane and gentle one, they were confined in a good climate upon a high mountain, and maintained there at the public expellee.   They arc there taught to read and write, but no-
QjL 2 thing
thing elfe ; 750 cloths for wrapping round them, 3000 ounces of gold, which is 30,000 dollars, or crowns, are allowed by the Rate for their maintenance. Thefe princes are hardly ufed, and, in troublefome times, often put to death upon the fmallefl mifmformation. While I was in Abyfiiria their revenue was fo grofdy mifapplied, that fome of them were faid to have died with hunger and of cold by the avarice and hard-heartednefs of Michael neglecting to furnifh them neccJaries. Nor had the king, as far as ever I could difcern, that fellow-feeling one would have expected from a prince refcued from that very fituation himfelf; perhaps this was owing to his fear of Ras Michael.
However that be, and howrever diftrcfling the fituation of thofe princes, we cannot but be fatisfied with it when wc look to the neighbouring kingdom of Sennaar, or Nubia. There no mountain is truftcd with the confinement of their princes, but, as foon as the father dies, the throats of all the collaterals, and all their defcendents that can be laid hold of, are cut; and this is the cafe with all the black Rates in the defcrt weft of Sennaar, Dar Fowr, Sele, and Bagirma.
Great exaggerations have been ufed in fpeaking of the military force of this kingdom. The largeft army that ever was in the field (as far as I could be informed from the old-eft ofliccrs) was that in the rebellion before the battle of .Scrbraxos. I believe, wdien they firft encamped upon the lake Tzana, the rebel army altogether might amount to a-bout 50,000 men. In about a forthnight afterwards, many had defer ted ; and I do not think (1 only fpeak by hear fay) that, when the king marched out of Gondar, they were then iibove 30,000.   I believe wdien Gojam joined, and it was
2 known
known that Michael and his army were to be made prifon-crs, that the rebel army increafed to above 60,000 men; cowards and brave, old and young, veteran foldiers and blackguards, all came to be fpectators of that defirable e-vent, which many of the wifell had defpaired of living to fee. I believe the king's army never amounted to 26,000 men ; and, by defertion and other caufes, when we retreated to Gondar, I do not fuppofe the army was 16,000, moftly from the province ofTigre. Fafil, indeed, had not joined ; and putting his army of 12,000 men, (I make no account of the wild Galla beyond the Nile) I do not imagine that any king of Abyflinia ever commanded 40,000 effective men at any time, or upon any caufe whatever, cxclufive of his houfehold troops.
Their Randards are large Raves, furmountcd at the top with a hollow ball; below this is a tube in which the ftaff is fixed; and immediately below the ball, a narrow ftripe of filk made forked, or fwallow-tailed, like a vane, and feldom much broader. In the war of Begemder we firft faw colours like a flag hoifted for king Theodorus. They were red, about eight feet long and near three feet broad ; but they never appeared but two days; and the fuccefs that attended their firft appearance was fuch that did not bid fair to bring them into fafhion.
The ftandards of the infantry have their flags painted two colours crofs ways—yellow, white, red, or green. The horfe have all ^a lion upon their flag *, fome a red, fome a
green,
The fiid invention is attributed to the Portuguefc
green, and fome a white lion. The black horfe have a yellow lion, and over it a white ftar upon a red flag, alluding to two prophecies, the one, " Judah is a young lion," and the other, " There fhall come a ftar out of Judah." This had been difcontinued for want of cloth till the war of Begemder, when a large piece was found in Joas's wardrobe, and was thought a certain omen of his victory, and of a long and vigorous reign. This piece of cloth was faid to have been brought from Cairo by Yafous II. for the campaign of Sennaar, and, with the other ftandards and colours, was furrendered to the rebels when the king was made prifoner.
The king's houfehold troops fhould confift of about 8000 infantry, 2000 of which carry firelocks, and fupply the place of archers; bows have been laid alide for near a hundred years, and are only now ufed by the Waito Shangalla, and fome other barbarous inconfiderable nations..
These troops are divided into four companies, each under an officer called Shalaka, which anfwers to our colonel. Every twenty men have an officer, every fifty a fecond, and every hundred a third; that is, every twenty have one olli-cer who commands them, but is commanded likewife by an officer who commands the fifty ; fo that there are three officers who command fifty men, fix command a hundred, and thirty command live hundred, over whom is the Shalaka ; and this body they call Bet, which fignifies a houfe, or apartment, becaufe each of them goes by the name of one of the king's apartments. For example, there is an apartment called Anbafa Bet, or the Hons houje, and a regiment carrying that name has the charge of it, and their uuty is at that apart-
a ment
ment, or that part of the palace where it is ; there is another called Jan Bet, or the elephant's houfe, that gives the name to another regiment; another called Werk Sacala, or the gold houfe, which gives its name to another corps; and fo on with the reft ; as for the horfe, I have fpoken of them already.
There are four regiments, that feldom, if ever, a-mounted to 1600 men, which depend alone upon the king, and are all foreigners, at leaft the officers ; thefe have the charge of his perfon while in the field. In times when the king is out of leading-firings, they amount to four or five thoufand, and then opprefs the country, for they have great privileges. At times when the king's hands arc weak, they are kept incomplete out of fear and jealoufy, which was the cafe in my time ;—thefe have been already fufticiently defcribed.
Three proclamations are made before the king marches. The firft is, " Buy your mules, get ready your provifion, and pay your fervants, for, after fuch a day, they that feck me here fhall not find mc." The fecond is about a week after, or according as the exigency is prefting; this is, " Cut down the kantufta in the four quarters of the world, for I do not know where I am going." This kantufta is a terrible thorn which very much molefts the king and nobility in their march, by taking hold of their long hair, and the cotton cloth they are wrapped in. The third and laft proclamation is, " I am encamped upon the Angrab, or Kahha; " he that does not join me there, I will chaftifc him for " feven years." I was long in doubt what this term of feven years meant, till I recollected the jubilee-year of the Jews,
with
with whom feven years was a prefcription of offences, debts, and all treilpailes.
The rains generally ccafc the eighth of September"; a fickly feafon follows till they begin again about the 20th of October; they then continue pretty conftant, but moderate in quantity, till Hcdar St Michael, the eighth of November, All epidemic difeafes ceafe with the end of thefe rains, and t is then the armies begin to march.
OH AIV
CHAP. XII.
State of Religion—Circumc'fion, Excifion, Ejfa
THERE is no country in the world where there arc fo many churches as in Abyflinia. Though the country is very mountainous, and consequently the view much ob-ftructed,it is very feldom you fee lefs than five or fix churches, and, if you are on a commanding ground, five times that number. Every great man that dies thinks he has atoned for all his wickednefs if he leaves a fund to build a church, or has built one in his lifetime. The king builds many. Wherever a victory is gained, there a church is erected in the very field ftinking with the putrid bodies of the llain. Formerly this was only the cafe when the enemy was Pagan or Infidel; now the fame is obferved when the victories are over Chriflians.
The fituation of a church is always chofen near running water, for the convenience of their purifications and ablutions, in which they obfervc ftrictly the Lcvitical law. They are always placed upon the top of fome beautiful, round Vol III. R r bill,
Bill, which is furrounded entirely with rows of the oxy-cedrus, or Virginia cedar, which grows here in great beauty and perfection, and is called Arz * There is nothing adds fo much to the beauty of the country as thefe churches and the plantations about them.
In the middle of this plantation of cedars is interfperfed, at proper diftances, a number of thofe beautiful trees called Guffo, which grow very high, and are all extremely picture fcpae.
All the churches are round, with thatched roofs; their fummits are perfect cones; the outfide is furrounded bv a number of wooden pillars, which are nothing elfc than the trunks of the cedar-tree, and are placed to fupport the edifice, about eight feet of the roof projecting beyond the wall of the church, which forms an agreeable walk, or colonade, around it in hot weather, or in rain. The infide of the church is in feveral divifions, according as is prescribed by the law of Mofes. The firft is a circle fomewhat wider than the inner one; here the congregation fit and pray. Within this is a fquare, and that fquare is divided by a veil or curtain, in which is another very fmall divifion anfwering to the holy of holies. This is fo narrow that none but the priefts can go into it. You are bare-footed whenever you enter the church, and, if bare-footed,youmay go through every part
of
* Ludolf, in his dictionary, iay?, this word, in Hebrew, fignifies any tall tree.  In this, however, he is miflaken. The tranflators did not, indeed, know what tree it was, and fo have faid this to cover their ignorance ; but Aiz is as exclufively the oxy-cedrus, as is an oak or an elm whui fo named.   Arz is indeed a tall tree, but every tall tree is not Aiz, which is tho Vir-. ginia berry-bearing cedar.
of it, if you have any fuch curioftty, provided you are pure, i. e. have not been concerned with women for twenty-four hours before, or touched carrion or dead bodies, (a curious afFemblage of ideas) for in that cafe you are not to go within the precincts, or outer circumference of the church, but Hand and fay your prayers at an awful diflancc among the cedars.
All perfons of both fexes, under Jewifli difqualilications, are obliged to obferve this diRance ; and this is always a place belonging to the church, where, unlefs in Lent, you fee the greateft part of the congregation ; but this is left to your own confcicnce, and, if mere was either great inconvenience in the one fituation, or great Satisfaction in the other, the cafe would be otherwife.
When you go to the church you put off your Shoes before your firft entering the outer precinct; but you muft leave a fervant there with them, or elfe they will be ftolcn, if good for any thing, by the priefts and monks before you come out of the church. At entry you kifs the thrcfhold, and two door-pofts, go in and fay what prayer you pleafe, that finished, you fc come out again, and your duty is over. The churches are full of pictures, painted on parchment, and nailed upon the walls, in a manner little lefs flovenly than you See paltry prints in beggarly country ale-houfes. There has been always a fort of painting known among the Scribes, a daubing much inferior to the worft of our fign-painters. Sometimes, for a particular church, they get a number of pictures of faints, on fkins of parchment, ready linifhed from Cairo, in a ftile very little fuperior to thefe performances of their own. I'hey are placed like a frizc, and hung in the upper part of the
Rr2 wall
wall, St George is generally there with his dragon, and St Demetrius fighting a lion. There is no choice in their faints, they are both of the Old and New 1 eftamcnt, and thofe that might be difpenfed with from both. There is St Pontius Pilate and his wife; there is St Balaam and his afs; Samfon and his jaw-bone ; and fo of the reft. But the thing that furprifed me moft was a kind of fquarc-miniature upon the front of the head-piece, or mitre, of the prieft, adminiftring the facrament at Adowa, reprefenting Pharaoh on a white horfe plunging in the Red Sea, with many guns and piftols fwimming upon the furface of it around him.
Nothing embofted, nor in relief, ever appears in any of their churches; all this would be reckoned idolatry, fo much fo that they do not wTear a crofs, as has been reprcfentcd, on the top of the ball of the fendick, or llandard, becaufe it calls a fhade ; but there is no doubt that pictures have been ufed in their churches from the very earlicft age of Chrii» ftianity.
The Abuna is looked upon as the patriarch of the Abyf-finian church, for they have little knowledge of the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria. We are perfectly ignorant of the hiftory of thefe prelates for many years after their appointment. The firft of thefe mentioned is Abuna Tecla Haima-nout, who diftinguiihed himfelf by the rcftoration of the royal family, and the regulations he made both in church and ftate, as we have feen in the hiftory of thofe times : a very remarkable, but wife regulation was then made, that the Abyftinians fhould not have it in their power to choofe one of their own countrymen as Abuna.
Wise
Wise men faw the fallen flare of literature among them; and unlefs opportunity was given, from time to time, for their priefts to go abroad to Jerufalem for their infrruction,' and for the purpofe of bringing the Abuna, Tecla Haima-nout knew that very foon no fet of people would be more fhamefully ignorant than thofe priefts, even in the moft common dogmas of their profeiiion. He hoped therefore, by a confiderable flipend, to tempt fome men of learning to accept of this place, to give his countenance to learning and religion among them.
The Arabic canon*, which is preferved by the Abyftiniam church, and faid to be of the council of Nice, Should certainly be attributed to this Abuna, and is a forgery in, or very foon after, his time; for it is plain this canon took place about the year 1300, that it was lawful to elect, an Abuna, who was a native of Abyftinia before this prohibition, other-wife it would not have applied. Abuna Tecla Ilaimanout was an Abylllnian by birth, and he was Abuna; the prohibition therefore had not then taken place : but, as no A-byilinian was afterwards chofen, it mufl certainly be a work of his time, for it is impollible a canon fhould be made by the council of Nice, fettling the rank of a bilhop in a nation which, for above 200 years after that general council, were not Chriftians.
As the Abuna very feldom underftands the language, he has no fhare of the government, but goes to the palace on days of ceremony, or when he has any favour to afk or complaint
* See Ludolf, lib. iii. cap. 2. N°. 17,
plainr to make. He is much fallen in efteem from what he was formerly, chiefly from his own little intrigues, his ignorance, avarice, and want of firmnefs. His greateft employment is in ordinations. A number of men and children prefent themfelvcs at a diftance, and there ftand, from humility, not daring to approach him. He then afks who thefe are ? and they tell him that they want to be deacons. On this, with a fmall iron crofs in his hand, after making two or three figns, he blows with his mouth twice or thrice upon them, faying," Let them be deacons." I faw once ail the army of Begemder made deacons, j uft returned from Shedding the blood of 10,000 men, thus drawn up in Aylo Meidan, and the Abuna Handing at the church of St Raphael, about a quarter of a mile diftant from them. With thefe wrere mingled about rooo women, who confequently, having part of the fame blaft and brandiflimcnt of the crofs, were as good deacons as the reft.
The fame with regard to monks. A crowd of people, when he is riding, will alTemble within 500 yards of him, and there begin a melancholy fong. He afks who thefe men with beards are ? they tell him they want to be ordained monks. After the fame figns of the crofs, and three blafts with his mouth, he orders them to be monks. But in ordaining priefts, they riiuft be able to read a chapter of St Mark, which they do in a language he does not under* ftand a word of. They then give ihe Abuna a brick of fait, to the value of perhaps fixpence, for their ordination ; which, from this prefent given, the Jefuits maintained to be Simon iacal.
The
The Itchcgue is the chief of the monks in general, efpc-cially thofe of Debra Libanos. The head of the other monks, called thofe of St Euftathius, is the fuperior of the convent of Mahebar Selaffe, on the N. W. corner of Abyflinia, near Kuara, and the Shangalla, towards Sennaar and the river Dender. All this tribe is grofsly ignorant, and through time, 1 believe, will lofe the ufe of letters entirely.
The Itchcgue is ordained by two chief priefts holding a white cloth, or veil, over him, while another fays a prayer; and they then lay all their hands on his head, and join in pfalms together. He is a man, in troublefome times, of much greater confequence than the Abuna. There arc, after thefe, chief priefts and fcribes, as in the Jewifh church: the laft of thefe, the ignorant, carelefs copiers of the holy fcriptures.
The monks here do not live in convents, as in Europe,, but in feparate houfes round their church, and each cultivates a part of the property they have in land. The priefts have their maintenance aftigned to them in kind, and do not labour. A fteward, being a layman, is placed among them by the king, who receives all the rents belonging to the churches, and gives to the priefts the portion that is their due; but neither the Abuna, nor any other churchman, has any bufinefs with the revenues of churches, nor can touch them.
f *
The articles of the faith of the Abyftinians have been inquired into and difculfcd with fo much keennefs in the beginning of this century, that I fear I Ihould difoblige
3 , fome
fome of my readers were I to pafs this fubject without notice.
Their firR bifhop, Frumcntius, being ordained about the year 333, and inftruct cd in the religion of the Greeks of the church of Alexandria by St Athanafius, then fitting in the chair of St Mark, it follows that the true religion of the Abymnians, which they received on their converfion to Chriftianity, is that of the Greek church ; and every rite or ceremony in the Abyfhnian church may be found and traced up to its origin in the Greek church while both of them were orthodox.
Frumentius preferved AbyfTinia untainted with hercfy till the day of his death. We find, from a letter preferved in the works of St Athanafius ,that Conllantius, the heretical Greek emperor, wilhed St Athanafius to deliver him up, which that patriarch refufed to do: indeed at that time it wras not in his powrer.
Soon after this, Arianifm, and a number of other hcrc-fies, each in their turn, were brought by the monks from Egypt, and infected the church of Abyilinia. A great part of thefe hcrefies, in the beginning, were certainly owing to the difference of the languages in thofe times, and efpecial-ly the two words Nature and Perfon, than which no two words were evermore equivocal in every language in which they have been tranflatcd. Either of thefe words, in our own language, is a Sufficient example of what I have faid; and in fact we have adopted them from the Latin, if we had adopted the fignification of thefe words in religion from the Greek, and applied the Latin words of Perfon and Na-
7 ture
ture to common and material cafes, perhaps we had done better. Neither of them hath ever yet been tranilated into the AbyfTmian, fo as to be underftood to mean the fame thing in different places. This for a time was, in a certain degree, remedied, or underftood, by the free accefs they had, for feveral ages, both <-o Cairo and Jerufalem, where their books were reviled and corrected, and many of the principal orthodox opinions inculcated. But, fince the conqucil of Arabia and Egypt by Sultan Selim, in 1516, the communication between Abyflinia and thefe two countries hath been very precarious and dangerous, if not entirely cut oft; and now as to doctrine, I am perfectly convinced they are in every refpect to the full as great heretics as ever the Je-fuits reprefented them. And I am confident, if any Catholic miflionaries attempt to inftruct them again, they will foon lofe the ufe of letters, and the little knowledge they yet have of religion, from prejudice only, and fear of incurring a danger they are not fuiliciently acquainted with to follow the means of avoiding it.
The two natures in Chrift, the two perfons, their unity, their equality, the inferiority of the manhood, doctrines, and definitions of the time of St Athanafius, are all wrapt up in tenfold darknefs, and inextricable from amidft the thick clouds of herefy and ignorance of language Nature is often miftaken for perfon, and perfon for nature ; the fame of the human fubilance. It is monftrous to hear their reafon-ing upon it. One would think, that every different monk, every time he talks, purpofcly broached fome new herefy. Scarce one of them that ever I converfed with, and thofe of the very heft of them, would fuller it to be faid, that ChriiVs body was perfectly like ours.   Nay, it was eafily feen that,
Vol. III. S f in
in their hearts, they went Rill further, and were very loth to believe, if they did believe it at all, that the body of the Virgin Mary and St Anne were perfectly human.
Not to trouble the reader further with thefe uninterefting particulars and diftinctions, I mall only add, that the Jefuits,. in the account they give of the herelics, ignorance, and ob-ftinacy of the Abyflinian clergy, have not mifreprefented them, in the imputations made again!! them, either in point of faith or of morals. Whether, this being the cafe, the million they undertook of thcmfelves into that country, gave them authority to deftroy the many with a view to convert the few, is a queftion to be refolved hereafter ; I believe it did not; and that the tares and the wheat fhould have been fullered to grow together till a hand of more authority, guided by unerring judgment, pulled them, with, that portion of fafety he had pre-ordained for both.
Tije Proteffant writers again unfairly triumph over their adverfaries the Catholics, by alking, Why all that noife a-bout the two natures in Chrilt ? It is plain, fay they, from paffages in the Haimanout Abou, and their other tracts upon orthodox belief, that they acknowledge that Chrilt was perfect God and perfect man, of a rational foul and human flefh fublifting, and that all the confeflions of unity, co-equality, and inferiority, are there expreffed in the cleareft' manner as received in the Greek church. What neceility was there for more ; and what need of difputing upon thefe points already fo fully fettled?
T;ns, I beg leave to fay, is unfair; for though it is true that, at the time of collecting the Haimanout Abou, and at
the
the time St Athanafius, St Cyril, and St ChryfoRorri wrote, the explanation of thefe points was uniform in favour of orthodoxy, and that while acccfs could eafily be had to Jerufalem or Alexandria, then Greek and Chriftian cities, difficulties, if any arofe, were eafdy refolved; yet, at the time the Jefuits came, thofe books were very rare in the country, and the contents of them fo far from being undcrRood, that they were applied to the fupport of the grolfeft hercfies, from the mifiriterpretation of the ignorant monks of thefe latter times. That the Abyflinians bad been orthodox availed nothing: they were then become as ignorant of the doctrines of St Athanafius and St Cyril, as if thofe fathers had never wrote; and it is their religion at this period which the Jefuits Condemn, not that of the church of Alexandria, when in its purity under the firft patriarchs ; and, to complete all 1 heir misfortunes, no accefs to Jerufalem is any longer open to them, and very rarely communication with Cairo.
On the other hand, the Jefuits, who found that the Abyf-ftnians were often wrong in fome things, were refolved to deny that they could be right in any thing ; and, from attacking their tenets, they fell upon their ceremonies received in the Greek church at the fame time with Chrifti-anity; and in this difpute they lliewed great ignorance and malevolence, which they fupportcd by the help of falfe-hood and invention. I fhall take notice of only one in-ftancc in many, becaufe it has been infilled upon by both parties with unufual vehemence, and very little candour.
It was fettled by the firft general council, that one bap-tifm only was ncccftary for the regeneration of man, for freeing him from the fin of our firft parents, and lifting
S f 2 him
324. T R A VEL S TO DISCO VT. R
him under the banner of Chrift,—" I confefs one baptififi for the rcniiiiion of fins," fays the Symbol. . Now it was maintained by the Jefuits, that in Abyilinia,once every yearj they baptifed nil grown people, or adults. I fhall, as briefly as poiliblc, let down what I myfelf. faw while on.the.fpot.
Turc fmall river, running between the town of Adowa and the church, had been dammed up for feveral days; the flream was fcanty, fo that it fcarcely overflowed; It was in places three feet deep, in fome, perhaps, lour, or little more. Three large tents were pitched the morning before the feaft of the Epiphany ; one on the north for the priefts to repofe in during intervals of the fervice, and befide this one to communicate in : on the fouth there was a third tent for the monks and priefts of another church to reft themfclves in their turn. About twelve o'clock at night the monks and priefts met together, ana began their prayers and pfalms at the water-fide, one party relieving each other. At dawn of day the governor, Welleta Michael, came thither with fome foldiers to raife men for Ras Michael, then on his march againft Waragna Fafil, and fat down on a fmall hill by the water-fide, the troops all fkh> miihing on foot and on horfeback around them.
As foon as the fun began to appear, three large croftcs of wood were carried by three priefts drcfted in. their facerdo-tal veOmcnts, and who, coming to the fide of the river, dipt the crofs into the water, and all this time the firing, fkin-mifhing, and praying went on together. The priefts with the croftes returned, one of their number before them carrying fomething lefs than an Englifh quart of water in a filver cup or chalice ; when they were about
fifty
fifty yards from Welleta Michael, that general Rood up, and the pried took as much water as he could hold in his hands and fprinkled it upon his head, holding the cup at the fame time to Welleta Michael's mouth to talle ; after which the pried received it back again, laying, at the fame time, Gzier y'barak," which is limply, " May God blefs you." Each of the three erodes were then brought forward to Welleta Michael, and he kifTed them. The ceremony of Sprinkling the water was then repeated to all the great men in the tent, all cleanly drclTed as in gala, home of them, not contented with afperton, received the water in the palms of their hands joined, and drank it-there; more water was brought for thofe that had not partaken of the firft ; and, after the whole of the governor's company was fprinkled, the croiics returned to the river, their bearers iinging hallelujahs, and the Ikirmiftiing and firing continuing,,
Janni, my Greek friend, had recommended me to the prieft of Adowa ; and, as the governor had placed me by him, I had an opportunity, for both thefe reafons, of being ferved among the firft. My friend the prieft iprinklcd water upon my head, and gave me his blefung in the fame words he had ufed to the others ; but, as I law it was not ncceftary to drink, I declined putting the cup to nn lips, for two reafons ; one, becaufe 1 knew the Abyftinians have a fcruple to eat or drink after ftrangcrs ; the other, becaufe I apprehended the water was not perfectly clean; for no fooner bad the croflcs firft touched the pool, and the cup filled from the clean part for the governor, than twTo or three hundred boys, calling themfclves deacons, plunged in with only a white cloth; or rag, tied round their middle; in all or; e: (    ct< they were perfectly naked, All their friends and
relations
relations (indeed everybody) went clofe down to the edge of the pool, where water was thrown upon them, and firit decently enough by boys of the town, and thofe brought on purpofe as deacons ; but, after the better fort of people had received the afperfion, the whole was turned into a riot, the boys, muddying the water, threw it round them upon every one they faw wcll-drefted or clean. The governorrc-treated firft, then the monks, and then the crolles, and left the brook in poffeilion of the boys and blackguards, who rioted there till two o'clock in the afternoon.
I must, however, obferve, that, a very little time after the governor had been fprinkled, two horfes and two mules, belonging to Ras Michael and Ozoro Efther, came and were wafbed, Afterwards the foldiers went in and bathed their horfes and guns; thofe who had wounds bathed them alfo. I law no women in the bath uncovered, even to the knee; nor did 1 fee any perfon of the rank of decent fervants go into the water at all except with the horfes. Heaps of platters and pots, that had been ufed by Mahometans or Jews, were brought thither likewife to be purified; and thus the whole ended.
I saw this ceremony performed afterwards at Kahha, near Gondar, in prefence of the king, who drank fome of the water, and was fprinkled by the priefts; then took the cup in his hand, and threw the reft that was left upon Am-ha Yafous -\ faying, " I will be your deacon and this was thought a high compliment, the prieft giving him his blcf-fing at the fame time, but offering him no more water.
I shall
Prince of Shea, often ipok.cn of in the fequcl.
I shall now Rate, in his own words, the account given of this by Alvarez, chaplain to the Portuguefe embaffy, under Don Roderigo de Lima.
The king had invited Don Roderigo de Lima, the Portuguefe ambaffador, to be prefent at the celebration of the feRival of the Epiphany. They went about a mile and a half from their former Ration, and encamped upon the fide of a pond which had been prepared for the occafion. Alvarez fays, that, in their way, they were often aiked by thofe they met or overtook, " Whether or not they were going to be baptized ?" to which the chaplain and his company anfwered in the negative, as having been already once baptized in their childhood,
" In the night, fays he, a great number of priefts affem-bled about the pond, roaring and fmging with a view of blelling the water. After midnight the baptifm began. The Abuna Mark, the king and queen, were the firft that went into the lake ; they had each a piece of cotton cloth about their middle, which was juft fo much more than the reft of the people had. At the fun-riling the baptifm was moft thronged ; after which, when Alvarez* came, the lake was full of holy water, into which they had poured oil."
It fhould fecm, from this outfet of his narrative, that he was not at the lake till the ceremony was half o^cr, and did: not fee the benediction of the water at all, nor the curious
4 exhibition
* Vide Alvarez's narrative in his account of the enibafTy of Don Roderigo de Lima, page 15^
exhibition of the King, Queen, and Abuna, and their cotton cloths. As for the circumftancc of the oil being poured into the water, I will not pofitively contradict it, for, though I was early there, it might have cfcaped mc if it was done in the dark. However, I never heard it mentioned as part of the ceremony; and it is probable I fhould, if any fuch thing was really practifed ; neither was I in time to have feen it at Kahha.
" Before the pond a fcaffold was built, covered round " with planks, within which fat the king looking towards " the pond, his face covered with blue taffeta, while an old " man, who was the king's tutor, was Handing in the water " up to the moulders, naked as he was born, and half dead " with cold, for it had frozen violently in the night. All " thofe that came near him he took by the head and plun-" ged them in the water, whether men or women, faying, in " his own language, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, M Son, and Holy Ghoft."
Now Shoa, where the king was then, is in lat. 8° N. and the fun wras in 220 fouth declination, advancing northward, fo the fun was, on the day of the Epiphany, within 300 of the zenith of the bathing-place. The thermometer of Fahrenheit rifes at Gondar about that time to 68°, fo in Shoa it cannot rife to lefs than 700, for Gondar is in lat. 120 N. that is 40 farther northward, fo it is not poilihlc water mould freeze, nor did I ever fee ice in Abyilinia, not even on the higheft or coldcR mountains. January is one of the hotteR months in the year, day and night the Iky is perfectly fcrcne, nor is ■there there a long difproportioned winter night. At Shoa the
2 days
days are equal to the nights* at leaft as to fenfc, even in the month of January.
The baptifm, Alvarez fays, began at midnight, and the old tutor dipt every perfon under water, taking him by the head, laving, * I baptife thee in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy GhoitV It was moft thronged at fun-rife, and ended about nine o'clock ; a long time for an old man to ftand in frozen water.
The number (as women were promifcuoufty admitted) could not be lefs than 40,000; fothat even the nine hours this baptift - general officiated, he mufl have had exercife enough to keep him warm, if 40,000, (many of them naked beauties) palled through bis bands.
The women were ftark naked before the men, not even a rag about them. Without fome fuch proper medium as frozen water, I fear it would not have contributed much to the intcrefts of religion to have truftcd a prieft (even an old one) among fo many bold and naked beauties, cfpccially as he had the firft fix hours of them in the dark.
The Abuna, the king, and queen, were the three firft bap-tifed, all three being abfolutely naked, having only a cotton cloth round their middle. 1 am fure there never could be a greater deviation from the manners of any kingdom, than this is from thofe of Abyftinia. The king is always covered ; you feldom fee any part of him but his eyes. The queen and every woman in Abyflinia, in public and private, (I mean where nothing is intended but converfation) are covered to the chin.   It is a difgrace to them to have even
Vol. III. T t their
their feet feen by ftrangcrs; and their arms and hands arc concealed even to their nails. A curious circumftance therefore it would have been for the king to be fo liberal of his queen's charms, while he covers his own face with blue taffeta ; but to imagine that the Abuna, a coptifh monk bred in the defert of St Macarius, would expofe himfelf naked a-mong naked women, contrary to the ufual cuftom of the celebration he obferves in his own church, is monftrous, and muft exceed all belief whatever. As the Abuna Mark too was of the rcafonable age of no years, he might, 1 think, have difpenfed at that time of life with a bathing gown,, efpecially as it was frojl.
The old man in the pond repeated the formula, " I bap-tife you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ohoft,'* in his owm language; and Alvarez, it is plaiiiy. underftood not one word of Abyflinian. Yet, on the other hand, he fpcaks Latin to the king, who wonderfully under-ftands him, and anfwers as decifively on the merits of the difpute as if he had been educated in the Sorbonne.
Conf'tcor unum baptizma" fays Alvarez *, was a conftitu-tion of the Nicene council under Pope Leo. Right, fays the king, whofe church, however, anathematized Leo and the council he preiided at, which both the king and Alvarez fhould have known was not the Nicene council, though the words of the fymbol quoted are thought to be part of a. confeilion framed by that ailcmbly.
" Qui
Yid. Alvarez, hot loco,
" Qui credidcrit ct baptizatus fucrit falvus erit," fays Alvarez. " You fay right, anfwers the king, as to baptifm; thefe are the words of our Saviour; but this prefent ceremony was lately invented by a grandfather of mine, in favour of fuch as have turned Moors, and are dcfirous a-gain of becoming Chrillians."
I should think, in the firft place, this anfwer of the king, mould have let Alvarez fee no baptifm was intended there ; or, if it was a re-baptifm, it only took place in favour of thofe who had turned Moors, and muft therefore have been but partial. If this was really the cafe, what had the king, queen, and Abuna to do in it? Sure they had neither apof-tatized nor was the company of apoftates a very creditable ibciety for them.
Alvarez, to perfuade lis this is real baptifm, fays that ■oil was thrown into the pond before he came. He will not charge himfelf with having feen this, and it is probably a falfehood. But he knew it was an eftential in baptifm in all the churches in the eaft; fo indeed is fait, which he fhould have faid was here ufed likewife: then he would have had all the materials of Greek baptifm, and this fait , might have contributed to cooling the water, that had frozen under the rays of a burning fun.
Alvarez muft have feen, that not only men and women .go to be waftied in the pool, but horfes, cows, mules, and -a prodigious number of affes. Are thefe baptifed ? I would wifh to know the formula the reverend baptift-gencral ufed on their occafion.
T t 2
There
There is but one church where I ever faw facred rites, or fomething like baptifm, conferred upon affes ; it is, I think, at Rome on St Andrew's or St Patrick's day. It fhould be St Balaam's, if he was in the Roman kalendar as high as he is in the Abylfmian. In that church (it is I think on Monte Cavallo) all forts of affes, about and within Rome, are gathered together, and fhowers of holy water and blcffings rained by a prieft upon them. What is the formula I do not know; although it is a joke put upon ftrangcrs, efpecially of one nation, to aftemble them there ; or whether the two churches of Rome and Abyflinia differ fo much in this as in other points of difciplinc, I am not informed ; but the rationality and decency of fuch a ceremony being the fame in all churches, the fervice performed at the time fhould be the fame likewife,.
I will not then have any fcruple to fay, that this whole account of Alvarez is a grofs fiction; that no baptifm, or any thing like baptifm, is meant by the ceremony ; that a man is no more baptifed by keeping the anniverfary of our Saviour's baptifm, than he is crucified by keeping his crucifixion. The commemoration of our Saviour's baptifm on the epiphany, and the blefting the waters that day, is an old obfervance of the caftern church, formerly performed in public in Fgyptas now in Ethiopia. Since that of Alexandria fell into the hands of Mahometans, the fear of infultand profanation has obliged them to confine this ceremony, and all other proceflions, within the walls of their churches, in each of which there is conflantly a place devoted to this ufe. Thofe that cannot attend the ceremony of afpcrfion in the church, efpecially ftcfc or infirm people, have the water fent to them, and a lajge contribution is made for the patriarch, or bifhop; yet
4 nobody
Bobody ever took it into their heads to tax either Greek or Armenian with a repetition of baptifm.
Monsieur de Tournffort*, in his travels through the Levant, gives you a figure of the Greek prieft, who blefles the water in a peculiar habit, with a paftoral ftaff in his hand.
But, betides this, various falfehoods have likewife been propagated about the manner of baptifm practifed in Abyftinia, all in order to impugn the validity of it, and to ex-cufe the rafh conduct: of the Jefuits for re-baptiling all the Ahyllinians, as it they had been a Jewifh and Pagan people that never had been baptifed at all.   The violation of this article of the creed, or confeffion of Nice, was a caufe of great offence to the Abyftinians, and of the misfortunes that happened afterwards.   The whole of the Abyflinian fervice of baptifm is in their liturgy. The Jefuits had plenty of copies in their hands, and could have pointed out the part of the fervice that was heretical, if they had pleafed; they did not pretend, however, to do this, and their ftlence condemns them.
As for the idle ftories that are told of the words pronounced, fuch as,—" I baptize you in the name of the Holy Trinity,"—"In the name of Peter and Paul,"—"1 baptize you in the water of Jordan,"—" May God baptife you,"—" May G<xl wafh you," and many others, they are all invented by the Jefuits, to excufe the repetition of baptifm in Abyflinia,
which
Tournef. torn, i. p. 11 u
which there was no fort of occafion for, as they might have examined the words and form in the liturgies, which arc in every church; and I muft here only obferve, that if, as the chaplain of Alvarez fays, the prieft in the pool, on the feili-val of the Epiphany, was fo fond of the proper words as even, at that time, to fay, " I baptifc you in the name of the fa-*' ther, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft," the words he quotes to fhew this immerfton in water on the Epiphany, is a real baptifm, I cannot comprehend why they mould vary them to other words, when nothing but baptifm is meant. But this I can bear evidence of, that, in no time when I was prcfent, as I have above a hundred times been at the baptifm both of adults and infants, aye, and of apo-ftates too, 1 never heard other words pronounced than the orthodox baptifmal ones, " I baptize thee in the name of " the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft," immersing the child in pure water, into which they firft pour a fmall quantity of oil of olives, in the form of a crofs.
The Abyftinians receive the holy facrament in both kinds in unleavened bread, and in the grape bruifed with the hufk together as it grows, fo that it is a kind of marmalade, and is given in a flat fpoon: whatever they may pretend, fome mixture feems neccflary to keep it from fermentation in the ftate that it is in, unlefs the dried chiller is frefh bruifed juft before it is ufed, for it is little more fluid than the common marmalade of confectioners ; but it is perfectly the grape as it grew, bruifed ftones and fkin together. Some means, however, have been ufed, as I fuppofe, to prevent fermentation, and make it keep ; and, though this is con-ftantly denied, I have often thought I tailed a flavour that was not natural to the grape itfelf.
It is a miftake that there is no wine in Abyflinia, for a quantity of excellent ftrong wine is made at Dreeda, fouth-weft from Gondar about thirty miles, which would more than fupply the quantity neceftary for the celebration of the eucharift in all Abyflinia twenty times over. The people themfclves are not fond of wine, and plant the vine in one place only; and in this they have been imitated by the E-gyptians, their colony; but a fmall black grape, of an excellent flavour, grows plentifully wild in every wood in Tigre*.
Large pieces of bread are given to the communicants in proportion to their quality; and I have feen great men, who, though they open their mouths as wide as conveniently a man can do, yet from the refpcct the prieft bore him, fuch a portion of the loaf was put into his mouth that water ran from his eyes, from the incapacity of chewing it, which,however, he does as indecently, and with full as much noife, as he eats at table.
After receiving the facrament of the eucharift in both kinds, a pitcher of water is brought, of which the communicant drinks a large draught; and well be needs it to wafh down the quantity of bread he has juft fwallowed. He then retires from the fteps of the inner divifion upon which the aclminiftering prieft Hands, and, turning his face to the wall of the church, in private fays fome prayer with fecm-ing decency and attention.
The Romanifts doubt of the validity of the Abyflinian. confecration of the elements, becaufe in their liturgy it is plainly faid, " Lord, put thy hand upon this cup, and blefs
" it, and fanctify it, and purify it, that in it may be made " thy holy bloodand of the bread they fay, " Blefs this " faucer, or plate, that in it may be made thy holy body," And in their prayer they fay, " Change this bread that it " may be made thy pure body which is joined with this " cup of thy precious blood." The Jefuits doubt of the i l-lidity of this confecration, becaufe it is faid, " this br-..- is my body," and over the wine, " this cup is my blood ;" whereas, to operate a true tranfubftantiation, they fhould fay over the bread, " this is my body."
For my own part, I leave it to the reverend fathers, who are the beft judges, what is neccfTary to operate this miracle of tranfubftantiation. The reality of the thing itfelf is denied by all Proteftant churches, has been often doubted by others, has been ridiculed by lay-writers, and can never be a matter, I believe,of thorough conviction, much lefs of proof to any. The dignity of the fubject, on which it touches nearly, as well as tendernefs for our brethren on the continent, an article of whofe faith it is, fhould always fcrcen it from being treated with pleafantry, whatever we believe, or whether we believe it or not.
M. Ludolf thinks, that the words I have fet down are a proof the Abyffinians do not believe in tranfubftantiation. For my part, from thofe very words, 1 cannot think any thing is clearer than that they do; the bread is upon the plate; they pray that that plate may be bleflcd, M that in it the bread may be made God's holy body*;" and of the wine they
fay,
*See the Etiiiopic liturgies paflim.   Ludolf, lib. iii. cap. 5.
fay, "That it may be made thy holy blood:" and in their prayer they fay, " Change this bread that it may be made thy body ;" and again, " May the Floly Ghoft fhine upon this bread, that it may be made the body of Chrilt our God, and that this cup may be changed and become the blood, not the fymbol, of the blood of Chrift our God." With all refpect to Mr Ludolf's opinion, I muft think that, though the benediction prayed upon the patine, fpoon, and chalice, is but an aukward cxpreflion, yet, if I underftand the language, " convene" and " immutctur" are literal tranflations of the Ethiopic, and feem to pray for a tranfubftantiation as directly as words will admit, whether they believe in it or not; nor, as far as I know, can any ftronger or more cxprcflivc be found to fubllitutc in their place.
I shall finifh this fubject (which is not of my province, and which I have mentioned, becaufe I know it is a matter which fome of my readers defire information upon) by an anecdote that happened a few months before my coming into Abyftinia, as it was accidentally told me by the prieft of Adowa the very day of the Epiphany, and which Janni vouched to be true, and to have feen.
The Sunday before Ras Michael's departure for Gondar from Adowa, he went to church in great pomp, and there received the facrament. There happened to be fuch a crowd to fee him, that the wine, part of the confecrated elements, was thrown down and fpilt upon the fteps whereon the communicants Hood at receiving. Some ftraw or hay was inftantly gathered and fprinkled upon it to cover it, and the communicants continued the fervice till the end, treading that grafs under foot.
Vol. III. U u This
This giving great offence to Janni, and fome fenv prierts-: that lived with him, it was told Michael, who, without explaining himfelf, laid only, " As to the fact: of throwing the-hay, they are a parcel of hogs, and know no better." Thefe few words had ft tick in the ftomach of the prieft of Adowa^ who, witli great fecrecy, and as a mark of friendfhip, begged I would give him my opinion what he. mould have done, or rather, what would have been done in my country ? I told him, " That the anfwer to his queftion depended upon two things, which,being known, his difficulties would very eafily be folved. If you do believe that the wine fpilt by the mob upon the ftcps, and trod under foot afterwards, was really the blood of Jefus Chrift, then you was guilty of a moft horrid crime, and. you fhould cry upon the mountains to cover you; and ages of atonement are not fufticient to expiate it.. You fhould, in the mean time, have railed the place round with iron, or built it round with ftone, that no foot, or any thing elfe but the dew of heaven, could have fallen upon it, or you Ihould have brought in the river upon the place that would have wafhed it all to the fea, and covered it ever after from facrilegious profanation. But if, on the contrarv, you believe, (as many Chriftian churches do) that the wine (notwithftanding confecration) remained in the cup nothing more than wine, but was only the fymbol, or type, of Chrift's blood of the New Teftamcnt, then the fpilling it upon the,.-ftcps, and the treading upon it afterwards, having been merely accidental, and out of your power to prevent, being fo far from your wifli that you are heartily forry that it happened, I do not reckon that you are further liable in the crime of facrilegc, than if the wine had. not been confecra-ted at all. You arc to humble yourfelf, and fmcerely regret diat fo irreverent an accident happened in your hands, and
in
In your time, but as you did not intend it, and could not prevent it; the confequence of an accident, where inattention is exceedingly culpable, will be imputed to you, and nothing further."
The prieft declared to me, with great earneftnefs, that he never did believe that the elements in the eucharift were converted by confecration into the real body and blood of Chrift. FIc faid, however, that he believed this to be the Roman Catholic faith, but it never was his ; aim that he conceived the bread was bread, and the wine was wine, even after confecration. From this example, which occurred merely accidentally, and was not the fruit of interrogation or curiofity, it appears to mc, whatever the Jefuits fay, fome at leaft among the Abyftinians do not believe the real prefence in the eucharift ; but further I am not enough informed to give a politivc opinion. To follow t-his invef-tigation more curioufly would have been attended with a confiderable degree of danger; and therefore 1 have feted my only means of knowledge, and leave my readers entirely to the freedom of their own opinion, and to after inquiry and information.
The Abyftinians are not all agreed about the ftate of fouls hefore the rcfurrection of the body. The opinion which generally prevails is, that there is no third ftate; but that, after the example of the thief, the fouls of good men enjoy the beatific vifion immediately upon the feparation from the body. But I muft here obferve, that their practice and books do both contradict this ; for, as often as any perfon dies, alms are given, and prayers are offered for the fouls of thofe departed, which wrould be vain did they believe they were
U u 2 already
already in the prefence of God, and in pofteflion of the gie tteft blefs poflible, wanting nothing to complete it. " Re-memher,(favs their liturgy) O Lord! the fouls of thy fervants, our father Abba Matthias, and the reft of our faints, Abba Salama, and Abba Jacob." In another place, " Remember, O Lord ! the kings of Ethiopia, Abreha, and Atzbeha, Caleb, and Guebra Mafcal." And again, " Releafe, O Lord ! our father Antonius, and Abba Macarius.' If this is not directly acknowledging a feparate ftate, it can have no meaning at all.
I have already faid, that the Agaazi, the prcdeceftbrs of thofe people that fettled in I igre from the mountains or the Habab, were fhephcrds adjoining to the Red Sea; that they fpeak the language Gem, and arc the only people in Abyilinia in pofTeilion of letters; that thefe are all circumcifed, both men and women. The former term, as applied to men, is commonly known to every one the leaft acquainted with the Jewilh hiftory. The latter is, as far as I know, a rite merely Gentile, although in Africa, at leaft that part ad-* joining to Egypt and the Red Sea, it is much more known and more univerfally practifed than the other. This I fhall call cxclfwn, that I may cxprefs this uncommon operation by as decent a word as poflible. The Falafha likewife fubmit to both.
These nations, however they agree in their rite, differ in their accounts of the time they received this ceremony, as well as the manner of performing it. The Abyftinians of Tigre fay, that they received it from Ifhmacfs family and his defcendants, with whom they were early connected m their trading voyages. They fay alfo, that the queen of Saba, and all the women of that coaft, had fullered excifion at the ufual time of life, before puberty, and before her journey
ney to Jerufalem. The Falaflia again declare, that their cir-cumcifion was that commonly practifed at Jerufalem in the time of Solomon, and in ufe among them when they left Paleftine, and came into Abyilinia.
Tut: circumcifion of the Abyllinians is performed with a marp knife, or razor. There is no laceration with the nails, no formulaor repetition of words, nor any religious ceremony at the time of the operation, nor is it done at any particular age, and generally it is a woman that is the furgeon. The Falafha fay, they perform it fometimes with the edge of a fharp done ; fometimes with a knife or razor, and at other times with the nails of their fingers; and for this purpofe they have the nails of their little lingers of an immoderate length: at the time of the operation the prieft chants a hymn, or vcrfe, importing, u Blefled art thou, O Lord, who haft ordained circumciiion!" This is performed on the eighth day, and is a religious rite, according to the firft inftitution by God to Abraham.
The Abyftinians pretend theirs is not fo ; and, being prcfT-ed for the reafon, they tell you it is becaufe Chrift and the apodlcs were circumcifed, though they do not hold it nc-cellary to falvation. But it is the objection they conftantly make againft eating out of the fame plate, or drinking out of the fame cup with ftrangcrs, that they arc uncircumci-fed, while, with the Egyptians or the Cophts, though equal-1} ftrangcrs, they make no fuch difficulty. In the time of the Jefuits, when the Roman Catholic religion was aboliffi-cd, and liberty given them to return to their old worfhip, their pricfls proclaimed a general circumcifion; and the populace, in the firft days of their fury, or triumph, murdered many Catholics, by ftabbing them with a lance in that
3, P.art,
part, as they met them, repeating in derifion thejewifh hymn, or ejaculation, " Blefted is the Lord that hath ordained-circumcifion !" fo that, I believe, their indifference in this article is rather owing to not being contradicted ; juft as they are carelefs about every other parts of religion, unlefs fuch as have been revived in their minds by difputcs with the Jefuits, and kept up fince in part among their clergy. But none of them pretend that circumcifion arifes from necef-fity of any kind, or from any obft ruction or impediment to procreation, or that it becomes neceflary for cleanlinefs, or from the heat of climate.
None of thefe reafons, conftantly alledged in Europe, are ever to be heard of here, nor do I believe they have the fmalleft foundation any where ; and this, I think, fhould weigh ftrongly in favour of the account fcripture gives of it. Examining the origin of this ceremony, independent of this revelation, I will never believe that man, or nations of men, raftily fubmitted to a difgracchil, fometimes dangerous, and always painful operation, unlefs there had been propofed, as a confequence, fome reward for fubmitting to, pr fome punifhment for rcfufing it, which balanced in their minds the pain and danger, as well as difgrace, of that operation.
All the inhabitants of the globe agree in conftdering it fhameful to expofe that pait of their body, even to men; and in the eaft, where, from climate, you are allowed, and from refpect to your fupcriors, the generality of men are forced to go naked, all agree in covering their waift, which is called their nakednefs, though it is really the only part of their body that is covered.   We fee even that there was a
2 curfe
curfe * attended the mere feeing that part of the body of a parent, and not initantly throwing a covering over it,
I do not propofe difcufting at large the arguments for or againft the time of the beginning to circumcife. The fcripture has given fuch an account of it, that, when weighed with the promife fo exactly kept to the end, feems to me to be a very rational one.   But, confidcring all revelation out of the queftion, I think there is no room to inftitutc any free or fair inquiry.   I give no pre-eminence to Mofes nor his writings.   I fuppofe him a profane author; but, till thofe that argue againft his account, and maintain circumcifion was earlier than Abraham, fhall fticw me another profane writer as old as Mofes, as near the time they fay it began as Mofes was to the time of Abraham, I will not argue with them in fupport of Mofes againft Herodotus, nor difcufs who Herodotus's Phenicians, and who his Egyptians were that circumcifed.   Herodotus knew not Abraham nor Mofes, and, compared to their days, he is but as-ycderday.   Thofe Phenicians and Kgyptians might, for any thing he knew at his time, have received circumcifion from Abraham or Ifhmael, or fome of their pofterity, as the A-hyftinians or Ethiopians, whom he refers to, actually fay they did, which Herodotus did not know, it is plain, though,, he mentions they were circumcifed.   This tradition of the Abyftinians merits fome confideration from what they fay of it themfclves, that they were, in the earlicft time, circumcifed before they left their native country, and fettled in Tigre.   From this they derive no honour, nor do they pretend
* Gen. cbsp, ix. ver. 22...
tend to any. It would have been otherwife, if the a?ra fixed upon had been the reign of Menilek, fon of Solomon, when they firft embraced Judaifm under a monarch. This would have made a much more brilliant epoch in their hiftory, whilft it was probable that they adopted circumcifion under the countenance of Azarias, the fon of Zadok, the high prieft, and the reprefentatives of the twelve tribes who came with him at that time from Jerufalem.
It feems to me very extraordinary, that, if circumcifion was originally a Jewifh invention, all thofe nations to the fouth fhould be abfolutely ignorant of it, while others to the northward were fo early acquainted with it; for none of thofe nations up the Nile (excepting the Shepherds) either know or practife it to this day; though, ever fmce the 1400th year before Chrift, they have been in the clofeft connection with the Jews. This would rather make me believe, that the rite of circumcifion went northward from the plain of Maim e, for it certainly made no progrefs fouthward from Egypt. We fee it obtained in Arabia, by Zipporah*, Mofes's wife, circumcifing her fon upon their return to Egypt. Her great anxiety to have that operation immediately performed, fhews that hcr's was a Judaical circumcifion ; there was no fin that attended the omiftion of this operation in Egypt, but God had faid to Abraham f, " The foul that is not circumcifed mail be cut oil' from lirael."
The Tcheratz Agows, who live bctwrccn Lafta and Begemder, in an exceedingly fertile country, are not circumcifed ;
• Exod. chap. iv. ver. 25, f Gen.-chap. xvii. ver. 14.
cifed ; and, therefore, if this nation left Paler!inc upon Jo-fhua pafling Jordan, circumcifion was not known there, for the Agows to this day are uncircumcifed. The fame may he faid of the Agows of Damot, who are fettled at the hea- of the Nile. It will be feen by the two fpecimens of their different languages that they are different nations, as I have allcdgcd. Next to thefe arc the Gafat, in a plain open country, who do not ufe circumcifion; none of them were ever converted to Judaifm, and but few of them to Christianity. The next are the people of Amhara Mio did not ufe circumcifion, at leaR few of them, till after the mailacrc of the princes by Judith in the year 900, when the remaining princes of the line of Solomon fled to Shoa, and the court was eftablifhed there. The la(t of thefe nations that I mail mention are the Galla, who arc not circumcifed; of this nation we have laid enough.
On the north, a black, woolly-headed nation, called the Shangalla, already often mentioned, bounds Abyffinia, and ferves like a if ring to the bow made by thefe nations of Galla. Who they arc we know perfectly, being the Cufhite Troglodytes of Sofala, Saba, Axum and Mcroe ; fhut up, as I have already mentioned, in thofe caves, the firft habitations of their more polifhed anceRors. Neither do thefe circum-cife, though they immediately bordered upon Egypt, wdiile the Cufhite, adjoining to the pcninfula of Africa certainly did. As then fo many nations contiguous to Egypt never received circumcifion from it, it feems an invinciole argument, that this was no endemial rite or cuftom among the Egyptians, and I have before obferved, that it was of no ufe to this nation, as the reafons mentioned by Philo, and the reft, of cieanlinefs and climate, are abfolutc dreams, and
Vol. Ill, X x now
now, exploded ; and that they are fo is plain, becaufe, other-wife, the nations more to the fouth ward would have adopted it, as they have univcrfally done another cuftom, which I mail prcfently fpeak oh
Circumcision, then, having no natural caufe or advantage, being in itfelf repugnant to man's nature, and extremely painful, if not dangerotis, it could never originate in man's mind wantonly and out of free-will. It might have done fo indeed from imitation, but with Abraham it had a caufe, as God was to make his private family in a few years numerous, like the fands of the fea. This mark, which fcparated them from all the world, was an eafy way to fhew whether the promife was fulfilled or not. They were going to take poilellion of a land where circumcifion was not known, and this me wed them their enemy diftincf. from their own people. And it would be the grofteft abfurdity to fend Samfon to bring, as tokens of the llain, fo many fbre-fkins or prepuces of the Philiilines, if, as Herodotus fays, the Philiilines had cut off their prepuces a thoufand years; before,
I must here take notice that this cuftom, filthy and barbarous as it is, has been adopted by the Abyftinians of Tigre, who have always been circumcifed, from a knowledge that the nations about them were not circumcifed at all. It is true they do not content themfelvcs with the forefkin, and I doubt very much if this was not the cafe with the Jews likewife. On the contrary, in place of the forefkin they cut the whole away, fcrotum and all, and bring this to their fupcriors, as a token they have killed an enemy.
Although
Although it then appears that the nations which had Egypt between Abraham and them, that is, were to the fbuthward, did not follow the Egyptians in the rite of circumcifion, yet in another, of excifion, they all concurred* Strabo* fays, the Egyptians circumcifed both men and worn.n, like the Jeivx. I will not pretend to fay that any fuch operation ever did obtain among the Jcwifli women, as fcripture is filent upon it; and indeed it is nowhere ever pretended to have been a religious rite, but to be introduced from neccllity, to avoid a deformity which nature has fubjected particular people to, in particular climates and countries.
We perceive among the brutes, that nature, creating the animal with the fame limbs or members all the world o-ver, does yet indulge itfelf in a variety, in the proportion of fuch limbs or members. Some are remarkable for the lize of their heads, fome for the breadth and bignefs of the tail, f•■.ine for the length of their legs, and fome for the fize of their horns. There is a diftrict. in Abyflinia, within the perpetual rains, where cows, of no greater fize than ours, have horns, each of which would contain as much water as the ordinary water-pail ufed in England does ; and 1 remember on the frontiers of sennaar, near the river Dcndcr, to have feen a herd of many hundred cows, everyone of which had the apparent conflruction of their parts almoft finiilar with that .of the bull; fo that, for a confiderable time, I was perfuaded that thefe were oxen, their udders being very fmall, until I had feen them milked.
v. iii. X x 2 This
* Lib. xvii \\ 950.
« \
548 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
This particular appearance, or unnecefTary appendage, at firft made me believe that I had found the real caufe « f circumcifion from analogy, but, upon information, this did not hold. It is however otherwife in the cxcifion of worn n. Prom climate, or fome other caufe, a certain difproportion is found generally to prevail among them. And, as the population of a country has in every age been confidered as an object worthy of attention, men have endeavoured to remedy this deformity by the amputation of that redundancy. All the Egyptians, therefore, the Arabians, and nations to the fouth of Africa, the Abyftinians, Gallas, Agows, Ga-fats, and Gongas, make their children undergo this operation, at no fixed time indeed, but always before they are marriageable.
When the Roman Catholic priefts firft fettled in Egypt, they did not neglect fupporting their million by temporal advantages, and fmall prcfents given to needy people their profelytes ; but miftaking this excifion of the Coptifh women for a ceremony performed upon Judaical principles, they forbade, upon pain of excommunication, that excifion fhould be performed upon the children of parents who had become Catholics. The converts obeyed, the children grew up, and arrived at puberty; but the confequences of having obeyed the interdict were, that the man found, by chufing a wife among Catholic Cophts, he fubjected himfelf to a very difagreeable inconveniency, to which he had conceived an unconquerable averfion, and therefore he married a heretical wife, free from this objection, and with her he relapfed into herefy.
, The
The miftionarics therefore finding it impoflible that ever their congregation could increafe, and that this accident did fruftrate all their labours, laid their cafe before the College of Cardinals de propagandafdc, at Rome. Thefe took it up as a matter of moment, which it really was, and fent over vifitors fkilled in furgery, fairly to report upon the cafe as it Rood; and they, on their return, declared, that the heat of the climate, or fome other natural caufe, did, in that particular nation, invariably alter the formation fo as to make a difference from what was ordinary in the fex in other countries, and that this difference did occafion a difguR, which muft impede the confequences for which matrimony was inftituted. The college, upon this report, ordered that a declaration, being firft made by the patient and her parents that it was not done from Judaical intention, but becaufe it difappointed the ends of marriage, " Si modo " matrimonii fructus impediret id omnino tollcndum ef-" fet:" that the imperfection was, by all manner of means, to be removed; fo that the Catholics, as well as the Cophts, in Egypt, undergo excifton ever fince. This is done with a knife, or razor, by women generally when the child is about eight years old *.
There is another ceremony with which I fhall clofe, and this regards the women alfo, and I fhall call it incifwn* This
is
* The reader will obferve, by the obfeurity of this paiTage, that it is with reluctance I have been oYtemiined to mention it at all 5 but as it is an hiftorical h£t, which has had material confequences, I have thought ii ror allowable to emit it altogether. Any naturalifh wifhing for more particular information, may conftilt the French copy.
is an ufagc frequent, and ftill retained among the Jews, though pofitively prohibited by the law: " Thou {halt not cut thy face for the fake of, or on account of the dead As foon as a near relation dies in Abyilinia, a brother or pa-rent, coulin german or lover, every woman in that relation, wi;h the nail of her little finger, which lire leaves long on purpofe, cuts the fkin of both her temples, about the fize of a fixpence; and therefore you fee either.a wound or a fear in every fair face in Abyifinia ; and in the dry feafon, when the camp is out, from the lofs of friends they feldom have liberty to heal till peace and the army return with the rains.
The Abyftinians, like the ancient Egyptians, their firft colony, in computing their time, have continued the ufe of the folar year. Diodorus Siculus fays, " i hey do not reckon their time by the moon, but according to the fun ; that thirty days conftitute their month, to which they add five days and the fourth part of a day, and this completes their year.
These five days were, by the Fgyptians, called Nici, a'nd> by the Greeks, Epagomeni, which fignifies, days added, or fupcrinduced, to complete a fum. I he Abyftinians add five days, which they call Quagomi, a corruption from the Greek Epagomeni, to the month of Auguft, which is their Naha-afte. Every fourth year they add a lixth day. They begin the year, like all the eaftern nations, with the 29th or 30th day of Auguft, that is the kalends of September, the 29th of Auguft being the firft of their month iViafcaram.
It
* Deut. chap. xiv. ver. x.
It is uncertain whence they derived the names of their months; they have no figniiication in any of the languages of Abyilinia. The name of the firft month among the old Egyptians has continued to this day. It is Tot, probably fo called from the firft divifion of time among the Egyptians, from obfervation of the hrlaical riflng of the dog-ftar. The names of the months retained in Abyilinia are poftibly in antiquity prior to this ; they are probably thofe given them by the Cufhite, before the Kalcndars at Thebes and Mcroe,, their colony, were formed.
The common epoch which the Abyftinians make ufe of is from the creation of the world ; but in the quantity of this period they do not agree with the Greeks, nor with other eaflcrn nations, who reckon 5508 years from the creation to the birth of Chrift. The Abyftinians adopt the even number of 5500 years, calling away the odd eight years; but whether this was firft done for cafe of calculation, or fome better reafon, there is neither book nor tradition that now can teach us. They have, befides this, many other e-pochs, fuch as from the council of Nice and Ephefus. There is likewife to be met with in their books a portion of time, which is certainly a cycle; the Ethiopic word is kamar, which, literally interpreted, is an arch, or circle. It is not now in ufe in civil life among the Abyftinians, and therefore was mentioned as containing various quantities from 100 years to 19 ; and there are places in their hiftory where neither of thefe will apply, nor any even number whatever.
They make ufe of the golden number and epacl con-ftantly in all their ecclefiaftic computations: the firft they
calf
call Marque, the other Abactc. Scaligcr, who has taken great pains upon this confuted fubject, the computation of time in the church of Abyilinia, without having fucceed-cd in making it much clearer, tells us, that the tirli ufe or invention of epaets was not earlier than the time of Diocle-fian ; but this is contrary to the pofnivc evidence of Abyflinian hiftory, which lays exprefsly, that the epact was invented by Demetrius*, patriarch of Alexandria. V Unlefs, fays the poet in their liturgy, Demetrius had made this revelation by the immediate influence of the Holy Ghoft, how, I pray you, was it poftlble that the computation of time, called Epaets, could ever have been known ?'* And, again, " When you meet, fays he, you fhall learn the computation by epaets, which was taught by the Holy Ghoft to father Demetrius, and by him revealed to you." Now Demetrius was the twelfth patriarch of Alexandria, who was elected about the 190th year of Chrift, or in the reign of the emperor Severus, consequently long before the time of Diocletian.
It feems the reputation the Egyptians had from very old time for their fkill in computation and the divifion of time, remained with them late in the days of Chriftianity. Pope Leo the Great, writing to the emperor Marcian, confefles that the fixing the time of the moveable fealts was always an exclufive privilege of the church of Alexandria ; and therefore, fays he, in his letter about reforming the kalen-dar, the holy fathers endeavoured to take away the occafion of this error, by delegating the whole care of this to
the
* Encom. 12th Odobcr, OiK 3. torn. 1. Ann. Alexin, p.m. 363,
the bifhop of Alexandria, becaufe the Fgyptians, from old times, feem to have had this gift of computation given them; and when thefe had iignilied to the apoftolic Sec the days upon which the moveable fcafts were to happen, the church of Rome then notified this by writing to churches at a greats er diitance.
We are not to doubt that this privilege, which the church of Alexandria had been fo long in poftTcflion of, contributed much to inflame the minds of the Abyflinians againft the Roman Catholic priefts, for altering the time of keeping Eafter, by appointing days of their own ; for we fee violent commotions to have arifen every year upon the celebration . of this fell iv ah
The Abyftinians have another way of describing time peculiar to themfelves ; they read the whole of the four cvangelifts every year in their churches. They begin with Matthew, then proceed to Mark, Luke, and John, in order; and, when they fpeak of an event, they write and fay it happened in the days of Matthew, that is, in the firft quarter of the year, while the gofpel of St Matthew was yet reading in the churches..
They compute the time of the day in a very arbitrary, irregular manner. The twilight, as I have before obferved, is very fhort, almoft. imperceptible, and was ftill more fo when the court was removed farther to the fouth ward in Shoa. As foon as the fun falls below the horizon, night comes on, and all the. ftars appear. This term, then, the twilight, they choofe for the beginning of their day^ and cull it Nagge, which is the very time the twilight of the
Vot. Ill, Y y morning
morning Lifts. The fame is obferved at night, and Mefet is meant to iignify the inftant of beginning the twilight, betWeen the fun's falling below the horizon and the ftars appearing. Mid-day is by them called Kater, a very old word, which fignifies culmination, or a thing's being arrived or placed at the middle or higheft part of an arch. All the reft of times, in converfation, they defcribe by pointing at the place in the heavens where the fun then was, when what they are defcribing happened.
I shall conclude what further I have to fay on this fubject, by obferving, that nothing can be more inaccurate than all Abyftinian calculations. Befides their abfolute ignorance in arithmetic, their exceftive idlenefs and averfion to ftudy, and a number of fanciful, whimfical combinations, by which every particular fcribe or monk diftinguifhes himfelf, there arc obvious reafons why there fhould be a variation between their chronology and ours. I have already obferved, that the beginning of our years arc different; ours begin on the iff of January, and theirs on the ift day of September, fo that there arc 8 months difference between us. The laft day of Auguft may be the year 17S0 with us, and 1779 only with the Abyftinians. And in the reign of their kings they very feldom mention either month or day beyond an even number of years. Suppo-fmg, then, it is known that the reign of ten kings extended from fuch to fuch a period, where all the months and days are comprehended, when wc come to aftign to each of thofe an equal number of years, without the correfpondent months and days, it is plain that, when all thefe feparate reigns come to be added together, the one fum-total will not agree with the other, but will be more or lefs than the
4      I Juft
•
juft time which that prince reigned. This, indeed, as errors compenfate full as frequently as they accumulate, will feldom amount to a difference above three years; a fpace of time too trivial to be of any confequencc in the hiftory of barbarous nations.
However, it will occur that even this agreement is no pofitive evidence of the exactnefs of the time, for it may fo happen that the fum-totals may agree, and yet every particular fum conftituting the whole may be falfe, that is, if the quantity of errors which arc too much exactly correfpond with the quantity of errors that are too little; to obviate this as much as poflible, I have confidercd three eclipfes of the fun as recorded in the Abyflinian annals. The firft was in the reign of David III. the year before the king marched out to his firft campaign againft Mafludi the Moor, in the unfortunate war with Adel. The year that the king marched into Dawaro was the 1526, after having difpatched the Portuguefe ambaffador Don Roderigo de Lima, who embarked at Mafuah on the 26th of April on board the fleet commanded by Don Hector de Silveyra, who had come from India on purpofe to fetch him ; and the Abyflinian annals fay, that, the year before the king marched, a remarkable eclipfe of the fun had happened in the Ethiopic month Ter. Now, in confulting our European accounts, we find that, on the fecond of January, anfwering to the 18th day of Ter, there did happen an eclipfe of the fun, which, as it was in the time of the year when the Iky is cloudlefs both night and day, muft have been vilible all the time of its duration.   So here our accounts do agree precifely.
y y 2
The fecond happened on the 13th year of the reign of Claudius, as the Abyifmian account Rates it. Claudius fuc-cecded to the crown in the 1540, and the 13th year of his reign will fall to be on the 1553. Now we find this eclipfe did happen in the fame clear feafon of the year, that is, on the 24th of January 1553, fo in this fecond inilance our chronology is perfectly correct.
The third eclipfe of the fun happened in the 7th year of the reign of Yafous II. in Magabit, the feventh month of the Abyflinians. Now Yafous came to the crown in 1729, fo that the 7th year of his reign will be in 1736, and on the 4th day of October, anfwering to the 8th day of the month Tckemt, N. S. in that year, we fee this eclipfe obferved in Europe.
As a further confirmation of this, we have flared the particulars of a comet which, the Abyflinian annals fay, appeared at Gondar in the month of November, in the 9th year of the reign of Yafous I. and as this comet was obferved in Europe to have come to its perihelion in December 1689, and as that year, according to our account, was really the 9th of that king's reign, no further proof of the exactnefs of our chronology can poflibly be required. By means of thefe obfervations, counting backward to the time of Icon Amlac, and again forward to the death of Joas, which happened in 1768, and affigning to each prince the number of years that his own hiftorians fay he reigned, 1 have, in the mofl unexceptionable manner that I can devife, fettled the chronology of this country; and the cxaet agreement it hath with all the remarkable events, regularly and fuiEciently vouched, plainly fhews the accuracy of this me-
a thock
thod. If, therefore, in a few cafes, I differ two or three years from the Jefuits in their firft account of this country, I do not in any fhape believe the fault to be mine, becaufe there are, at all thefe periods, errors in point of fact, both in Alvarez and Tellez, much more material and unaccountable than the miftake of a few years; and thefe errors have been adopted with great confidence in the Hifpania Illuftrata, and fome of the belt books of Portuguefe hiftory which have made mention of this country.
"3*
C II A P,
TRAVELS
TO DISCOVER
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.
BOOK VI.
first attfmpt to discover the source of the nile frustrated-a successful journey  thither,  with a full
account of every thing relating to that celebrated river.
CHAP. I.
The Author made Governor of Ras el Feel.
ISO^N received an inftance of kindnefs from Ayto Confu which gave me grear pleafure on feveral accounts. On the fouth part of Abylfmia, on the frontiers of Sennaar, is a hot, unwholefome, low ftripe of country, inhabited entirely by Mahometans, divided into feveral fmall diftrict. s, known by the general name of Mazaga,   Of this I
have
have often before fpoken, and mall have.further.occafion in
the fcqucl.
The Arabs of Sennaar that are on bad terms with the governor of Atbara, fly hither acrofs the defert to avoid the rapine and violence of that cruel tyrant.' The arrival of thefe produces in an inftant the greatcll plenty at Ras el feel; mat kets are held everywhere ; cattle of all kinds, milk, butter, elephants teeth, hides, and feveral other commodities, are fold to a great amount,,
The Arabs are of many different tribes ; the chief are the Daveina, then the Nile. Thefe, bcfides getting a good market, and food for their cattle and protection for themfclves, have this great additional advantage, they efcape the Fly, and confequently are not pillaged, as the reft of the Arabs in Atbara are, when changing abodes to avoid the havock made by that infect. In return for this, they contlantly bring horfes from Atbara, below Sennaar, for the king's own ufe, and for fuch of his cavalry who are armed with coats of mail, no Abyftinian horfe, or very few at leaft, being capable of that burden..
Ayto Confu had many diftricts of land from his father Kafmati Netcho, as well as fome belonging to his mother Ozoro Efther, which lay upon that frontier; it was called Ras el Feel, and had a fendick and nagareet, but, as it was governed always by a deputy who was a Mahometan, it had no rank among the great governments of the ftate., Betides thefe lands, the patrimony of Confu, Ras Michael had given him more, and with them this government, young as he was, from, favour to- his mother Ozoro Efther.
This.
This Mahometan deputy was named Abdel Jelleel, a great coward, who had refufed to bring out his men, tho' fum-moned, to join the king when marching againft Fafd. He had alio quarrelled with the Daveina, and robbed them, fo that they traded no more with Ras el Feel, brought no more horfes, and the diftrict: was confequcntly nearly ruined, whilft a great outcry was raifed againft Abdel Jelleel by the merchants who ufed to trade at that market, not having now money enough to pay the meeryi
Ammonios, his Billetana Gucta, was the perfon Ayto Confu had deftined to go to Ras el Feel to reduce it to order, and difplacc Abdel Jelleel; but Ras Michael had put him as a man of truft over the black horfe under me, fo he was employed otherwife. Confu himfelf was now preparing to go thither to fettle another deputy in the place of Abdel Jelleel, and he had aiked the aftiftance of troops from the king, by which this came to my knowledge.
The firft time I faw Ozoro Efther, I told her, that, unlefs fhe had a mind to have her fon die fpeedily, Ihe fhould, by every means in her power, dilfuade him from his journey to Ras el Feel, being a place where the bloody flux never ceafed to rage; and this complaint had never perfectly left him fince he had had the fmall-pox, but had wore him to a fhadow. There could be no furer way therefore of deftroy-ing him than letting him go thither as he propofed. He had been for fome time indeed taking bark, which had done him great fervice. His mother Ozoro Efther, the Iteghe, whofe firft favourite he was, and all his friends, now took the alarm, upon which the Ras forbade him pofitivcly to go.
Vcl. III. Z z Negade
Negade Ras Mahomet, of whom we have already fpokeny brother to Hagi Saleh, who had procured me my firft lodging at Gondar, was head of all the Mahometans in that capital, nay, I may fay, in Abyflinia. He, too, was a favourite of the Ras, and fhcwed the fame attachment to me, on account of Metical Aga, as had his brother Saleh. This man came to me one morning, and told me, that Yafine, whom I had brought with me to Abyftinia, and was recommended to me by Metical Aga, had married Abdel Jelleel's daughter,, and that a fon of Saleh had married a daughter of Yafmc's. He faid there was not a man in Abyftinia that was a braver foldier and better horfeman than Yafine ; that he had no love for money, but was a man of probity and honour, as indeed I had always found him ; that the people of Ras el Feci, to a man, wilhed to have him for their governor in the room of Abdel Jelleel; and that all the Arabs, as well as Shekh Fidele, governor of Atbara, for Sennaar, wilhed the fame,.
Mahomet did not dar.e to fpeak for fear of Ozoro Efther, who was thought to favour Abdel Jelleel, but he promifed, that, if Ayto Confu would appoint him initead of Abdel Jelleel, he would give him 50 ounces of gold, bcfides what Yafine fhould allow upon his fettlement, and would manage the affair with Michael when he had leave lb to do. He as Med, that his brother Saleh fhould furnifh Yafine with 200 men from die Mahometans at Gondar, completely armed with their firelocks, and commanded by young Saleh in perfon.
- was not at this time any judge of the expediency of die mcafurc ; but cue refolution I had made, and determined
mined to keep, that I never would accept a poR or employment for myfelf, or folicit any fuch for others. My reader will fee, that, for my own fafety, moft unwillingly I had been obliged to break the firft of thefe rcfolutions almoft as foon as it was formed, and I was now deliberating whether it was not better that I fhould break the other for the fame reafon. Two things weighed with me extremely, the experience of Yafine's prudence and attachment to me during the whole journey, and my determination to return by Sennaar, and never truft myfelf more in the hands of that bloody aftaflm the Naybe of Mafuah, who I underftood had, at feveral times, manifefted his bad intentions towards mc when I fhould return by that ifland.
I flattered myfelf, that great advantage would accrue to me by Yafme's friendfhip with the Arabs and the shekh of Atbara; and, having confulted Ayto Aylo firft, I made him propofc it to Ozoro Ellher. I found, upon fpeaking to that princefs, that there was fomething embroiled in the affair. She did not anfwer directly, as ufual, and I apprehended that the objection was to Yafine. I was no longer in doubt of this, wrhen Ozoro Efther told me Abba Salama had ftrongly efpoufed the caufe of Abdel Jelleel, who had bribed him. Notwithftanding this, I refolved to mention it myfelf to Confu, that I might have it in my powrcr to know where the objection lay, and give a direct anfwer to Yaftnc,
I saw Confu foon after at Kofcam. Flis bark being ex-haufted, I brought him more, and he feemed to be much better, and in great fpirits. The time was favourable in all its circumfianccs, and I entered into the matter directly. I
Z z 2 was
was very much furprifed to hear him fay gravely, and without hcfitation, " I have as good an opinion of Yafine as you can have ; and I have as bad a one of Abdel Jelleel as any man in Gondar, for which, too, I have fufheient reafon, as it is but lately the king told me peevifhly enough, I did not look to my affairs, (which is true) as he underftood that the diftrict. was ruined by having been neglected. But I am no longer governor of Ras el Feel, I have refigned it. I hope they will appoint a wifer and better man; let him choofc for his deputy Yafine, or who elfe he pleafes, for I have fworn by the head of the Iteghe, I will not meddle or. make with the government of Ras el Feel more.
Tecla Mariam, the king's fecretary, came in at that in-ftant with a number of other people. I wanted to take Confu afide to afk him further if he knew who this governor was, but he {huflled among the crowd, faying, " My mother will tell you all; the man who is appointed is your friend, and I think Yafine may be the deputy." I now loft no time in going to Ozoro Efther to intercede for the government of Ras el Feci for Yafine.
Among the crowd I met firft Tecla Mariam, the king's fecretary, who taking me by the hand, faid, with a laughing countenance, " O ho, I wifh you joy; this is like a man; you are now no ftrangcr, but one of us ; why was not you at court ?" I faid I had no particular bufinefs there, but that I came hither to fee Ayto Confu, that he might fpeak in favour of Yafine to get him appointed deputy of Ras cl Feel. " Why don't you appoint him yourfelf? fays he; what has Confu to do with the affair now ? You don't intend always <x) be in leading firings ? You may thank the king for your-
felf, but I would never advife you to fpeak one word of Yafine to him; it is not the cuftom you may, if you pleafc, to Confu, he knows him already. His eftate lies all around* you, and he will enforce your orders if there fhould be any need."
" Pardon me, Tecla Mariam, faid I, if I do not underftand you. I came here to folicit for Yafine, that Confu or his fucceftbr would appoint him their deputy, and you anfwer that you advife me to appoint him myfelf."—" And fo I do,, replies Tecla Mariam: Who is to appoint him but you ? You are governor of Ras el Feel; are you not ?" I Rood mo-tionlefs with aftonifhment. " It is no great affair, fays he, and I hope you will never fee it. It is a hot, unwholefomc country, full of Mahometans; but its gold is as good as any Chriftian gold whatever. I wifh it had been Begemder with all my heart, but there is a good time coming."
After having recovered myfelf a little from my furprife, I went to Ayto Confu to kifs his hand as my fuperior, but this he would by no means fuller me to do. A great dinner was provided us by the Iteghe; and Yafine being fent for, was appointed, cloathed,thatis invefted,and ordered immediately to Ras el Feel to his government,.to make peace with the Davcina, and bring all the horfes he could get with him from thence, or from Atbara. I fent there alfo that poor man who had given us the fmall blue beads on the road, as I have already mentioned. The having thus provided for. thofe two men, and fecured, as I thought, a retreat to Sennaar for myfelf, gave me the firft real pleafure that I had received fince landing at Mafuah ; and that day, in company with Heikel, Tecla Mariam, Engedan, Aylo, and Guebra
Denghel,
Dcnghcl, all my great friends and the hopes of this country, I for the firft time, fmce my arrival in Abyftinia, abandoned myfelf to joy.
My conftitution was, however, too much weakened to bear any cxccfTes. The day after, when I went home to Emfras, I found myfelf attacked with a How fever, and, thinking that it was the prelude of an ague, with which 1 was often tormented, I fell to taking bark, without any remif-;(ion, or, where the remiffion was very obfeure, I fhut myfelf up in the houfe, upon my conftant regimen of boiled rice, with abundant draughts of cold water.
I was at this time told that there was a great commotion at Gondar; that a monk of Debra Libanos, a favourite of the Iteghe and of the king too, had excommunicated Abba Salama in a difpute about religion at the Itcheguc's houfe; and, the day after, Hagi Mahomet, one of Ras Michael's tent-makers, who lived in the town below, through which the high road from Gojam paries, came to tell me, that many monks from Gojam had paffed through the low town, and exprefi-cd themfclves very much diflatisfied by hearing that a frank (meaning me) was in the town above. He faid that when they came in fixes and fevens at a time, there was no fear; but when they returned altogether (as Michael fometimes made them do) they were like lb many madmen; therefore, if 1 refolved to ftay at Emfras, he wilhed I would order him fend me fome Mahometan foldiers, who would itrictly acct as 1 commanded them.
At the fame time I received news that my great friend, Tecla Mariam, and his daughter of the fame name, the
t moft
THE SOURCE OF T FI E NILE, ^
ntoft beautiful woman in Abyftinia after Ozoro Efther, were both ill at Gondar. There needed no more for me to repair inftantly thither. I muffled my head up as great officers generally do when riding near the capital. I palled at: different times above twenty of thefe fanatics on the road, fix and feven together; but cither they did not know me, or at leaft, if they did, they did not fay any thing; 1 came to Ayto Aylo's, who was fitting, complaining of fore eyes, with the queen's chamberlain, Ayto Heikel.
After the ufual falutation,I afked A)do what was the matter in town ? and if it was true that Sebaat Gzicr had excommunicated Abba Salama ? and told him that I had conceived thefe difputcs about faith had been long ago fettled. He an-fwcred with an affected gravity, " That it was not fo ; that this was of fuch importance that he doubted it would throw the country into great convullions; and he would not advife mc to be feen in. the ftrcct."—" Tell me, I befecch you, faid 1, what it is about. 1 hope not the old (lory of the Franks ?"—" No, no, fays he, a great deal worfe than that, it is about Nebuchadnezzar—and he broke out in a great ill of laughter. " The monk of Debra Libanos fays, that Nebuchadnezzar is a faint; and Abba Salama fays that he was a Pagan, Idolater, and a Turk, and that he is burning in hell fire with Dathan and Abiram."—a Very well, faid I, I cannot think he was a Mahometan if he was a Pagan and Idolater; but I am furc I fhall make no enemies upon this difputc.1'—" You are deceived, fays he ; unlefs you tell your opinion in this country you are reckoned an enemy to botli parties. Stay, therefore, all night, and do not appear on the ftrects;" and, upon my telling rftern I was going to Tecl.i-Mariana's, who was ill, they role with mc to go thither,,
for
for the ftricteft friendfhip fnbfifled between them. We met there with Ozoro Efther, who was vifiting the beautiful Tecla Mariam in her indifpofition. Seeing Aylo, Heikel, and me together at that time of night, fhe infilled that the young lady and I fhould be married, and Ihe declared roundly fhe would fee it done before flic left the houfe. As neither of my patients were very ill, a great deal of mirth followed. Ozoro Efther fat late; there was no occafion for the compliment of feeing her home, fhe had above three hundred men with her.
After fhe was gone the whole difcourfc turned upon religion, what we believed or did not believe in our country, and this continued till day-light, when we all agreed to take a little flecp, then brcakfaft, and go to court. We did fo, but Aylo went to Kofcam, and Tecla Mariam to the Ras, fo I met none of them with the king. When I went in he was hearing a pleading upon a caufe of fome confe-quence, and paying great attention. One of the parties had fmilhed, the other was replying with a great deal of graceful action, and much energy and eloquence.—They were bare down to their very girdle, and would fcem rather prepared for boxing than for fpeaking.
This being over, the room was cleared, and I made my proftration. " I do demand of you, fays the king abruptly, AVhether Nebuchadnezzar is a faint or no ?" I bowed, faying, " Your majefty knows I am no judge of thefe matters, and it makes me enemies to fpeak about them."—" I know, fays he gravely, that you will anfwer my queftion when I afk it; let mc take care of the reft."—" I never thought, faid I, Sir, that Nebuchadnezzar had any pretentions to be a
i faint.
•
feint. He was a fcourge in God's hand, as is famine or the •plague, but that does not make either of them a wholefome vifitation."—"What! fays he, Does not God call him his fervant ? Does he not fay that he did his bidding about Tyre, and that he gave him Egypt to plunder for his recompence ? Was not it by God's command he led his people into captivity ? and did not he believe in God, when Shadrach, Mc-fhech, and Abednego efcaped from the fiery furnace ? Surely he muft be a faint."—" I am perfectly fatisfied, faid I, and give my confent to his canonization, rather than either your majefty, or Abba Salama, fhould excommunicate me upon the queftion." He now laughed out, and feemed greatly diverted, and was going to fpeak, when Tecla Mariam, and a number of others, came in. I withdrew to the fide with refpect, as the fecretary had a fmall piece of paper in his hand. He ftaid about two minutes with the king, when the room filled, and the levee began. I wilhed Tecla Mariam might not be the worfe for laft night's fitting up. " The better, the better, fays he, much the better. You fee we are becoming all good, day and night we are bufy about religion."—"Are you upon Nebuchadnezzar to-day, friend? faid I; the king fays to me he is a faint."—"Juft fuch a faint, I fuppofc, fays he, as our Ras Michael, who, I believe, is jealous of him, for he is going himfelf to decide this difpute immediately.   Go to the Afhoa* and you willhear it."
There was a number of people in the outer court of the king's houfe, crying very tumultuoufly for a convocation of the church.   At twelve o'clock there was no wrord of Mi-
Vol. III. 3 A chael
* The largcft court, or outer fyace, furrounding the king's ho jftj
ehael at the palace ; but I faw the members of the council there, and expected he was coming. Inftead of this, the large kettle-drum, or nagarcet, called the lion, was carried to the king's gate, which occafioned great fpeculation. But prefently proclamation was made in thefe words, given me by Tecla Mariam himfelf —" Hear! hear! hearX they that pretend they do not hear this, will not be the fall punifhed for difobcying:—Whereas many diforderly and idleperfons have flocked to this capital for fome days paR, and brought no provifions for themfelvcs. or others, and have frightened the country people from coming to market, whereby all degrees of men, in this capital, are threatened with famine, and fcarcity is already begun ; this is, therefore, to give notice, That if any fuch people, after twelve o'clock to-morrow, be found in this city, or in the roads adjoining thereto, they fhall be punifhed like rebels and robbers, and their fault not prefcribed for feven years."
And, in about ten minutes aftcwards, another proclamation was made :■—" The king orders four hundred Galla of bis troops to patrole the Rreets all the night, and difperfc fummarily all forts of people that they fhall lind gathered together; commands thirty horfe to patrole between DebraTzai and Kolla, thirty on the road to Woggora, and thirty on that to Emfras, to protect our fubjects coming to market, and going about their other lawful bufinefs: They that are wife will keep themfelvcs well when they are fo." There was no need of a fecond proclamation. The monks were all wife, and" returned in an inllant every man to his home. The Galla were mentioned to terrify only, for they did not cxift, Ozoro Ellher having cleared the palace of that nation ; but monks knew there would be found people in their place
4 every
every bit as bad as Galla, and did not choofe to rifk the trial of the difference.
At this time a piece of bad news was circulated at Gondar, that Kafmati Boro, whom the Ras had left governor at Damot, had been beaten by Fafil, and obliged to retire to his own country in Gojam, to Sudis Amba, near the paffage of the Nile, at Mine; and that Faid, with a larger army of ftranger Galla than that he had brought to Fagitta, had taken poffelfion of Bure, the ufual place of his refidcnce. This being privately talked of as true, I aiked Kefla Yafous in confidence what he knew of it. Upon its being confirmed, I could not difguife my forrow, as 1 conceived that unexpected turn of affairs to be an invincible obftacle to my reaching the fourcc of the Nile. " You are miftaken, fays Kefla Yafous to me, it is the heft thing can happen to you. Why you deftrc to fee thofe places I do not know, but this I am fure of, you never will arrive there with any degree of fafety while Fafil commands. He is as perfect a Galla as ever forded the Nile; he has neither word, nor oath, nor faith that can bind him ; he does mifchief for mifchief's fake, and then laughs at it."
" Michael, after the battle of Fagitta, propofed to his army to pafs the rainy feafon at Bure, and cmartcr the troops in the towns and villages about. Fie would have Raid a year with them, to flicw that Fafil could not help them, but he was over-ruled. At Hydar Michael (that is, in November next) all Abyflinia will march againft him, and he will not flay for us, and this time we fhall not leave his country till we have eaten it bare ; and then, at your eai'e, you will fee every thing, defend yourfelf by your own
3 A 2 force^
force, and be beholden to nobody; and remember what 5 fay, peace with Fafd there never will be, for he does not de-fire it; nor, till you fee his head upon a pole, or Michael's army encamped;at Bure, will you (if you are wife) ever attempt to pafs Maitiha." Memorable words! often afterwards reflected upon, though they were not Rrictly verilied in the extent they were meant when fpoken.
CHAP,
-CHAP. II.
Battle of Banja-~Co?ifpiracy agalnjl Michael—The Author retires fa Emfras—Dcjcrlptlon of Gondar^ Emfras, and Lake Tzana.
A FTER FanTs defeat at Fagitta, and the affront he recei-
c/~\. ved at Aftba in the heart of his owa country, he had continued his route to Bure, adiftrict of the Agows, where was his conftant reftdence. After this he had crofted the Nile into the country of Bizamo, and Boro de Gago had taken up his reftdence at Bure, when Michael returned to Gondar ; but no.fooner had-he heard of his arrival in thofe parts than he marched with a number of horfe, and-forced his rival to retire to Gojam.
The Agows were all loyalifts in their beam, had been forced to join Fafil, but, immediately after his defeat, had de-clared for. Michael. The firft thing, therefore, Faiil did, when returned to Bure, was to attack the Agows on every fide; a double advantage was fure to follow this victory, the fa-miming, his enemies at Gondar, and convening fo rich a territory to his own ufe, by extirpating the Agows, and lay-
ing it open to be pofteffed by his countrymen, the Galla, from Bizamo.
A very obRinate battle was fought at Banja, one of their principal fettlcments, in which the Agows were entirely defeated, feven of their chiefs killed, all men of great confe-quence, among whom was Ayamico, a very near relation of the king. The news were firft brought by a fon of Nanna Georgis, chief of the Agows, who efcaped from the battle. Michael was at dinner, and I was prefent. It was one of his caroufals for the marriage of Powuffen, when young Georgis came into the room, in a torn and dirty habit, unattended, and almoft unperccived, and prefented himfelf at the foot of the table. Michael had then in his hand a cup of gold, it being the cxclufivc privilege of the governor of the province of Tigre to drink out of fuch a cup ; it was full of wine ; before a word was fpoke, and, upon the firft appearance of the man, he threw the cup and wine upon the ground, and cried out, I am guilty of the death of thefe people. Every one arofc, the table was removed, and Georgis told his misfortune, that Nanna Georgis his father, Zeegam Georgis, the next in rank among them, Ayamico the king's relation, and four other chiefs, were llain at Banja, and their race nearly extirpated by a victory gained with much bloodftied, and after cruelly purfued in retaliation for that of Fagitta.
A council was immediately called, where it was refolved, that, though the rainy feafon was at hand, the utmoft expedition fhould be made to take the field ; thatGufho and Powuffen fhould return to their provinces, and increafe their army to the utmoft of their power; that the king
fhould
fhould take the low road by Foggora and Dara, there to join the troops of Begemder and Amhara, crofs the Nile at the mouth of the lake, above the fecond cataract, as it is called, and march thence ftraight to Bure, which, by fpeedy marches, might be done in five or fix days. No refolution was ever embraced with more alacrity; the caufe of the Agows was the caufe of Gondar, or famine would elfc immediately follow. The king's troops and thofe of Michael were all ready, and had juft rcfrefhed themfclves by a week's feftivity.
Gusiio and Powuffen, after having fworn to Michael that they never would return without FauTs head, decamped next morning with very different intentions in their hearts ; for no fooner had they reached Begemder than they entered into a confpiracy in form againft Michael, which they had long meditated; they had refolved to make peace with Fafil, and fwear with him a folemn league, that they were but to have one caufe, one council, and one intercft, till they had deprived Michael of his life and dignity. The plan was, that, in hopes to join with them, the army fhould pafs by Dara and the mouth of the lake, as aforefaid, between that lake, called the lake of Dembea, on the north fide, and another fmall lake, which feems formerly to have been part of the great one, and is called Court-ohha; on the fouth is the village of Derdera, and the church of St Michael. Here was to be the fcenc of action; as foon as Michael advanced to Derdera, Guflio and Powuften were to clofe him behind on the north ; Fafil, from Maitfha, was to appear on his front from the fouth, whilft, between Court-ohha and the lake, in the midftof thefe three armies, Michael was to lofe his liberty or his life. The fecret was profoundly kept,, though known by many ; but every one was employed im
preparations
preparations for the campaign on the king's part, and no fufpicion entertained, for nothing cofts an Abyflinian lefs than to dilfemhle.
It had been agreed by Gufho and PowufTen before parting, in order to deceive Michael, that, mould Fafil retire from Bure at their approach, and pafs the Nile into his own country, the King, Ras Michael, and part of the army mould remain at Bure all the rainy feafon ; that, upon the return of the fair weather, they were all again to affemble at Bure, crofs the Nile into Bizamo, and lay wafle the country of the Galla, that the veftige of habitation fhould not be feen upon it.
All this time I found myfelf declining in health, to which the irregularities of the laft week had greatly contributed. The King and Ras had fufticiently provided tents and conveniencies for me, yet I wanted to conftruct for myfelf a tent, with a large flit in the roof, that I might have an opportunity of taking obfervations with my quadrant, without being inquietedby troublefome or curious vifitors. I therefore obtained leave from the king to go to Emfras, a town about twenty miles fouth from Gondar, where a number of Mahometan tent-makers lived. Gufho had a houfe there, and a pleafant garden, which he very willingly gave me the ufe of, with this advice, however, which at the time I did not underftand, rather to go on to Amhara with him, for I fhould there fooner recover my health, and be more in quiet than with the King or Michael. As the king was to pafs immediately under this town, and as moft
,of thofe that loaded and unloaded his tents and baggage
2 were
Were Mahometans, and lived at Emfras, I could not be better fituated, or more at my liberty and cafe, than there.
After having taken my leave of the king and the Ras, I paid the fame compliment to the Iteghe at Kofcam : I had not for feveral days been able to wait upon her, on account of the riots during the marriage, where the Ras required my attendance, and would admit of no excufe. That excellent pri.ncefs endeavoured much to diffuade me from leaving Gondar. She treated the intention of going to the fource of the Nile as a fantaflical fohy, unworthy of any man of fenfc or underftanding, and very carneftly advifed me to Ray under her protection at Kofcam, till I faw whether Ras Michael and the king would return, and then take the firft good opportunity of returning to my own country through Tigre, the way that I came, before any evil fhould overtake me.
1 excused myfelf the beft I could. Tt was not cafy to do it with any degree of conviction, to people utterly unlearned, and who knew nothing of the prejudice of ages in favour of the attempt I was engaged in. I therefore turned the difcouffc to profeftions of gratitude for benefits that J had every day received from her, and for the very great honour that fhe then did me, when ihe condefcended to teftify her anxiety concerning the fate of a poor unknown traveller like mc, who could not poflibiy have any merit but what arofe from her own gracious and generous fentiments, and univerfal charity, that extended to every object in proportion as they were helplefs. " Sec, fee, fays fhe, how every day of our life punifhes us with proofs of the pcr-verfenefs and contradiction of human nature ; you are
Vol. HI. 3 B come
come from Jerufalem, through, vile Turkifh governments, and hot, unwholcfomc climates, to fee a river and a bog, no part of which you can carry away were it ever fo valuable, and of which you have in your own country a thoufand larger, better, and cleaner, and you take it ill wdien I difeouragc you from the purfuit of this fancy, in which you are likely to perifh, without your friends at home ever hearing when or where the accident happened. While I, on the other hand, the mother of kings who have fat upon the throne of this country more than thirty years, have for my only wifh, night and day, that, after giving up every thing in the world, I could be conveyed to the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerufalem, and beg alms for my fub-fiftence all my life after, if I could only be buried in the ftrect within fight of the gate of that temple where our bieffed Saviour once lay." This was faid in the moR melancholy tone poflible, an unufual gloom hanging upon her countenance. Her dcliring me, however, to Ray at Kofcam, till I knew whether the king and Michael would return or not, confukring the large army they were to lead to the field,* and the fecblcnefs of the fo-often defeated Fafil, made me from that mil ant apprehend that there was fomething behind with which I was yet unacquainted.
Gold, and orders for cattle and provifions while at Emfras, followed this converfation with the queen ; this, indeed, had never failed at other times, which, by Ayto Aylo's advice, 1 never more refilled. Here I cannot help obferving the different manner in which three people did the fame tiling. When I received gold from Michael, it was openly from his hand to mine, without compliment, as he paid the reft of the kings fcrvants.   When I received it from the
king,
king, it was likewife from his own hand; it was always when alone, with a fear cxprcfled that I fulFercd myfelf to he ftraitcned rather than afk, and that I did not levy, with fullicicnt feverity, the money the feveral places allotted to me were hound to pay, which, indeed, was always the cafe. The queen, on the other hand, from whom I received conftant donations, never cither produced gold hcrfclf, nor fpoke of it before or after, but fent it by a fervant of hers to a fervant of mine, to employ it for the neceflaries of my family.
I confess I left the queen very much affected with the difpofition I had found her in, and, if I had been of a temper to give credit to prognodics, and a fafe way had been opened through Tigre, I mould at that time, perhaps, have taken the queen's advice, and returned without feeing the fountains of the Nile, in the fame manner that all the travellers of antiquity, who had ever as yet endeavoured to explore them, had been forced to do; but the prodigious bulllc and preparation which I found was daily making in Gondar, and the affurances everybody gave me that, fafe in the middle of a victorious army, I mould fee, at my lei-fure, that famous fpot, made me refume my former resolutions, awakened my ambition, and made mc look upon it .as a kind of treafon done to my country, in which' fuch efforts were then making for difcovcries, to renounce, now it was in my power, the putting them in poflcihon of that ;one which had baffled the courage and pcrfeverance of the braved men in all ages. The pleafure, too, of herborifmg in an unknown country, fuch as Emfras was, of continuing to do fo in fafety, and the approaching every day to the end of my willies, chafed away ail thofe gloomy apprchenfions
3 B 2 which
which I imbibed from the appearance and difcourfe of the queen, and of which I now began to be aihamed.
Gondar, the metropolis of Abyflinia, is fituated upon a hill of confiderable height, the top of it nearly plain, on which the town is placed. It confifts of about ten thoufand •families in times of peace; the houfes, arc chiefly of clav, the roofs thatched in the form of cones, which is always the conftruction within the tropical rains. On the well end of the town is the king's houfe, formerly a ftructure of confiderable confequence; it was a fquare building, flanked with fquare towers ; it was formerly four ftoreys high, and, from the top of it, had a magnificent view of all the country fouthward to the lakeTzana. Great part of this houfe is now in ruins, having been burnt at different times ; but there is Rill ample lodging in the two loweft floors of it, the audience-chamber being above one hundred and twenty feet long.
A succession of kings have built apartments by the fide of it of clay only, in the manner and fafhion of their own country ; for the palace itfelf was built by mafons from India, in the time of Facilidas, and by fuch Ahyllinians as had been inflructed in architecture by the Jefuits without embracing their religion, and after remained in the country, unconnected with the expuliion of the Portugucfe, during this prince's reign.
The palace,and all its contiguousbuildings, are furrounded by a fubilantial Hone wall thirty feet high, with battlements upon the outer wall, and a parapet roof between the outer and inner, by which you can go along the whole and
look
look into the flreet. There appears to have never been any embrafures for cannon, and the four fides of this wall are above an Englifh mile and a half in length.
The mountain, or hill, on which the town is fituated, u furrounded on every fide by a deep valley, which has three outlets; the one to the fouth to Dembea, Maitfha, and the Agows; the fecond to the north- we ft towards Sennaar, over the high mountain Debra Tzai, or the Mountain of the Sun, at the root of which Kofcam, the palace of the Iteghe, is fituated, and the low countries of Walkayt and Waldubba ; the third is to the north to Woggora, over the high mountain Lamalmon, and fo on through Tigre to the Red Sea. The river Kahha, coming from the Mountain of the Sun, or Debra Tzai, runs through the valley, and covers all the fouth of the town; the Angrab, falling from Woggora, furrounda it on the N. N. E. Thefe rivers join at the bottom of the. hill, about a quarter of a mile fouth of the town.
Immediately upon the bank oppofite to Gondar, on the other fide of the river, is a large town of Mahometans of a-bout a thoufand houfes. Thefe are all active and laborious people ; great part of them arc employed in taking care of the king's and nobility's baggage and field-equipage, both when they take the field and when they return from it?. They pitch and ftrike their tents with furprifing facility and expedition; they load and conduct the mules and the baggage, and are formed into a body under proper officers, but never fiuTcred, nor do they chufe, to fight oa either fide.
Gondar
Gondar, by a number of obfervations of the fun and ftars made by day and night, in the courfe of three years, with an aftronomical quadrant of three feet radius, and two excellent telefcopes, and by a mean of all their fmall differences, is in lat. 12° 34/ 3°"; and by many obfervations of the fatcllites of Jupiter, efpecially the fir it, both in their im-merfions and emerfions during that period, I concluded its longitude to be 370 33' o' eaft from the meridian of Greenwich.
It was the 4th of April 1770, at eight o'clock in the morning, when 1 fet out from Gondar. We palled the Kah-ha, and the Mahometan town, and, about ten in the morning, we came to a confiderable river called the Mogctch, which runs in a deep, rugged bed of flakcy blue ftones. We crofted it upon a very folid, good bridge of four arches, a convenience feldom to be met with in palling Abyflinian rivers, but very ncccflary on this, as, contrary to moil of their flreams, which become dry, or ftand in pools, on the approach of the fun, the Mogctch runs conflantly, by reafon that its fources arc in the higheft hills of Woggora, where clouds break plentifully at all fcafons of the year. In the rainy months it rolls a prodigious quantity of water into the lake Tzana, and would be abfolutely unpaflable to people bringing provifion to the market, were it not for this bridge built by Facilidas ; yet it is not judicioufly pla-cd, being clofe to the mountain's foot, in the face of a torrent, where it runs ftrongell, and carries along with it ftones of a prodigious fize, which luckily, as yet, have injured no part of the bridge. The water of the river Mogctch is not wholcfome, probably from the minerals, or ftony particles it-carries along with it, and the flatey ftrata over which it
1 runs.
runs. Wc have many rivers of this quality in the Alps, c-fpccially between mount Cenis and Grenoble.
Delivered now from the (Trait and rugged country on the banks of the Mogctch, we entered into a very extenfrve plain,, bounded on the eaft fide by the mountains, and on the weft by the large lake of Dembea, otherwife called the lake Tzana, or Bahar Tzana, the Sea of Tzana, which geographers have corrupted into the word Barcena. Rejoiced at laft that I had elbow-room, I began the moft laborious fcarch for fhrubs and herbs all over the plain, my fervants on one fide and I on the other, fearching the country on each fide of the road. It appeared to our warm imaginations, that the neighbourhood of fuch a lake, in fo remote a part of the world, ought infallibly to produce fomething perfectly beautiful, or altogether new. In this, however, we were difappointed, as indeed we always were in meadows, and where grafs grew fo exuberantly as it did all over this plain..
At eleven o'clock wre crofted the river Tedda; here the road divides : that branch to the call leads to Wechnc, in the wild, uncultivated territory of Belcllen, famous for no production but that of honey.
We continued along the other branch of the road, which led fouth to Emfras. One mile diftant on our left is the church of St George. About one o'clock we halted at the church zangetch Mariam ; and a few minutes after, we palled the river Gomara, a confiderable ft ream rifing in Be-lelien, which ftands in pools during the dry weather, bur.
had
had now begun to run ; its courfe N. E. and S. W, acrofs the plain, after which it falls into the lake Tzana.
At two we halted at Correva, a fmall village, beautifully fituated on a gentle-riling ground, through which the road paffes in view of the lake, and then again divides ; one branch continuing fouth to Emfras, and fo on to Foggora and Dara; the other to Mitraha, two fmall iflands in the lake, lying S. W. from this at the diftance of about four hours journey. The road from Correva to Emfras, for the firft hour, is all in the plain ; for the fecond, along the gentle Hope of a mountain of no confiderable height; and the remainder is upon a perfect: flat, or along the lake Tzana.
The 5tli of April, at five in the morning, we left our pre-fent ftation at Correva, where, though we had employed feveral hours in the fearch, we found very little remarkable of either plants or trees, being moftly of the kind we had already feen. We continued our road chiefly to the fouth, through the fame fort of country, till we came to the foot of a mountain, or rather a hill, covered with bullies and thorny trees, chiefly the common acacia, but of no fize, and feeming not to thrive. I pitched my tent here to fearch what that cover would produce. There were a great quantity of hares, which I could make no ufe of, the Ahyllinians holding them in abhorrence, as thinking them unclean ; but, to make amends, I found great ftore of Guinea fowls, of the common grey kind wc have in Europe, of which I fhot, in a little time, above a fcore ; and thefe, being perfectly lawful food, proved a very agreeable variety from the raw beef, butter, and honey, which we had lived upon hitherto,
i and
and which was to be our diet (it is not an unpleafant one, at lead a part of it) till we reached Emfras.
At eight in the morning I palled through Tangouri, a confiderable village. About a hundred yards on the right from this we have a finer profpetft of the lake than even from Correva itfelf. This village is chiefly inhabited by Mahometans, whofe occupation it is to go in caravans far to the fouth, on the other fide of the Nile, through the feveral diftricts of Galla, to whom they carry beads and large needles, cohol, or Stibium, myrrh, coarfe cloths made in Begemder, and pieces of blue cotton cloths from Surat, called Marowti. They are generally nearly a year abfent, and bring in return Haves, civet, wax, hides, and cardomum in large beautiful pods ; they bring likewife a great quantity of ginger, but that is from farther fouth, nearer Narca. It appears to mc to be a poor trade, as far as I could compute it, confidering the lofs of time employed in it, the many accidents, extortions, and robberies thefe merchants meet with, Whether it would be ever worth while to follow it on another footing, and under another government, is what I am not qualified enough to fay.
On the left of Tangouri, divided from it by a plain of about a mile in breadth, Rands a high rock called Amba Mariam, with a church upon the very fummit of it. There is no poflibility of climbing this rock but at one place, and there it is very difficult and rugged; here the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages retreat upon any fudden alarm or inroad of an enemy.
Vol, III. 3 c At
At nine o'clock, after palling a plain, with the lake Tzana all the way on our right, in length about three miles, we came to the banks or the river Gorno, a fmall but clear Rream; it rifes near Wechne, and has a bridge of one arch over it about half a mile above the ford. Its courfe is north and fouth nearly, and lofes itfelf in the lake between Mitraha and Lamguc. A mile farther we arrived at Emfras, after a very pleafant, though not intcrefting excur-iion.
The town is fituated on a flecp hill, and the way up to it is almoR perpendicular like the afcent of a ladder. The houfes arc all placed about the middle of the hill, fronting the weft, in number about 300. Above thefe houfes are gardens, or rather fields, full of trees and buffies, without any fort of order, up to the very top. Emfras commands a view of the whole lake, and part of the country on the other fide. It was once a royal refidence. On a fmall hill is a houfe of Hatze Hannes, in form of a fquare tower, now going fall to ruin.
Emtras is in lat. 12° 12' 38" N, and long. 370 38' 30" E. of the meridian of Greenwich. The diftanccs and directions of this journey from Gondar were carefully obferved by a compafs, and computed bv a watch of F.llicot's, after which thefe lituauons were checked by agronomical obfervations of latitude and longitude in every way that they could be taken, and it was very feldom in a day's journey that we erred a mile in our computation.
The lake of Tzana is by much the largcfl expanfc of water known in that country.   Its extent, however, has been
4 greatly
greatly exaggerated. Its greater! breadth is from Dingleber to ftamgue, whuh, in a line nearly eaft and weft, is 35 Stubs ; but it decrcafes greatly at each extremity, where it is not fometimes above ten miles hn ad. Its greater! length is from Bab Baha to a little S. W. and by W. of that part, where the Nile, after having crofted the end of it by a current always vifible, turns towards Dara in the territory of Alata, which is 49 miles from north to fouth, and which extent this lake has in length. In the dry months, from October to March, the lake Ihrinks greatly in fize ; but after that all thofe rivers are full which are on every fide of it, and fall into the lake, like radii drawn to a center, then it fwells, and extends itfelf into the plain country, and has of courfe a much larger furfaee.
There are forty-five inhabited iflands in the lake, if you believe the Abyftinians, who, in every thing, are very great liars. I conceive the number may be about eleven: the principal is Dck, or Daka, or Daga*, nearly in the middle of the lake; its true extent I cannot fpecify, never having been there. Befidcs Dek, the other iflands are Halimoon, nearer Gondar; Briguida, nearer Gorgora, and ftill farther in Galila. All thefe iflands were formerly ufed as prifons for the great people, or for a voluntary retreat, on account of fome difguft or great misfortune, or as places of fecurity to depoiit their valuable effects during troublefomc times. When I was in Abyftinia, a few weeks after what I have b en relating, 1300 ounces of gold, confided by the queen to Wei-
3 C 2 lcta
* It fignifies the hill, or high ground.
leta ChriRos, her governor of Dek, a man of extraordinary fanctity, who had fafted for forty years, was Rolen away by that prieR, who fled and hid himfelf; nor would, the queen ever fuffer him to be fearched after or appre^ hended.
CHAP,
CHAP. HI.
The King encamps at Larnguc—Tranfaclions there—Paffcs the Nile, and encamps at Derdera—The Author follows the King.
ON the 12th of May wc heard the king had marched to Tedda. Meffengers from Begemder, and from Gufho of Amhara, had been conftantiy palling to and from his majc-Ry, prefling Ras Michael to take the field as foon as poflible, to prevent the utter deftruction of the Agows, which Fafd every day was Rriving to accomplifh. They put him, moreover, in mind, that the rains were begun; that, in FafiFs country, they were already fufflcient to fwell the many rivers they had to pafs before they arrived at Bure; they de-fired him to reflect, that, wi^h the armies they were bringing to his affiftance, it was more neceffary to fave time than Ray for a number of troops ; laflly, that it was abfolutely uf clefs to wait for any reinforcement from Tigre, but that he fhould rather march by Emfras, Foggora, and Dara, crofs the Nde where it comes out of the lake; while they, with
their
their united armies, paffed at the bridge near the fecond cataract, fixtccn miles below, burnt and laid waftc Woodagc, Aland's country, and joined him at Derdera, between Court-ohha and the lake. This was prccilely what Ras Michael himielf had planned ; it embraced the whole country of his enemy, and made his fchemc of vengeance complete ; hitherto not a word had tranfpired that could raife the fmalleft fufpicion of treachery.
The 13th, by day-break, Netcho, Fit-Auraris to Ras Michael, palled in great haftc below the town towards Foggora. The king had made a forced march from Tcdda, and was that night to encamp at a houfe of Gulho's, near Lamguc. This was great expedition, and fufficiently marked the cagernefs with which it was undertaken. The effects of the approach of the army were foon feen. Every one hid what wras heft in his houfe, or fled to the mountains with it. Emfras in a few hours was left quite empty: Ras Michael, advancing at the head of an army, fpread as much terror as would the approach of the day of judgment. It was then
-Deftruc~lion in a monarch's voice
Cried havock, and let flip the dogs of war.
For, Uriel and juft as he was in time of peace, or in prefer-ving the police, the fecurity of the ways, and the poor from the tyranny of the rich, he was moft licentious and cruel the moment he took the field, efpecially if that country which he entered had ever fhewn the leaft tincture of enmity againft him.
About
/
About i i o'clock in the morning the king's Fit-Auraris paffed. Fie was a near relation of Ayamico, one of the chiefs of the Agows who was a relation of the king, as I have before mentioned, and llain by Fafd at the battle of Banja. With him I had contracted a great degree of friendfhip; he had about 50 horfe and 200 foot: as he paffed at feveral places he made proclamation in name of the king, That nobody fhould leave their houfes, but remain quiet in them without fear, and that every houfe found empty fhould be burnt. Fie fent a fervant as he paffed, telling me the king was that night to lie at Lamgue, and defiling mc to fend him what fpirits I could fpare, which I accordingly did, upon his providing a man who could protect the houfes adjoining mine from the robbery and the violence of which the inhabitants were in hourly fear.
About the clofe of the evening wc heard the king's kettle-drums. Forty-five of thefe inflrumcnts conftantly go before him, beating all the way while he is on his march. The Mahometan town near the water was plundered in a minute; but the inhabitants had long before removed every thing valuable. Twenty different parties of Rragglers came up the hill to do the fame by Emfras. Some of the inhabitants were known, others not fo, but their houfes had nothing in them ; at laft thefe plunderers all united in mine, demanding meat and drink, and all fort of accommodation. Our friend, left with us by the Fit-Auraris, refilled as niucu .us one man could do with flicks and whips, and it was a fn file till mid-night; at laft, having cleared ourfelves r them* luckily without their letting fire to the town, we remained quiet for the reft of the night.
Ok
On the 14th, at day-break, I mounted my horfe, with all my men-fcrvants, leaving the women-fervants and an old man to take care of the houfe. It was very unfafe to travel in fuch company at fuch an hour. We crofTed the river Arno, a little below Emfras,. before we got into the plain ; after which we went at a fmart gallop, and arrived at Lamgue between eight and nine o'clock.
Early as it was, the king was then in council, and Ras Michael, who had his advifcrs affemblcd alfo in his tent, had juft left it to go to the king's. There was a-bout 500 yards between their tents, and a free avenue is conftantly left, in which it is a crime to ftand, or even to crofs, unlefs for meflengers fent from the one to the other. The old general difmountcd at the door of the tent; and though I faw he perceived us, and was always at other times moft courteous, lie palled us without taking the leaft notice, and entered the tent of the king.
Although my place in the houfehold gave mc free acre fs to wherever the king was, I did not cboofe, at that time, to enter the back tent, and place myfelf behind his chair, as I might have done ; I rather thought it better to go to the tent of Ozoro Efther, where I was fure at leaft of getting a good breakfaft ; Nor was I difappointed. As foon as 1 fhew-cd myfelf at the door of the tent of that princefs, who was lying upon a Tot a, the moment Ihe call her eyes upon me, cried out, There is Yagoube! there is the man I wanted! The tent was cleared of all but her women, and fhe then began to enumerate of feveral complaints which flic thought, before the end of the campaign, would carry her to her grave.   It was cafy to fee they were of the flighted kind,
2 though
though it would not have been agreeable to have told her fo, for Ihe loved to be thought ill, to be attended, and flattered ; Ihe was, however, in thefe circumRanees, fo perfectly good, fo converfable, fo elegant in all her manners, that her phyfician would have been tempted to wilh never to fee her well.
She was then with child by Ras Michael; and the late feftival, upon her niece's marriage with Powuften of Begemder, had been much too hard for her conltitution, always weak and delicate fince her firft misfortunes, and the death of Mariam Barea. After giving her my advice, and dir cling her women how to adminifter what I was to fend her, the doors of the tent were thrown open ; all our friends came flocking round us, when we prefently faw that rhc interval employed in confultation had not been fpent ufc-Icfbly, for a moft abundant breakfaft was produced in wooden platters upon the carpet. There were excellent ftewed fowls, but fo inflamed with Cayenne pepper as almoft to blifter the mouth ; fowls dreftcd with boiled wheat, juft once broken in the middle, in the manner they are prepared in India, with rice called pillaw, this, too, abundantly charged with pepper; Guinea hens, roafted hard without butter, or any fort of fauce, very white, but as tough as leather; above all, the never-failing brind, for fo they call the coll ops of raw beef, without which nobody could have been fatisfied; but,what was more agreeable to me, a large quantity, of Wheat-bread, of Dembea flour, equal in all its equalities to the beft in London or Paris.
The Abyftinians fay, you muft plant firft and then water; nobod , therefore, drinks till they have finiihed eating; . Vol, lib. 3 D after
after this the glafs went chcarfully about; there was excellent red wine, but ftrong, of the nature of cote-roti, brought from Karoota, which is the wine country, about fix miles fouth-eaft from the place where we then were; good new brandy ; honey-wine, or hydromel, and a fpecies of beer called Bouza, both of which were fermented with herbs, or leaves of trees, and made very heady ; they are difagrec-able liquors to ftrangcrs. Our kind landlady, who never had ■{mittcd her fofa, preffed about the glafs in the very brifkeft manner, reminding us that our time was fhort, and that the drum would prefently give the lignal for ltriking the tents. For my part, this weighed exceedingly with me the contrary way to her intentions, for I began to fear I lhould not be able to go home, and I was not prepared to go on with the army ; befides, it was indifpcnlibly ncceftary to fee both the king and Ras Michael, and that I by no means chofe to do when my prefence of mind had left me ; I therefore made my apology to Ozoro Efther, by a meftage delivered by one of her women, and ilipt out of the tent to wait upon the king.
I thought to put on my moft fedatc appearance, that none of my companions in the king's tent fhould fee-that I was affected with liquor ; tho' intoxication in Abyflinia is neither uncommon nor a reproach, when you are not engaged in bufinefs or attendance. I therefore wrent on as compofedly as poflible, without recollecting that I had already advanced near a hundred yards, walking on that forbidden precinct or avenue between the king's tent and Kas Michael's, where nobody interrupted mc. The eafe with which I proceeded, among fuch a crowd and buftle, foon
brought
brought my tranfgreftion to my mind, and I hurried out of the lor bidden place in an inftant.
I met feveral of my acquaintance, who accompanied me to the king's tent. It was now noon ; a plentiful dinner or breakfaft was waiting, which I had abfolutely refilled to partake of till I had feen the king. Thinking all was a fecret that had paffed at Ozoro Eflher's, 1 lifted the curtain behind the king's chair, and coming round till nearly oppofite to him, 1 was about to perform the ufual proftration, when in the very inftant the young prince George, who was Handing oppofite to me on the king his brother's right hand, ilept forward and laid his hand acrofs my breaft as if to prevent me from kneeling ; then turning to the king, who was fitting as ufual in his chair in the alcove, Sir, fays he, before you allow Yagoube to kneel, you fhould iirft provide two men to lift him up again, for Ozoro Efther has given him fo much wine that he will never be able to do it himfelf..
Though it was almoft. impoflible to avoid laughing, it was viftble the king conftraincd himfelf, and was not pleafed. The drink had really this good effect, that it made mc lefs abafhed than I otherwife fhould have been at this unexpected fally of the young prince. I was, however, fornc-what difconcerted, and made my proftration perhaps lefs gracefully than at another time, and this raifed the merriment of thofe in waiting, as attributing it to intoxication. Upon rifing, the king moft gracioufly ftretched out his hand for me to kifs. While I was holding his hand, he faid to his brother, coldly, Surely if you thought him drunk, you muft have expected a reply; in that cafe, it would have
3 D 2 been
been more prudent in you, and more civil, not to have made your obfervation.
The prince was much abafhed. I flattened acrofs the carpet, and took both his hands and kiffcd them ; the laughers did not feem much at their eafc, efpecially when i turned and Rood before the king. He was kind, fenlible, com-pofed, and condefcending; he complained that i had abandoned him; afked if I had been wcll-ufed at Emfras, and doubted that I had wanted every thing; but I lent you nothing on purpofe, fays he, becaufe you faid fafting would do you good after too much feafting at Gondar, and I knew that hunger would bring you foon back again to us. If your majelly, faid I, takes the prince's word, I have been caroufing to-day in your camp more than ever 1 did at Gondar; and, I do afliire your majefty, prince George's reflections were not without foundation.
Come, come, fays the king, Georgis is your firm and faR friend, and fo he ought, he owes it to you that he is fo able a horfeman and fo good a markfman, without which he could never be more than a common foldier. He has commanded a divifion of the army to-day ;—" Of 500 horfe, cries out the prince in extacy; and, when the king my brother to-morrow leads the van, you fhall be my Fit-Auraris, if you pleafe, when we pafs the Nile, and with my party I fhall fcour Maitfha." I fhould be very unhappy, prince, laid 1, to have a charge of that importance, for which I know myfelf to be totally unqualified; there are many brave men who have a title to that office, and who will fill it with honour to themfclves and fafety to your perfon. So you will not truft yourfelf, fays the prince, with mc and my party when we mail crofs the
Nile?
Nile ? Are you angry with me, Yagoube, or are you afraid of Woodage Afahel ? Were you in earncft, prince, in what you now fay, replied 1, you fuppofe two things, both greater reproaches than that of being overtaken with wine. Allure yourfelf I am, and always fhall be, your moft affectionate and moft faithful fervant; and that I fhall think it an honour to follow you in Mait(h a, or elfewhere, even as a common horfeman, though, inftead of one, there were in it ten thoufand Woodage Afahels, O ho ! fays the king, then you arc all friends; and I muft tell you one thing, Georgis is more drunk with the thoughts of his command to-day than any foldier in my camp will be to-night with bouza. And this, indeed, feemed to be the cafe, for he was elfc a prince ra- • ther referved and fparing of words, efpecially before his brother.
Tell me, Yagoube,continues the king, and tell mc truly— • at that very inftant came in a melfenger from Ras Michael, who, going round the chair without faluting, fpoke to the king, upon which the room was cleared; but I after learned, that news were received from Begemder, that Powuffen and his troops were ready to march, but that two of Gufho's nephews had rebelled, whom it had taken fome time to fubdue; that another meflenger was left behind, but had fallen ftck at Aringo, who, however, wrould come forward as foon as poflible with his mailers mcflage, and would be probably at the camp that night. He brought alfo as undoubted intelligence, that Fafil, upon hearing Ras Michael's march, was preparing to repafs the Nile into the country of the Galla. This occafioncd very great doubts, becaufe difpatches had arrived from Nanna Georgis's fon, •the day before at Tcdda, which declared that Fafil had decamped
camped from Lure that very day the meflenger came away, advancing northward towards Gondar, hut with what intention he could not fay ; and this was well known to be intelligence that might he llrictly and certainly relied upon.
On the 15th, the king decamped early in the morning, and, as prince George had faid the night before, led the van in perfon ; a flattering mark of confidence that Ras Michael had put in him now for the firft time, of -which the king was very fenfible. The Ras, however, had given him a dry nurfe*, as it is called, in Billctana Gucta Welleta Michael, an old and approved officer, trained to war from his infancy, and furrounded with the moft tried of the troops of Tigre. The king halted at the river Gomara, but advanced that fame night to the paftage where the Nile comes out of the lake Tzana, and refumes again the appearance of a river..
The king remained the 15th and 16th encamped upon the Nile. Several things that fhould have given umbrage, and begot fufpicion, happened while they were in this fituation. Ayb, governor of Cojam,had been fummoncd to af-fift Ras Michael when Powuffen and Gufho fhould march to join him with their forces of Begemder and Amhara, and his mother Ozoro Welleta Ifrael, then at Gondar, had pro-mi fed he fhould not fail. This lady was younger fiftcr to 0/,oro Efther; both were daughters of the Iteghe. She was as beautiful as Ozoro Efther, but very much her inferior in behaviour, character, and conduct:: fhe had refufed the old Ras, who afked her in marriage before he wTas called from
Tigre
JMaguzeU;
Tigre to Gondar, and a mortal hatred had followed her re-fufal. It was therefore reported,.that he was heard to fay, he would order the eyes of Welleta ifrael to be pulled out, if Aylo her fon did not join him. It mud have been a man fuch as Ras Michael that could form fuch a refolution, for Welleta Ifraei's eyes were moft captivating. She was then in the camp with her lifter.
A single fmall tent had appeared the evening of the 15th on the other fide of the Nile, and, on the morning of the 16th, Welleta Ifrael and the tent were miffing; Hie boldly made her efcape in the night. The tent had probably concealed her fon Aylo, or fome of his friends, to mow her the paftage ; for the Nile there wras both broad and deep, roiling along a prodigious mafs of water, with large, black, fhp-pery ftones at the bottom, It was therefore a very arduous, bold undertaking for foldiers and men accuftomed to pafs rivers in the day-time; but for a woman, and in the night, too, with all the hurry that the fear of being intercepted muft have occaftoned, it was fo extraordinary as to exceed all belief. But flic was conducted by an intrepid leader, for with her defer ted Ayto Engedan fon of Kafmati Efhte, and confequently nephew to O/.oro Welleta Ifrael; but their own inclinations had given them ftill a nearer relation than the degree received from their parents, or decency fhould have permitted. All the camp had trembled for Welleta Ifrael; and every one now rejoiced that fo bold an attempt had been attended with the fuccefs it merited. It was ne-ceffary, however, to diffemble before Michael, who, intent upon avenging the Agows againft Fafil, carried his reflections at that time no further ; for Aylo's not coming was attributed to the influence of Fafil, whofe government of
2 Damot
Damot joins Gojam, and it was even faid, that Welleta Ifrael, his mother, had been the occafion of this, from her hatred to Michael and her attachment to Fafil; the firft caufe was fufliciently apparent, the laft had formerly been no Lefs fo.
On the 17th, after fun-rife, the king pafted the Nile, and encamped at a fmall village on the other fide, called Tfoom-wa, where his Fit-Auraris had taken poll early in the morning.   I have often mentioned this officer without explanation, and perhaps it may now be right to ftate his duty. The Fit-Auraris is an officer depending immediately upon the commander in chief, and correfponding with him directly, without receiving orders from any other perfon. He is always one of the braveft, moft robuft, and moft experienced men in the fervice ; he knows, with the utmoft exactnefs, the diftance of places, the depth of rivers, the ftate of the fords, the thicknefs of the woods, and the extent of them ; in a word, the whole face of the country in detail. His party is always adapted to the country in which the war is; fometimes it is entirely compofed of horfe, fomo-timcs of foot, but generally of a mixture of both.   He has the management of the intelligence and direction of the fpics.    He is likewife limited to no number of troops; fometimes he has 1000 men, fometimes 200.   In time of real danger he has generally about 300, all picked from the whole army at his pleafure ; he had not now about 50 horfe, as it was not yet thought to be the time of real bufinefs or danger.
As the poft of Fit-Auraris is a place of great truft, fo it is endowed with proportionable emoluments.   The king's
3 Efe
Fit-Auraris has territories aftigned him in every province that he ever pafles through, lb has that of the Ras, if he commands in chief. Every governor of a province has alfo an officer of this name, who has a revenue allowed him within his own province. It is a place of great fatigue. Their poft is at different diftances from the van of the army, according to the circumftanccs of the war; fometimes a day's march, fometimes four or lix hours. As he paffes on he fixes a lance, with a flag upon it, in the place where the king's tent is to be pitched that night, or where he is to hah that day. He has couriers, or light runners, through which he conftantly correfponds with the army ; whenever he fees the enemy, he fends immediate advice, and falls back himfelf, or advances farther, according as his orders are.
From Tfoomwa the king marched on, a fhort day's march, to Derdera, and encamped near the church of St Michael. Derdera, was a collection of fmall villages, between the lake Dembea and Court-ohha, where, it wall be remembered, the agreement was the confederates fhould indole Michael, and give him battle; but he had now "loft all patience, as there was no appearance of either Gufho or Powuften ; and being, be-fides, in an enemy's country, he began to proceed in his u-fual manner, by giving orders to lay wafle the whole adja-ecnt territory with fire and fword. The whole line of march, two day's journey in breadth from the lake, was let on fire; the people who could not efcape were flain, and every wanton barbarity permitted.
The king's paffage of the Nile was the fignal given for me to fet out to join him. It was the i S». 11 of May, at noon, I left Emfras, my courfe being fouthward whilft in the plain
Vol. III. 3 E of
of Mitraha. At three o'clock we entered among a few hills of no confideration, and, foon after, began to coaft clofe along the fide of the lake Tzana ; we faw this day a great number of hippopotami; fome fwimming in the lake at a fmall diftance, fome riling from feeding on the high grafs in the meadows, and walking, feemingly at great lei-furc, till they plunged themfelvcs out of fight. They are exceeding cautious and fhy while on land, and not to be approached near enough to do execution with the belt rifle-gun. At four in the afternoon we halted, and palled the night at Lamgue,a village fituated a few paces from thefidcof thelake.
On the 19th of May we left Lamgue about fix in the morning, our courfe fouth and by weft, and at eight we found ourfelves in the middle of twenty-five or thirty villages called Nabca, ftretching for the length of feven or eight miles; a few minutes afterwards we came to the river Reb, which falls into the lake a little north-weft of the place where we now were.   Clofe by where the Reb joins the lake is a fmall village of Pagans, called Waito, who live quite feparate from the Abyftinians, and are held by them in utter abhorrence, fo that to touch them, or any thing that belongs to them, makes a man unclean all that day till the evening, fcparates him from his family and friends, and excludes him from the church and all divine fervice, till he is walked and purilied on the following day. Part of this avcrfion is certainly owing to their manner of feeding; for their only profcflion is killing the crocodile and hippopotamus, which they make their daily fuftenance. They have a moft abominable flench, arc exceedingly wan, or ill— ('•.'loured, very lean, and die often, as is laid, of the lotify difeafe.  There arc, indeed, no crocodiles in the lake I za r.a,
owing,.
owing, as it is faid, to the cataracts, which they cannot get up. However, as they are amphibious animals, and walk very well on ihore, I think they might furmount this difficulty as eafily as the hippopotamus; I rather think the caufe is the coldnefs of the water and climate, which does not agree with the crocodile, but much with the river-horfe.
The Waito fpeak a language radically different from any of thofe in Abyilinia ; but though I have often endeavoured to get fome iniight into this, their religion, and cuftoms, I could never fo far fucceed as to be able to give the public any certain information. A falfc account in fuch cafes is ceitainly worfe than no account at all. I once defired the king to order that one of them might be brought to Gondar. 'Two men, an old and a young one, were accordingly brought from the lake, but they would neither anfwer nor underftand any qucftions; partly, 1 believe, through fear, partly from obftinacy. The king at this became fo angry that he ordered them both to be hanged ; they fecmed perfectly unconcerned, and it was with fome difficulty I procured their releafe ; I never therefore made an experiment of that kind afterwards. The Abyftinians believe they arc forccrers, can bewitch with their eyes, and occafton death bv their charms even at a confiderable diftance. It is like-]\\ if that had been fo, thefe two would have tried their power upon me, of which. I do not recollect to have ever been feniible.
We paffed the Reb at nine o'clock in the morning. It rifes high in the mountains of Begemder, and is one of thofe rivers that continue running the whole year, and has a tolerable ford, although it was vifibly increafed by rain.
3 E 2 We
4o4 TRAVELS TO Dr SCO VER
\
Wc continued our journey in fight of many villages till, three quarters after twelve, wc came to the river Gomara, where we Raid in fearch of trees and herbs the reft of the day. At night we received a meilage from Ayto Adigo, Shum, or governor, of Karoota. He was an officer of con-lidence of the Itcghc's ; had been a great friend of Mariam Barea's, one of whofe valla! s he was, and in his heart an inveterate enemy to Ras Michael amh the new fucceffion. Ever fince the murder of Joas he had not ventured to Gondar. When I firft came there the Ras had given his houfe, as that of an outlaw, to me. Afterwards, as foon as he returned, I offered immediately to furrender it to him ; but he would not by any means accept it, but afked leave to pitch his tent in one of the courts furrounded with walls, for it was a fpacious building. Perhaps it was the beft fituation he could have chofen, for wc did him great fervice by the means of Ozoro Efther, as he was but very ill-looked upon, and was rich enough to be confidered as an object of Ras Michael's rapacity and avarice. Our neighbourhood occafioned us to pafs many evenings together, and we contracted a friend (hip,- the rather becaufe he was a fervant of the ltcrrhe, and we were known favourites of Ozoro Efthcy,.
C H AF,
CFI A R IV.
Pafs the River Gomara—Remarkable Accident there—Arrive at Dara—Vift the great Cataracl of Alata—Leave Dara, and refime our Journey.
ON the 20th of May, between fix and feven in the morning, as Adigo was not arrived, I fent the baggage and tents that we had with us forward with Strates, a Greek, who was an avowed enemy to all learned inquiries or botanical refearches. My orders were to encamp at Dara, in fome convenient place near the houfe of Negad^Ras Mahomet. In the. mean time I Raid expecting Ayto Adigo's arrival; he came near eleven o'clock. As a temporary Ihelter from the fun, a cloak upon crofs Ricks was fet up, inRead of a tent, to fave time. Wc fat down together to fuch fare as Adigo had brought along with him; it was a foldicr's dinner, coarfc and plentiful. Adigo told me Kafmati Ayabdar, an uncle of Gufho, had left his houfe the night before, accompanied by the men of Foggora, the country where we- then were
of.
of which he was governor, and had taken the high road to join the forces of Begemder.
Netciio, a near relation of the old queen, arrived from Kuara juft as we were fitting down to dinner. He had about 50 horfe and 200 foot, all bad troops, and ill armed ; he was, however, a rcfpcetablc, tried veteran, who having had many opportunities of becoming rich, gave the whole to his foldiers, and thofe of his dependents that lived with him ; on which account he was extremely beloved, and it was hoped that, if the iflue of this campaign was favourable, Ras Michael would make him governor of Kuara, in room of Coque Abou Barea, a man of a very different character, who had intruded himfelf into that province by the power of Fafil, and after maintained himlclf in it by open rebellion.
The mules that had hitherto carried my quadrant and tc-lefcopcs being bad, I had luckily kept them behind, in hopes that cither Adigo or Netcho would fupply me with better; and I had now placed them upon the frefli mules I had obtained, and had not lent them on with the fervants, and wc were then taking a friendly glafs. It was, I fuppofe, about noon, when wc faw our fcrvants coming back, and Stratcs alio among the reft, ftript of every thing that he had, except a cotton night-cap, which he wore on his head, Ihe iervants fwam over the Gomara immediately, nor wv. Snares interrupted, but palled at the ford. They told us ■iicit Gufho and Powuffen were in rebellion againft the king, and confederated with Fafil, that they were advancing fail to cm off the Ras's retreat to Gondar, arid that Guebra Mehedin, and Conrti, Powuiierfs Fit-Auraris, had fallen in
with
with our fervants; and plundered them, as belonging to the king and the Ras.
I was, for fome minutes, in the utmoft aftoniftiment at this torrent of bad news. Whether the others knew more than I, it is impoflible to fay ; diftimulation, in all ranks of thefe people, is as natural as breathing. Guebra Mehedin and Confu were the Iteghe's two nephews, fons of Bafha Eufebius her brother, a worthlefs man, and his fons no better. They were young men, however, whom I faw continually at the queen's palace, and to whom I fhould have gone immediately without fear, if I had known their houfes had been in my way, and they happened to be near Lebec at the hot wells ; notwithftanding their rank, they were of fuch diftipatcd manners, that they were of no account, but treated as caftaways in the houfe of the queen their aunt, and never, as far as I knew, had entered into the prefence of the king. I had often ate and drank with them, however, in the houfe of Ayto Engedan, their coufin-german, who was gone off with Welleta Ifrael his aunt, at the paffage of the Nile as before mentioned. They had beat Strates, who was their intimate acquaintance, violently ; as alfo two others of my fervants, to make them confefs in wdiat package the gold was. They had taken from them, alfo a large blunderbufs, given me by the Swedifh conful, Brander, at Algiers; a pair of piftols, a double-barrelled gun, and a Turkifh fword mounted with filler, which, as~ there was then no profpeef, of their being immediately needed, were fent forward with the baggage.
Netcho and Adigo, and all prcfent, agreed that the whole was a fiction, and that, fuppofmg the account to be
true
true that Begemder and Amhara were in rebellion, young, wild, and worthlefs people, like Guebra Mehedin and Confu, could never be thofe pitched upon for the refpedta-blc office of Fit-Auraris. The woril that could be, as they conceived, was, that fome mifundcrftanding might fubfift between Ras Michael and the governors above named, but Fafd was undoubtedly the enemy of them all. They imagined therefore that this difgult, if any, would be foon got over, and concluded that it was highly abfurd, in any cafe, to attack me, as they certainly knew that the queen, PowufTen, and Gufho, would be full as ill-pleaied with it as the king or Ras Michael. It therefore appeared to them, as it alfo did to mc, that thefe wild, young men, had taken the firft iurmife of a rebellion, as a pretence for robbing all that came in their way, and that I, unfortunately, had been the firft.
We were in the middle of this converfation when the parties appeared. They had, perhaps, an hundred horfe, and were fcattered about a large plain, fkirmifiling, playing, purfuing one another, fhrieking and hooping like fo many frantic people. They llopt, however, upon coming nearer, feeing the refpectable figure that we made, juft ready to pafs the ford, which alone divided us. Our fcrvants had neither feen Netcho nor Adigo, when they went in the morning, though they knew Adigo wras expected, and thefe marauders hoped to have intercepted me, thinly accompanied, as they had done my baggage,
Guebra Mehedin and his brother approached nearer the banks than the reft, and a fervant was fent from them, who crofted the river to us, upbraiding Ayto Adigo with pro-% tecting
testing a Frank profcribed by the laws of their country, and alfo with marching to the affiftance of Ras Michael, the murderer of his fovereign, offering at the fame time to divide the fpoil with him if he would furrender me and mine to him. Servants here, who carry meffages in time of war between the contending parties, are held facred like heralds. They arc fent even with infults and defiances; but it is conRantly underftood that their errand protects them from fuftering any harm, whether on the road, or when in words they perform thefe foolifh, ufclefs commiftions.
Adigo and Netcho were above obferving this punctilio with robbers. Some were for cutting the fervant's ears off, and fome for carrying him bound to Ras Michael; I begged they would let him go: and Netcho fent word by him to Guebra Mehedin to get the goods and mules he had robbed us of together, for he was coming over to fhare them with him. The fervants having given the meffenger a fevere drubbing with flicks, torn the cloth from about his middle, and twifted it about his neck like a cord, in that plight fent him back to Guebra Mehedin, and wc all prepared to take the ford acrofs the river. Guebra Mehedin, who faw his fervant thus difgraced returning towards him, and a confidcr-able motion among the troops, advanced a few fteps with two or three more of his company, ftrctching forth his - hand and crying out, but ftill at a diftance that wc could not hear. He was diftinguifhed by a red fafli of lilk twifted about his head. I, with my fcrvants and attendants, firft paffed the river at the ford, and I had no fooner got up the bank, and flood upon firm ground, than I fired two Riots at him ; the one, from a Turkifh rifle, feemed to have given him great apprchenfions, or clfe to have wounded him, for.
Vol. III. 3 F after
after four or five of his people had flocked about him, they galloped all off acrofs the plain of Foggora towards Lebec. ;
Netcho had pafTed the Gomara clofe after me, crying upon me to let him go firft, but Adigo declared his refolution to go no farther. He hated Ras Michael; was a companion of Powuften and Gufho, as well as a neighbour, and wifh-ed for a revolution with all his heart. He, therefore, returned to Emfras and Karoota, and with him I fent five of my fervants, defiring him to efcort my quadrant, clock, and telefcopes into the ifland of Mitraha, and deliver them to Tecla Georgis, the king's fervant, governor of that ifland. Adigo, being left alone by the fervants, could not be per-fuaded but fome great treafure was hid in thofe boxes. He, therefore, carried them to his houfe, and ufed the fervants well, but opened and examined every one of the packages. Surprifed to find nothing but iron and rufty brafs, he clofed them again, and delivered them fafely to Tecla Georgis, there to be kept for that campaign.
Delivered now from the embarralfment of my baggage by the induftry of Guebra Mehedin, and of my cafes and boxes by my own inclination, we fet out with Netcho to take up our quarters with Negade Ras Mahomet at Dara, where we arrived in the afternoon, having picked up one of our mules in the way, with a couple of carpets and fome kitchen furniture upon it, all the reft being carried off.
The object which now firft pre fent ed itfelf, and called our attention, was Strates in a night-cap, in other refpects perfect-
ly naked,with a long gun upon his moulder,without powder or fhot, but prancing and capering about in a great paflion, and fwearing a number of Greek oaths, which nobody there underftood a word of but myfelf. This fpectacle was rather diverting for fome minutes; at laft Netcho, though I believe he was not over-well provided, gave him an upper cloak to wrap round him. It was not then warm, indeed, but it was not very cold. After recovering the mule, he got on between the panniers, and I advifed him to put the fmalleft carpet about him, which he foon after did; he had not yet fpoke a word to me from fullennefs.
" Strates, faid I, my good friend, lay aftde that long gun, for you will fall and break it, befides, it hath not been charged fmce it was fired at Guebra Mehedin. If you carry it to ftrike terror, it is altogether unneceftary; for, if we had dreflcd you as you are now accoutred, when wc fent you forward with the baggage to Dara, there is not a thief in all Begemder would have ventured to come near you." He looked at me with a countenance full of anger and contempt, though he faid nothing; but, in Greek, pronounced anathemas againft the father of Guebra Mehedin, according to the Greek form of curftng. " Curfe himfelf and his brother, faid I, and not his father, for he has been dead thefe twenty years."—" I will curfe whom I plcafe, fays he, in a great paffion, I curfe his father, himfelf, and his brother, the Ras, and the king, and everybody that has brought me into fuch a fcrape as I have been to-day. I have been ftripped naked, and within an inch of having my throat cut, befides being gelded; and well may you laugh now at the figure I make. If you had feen thofe damned crooked knives, with their black hands, all begging, as if it
3F 2 had
had been for charity, to be allowed to do my bufinefs, you would have been glad for my making no worfe figure tonight than L do with this carpet upon my head."
" My dear Strates, faid I, it is the fortune of war, and many princes and great men, who, at this moment i am fpeaking to you, live in the enjoyment of every thing they can delire, before a month expires, perhaps, will be ftrctch-ed on the cold ground, a prey to the birds and wild beads of the field, without fo much as a carpet to cover them fuch as you have. You as yet are only frightened ; though, it is true, a man may be as well killed as frightened to death." " Sir, fays he, in a violent rage, that I deny, it is not the fame ? a man that is killed feels no more, but he that is frightened to death, as I have been to-day, fullers ten thoufand times more than if he had been killed outright "— " Well, faid I, Strates, I will not difpute with you; I believe they fuffer much the fame after they are dead ; but you, I thank God, have only loR your cloaths, and you are now moll comfortably, though not ornamentally, wrapped up in my carpet; as foon as we get to Dara, you fhall be dielf-cd from head to foot, by Negade Ras Mahomet, at the cx-pence of the king, in better cloaths than you ever wore in your life, at leaft fince I knew you ; only give me your gun till your paftion is allayed ; you know it is a valuable one which I never quit."
He then gave me the gun fullenly enough ; and I continued, u I will this very night prefent you with one of the haadfomcft Turkilh falhcs that Mahomet has to fell. I law him in the king's houfe, with many new ones that he had procured, a little before 1 went to Emfras."   I cannot pj e*
tend
tend to fay whether his vifage cleared up, for he was Mill perfectly hid with the carpet, as it began to grow cool as well as dark ; but the light of the lights in the houfes of Dara, and the promife of the new cloaths and the fafh, had very much foftened his voice and cxpreiTrons.
" Sir, fays he, bringing his mule clofe up to mine, now, you are not in apa£iony one may fpeak to you. Do you not tnmk that it is tempting Providence to come fo far from your own country to feek thefe d—n'd weeds and flowers, at the rifk of having your throat cut every hour of the day, and, what is worfe, my throat cut too, and of being gelded into the bargain ? Are there no weeds, and bogs, and rivers in your own country? what have you to do with that d—n'd Nile, where he rifes, or whether he rifes at all, or not ? What will all thofe trees and branches do for you when thefe horrid blacks have done your bufmefs, as they were near doing mine ? He then made a fign towards his girdle with his fingers, which made me underlland what he meant—" Nile, fays he, curfe upon his father's head the day that he was ' born."
" Strates, replied I gravely, he has no father, and was never bom. Fcrturfine tefc creatus, fays the poet."—" There's your Latin again; the poet is an afs and a blockhead, let him be who he will, continued Strates ; and I do maintain, whether you be angry or not, that at Stanchio and Scio there arc liner taxes than ever you faw, or will fee in Abyf-finia. There is a tree, fays he, that fifty men like you, fpreading al) your hands round about, would not be able to grafp it. Nay, it is not a tree, it is but half a tree ; it is as old, I believe, as Mcthufclah: Did you ever fee it ?"—« 1 tell
you
you, friend Strates, faid I, I never was at Scio in my life, and, therefore, could not fee it."—" Nor at Stanchio ?"—Yes, I have been at Stanchio, and have feen the large plane-tree there. I believe it may be about eightccen or twenty feet in circumference."—" Galen and Hippocrates lived, adds he, there together, 2000 years before our Saviour: Did you ever hear that ?"—u I have read, faid I, Strates, that, a-bout 500 years before Chrift, Hippocrates did live there ; but Galen was not born till 20c years after ChriR. I do not recollect if he was ever at Stanchio ; but, furely, never lived there with Hippocrates.
Strates was in the middle of a declaration, that thofe were all falfehoods of Latins and Papifts ; and we were af-cending, compofedly enough, through a narrow, rocky road, thick-covered with high trees and bulhes, when, juft before our entrance into the village of Dara, a gun was fired, and the ball diftinctly heard palling through the leaves among the branches. This occafioned a great alarm to our difpu-tant, who immediately fuppofed that Guebra Mehedin, and all his robbers, were there exprefsly waiting for us; nor was he the only perfon that felt uneaftly. Netcho, myfelf, and the generality of his officers, thought this was more than probable; we all therefore difmounted, loaded our fire-arms, halted till all our ftragglers came up, and con-fulted what wc were to do.
Strates, though tired and naked, found it was better to go back under his carpet, and, if poftible, overtake Ayto Adigo, than take pofteffion of his new cloaths from Negade Ras Mahomet, with the rifk of meeting Guebra Mehedin there.   In vain I remonftratcd to him, that he, of all
! others,
others, had nothing to lofe but Netcho's old cloak and the carpet. His fears, however, made him think otherwife, nor could he banifh his apprehenlions of the crooked knives, and, what he called, the operation. Netcho having ordered and converfed with his men in his own language, which I did not underftand, faid after, with great compofure and firm tone of voice, That he had come to lodge in the market-place of Dara that night, and would not be put out of his quarters by boys of the character of Mehedin and Confu; that, in his prefent circumftances, with the few troops he had, he did not feek to fight, but even with this force, fuch as it was, if attacked, he would not decline it.—Whatever country, or whatever diftance of time and place heroes live at, their hearts are always in unifon, and fpeak the fame language on fimilar and great occalions. There old Netcho, without having ever heard of Shakefpeare, repeated the very words that, 300 years ago, our great king Henry V. did before the battle of Agincourt:—
The fum of all my anfwer is but this, We would not feek a battle as we arc; Yet, as we are, we fay we will not ftiun it. So tell your mafter-
Shakespeare.
We had not advanced but a few paces, before two of the town came to us; the noife of our approach had been heard, and all the dogs had been barking for half an hour. Soon after, arrived a fon of Negade Ras Mahomet, who af-fured us all was in peace; that they had been expecting us and Ayto Adigo with us; that he heard nothing of Guebra Mehedin, only that he had retreated with great precipitation
homewards
homewards acrofs the plain, as they apprehended, from fear of the approach of our party. He had, indeed, for fome days, been guilty of great irregularities ; had llain two men, and wounded the fon of Mahomet, the Shum, or chief of Alata, in attempting to take from him the revenue due from that territory to the king; after which they had been beat back by Mahomet without their booty, and nothing more was known of them.
This brought us to Negade Ras Mahomet's houfe, who killed a cow for Netcho, or rather allowed him to kill one for himfelf; for it is equal to a renunciation of Chriftianity to eat meat when the beaft is ftaughtercd by a Mahometan. Strates, who from his infancy, in his own country, had fared on nothing elfe, was not fo fcrupulous, though he concealed it; he therefore had a very hearty fupper privately with Negade Ras Mahomet and his family, who very willingly promifed to get his new cloaths ready by the next morning.
As I was myfelf, however, full of thoughts upon the difficulties and dangers I wa> already engaged in, and of the profpect of ftill greater before me, I had no ftomach for either of their fuppers, but ordered fome coffee, and went to bed. After 1 lay down I defired Negade Ras Mahomet to come to me, and, when we were alone, I interrogated him if he knew any thing of the rebellion in Begemder. At firft he declared he did not; he laughed at the notion of Guebra Mehedin and Confu being Fit-Auraris to Gufho and Powuften, and faid, that either of thefe generals would hang them the firft time they came into their hands. He told me, however, that Woodage Afahel had been affcm-
bling troops, and liad committed fome cruelties upon the * * king's fervants in Maitfha; but this, he imagined, was at the mitigation of Fafil, for he never was known to have been connected either with PowufTen or Gufho. He told me after, under the feal of fecrecy, that Ras Michael had halted two days at Derdera ; that, upon a meffage he had received from Begemder, he had broke out into violent paf-fions againft Gufho and PowulTen, calling them liars and traitors, in the openeft manner ; that a council had been held at Derdera, in prefence of the king, where it was in deliberation whether the army fhould not turn fhort into Begemder, to force that province to join them ; but that it was carried, for the fake of the Agows, to fend Powuffen a fummons to join him for the laft time : that, in the mean while, they mould march ftraight with the greateft diligence to meet Fafil, and give him battle, then return, and reduce to proper fubordination both Begemder and Amhara.
This was the very worR news I could pomblyreceive according to the refolutions that I had then taken, for I was within about fourteen miles of the great cataract, and it was probable I never again fhould be fo near, were it even always acceflible ; to pafs, therefore, without feeing it, was worfe, in my own thoughts, than any danger that could threaten me.
Negade Ras Mahomet was a fober plain man, of excellent undei Handing, and univerfal good character for truth and integrity ; and, as fuch, very much in the favour both of the King and Ras Michael. I therefore opened my int tentions to him without referve, dcfiring his advice how to
Vol. III. 3 G manage
manage this exeurfion to the cataract. " Unlefs you had told me you was refolved, fays he,, with a grave air, though full of opennefs and candour, I would, in t-he firft place, have advifed you not to think of fuch an undertaking ; thefe are unfettled times; all the country is bufhy, wild; and uninhabited, quite to Alata; and though Mahomet,, the Shum, is a< good man, my friend and relation, and the king repofes truft in him, as he does in me, yet Alata itfelf is at any time but a bad, ftraggling place, there are now many ftrangcrs, and wild people there,whom Mahomet has brought to. his aftiftance, fmGe Guebra Mehedin made the attack upon him. If, then, any thing was to befal you, what fhould I anfwer to the king and the Iteghe? it would be faid, the Turk has betrayed him ;: though, God knows, I was never capable of. betraying your dog, and rather would be poor all my life, than the richeft man of the province by doing the like wrong, even if the bad action was never to be revealed, or known, unlefs to my own heart,.
H Mahomet, faid I,.you need not dwell on thefe profef-lions; I have lived twelve years with people of your religion, my life always in their powcr^ and I am now in your houfe, in preference to being in a tent out of doors with Netcho and his Chrillians. b do notafkyou whether I am to go or not, for that is refolved on ; and, tho' you are a Mahometan, and I a Chriftian, no religion teaches a man to do eviL Wc both agree in this, that God, who has protected me thus far, is capable to protect me likewife at the cataract, and farther, if he has not determined otherwife, for my good ; I only afk you as a man who knows the country, to give me your beft advice, how I may fatisfy my curioftty in this point, with as little danger, and as much expedition as
poflible^
poflible, leaving the reR to heaven."—" Well, fays he, I ihall do fo. I think, likewife, for your comfort, that, barring unforcfeen accidents, you may do it at this time, without great danger. Guebra Mehedin will not come between this town and Alata, becaufe we are all one people, and the killing two men, and wounding Mahomet's fon, makes him a dfa* mcnta*. At Alata he knows the Shum is ready to receive him as he deferves, and he is himfelf afraid of Kafmati Ayabdar, with whom he is as deep in guilt as with us, and here he well knows he dare not venture for many reafons." " Ayabdar, faid I, paffed the Karoota three days ago." " Well, well, replied Mahomet, fo much the better. Ayabdar has the leprofy, and goes every year once, fometimes twice, to the hot wells at Lebec ; they muR pafs near one another, and that is the reafon Guebra Mehedin has alfembled all thefe banditti of horfe about him. He is a beggar, and a fpendthrift; a fortnight ago he fent to me to borrow twenty ounces of gold. You may be fure I did not lend it him; he is too much in my debt already; and I hope Ras Michael will give you his head in your hand before winter, for the fhameful action he has been guilty of to you and yours this day*
** Woodage Asahel, faid I, what fay ,you of him?"— ** Why, you know, replied Mahomet, nobody can inform you about his motions, as he is perpetually on horfeback, and never refts night nor day; however, he has no bufinefs on this fide of the water, the rather that he muR be fure Ras Michael, when he patted here, took with him all the
3 G 2 king's
Guilty of our blood) and fubjeft to the laws of retaliation.
king's money that I had in my hands. When day-light i* fairly come, for we do not know the changes a night may produce in this country, rake half a dozen of your fcrvants ; I will fend with you my fon and four of my fervants ; you will call at Alata, go down and fee the cataract, hut do not flay, return immediately, and, Ullah Kerim, God is merciful."
I thanked my kind landlord, and let him go; but recollecting, called him again, and aiked," What fhall I do with Netcho ? how fhall I rejoin him ? my company is too fmall to pafs Maitfha without him."—•" Sleep in peace, fays he, I will provide for that.   I tell you in confidence, the king's money is in my hands, and was not ready when the Ras palled ; my fon is but juft arrived with the laft of it this evening, tired to death ; 1 fend the money by Netcho, and my fon too, with forty ftout fellows well armed, who will die in your fervice, and not run away like thofe vagabond Chrillians, in whom you muft place no confidence if danger prcfents itfelf, bur immediately throw yourfelf among the Mahometans. Befides, there are about fifty foldiers, moft of them from Tigre, Michael's men, that have been loitering here thefe two days.   It was one of thefe that fired the gun juft before you came, which alarmed Netcho; fo that, when you are come back in fafety from the cataract, they fhall be, by that time, all on their march to the paffage. My fon fhall mount with you; I fear the Nile will be too deep, , but when once you are at Tfoomwa, you may fet your mind at reft, and bid defiance to Woodage Afahcl, who knows his enemy always before he engages him, and at this time will not venture to interrupt your march."
As
As I have mentioned the name of this perfon fo often, it will be ncceffary to take notice, that he was by origin a Galla, but born in Damot, of the clan Elmana, or Denfa, two' tribes fettled there in the time of Yafous I. that he was the moR intrepid and atftive partizan in his time, and had an invincible hatred to Ras Michael, nor was there any love loft betwixt them.   It is impoflihle to conceive with what velocity he moved, fometimes with 200 horfe, fometimes with half that number.   He was conftantly hilling upon fome pare of Michael's army, whether marching or encamped ; the blow once ftruck, he difappeared in a minute. When he wanted to attempt fomething great, he had only to fummon his friends and acquaintance in the country, and he had then a little army, which difperfed as foon as the bufinefs was done.   It was Ras Michael's firft queftion to the fpies ; Where was Woodage Afahcl laft night? a queftion they very feldom could anfwer with certainty. He was in his perfon too tall for a good horfeman, yet he was expert in this qualification by conftant practice.   His face' was yellow, as if he had the jaundice, and much pitted with the fmall-pox ; his eyes Raring, but fiery; his nofe as it were broken, his mouth large, his chin long and turned up at the end; he fpoke very faft, but not much, and had a very fhy, . but ill-dcfigning look.   In his character, he was avaricious, treacherous, inexorable, and cruel to a proverb; in fhort, he was allowed to be the moft mercilcfs robber and murderer' that age had produced in all Abyflinia.
Wearied with thinking, and better reconciled to my expedition, I fell into a found flee p. I was awakened by Strates in the morning, (the 21 ft of May) who, from* the next room, had heard all the converfation between me and Negade Ras,
and
and began now to think there was no fafety but in the camp of the king, I will not repeat his wife expoRulations againft going to the cataract. We were rather late, and I paid little regard to them. After coffee, I mounted my horfe, with five fervants on horfeback, all refolute, active, young fellows, armed with lances in the fafhion of their country. I was joined that moment by a fon of Mahomet, on a good horfe, armed with a fhort gun, and piftols at his belt, with four of his fcrvants, Mahometans, flout men, each having his gun, and piftols at his girdle, and a fword hung over his moulder, mounted upon four good mules, fwif ter and ftrong-er than ordinary horfes. We galloped all the way, and were out of fight in a fhort time. We then purfued our journey with diligence, but not in a hurry; we went firft to a hilly and rocky country, full of trees, moftly of unknown kinds, and all of the greateft beauty poftible, having flowers of a hundred different colours and forms upon them, many of the trees were loaded with fruit, and many with both fruit and flowers. I was truly forry to be obliged to pafs them without more diftinct notice ; but we had no time, as the diftance to the catara£t was not abfolutely certain, and the cataract then was our only object.
After pafting the plain, we came to a brifk ftream which rifes in Begemder, paftes Alata, and throws itfelf into the Nile below the cataract. They told me it was called Mariam Ohha ; and, a little farther, on the fide of a green hill, having the rock appearing in fome parts of it, Hands Alata, a confiderable village, with feveral fmaller, to the fouth and weft. Mahomet, our guide, rode immediately up to the houfe where he knew the governor, or Shum, refided, for fear of alarming him ; but we had already been feen at a a confiderable
confiderable diftance, and Mahomet and his fervants known. All the people of the village furrounded the mules directly, paying each their compliments to the mailer and the fervants ; the fame was immediately obferved towards us; and, as I falutcd the Shum in Arabic, his own language, we fpeedily became acquainted. Flaving overfhot the cataract,, the noife of which we had a long time diftinctly heardi I re-lifted every entreaty that could be made to me to enter the houfe to refrefh myfelf. I had imbibed part of Strates's fears about the unfettlednefs of the times, and all the kind invitations were to no purpofe; I was, as it were, forced to* comply to refrefh our horfes..
I happened to be upon a very fteep part of the hill fulL of bufhes ; and one of the fervants, drelied in the Arabian falhion, in a burnoofe, and turban ftriped white and green, led my horfe, for fear of his flipping, till it got into the path leading to the Shum's door. I heard, the fellow exclaiming in Arabic, as he led the horfe, "GoodLord! to fee you here! Good God! to fee you here!"—- I afked him who he was fpeaking of, and what reafon he had to wonder, to fee me there."—" What! do you not know me!" " I faid I did not."—-w Why,, replied he, I was feveral times with you at Jidda. Ffaw you often with.Capt. Price and Capt..Scott, with the Moor Yafine, and Mahomet Gibberti. I was the man that brought your letters from Metical Aga at Mecca, and was to-come over with you to Mafuah, if you had gone directly there, and had not proceeded to Yemen or Arabia Felix. I was on board the Lion, with the Indian nokeda (fo they call: the captain of a country fhip) when your little veflel, all covered with fail, paffed with fuch brifknefs through the Englifh fhips, which all fired.their cannon; and everybody faid3.
thera
there is a poor man making great hade to be affaftinated among thofe wild people inHabeih; and fowe all thought. He concluded, Drink ! no force! Englilhman! very good! G--d damn, drink !" Wc had juit arrived, while my friend was uttering thefe exclamations, at the place where theShum and the reft were Handing. The man continued repeating the fame words, crying as loud as he could, with an air of triumph, while I was reflecting how fhameful it was for us to make thefe profligate exprcflions by frequent repetition, fo eafily acquired by ftrangcrs that knewr nothing elfe of our language.
The Shum, and all about him, were in equal aftoniflion en t at feeing the man, to all appearance, in a paftion, bawling out words they did not underftand ; but he, holding a horn in his hand, began louder than before, drink! very good! Englifhman ! fhaking the horn in the Shum his mailer's face. Mahomet of Alata was a very grave, compofed man ; " I do declare, fays he, Ali is become mad : Does anybody know what he fays or means ?"—" That I do, faid I, and will tell you by-and-bye ; he is an old acquaintance of mine, and is fpeaking Englifh; let us make a hafly meal, however, with any thing you have to give us."
Cur horfes were immediately fed ; bread, honey, and butter ferved : Ali had no occafion to cry, drink ; it went a-boui plentifully, and I would flay no longer, but mounted my horfe, thinking every minute that I tarried might be better fpent at the cataract. The firft thing they carried us to was the bridge, which confifts of one arch of about twenty-five feet broad, the extremities of which were ftrongly let into, and relied on the folid rock on both fides ; but frag-i ments
merits of the parapets remained, and the bridge itfelf feemed to bear the appearance of frequent repairs, and many attempts to ruin it; otherwife, in its conftruction, it was exceedingly commodious. The Nile here is confined between two rocks, and runs in a deep trough, with great roaring and impetuous velocity. We were told no crocodiles were ever feen fo high, and were obliged to remount the Rream above half a mile before we came to the cataract, through trees and bufhes of the fame beautiful and delightful appearance with thofe we had feen near Dara.
The cataract itfelf was the moft magnificent fight that ever I beheld. The height has been rather exaggerated. The miftionaries fay the fall is about fixteen ells, or fifty feet. The meafuring is, indeed, very difficult, but, by the pofttion of long flicks, and poles of different lengths, at different heights of the rock, from the water's edge, I may venture to fay that it is nearer forty feet than any other meafure. The river had been considerably increafed by rains, and fell in one fhect of water, without any interval, above half an Englifh mile in breadth, with a force and noife that was truly terrible, and which ftunned and made me, for a time, perfectly dizzy. A thick fume, or haze, covered the fall all round, and hung over the courfe of the Rream both above and below, marking its track, though the water was not feen. The river, though fwclled with rain, preferved its natural ciearnefs, and fell, as far as I could difcern, into a deep pool, or bafon, in the fohd rock, which was full, and in twenty different eddies to the very foot of the precipice, the ftream, when it fell, fecming part of it to run back with great fury upon the rock, as well as for-
Vol. III. 3 H ward
ward in the line of its courfe, railing a wave, or violent ebullition, by chafllng againft each other.
Jerome Lobo pretends, that he has fat under the curves or arch, made by the projectile force of the water ruming over the precipice. He fays he fat calmly at the foot of it, and looking through the curve of the flream, as it was falling, faw a number of rainbows of inconceivable beauty in this extraordinary prifm. This however I, without hcfita-tion, aver to be a downright falfehood, A deep pool of wa-* ter, as I mentioned, reaches to the very foot of the rock, and is in perpetual agitation. Now, allowing that there was a feat, or bench, which there is not, in the middle of the pool, I do believe it abfolutely impoftlble, by any exertion of human ftrength, to have arrived at it. Although a very robuft man, in the prime and vigour of life, and a hardy* practifed, indefatigable fwimmer, I am perfectly confident I could not have got to that feat from the fhore through the quieteft part of that bafon. And, fuppofmg the friar placed in his imaginary feat under the curve of that immenfe arch of water, he muft have had a portion of firmnefs, more than falls to the fhare of ordinary men, and which is not likely to be acquired in a monaftic life, to philofophife upon optics in fuch a fituation, where every thing would feem to his dazzled eyes to be in motion, and the flream, in a noife like the loudeft thunder, to make the folid rock (at leaft as to fenfe) fhake to its very foundation, and threaten to tear every nerve to pieces, and to deprive one of other fenfes be* fides that of hearing. It was a moft magnificent fight, that ages, added to the greateft length of human life, would not deface or eradicate from my memory; it ftruck me with a kind of ftupor, and a total oblivion of where I was, and of
3 every
every other fublunary concern. It was one of the moft magnificent, ftupendous fights in the creation, though degraded and vilified by the lies of a groveling, fanatic pea-fan t.
I was awakened from one of the moft profound reveries that ever I fell into, by Mahomet, and by my friend Brink, who now put to me a thoufand impertinent queftions. It was after this I meafured the fall, and believe, within a few feet, it was the height I have mentioned ; but I confefs I could at no time in my life lefs promife upon precifion; my reflection was fufpended, or fubdued, and while in fight of the fall 1 think I was under a temporary alienation of mind; it feemed to me as if one element had broke loofe from, and become fuperior to all laws of fubordination; that the fountains of the great deep were extraordinarily opened, and the deftruction of a world was again begun by the agency of water.
It was now half an hour paft one o'clock, the weather perfectly good ; it had rained very little that day, but threatened a fhowcry evening; I peremptorily rcfufed returning back to Alata, which our landlord importuned us to. He gave us a reafon that he thought would have weight with us, that he, too, had his mcery, or money, to fend to the king, which would be ready the next morning as early as we pleafed. The mention of to-morrow morning brought all my engagements and their confequences into my mind, and made me give a flat refufal, with fome degree of pee-vifhnefs and ill-humour. I had foon after found, that he had otherwife made up this affair with Mahomet our guide; t>ut being refolute, and, a moment after, taking leave of
3 H?, our
our kind Shum, we were joined by Seide his eldeft fon, and our Englifj friend Drink, each upon a mule, with two fervants on foot, his father, as he faid, being unwilling to fpare more people, as the whole inhabitants of Alata, their neighbours and friends, intended foon to furprife Guebra Mehedin, if a feafible opportunity offered.
Though we went brifkly, it was pad five before we arrived at Dara. Netcho had not itirred, and had procured another cow from Mahomet, of which all the Rrangcrs, and foldiers who remained, partook. Mahomet, L believe, out of kindnefs to mc, had convinced them of the ncceflity of taking along with them the Shum of Alata's money; and Netcho well knew that thofe who brought any part of the revenue to Ras Michael were always received kindly ; and he was not interefled enough in the caufe to make more hafle than neceffary to join the king.
Strates was completely cloathed, and received his laiTi upon my arrival. He feigned to be wonderfully hurt at my having left him behind in my excurfion to the cataract. At fuppcr I began to queftion him, for the firft time, what had happened to him with Guebra Mehedin. " Sure, Strates, faid I, you two were once friends ; I have dined with you together many a time at Ayto Engcdan's, and often feen you with him in Gondar."—" Gondar! fays he, I have known, him thefe fourteen years, when he was a child in his father Bafha Eufebius's houfe; he vvas always playing amongR us at his uncle Kafmati Efhte's; he was juR one of us ; nayv he is not now twenty-fix.
Strates
Strates proceeded—" We were eroding the plain below Dara, and not being inclined to go into the town without you, we made to a large daroo-tree, and fat down to reft ourfelves till you fhould come up. As the ground was fomewhat elevated, wc faw feveral horfes in the bed of a torrent where there was no water running, and, when thefe were pulled up the bank, their mailers got immediately upon them. I conceived the one with the red fafli upon his head was Guebra Mehedin, and prefencly eight or ten. naked people, armed with lances and fhields, came out of the hole neareft me. I was furprifed, and thought they might be robbers, and, kneeling down upon one knee, I prcfented the large blunderbufs at them. On this they all ran back to their hole, and fell flat on their faces and they did well; I fhould have given them a confounded peppering."—" Certainly, faid I, there is little doubt of that."— w You may laugh, continued Strates, but the firft thing I faw near me was Confu and Guebra Mehedin, the one with a red, the other a kind of white fillet tied round his forehead. O ho ! friend, fays Guebra Mehedin,. where arc yon going? and held out his hand to me as kindly, familiarly, and chearfully as poflible. I immediately laid down my blunderbufs, and went to kifs his hand. You know they arc the good old queen's nephews ; and I thought if their houfe was near wc fhould have good entertainment, and fome merriment that night. I then faw one of their fcrvants lift the blunderbufs from the ground, but apparently with fear, and the reft took poflc-ifion of the mules and baggage. I began to afk Guebra Mehedin what this meant ? and laid accidentally, ente you! inllead of fpeak-ing it entoiv, as you know they pronounce it to great people. Without further provocation he gave mc a lalh with his
whip1?
whip acrofs the eyes, another behind took hold of your fword that was dung upon my fhoulders, and would have ftranglcdme with the cord if 1 had notfallcnbackwards ; they all began then to ftrip me. 1 was naked in a minute as I was the hour I was born, having only this night-cap ; when one of them, a tall black fellow, drew a crooked knife, and propo-fed to pay me a compliment that has made me Ihuddcr every time I have fmcc thought of it. I don't know what would have been the end of it, if Confu had not faid, Poh ! he is a wivfcman, and not wTorth thejeatiffiqg: Let us feek his mailer, laysGucbraMchedin,hewill by this have palled the Gomara; he has always plenty of gold both from the king and Iteghe, and is a real Frank, on which account it would be a fin to fparc him. On this away they went ikirmifhing about the plain. Horfemen came to join them from all parts, and every one that palled me gave me a blow of fome kind or other. None of them hurt mc very much, but, no matter ; I may have my turn : we fhall fee what figure he will make before the Iteghe fome of thefe days, or, what is better, before Ras Michael/1
" That you fhall never fee, fays Negade Ras Mahomet, who entered the room in the inftant, for there is a man now without who informs us that Guebra Mehedin is either dead or juft a-dying. A fhot fired at him, by one of you at the Gomara, cut off part of his check-bone; the next morning he heard that Kafmati Ayabdar was going to the hot waters at Lebcc with fcrvants only, and the devil to whom he belonged would not quit him; he would pcrfift, ill as he was, to attack Ayabdar, who having, unknown to him, brought a number of ftout fellows along with him, without difficulty ;CUt his fcrvants to pieces. In the fray, Tecla Georgis, a fervant
vant who takes care of Ayabdar's horfe, coming tip with Guebra Mehedin himfelf, hurt as he was, ft ruck him over the fkull with a large crooked knife like a hatchet, and left him mortally wounded on the field, whence he was carried to a church, where he is now lying a miferable fpedtacle, and can never recover." Strates could hold no longer. He got up and danced as if he had been frantic, fometimes ringing Greek fongs, at another time pronouncing ten thoufand curfes, which he wilhed might overtake him in the other world. For my part, I felt very differently, for I had much rather, confidering whofe nephew he was> that he fhould have lived, than to have it faid that he received his firft wound, not a mortal one, but intended as fuch, from my hand.
CHAT;
CHAP. V.
Pafs the Nile and encamp at Tfiomwa—Arrive at Derdera——Alarm ox approaching the Army—foiu the King at Karcag?ia.
ON the 2 2d of May wc were all equally deflrous to re-fume our journey. We fet out accordingly at 11k o'clock in the morning, afcending fome hills covered, as the former ones, with trees and lfirubs, utterly unknown to me, but of incxprefuble beauty, and many of extraordinary fragrance. Wc continued afcending about three miles, till we came to the top of the ridge within fight of the lake. As we rofe, the hills became more bare and lefs beautiful. We afterwards dcfccndcd towards the paffagc, partly over Reep banks which had been covered with bufhes, all trodden down by the army, and which had made the accefs to the river exceedingly ilippery. Herewcfawthe ufe of Mahomet's fervants, three of whom, each with a lance in one hand, holding that of his companion in the other, waded acrofs the violent flream, founding with the end of their lances every
1 Rep
ftep they took. The river was very deep, the current, I fup-pole, fifty yards broader than it was at the cataract.; but the banks were, for a great way on each fide, ahrioft perfectly level, though much obftructed with black ftones. In the middle it was very deep, and the flream fmooth, fo that it was apparent our horfes muft fwim. For my part I did not like the fmooth ftones at the bottom, as a fall there would have been irrecoverable ; and my horfe was mod with iron, which is not ufual in Abyflinia. I therefore refolved to fwim where I could not wade, and, wrapping my cloaths in a bundle, I gave them to a fervant, who carried them over on his head. I then waded in, and found the water unexpectedly cold. Mahomet rode on a mule by my fide, fometimes fwimming, fometimes walking. I attempted to found up towards the lake, and found it deeper there. I returned, therefore, being unwilling to try experiments, and, committing myfelf to the flream, fwam to the other fide, much comforted by the affurance that no crocodile paffed the cataract.
The beafts having got over, the men followed much quicker; many women, going to join the army, fwam over, holding the tails of the horfes, and wc were all on the other fide before twelve o'clock, the beafts a good deal tired with'the paftagc, the ftccpnefs of the accefs to it, and the ftill greater depth on the other fide. For my part, I thought we could not have gone on to Tfoomwa, but it was carried againft me. Tfoomwa is about twelve miles diftant; and I fuppofe it was not much paft three o'clock when we arrived there,which was very fortunate, as we had fcarcely pitched our tents before a moft terrible florm of rain, wind, and thunder overtook us.   My tent was happily placed in one
Vol, III. 3 I refpect
refpect, being on a flat on the lee-fide of a hillt and fhelter-ed from the Rorm; but, on the other hand, the water ran fo plentifully from above as quite to overflow it on the infide till a trench was dug to carry it off..
Ras Michael had burnt nothing at Tfoomwa, though there was a houfe of Powuffen's in the place, built by his father. But that dilfembler, to prevent the word, and carry on the farce to the uttermoft, had fent many bags of flour for the ufe of the King and the Ras, which were to be diftributed to the army in cafe they wanted.
From the paffage to Tfoomwa, all the country was for-faken ; the houfes uninhabited, the grafs trodden down, and the fields without cattle.   Every thing that had life and ftrength fled before that terrible leader, and his no lefs terrible army; a profound filence was in the fields around: us, but no marks as yet of dcfolation. We kept drift watch in this folitude all that night.   I took my turn till twelve,, as I was the leaft fatigued of any.   Netcho had picquets about a quarter of a mile on every fide of us, with fire-arms, to give the alarm.
On the 23d, about three in the morning, a gun was heard! on the fide towards the paffage. This did not much alarm us, though wc all turned out. In a few minutes came Ayto Adigo, (not the Shum of Karoota, already mentioned, who left us at the Gomara,) but a young nobleman of Begemder of great hopes, one of the gentlemen of the king's bedchamber, and confequently my colleague. He intended to have brought four horfes to the king, one of which he had drowned, or rather, as I afterwards underftood, throttled in
palling
pafling the Nile at die mouth of the lake ; and two men, the king's fcrvants, had pcrifhcd there likewife. He came in great hurry, full of the news from Begemder, and of the particulars of the confpiracy, fuch as have been already Rated. With Ayto Adigo came the king's cook, Scbaftos, an old Greek, near feventy, who had fallen lick with fatigue. After having fatisfied his inquiries, and given him what refreshment we could fpare, he left Sebaftos with us, and purfued his journey to the camp.
On the 24th, at our ordinary time, when the fun began to be hot, we continued our route due fouth, through a very plain, flat country, which, by the conftant rains that now fell, began to ftand in large pools, and threatened to turn all into a lake. Wc had hitherto loft none of our beafts of carriage, but we now were fo impeded by flreams, brooks, and quagmires, that we defpaired of ever bringing one of them to join the camp. The horfes, and beafts of burthen that carried the baggage of the army, and which had paffed before us, had fpoiled every ford, and wc faw to-day a number of dead mules lying about the fields, the houfes all reduced to ruins, and fmoking like fo many kilns; even the grafs, or wild oats, which were grown very high, were burnt in large plots of a hundred acres together; every thing bore the marks that Ras Michael was gone before, whilft not a living creature appeared in thofe extenfive, fruitful, and once well-inhabited plains. An awful filencc reigned everywhere a-round, interrupted only at times by thunder, now become daily, and the rolling of torrents produced by local fhowers in the hills, which ceafed with the rain, and were but the children of an hour. Amidft this univerfal filence that prevailed all over this fecne of extenfive dcfolation, I could not
3 I 2 help
fcelp remembering how finely Mr Gray paints the pafTage of fuch an army, under a leader like Ras Michael—
Confufion in His van with flight combin'd, And Sorrow's faded form, and bolitudc behind.
At Derdera we faw the church of St Michael, the only building which, in favour of his own name, the Ras had fparcd. It ferved us then for a very, convenient lodging, as much rain had fallen in the night, and the priefts had all fled or been murdered. We had this evening, when it was clear, feen the mountain of Samfeen. Our next ftage from Derdera was Karcagna, a fmall village near the banks of the Jcmma, about two miles from Samfeen. We knew the king had refolved to burn it, and we expected to have feen the clouds of fmoke arifing from its ruins, but all was perfectly cool and clear, and this very much furprifed us, coi>-fidering the time he had to do this, and the great punctuality and expedition with which his army nfed to execute orders of this kind. As we advanced, we had feen a great number of dead mules and horfes, and the hyamas fo bold as only to leave the carcafe for a moment, and marl.as Iff they had regretted at feeing any of us pafs alive.
Since palling the Nile I found myfelf more than ordinarily depreffed ; my fpirits were funk almoft to a degree of defpondency, and yet nothing had happened fince that period more than was expected before. This difagreeablc fituation of mind continued at night while I was in bed. The rafhnefs and imprudence with which I had engaged myfelf in fo many dangers without any neceftity for fo doing; die little profpect of my being ever able to extricate
myfel£
myfelf out of them, or, even if I loft my life, of the account being conveyed to my friends at home; the great and urr-reafonable prefumption which had led mc to think that, after every one that had attempted this voyage had mifcar-ried in it, I was the only perfon that was to fucceed; all thefe reflections upon my mind, when relaxed,.dozing, and half oppreffed with fleep, filled my imagination.with what I have heard other people call the horrors, the moft difagreca-ble fenfation I ever was confeious of, and which I then felt for the firft time. Impatient of fuftcring any longer, I leaped out of bed, and went to the door of the tent, where the outward air perfectly awakened me,and reftored my ftrength and courage. All was ftill, and at a diftance I faw feveral bright fires, but lower down, and more to the right than I expected, which made me think I was miftaken in the fituation of Karcagna. It was then near four in the morning of the 25th. I called up my companions, happily buried in-deep fleep, as I was defirous, if poflible, to join the king that day. We accordingly were three or four miles from Derdera when the fun rofe ; there hail been little rain that night, and we found very few torrents on our way; but it was flippery, and uneafy walking, the rich foil being trod* den into a confiftence like paftc.
About feven o'clock we entered upon the broad plain of Maitfha, and were faft leaving the lake. Here the country is, at leaft a great part of it, in tillage, and had been, in appearance, covered with plentiful crops, but all was cut down by the army for their horfes, or trodden under foot, from carclcffnefs or vengeance, fo that a green blade could fcarce^ ly be feen. We faw a number of people this day, chiefly ftraggling foldiers, who, in parties of threes and fours, had
been
been feeking, in all the bullies and concealed parts of the river, for the mifcrable natives, who had hid themfelves thereabouts ; in this they had many of them been fuccefsful. They had fome of them three, fome of them four women, boys and girls, who, though Chrillians like themfclves, they neverthclefs were carrying away into flavery to fell them to the Turks for a very fmall price.
A little before nine we heard a gun fired that gave us fome joy, as the army feemed not to be far off; a few minutes after, wc heard feveral dropping Ihots, and, in lefs than a quarter of an hour's time, a general firing began from right to left, which ceafed for an inflant, and then was heard again as fmart as ever, about the occafion of which wc were divided in opinion.
Netcho was fatisfied thatWoodagc Afahcl, from Samfeen, had fallen upon Ras Michael at Karcagna, to prevent his burning it, and that Eafil had ftrongly reinforced him that he might be able to retard the army's march. On the other hand, having been informed by Ayto Adigo, that news were come to Gondar that Fafil had left Bure, and that Derdera was the place agreed on by Gufho and Powuffen to fhut up Michael on the rear, I thought that it was Fafil, to make good his part of his promife, who had crolfcd the Nile at Goutto, and attacked Ras Michael before he fuffered him to burn Samfeen. Indeed we all agreed that both opinions were likely to be true, and that Fafil and Woodage Afahel would both attack the king at the fame time. The firing continued much in the fame way, rather flacker, but apparently advancing nearer us; a fure fign that our army was beaten and retreating. We, therefore, made ourfelves 4 ready,
ready, and mounted on horfeback, that we might join them. Yet it was a thing appeared to us fcarcely poftible, that Fafil fhould beat Ras Michael fo eafdy, and with fo fhort a re-fiftancc.
We had not gone far in the plain before we had a fight of the enemy, to our very great furprife and no fmall comfort. A multitude of deer, buffaloes, boars, and various other wild beafts, had been alarmed by the noife and daily advancing of the army, and gradually driven before them. The country was all overgrown with wild oats, a great many of the villages having been burnt the year before the inhabitants had.abandoned them; in this fhelter the wild beafts had taken up their abodes in very great numbers. When the army pointed towards Karcagna to the left, the ftlence and folitude on the oppofite fide made them turn to the right to where the Nile makes a femi-circle, the Jemma being behind them, and much overflowed. When the army, therefore, inftead of marching fouth and by eaft towards Samfeen, had turned their courfe north-weft, their faces towards Gondar,. they had fallen in with thefe innumerable herds of deer and other beafts, who, confined between the Nile, the Jemma, and the lake, had no way to return but that by which they had come. Thefe animals, finding men in every direction in which they attempted-to pafs, became defperate with fear, and, not knowing what courfe to take, fell a prey to the troops. The foldiers, happy in an occafion of procuring animal food, prefently fell to firing wherever the beafts appeared ; every loaded gun was difcharged upon them, and this continued for very near an hour. A numerous flock of the largelt deer met us juft in the face, and feemed fo defperate, that they had every
appearance
appearance of running us down ; and part of them forced themfelves through, regardlefs of us all, wrhilit others turned fouth to cfcape acrofs the plain.
The king and Ras Michael were in the moR violent agitation of mind : though the caufe was before their eyes, yet the word went about that Woodage Afahel had attacked the army; and this occafioned.a great panic and difbrder, for everybody was convinced with reafon that he was not far off. fhe firing, however, continued, the balls flew about in every direction, fome few were killed, and many people and horfes were hurt; Rill they fired, and Ras Michael, at the door of his tent, crying, threatening, and tearing his grey locks, found, for a few minutes, the army was not under ■his command. At this inllant, Kafmati Netcho, whofe Fit-Auraris had fallen back on his front, ordered his kettledrums, to be beat before he arrived in the king's prefence; and this being heard, without it being known generally who we were, occaiioncd another panic; great part of the army believed that Powuften and Gufho were now at hand to keep their appointment with Fafil, and that Netcho and I were his Fit-Auraris. The king ordered his tent to be pitched, his ilandard to be fet up, his drums to beat, (the fignal for encamping) and the firing immediately cea-fed. But it was a long while before all the army could believe that Woodage Afahel had not been engaged with fome part of it that day. Happily, if near at hand, he did not lay hold of this favourable opportunity; for I am convinced, if, juft before our arrival, he had attacked Michael on the Samfeen fide, with 500 horfe, our whole army had fled without retiftancc, and difperfed all over the country.
2
Here
Here I left Kalmati Netcho, anil was making my way towards the king's tent, when I was met by a'fervancfof confidence of Kefla, Yafous, who had that day commanded the rear in the retreat, a very experienced officer, brave even to a fault, but full of mildnefs and humanity, and the mofl fenfible arid affable man in the army. He fent to de-fire that I would come to ;him alone, or that I would fend one of the Greeks that followed me. I promifed to do fo, after having ahfwercd moil of the qucftions that he bade his fervant alk of me. After this I fearched for Strates and Sebaflos, who had been fick upon the road.
I soon came up with them, and was more furprifed than I had been for feveral days, to fee them both lie extended on the ground ; Strates bleeding at a large wound in his forehead, fpcaking Greek to himfelf, and crying out his leg-was broken, whilft he prclfed it with both his hands below the knee, feemingly regardlefs of the gafli in his head, which appeared to mc a very ugly one, fo that I, of courfe, thought his leg was flili worfe. Sebaftos was lying ftretch-cd along the ground, fcarcely faying, any thing, but fighing loudly. Upon my ailcing him whether his arm was broken I he anfwered feebly, that he was a dying man, and that his legs, his arms, and his ribs were broken to pieces. I could not for my life conceive how this calamity had happened fo fuddenly, for I had not been half an hour abfent talking to Kefla Yafous's fervant; and, what feemed to me Rill flranger, every body around them were burfting out into fits o£faJkighter.Bil'm to formal ohow m^nulqmoD jriYaVf
Ali Mahomet's fervant, who was the only perfon that I faw concerned, upon my afking, told mc that it was all ow-Vor. 111. 3ft. ing
ing to prince George, who had frightened their mules. I have already hinted that this prince was fond of horfemanlliip, and rode with faddle, bridle, and ftirrups, like an Arab ; and, though young, was become an excellent horfeman, fuperior to any in Abyflinia. The manner that two Arabs falute one another, when they meet, is, the perfon inferior in rank, or age, prefents his gun at the other,.about 500 yards diftance, charged with powder only; he then, keeping his gun always prefented, gallops thefe 500 yards as fall as he can, and, be> ing arrived clofe, lowers the muzzle of his gun, and pours the explofion juft' under the other's ftirrups, or horfe's belly. This they do, fometimes twenty at a time, and you would often think it was impoflible fomebody fhould efcape being bruifed or burnt.
The prince had learned this exercite from mc, and was very perfect at the performance of it. We had procured him a fliort gun, with a lock and flint inftead of a match, and he lhot not only juftly, but gracefully on horfeback. He had been out after the deer all the morning; and hearing that I was arrived, and feeing the two Greeks riding on their mules, he came galloping furioufly with his gun prefented^ and, not feeing me, he flred a fhot under the belly of Stra-tes's mule, upon-the ground, and wheeling as quick as lightning to the left, regardlefs of the mifchicf he had occafton-ed, was out of fight in a moment, before he knew the con-fcquences.
Never was compliment worfe timed or reliftred. Strates had two panniers upon his mule, containing two great earthen jars of hydromel for the king; Sebaflos had alfo fome jars and pots, and three or four dozen of drinking^
glafles,
glaftbs, likewife for the king ; each of the mules was covered with a carpet, and alfo the panniers ; and upon the pack-fad-die, between thefe panniers, did Strates and Scbaftos ride. The mules as well as the loading belonged to the king, and they only were permitted to ride them becaufe they were fick. Strates went firft, and, to fave trouble, the halter of Seba-ftos's mule was tied to Strates's faddle, fo the mules were fattened to and followed one another.   Upon firing the gun fo near it, Strates's mule, not ufed to compliments of this kind, ftartcd, and threw him to the ground ; it then trampled upon him, began to run off, and wound the halter a-round Scbaftos behind, who fell to the ground likewife a-mongft fome ftones.   Both the mules then began kicking at each other, till they had thrown off the panniers and pack-faddles, and broke every thing that was brittle in them. The mifchief did not end here, for, in ftruggling to get loofe, they fell foul of the mule of old Azage Tecla Haimanout, one of the king's criminal judges, a very old, feeble man, and threw him upon the ground, and broke his foot, fo that he could not walk alone for feveral months afterwards.   As foon as I had pitched a tent for the wounded, and likewife drefted Tecla Haimanout's foot, I went to Kefla Yafous, while the two Mahoiiiets proceeded to the Ras with their money.
The moment I came into the tent, Kefla Yafous rofe up and embraced me. He was fitting alone, but with rather a chearful than a dejected countenance; he told mc they were all in great concern, till Ayto Adigo's arrival, at a report which came from Gondar that we had fought with Guebra Mehedin, and had all been llain. I informed him every thing I knew, or had heard, but he had better intel-
3K2 li gen cc
licence than I in every article but this laft,' frefli news having arrived the night before by way of Delakus. He faid, ihe rebellion of Gufho and Powu/len was certain ; that the King and Ras knew every circumftance of it, and that Court-ohha was the place appointed with Fafil to meet and cut them off; he had not heard of Woodage Afahcfs march, but feemed to give full credit to it; he faid it was certain, likewdfe, that Falil had advanced towards Maitfha; but where his quarters were he did not know, probably they were not at a great diftance. He complained violently of his march, and of the number of beafts which they had loll; he wilhed alfo that Fafil would be induced to give battle wdiere they were encamped, as his horfe would probably be of little ufe to him among fo many torrents and rivers, and muft fuller confiderably in their advancing hither.
I asked him whither they were now marching? Fie faid, that, as foon as the news of the confpiracy were known, a council was held, where it was the general opinion they fhould proceed brifkly forward, and attack Fafil alone a,t Bure, then turn to Gondar to meet the other two; but then they had it upon the very heft authority that great rain had fallen to the fouthwrard; that the rivers, which were fo frequent in that part of the country, were moftly impaffablc, fo there would be great danger in meeting Fafil with an army fpent and fatigued with the difficulty of the roads. It was, therefore, determined, and the Ras was decidedly of that opinion, that they fhould keep their army entire for a better day, and immediately crofs the Nile, and march back to Gondar ; that they had accordingly wheeled about, and that da) was the firft of their proceeding, which had been interrupted by the accident of the firing. Kefla Yafous offered
fered mc all forts of refrelliments, and I dined with him; he fent alfo great abundance for my fervants to my tent, lelt I fhould not have yet got my appointments from the king. I then went directly to my own tent, where I found all that belonged to me had arrived fafe, under the care of Francifco ; and having now procured clothes, inftead of thofe taken from me by Guebra Mehedin, I waited upon the king, and Raid a confiderable time with him, afking much the fame qucftions Kefla Yafous had done. I would have paid my rcfpecf s to the Ras alfo, but milled him, for he was at council.
CHAR
CHAP. VL
King's Army retreats towards Gondar—Memorable Paffage of the Nile—■ Dangerous Situation of the Army—Retreat of Kef a Tafous—Battle of Limjour—-Unexpected Peace with Fafil—Arrival at Gondar.
IT was on the 26th of May, early in the morning, that the army marched towards the Nile. In the afternoon we encamped, between two and three, on the banks of the river Coga, the church Abbo being fomething more than half a mile to the north-weft of us.
Next morning, the 27th, we left the river Coga, marching down upon the Nile; we paffed the church of Mariam* Net, as they call the church of St Anne. Here the fupo-rior, attended by about fifty of his monks, came in proceflion to welcome Ras Michael; but he, it feems, had received fome intelligence of ill-offices the people of this quarter had done to the Agows by FafiTs direction; he therefore 1 ordered
ordered the church to be plundered, and took the fuperior, and two of the leading men of the monks, away with him to Gondar; feveral of the others were killed and wounded, without provocation, by the foldiers, and the reft difperied through the country.
Prince George had fent immediately in the morning to put me in mind that I had promifed, in the king's tent at Lamgue, under Emfras, to ride with him in his party when in Maitfha. He commanded about two hundred and fifty chofen horfe, and kept at about half a mile's diftance on the right flank of the army. I told the king the prince's defire; who only anfwered, dryly enough, " Not till we pafs the Nile ; we do not yet know the Rate of this country.'* Immediately after this, he detached the horfe of Sire and Serawe, and commanded mc with his own guards to take pof-feflion of the ford where the Fit-Auraris had crofted, and to mffer no mule or horfe to pafs till their arrival.
There were two fords propofed for our paftagc ; one oppofite to the church Bofkon Abbo, between the two rivers Kclti and Arooffi,. (on the weft of the Nile,) and the Koga and Amlac Uhha from the eaft ; it was faid to be deep, but paffable, though the bottom was of clay, and very foft; the other ford propofed was higher up, at the fecond cataract of Kerr. It was thought of confequence to chufe this ford, as the Kelti, (itfelf a large and deep river) joined by the Brand, which comes from the weftward of Quaquera, brings, in the rainy feafon, a prodigious acceffion of water to the Nile ; yet, below this, the guides had advifed the Ras to pafs, and many found it afterwards a found bottom, very little deeper, wkh level ground on both fides.   We arrived about four on the.
bank
banks of the Nile, and took poffeftion in a line of about 600 yards of ground.
.bobnuGW box boUij. stsw ziwho *jib fo IwrSi ;inbtiuO 03 From the time we decamped from Coga it poured incef-fantly the moft continued rain we ever had yet feen, violent claps of thunder followed clofe one upon another, almoft without interval, accompanied with (beets of lightning, which ran on the ground like water ; the day was; more than commonly dark, as in an eclipfe-; and every -hollow, or foot-path, collected a quantity of rain, which fell into the Nile in torrents. It would have brought into the dulleft mind Mr Hume's ftriking lines on my native Carron—
Red ran the river down, and loud and oft The angry fpirit of the water fhriek'd.
Douglas.
The Abyflinian armies pafs the Nile at all feafons. It rolls with it no trees, ftones, nor impediments ; yet the fight of fuch a monftrous mafs of water terrified mc, and made me think the idea of crofting would be laid afidc. It was plain in the face of every one, that they gave themfclves over for loft ; an univcrfal dejection had taken place, and it was but too viiible that the army was defeated by the weather, without having feen an enemy. The Greeks crowded a-round me, all forlorn and defpairing, curfmg the hour they had firft entered that country, and following thefe curfes waith fervent prayers, where fear held the place of devotion. A cold and brifk gale now fprung up at N. W. with a clear fun; and foon after four,when the army arrived on the banks of the Nile, thefe temporary torrents were all fubfided,1 the o t Kit  fffMJ run bnn< fun
Tun was hot, and the ground again beginning to become dry.
Netcho, Ras Michael's Fit-Auraris, with about 400 men, had paffed in the morning, and taken his Ration above us in little huts like bee-hives, which the foldiers, who carry no tents, make very fpeedily and artificially for themfclves, of the long, wild oats, each ftraw of which is at leaft eight feet long, and near as thick as an ordinary man's little finger. He had fent back word to the king, that his men had paffed fwimming, and with very great difficulty; that he doubted whether the horfes, or loaded mules, could crofs at any rate; but, if it was refolved to make the trial, they fhould do it immediately, without flaying till the increafe of the river. He faid both banks were compofed of black earth, flip-pery and miry, which would become more fo when hor.es had puddled it; he advifed, above all, the turning to the right immediately after coming alhore, in the direction in which he had fixed poles, as the earth there was hard and firm, befides having the advantage of fome round ftones which hindered the beafts from flipping or finking. Inftead, therefore, of refting there that night, it was refolved that the diorfe fhould crofs immediately.
The firft who paffed was a young man, a relation of the king, brother to Ayamico killed at the battle of Banja ; he walked in with great caution, marking a track for the king .to pafs. He had gone upon rather folid ground, about twice the length of his horfe, when he plunged out of his depth, and fwam to the other fide. The king followed him immediately with a great degree of hafte, Ras Michael calling to him to proceed with caution, but without fuccefs. Vol, 111. 3 h Afterwards
Afterwards came the old Ras on his mule, with feveral of his friends fwimming both with and without their horfes on each lide of him, in a manner truly wonderful. He feemed to have loft his accuftomed calmncis, and appeared a good deal agitated; forbade, upon pain of death, any one to follow him directly, or to fwim over, as their cuftom is, holding their mules by the tail. As foon as thefe were fafely all lore, the king's houfehold and black troops, and I with them, advanced cautioufty into the river, and fwam happily over, in a deep ftrcam of reddifh-coloured water, which ran without violence almoft upon a level.
Each horfeman had a mule in his hand, which fwam after him, or by his fide, with his coat of mail and headpiece tied upon it. My horfe was a very ftrong one, and in good condition, and a fervant took charge of my mule and coat of mail, fo that, being unembarrafted, I had the hap-pinefs to get fafe and foon over, and up the path to the right without great difficulty, fo had moft others of the cavalry who fwam along with us ; but the ground now began to be broken on both fides of the paffage, and it wTas almoft as difficult to get in, as it was to fcramble up the bank afterwards.
S$rds cladem illius notlis, qnis funera fandc, Tc??iperet a lachrymis*—-
Virg.
It is impoftible to defcribe the confufion that followed; night was hard upon us, and, though it increafed our loft, it in great mcafure concealed it; a thoufand men had not yet paifed, though on mules and horfes; many mired in the
muddy
muddy landing-place, fell back into the Rream, and were carried away and drowned. Of the horfe belonging to the king's houfehold, one hundred and eighty in number, feven only were miffing; with them Ayto Aylo, vice-chamberlain to the queen, and Tecla Mariam the king's uncle, a great friend of Ras Michael's, both old men.
The ground on the wcR fide was quite of another con-fiftence than was that upon the eaft, it was firm, covered with fhort grafs, and rofe in fmall hills like the downs in England, all Hoping into little valleys which carried off the water, the declivity being always towards the Nile. There was no baggage (the tent of the Ras and that of the king excepted) which had as yet come over, and thefe were wet, being drenched in the river. The Fit-Auraris had left, ready made, two rafts for Ozoro Efther, and the other two ladies, with wdiich flic might have eafily been conducted over, and without much danger; but the Ras had made Ozoro Efther pafs over in the fame manner he had crof-fed himfelf, many fwimming on each fide of her mule. She would have fain ftaid on the call fide, but it was in vain to rcmonftrate. She was w-ith child, and had fainted feveral times ; but yet nothing could prevail with the Ras to truft her on the other bank till morning. She crofted, however, fafely, though almoft dead with fright. It was faid he had determined to put her to death if fhe did not pafs, from jcaloufy of her falling into the hands of Fafil ; but this I will by no means vouch, nor do I believe it. The night was cold and clear, and a ftrong wind at north-weft had blown all the afternoon. Guebra Mafcal, and feveral of Ras Michael's officers, had purpofely tarried behind for gathering in the ftragglers.   The river had abated to-
3 L 2 wards
wards mid-night, when,: whether from this caufe, or, as they alledged, that they.found a more favourable ford, all the Tigre infantry, and many mules lightly loaded, pahed with lefs difficulty than any of the reft had done, and with them feveraLloads of flour; luckily alfo my two tents and mules, to my great confolation, came fafely over when it was near morning.   Still the army continued to pafs, and < thofe that could fwim feemed belt. off.   1 was in the great-eft diftrefs for the good Ammonios, my lieutenant,: who was miffing, and did not join us till late in the morning, having,; been all night bufy in feeking Ayto Aylo, the queen's chamberlain, and.Tecla Mariam, who were his great companions, drowned probably at the iirft attempt to pafs, as they were . never after heard of. .
The grcatcft part of the foot, however, crofted in the night; and many were of opinion, that we had miftakea the paffage altogether, by going too high, and being in too great a hafte ; the banks, indeed, were fo ftcep, it was very plain that this could never have been an accuftomed ford for cavalry. Before daydight the van and the center had all j lined the king; the number, I believe, that had perilhed was never diftincf Ly known, for thofe that were miffing were thought to have remained on the other fide with Kefla Yafous, at lead for that day. Kefla Yafous, indeed, with the rear and all the baggage of the army, had remained on the other fide, and, with very few tents pitched, waited the dawn of the morning.
It. happened that the priefts of the church of Mariam Net, in the confufion, had been left unheeded, chained arm to arm, in the rear with Kefla Yafous, and they had began
interceding
interceding with him to procure their pardon and difmi£-fion. He was a man, as I faid, of the greater! affability and complacency, and heard every one fpeak with the utmoft patience. Thefe priefts, terrified to death left Michael fhould pull their eyes out, or exercife fome of his ufual cruelties upon them, which was certainly his intention by bringing them with him to Gondar, frankly declared to Kefla Yafous what they apprehended. They faid that, they had never known a ford there before, though they had- lived many years in the neighbourhood, nor had ever heard of one at Kerr, the firft cataract,, which the guides had perfuaded the rather of the two; they did believe, therefore, that Michael's guides had deceived him on purpofe, and that they intended the fame thing by him to-morrow, if he attempted to pafs at Kerr. They told him further, that, about three days before Michael had arrived in the neighbourhood of Samfeen, they had heard a nagarcet beat regularly every evening at fun-fet, behind the high woody hill in front, whereon was the church of Bofkon Abbo ; that they had feen alfo a man the day before who had left Welleta Yafous, Fafil's principal officer and confident, at Goutto, waiting the arrival of fome more troops to pafs the Nile there, whence they doubted not that there was treachery intend-ed.
The fagacious and prudent Kefla Yafous weighed every word of this in his mind, and, combining all the circum-ftances together, was immediately convinced that there had ; been a fnare laid by Fafil for them. Entering further into converfation with the priefts, and encouraging,them with aflurances of reward inftead of punifhment, he inquired if they certainly knew any better forcl below.   They anfwer-
cd S
ed him they knew of no ford but the common one of Dc-lakus, about eight miles below; that it was true it was not good, and it was deeper than ordinary, as the rainy feafon had begun early, but that it was fo perfectly fordable that all the country people had gone with affes loaded with butter and honey, and other provifions, for the market of Gondar laft week; from whence they inferred that he could eafily ford it, and fafely, even with loaded mules. They advifed him farther, as the night was dry, and the rain fell generally in the day, to lofe no time, but to collect his troops, weary as they were, as foon as poftible, and fend the heavy baggage before ; that there was no river or torrent in their way, but Amlac Ohha, which, at that time of night, was at its loweft, and they might then pafs it at their leifure, while he covered them with his troops behind; that in fuch cafe they might all be fafe over the ford by the time the fun became to be hot in the morning, about which hour they did not doubt he would be attacked by Welleta Yafous. They faid farther, that, though they could claim little merit, being prifoncrs, by offering to be his guides, yet he might perhaps find his ufe in the meafure, and would thereby prove their faith and loyalty to the king.
Although all this bore the greateft fhew of probability, and the lives of the informers were in his hands, that cautious general would not undertake a ftep of fo much con-fequence, as to feparate the rear of the army from the king, without further inquiry. There was then in his camp, waiting the event of next day, two of the guides who had brought them to this ford; a third had gone over the river with Ras Michael. There was likewife in his camp a fervant of Nanna Georgis, who had arrived fome days be-4 fore
fore with information to Ras Michael. The two guides pretended to be Agows, confequently friends to the king. He called thefe into his prefence, and ordered them to be put in irons, and then fent for the fervant of Nanna Georgis. This man immediately knew the one to be his countryman, but declared the other was a Galla, both of them fervants of Fafd, and then living in Maitfha.
Kefla Yasous immediately ordered the Kanitz Kitzera (the executioner of the camp) to attend, and having exhorted them to declare the truth for fear of what would fpeedi-ly follow, and no fatisfactory anfwer being given, he directed the eyes of the cldeft, the Galla, to be plucked out; and he continuing ftill obftinate, he delivered him to the foldiers, who hewed him to pieces with their large knives in prefence of his companion. In the mean time the priefts had been very earned: with the young one, the Agow, to confefs, with better fuccefs; but this execution, to which he had been witnefs, wras more prevailing than all their arguments. Upon promife of life, liberty, and reward, he declared that he had left Fafd behind a hill, which he then fhewed, about three miles diftant, in front of the king's army, and had gone down to Welleta Yafous, who was waiting at Goutto ready to pafs the Nile : that they were fent forward to decoy the king to that paffage, under the name of a ford, where they expected great part of the army would perifli if they attempted to pafs: that Fafil was to attack fuch part of the king's army as fhould have paffed as foon as it appeared upon the heights above the river, but not till, by the firing on the eaft fide, he knew that Welleta Yafous was engaged with the rear, or part of the army, which fhould ftill remain on that fide feparatcd by the river: that they did
not
not imagine Ras Michael could have palled that night, but that to-morrow he would certainly be attacked by Fafil, as his companion, who had crofTed with Ras Michael, was to go directly to fafil and inform him of the fituation of the King, the Ras, and the army.
Kefla Yasous fent two of his principal officers, with a diftincT detail of this whole affair, to the king. It being now dark, they fwam the river on horfeback, with much more difficulty and danger than we had done, and they found Ras Michael and the king in council, to whom they told their meftage with every circumRance, adding, that Kefla Yafous, as the only way to preferve the army, quite fpent with fatigue, and encumbered with fuch a quantity of baggage, had ftruck his tent, and would, by that time, be on his march for the ford of Delakus, which he fhould crofs, and, after leaving a party to guard the baggage and fick, he fhould with the frefheft of his men join the army. The fpy that had palFcd with Michael and the king was now fought for, but he had loR no time, and was gone off to Fafil at Bof-kon Abbo. Kella Yafous,having feen all the baggage on their way before him, did, as his lafi act, perhaps not ftrictly con-liflent with juftice, hang the poor unfortunate informer, the Agow, upon one of the trees at the ford, that Welleta Yafous, when he paffed in the morning, might fee how certainly his fecret was .discovered, and that confequently he was on his guard.
On the 28th he crofTed Amlac Ohha with fome degree of difficulty, and was obliged to abandon feveral baggage-mules.   He advanced after this with as great diligence as poiliblc to Delakus, and found the ford, though deep, much 2 better
better than he expected. He had pitched his tent on the high road to Gondar, before Welleta Yafous knew he was decamped, and of this paffage he immediately advifed Michael refrelhing his troops for any emergency.
About two in the afternoon Welleta Yafous appeared with his horfe on the other fide of the Nile, but it was then too late. Kefla Yafous was fo ftrongly ported, and the banks of the river fo guarded with fire-arms, down to the water-edge, that Fafil and ali his army would not have dared to attempt the paffage, or even approach the banks of the river.
As foon as Ras Michael received the intelligence, he dif--patched the Fit-Auraris, Netcho, to take poft upon the ford of the Kelti, a large river, but rather broad than deep, about three miles off.   He himfelf followed early in the morning, and palled the Kelti jull at fun-rife, without halting; he then advanced to meet Kefla Yafous, as the army began to want provifions, the little flour that had been brought over, or which the foldiers had taken with them, being'nearly ex-haufted during that night and the morning after.   It was found, too, that the men had but little powder, none of them having recruited their quantity fincc the hunting of the deer; but what they had was in perfect good order, being kept in horns and fmall wooden bottles, corked in fuch a manner as to be fecured from water of any kind. Kefla Yafous, therefore, being in poffeffion of the baggage, the powder, and the provifions, a junction with him was abfo-lutely ncccllary, and they expected to effect this at Waina-dega, about twenty miles from their iaft night's quarters.
Vol. III. 3 M The
The ground was all firm and level between Kelti and the Avoley, a fpacc of about 15 miles.
Ras Michael halted after palling the Kelti, and lent on the Fit-Auraris about five miles before him ; he then ordered what quantity of flour, or provifions of any kind could be found, to be distributed among the men, and directed them to refrefh themfclves for an hour before they again began their march, becaufe they might expect foon to engage with Fafil. The day being clear, and the fun hot, thofe that the cold affected, from the paffage of laft night, began to recover their former health and agility; their clothes were now all dry, clean warned, and comfortable ; and had it not been for the fatigue that remained from the two laft days, and the fhort allowance to which they were reduced, perhaps there were few occafions wherein the army was fitter for an engagement. Being now difembarraffed from dangerous rivers, they were on dry folid ground, which they had often marched over before in triumph, and where all the villages around them, lying in ruins, put them in mind of many victorious campaigns, and efpecially the recent one at Fagitta over this fame Fafd. Add to all this, they were on their way home to Gondar, and that alone made them march with a tenfold alacrity. Gondar, they thought, was to be the end of all their cares, a place of relaxation and cafe for the reft of the rainy feafon.
It wras between twelve and one wc heard the Fit-Auraris engaged, and there was fharp firing on both fides, which foon ceafed. Michael ordered his army immediately to halt; he and the king, and Billctana Gueta Tecla, commanded the /an; Welleta Michael,and Ay toTcsfos of Sire, the rear. Having
marched.
marched a little farther, he changed his order of battle ; he drew up the body of troops which he commanded, together with the king, on a flat, large hill, with two valleys running parallel to the fides of it like trenches. Beyond thefe trenches were two higher ridges of hills that ran along the fide of them, about half a mufket-fhot from him; the valleys were foft ground which yet could bear horfes, and thefe hills, on his right and on his left, advanced about 100 yards on each fide farther than the line of his front. The grofs of thefe fidc-divifions occupied the height; but a line of foldiers from them came down to the edge of the valleys like wings. In the plain ground, about three hundred yards directly in his front, he had placed all the cavalry, except the king's body-guards drawn up before him, commanded by an old officer of Mariam Barea. As prince George was in the cavalry, he Rrongly folicited the Ras at leaft to let him remain with them, and fee them engage; but the Ras, confidering his extreme youth and natural rafhnefs, called him back, and placed him befide me before the king. It was not long before the Fit-Auraris's two meftengers arrived, running like deer along the plain, which was not abfo-lutely flat, but Hoped gently down towards us, declining, as I fhould guefs, not a fathom in fifteen.
Their account was, that they had fallen in with Fafd's Fit-Auraris; that they had attacked him fmartly, and, though the enemy were greatly fuperior, being all horfe, except a few mufqueteers, had killed four of them. The Ras having firft heard the meftlige of the Fit-Auraris alone, he fent a man to report it to the king; and, immediately after this, he ordered two horfemen to go full gallop along the eaft fide of the hill, the low road to Wainadega, to warn Kefla Yafous
1 M 2 of
of FaftTs being near at hand; he likewife directed the Fit-Auraris to advance cautioufly till he had feen Fafd, and to purfue no party that mould retreat before him.
The King, the Ras, and the whole army, began to be in' pain for Kefla Yafous; and we mould have changed our ground, and marched forward immediately, had we not heard the alarm-guns fired by Fit-Auraris Netcho, and prc-fently he and his party came in, the men running, and the horfes at full gallop. Ras Michael had given his orders* and returned to the prefence of the king on his mule; he could not venture among horfe, being wounded in the middle of the thigh, and lame in that leg, but always charged on a mule among the mufquetry. He faid fhortly to tho king, " No fear, Sir, Rand firm; Fafil is loR if he fights today on this ground."
Fasil appeared at the top of the hill. I have no guefs about the number of fuch large bodies of troops, but,by thofe more ufed to fuch computations, it is faid he had about 3000 horfe. It was a fine fight, but the evening was beginning to be overcaft. After having taken a full view of the army, they all began to move flowly down the hill, beating their kettle-drums. There wrcre two trees a little before the ca^ valry, that were advanced beyond our front. Fafil fent down a party to fkirmifh with thefe, and he himfelf halted after having made a few paces down the hill. The two bodies of horfe met juft halfway at the two trees, and mingled together, as appeared at leaft, with very decifive intention; but whether it was by orders or from fear, (for they were not overmatched in numbers) our horfe turned their backs and came precipitately down, fo that we were afraid they 1 would
would break in upon the foot. Several mots were fired from the center at them by order of the Ras, who cried out aloud in derifion, " Take away thefe horfes and fend them to the mill." They divided, however, to the right and left, into the two graffy valleys under cover of the mufquetry, and a very few horfe of Fafil's were carried in along with them, and Rain by the foldiers on the. fide of the hill. On the king's fide no man of note was mining but Welleta Michael, nephew of Ras Michael, whofe jurfe falling, he was taken prifoner and carried off by Fafil,.
A few minutes after this, arrived a rnefTenger from Fafil; a dwarf, named Doho, a man always employed on errands of this kind ; it is an intercourfe which is permitted, and the mclfenger not only protected, but rewarded, as I have before obferved; it is a lingular cuftom, and none but fhrewd fellows are fent, very capable of making obfervations, and Doho was one of thefe. He told the Ras to prepare immediately, for Fafil intended to attack him as foon as he had brought his foot up: Doho further added a requeft from his nvafter, as a mark of his duty, that the king might not change his drefs that day, left he might fall im-to the hands of fome of the ft ranger troops of Galla, who might not know him otherwife, or fhew the proper rcfpccT to his perfon. The Ras, I was told afterwards, for he wras too far before us to hear him, laughed violently at this compliment. " Tell Fafil, fays he, to wait bur a few minutes where he now is, and I promife him that the king fhall drefs in anyway lie pleafes." When Doho's mcftage was told to the king, he fent back anfwer to Ras Michael, " Let Doho tell Fafil from me, that, if I had known thofe two trees had been where they are, I would have brought Welleta Ga<-
briels
brie), Ozoro Efther's Reward, to him; by which he very arch-ly alluded to the battle of Fagitta, where that drunkard, mooting from behind a tree, and killing one Galla, made all the reR fly for fear of the zibib.
Do no being thus difmifted, the whole army advanced immediately at a very brifk pace, hooping and fcreaming, a* is their cuftom, in a moft harfh and barbarous manner, crying out Hatze Ali! Michael Ali! But Fafd, who faw the forward countenance of the king's troops, and that a few minutes would lay him under neceftity of rifking a battle, which he did not intend, withdrew his troops at a fmart trot over the fmooth downs, returning towards Bofkon Abbo. It feems, as we heard afterwards, he was in as great anxiety about the fate of Welleta Yafous, of whom he had no intelligence, as we had been for that of Kefla Yafous; and he had got as yet no intelligence till he had taken Welleta Michael prifon-er; he had heard no firing, nor did he confequently know whether Kefla Yafous had paffed the Nile with the Has or not; he had, therefore, left his camp, and marched with his horfe only to take a view of Michael, but had no fort of intention to give him battle; and he was now very much ex-afperated againft both Gufho and Powuffen, by whom he faw plainly that he had been betrayed.
This is What was called the battle of Limjour, from a village burnt by Ras Michael laft campaign, which flood where the two trees are ; the name of a battle is finely more than it defcrves. Had Fafil been half as willing as the Ras, it could not have failed being a decifiveone. The Ras, who faw that Fafil would not fight, eafily penetrated his reafons, and no fooner was he gone, and his own drums filent, -? than
than he heard a nagarcet beat, and knew it to be that of Kella Yafous. I his general encamped upon the river av ley, leaving his tents and baggage under a proper guard, and had marched with the bell and freiheif of his troops to join Michael before the engagement. All was joy at meeting, every rank of men joined in extolling the merit and conduct of their leaders; and, indeed, it may be fairly faid, the lirua-tion of the king and the army was defperate at that inllant, when the troops were feparatcd on different fides of the Nile ; no could they have been faved but by the fpeedy refolution taken by Kefla Yafous to march without lofs of time and pafs at the ford of Delakus, and the diligence and acti^ vity with which he executed that refolution.
Although a good part of Kefla Yafous's foldiers were left at the Avoley, the Has, as a mark of confidence, gave him the command of the rear. We were retreating before an enemy, and it was, therefore, the poll of honour, where the Ras would have been himfelf, had not Kefla Yafous joined us. We foon marched the five miles, or thereabout, that remained to the Avoley, and arrived juft as the fun was fet-ting, and there heard from the fpies that Welleta Yafous with his troops had retired again to Goutto, after having been joined by Woodage Afahel. There again were frefh rejoicings, as every one recovered their baggage and provifions, many rejoined their friends they had given over as loft at the palfage, and the whole army prepared their fup-per. All but Ras Michael feemed to have their thoughts bent upon fleep and reft; whilft he, the moft infirm and agH of ihe army, no fooner was under cover of his tent tha j he ordered the drum to beat for aftembling a council.   What palled there I did not know; I believe nothing
but
but a repetition of the circumftanccs that induced Kefla Yafous to advance to Delakus, for, after fupper, juft before the king went to bed in the evening, a man from Kefla Yafous brought the four priefts of Mariam Net, who had been the guides to the ford at Delakus. The king ordered meat to be fet before them, but they had done very well already with Kefla Yafous, and, therefore, only took a fmall piece of bread and a cup of bouza, the eating and drinking in prefence of the king being an aflurance that their life was fafe and pardon real. They had then five ounces of gold, and feveral changes of clothes given to each of them, and the king took them to Gondar with him, to provide for them there, out of the reach of the revenge of Fafil, and placed them in the church of Flamar Nob*.
The army marched next day to Dinglcber, a high hill, or rock, approaching fo clofe to the lake as fcarcely to leave a paffage between.   Upon the top of this rock is the king's houfe.   As wc arrived very early there, and were now out of Fafd's government, the king infilled upon treating Kas Michael and all the people of confideration.   A great quantity of cattle had been fent thither from Dembea by thofe who had eftates in the neighbourhood, out of which he gave ten oxen to Ras Michael, ten to Kefla Yafous, the fame number to feveral others, and one to myfelf, with twro ounces of gold for Strates and Scbaftos to buy mules ; but they had already provided themfclves; for, befides the two they rode upon of mine, they and my fervants had picked up four others in very good condition, whofe mailers had probably periflied in the river, for they were never claimed afterwards.
Juss:
* [rhh is a large church belonging to the palace, called by this extraordinary name, Noah's Ark-
Just as the king fat down to dinner an accident happened that occafioncd great trepidation among all his fervants. A black eagle* was chafed into the king's tent by fome of the birds of prey that hover about the camp; and it was after in the mouth of every one the king would be dethroned by a man of inferior birth and condition. Every body at that time looked to Fafil: the event proved the application falfe, though the omen was true. Powuffen of Begemder was as low-born as Fafd, as great a traitor, but more fuc-cefsful, to whom the ominous prefage pointed ; and, though we cannot but look upon the whole as accident, it was but too foon fulfilled. j
In the evening of the 29th arrived at Dingleber two horfemen from Fafil, clad in habits of peace, and without arms; they weic known to be two of his principal fcrvants, were grave, genteel, middle-aged men ; this meifage had nothing of Doho's buffoonery. They had an audience early after their coming, firlf of the Ras, then of the King. They faid, and faid truly, that Fafil had repaffed the Kelti, was encamped on the oppofite fide, and was not yet joined by Welleta Yafous. Their errand was, to defire that the Ras might not fatigue his men by unneceffarily hurrying on to Gondar, becaufe he might red fecured of receiving no further mo-legation from fafil their mailer, as he was on his march to Bure. They told the Ras the whole of the con (piracy, as far as it regarded him, and the agreement that Powufienand Gufho had made with their mailer to furround him at Derdera: they mentioned, moreover, how feniible Fafil was of their Vol. III. 3 N treafon
>* Sec a figure of this bird in the Appendix.
treafon towards him ; that, inRead of keeping their word*, they had left him to engage the King and the Ras's whole force at a time when they knew the greateft part of his Galla troops were retired to the other fide of _ the Nile, and could be -aflembled with difficulty : That if the Ras by chance had croffed at Delakus, as Kefla Yafous had done, in-Read of embarrafling his army among the rivers of Maitfha, and eroding the Nile at that moft dangerous place near Amlac-Ohha, (a paffage never before attempted in the rainy feafon) the confequcncc would have been, that he muft have either fought at great difadvantagc with an inferior army againft the Ras, or have retired to Metchakel, leaving his whole country to the mercy of his enemies. Fafil declared his refolution never again to appear in arms againft the king, but that he would hold his government under him, and pay the accuftomed taxes punctually: he promifed alfo, that he would renounce all manner of connection with. Gufho and Powuften, as he had already done, and he would take the lield againft them next feafon with his whole force, whenever the king ordered him. The meftengers concluded, with defiring the Ras to give Fafil his grand-daughter, Welleta Selaffe, in marriage, and that he would then come to Gondar without cliftruft.
At the audience they had of the king the fame nighty they added, That Fafil could not truft Ras Michael, he broke his word fo often, and had fo many reicivations and eva-ftons in his promifes.
The Ras, though he did not believe all this, made no difficulty in agreeing to every thing that they deli red, Fie promifed the grand-daughter; and, as an earned of his believing
licving the reft, the king's two nagareets were brought to the door of the tent, where, to our very great furprife, wc heard it proclaimed, " Fafd is governor of the Agow, Maitfha, Gojar.., and Damot; profperity to him, and long may he live a faithful fervant to the king our matter!"—This was an extraordinary revolution in fo fmall a fpace of time. It was fcarce 43 hours fince Fafd had laid a fcheme for drowning the greater part of the army in the Nile, and cutting the throats of the rcfidue on both fides of it; it was not twenty-four hours, fince he had met us to fight in open field, and now he was become the king's lieutenant-general in four of the molt opulent provinces of Abyilinia. This was produced, however, by the neceffity of the times, and both parties were playing at the fame game who fhould over-reach the other. Fafil's mefTcngers were magnificently cloathed, and it was firft intended they fhould have gone back to him ; but, after reflection, another perfon was fent, thefe two chu-fing to go to Gondar with the king to remain hoflages for Fafil's v/ord, and to bring back his inveftiture from thence to Bure.   The whole camp abandoned itfelf to joy.
Late in the evening Ozoro Efther came to the king's tent. She had been ill, and alarmed, as fhe well might, at the paffage of the Nile, which had given her a more delicate look than ordinary; fhe was drcflcd all in white, and I thought I feldom had feen fo hand fome a woman. The king, as I have mentioned, had fent ten oxen to Ras Michael, but he had given twenty to Ozoro Efther ; and it was to thank him for this extraordinary mark of favour that fhe had come to vifit him in his tent. I had for fome time paft, indeed, thought they were not infcnfible to the merit of each other. Upon her thanking the king for the diftinelion
3 N 2 he
he had fhewn her, Madam, faid he, your hufband Ras Michael is intent upon employing, in the heft way poflible for my fervice, thofe of the army that are ftrong and vigorous; you, I am told, bellow your care on the fick and difabled, and, by your attention, they are reftored to their former health and activity; the ftrong active foldier eats the cows that 1 have fent to the Ras; the enfeebled and fick recover upon your.-, for which reafon I fent you a double portion, that you may have it in your power to do double good. After this the room was cleared, and fhe had an audience alone for half an hour. I doubt very much whether Ras Michael had any fharc in the converfation; the king was in the very gayeft humour, and went to reft about twelve. The Ras loved Ozoro Efther, but was not jealous...
I had violent threatenings of'the ague, and had gone to 1 bed full of reflections on extraordinary events that, in a few hours, had as it were crowded upon one another. I had appointed Fafd's fervants to come to my tent in the evening. I underftood'a council had been called, to which Welleta. Kyrillos, the king's hiftoriographer, had been fent for, and inilructed how to give an account of this campaign of Maitfha, the paffage of the Nile, and the meeting with Fafil at Limjour.   Kefla Yafous's march to Delakus, and paffage there, were ordered to be written in gold letters, and fo was Faiil's appointment to Damot and Maitfha,   From this authentic copy, arid what I myfelf heard or obferved, I formed 1 thefe notes of the campaign.
On the 30th of May nothing material happened, and, in a few days, we arrived at Gondar. The day before we entered, being encamped on the river Kemona, came two mc(-
fengers
fcngcrs from Gufho and Powuffen, with various excufes why they had not joined. They were very ill received by the Ras, and refufed an audience of the king. Their prefent, which is always new clothes to fome value, was a fmall piece of dark-blue Surat cloth, value about half-a-crown, intended as an affront; they were not fullered to fleep in the camp, but forwarded to Fafil where they were going.
Tni- yd of June the army encamped on the river Kahha, under Gondar. From the time we left Dinglcber, fome one or other of the Ras's confidential friends had arrived every day. Several of the great officers of flate reached us at the Kcmona, many others met us at Abba Samuel. I did not perceive the news they brought increafed the fpirits either of the King or the Ras ; the foldiers, however, were all contented, becaufe they were at home ; but the officers, who faw farther, wore very different countenances, efpecially thofe that were of Amhara.
I, in particular, had very little reafon to be pleafed; for, after having undergone a conflant feries of fatigues, dangers, and expences, I was returned to Gondar difappoint-ed of my views in arriving at the fource of the Nile, without any other acquilition than a violent ague. The place where that river rifes remained Hill as great a fecret as it. had been ever fince the catallrophe of Phaeton:—
Nilus in cxtrcmum fugit pcrterritus orbcm,
Occuluitquc caput, quod adhuc latct.-
Ovid. Mj-tam. lib. ii..
chap:
CHAP. VII.
"Ki?/g and Army retreat to Tigre—Inter eftlng Events following that Retreat—The Body of Joas is found—Favourable Turn of the Kings Affairs—Sociuios, a new King, proclaimed at Gondar.
TH E king had heard that Gufho and Powuffen, with Gojam under Ayto Aylo, and all the troops of BclefTen and Lafta, were ready to fall upon him in Gondar as foon as the rains fhould have fwclled the Tacazze, fo that the army could not retire into Tigre; and it was now thought to be the inftant this might happen, as the king's proclamation in favour of Fafd, efpecially the giving him Gojam, it was not doubted, would haften the motion of the rebels. Accordingly that very morning, after the king arrived, the proclamation was made at Gondar, giving Fafd Gojam, Damot, the Agow, and Maitfha ; after which his two fervants were again magnificently cloathed, and lent back with honour.
4 A*
As I had never defpaired, fome way or other, of arriving at the fountains of the Nile, from which we were not fifty miles diftant when we turned back at Karcagna; fo I never neglected to improve every means that, held out to me the leaft probability of accomplilhing this end. I had been very attentive and ferviceable to Fafil's fervants while in the camp, I fpoke greatly of their mailer, and, when they went away, gave each of them a fmall prefent for himfelf, and a trifle alfo for Fafd. They had, on the other hand, been very importunate with me as a phyfician to prcfcribe fomething for a cancer on the lip, as I underftood it to be, with which Welleta Yafous, FafiTs principal general, was afflicted.
I. had been advifed, by fome of my medical friends, to carry along with me a preparation of hemlock, or cicuta, recommended by Dr Stork, a phyfician at Vienna. A confiderable quantity had been fent me from France by commif-fion, with directions how to ufe it. To keep on the fafe fide, I prefcribed fmall dofes to Welleta Yafous, being much more anxious to preferve myfelf froni reproach than warmly folicitous about the cure of my unknown patient. I gave him pofitive advice to avoid eating raw meat; to keep to a milk diet, and drink plentifully of whey when he ufed this medicine. They were overjoyed at having fuccecded fo well in their commiftion, and declared before the king, That Fafil their mailer would be more pleafed with receiving a medicine that would rcftore Welleta Yafous to health, than with the magnificent appointments the king's goodnefs had bellowed upon him. " If it is fo, faid I, in this day of grace, I will alk two favours."—" And that's a rarity, fays the king ; come, out with them ; I don't believe anybody is defirous*
you.
you fhould be refufed; I certainly am not; only I bar one of them, you are not to rclapfe into your ufual defpondency, and talk of going home."—" Well, Sir, faid I, I obey, and that is not one of them. They are thefe—You fhall give me, and oblige Eafil to ratify it, the village Geefh, and the fource where the Nile rifes, that I may be from thence fur-nifhed with honey for myfelf and fervants; it fhall Rand me inftead of Tangouri, near Emfras, and, in value, it is not worth fo much. The fecond is, That, when I fhall fee that it is in his power to carry me to Geefh, and lhew me thofe fources, Fafd fhall do it upon my requefl, without fee or reward, and without excufe or evafion.
They all laughed at the cafinefs of the requefl; all declared that this was nothing, and wifhed to do ten times as much. The king faid, " Tell Fafil I do give the village of Geefh, and thofe fountains he is fo fond of, to Yagoube and his pofterity for ever, never to appear under another's name in the deftar, and never to be taken from him, or exchanged, either in peace or war. Do you fwcar this to him in the name of your mailer," Upon which they took the two fore fingers of my right hand, and, one after the other, laid the twro fore fingers of their right hand acvofs them, then killed them ; a form of fwearing ufed there, at leaR among thofe that call themfelvcs Chrillians. And as Azage Kyrillos, the king's fecretary and hiilorian, was then prefent, the king ordered him to enter the gift in the def-tar, or revenue-book, where the taxes and revenue of the king's lands arc rcgiilercd. " I will write it, fays the old Plan, in letters of gold, and, poor as I am, will give him a village four times better than cither Geefh or Tangouri, if he will take a wife and flay amongll us, at leafl tiil my eyes 2 arc
are clofed." It will be eafily gucffed this rendered the converfation a chearful one. FafiFs fervants retired to fet out the next day, gratified to their utmoft wifh, and, as foon as the king was in bed, I went to my apartment likewife.
But very different thoughts were then occupying Michael and his officers. They could not truft Fafil, and, befides, he could do them no fervice; the rain was fet in, and he was gone home; the weftern part of the kingdom was ready to rife upon them ; Woggora, to the north, immediately in his way, was all in arms, and impatient to revenge the feverities they had fuffered when Michael firft marched to Gondar. The Tacazze, which feparates Tigre from Woggora, and runs at the foot of the high mountains of Samen, was one of the largeft and moft rapid rivers in Abyftinia, and, though not the firft to overflow, was, when fwelled to its height, impaflable by horfe or foot, rolling down prodigious ftones and trees with its current. Dangerous as the paffage was, however, there was no fafety but in attempting it: Michael, therefore, and every foldier with him, were of opinion that, if they muft perilh, they fhould rather meet death in the river, on the confines of their own country, than fall alive into the hands of their enemies in. Amhara. For this, preparation had been making night and day, fince Ras Michael entered Gondar, and probably before it.
There was in Belelfen, on the neareft and eafieft way to a ford of the Tacazze, a man of quality called Adero, and his fon Zor Woldo. To thefe two Ras Michael ufed to truft the care of the police of Gondar when he was abfent upon any expedition; they were very active and capable, but had
Vol. III. 3 0 fallen
fallen from their allegiance, and joined Powuffen and Gufho, at leaft in councils. The Ras, immediately upon arriving at Gondar, diftembling what he knew of their treafon, had fent to them to prepare a quantity of flour for the troops that were to pafs their way; to get together what horfes they could as quietly as poflible; to fend him word what ftate the ford was in ; and alfo, if Powuften had made any move^ ment forward; or if Ayto Tesfos, governor of Samen, had ftiewn any difpofition to difpute the paffage through Wogr gora into Tigre. Word was immediately returned by the traitor Adero, that the ford was as yet very paffable; that it was faid Powuffen was marching towards Maitfha; that Ayto Tesfos was at home upon his high rock, the feat of his government, and that no time was to be loft, as he believed he had already flour enough to fuflice ; he added alfo, that it would be dangerous.to collect more, for it would give the alarm. This was all received as truth, aad a meftenger fent back with orders, tha t Zor Woldo fhould leave the flour in fmall bags at Ebenaat, and that he fhould himfelf and his father wait the Ras at the ford, with what horfe they had, the fourth day from that, in the evening.
The next morning the whole army was in motion. X had the evening before taken leave of the king in an im-terview which coft me more than almoft any one in my life. The fubftance was, That I was ill in my health, and quite unprepared to attend him into Tigre; that my heart was fet upon completing the only purpofe of my coming into Abyftinia, wdthout which. I fhould return into my own country- with difgrace ; that I hoped, through his majefty's influence, Fafil might find fome way for me to accomphfh it; if not, I truiled-foon to fee him return, when I hoped it
would
would be eafy; but, if I then went to Tigre, I was fully pcrfuadcd I mould never have the refolution to come again to Gondar.
He feemed to take heart at the confidence with which I fpoke of his return. " You, Yagoube, fays he, in a humble, complaining tone, could tell mc, if you pleafed, whether I lliall or not, and what is to befal me; thofe inRruments and thofe wheels, with which you are conftantly looking at the Rars, cannot be for any ufe unlefs for prying into futurity."—" Indeed, faid I, prince, thefe are things by which we guide fhips at fea, and by thefe we mark down the ways that we travel by land ; teach them to people that never paffed them before, and, being once traced, keep them thus to be known by all men for ever. But of the decrees of Providence, whether they regard you or myfelf, I know no more than the mule upon which you ride."—" Tell me then, I pray, tell mc, what is the reafon you fpeak of my return as certain ?"—" I fpeak, faid I, from obfervation, from reflections that I have made, much more certain than prophecies and divinations by Rars. The firft campaign of your Tcign at Fagitta, when you was relying upon the difpofitions that the Ras had moftrably and fkillfully made, a drunkard, with a fingle fhot, defeated a numerous army of your enemies. Powuften and Gufho were your friends, as you thought, when you marched out laft, yet they had, at that very inftant, made a league to deftroy yoti at Derdera ; and nothing but a miracle could have faved you, fhut up between two lakes and three armies. It was neither you nor Michael that difordcred their councils, and made them fail in what they had concerted. You was for burning Samfeen, whilft Woodage Afahel was there in ambulh with a
3 O 2      , large
large force, with a knowledge of all the fords, and mailer, of all the inhabitants of the country. Remember how you palled thofe rivers, holding hand in hand, and drawing one another over.   Could you have done this with an enemy behind you, and fuch an enemy as Woodage Afahel ? lie would have followed and harrafTed you till you took the ford at Goutto, and. there was Welleta Yafous waiting to oppofe you with 6000 men on the oppofue bank. When Ras Michael marched by Mariam Net, he found the priclls at their homes.   Was that the cafe in any of the other churches we paffed ? No ; all were fled for fear of Michael; yet thefe were more guilty than any by their connections with Fafil; notwithftanding which, they alone,of all others, Raid, though they knew not why ; an invilible hand held them that they might operate your prefervation. Nothing could have laved the army but the defperate paffage, fo tremendous that it will exceed the belief of man, crolling the Nile that night.   Yet if the prieRs had crofTed before this, not a man would have proceeded to the ford. The priclls would have been Ras Michael's prifoners, and, on the other lide, they never would have fpoken a word whilft in the prefence of Michael.   Providence, therefore, kept them with Kefla Yafous; all was difcovercd, and the army faved by the retreat, and his fpcedy pafFing at the ford of Delakus.
What would have happened to Kella Yafous, had Fafd marched down to Delakus either before or after the paffage? Kella Yafous would have been cut off before Ras Michael had palled the Kelti; inftcad of which, an unknown caufe detained him, moll infatuated-like, beating his kettle drums behind Bolkon Abbo, while our army under the Ras was
fwimming
fwimming that dangerous river, and mofl of us palling ;he night, naked, without tents, provifion, or powder.   Nor did he ever think of preienting himfelf till we had warmed ourfelvcs by an eafy march in a line day, when we were every way his fuperiors, and Kefla Yafous in his rear. From all thefe fpecial marks of the favour of an over ruling Providence, I do believe RcdfafUy that God will not leave his work half fmifhcd.   " He it is who, governing the whole univcrfe, has yet referved fpecial ly to himfelf the department of war ; he it is who has Riled himfelf the God of Battles."   The king was very much moved, and, as I conceived, perfuaded.   He faid, " O Yagoube, go but with mc to Tigre, and I will do for you whatever you defire me."— " You do, Sir, faid I, whatever I defire you, and more. I have told you my reafons why that cannot be ; let me Ray here a few months, and wait your return."   The king then ad-vifed me to live entirely at Kofcam with the Iteghe, without going out unlefs Fafil came to Gondar, and to fend him punctually word how I was treated.   Upon this we parted with inexprefliblc reluctance.   He was a king worthy to reign over a better people ; my heart was deeply penetrated with thofe marks of favour and condefcenflon which I had uniformly received from him ever fince I entered his palace.
On the 5th of June, while Powuffen, Adero, and the con-fpirators were waiting his paffage through Beleffen, (that is to rhc 8. W.) the king's army marched towards Kofcam, over the mountain Debra Tzai towards Walkayt, and the low, hot provinces of Abyffinia which lie to the N. E. f(. that the diltance between them increafed every day in the greater! proportion poflible.
The.
The queen ordered her gates at Kofcam to be lTiut. A little before the Ras mounted his mule, Ozoro Efther and her fervants took refuge with her mother the Iteghe; Gondar was like a town which had been taken by an enemy; everyone that had arms in his hands did juR what he pleafed.
Two very remarkable things were faid to have happened the night before Michael left the city. He had always pretended, that, before he undertook an expedition, a perfon, or fpirit, appeared to him, who told him the ifliie and con-fequencc of the mcafurcs he was then taking ; this he imagined to be St Michael the archangel, and he prefumed very much upon this intcrcourfe, In a council that night, where none but friends were prefent, he had told them that his fpirit had appeared fome nights before, and ordered him, in his retreat, to furprifc the mountain of Wechne, and either flay or .carry with him to Tigre the princes fequeflered there. Nebrit Tecla, governor of Axum, with his two fons, (all concerned in the late king's murder) were, it is faid, Rrong advifers of this meafure ; but Ras Michael, (probably fatiated with royal blood already) Kefla Yafous, and all the more worthy men of any confequencc, acting on principle, abfolutely rcfufed to content to it. It was upon this the paffage by Beleffen was fubftituted inftead of the attempt on Wechne, and it was determined to conceal it.
The next advice which, the Ras faid, this devil, or angel, gave him, was, that they fhould fet fire to the town of Gondar, and burn it to the ground, otherwife his good fortune was to leave him there for ever; and for this there was a great number of advocates, Michael feeming to lean that way himfelf. But, when it was reported to the king, that i. young
young prince put a direct negative upon it, by declaring that he would rather Ray in Gondar, and fall by the hands of his enemies, than either conquer them, or efcape from them, by the commiilion of fo enormous a crime. When this was publicly known, it procured the king univerkd good-will, as was experienced afterwards, when he and Michael were finally defeated, and taken prifoncrs, upon their march in return to Gondar,
The army advanced rapidly towards Walkayt. Being near the Tacazze, they turned lliort upon Mai-Lumi, (the River of Limes) the governor of which, as I have already faid, in our journey from Mafuahj detained us feveral days at Addergey with a view to rob us, upon a report prevailing that Ras Michael was defeated at Fagitta. This thief the king furprifed and made prifoner, fet fire to his houfe after having plundered it, and carried him as hoftage to Tigre, for the payment of a fum which he laid upon every village to fave them from being fet on fire.
Being now fafeiy arrived on the banks of the Tacazze, the firft province beyond which is that of Sire, Michael fent before him Ayto Tesfos the governor, a man exceedingly beloved, to aftemblc all fort of aftrftance for palling the river. Every one flocked to the flream with the utmoft alacrity; the water was deep, and the baggage wet in crofting', but the bottom was good and hard ; they paffed both cxpeditioufly and fafeiy, and were received in Sire, and then in Tigre, with every demonftration of joy.
Michael, now arrived in his government; fet himfelf fc-rioufly to unite every part under his own jurisdiction. Itwas now the rainy feafon ; there was no poftibility of taking-di«
fields
field, and a rebellion prevailed in two different diftricls of his province. The fons of Kafmati Woldo, whofe father Ras Michael put to death, had declared for themfclves, in their paternal government of Enderta, and Netcho who married Ras Michael's daughter, had taken proffeftion of the mountain Aromata, commonly called Haramat, an ancient itrong-hold of his father's, of which Michael had made himfelf mailer, while yet a young man, after befieging it lifteen years. Netcho had alfo united himfelf with ZaMenfusKcdus,aman of great property in that and the neighbouring country. Enderta is a flat, fertile territory, in the very fouth-eaft of Abyflinia, depending on Tigre, and the mountain Aromata is fituated near the middle of that province ; before taking the field, Michael had directed the two Woldos to be affaftinated during a feaft at Enderta, andtheirpartydifperfed of itfelf without farther effort.
The mountain fhewed a better countenance, and feemed to promife employment for a long time ; it was garrifoncd by old and veteran troops who had Served under Ras Michael.   Netcho was the fon of his hereditary enemy, anciently governor of that mountain, whom he had reconciled by giving him his daughter in marriage ; notwithftanding which he had now rebelled, juft as the Ras marched to Maitfha againft Fafd, by the perfuafion of Gufho and Powuffen, purpofely that he might form a diverlion in Tigre, and for this reafon he had little hopes of mercy, if ever he fell into the hands of Ras Michael.   I had feen him often, and knew him; he was a tall, thin, dull man, of a foft temper, and eafily impofed upon.   Za Menfus, the other chief in the mountain, was a very active, refolute, enterprifing man, of whom Michael was afraid.   lie had a large property all around the mountain ; had been put in irons by Michael, and had efeaped ; befides, on his return to Tigre, he 1 had
had llain the father of Guebra Mafcal, Michael's nephew hy marriage, who was commander in chief of all the mufquetry Michael had brought from Tigre, fo that he feared nothing fo much as falling into Ras Michael's hands.
Ras Michael faw the danger of leaving'an enemy fo prepared and fo fituated behind him ; he therefore, before the rainy feafon was yet nniihed, ordered the whole mountain to be furrounded with barracks, or huts, for his foldiers ; he alfo erected three houfes for himfelf, the principal officers, and the king. The country people were called in to plow and fow the ground in the neighbourhood, fo that his intention was plainly never to rife from thence till he had reduced the mountain of Aromata for the fecond time, after having once before fuccecded in taking it, after fifteen years fiege, from Netcho's father. There we fhall leave him at this fiege, and return to Gondar,
It was on the ioth of June that Gufho and Powuffen entered Gondar, and next day, the iith, waited upon the queen ; they both befeeched her to return from Kofcam to the capital, and take into her hands the reins of government for the interim ; this fhe pofitivcly refufed, unlefs peace was firft made with Fafil. She faid, that Fafil was the only perfon who had endeavoured to avenge his mailer Joas's death; that he had continued till that day in arms in that quarrel; and, notwithftanding all the oilers that could be made her, fire never would come to Gondar, nor take any part in public bufinefs, without this condition. Fafil, moreover, informed her by a mcllengcr, that there was no truft to be put eiiher in Gufho or Powuften ; that they had failed in their engagement of following and fighting Ras
Vol.. III. 3 P Michael
Michael in Maitfha, and had purpofely Raid at home till a-fupcrior army fliould fall upon him fingly, and ravage his country : That they had broken their word a fecond time by entering into Gondar without him; whereas the agreement was, that they all three fliould have done this at once, to fettle the form of government by their joint deliberation. Many days paffed in thefe negociations ; Fafd always promifing to come upon fome condition or other, but never keeping his word, or ftirring from Bure.
On the 20th, the queen's fervants, who had gone to offer terms of reconciliation to Fafil on the part of Gufho and Powuffen, returned to their homes. The fame day he ordered it to be proclaimed in the market-place, That Ayto Tesfos fliould be governor of Samen, and that whoever fhould rob on that road, or commit any violence, fhould fuf~ fer death. This was an act of power, purpofely intended to affront Powuffen and Gufho, and feemed to be opening a road for a corrcfpondcncc with Ras Michael; but, above all, it fhewed contempt for their party and their caufe, and that he confidered his own as very diflincf. from theirs; for Tesfos had taken arms in the late king's lifetime, at the fame time, and upon the fame principles and provocation,, as Fafd, and had never laid down his arms, or made peace with Ras Michael, but kept his government in defiance of; him.
On the 24th, for fear of giving umbrage, I waited upon Gufho and Powuffen at Gondar. 1 faw them in the fame room where Ras Michael ufed to fit. They were both lying on the floor playing at draughts, with the figure of a< draught-table drawn with chalk upon the carpet; they offered
THE SOURCE Q F THE NILE. 483 -
fered no other civility or falutation, but, making me each by the hand, they played on,\vithout lifting their heads, or looking me in the face.
Gusho began by afking me, " Would it not have been better if you had gone with mc to Amhara, as I dciired you, when I faw you laft at Gondar ? you would have faved yourfelf a great deal of fatigue and trouble in that dangerous march through Maitfha." To this I anfwered, " It is hard for me, who am a ilranger, to know what is belt to be done in fuch a country as this. I was, as you may have heard, the king's gueft, and was favoured by him ; it was my duty therefore to attend him, efpecially when he defired it; and fuch I am informed has always been the cuftom of the country; befides, Ras Michael laid his commands upon me." On this, fays Powuften, fhaking his head, " You fee he cannot forget Michael and the Tigre yet."—" Very naturally, added Gulho, they were good to him ; he was a great man in their time ; they gave him confiderable fums of money, and he fpent it all among his own foldiers, the king's guard, which they had given him to command after the Armenian. Yagoube taught him and his brother George to ride on horfe-back like the Franks, and play tricks with guns and pikes on horfeback ; folly, all of it to be fure, but I never heard he meddled in affairs, or that he fpoke ill of any one, much lefs did any harm, like thofe rafcals the Greeks when they were in favour in Joas's time, for it was not their fault they ■did not direct: every thing."—" I hope I never did, faid I; fure I am I never fo intended, nor had I any provocation. I have received much good ufage from every one ; and the honour, if I do not forget, of a great many profeflions and afluranees of friendfhip from yon, faid I, turning to Gufho,   He hefi-
3 P 2 tated
tared a little, and then added very fuperciliou fly, "Aye, aye, we were, as I think, always friends.1'—"You have had, fays Powuften, a devilifh many hungry bellies fince we left Gondar."—" You will excufe me, Sir, replied I, as to that ar-t:elc; I at no time ever found any difference whether you. was in Gondar or nor."—Ci There,., fays Gufho, by St Demetrius, there is a truth for you, and you don't often hear that in begemder.   May I fuller death if ever you gave a jar of honey to any white man in your life."—" But 1, fays Powuffen, fitting upright on the floor, and leaving off play, will give you, Yagoube, a prefent better than Gufho's paultry jars of honey.   I have brought with me, addreffing himfelf to me, your double-barrelled gun, and your fword, which I took from that fon of a wh—e Guebra Mehedin : by St Michael, continued Powuffen, if 1 had got hold of that infidel I would have hanged him upon the firft tree in the wa) for daring to lay that he was. one of my army when lie committed that unmanly robbery upon your people.   The Iteghe, your friend, would yefterday have given me ten loads of wheat for your gun, for fhe believes I am to carry it back to Begemder again, and do not mean to give it you, but come to my tent to morrow and you fhall have it."   I very' well underftood his meaning, and that he wTanted a prefent;, but was happy to recover my gun at any rate.
I arose to get away, as what had parted did not pleafe me; for before the king's retreat to Tigre, Gufho had fat in my prefence uncovered to the waift, in token of humility, and many a cow, many a fheep, and jar of honey he had fent me ; but my importance was now gone with the king; I was fallen ! and they were refolved, I faw, to make me-fenfi-» hie of it. I told the queen, on my return, what had paffed;
They
They are both brutes, faid ihe ; but GiuTio mould have known better.
The next morning, being the 25th, about eight o'clock I went to Powuffen's tent. His camp wis on the Kahha, near the church of Ledata, or the Naivity. After waiting near an hour, I was admitted ; two women fit by him, neither handfome nor cleanly d re fled ; and he returned me my gun and fword, which was followed by a (mall prefent on my part. This, fays he, turning to the women, is a man who knows every thing that is to come; who is to die, and who is to live; who is tp go to the devil, and who not ; who loves her hufband, and who cuckokh him."—" Tell me then,. Yagoube, fays one of the women, will Tecla Flaima-nout and Michael ever come to Gondar again ?'*—" I do nor know who you mean, Madam, faid I; is it the king and the Ras you mean r"—" Call him the King, fays the other woman in half a whifper; he loves the king."—u Well, aye, come, let it be the king then, fays flic ; will the King and Ras Michael ever come to Gondar ?"—" Surely, faid I, the king is king, and will go to any part of his dominions he pleafes,and when he pleafcs; do you not hear he is already on his way?"—" Aye, aye, by G~d, fays Powuffen, no fear he'll,' come with a vengeance, therefore I think it is high time that I was in Begemder.'' He then Ihrugged up his moulders, and rofe, upon which 1 took my leave, lie had kept me-Randing all the time; and when I came to Kofcam 1 made my report as ufual to the Iteghe, who laughed very heartily, though the king's arrival, which was prophecied, was likely to be a very ferious affair to her.
That
I'nat very day, in the evening, came a fervant from Ras Michael, with taunts and fevcre threats to the queen, to Powuften, and Gufho ; he laid he was very quickly bringing the king back to Gondar, and being now old, intended to pafs the reR of his life in Tigre; he, therefore, hoped they would await the king's coming to Gondar, and chufe a Ras for his fucceflbr from among themfclves, as he underftood they were all friends, and would eafily agree, efpecially as it was to oblige him.
On the 27th, Gufho and Powuften waited upon the queen to take their leave. They declared it was not their intention to flay at Gondar, merely to be alternately the fubjeel: of merriment and fcofling to Michael and to Fafil, and upon this they immediately fet out on their way home, without drum or trumpet, or any parade whatever.
Immediately after, arrived another fervant from Fafil to the queen, deliring that Powuffen and Gufho might halt at Emfras, adding, that he had juft then begun his march from Bure, and would be at Gondar in a few days. Gufho and Powuften did accordingly halt there, and were detained for the fpacc of fix weeks, amufed by falfe pretences and meffages, in very uncomfortable quarters, till their armies difbanded, the foldiers, from hunger and conftant rains, deferted their leaders, and went every man to his home.
In the beginning of Auguft the queen came to Gondar, and fat on the throne all day. She had not been there thefe three years, and I fincerely wiftied fhe had not gone then. It was in meditation that day to chufe a new king ; fhe was prefent at that deliberation, and her intention was known
A tO
to place a fon of Aylo, Joas's brother, a mere infant, upon the throne. All thofe that were in fear of Michael, and it was very general at that time, cried out againft an infant king at fuch a critical period ; but, old as that princcfs was,, the dclire of reigning had again returned.
Upon the return of the Iteghe that night to Kofcam, Sa-nuda held a council of the principal officers that had remained at Gondar, and fixed upon one Welleta Girgis, a young man of about 24 years of age, who had, indeed, been reputed Yafous's fon, but his low life and manners had procured him fafety and liberty by the contempt they had railed in Ras Michael. His mother, indeed, was of a noble origin, but fo reduced in fortune as to have been obliged to gain her livelihood by carrying jars of water for hire. The mother fwore this fon was begot by Yafous, and as that prince was known not to have been very nice in his choice of mif-treffes, or limited in their number, it was, perhaps, as likely to be true as not, that Welleta Girgis was his fon. He took the name of Socinios. On the morning after, the new king came to Kofcam, attended by Sanuda and his party, with guards, and all the enfigns of royalty. He threw himfelf at the Itcghe's feet, and begged her forgiven-nefs if he had vindicated the rights of his birth, without her leave or participation ; he declared his refolution to govern entirely by her advice, and begged her to grant his requefl and come to Gondar, and again take pofteftion of lier place as Iteghe, or regent of the kingdom.
It was about the 10th of Auguft that an accident happened, which it was generally thought would have determined Fafil to come to Gondar.   A common woman, wife of a
Galla
r
Galla atTchclga, a town upon the frontiers of Sennaar, being at variance with her huiband, upbraided him with being the peribn that, with his own hand, had aifaflinated the late king Joas.   This Galla was immediately feized and fent to Gondar, and was examined before the queen, where I was prefent.   He, with very little hefitation, declared, That, on a night immediately after fhe battle of Azazo, he was fent for to Ras Michael, who gave him fome money and large pro-mifes, on condition that he would undertake to murder the king that night.   The perfons prefent were Laeca Netcho, and his two fons, Nebrit Tecla and his two fons, Shalaka Bccro relation to the prefent king, and Woldo Hawaryat a monk of Tigre. The prifoner faid, he was afraid, if he fliould rcfuftythey would murder him for the fake of fecrecy. He further faid, that they had given him fpirits to drink till he was intoxicated, and then delivered to him the keys of the apartments where Joas was confined, and they all went with him to the palace; they found the unfortunate king alone, walking in his apartment, very peniive, and, though at the late hour of twelve at night, dreffed in his ufual habit. Two of Laeca Nctcho's fons attempted to put a cord round his neck, but the king, being young and ftrong, fhewed a difpo-fition to defend himfelf, and wrefted the cord out of the murderers hands; upon which Zor Woldo (the name of the Galla) ftruck him a violent blow with a bludgeon on the head, which felled him to the ground: The others then, with a lhort cord, ftranglcd him, the monk, Woldo Hawaryat, crying, di(patch him quickly ; after this they carried the body to the neighbouring church of St Raphael, where a grave, or rather hole, was ready, into which they threw it with the clothes juft as he was.   The prifoner faid, That, wdien they were carrying the king's body out of the 2 palace
\
palace into the church-yard, over a breach in the churchyard wall, they were challenged by a perfon, who aiked them what they were about? to which they replied, Burying a ftranger who died that day of a peftilential fever.
Immediately upon this confeflion, the Galla was carried out and hanged upon the daroo-tree before the king's gate. Many condemned this hafty execution, but many likewife thought it prudent; for he had already named a great part of the people about the queen as accefTary to the death of her fon.
I have faid his name was Zor Woldo; he was of the race of Galla, called Toluma, on the borders of Amhara; he had been formerly a fervant to Kafmati Becro ; was of fmall fta-turc, thin and lightly made; his complexion a yellowifh black, and Angularly ill-favoured. When under the tree, he acknowledged the murder of the king with abfolute in-diiference; nor did he defire any favour, or ihew any fear of death. Zor Woldo's examination and declaration were fent immediately to Fafd, who, as ufual, promifed to come to Gondar quickly. The body of Joas was railed alfo, and laid in the church (in his clothes, juft as he was dug up) upon a little ftraw; his features were eafily diftinguifhablc, but fome animal had ate part of his check.
The day after, I went from Kofcam to Gondar without acquainting the Iteghe, and took a Greek called Petros with me; he had been chamberlain to Joas. Wc went about eleven o'clock in the forenoon to the church of St Raphael, expecting to have feen many as curious as ourfclves, but, by reafon of the atrocioufnefs of the act, now for the firft
Vol. III. 3 time
time known to be true, and the fear of Ras Michael threatening Gondar every day, not a living foul was there bur a monk belonging to the church itfelf, who kept the key. It was thought criminal to know what it was apparent Michael had wilhed to conceal. Petros no fooner faw his mailer's face than, faying, It is he ! he ran off with all the fpeed poflible: for my part, I was fhocked at the indecent manner in which the body was expofed ; it aiTecled me more than the murder itfelf, for it appeared as if it had been thrown down upon the ground, the head, arms, and legs lying in all forts of directions, and great part of his haunch and thigh bare. I defircd the monk to lock the door, and come along with me to Petros's houfe. Petros was a merchant who fold carpets, and fuch fort of goods ufed in the country, which he brought from Cairo. It was full an hour before we could make him behave fenfibly, or deliver me a fmall Perfian carpet, fuch as Mahometans ufe to pray upon, that is about feven feet long and four feet broad, and a web of coarfe muflin, which I bought of him, I told the prieft (for Petros abfolutely refufed to return to die church) how to lay the body decently upon the carpet, and to cover his face and every part with the muflin cloth, which might be lifted when any body came to fee the corpfe.
The prieft received the carpet with great marks of fatif-faction, and told me it was he who had challenged the murderers when carrying the body over the wall; that he knew them well, and fufpeclcd they had been about fome mifchicf; and, upon hearing the king was miffing the next •lay, he was firmly convinced it was his body that had been hMried.   Upon going alfo to the place early in the morn-
ing, he had found one of the king's toes, and part of his foot, not quite covered with earth, from the haltc the murderers were in when they buried him; thefe he had put properly out of fight, and conftantly ever after, as he faid, had watched the place in order to hinder the grave from being difturbed, or any other perfon being buried there.
About the beginning of October, Guebra Selaffe, a fervant of the king and one of the porters in the palace, came on a meffage to the queen. It was a laconic one, but very eafily underftood.—" Bury your boy, now you have got him ; or, when I come, I will bury him, and fome of his relations with him." Joas, upon this, was privately buried. As this Selaffe was a favourite of mine, who took care of my fhoes when ,1 pulled them off to go into the audience-room, I waited impatiently for this meffenger's coming to my apartment, which he did late in the evening. I was alone, and he advanced fo foftly that I did not at firft hear or know him ; but, when the door was firm, he began to give two or three capers; and, pulling out a very large horn, " Drink ! drink! G—d d—n! repeating this two or three times, and brandifhing his horn over his head. Selaffe, faid I, have you loft your fenfes, or are you drunk ? you ufed to be a fober man."—" And fo I am yet, fays he, I have not tailed a mor-fel fince noon ; and, being tired of running about on my affairs, I am now come to you for my fupper, as I am fure vou'll notpoifon me for my mailer's fake, nor for my own cither, and I have now enemies enough in Gondar."—" I then afked, How is the king ?"—" Did not you hear, faid he-** Drink!—the king told me to fay this to you that you might know me to be a true meffenger." And an Irifh fervant of mine, opening the door in the inftant, thinking it was
3 Qjs I that
I that called drink! Selaffe adroitly continued, " He knows you are curious in horns, and fent you this, defiring mc firft to get it filled at the Iteghe's with good red wine, which I have done; and now, Hallo! Drink! Englifhman!" He then added in a whifper, when the fervant had ihut the door," I'll tell it you all after fupper, when the. houfe is quiet, for I fleep here all night, and go to Tigre to-morrow morning." ■   ■ u .      ' -^.n>>; • i ir'pg^ • '
The time being come, he informed me Ras Michael and Fafil had made peace; Welleta Michael, the Ras's nephew* taken by Fafd at the battle of Limjour, had been the mediator ; that the king and Michael, by their wife behaviour, had reconciled Tigre as one man, and that the Ras had illiied a proclamation, remitting to the province of Tigre their whole taxes from the day they paffed the Tacazze till that time next year,, in confideration of their fidelity and fcrvices; and this had been folemnly proclaimed in feveral places by beat of drum.   The Ras declared, at the fame time, that he would, out of his own private fortune, without other afliftance, bear the expence of the campaign till he fcatcd the king on his throne in, Gondar.   A kind of madnefs, he faid, had feized all ranks of people to follow their fovereign to the capital; that the mountain Haramat ftill held out; but that all the principal friends, both of Za Menfus and Netcho, had been up with the governors of that fortrefs offering terms of peace and forgivennefs,. and de-firing they would not be an obftacle in the king's way, and a hindcrance to his return, but that all terms had been as yet refufed ; however, fays he, you know the Ras as well as I, he will play them a trick fome of thefe days, winking with his eye, and then crying out, Drink !
I ASKED
Tasked him if any notice had been taken of the carpet I had procured to cover the body of Joas, and hoped it had given no umbrage. He faid, " No ; none at all; on the contrary, the king had faid twenty kind things upon it; that he was prefent alfo when a prieft told it to Ras Michael, who only obferved, Yagoube, who is a ftranger in this cour> try, is mocked to fee a man taken out of his grave, and thrown like a dog upon the bare floor. This was all Michael faid, and he never mentioned a word on the fubject afterwards ;" nor did he, or the king, ever fpeak of it to me upon their return to-Gondar..
The Iteghe, too, had much commended me, fo did all the nobility, more than the thing deferved ; for furely common humanity dictated thus much, and the fear of Michael; which I had not, was the only caufe that fo proper an action was left in a ftranger's power. Even Ozoro Eilher, enemy to Joas on account of the death of her hufband Ma± riam Barea, after I had attended her one Sunday from church to the houfe of the Iteghe, and when fhe was fet down at the head of a circle of all thofe that were of diftinction at the court, called out aloud to mc, as I was palling behind, and pointing to one of the mofl honourable feats in the room, faid, Sit down there, Yagoube ; God has exalted you above all in this country, when he has put it in your power,-though but a ftranger, to confer charity upon the king eF it. All was now acclamation, efpecially from the ladies; and, I believe, I may fafeiy fay, I had never in my life been: a favourite of fo.many at one time.
I dispatched Guebra Selaffe with a mcfTage to the king, that I was refolved now to try once more a journey to the
head
head of the Nile ; that I thought I fhould have time to be there, and return to Gondar, before the Tacazze was ford-able, foon after which I expected he would crofs it, and that nothing but want of health would prevent me from joining him in Beleffen, or fooner, if any opportunity fhould offer.
Before I took my laft refolutions I waited upon the queen. She was exceedingly averfe to the attempt ; Ihe bade me remember what the laft trial had coft me; and begged me to defer any further thoughts of it till Fafd arrived in Gondar; that fhe wfould then deliver me into his hands, and procure from him fure guides, together writh a fife conduct. She bad me beware alfo of troops of Pagan Galla which were palling and rcpafling to and from his army, who, if they fell in with mc, would murder me without mercy. She added, that the priefts of Gojam and Damot were mortal enemies to all men of my colour, and, with a word, wrould raife the peafants againft me. This was all true; but then many reafons, which 1 had weighed well, concurred to fhew that this opportunity, dangerous as it was, might be the only time in which my enterprife could be practicable ; for I was confident a fpeedy rupture between Fafd and Michael would follow upon the king's return to Gondar. I determined therefore to fet out immediately without farther lofs of time.
CHAP.
CHAP. VIIL
Second foumey to difcover the Source of the Nile—Favourable Turn of the Kings Affairs in Tigre—Wefall in with Fafis Army at Bamba.
THOUGH the queen mewed very great diflike to my attempting this journey at fuch a time, yet llie did not pofitively command the contrary; I was prepared, therefore, to leave Gondar the 27th of October 1770, and thought to get a few miles clear of the town, and then make a long Rrctch the next day. I had received my quadrant, timekeeper, and telefcopes from the ifland of Mitraha, where I had placed them after the affair of Guebra Mehedin, and had now put them in the very bcfl order.
But, about twelve o'clock, I was told a meffage from Ras Michael had arrived with great news from Tigre. I went immediately to Kofcam as fail as I could gallop, and found there Guebra Chriftos, a man ufed to bring the jars of bou-
za
za to Ras Michael at his dinner and fuppcr: low men arc always employed on fuch errands, that they may not, from their confequence excite a defire of vengeance. The mcf-fagc that he brought was to order bread and beer to be ready for 30,000 men who were coming with the king, as he had juft decamped from before the mountain Haramat, which he had taken, and put Za Menfus to the fword, with every man that was in it: this meffage ftruck the queen with fuch a terror that fhe was not vifible the whole .day.
After aiking the melTcnger if he had any word from the king to me, he faid, u Very littlethat the king had called him to tell me he fhould foon begin his march by Beleften; and that he would fend for me to meet him when he fhould arrive at Mariam-Ohha; he told mc befides, that the king had got a ftone for me with writing upon it of old times, which he was bringing to me ; that it had been dug up at Axum, and was Handing at the foot of his bed, but that he did not order him to tell me this, and had only learned it from the fervants. My curioftty was very much raifed to know what this ftone could be, but I foon faw it was in vain to endeavour to learn any thing from Guebra Chriftos; he anfwered in the affirmative to every inquiry: when I afked if it was blue, it was blue; and if black, it was black ; it was round, and fquare, and oblong, juft as I put my queftion to him: all he knew about it at laft, he faid, was, that it cured all fort of licknefs; and, if a man ufed it properly, it made him invulnerable and immortal: he did not, however, pretend to warrant this himfelf, but fwore he had the account from a prieft of Axum who knew it. I was perfectly fatisfied all further inquiry was unneceflary ; he
i had
had got a very plentiful portion of bouza from his friends, and was, I faw, faft engaged in the purfuit of more, fo I gave him a fmall prefent for his good news, and took my leave, my mind being full of reflections upon the king's goodnefs, who, after fuch an abfence, and in fo critical a fituation as he then was, Rill remembered the trifling purfuits in which he had feen me often engaged.
In the afternoon I received a mefTage from Ozoro Efther, as brought to her by a fervant of Ras Michael. It feems the giving up the king's revenue due from Tigre, and all fort of taxes upon the inhabitants, had intereftcd the whole province fo ftrongly, that all of them, as one man, endeavoured to remove the obftaclc which flood in the way of the king's return : Michael, moreover, offered peace and pardon to the rebels, certain compenfations, and an amnefty of all that was paft. All the friends, both of Netcho and Za Menfus, and the other leaders upon the mountain, endeavoured to perfuade them to accept the terms offered, whilft all the priefts and hermits, eminent for fanctity, became as mediators between them and Ras Michael: this intercourfe, though it had no effect upon Za Menfus, had feduccd Netcho, and opened a large field for treachery.
In the midft of this treaty, Kefla Yafous, with a detachment of chofen men, in a very flormy night, was appointed to afcend up a private path to that part of the mountain where Netcho kept the principal guard, and being admitted, found the garrifon moftly afleep ; he furprifed and obliged them to furrender, with very little bloodflied; Za Menfus was taken prifoner, and, while Kefla Yafous conducted him to the camp, was met by Guebra Mafcal, who thruft him through Vol. III. 3 R with
with a lance, as a retaliation for his father's death. Netcho and the reft of the garrifon being pardoned, al! joined Ras Michael's army. I looked upon thele news as a good omen, and experienced a degree of confidence and compofure of mind to which 1 for a long time had been a ■ftranger. 1 ftept fotind that night, and it was not till half after nine in the . morning that I was ready for my journey*.
In the evening before, I had endeavoured to engage my old companion Strates to accompany me on this attempt as he had done on the former ; but the recollection of paft dangers and fuiferings was not yet banifhed from his mind; and upon my aiking him to go and fee the head of this famous river, he coarfely, according to his (lile, anfwered. Might the devil fetch him if ever he fought either his head or his tail again..
It was on the 28th of October, at half paft nine in the : morning, that we left Gondar, and palled the river Kahha at the foot of the town ; our route was W. S. YV. the road a little rugged upon the fide of a hill, hut the day was fair, with funihine ; and a fmall breeze from the north had . rifen with the fun, and made the temperature of the air perfectly agreeable. Wc left the church of Ledeta about a mile 011 the right, and palled by feveral poor villages called Abba Samuel; thence wc came to the fmall river Shimf'a, then to the Dumaza, fomething larger. Upon the banks of this river, very pleafantly fituated, is Azazo, a country-houfe built by the late king Yafous, who often retired here to relax himfelf with his friends. It is furrounded, 1 may fay covered, with orange-trees, fo as to be fcarcely feen ; the trees are grown very large and high ; they are planted
without.
without order, the only benefit expected from them being the fhade. At fome fmall diftance is the village Azazo, originally built for the accommodation of the king's fervants while he refided there, but now chiefly occupied by monks belonging to the large church of Tecla Haimanout, which is on a little hill adjoining. Azazo, though little, is one of the moft chearful and pleafant villages in the neighbourhood of Gondar. The lemon-tree feems to thrive better and grow higher than the orange ; but the houfe itfelf is going fall to ruin, as the kings of this country have a fixed averfion to houfes built by their predeceftbrs.
The Dumaza is a very clear and pleafant flream, reining briikly over a fmall bed of pebbles : both this river and the Shimfa come from Woggora on the N. W. they pafs the hill of Kofcam, called Debra Tzai, join below Azazo, and, traveriing the Hat country of Dembea, they meet the Angrab, which paftes by Gondar, and with it fall into the Tacazze, or Atbara.
At noon we paffed a fmall rivulet called Azzargiha, and, foon after, the Chergue, where there began a moft violent florin of rain, which forced us, much againft our will, into the village, one of the moft miferable I ever entered ; it confided of fmall hovels built with branches of trees, and covered with thatch of ilraw. Thefe rains that fall in the latter feafon are what the natives very much depend upon, and without which they could not fow ihe latter crops; for, though it rains violently every day from May to the beginning of September, by the end of October the ground is fo burnt that the country would be unfit for culture. 3 R 2
Our
Our quarters here were fo bad that we were impatient to depart, but came to a water juft below Chergue, which quickly made us wifh ourfelves back in the village; this is a torrent that has no fprings in the hills, but only great batons, or refervoirs, of ftone ; and, though it is dry all the year elfe, yet, upon a hidden, violent fhowcr, as this was, it fwclls in an inftant, fo that it is impalpable for man or horfe by any device whatever. This violence is of lhort duration; we waited above half an hour, and then the peafants fhewed us a place, fome hundred yards above, where it was fhallow-er ; but even here we palled with the utmoft difficulty, from the impctuofity of the ftream, after getting all poflible aflifU ance from four people of the village ; but wc flood very much in need of fome check to our impatience, fo eager were we to get forward and finifh our journey before fome revolution happened.
We had not many minutes been delivered from this torrent, before we paffed two other rivers, the one larger, the other ffnaller. All thefe rivers come from the north-weft, and have their fources in the mountains a few miles above, towards Woggora, from which, after a fhort courfe on the fide of the hills, they enter the low, flat country of Dembea, and are fwallowed up in the Tzana.
We continued along the fide of the hill in a country very thinly inhabited ; for, it being directly in the march of the army, the peafants naturally avoided it, or were driven from it. Our road was conftantly interfered by livers, which abound, in the fame fpacc, more than in any other country in the world. We then came to the river Derma, the largcft and moft rapid we had yet met with,.
and:
THE SOURCE OF TII E NILE.
and foon after a fmaller, called Ghelghel Derma. In the afternoon, at a quarter paft three, we paffed another river, called Gavi-Corra; thefe, like the others, all point as radii to the center of the lake, in which they empty themfelvcs. A little before four o'clock we encamped on the fide of the river Kcmona. Upon the hill, on the other fide of the river, ftands the village of that name ; it was full of cattle, very few of which we had feen during the fore-part of the journey ; wc had all that day travelled fix hours and a quarter, which we computed not to exceed 14 miles : the reafon of this flownefs was the weight of my quadrant, which, though divided into two, required four men to carry it, tied upon bamboo, as upon two chair-poles. The time-keeper and two telefcopes employed two men more. We pitched our tent on the fide of the river, oppofite to the village, and there paffed the night.
On the 29th of October, at feven in the morning, we left our ftation, the river Kemona; our direction was W. S. W. after, about an hour, we came to a church called Abba Abraham, and a village that goes by the fame name ; it is immediately upon the road on the left hand. At the diftance-of about a mile are ten or twelve villages, all belonging to the Abuna, and called Ghendi, where many of his predecef-fors have been buried. The low, hot, unwholefomc, woody part of the Abyftinian Kolla, and the feverilh, barren province of Walkayt, lay at the diftance of about fourteen or fixtecn miles on our right. We had been hitherto afcending a gentle rifmg-ground in a very indifferent country, the fides of the hill being ikirted with little rugged wood, and full of fprings, which join as they run down to the low country of Walkayt. We faw before us a fmall hill called Guarre,,
which
which is to the fouth-we ft. At half paft ten wc retted under the before-mentioned hill; it ilands alone in the plain, in fhapc like a fugar-loaf, and feems almoft as regular as if it had been a work of art. At a quarter paft eleven we re-, fumed our journey, our courfe always nearly weft fouth-weft; wc palfed the fmall village of Bowiha, at the diftance of about a mile ; and, on the left, about fix miles, is Gorgora, a peninfuia that runs into the lake Tzana for feveral miles.
There was one of the firft and moft magnificent churches and monafterics of the Portuguefe Jefuits, in the time of their million to convert this country: Socinios, then king, gave them the grounds, with money for the expence; they built it with their own hands, and lined it elegantly with cedar. The king, who was a zealous Roman Catholic, chofe afterwards a country-houfe for himfelf there, and encouraged them much by his prefents and by his charity ; it is one of the pleafanteft fituations in the world ; the vaft ex-panfe of the lake is before you ; Dembea, Gojam, and Maitfha, flat and rich countries all round, are in view; and the tops of the high hills of Begemder and Woggora clofe the profpccl.
The lake here, I am told, has plenty of fifh, which is more than can be faid for many of the other parts of it; the fifh are of two kinds, both of them fecming!y a fpecies of what the Englifh call brcoM. 1 never could make them to agree with me, which I attribute to the drug with which they are taken ; it is of the nature of tmx vomica, pounded in a morter, and thrown into flreams, where they run into the lake ; the fifh, feeding there, are thus intoxicated and taken; however, it would admit of a doubt of tins being the rea-2 fon,
fon, becaufe the queen and all the great people in Gondar cat them in Lent without any bad conicqujace.s.
The great elevation of the pcninfula of Gorgon make • it one of the healthieft, as well as beautiful parts of the country; for, out of this neck of land, at feveral different feafons of the year, the inhabitants of the flat country fui fer from malignant fevers. From Gondar hither we had always been edging down to the lake..
At a quarter before noon we halted to red upon the banks of a fmall river called Baha; the country was rich, and cultivated; great part of it, too, was laid out in paftuiv, and (locked with an immenfe quantity of cattle. At one o'clock we refumcd our journey, going well fouth-wefl as before; we were apparently turning the north end of the lake as lhort as poilible, to fet our face due fouth to the country of the Agows. At a quarter before three we phch-ed our tents at Bab Baha, after having travelled five hours and three quarters, which wc computed to be equal to twelve miles. The firft part of our journey this day was not like that of the day before; the road was, indeed, rough, but led through very agreeable valleys and gcntle-rifmg hills; k appeared, on the whole, however, that we had afcended com-fulcrably fince we left Gondar..
The country about Bab Baha is the rieheft in Abyflinia; this on the fouth, and Woggora on the north, arc the two granaries that fupply the reft of the kingdom. Bab Baha is a parcel of fmall villages, more confiderable in number and ftrength than thofe at Kemona, and is near the lake Tzana. The queen and many of her relations have here their
houfes
houfes and poffeflions, and thefe, therefore, being refpccted by Michael, had not been involved in the devaftation of the late war. The villages are all furrounded with Kol-quail trees, as large at the trunk as thofe we met on the fide of the mountain of Taranta, when we afcended it on our journey from Mafuah to enter into the province of Tigre; but the tree wants much of the beauty of thofe of Tigre ; the branches are fewer in number, lefs thorny, and lefs indented, which feems to prove that this is not the climate for them.
The 30th of October, at fix in the morning, we continued our journey from Bab Baha Rill rounding the lake at W. S. W. and on the very brink of it: the country here is all laid out in large meadows of a deep, black, rich foil, bearing very high grafs, through the midft of which runs the river Sar-Ohha, which, in Englifh, is the Graffy River; it is a-bout forty yards broad and not two feet deep, has a foft clay bottom, and runs from north to fouth into the lake Tzana.
We turned out of the road to the left at Bab Baha, and were obliged to go up the hill; in a quarter of an hour we reached the high road to Mefcala Chriftos. At feven o'clock we began to turn more to the fouthward, our courfe being S. W.; three miles and a half on our right remained the village of Tenkel; and four miles and a half that of Tlhem-mcra to the N. N. W.; we were now clofe to the border of the lake, whofe bottom here is a fine fand. Neither the fear of crocodiles, nor other monflers in this large lake, could hinder me from fwimming in it for a few minutes.
4 Though
Though the fun was very warm, the water wras intenfc-ly cold, owing to the many Item (creams that pour themfelvcs continually into the lake Tzana from the mountains. The country here is fown with dora, which is maize, or millet; and another plant, not to be diflinguilhed from our marigold either in fize, ihapc, or foliage ; it is called Nook*, and furniihes all Abyilinia with oil for the kitchen, and other ufes.
At a quarter paft nine we refted a little at Delghi Mariam ; the village called amply Delghi, adjoining to it, is but fmall, and on the S. W. is the hill of Gov Mariam, where the queen-mother has a houfe. All the habitations in this country were burnt by Ras Michael in his return to Gondar after the battle of Fagitta. The mountain Debra Tzai above Kofcam, wras feen this day at N. E. and by E, from us.
At a quarter paft ten wc again fet out, our route being S. W. at eleven we left the fmall village Arrico, about two miles on our right. At a quarter paft eleven wc halted to reft our men ; we palled the church of St Michael on our right, and at a quarter paft one we palled two fmall iflands in the lake, called Kedami Aret; and, half an hour after, wc paffed a fmall river, and came to Mefcala Chriftos, a large village upon a high mountain, the fummit of which it occupies entirely ; it is furrounded on both fides by a river, and the de-fcent is fteep and dangerous. We thought to haveftaid here all night; but, after mounting the hill with great fatigue and trouble, we found the whole village abandoned, on intelligence that Waragna Fafil was on his march to Gondar, and not far diftant.
Vol. III. 3 S This
* Polymelia frondofa.
This intelligence, which came all at once upon us, made us lay afide the thoughts of ileeping that night; wedcfccnded the hill of Mefcala Chriftos in great haftc, and with much difficulty, and came to the river Kemon below it, clear and limpid, but having little water, running over a bed of very large Rones. This river, too, comes from the north-weft, and falls into the lake a little below; we relied on its banks half an hour, the weather being very fultry; from this place wc had a diftincT view of the Nile, where, after crofting the lake, it iftucs out near Dara, the fcenc of our former misfortunes ; we fet it carefully by the compafs, and it bore nearly S. W.
We began our journey again at three quarters after two;, and at half after three we paffed a river, very clear, with little water, the name of which I have forgot; by the largcnefs of its bed it feemed to be a very confiderable flream in winter ; at prefent it had very little water, but a fine gravelly bottom ; here wc met multitudes of peafants flying before the army of Fafil, many of whom, feeing us, turned out of the way ; one of thefe was a fervant of Guebra Ehud, brother to Ayto Aylo, my moft intimate friend : he told us it was very poflible that Fafil would pafs us that night, advifed us not to linger in the front of fuch an army, but fall in as foon as poflible with his Fit-Auraris, rather than any other of his advanced polls; he was carrying a mcflage to his mailer's brother at Gondar. I told him I had rather linger in the front of fuch an army than in the rear of it, and fhould be very forry to be detained long, even in the middle of it.; that I only wilhed to falute Fafil, and procure a pafs and recommendations from him to Agow Midrc,
Atto
Ayto Aylo's fervant, who was with me, prefently made acquaintance with this man, and I truftcd him to learn from him as much as he knew about Fafd ; the refult was, that Faiil pretended to be in a violent hurry, from what motive was not known; but that he, at the fame time, marched very flowly, contrary to his ufual cuftom ; that his fpeech and behaviour promifed peace, and that he had hurt nobody on the way, but proclaimed conftantly, that all people fliould keep their houfes without fear ; that Ayto Woldo of Maitfha, a great robber, was his Fit-Auraris, and never diftant from him more than three miles ; that the troops of A-gow, Maitfha, and Damot, were with him, and with fome Galla of Gojam and Metchakel compofed the van and center of his army, whilft his rear confifted of wild lawlefs Galla, whom he had brought from the other fide of the Nile from Bizamo, his own country, and were commanded by Ayto Welleta Yafous, his great confident; that thefe Galla were half a day generally behind him, and there was fome talk that, the fame day, or the next, he was to fend thefe invaders home ; that he marched as if he was in fear; always took ftrong polls, but had received every body that came to him, either from the country or Gondar, affably and kindly enough, but no one knew any thing of his intentions.
About half paft four o'clock we fell in with Woldo, his Fit-Auraris, whom I did not know. Ayto Aylo's fervant, however, was acquainted with him ; we afked him fome qucftions about his maftcr, which he anfwercd very candidly anddifcreetly ; on his part he made no inquiry, and feemed to have little curiofity about us ; he had taken his poft, and was advancing no farther that night.   I made him a
3S2 little
\
little prefent at taking my leave, which he feemed furprifed at; and, very much contrary to my expectations, had fome difficulty about receiving, faying, he was afhamed that he had not any return for us ; that he was a foldier, and had nothing but the lanccin his hand and the goat's fkin on his lhoulders, neither of which he could be fure to poflefs for twenty-four hours; he then told us that Fafil had, by that time, pitched his tent at Bamba, within a mile of us, and was to difpatch the wild Galla from thence to their own country: he gave us a man who, he faid, would take care of us, and dclired us not to difmifs him till we had feen Fafd, and not to pitch our tent, but rather to go into one of the empty houfes of Bamba, as all the people had fled. We now parted equally contented with each other; at the fame time 1 faw he fent off another man, who went fwiftly on, probably to carry advice of us to Fafd: we had Raid with him fomething lets than half an hour.
CHAR
CHAP. IX.
Interview with Fafil—Tranfaclions in the Camp.
E found Bamba a collection of villages, in a valley
T Y now filled with foldiers. We went to the left with our guide, and got a tolerable houfe, but the door had been carried away. Fafii's tent was pitched a little below us, larger than the others, but without further diftinction : it was eafily known, however, by the lights about it, and by the nagarcet, which ilill continued beating \ he was then juft alighting from his horfe. I immediately fent Ayto Aylo's fervant, whom I had with me, to prefent my compliments, and acquaint him of my being on the road to vifit him. I thought now all my difficulties were over : for 1 knew it was in his power to forward us to our journey's end; and his fervants, whom I faw at the palace near the king, when Fafil was invcfted with his command, had allured me, not only of an effectual protection, but alfo of a magnificent reception if I chanced to find him in Maitfha.
It was now, however, near eight at night of the 30th before I received a mcffage to attend him. I repaired immediately to his tent. After announcing myfelf, I waited about a quarter of an hour before I was admitted ; he was fitting upon a culhion with a lion's fkin upon it, and another Rretched like a carpet before his feet, and had a cotton cloth, fomething like a dirty towel, wrapped about his head; his upper cloak, or garment, was drawn tight about him over his neck and llioulders, fo as to cover his hands ; I bowed, and went forward to kifs one of them, but it was fo entangled in the cloth that I was obliged to kifs the cloth inftead of the hand. This was done either as not expecting I fliould pay him that compliment, (as I certainly fhould not have done, being one of the king's fervants, if the king had been at Gondar) or elfe it was intended for a mark of difrefpec\ which was very much of a-piece with the reR of his behaviour afterwards*
There was no carpet or cufhions in the tent, and only a little ftraw, as if accidentally, thrown thinly about it. I fat down upon the ground, thinking him fick not knowing what all this meant; he looked fledfaflly at me, faying, half under his breath, Endett nawi ? bogo nawi ? which, in Am-haric, is, How do you do ? Are you very well? I made the ufual anfwer, Well, thank God. He again flopt, as for me to fpeak ; there was only one old man prefent, who was fitting on the floor mending a mule's bridle. I took him at firft for an attendant, but obferving that a fervant uncovered held a candle to him, 1 thought he wTas one of his Galla, but then I faw a blue filk thread, wdiich he had about his neck, which is a badge of Chriftianity all over Abyf-finia, and which a Galla would not wear. What he was I 1 could
could not make out; he feemed, however, to be a very bad
cobler, and took no notice of us.
I
Ayto Aylo's fervant, who Rood behind me, puflicd me with his knee, as a fign that I fhould fpeak, which I accordingly began to do with fome difficulty. " I am come, faid I, by your invitation, and the king's leave, to pay my refpects to you in your own government, begging that you would favour my curiofity fo far as to fuffer me to fee the country of the Agows, and the fource of the Abay, or Nile, part of which I have feen in Egypt." " The fource of the Abay! exclaimed he, with a pretended furprife, do you know what you are faying ? Why, it is, God knows wdierc, in the country of the Galla, wild, terrible people. The fource of the Abay! Are you raving! repeats he again: Are you to get there, do you think, in a twelvemonth, or more, or when w Sir, faid I, the king told me it was near Sacala, and Rill nearer Geefh; both villages of the Agows, and both in your government." " And fo you know Sacala and Geefh ? fays he, whiffling and half angry*." " I can repeat the names that I hear, faid I ; all Abyilinia knows the head of the Nile."— " Aye, fays he, imitating my voice and manner, but all Abyilinia won't carry you there, that I promife you." " If you are refolved to the contrary, faid I, they will not; I with vou had told the king fo in time, then I lhould not have attempted it; it wras relying upon you alone I came fo far, confident, if all the reR of Abyilinia could not protect me there, that your word frngly could, do it."
He
* This afletfed ignorance was probably intended to bring me to mention the donation, the kin« had given me of Geefh, which he never much reliftied> and made efTefluaily ufelefs, m rne,
He now put on a look of more complacency. "Look you, Yagoube, fays he, it is true I can do it; and, for the king's fake who recommended it to me, I would do it; but the Acab Saat, Abba Salama, has fent to mc, to defire mc not to let you pafs further; he fays it is againft the law of the land to permit franks like you to go about the country, and that he has dreamed fomething ill will befal me if you go into Maitfha." I was as much irritated as I thought it poflible for me to be. " So fo,faid I, the time of priefts,prophets,and drcam--ci ;s coming on again." u I tmderftand you, fays he laughing for the firft time ; I care as little for priefts as Michael does, and for prophets too, but I would have you confider the men of this country are not like yours ; a boy of thefe Galla would think nothing of killing a man of your country. You white people are ali efteminate ; you arc like fo many women; you are not fit for going into a province where all is war, and inhabited by men, warriors from their cradle."
I saw he intended to provoke me; and he had fuccecdcd fo effectually that I fliould have died, I believe, imprudent as it was, if I had not told him my mind in reply. " Sir, faid I, I have paffed through many of the moft barbarous nations in the world; all of them, excepting this clan of yours, have fome great men among them above ufing a de-fcncclefs ftranger ill. But the worft and loweft individual among the moft uncivilized people never treated me as you have done to-day under your own roof, where 1 have come fo tar for protection." He aiked, " How?" " You have, in the firft place, faid I, publicly called mc Frank, the moft odious name in this country, and fufheient to occafion me to be ftoned to death without further ceremony, by any fet of 3 men
men wherever I may prcfent myfelf. By Frank you mean one of the Romifh religion, to which my nation is as adverfe as yours; and again, without having ever feen any of my countrymen but myfelf, you have difcovered, from that fpe-cimen, that wc are all cowards and effeminate people, like, or inferior to, your boys or women. Look you, Sir, you never heard that I gave myfelf out as more than an ordinary man in my own country, far lefs to be a pattern of what is excellent in it. I am no foldier, though I know enough of war to fee yours arc poor proficients in that trade. But there are foldiers, friends and countrymen of mine, (one prefents himfelf to my mind at this inilant*,) who would not think it an action in his life to vaunt of, that with 50c men he had trampled all yon naked lavages into dull. On this Fafd made a feigned laugh, and feemed rather to take my freedom amifs. It was, doubtlefs, a paffionatc and rafh fpeech. As to myfelf, continued I, unfkilled in wrar as I am, could it be now without further confequence, let mc but be armed in my own country-fafhion on horfeback, as I was yefterday,! fhould, without thinking myfelf overmatched, fight the two heft horfemen you fhall choofe from this your army of famous men, who are warriors from their cradle; and if, when the king arrives, you are not returned to your duty, and we meet again, as we did at Limjour, I will pledge myfelf, with his permifTion, to put you in mind of this promife.   This did not make things better.
He repeated the word duty after me, and would have replied, but my nofe burft out in a flream of blood ; and, that Vol. III. 3 T inftant,
* It is with pleiTure I confefc the man then in my mir.d was my brs,ve friend Sir Willtasp JErfkine.
inftant, Aylo's fervant took hold of mc by the moulder ter hurry me out of the tent. Fafil feemed to be a good deal concerned, for the blood ft reamed out upon my clothes. The old man likewife afliftcd mc when out of the tent; 1 found he was Guebra Ehud, Ayto Aylo's brother, whofe fervant we had met on the road. 1 returned then to my tent, and the blood was foon (launched by waffling my face with cold water. 1 iat down to recollect myfelf, and the more I calmed, the more I was diflatisfied at being put oft* my guard; but it is impoflible to conceive the provocation without having proved it. I have felt but too often how much the love of our native foil increafes by our abfence from it; and how jealous we are of comparifons made to the difadvantage of our countrymen by people who, all proper allowances being made, arc generally not their equals, when they would boaft t hemic Ives their fuperiors. I will confefs further, in gratification to my critics, that I was, from my infancy, of a fanguinc, paftionate difpofition ; very fen-fible of injuries that I had neither provoked nor deferved; but much reflection, from very early life, continual habits of fullering in long and dangerous travels, where nothing but patience would do, had, I flattered myfelf, abundantly, fubdued my natural pronenefs to feel offences, which, common fenfe might teach me, I could only revenge upon myfelf.
Howe ver, upon further confultingmy own breaft, I found there was another caufe had co-operated ftrongly with the former in making me lofe my temper at this time, which, upon much greater provocation, I had never done before. I found now, as I thought, that it was decreed decifively my hopes of arriving at the fource of the Nile were for ever
ended;
ended ; all my trouble, all my expences, all my time, and all my fufFcrings for fo many years were thrown away, from no greater obllacle than the whfmfies of one barbarian, whofe good inclinations, I thought, I had long before fumciendy fc cured; and, what was worfe, I was now got within lefs than forty miles of the place I fo much wilhed to fee; and my hopes were fliip wrecked upon the laft, as well as the moR unexpected, difficulty I had to encounter,
I was juft going to bed when Ayto Welleta Michael, Ras Michael's nephew, taken at Limjour, and a prifoner with Fafd, though now at large, came into the tent. I need not repeat the difcourfe that paffed between us, it was all condolence upon the ill-ufage I had met with. He curfed Fafd, called him a thoufand opprobrious names, and faid, Ras Michael one day would fhew me his head upon a pole : he hinted, that he thought Fafd expected a prefent, and imagined that I intended to pafs the king's recommendation on him in the place of it. I have a prcfent, faid 1, and a very handfome one, but I never thought that, while his nagarcet was ftill beating, and when he had fcarcely pitched his tent when he was tired, and I no lefs fo, that it was then a time to open baggage for this purpofc ; if he had waited till to-morrow, he fliould have had a gratification which would have contented him.
Well, well, faid Welleta Michael, as for your journey I mall undertake for that, for I heard him giving orders about it when I came away, even though ke expects no prefent; what does the gratifying your curiofity coft him? he would be affiamcd to refufcyou pcrmiflion; his own vanity would hinder him.   This aflurance, more than all the
3 T 2 quieting
quieting draughts in the world, eompofed my mind, and brought me to myfelf. I went to bed, and falling into a found deep, was waked near mid-night by two of FaftTs fervants, who brought each of them a lean live Iheep; they faid they had brought the iheep, and were come to alk how I was, and to Ray all night to watch the houfe for fear of the thieves in the army ; they likewife brought their maf-ter's order for me to come early in the morning to him, as he wanted to difpatch me on my journey before he gave the Galla liberty to return. This difpelled every doubt, but it raifed my fpirits fo much, that, out of impatience for morning, I flept very little more that night.
It was a time of year when it is not broad day till after fix o'clock ; I went to the camp and faw Guebra Ehud, who confirmed what Welleta Michael had faid, and that Fafil had given orders for bringing feveral of his own horfes for me, to choofe which he was to prefent me with; in effect there were about twelve horfes all faddled and bridled, which were led by a mafter-groom.   I was very indifferent about thefe horfes, having a good one of my own, and there was none of thefe that would in this country have brought 71, at a market; the fervant, who feemed very officious, pitched upon a bright-bay poney, the fatteR of the whole, but not-ftrong enough in appearance to carry me ; he aftiircd mej however, the horfe had excellent paces, was a great favourite of Fafil's, but too dull and quiet for him, and defired me to mount him, though he had no other furniture but the wooden part of a faddle covered with thin, brown leather, and, inilcad of ftirrups, iron rings.   All the Abyftinians, indeed, ride bare-footed and legged, and put only their great toe into the iron ring, holding it betwixt their great and
fecond
fecond toe, as they are afraid of being entangled by the ftirrnp if their horfe falls, fhould they put their foot into it.
I consented to try him very willingly. A long experience with the Moors in Barbary put me above fear of any horfe, however vicious, which f had no reafon to think this was; befides, I rode always with a Barbary bridle, broad ftirrups, and fhort ftirrup-leathers, after their fafhion ; the bridle is known to every fcholar in horfemanfhip, and fhould be ufed by every light-horfeman or dragoon, for the moft vicious horfe cannot advance a yard againft this bridle, when in a ftrong hand. I ordered the feis, or groom, to change the faddle and bridle for mine, and I had on a pair of fpurs with very long and fharp rowels. I faw prefently the horfe did not like the bit, but that I did not wonder at; my faddle was what is called a war faddle, high behind and before, fo, unlefs the horfe fell, it was impoftible to throw the rider. I had alfo a thick, knotty flick, or truncheon, of about three feet long, inftead of a whip, and well was it for me I was fo prepared for him.
For the firft two minutes after I mounted I do not know whether I was moft on the earth or in the air; he ^ kicked behind, reared before, leaped like a deer, all four off the ground, and it was fome time before I recollected myfelf; he then attempted to gallop, taking the bridle in his teeth, but got a check which ftaggered him ; he, however,, continued to gallop; and, finding I Hacked the bridle on his neck, and that he was at eafe, he fet off and ran away as hard as he could, Hinging out behind every ten yards ; the ground was very favourable, fmooth, fofr, and up-hill.
Wc
Wc paffed the poR of the Fit-Auraris like lightning, leaving him exceedingly furprifed at feeing me make off with his mailer's horfe. lie was then going to the head-quarters, hut faid nothing at palling; we went down one hill auk-wardly enough ; and, when we got to a fmall plain and a brook below, the horfe would have gone eafily enough either a trot or walk up the other, but I had only to ihake my ftirrups to make him let off again at a violent gallop, and when he ftopt he trembled all over. I was now refolved to gain a victory, and hung my upper cloak upon a tree, the attempting which occafioned a new battle ; but he was obliged to fubmit. I then between the two hills, half up the one and half up the other, wrought him fo that he had no longer cither breath or ftrength, and I began to think he would fcarce carry me to the camp.
I now found that he would walk very quietly; that a gentle touch of the fpur would quicken him, but that he had not ftrength or inclination to gallop; and there was no more rearing or kicking up behind. I put my cloak, therefore, about me in the beft manner poflible, juft as if it had never been milled or difcompofed by motion, and in this manner repafling the Fit-Auraris' quarters, came in fight of the camp, where a large field fewn with telf, and much watered, was in front. 1 went out of the road into this field, which 1 knew was very foft and deep, and therefore favourable for me. Coming near Fafd's tent, the horfe ftopt upon gently ftraitening the bridle, as a horfe properly broke would have done, on which my fervant took the faddle and bridle, and returned the groom his own.
2 The
The poor bead: made a fad figure, cut in the (ides to pieces, and bleeding at the jaws; and the feis, the rafcai that put me upon him, being there when I diJmounted, he held up his hands upon feeing the horfe fo mangled, and began to teftify great furprife upon the fuppofed bar 11 1 had done. I took no notice of this, only faid, Cirry that horfe to your matter; he may venture to ride him now, which is more than either he or you dared to have done in the morning.
As my own horfe was bridled and faddlcd, and I found myfelf violently irritated, I refolved to ride to compofc myfelf a little before another interview, for I thought this laft piece of treachery, that might have coft me my legs and arms, was worfc than what palled in the tent the night before ; it feemed to be aimed at my life, and to put a very effectual flop to the continuing my journey. My fervant had in his hand a fhort double-barrelled gun loaded with fhot for killing any uncommon bird wc might fee by the way. I took the gun and my horfe, and went up the fide of the green hill about half way, in fair view of the camp, and confiderably above it, I galloped, trotted, and made my horfe perform every thing he was capable of. He was excellent in his movements, and very fuflicicntly trained; this the Galla beheld at once with aftonifhmcnt and pleafure; they are naturally fond of horfes, fufficiently perfect: in the life* ful part of horfemanfhip, to be fenfible of the beauty of the ornamental.
There was then, as there always is, a vaft number of kites following the camp, which are quite familiar and live upon the carrion ; choofmg two gliding near me, I ihot firft
one
one on the right, then one on the left; they both fell dead on the ground; a great fhout immediately followed from the fpectators below, to which I feemingly paid no attention, pretending abfolute indifference, as if nothing extraordinary had been done. I then difmounted from my horfe, giving him and my gun to my fervant, and, fitting down on a large Rone, I began to apply fome white paper to ftaunch a fmall fcratch the firft horfe had given me on the leg, by rubbing it againft a thorn tree: as my trowfers, indeed, were all ftained with the blood of the firft horfe, much cut by the fpur, it was generally thought I was wounded.
Fasil on this fent for me to come immediately to him, having juft got up from a fleep after a whole night's debauch.   He was at the door of the tent when I began riding my own horfe, and, having feen the fhots, ordered the kites immediately to be brought him : his fervants had laboured in vain to find the hole where the ball, with which I had killed the birds, had entered ; for none of them had ever feen fmall-fhot, and I did not undeceive them. I had no fooncr entered his tent than he afked mc, with great earneilnefs, to fhew him where the ball had gone through. I gave him no explanation; but, if you have really an inclination to kill mc, faid I, you had better do it here, where 1 have fervants that will bury mc, and tell the King and the Iteghe the kind reception you have given ftrangcrs whom they have recommended. He afked what I meant ? What was the matter now ? and I was going to anfwer, when Welleta Michael told him the whole ftory, greatly in my favour, indeed, but truly and plainly as to the trick about the horfe. The Fit-Auraris Woldo faid fomething to him in Galla, which plainly made the matter worfe. Fafil now feemed in a a ter-
a terrible fury, and faid three words to the Fit-Auraris in Galla, who immediately went out; and, as my fervants told me afterwards, after fending for the feis, or groom, who had brought me the horfe, the firft falutation that he gave him was a blow over the head with a bludgeon, which felled him to the ground, then a dozen more ftrokes, and ordered him to be put in irons, after which he returned into the tent.
Fasil, who heard I was hurt, and faw the quantity of blood upon my trowfers, held up his hands with a ihew of horror and concern, which plainly was not counterfeited : he proteRcd, by every oath he could devife, that he knew nothing about the matter, and was aileep at the time; that he had no horfes with him worth my acceptance, except the one that he rode, but that any horfe known to be his, driven before me, would be a palfport, and procure me rcfpecl a-mong all the wild people whom I might meet, and for that reafon only he had thought of giving me a horfe. He repeated his proteftations that he was innocent, and heartily forry for the accident, which, indeed, he appeared to be: he told me the groom was in irons, and that, before many hours palled, he would put him to death.   I was perfectly fatisfied with his fincerity.  I wifhcd to put an end to this difagrce-able converfation: "Sir, faid I, as this man has attempted my life, according to the laws of the country, it is I that mould name the punifhment." " It is very true, replied Fafil, take him, Yagoube, and cut him in a thoufand pieces, if you pleafe, and give his body to the kites."   " Are you really fincere in what you fay, faid I, and will you have no after excufes." He fwore folemniy he would not. "Then, faid I, I am a Chriftian; the way my religion teaches me to punifh my enemies is Vol. III. 3 U by
by doing good for evil; and therefore I keep you to the oath you have fworn, and defire my friend the Fit-Auraris to fet the man at liberty, and put him in the place he held before, for he has not been undutiful to you."
I need not fay what were the fentiments of the company upon the occafion; they feemed to be moR favourable to me; old Guebra Ehud could not contain himfelf, but got out of the dark corner, and fqueezed both of my hands in his; and turning to Fafil, faid, " Did not Ttell you what my brother Aylo thought about this man?" Welleta Michael faid, " He was juft the fame all through Tigre." Fafil, in a low voice, replied, " A man that behaves as he docs may go thro* any country." They then all begged that I would take care of my wound, looking at the blood upon my trowfers. I told them it was already llaunched; and turning to Fafd, faid, "We white people, you fee, are not fo terrified at feeing our own blood as you fuppofed we wrere." He then deflred that the tent might be cleared for a fhort time, and we all went out.
About ten minutes after, I was called in to partake of a great brcakfaft; honey and butter,and raw beef in abundance, as alfo fome lie wed diflies that were very good. I was very hungry, having tailed nothing fince dinner the day before; and 1 had had much exercife of body as well as of mind. We were all very chcarful, every one faying fomething about the Agows, or of the Nile; and Fafil declaring, if it was peace, he would carry me to his country acrofs the Nile as far as the kingdom of Narca. I thanked him. "You are at peace, faid I, with the King and the Ras, and going meet them at Gondar."—" At Gondar, fays he, no; I hope not
this
this time ; the Ras has work enough on his hands for the reR of his life." "What work ? faid I." "Why, the mountain," replies he." "The mountain Aromata!" "The fame, fays he; you never fawr fuch a place; Lamalmon, and all the mountains of Abylfinia, are nothing to it: he was, when at the prime of life,fifteen years in taking it from this Netcho's father." " But he has been luckier this time, replied I, by fourteen years."' " How!" fays he, with fome amafement." " Pardon me, faid I, if I have unawares told you unwelcome news; but the mountain is taken, the garrifon put to the fword, and Za Menfus, after furrendering, llain, in cold blood by Guebra Mafcal, in revenge for the death of his father."   Fafd had in his hand a blue cut-glafs goblet, gilt round the edges with gold. I had bought it at Cairo, with feveral other articles of the fame kind, from a merchant who procured them from Triefte.   I had given it to the king, who drank out of it himfelf, and had fent it as an honourable token to Fafil from Dingleber, the day when they made peace, after the battle of Limjour. Upon hearing what I faid, he threw it violently upon the ground, and broke it into a thoufand pieces. " Take care what you fay, Yagoube, fays he, take care this be not a lie; tell it me again." I told him the whole cir-cumftances from beginning to end; how the news had come to the Iteghe—wdio had brought the intelligence—how it had come from the Ras to Ozoro Efther—and how Kella Yafous had furprifed the mountain by treachery, having firft lulled the befieged afleep by a negociation, and a propofed mediation of the priefts and hermits. 0n this Fafil obferved, ir was the very way Michael took it laft time; and, putting his forefinger in his mouth, bit it very hard, crying, Fool, fool, was he not warned? We all were again difmifted from the tent, and ftaid
3 U 2 out
out about a quarter of an hour, when we were again called in.
I cannot fay but I enjoyed heartily the fright I had vi* fibly given him ; it feemed to me that Aylo's brother, Guebra Khud, was the only perfon whom he confulted, for it was he alone that remained with him in his tent when we entered; he had changed his drefs; a man was combing his hair, and perfuming it; and he had a new, white, fine cotton cloth thrown about his middle loofcly, which covered his legs and feet, his brealls, neck, and moulders, being quite naked; he rofe half up from his feat when I came in, made me fit down on a cufhion befide him, and was going to fpeak, when I refolved to have the firft word, for fear he fliould engage me in more difcuffions. "Your continual hurry, faid I, all the times I have feen you, has put it out of my power till now to make you the acknowledgment it is ordinary for ftrangers to prefent when they vifit great men in their own country, and afk favours of them." I then took a napkin, and opened it before him ; he feemed to have forgot the prefent altogether, but from that moment I faw his countenance changed, he was like another man. "OYagoube, lays he, a prefent to me ! you fhould be fenfible that is perfectly needlefs; you were recommended to me by the King and the Ras; you know, fays he, we are friends, and I would do twenty times as much for yourfelf, without recommendation from either; befides, I have not behaved to you like a great man."
It was not a very hard thing to conquer thefe fcruples; he took the feveral pieces of the prefent one by one in his hands, and examined them; there was a crimfon fdk laih,
, made
made at Tunis, about five yards long, with a filk fringe of the fame colour; it was as beautiful a web of filk as ever 1 faw; it had a fmall waved pattern wrought in it; the next was a yellow, with a red narrow border, or Rripe, and a filver-wrought fringe, but neither fo long nor fo thick as the other; the next were two Cyprus manufactured fafhes, filk and cotton, with a fattin Rripe, the one broader than the other, but five yards long each; the next was a Perfian pipe, with a long pliable tube, or worm, covered with Turkey leather, with an amber mouth-piece, and a chryftal vafe for fmoking tobacco through water, a great luxury in the eaft-era countries ; the next were two blue bowls, as fine as the one he had juft then broken, and of the fame fort. He fliovcd them from him, laughing, and faid, " I will not take them from you, Yagoube ; this is downright robbery; I have done nothing for this, which is a prefent for a king."—" It is a prefent to a friend, faid I, often of more confequence to a ftranger than a king ; I always except your king, who is the ftranger's beft friend."—" Though he was not eafily difcon-certed, he feemed, at this time, to be very nearly fo."—" If you will not receive them, continued I, fuch as they are offered, it is the greateft affront ever was put upon me; I can never, you know, receive them again."
By this he was convinced. More feeble arguments -would indeed have fatisfied him, and he folded up the napkin with all the articles, and gave them to an officer; after which the tent was again cleared for confultation; and, during this time, he had called his man of confidence, whom he was to fend with, us, and inftructed him properly. I faw plainly that I had gained the afcendant; and, in the expectation of Ras Michael's fpeedily coming to Gondar, he was as willing
* to
to be on his journey the one way, as I was the other. I had ordered my fervants and baggage to fet out on the road to Dingleber before me, fending Ayto Aylo's fervant along with them, leaving me only my horfe and a common Abyflinian fervant to follow them : all had been ready fince early in the morning, and they had fet out accordingly with very great alacrity.
It was about one o'clock, or after it, when I was admitted to Fafil: he received mc with great complacency, and would have had me fit down on the fame cufliion with himfelf, which I declined.  " Friend Yagoube, fays he, I am heartily forry that you did not meet mc at Bure before I fet out; there I could have received you as I ought, but I have been tormented with a multitude of barbarous people, who have turned my head, and whom I am now about to difmifs. I go to Gondar in peace, and to keep peace there, for the king on this fide the Tacazze has no other friend than me ; Powuffen and Gufho are both traitors, and fo Ras Michael knows them to be. I have nothing to return you for the prefent you have given me, for I did not expect to meet a man like you here in the fields; but you will quickly be back; we fhall meet on better terms at Gondar; the head of the Nile is near at hand ; a horfeman, exprefs, will arrive there in a day. I have given you a good man, well known in this country to be my fervant; he will go to Geefh with you, and return you to a friend of Ayto Aylo's and mine, Ibhalaka Welled Amlac; he has the dangerous part of the country wholly in his hands, and will carry you fafe to Gondar ; my wife is at prefent in his houfe : fear nothing, 1 fhall anfwer for your fafety : When will you fet out ? tomorrow r"
1 I REPLIED
I replied, with many thanks for his kindnefs, that I wifhcd to proceed immediately, and that my fervants were already far oif, on the way. You arc going to difmifs thofe wild people, I would wifli to be as clear of them as pof-fible ; I intend to travel long journies, till we part (as I un-dcrftand we fhall do) from the rout that they are taking.
You are very much in the right, fays Fafil, it was only in the idea that you was hurt with that accurfed horfe that I would have wilhed you to Ray till to-morrow; but throw oif thefe bloody clothes, they are not decent, I mull give you new ones, you are my vailal. I bowed. The king has granted you Geefh, where you are going, and I mutt in-vett you. A number of his fervants hurried me out; Guebra Ehud, Welleta Michael, and the Fit-Auraris, attended me. I prcfently threwoff my trowfers, and my two upper garments, and remained in my waiftcoat; thefe were prcfently replaced by new ones, and I was brought back in a minute to Fafifs tent, with only a fine loofe muflin under garment or cloth round me, which reached to my feet. Upon my coming back to the tent, Fafil took off the one that he had put on himfelf new in the morning, and put it about my moulders with his own hand, his fcrvants throwing another immediately over him, faying at the fame time to the people, " Bear witnefs, I give to you, Yagoube, the Agow Geefh, as fully and freely as the king has given it me." I bowed and kiffed his hand, as is cuftomary for feudatories, and he then pointed to me to fit down.
" FIear what I fay to you, continued Fafil; I think it right for you to make the bed of your way now, for you will be the fooner back at Gondar. You need not be alarmed
•3.':
at the wild people you fpeak of, who are going after you, tho9 it is better to meet them coming this way, than when they are going to their homes ; they are commanded by Welleta Yafous, who is your friend, and is very grateful for the medicines you fent him at Gondar: he has not been able to fee you, being fo much bulled with thofe wild people ; but he loves you, and will take care of you, and you muft give me more of that phytic when we met at Gondar." I again bowed, and he continued,—41 Hear me what I fay; you fee thofe feven people (I never faw more thief-like fellows in my life),—thefe are all leaders and chiefs of the Galla—favages, if you pleafe; they are all your brethren." I bowed. " You may go through their country as if it were your own, without a man hurting you: you will be foon related to them all; for it is their cuftom that a ftranger of diftinction, like you, when he is their gueft, fteeps with the ftfter, daughter, or near relation of the principal men among them. I dare fay, fays he archly, you will not think the cuftoms of the Galla contain greater hardfhips than thofe of Amhara." I bowed, but thought to myfelf I fhall not put them to the trial. He then jabbered fomething to them in Galla which I did not under-ftand. They all anfweied by the wildeft howl I ever heard, and ftruck themfelvcs upon the brcaft, appaiently affenting.
" When Ras Michael, continued he, came from the battle of Fagitta, the eyes of forty-four, brethren and relations of thefe people prefent, were pulled out at Gondar, the day after he arrived, and they were expofed upon the banks of the river Angrab to ftarve, where moft, 1 believe, were devoured by the hyaena; you took three of them up to your houfe ; nourilhed, cloathed, protected, and kindly treated them." " They are now in good health, faid I, and want
nothing
nothing: the Iteghe will deliver them to you. The only other thing I have done to them was, I got them baptifcd: I do not know if that will difpleafe them ; I did it as an additional protection to them, and to give them a title to the charity of the people of Gondar.', " As for that, fays he, they don't care the leall about baptifm ; it will neither do them good nor harm ; they don't trouble themfelvcs about thefe matters ; give them meat and drink, and you will be very welcome to baptife them all from morning to night; after fuch good care thefe Galla arc all your brethren, they will die for you before they fee you hurt." He then faid fomething to them in Galla again, and they all gave another ailent, and made a fhew of killing my hand.
They fat down ; and, I mufl own, if they entertained any good-will to me, it was not difccrnible in their countenances. " Befides this, continued Fafd, you was very kind and courteous to my fervants while at Gondar, and faid many favourable things of me before the king; you fent me a prefent alfo, and above all, when joas my rtoiaftdr!i body was dug up from the church-yard of St Raphael, and all Gondar were afraid to fhew it the lead refpect, dreading the vengeance of Ras Michael, you, a ftranger, who had never feen him, nor received benefit from him, at your own ex-pencc paid that attention to his remains which would have better become many at Gondar, and me in particular, had I been within reach, or had intelligence of the matter: now, before all thefe men, afk me any thing you have at heart, and, be it what it may, they know I cannot deny it you." He delivered this in a tone and gracefulnefs of manner, fupcrior, I think, to any thing I had ever before feen, although the A-byflinians are all orators, as, indeed, are moft barbarians.
Vol.III. 3 X " Why
"Whv then, faid I, by all thofe obligations you are pleafed to mention, of which you have made a recital fo truly honourable to mc, I afk you the greater! favour that man can bellow upon me—lend me, as conveniently as poflible, to the hc*d of the Nile, and return me and my attendants in fafety, after having difpatched me quickly, and put me under no conftraint that may prevent me from fat is lying my curiofity in my own way." "This, fays he, is no requefl, I have granted it already ; befides, 1 owe it to the commands of the king, whole fervant I am. Since, however, it is fo much at your heart, go in peace, I will provide you with all neceftaries. If 1 am alive, and governor of Damot, as yon are, we all know, a prudent and fenfible man, un-fettlcd as the Rate of the country is, nothing difagreeable can befal you.
He then turned again to his feven chiefs, who all got up, himfelf and I, Guebra Ehud, Welleta Michael, and the Eit-Auraris ; we all Rood round in a circle, and raffed the palm of our hands, while he and his Galla together repeated a prayer about a minute long; the Galla feemingly with great devotion. Now, fays Fafd, go in peace, you are a Galla; this is a curfe upon them, and their children, their corn, grafs, and cattle, if ever they lift their hand againft you or yours, or do not defend you to the utmoft, if attacked by others, or endeavour to defeat any design they may hear is intended againft you." Upon this I offered to kifs his hand before I took my leave, and we all went to the door of the tent, where there was a very handfome grey horfe bridled and faddled. " Take this horfe, fays Fafil, as a prcfent from mc; it is not fo good as your own, but, depend upon it, it is not of the kind that rafcal gave you in the morning; it is
the
the horfe which I rode upon yefterday, when I came here to encamp; but do not mount it yourfelf, drive it before you (addled and bridled as it is ; no man of Maitfha will touch you when he fees that horfe ; it is the people of Maitfha whofe houfes Michael has burnt that you have to fear, and not your friends the Galla.
I then took the moft humble and refpecrful leave of him poftible, and alfo of my new-acquired brethren the Galla, praying inwardly I might never fee them again. I recommended myfelf familiarly and affectionately to the remembrance of Welleta Michael, the Ras's nephew, as well as Guebra Ehud; and turning to Fafil, according to the cuftom of the country to fuperiors, alkcd him leave to mount on horfeback before him, and was fpcedily out of fight. Shalaka Woldo (the name of my guide) did not fet rut with me, being employed about fome affairs of hi.r. own, but he prcfently after followed, driving Fafil*s horfe before Mm.
3 X 2
CHAP.
CHAP. X.
Leave Bamba, and continue our Jfourney fouth ward—Tall in with Fa*-ffs Pagan Galla—Fncamp on the Kelti.
AT Bamba begins a valley full of fmall hills and trees,,-all bruih-wood, none of them high enough for timber. On the right hand of the valley the hills llope gently up, the ground is firm, and grafs lhort like Iheep pafture;: the hills on the left are ftecpcr and more craggy, the lower part of the valley had been cleared of wood, and fown with different forts of grain, by the induftry of the inhabitants of the village of that name—induftry that had ferved them to very little purpofe, as the encampment of this wild army deftroyed in one night every vcftige ^of culture they had bellowed upon it,
Shalaka Woldo was not, to all appearance, a man to protect a ftranger in the middle of a retreating army, difband-
cd:
ed as this was, and returning to very diftant countries, perhaps never to be aftcmbled again; yet this man was cho* fen by one that perfectly knew he was above all others capable of the truft he had repofed in him ; he was about 55 years of age, was by birth an Agow, and had ferved Faiil's father from his infancy, when Kafmati Efhte fuccecded to the government of Damot, upon old FafiTs death * ; he had been his fervant likewife, as had young Fafd, fo they were both at one time fellow-domeftics of Kafmati Efhte;
1,
When Fafd had ftain this nobleman, and fuccceded to his father's government of Damot, Shalaka Woldo wa*s taken into his fervice as an old fervant of his father; it feemed his merit had not entitled him to further advancement ; he had no covering on his head, except long, bufhy, black hair, which juft began to be mingled with grey, but no beard, the defect of all his countrymen. He had a cot-ton cloth thrown about his lhoulders in many different forms, occaftonally as his fancy fuggefted to him; but, unlefs at night, laid it generally upon one of the mules, and walked himfelf, his body naked, his lhoulders only covered with a goat's fkin in form of what the women call a tippet; he had alfo a pair of coarfe cotton trowfers that reached to the middle of his thigh, and thefe were faftcned at the waiftband by a coarfe cotton fafh, or girdle, which went fix or feven times about his waift, and in which he fttick a crooked knife, the blade about ten inches long, and three-inches where broadell, which was the only weapon he wore,, and ferved him to cut hia meat, rather than for any wca-
v. iii. 3 x porr
• The perfon here called old Juiil, is Kafmati Warajna, in the tima of Yafaiw LI.
»
pon of offence or defence ; for a man of confeqiicncc, as he was, could not fuppofe a pollibility of danger while he was in the territory of his matter. Sometimes he had a long pipe in his hand, being a great fmoker; at other times, a Rick of about three feet long, fomething thicker than one's thumb, with which he dealt about him very liberally, either to man, woman, or bead, upon the flighteft provocation ; he was bare-legged and footed, and without any mule, but kept up with us eafily at whatever pace we went. With all this he was exceedingly fagacious and cunning, and feemed to penetrate the meaning of our difcourfc, though fpoke in a language of which he did not underRand a fyllable.
As for Shalaka Welled Amlac, he was a man whom I fhall hereafter mention as having been recommended to mc by Ayto Aylo foon after my coming to Gondar. I did not, however, choofe to let Fafil know of this connection, for fear he might lead him to fome gainful imposition for his own account in the courfe of my journey through Maitfha.
At a quarter paft twro o'clock of the 31ft of October wrc halted for a little on tbc banks of the river Chergue, a fmall and not very rapid flream, which coming from the fouth-weft, runs N. E. and lofes itfelf in the lake Tzana. At three o'clock in the afternoon we palled the fmall river of Dingleber, and in a quarter of an hour after came to a village of that name fituated upon the top of a rock, which we afcended ; here the road comes clofe to the end of the lake, and between it and the rock is a very narrow pafs through which all provifions from the Agowrs and Maitfha muft go ; when, therefore, there is any difturbancc in the fouth part
of the kingdom, this pafs is always occupied to reduce Gondar fQ famine.
The village itfelf belongs to the office of Bctwuder, and, fince that oflice has been difcontinued, it makes part of the revenue of the Ras ; the language here is Falaiha, though only ufed now by the Jews who go by that name : it was anciently the language of all the province of Dembea, which has here its fouthern boundary. The air of Dingieber is excellent, and the profpccT one of the mofl beautiful in Abyilinia ; on the one iide you have a diftinct view of the lake Tzana and all its iflands; on the north, the penimula of Gorgora, the former reftdence of the Jefuits, where too are the ruins of the king's palace. On the north of the lake you have a diilant profpect of Dara, and of the Nile crofting that lake, preferring dillinclly the tract of its flream unmixed with the reft of the water, and iffuing out to form what is called the fecond cataract at Alata, all places fixed in our mind by the memory of former diftreftes. On the fouth-eaft, we have a diftant view of the flat country of Maitfha, for the moft part covered with thick trees, and black like a forefl ; farther on the territory of Sacala, one of the didricts of the Agows,.near which arc the fountains of the Nile, the object of all my willies ; and clofe behind this, the high mountains of Amid Amid, which furrounded them in two femicircles like a new moon, or amphitheatre, and feem by their fhape to deferve the name of mountains of the moon, fuch as was given by antiquity to mountains, in the neighbourhood of which the Nile was fuppofed to rife.
At
At Dingieber I overtook my fervants, who were difpofcd to Hop there for that night. They had been very muchop-prelfed by troops of wild Galla, who never having feen white men, could not refrain indulging a troublefome cu-riofity, without indeed doing any harm, or fhe wing any figns of infolcncc; this, however, did not hinder my fervants from being terrified, as neither I nor any protector was near them. I refolved to avoid the like inconvenience, by proceeding further, as I knew the next day the main body of thefe favages would be up with us at Dingieber; and I rather wilhed to be at the point where our two roads feparatcd, than pafs a whole day in fuch company. It is true, I was under no fort of apprehenfion, for I perceived Fafil's horfe driven before us commanded all nccelfary refpect, and Zor Woldo had no occafion to exert himfelf at all.
At four o'clock in the afternoon we left Dingieber, and at feven palled a great river; at eight in the evening wc croffed two in confiderable dreams, and came to a collection of fmall villages, called DcgwafTa: here wc entered into fome narrow defiles between mountains, covered to the very top with herbage, and brufhwood ; it was a delightful night, and we were refolved to make the mofl of it. On every fide of us wc heard Guinea fowls, of which the woods here are full. At half pall nine wc halted a little, juft leaving the narrow paffes, and entering upon the plain. The diftrict is called :-j'kraber. I found myfelf exceedingly fatigued, and ftept a good half hour upon the ground.
At half paft ten wrc began our journey anew, pafting im-ediately the fmall village of Wainadcga, famous for the utile fought between king Claudius and the Moor 4 Gragnc^
THE SOURCEOF THE NILE. 53J
Gragnc, where the latter was (lain, and an end, for a time, put to the mod thfaftrous war that ever Abyilinia was engaged in. At half after eleven we paffed Guangueraon our left hand ; it is a collection of many villages, at about ten miles diRance ; and at mid-night we had Degwaffa on our right, and Guangucra on our left. At half paft twelve we again refted at the fide of a fmall river, of which I know not the name: we were now in the flat country of Maitfha, descending very gently fouth ward. At three quarters paft one in the morning of the firft of November I alighted at two fmall villages, whofe huts were but juft fmifhed, about 500 yards from the two trees that were in the front of our army, when, after palling the Nile at that dangerous ford near the Jemma, we offered Fafil battle at Limjour, which was the place wc were now again come to, but in better health and fpirits than before,
Shalaka Woldo, upon my obferving to him that I was happy to fee the people again railing their houfes which Michael had deftroyed, faid, with a barbarous kind of friaile, " Aye, and fo am I too ; for if thofe two villages had not been built, we fhould have had no fire-wood at Kelti to-night;" by which he meant, that the Galla, who were behind him, and whofe next ftation was the banks of the river Kelti, would pull down all the new-built houfes, in order to carry firewood aiong with them ; and indeed wc faw traces of fome houfes which had been newly built, and ftill as newly deftroyed, the wood of which, partly kindled, and partly lying on the ground, ferved us for our fire that night at Kelti. I found myfelf exceedingly indifpofed, and could fcarcely foicc on a couple of hours further, when we came to the
Vol, III. 3Y banks*
banks of the river Kelti, at a quarter after fix in the morn* ing.
The Kelti here is a large river; at the ford it was four feet deep, though now the dry feafon : it is here called the Kelti Branti, becaufe fome miles higher Up it is joined by a confiderable river called the Branti, which rifes to the weftward in the high lands of the Agow's Quaquera, and bojh thefe flreams, when united, fail into the Nile a little below. The banks of this river are exceedingly Reep and dangerous, the earth loofe, falling in great lumps down into the flream; it is a red bole of a foapy quality; the bottom, too, and the afcent on the other fide arc foft; the water, though ti bled and muddy, is fwect and well-rafted. Wc faw lights and fires on the oppofite bank, and had begun to unloofe the tent, when we received a meflage by two Galla on foot, armed with lances and fhields, that we fhould not encamp there, as our horfes and mules would probably be Rolen, but deliring us to pafs the river forthwith, and pitch our tent among them.
I asked Shalaka Woldo who thefe were? He faid, they were an advanced poll of Welleta Yafra had taken
up that ground for the head-quarters t< ; that they
were all Galla, under a famous parti fan, a robber, called the Jumper; and, by the bye, he added, (peaking foltiy in my ear, that there was not a greater thief or murderer in all the country of the Galla, 1 paid him my compliments upon the judicious choice he had made of a companion and a protector for us : to which he anfwercd, laughing, The better, the better; you fhall fee how it is the better.   As it was ncceftary to load the mules again, the tent
and
and baggage having been taken off before we could pafs the river, we all let to work with very ill will, being excef-fively fatigued with a long journey and want of fleep. No foonerhad ShalakaWoldo perceived this,than by two whittles upon his fingers, and a yell, he brought above fifty people to our afliflance ; the baggage was paffed in one moment, and in another my two tents were pitched ; which is a work thefe people are very dexterous at, and well acquaintedwith.
As foon as we had encamped, we found that the reafon we were not left alone on the other fide of the river was, that thofe of the Galla who returned pulled down all the villages for fire-wood, and plundered the houfes, though they were Galla like themfelves, and of Fafil's party ; and thefe again, driven from their houfes, robbed of all they Jiad except their lance and fhield, followed the ftragglers, and wreaked their vengenancc upon thofe whom they vcould furprife, or were not too numerous for them.
I was fcarcely laid down to fleep, when a fervant, and wah him Zor Woldo, were fent to me from the Jumper : they brought us a bull of an enormous fize, but not very fat; th mgh we were all pretty keen in point of appetite, the flock of provifion fent us feemed to defy our utmoft endeavours, but we were fure of afMants enough ; fo the bull was immediately killed and fkinned. In the mean time, I took a fhort, but very refrefhing fleep, being refolved to refume my journey with the fame diligence till we had got to the point where wc might feparate from the army, which is at a place called Roo, wdiere a large market is kept by the Agows, in whofe country it is, and refortcd to by all the neighbouring inhabitants.
3 Y 2 About
About ten o'clock I waited npon our commander in. chief the Jumper; he feemed very much embarraffed at the vifit, was quite naked, having only a towel about his loins, and had been warning himfelf in the Kelti, to very little purpofe as I thought, for he was then rubbing his arms and body over with melted tallow ; his hair had been abundantly anointed before, and a man was then linifhing his hcad-drefs by plaiting it with fome of the long and fmall guts of an ox, which I did not perceive had ever been cleaned ; and he had already put about his neck two rounds of the fame, in the manner of a necklace, or rather a folitaire, one end of them hanging down to the pit of his ftomach, Our converfation was neither long nor interefting; I was overcome with the difagrceable fmell of blood and carrion : he did not underftand one word of Amharic, Gccz, or any other language but Galla; he aiked no qucftions, and fhew-ed no fort of curioftty. Woldo, on the other hand, informed himfelf from him of every thing he wanted to know.
This Jumper was tall and lean, very fharp faced, with a long nofe, fmall eyes and prodigious large cars; he never looked you in the face, but was rolling his eyes conftantly round and round, and never fixing them upon any thing : he refcmblcd very much a lean keen greyhound ; there was no llcrnncfs nor command in his countenance, but a certain look that feemed to exprefs a vacancy of mind, like that of an idiot. With this he was allowed on all hands to be the moft cruel, mercilefs murderer and fpoilcr of all the Galla. He was very active on horfeback, and very indifferent about food or ilcep. I made him a fmall prefent, which he took with great indiiferencc ; only told Woldo, that if I meant it to pay for the bull he had fent me, it
WIo
was needlefs, for it was given me by FaftTs order, and coR him nothing.
There we learned, that on our way we fhould meet a party of about 200 men, who had been fent by Fafd to take polfeftion of a poR before we came to Roo, left, having intelligence of us, fome of the Maitfha people, whofe houfes had been deftroyed, might follow us when we were parted from the army. The jumper told us that his brother had the command of that party, that they were all Galla of Fafd's own nation, under his brother, who was called the Lamb, and who was juft fuch a murderer and robber as himfelf. I was juft riling to go out of his tent when Zor Woldo, who was fitting behind me, informed mc, there were news from Gondar. I aiked him how he knew that ? He faid, lie heard the people fay fo from without. A fudden trepidation now feized me, as I was afraid of fome new trick, or obftacle, which might impede the journey, the accomplifh-mcnt of which I fo much longed for.
UroN going towards my tent I was met by Strates, and another Greek, with a fervant of Ozoro Efther, with whom I was well acquainted : they had left Fafd at Bamba, whofe wild Galla were not yet all difmifted, and he himfelf feemed not determined whether he fhould go to Gondar or not. They told me that all was in confufion at Gondar; that Gufho of Amhara, and Powuften of Begemder, had been there, brought fome trifle of money, for a mere pretence, to that wretch Socinios, whom the Iteghe unadvifedly had eonfent-cd to make king; having called Fafil, Gufho, and Powttfleil together to reconcile them, that, united, they might attack Michael. The queen hcrfclf had been reconciled to See
who
who led the life of a drunkard, a ruffian, and a profligate, bur her chief fears were that Michael fhould return, the probability of which increafed daily.
As for Fafd, he had hitherto anfwercd the queen's invitation to Gondar evafively, fometimes by complaining that Gufho and PowufTen had come to Gondar before him, and that Gufho was made Ras; at other times fending peremptorily to them to leave Gondar, and return to their provinces, or he would burn the town about their cars: and the I all mcflage, the day before they left the capital was, that he was then on his march towards Gondar, and confented to Gufho and Powuffen's flaying; but as thefe two chiefs had great reafon to fufpect that he was in correfpondencc with the king and Ras Michael in Tigre, as it was known to them that he had fomented difturbances both in Begemder and Amhara, they had gone with Socinios to Kofcam, without drums beating, or any fort of parade whatever, and, after taking leave, had the next day fet out to their respective provinces. Upon another meffage from Fafil, they had agreed to return to Gondar, and leave their army at Emfras; but their troops, finding themfelvcs fo near, had difbanded, and returned to their homes, leaving Gufho and Powuffen attended only by their houfehold fervants, who, finding themfelvcs in danger, and that Fafil was actually advancing fe-cretly, left Gondar and fcparated*
Ozoro Esther's fervant (Guebra Mariam) likewife told me, that Michael, as he believed, waited for nothing but fome arrangement with fafil, for that he had no enemy remaining on the eaft of the Tacazze; that his intention was to return by the way of Lafta, not willing to rifk the many x difficult
difficult palTages in Woggora, a country full of hardy troops, inveterate enemies to the has, and where Ayto Tesfos of Samen had occupied all the defiles, and was refolved todif-pute every poll with him; ir was well known, however, that tne paffes through the mountain of Lalla, were more dangerous and difficult than thofe of Woggora and Lamalmon; in a word, Guigarr, chief of the clan of Lafta (called Waag) polfelfcd a ftrong-hold in thofe mountains, where many an Abyflinian army had perifhed, and where it was abfolutely impoftibie to proceed but with the confent and connivance of that clan, or tribe; and tho'this Guigarr had been Michael's enemy ever fince the war of Mariam Barea, peace was now concluded between them, the Ras having fetGuigarr's brother at liberty, who had been fome time a prifoner, and was taken in an incurlion which the people of Waag had made into Tigre : excepting this pafs in the mountains of Lafta, all the ground was even from thence to Tigre ; that territory of Gouliou, indeed, through which the army was to march for four days, was very ill-provided with water; it was inhabited by Galla, whom Michael had fuffercd to fettle there, to be as a barrier between Tigre, Lafta, and Begemder ; but this clan was perfectly at his command, fo all was cafy and fecure if Guigarr only remained faithful.,
After giving time to Guebra Mariam to refrefh himfelf, I took him alone into the tent to hear Ozoro Eilhcr's mcf-fage : Ihe had been ailing after my leaving Gondar, had had a How fever, which very much affected her nerves, and was now alarmed at a fymptom which, was but the effect of weaknefs, flartling, or involuntary con traction-of her le^s and arms, or a kind of convuliion, which frequently 3-wakened her out of her fleep.  This fhe thought was a fure:
forei
forerunner of death; and adjured me, by every claim of friendfhip that ihe had upon me, to return ere it would be too late,   She, moreover, pledged hcrfelf that her nephew, Aylo of Gojam, fhould immediately carry mc to the head of the Nile the moment flic was recovered. Upon clofer interrogation, I found that, being abandoned as it were entirely to Fafil's difcrction, by the retreat of Gufho and Powuffen her friends, and the abfence of her hufband Ras Michael, fhe dreaded failing into the hands of Fafil, who, fhe well knew, was acquainted how active flic had been in infligating Michael to avenge the blood of her late hufband Mariam Barea, by the effufion of that of every Galla unfortunate enough to fall into his hands.    Befides, the part her mother the Iteghe had acted in fettling that wretch Socinios upon the throne, gave her the very bcfl-founded apprchenfions that Michael's refentment would have no bounds; and he had declared fo by frequent mcflages, (the laft a very brutal one) that he would hang Socinios, and her mother the Iteghe, with their heads downmoR, upon the fame tree, before the king's houfe, the very day that he entered Gondar.   It was well known, befides, to his wife Ozoro Eflhcr, and to the whole kingdom, that his performance upon thefe occafions never fell fhort of his threatnings. From all this, and a great fen-fibilir.y of mind, Ozoro Eflhcr, worn out by her late ficknefs, and by want of fleep, exercife, and nourifhment, had fallen into a very dangerous fituation, and of a very difficult cure, even though the caufe was perfectly known.
I shall not trouble the reader with what paffed in my mind at this juncture.   I do believe the purfuit I was then engaged in was the only one which I would rot have in-Raiuly abandoned upon fuch a fummons.   Befides the fin-i cere
cere attachment I had myfelf to her, as one of the moll lovely and amiable women in the world ; Ihe was the mother of my moft intimate friend Ayto Confu, and the wife of Ras Michael, over whom Ihe had every day more and more influence, and I had long fufpected that the young king, my conftant benefactor, had contracted a decided tender-nefs for her. To have returned, would have been nothing had the danger or trouble been much greater; but it was obvioufly impoftible another opportunity fhould offer: the country was now on the point of being plunged into a degree of diforder greater than that which had occaftoned the retreat of the king to Tigre. I therefore refolved to run the rifk of continuing for a time under the imputation of the fouleft and bafeft of all fins, that of ingratitude to my benefactors ; and I am confident, had it been the will of heaven that I had died in that journey, the confideration of my lying with apparent reafon under that imputation would have been one of the moft bitter reflections of my laft moments. Having, therefore, taken my refolution, I acquainted Guebra Mariam that an immediate return was abfolutely impoftible ; but that I fliould endeavour, with the utmoft of my power, to make a fpeedy one ; in the mean time, I fent word to the Greek prieft (who was a fort of phyfician) how he was to proceed in the interim during my abfence.
We had now left Maitfha by crofting the river Kelti. I {hall only add, to what I have already faid, that it is a very fruitful country, but fo flat that the water with difficulty runs off after the tropical rains, and this occafions its being for feveral months unhealthy. Several tribes of Galla, from the fouth of the Nile, were fettled here by Yafous the Great,
Vol. Ilk 3 Z and
and his fon David, as a defence for the rich countries of the Agows, Damot, Gojam, and Dembea, againft the deflations and inroads of the wild Galla their countrymen, from whom they had revoked ; they confift of ninety-nine families ; and it is a common faying among them, that the devil holds the hundreth part for his own family, as there is nowhere elfe to be found a family of men equal to any of the ninety-nine. It has been fometimes connected with Gojam, oftener with Damot and the Agows, who were at this time under the government of Fafd.
The houfes in Maitfha are of a very lingular conftrucr tion : the firft proprietor has a field, which he divides into three or four, as he pleafes, (fuppofe four) by two hedges made of the thorny branches of the acacia-tree. In the corner, or interferon of the twTo hedges, he begins his low hut, and occupies as much of the angle as he pleafes. Three other brothers,perhapsyoccupy each of the three other angles; behind thefe their children place their houfe, and inclofe the end of their father's by another, which they make generally fhorter than the firft, becaufe broader. After they have raifed as many houfes as they pleafe, they furround the whole with a thick and almoft impenetrable abbatis, or thorny hedge^ and all the family are under one roof, ready to aftift each other on the firft alarm \ for they have nothing to do but every man to look out at his own door, and they are clofe in a body together, facing every point that danger can pofti-bly come from. They are, however, fpeedily deftroyed by a ftronger enemy, as we eafily found, for wc had only to fet the dry hedge, and the canes that grew round it, on fire, which communicated at once to the houfes, chiefly confiding of dry ftrawv  Such is their terror of the ftnall-pox,
which
which comes here feldom more frequently than once in fifteen or twenty years; that when one of thefe houfes is tainted with the difeafe, their neighbours, who know it will infect the whole colony, furround it in the night, and fet fire to it, which is confumed in a minute, whilft the unfortunate people belonging to it (who would endeavour to efcape) are unmercifully thruft back with lances and forks into the flames by the hands of their own neighbours and relations, without an inftance of one ever being fuffered to furvive. This to us will appear a barbarity fcarcely credible: it would be quite otherwife if we faw the fituation of the country under that dreadful vifita-tionof the fmall-pox ; the plague has nothing in it fo terrible.
The river Kelti has excellent fifh, though the Abyffinians care not for food of this kind ; the better people eat fome fpecies in the time of Lent, but the generality of the common fort are deterred by palTages of fcripture, and diftmotions in the Mofaic law, concerning fuch animals as are clean and unclean, ill underftood ; they are, befides, exceedingly lazy, and know nothing of nets ; neither have they the ingenuity we fee in other lavages of making hooks or lines: in all the time I ftaid, 1 never faw one Abyflinian fiiher engaged in the employment in any river or lake.
At Kelti begins the territory of Aroofti: it is in fact the fouthmoft divifion of Maitfha, on the weft-fide of the Nile : it is not inhabited, however, by Galla, but by Abyflini-ans, a kindred of the Agow. When therefore we paffed. the river Kelti, we entered into the territory of Aroofli, bounded on the north by that river, as it is on the fouth
3 Z 2 by
by the AfTar, the Aroofli running through the midft of that diftrict.
My anxiety to lofe no time in this journey had determined me to fet out this afternoon.  I had for this purpofe dif-patched Ozoro Efther's fervant, but when we began to ftrike our tents, we were told neither beaft nor man was capable of going farther that day ; in a word, the forced march that we had made of 29 miles without reft* and with but little food, had quite jaded our mules; our men, too, who carried the quadrant, declared, that,without a night's reft, they could proceed no farther; we were then obliged to make a virtue of neceftity, and to confefs, that, fince we could go no farther, we were in the moil convenient halting place poflible, having plenty of both food and water, and as to protection, we had every reafon to be fatisfied that we were mailers of the country in which we were encamped.   It was generally agreed therefore to relax that day. I fet afide an hour to put thefe memoirs in order, and then joined our fervants, who, on fuch occafions, are always our companions, and who had provided a fmall horn full of fpirits, and ajar full of beer, or bouza, by offering fome trifling prefent to our commandant the Jumper■, who was much more tenacious of his drink than his meat: we fwam and dabbled with great delight in the Kelti, where are neither crocodiles nor gomari; flept a little afterwards, and retired into the tent to a fupper, which, would have been a chearful one could I have forgot that, Ozoro Efther was fuftering.
We now began to difcufs the motive that had induced: our friend Strates again to tempt the danger of the ways.. This fingular fellow^ as we learned from Guebra Mariam,.
as
as well as from his own confeftion, repented of his refolution as foon as we were gone, and had determined on foot to follow us, when he heard of this opportunity of Ozoro Efthcr's fervant being fent on a meftage, and that princefs was fo well pleafed with his anxiety that fhe gave him a mule that he might not retard her fervant.
This Greek had known Fafil intimately, both when he was a private man in Kafmati Efhte's time, and afterwards, when he was governor of Damot, for he was a fervant in the palace when Joas was king, as all the Greeks were; had a company of f ufileers, and one or two other fmall appointments, all of which were taken from him, and from moR of the other Greeks, upon the death of the dwarf, who, I before mentioned, was fhot on the fide of Ras Michael by an unknown hand upon his firft arrival at Gondar. Fie now lived upon the charity of the queen- mother, and what he picked up by his buffoonery among the great men at court. Wc found that in Shalaka Woldo wc had got a man of more nnderftanding than our friend Strates, but much about his equal in mimicry and buffoonery.
t. iii. 3 z C H A p.
Q*1
C EI A P. XI.
Continue our "Journey—Fall in with a Party of Galla—Prove our Friends—Pafs the Nile—Arrive at Goutto, and vift thefirf Cataract.
ON the fecond of November, at feven in the morning wc purfucd oar journey in a direction fouthward, and palled the church of Bofkon Abbo; ever memorable to us as being the Ration of Faftl in May, when he intended to cut us off after our paffage of the Nile. This brought on a converfation with our guide Woldo, who had been prefent with Faiil at his camp behind this church, and afterwards when Michael offered him battle at Limjour, he was there attending his mafter. He faid, that the army of Welleta Yafous was above 12,000 ftrong; that they were intending to attack the king at the ford, and had no doubt of doing it fuccefs-fuliy, as they imagined the King and Ras Michael, with part of both horfe and foot, would pais early, but the reft with difficulty and danger; it was at that inftant Welleta Yafous was to fall upon thofe that remained with Kefla Yafous, on the other fide of the Nile, in that confufion in which they nccef-
Tarily
farily muft be. Fafil then, with above 3000 horfe, and a» large body of foot, was ready to inclofe both Ras Michael and the King, and to have taken them prifoners; nothing could fall out more exactly, as it was planned, than this did; the king's black horfe, and the other horfe of his houfehold, had taken pofleftion of the ford, till the King, the Ras, and the greateft part of the Tigre mufquetcers, under Guebra Mafcal,.had palled.
On the other hand, Kefla Yafous, who had the charge of the rear, and the palling the mules, tents, and baggage, finding fo many ftragglers conftantly coming in, had determined to wait on that fide till day-light: this was the moment that would have decided the fate of our army; all was fatigue and defpondency; but Welleta Yafous having lingered with the army of execution, and in the mean time the priefts having been examined, and the fpies detected, the moment Kefla Yafous began his march to Delakus, the favourable inftant was loft to Fafil, and all that followed was extremely dangerous to him ; for, before Welleta Yafous arrived, Kefla Yafous had paffed the Nile, and was ftrongly polled \Vith his mufquetry, fo that Welleta Yafous durft not approach him, and this gave Kefla Yafous an opportunity of detaching the beft or frefheft of his troops to reinforce Michael, whom Falil found already an overmatch for him at Limjour, when he was forced to retreat before the king, who very willingly offered him battle : add to this, that Welleta Yafous was not acquainted how near this junction of Kefla Yafous with Ras Michael might be, nor where Fafil was, or whether or not he had been beaten. Woldo pretended to know nothing of the fpy whom we had left hanging on the tree at the ford when Kefla Yafous marched ;..
cd; but he laid all the blame upon the priefts, of whofe information he was perfectly inftructed.
At three quarters after ten in the morning we palfed the fmall river Aroofti, which either gives its name to, or receives it from the diftrict: through which it palles: it falls into the Nile about four miles below; is a clear, fmall, brifk flream; its banks covered with verdure not to be de-fcribed. At half an hour before noon we came to Roo; it is a level fpace, fhaded round with trees in a fmall plain, where the neighbouring people of Goutto, Agow, and Maitfha hold a mai*ket for hides, honey, butter, and all kinds of cattle. Gold too is brought by the Agows from the neighbouring Shangalla; all the markets in Abyflinia are held in fuch places as this in the open fields, and under the fhade of trees: every body, while he is there, is fafe under the protection of fhe government where that market is kept, and no feuds or private animoftties muft be relented there ; but they that have enemies muft take care of themfelvcs in coining and going, for then they are at their own rilk.
In the dry bed of a river, at the foot of a fmall wood before you afcend the market-place at Roo, we found the Lamby our friend the Jumper s brother, concealed very much like a thief in a hole, where we might eafily have paffed him unnoticed ; we gave him fome tobacco, of which he was very fond, and a few trifles. We afked him what quef-tions we pleafed about the roads, which he anfwered plainly, fhortly, and difcreetly; he affurcd us no Maitfha people had paffed, not even to the market, and this we found afterwards was ftrictly true ; for fuch as had intelligence 4, that
that he and his parry were on that road, did not venture finm home with their goods, fo that the day before, which had hrcn that of the market, no one chofe to run the rilk or attending it.
Woldo was very eloquent in praife of this officer the Lamb; he faid lie had a great deal more humanity than his brother, and when he made an inroad into Gojam, or any part of AbyfTinia, he never murdered any women, not even thofe that were with child ; a contrary cuftom it feems prevailing among all the Galla. 1 congratulated him upon this great initance of his humanity, which he took very gravely, as if really intended; he told me that it was he that attacked Michael's horfe at Limjour; and added, that, had it been any other, Ayto Welleta Michael's life would not have been fpared when he was taken prifoner. That want of curiofity, inattention, and abfolute indifference for new objects, which was remarkable in the Jumper, was very plainly difccrnible in this chieftain likewife, and feems ito be a charactcriftic of the nation.
I asked Woldo what became of thofe 44 Galla who had their eyes pulled out, after the battle of Fagitta, by Michael, on his return to Gondar. Not one of them, faid he, ever came into his own country. It was reported the hyama ate them upon the Angrab, where they were turned out to ftarve. 1 laved three of them, faid I, Yes, anfwered he, and others might have been faved too: and then added, in a low voice, the hyamas eating them at the Angrab was a Rory contrived for the Galla; but we that are FafiFs fervants know they were made away with by his order in Maitfha and the Agow country, that none of them might be feen in
Vol. III. 4 A their
their own provinces to terrify the reR of their clans by the mangled appearance they then bore; for this was Ras Michael's intention in disfiguring them, and yet leaving them alive ; to prevent therefore the fuccefs of this fcheme, Fafil put them to death in their way before they reached their own country. I confefs I was ftruck at the fineffe which completed Waragna Fafil's character in my mind. What, faid I, kill his own people taken prifoners whilft fighting for him, merely becaufe their enemies had cruelly deprived them of their fight! indced,Woldo, that is, not credible. O ho, fays he, but it is true ; your Galla are not like other men, they do not talk about what is cruel and what is not; they do juft what is for their own good, what is reafonable, and think no more of the matter. Ras Michael, fays he, would make an excellent Galla ; and do not you believe that he would do any cruel action which my mailer Fafil would not perpetrate on the fame provocation, and to anfwer the fame purpofe ?
It now occurred to me why the three Galla, whom I had maintained at Gondar, had conftantly refufed to return into their own country with the many fafe opportunities which at times had prefented to them, efpecially fince the king's retreat to Tigre; neither had I obferved any defire in Fafil's fervants, who occafionally came to Gondar, of helping to reftore thefe unfortunate men to their country, becaufe they knew the fate that awaited them.
Although the Lamb^ and the other Galla his foldiers, paid very little attention, as I have faid, to us, it was remarkable to fee the refpect they fhewed Fafil's horfe; the grcatcft parr of them, one by. one, gave him handfuls of barley, and
, the
the Lamb himfelf had a long and ferious converfation with him; Woldo told me it was all fpent in regretting the horfe's ill-fortune, and Faiil's cruelty, in having beftowed him upon a white man, who would not feed him, or ever let him return to Bizamo. Bjzamo is a country of Galla fouth of the Nile, after it makes its fouthmoR turn, and has furrounded the kingdom of Gojam. I was better pleafed with this genuine mark of kindnefs to the horfe, than all the proofs of humanity Woldo had attributed to his chieftain for not frequently putting to death pregnant women. When I remarked this, Bad men ! bad men! all of them, fays Woldo ; but your Ras Michael will be among them one of thefe days, and pull allthcireycs out again; and fo much the better.,
At Roo we left the direct road which leads to Bure, the reftdence of the governor of Damot, towards which place the route of the army wras directed; fo 1 took leave, as I hoped, for ever of my brethren the Galla, but Rill continued to -drive the horfe before me. We turned our face now directly upon the fountains of the Nile, which lay S. E. by S. according to the compafs. At a quarter before noon wc faw the high (harp-pointed mountain of Temhua, Randing fingle in the form of a cone, at about 18 miles diftance, and behind this the mountain of Banja, the place where Fafd almoft exterminated the Agows in a battle foon after his return to Bure, and to revenge which the king's laft fatal campaign was undertaken in Maitfha, terminated by his retreat to Tigre. -
Here Strates, whilft amufing himfelf in the wood in fearch of new birds and beafts for our collection of natuial hiftory, fired his gun at one of the former, diftinguifhed by
4 A 2 the
the beauty and variety of its plumage, I ftopt to make a rough fketch of it, which might be finilhed at moreleifure : this was fcarcely done, and we again moving forwards on our journey, wdien we heard a confufion of fhrill, barbarous cries, and prcfently faw a number of horfemen pouring down upon us, with their lances lifted up in a pofture ready to attack lis immediately. The ground was woody and uneven, fo they could not make the fpeed they feemed to defire, and we had juft time to put ourfelvcs upon our defence with our firelocks, mufqucts, and blunder!)uflcs in our hands, behind* our baggage. Woldo ran feveral paces towards them, knowing them by the cry to be friends, even before he had feen them, which was, Fafil ali, Fafil ali— there is none but Fafil that commands here. Upon feeing us without any marks of difcompofurc, they all ftopt witri Woldo, and by him we learned that this was the party we had palled commanded by the Lamb% who, after we had left him, had heard that five Agow horfemen had paffed between the army and his party, and from the fhot he had feared they might have attempted fomething againft us, and he had thereupon come to our aftiftaace with' all the fpeed poA-fible.
Thus did we fee that tliis man, who, according to our* ideas, feemed in underftanding inferior to moft of the brute creation, had yet, in executing his orders, a difecrnmenr, punctuality, activity, and fenfe of duty, equal to any Chrif-tian officer who fliould have had a like commiftion ; he now appeared to us in a quite different light than when wc firft had met him; and his inattention, when we were writh him, was the more agreeable, as it left us at our entire liberty, without teazingor molefting us, when he could be
Of
of no real fervice, as every Amharic foldier would have done. On the other hand, his alacrity and refolution, in the moment he thought us in danger, exhibited him to our view as having on both occanonsjuft the qualities we could have dcfircd. We now, therefore, fhewed him the utmoft civility, fpread a table-cloth on the ground by the brook, mixed our honey and liquid butter together in a plate, and laid plenty of tefF bread bcfide it. We invited the Lamb to lit down and breakfaft with us, which he did, each of us dipping our hand with pieces of bread alternately into the di!h which contained the honey ; but Strates, whofe heart was open, for he felt very gratefully the Lamb's attention to fave him from being murdered by the Agows, pulled out a large piece of raw beef, part of the bullock we killed at Kelti, which he had perfectly cleared from all incumbrance of bones, this he gave to the Lamb, d curing him to divide it among his men, which he did, keeping a very fmall proportion to himfelf, and which he ate before us. Drink we had none, but the water of the brook that ran by, for my people had finifhed all our other liquors at Kelti after I was in bed, when they were taking their leave of Guebra Mariam, Ozoro Eft her's fervant.
It was now time to purfue our journey ; and, to fhew our gratitude for the real fervice this Lamb intended to have rendered us, I gave him four times the quantity of tobacco • he had got before, andfo in proportion of every other trifle; all thefe he took with abfolute indifference as formerly, much as if it had been all his own ; he cxprelfed no fort of thanks either in his words or in his countenance; only while at breakfaft faid, that he was very much grieved that it had been but a falfe alarm, for he heartily defired that fome robbers
bers really had attacked us, that he might have fhewn us how quickly and dexterouily he would have cut them to pieces though there had been a hundred of them. I mentioned to Woldo my obligations to the Lamb for his good willies, but that things were quite as well as they were; that I had no fort of curiofity for fuch exhibitions, which I did not how->ever doubt he would have performed moR dexterouily.
We were now taking leave to proceed on our journey, and my fervant folding up the table-cloth, when the Lamb defircd to fpeak to Woldo, and for the firft time ventured to make a rcqueil, which was a very extraordinary one ; he begged that I would give him the table-cloth to cover his head, and keep his face from the fun.   I could not help laughing within myfelf at the idea of prefcrving that beautiful complexion from fun-burning ; but 1 gave him the cloth very readily, which he accordingly fprcad upon his head, till it covered half his face ; he then got upon his horfe and rode quietly awray.   Before he went, he detached fifteen men, Woldo faid he did not know where, but by what he had gathered, and the route they had taken, he was fure that detachment was meant for our fervice, and to protect us on the right of our route, not having yet fuflicicntly quieted his own mind about the five Agows that palled between the army and his poll the night wc were at Kelti; thefe, however, being poorly mounted and armed, would not have found their account in meddling with us, though we had no wiihes to fhew our dexterity in deftroying them, as our friend the Lamb was fo defirous of doing, and we after difccvcrcd they were not quite fodcfpicablc as they were represented, nor were they Agows. All this palled in much lefs time than it is told. Wc were on horfe back again in little more than half 3 ' aD
an hour ; our friends were, like us, willing to meet and will* ing to part, only I ordered Strates to fufpend his firing for that day, left it fhould procure us another interview, which we by no means courted.
We had halted by the fide of a fmall river which falls into the Aftar ; and a little before one o'clock we came to the Aftar itfelf. The Affar, as I have already faid, is the fouthern boundary of Aroofti, as Kelti is the northern ; and as Aroofti is the fouthern diftrict. of Maitfha on the weft fide of the Nile, it follows that the Aftar is the fouthern boundary of Maitfha.
On the other fide of this river begins the province of Goutto, which, according to the ancient rules of government before Ras Michael deftroyed all diftincfions, depended on the province of Damot; whereas Maitfha belonged to the office of Betwudet fince Falil had appropriated both to himfelf by force, as well as the whole country of the Agows, which he had pofleffed by the fame title ever fince the battle of Banja: the inhabitants of Goutto are the ancient natives of that country ; they are not Galla as thofe of Maitfha, but much more civilized and better governed The language of the Agowand the Amharic arc the two chiefly fpoken in Goutto, though there are diftant places towards the Jemma on the fide of the Nile, where they fpeak that of thcFalafha likewife. The people in Goutto are richer and better lodged than thofe of the neighbouring Maitfha ; their whole country is full of cattle of the largeftfize, exceedingly beautiful, and of all the different colours; there are fome places likewife where their honey is excellent, equal to any in the country of the Agows, but the grcateft quantity of it is of low price
and
and of little cftcem, owing to the lupine flowers on which the bees feed, and of which a great quantity covers the whole face of the country; this gives a bitternefs to the greater! part of the honey, and occafions, as they believe, vertigo^, or diz-zineffes, to thofe that cat it: the fame would happen with the Agows, did they not take care to eradicate the lupines throughout their whole country.
All this little territory of AroofTi is by much the moft pleafant that we had feen in Abyflinia, perhaps it is equal to any thing the call can produce ; the whole is finely fliadcd with acacia-trees, I mean the acacia vera, or the Egyptian thorn, the tree which, in the fultry parts of Africa, produces the gum-arabic.   Thefe trees grow feldom above fifteen or fixteen feet high, then flatten and fprcad wide at the top, and touch each other, while the trunks arc far afundcr, and under a vertical fun, leave you, many miles together, a free fpacc to walk in a cool, delicious fhade.   There is fcarce any tree but this in Maitfha; all Guanguera and Wainadc-ga arc full of them ; but in thefe laft-mcntioncd places, near the capital, where the country grows narrower, being confined between the lake and the mountains, thefe trees arc more in the way of the march of armies, and are thinner, as being conftantly cut down for fuel, and never replanted, or fullered to replace themfclves, which they o-therwife would do, and cover the whole face of the country, as once apparently they did. The ground below thofe trees, all throughout Aroolli, is thick covered with lupines, almoft to the cxclufion of every other flower; wild oats alfo grow up here fpontancoufty to a prodigious height and (izc, capable often of concealing both the horfe and his rider, and fome of the f la Iks being little lefs than an inch i in
in circumference. They have, when ripe, the appearance of fmall canes. The inhabitants make no fort of ufe of this grain in any period of its growth: the uppermolt thin hulk of it is beautifully variegated with a changeable purple colour; the tafte is perfectly good. I often made the meal into cakes in remembrance of Scotland.
The Abyftinians never could relifh thefe Cakes, which they faid were bitter, and burnt their ftomachs, as alfo made then" thirRy. I do, however, believe this is the oat in its original ftate, and that it is degenerated everywhere with us. The foil of this country is a fine black mould, in appearance like to that which compofes our gardens. The oat feems to delight in a moift, watery foil; and, as no underwood grows uncjer the lliadow of the trees, the plough pailes without interruption. As there is likewife no iron in their plough, (for is it all compofed of wood) the furrow is a very llight one, nor does the plough reach deep enough to be entangled with the roots of trees; but it is the north part of Maitfha, however, that is chiefly in culture; fouth of the Kelti all is pafturc ; a large number of horfes is bred here yearly, for it is the cuftom among the Galla to be all horfemen or graziers.
All Aroofti is finely watered with fmall ftrcams, though the Aftar is the largeil river we had feen except the Nile; it was about 170 yards broad and two feet deep, running over a bed of large ftones ; though generally through a fiat and level country, it is very rapid, and after much rain fcarcely pafi-ahle, owing to the height of its fource in the mountains of the Agows ; its courfe, where we forded it, is from fouth
Vol. III. 4 B ro
to north, but it foon turns to the north-caft, and, after flowing five or fix miles, joins the Nile and lofes itfelf in that river.
Immediately below this ford of the Affar is a magnificent cafcadc, or cataract. I computed the perpendicular height of the fall to be above 20 feet, and the breadth of the fircam to be fomething more than 80; but it is fo clofely covered with trees or bullies, and the ground fo uneven, that it needs great perfeverance and attention to approach it nearly with fafety ; the Rream covers the rock without leaving any part of it vifible, and the whole river falls uninterrupted down with an incredible violence and noife, without being anyway broken or divided ; below this cataract it becomes confidcrably narrower, and, as we have faid, in this Rate runs on to join the Nile.
The ftrength of vegetation which the moifture of this river produces, fupported by the action of a very warm fun, is fuch as one might naturally expect from theory, though we cannot help being furprifed at the effects when we fee them before us, trees and fhrubs covered with flowers of every colour, all new and extraordinary in their ihapes, crowded with birds of many uncouth forms, all of them richly adorned with variety of plumage, and feeming to fix their refidence upon the banks of this river, without a defire of wandering to any diftance in the neighbouring fields: But as there is nothing, though ever fo beautiful, that has not fome defect or imperfection, among all thefe feathered beauties there is not one fongfter; and, unlefs of the role, or jeflamin kind, none of their flowers have any fmell; we-hear indeed many ft] nailing noify birds of the jay kind, and we find twovarieties of wild rofes, white and yellow, to which
I may
I may add jefTamin (called Leham) which becomes a large tree; but all the reR of the birds or flowers may be con-fldered as liable to the general obfervation, that the flowers are deftitute of odour, and the birds of fong.
After pa fling the Aftar, and feveral villages belonging to Goutto, our courfe being S. E. we had, for the firft time, a diff.incr.view of the high mountain of Gccfh, thelong-wifhcd-for end of our dangerous and troublcfome journey. Under this mountain arc the fountains of the Nile; it bore from us S. E. by S. about thirty miles, as near as wre could conjecture, in a ftraight line, without counting the deviations or crook-ednefs of the road.
Ever fince wc had paffed the Aftar we had been defending gemly through very uneven ground, covered thick with trees, and torn up by the gullies and coUrfcs of torrents. At two o'clock in the afternoon of the fecond of November we came to the banks of the Nile ; the paffage is very difficult and dangerous, the bottom being full of holes made by confiderable fprings, light finking fand, and, at every little diftance, large rocky ftones; the caftcrn fide was muddy and full of pits, the ground of clay: the Nile here is about 260 feet broad, and very rapid; its depth about four feet in the middle of the river, and the fides not above two. Its banks arc of a very gentle, cafy defcent; the weftern fide is chiefly ornamented with high trees of the falix, or willow tribe, growing ftraight, without joints or knots, and bearing long pointed pods full of a kind of cotton. This tree is called, in their language, Ha; the ufe they have for it is to make charcoal for the compofition of gunpowder ; but on the
eaftern fide, the banks, to a confiderable diftance from th ... e v. 111. 4 B 2 rive
river, are covered with black, dark, and thick groves, with craggy-pointed rocks, and ovcrfliadcd with fome old, tall, timber trees going to decay with age; a very rude and awful face of nature, a cover from which our fancy fuggefted a lion fliould iffue, or fome animal or monfter yet more fa-vage and ferocious.
The veneration Rill paid in this country for the Nile, fuch as obtained in antiquity, extends to the territory of Goutto, and I believe very little farther; the reafon is, I apprehend', that to this, and no. lower, the country has remained under its ancient inhabitants. Below, wc know Maitfha has been occupied within thefe few ages by Pagan Galla, tranfplant-cd here for political purpofes ; at Goutto, however, and in the provinces of the Agows, the genuine ihdigenae have not emigrated, and with thefe the old fuperflation is more firmly rooted in their hearts than is the more recent doctrine of Christianity; they crowded to us at the ford, and they were, after fome ft rugglc, of great ule in palling us, but they pre*, tefted immediately with great vehemence againft any man'* riding acrofs the flream, mounted cither upon horfe or mule : they, without any fort of ceremony* unloaded our mules, and laid our baggage upon the grafs, infilling that Ave fhould take off our Aloe's, and making an appearance of Honing thofe who attempted to wafli the dirt off their cloaks and trowfers in the ilream. My fervants were by this provoked to return rudenefs for rudenefs,, and Woldo gavs them two or three fignificant threats, while 1 fat by exceedingly happy at having fo unexpectedly found the remnants of veneration for that ancient deity ftill fubfifting in fuch full vigour. They after this allowed us, as well as ourhoi> fo and mules, to drink, and conducted me acrofs the river, i holding.
holding me on each fide very attentively for fear of the holes; but the want of fhoes was very inconvenient, the pointed rocks and Rones at the bottom giving me feveral deep cuts on the foles of my feet; after this the beatts were led all to the fame lide with myfelf, alfo one fervant was paffed with the greatcll care by thefe poor people. Woldo had tipt me the wink to crofs as they defired me : except my lingle gun, all the fire-arms and fcrvants remained with the baggage and Woldo; and now we foon faw what was his intention, and how well he underftood that the country he was in belonged to Faiil his mailer..
There were between twenty and thirty of the Arrows, old and young, fome of them armed with lances and fhields, and all of them with knives. Woldo took his fmall flick in one hand, fat down upon a green hillock by the ford with his lighted pipe in the other; he ranged my people behind him, leaving the baggage by itfelf, and began gravely to exhort the Agows to lofe no time in carrying over our baggage upon their lhoulders. This propofal was treated with a kind of ridicule by the foremoft of the.Agows, and they began plainly to infinuate that he fliould iirft fettle with them a price for their trouble. Fie continued, however, fmoaking his pipe in feeming leifure, and much at his cafe, and, putting on an air of great wifdom, in a tone of moderation he appealed to them whether they had not of their own accord infilled on our crofting the river on foot, had unloaded our baggage, and fent the mules to the other fide without our confent. The poor people candidly declared that they had done fo, becaufe none are permitted in any other manner to crofs the Nile, but that they would likewife carry our baggage fafeiy and willingly over for
pay; this word was no fooner uttered, when, apparently in a moR violent pailion, he leapt up, laid by his pipe, took his Rick, and ran into the midft of them, crying out with violent execrations, And who am I ? and who am I then ? a girl, a woman, or a Pagan dog like yourfelves ? and who is Waragna Fafil; are you not his flaves ? or to whom elfe do you belong, that you are to make me pay for the confe-quences of your devilifh idolatries and fuperftitions? but you want payment, do ye ? here is your payment: he then tuckt his clothes tight about his girdle, began leaping two or three feet high, and laying about him with his Rick over their heads and faces, or wherever he could Rrike them.
After this Woldo wrefted a lance from a long, aukward fellow that was next him, Handing amazed, and levelled the point at himinamanner that I thought to fee the poor peafant fall dead in an inftant: the fellow Red in a trice, fo did they all to a man ; and no wonder, for in my life I never faw any one play the furious devil fo naturally. Upon the man's running off, he cried out to my people to give him a gun, which made thefe poor wretches run fafter and hide themfelvcs among the bufhes: lucky, indeed, was it for Woldo that my fcrvants did not put him to the trial, by giving him the gun as he demanded, for he would not have ventured to fire it, perhaps to have touched it, if it had been to have made him mafter of the province.
I, who fat a fpcctator on the other fide, thought we were now in a fine fcrape, the evening coming on at a time of the year when it is not light at fix, my baggage and fervants on one fide of the river, myfelf and beafts on the 4 other,
other, crippled abfolutely in the feet by the ftones, and the river fo full of pits and holes, that, had they been all laden on the other fide and ready, no one could have been bold enough to lead a beaft through without a guide : the difficulty was not imaginary, I had myfelf an inftant before made proof of it, and all difficulties are relative, greater or lefs, as you have means in your hands to overcome them. I was clearly fatisfied that Woldo knew the country, and was provided with a remedy for all this; I conceived that this pacific behaviour, while they were unloading the mules, and driving them acrofs the river, as well as his fury afterwards, was part of fome fcheme, with which I was refolved in no fhape to interfere; and nothing convinced me more of this than his refolute demand of a gun, when no perfuafion could make him ftay within ten yards of one if it was difcharged, even though the muzzle was pointed a contrary direction. I fat ftill, therefore, to fee the end, and it was with fome furprife that I obferved him to take his pipe, flick, and my fervants along with him, and crofs the river to me as if nothing had happened, leaving the baggage on the other fide, without any guard whatfo-ever; he then defired us all to get on horfeback, and drive the mules before us, which we did accordingly ; and I fup-pofe wre had not advanced about a hundred yards before wc faw a greater number of people than formerly run down to where our baggage was lying, and, while one crofted the river to defire us to ftay where we were, the reft brought the whole over in an inftant.
This, however, did not fatisfy our guide; he put on a ful-ky air, as if he had been grievoufly injured ; he kept the mules where they were, and would not fend one back to be
loaded
loaded at the river-fide, alledging it was unlucky to turn back upon a journey ; he made them again take the baggage on their lhoulders, and carry it to the very place where our mules had halted, and there lay it down. On this they all flocked about him, begging that he would not report them to his mailer, as fearing fome fine, or heavy chaflife-mcnt, would fall upon their villages. The guide looked very fulky, faid but very little, and that all in praife of himfelf, of his known mil due fs and moderation; as an in-Rance of which he appealed (impudently enough) to his late behaviour towards them. If fuch a one, fays he, naming a man that they knew, had been in my place, What a fine reckoning he would have made with you; why, your punifh-ment would not have ended in feven years. They all acknowledged the truth of his obfervation, as well as his moderation, gave him great commendations, and, I believe, fome promifes when he paffed there on his return.
Here I thought our affair happily ended to the fatisfac-tion of all parties. I mounted my horfe, and Woldo went to a large filk bag, or purfe, which I had given him full of tobacco, and he had his match and pipe in his hand, juft as if he wras going to fill it before he fet out; he then unloofed the bag, felt it on the ontfide, putting firft his three fingers, then his whole hand, pinching and fqueczing it both within-fide and without; at laft he broke out in a violent tranfport of rage, crying that bis gold was gone, and that they had robbed him of it. I had not till this fpoke one wrord : I afked him what he meant by his gold. He faid he had two ounces (value about 5I.) in his tobacco purfe, and that fome perfon had laid hold of them when the baggage lay on the jQthe'r fide of the water ; that the Agows had done it, and 2 that
that they muft pay him for it. The defpair and anguifh that he had counterfeited quickly appeared in true and genuine colours in the faces of all the poor Agows ; for his part, he difdained to fpeak but in monofyllables—So, fo, and very well, and no matter, you fhall fee—and fhook his head. We now proceeded on our journey; but two of the eldeft among the Agows followed him to our quarters at night, where, they made their peace with Woldo, who, I doubt not, dealt with them according to his ufual mildnefs, juftice, and moderation ; a fpecimen of which we have already feen.
I confess this c6mplicated piece of roguery, fo fuddenly invented, and fo fuccefsfully carried into execution, gave me, for the firft time, fcrious reflections upon my own fituation, as wc were in fact, entirely in this man's hand. Ayto Aylo's fervant, indeed, continued with me, but he was now out of his knowledge and influence, and, from many hints he had given, very defirous of returning home : he feemed to have no great opinion of Woldo, and, indeed, had been in low fpirits, and difgufted with our journey, fince he had feen the reception I firft met with from Fafil at Bamba; but I had ufe for him till wre fhould arrive at the houfe of Shalaka Welled Amlac, which was in the middle of Maitfha, and in the way by which we were to return. I had therefore been very kind to him, allowing him to ride upon one of my mules all the way. I had given him fome prefents likewife, and promifed him more, fo that he continued with me, though not very willingly, obferving every thing, but faying little; however, t,o mc it was plain that Woldo flood in awe of him, for fear probably of his mailer Fafil, for Aylo had over him a moft abfolute influence, and Guebra Ehud
Vol, HI. 4C (Aylo's.
-(Aylo's brother) had been prefent, when Aylo's fervant fet out with us from Bamba under charge of this Woldo.
To Woldo, too, I had been very attentive: I had anticipated what I faw were his wiihes, by fmall prefents and more confiderable promifes. I had told him plainly at Bamba, in prefence of Fafil's Fit-Auraris and Ayto Welleta Michael, (Ras Michael's nephew) that I would reward him in their light according to his behaviour; that I fcarcely thanked him for his being barely faithful, for fo he was accountable to his mailer, whofe honour was pledged for my fafery ; but that I .expected he would not attempt to impofc upon me, nor fuffer others to do fo, nor terrify me unnecefTarily upon the road, nor obftruct mc in my purfuits, be fulky, or refufe to anfwer the inquires that I made about the countries through which we were to pafs. Ali this was promifed, repromifed, and repeatedly fworn to, and the Fit-Auraris had allured me that lie knew certainly this man would pleafe me, and that Fafd was upon honour when he had chofen him to attend me, although he had then ufe for him in other bufinefs; and it is not lefs true, that, during the whole of our journey hitherto, he had behaved perfectly to the letter of his promife, and I had omitted no opportunity to gratify him by feveral anticipations of mine.
I had upon me a large beautiful red-filk falh, which went fix or feven times round, in which I carried my crooked knife and two piftols; he had often admired the beauty of it, inquired where it was made, and what it might have coft. I had anfwered often negligently and at random, and I had thought no more of it, as his inquiries had gone no further. The time which he had fixed upon was not yet t come,
come, and we mall prefently fee how very dexterouily he prolonged it.
We arrived, with thefe delays, pretty late at Goutto, (the village fo called) and took up our lodgings in the houfe of a confiderable perfon, who had abandoned it upon our approach, thinking us part of Fafil's army. Though this habitation was of ufe in protecting us from the poor, yet it hurt us by alarming, and fo depriving us of the afttftance of the opulent, fuch as the prefent owner, who, if he had known we were Rrangers from Gondar, would have willingly Raid and entertained us, being a relation and friend of; Shalaka Welled Amlac.
As we heard diftinctly the noife of the cataract, and had Rill a full hour and a half of light, while they were in fearch of a cow to kill, (the cattle having been all driven a-way or concealed) I determined to vifit the water-fa 11, left I fhould be thereby detained the next morning. As Fafil's horfe was frefh, by not being rode, I mounted him inftead of driving him before mc, and took a fervant of my own, and a man of the village whom Woldo procured for us, as I would not allow him to go himfelf. Iking well armed, I thus fet out, with the pcafant on foot, for the cataract; and, after riding through a plain, hard country, in fome parts very ftony, and thick-covered with trees, in fomething mote than half an hour's eafy galloping all the way, my fervant and I came ftraight to the cataract, conducted there by the noife of the fall, while our guide. remained at a confiderable diftance behind, not being able to overtake us.
This*
This, known by the name of the Firft Cataract of the Nile, did not by its appearance come up to the idea wc had formed of it, being fcarce fixteen feet in height, and about ftxty yards over; but in many places the lheet of water is interrupted, and leaves dry intervals of rock. The fides arc neither fo woody nor verdant as thofe of the cataract of the Aftar; and it is in every Ihape lefs magnificent, or deferving to be feen, than is the noble cataract at Alata before defcribed, crroneoufty called the Second Cataract; for below this there is a water-fall, nearly weft of the church of Bofkon Abbo, not much above the place where we fwam our horfes o-ver in May, and lefs than this firft cataract of which lam fpeaking, and nearer the fource ; there is another ftill fmaller before the Nile joins the river Gumctti, after falling from the plains of Sacala ; and there are feveral ftill fmaller between the fountains and the junction of the Nile with the river Davola ;' thefe laft mentioned, however, are very infignificant, and appear only when the Nile is low: in the rainy feafon, when the river is full, they fcarcely arc dif-tinguilhcd by milling the water as it paffes.
Having fatisfied my curiofity at this cataract, I galloped back the fame road that I had come, without having feen a fingle perfon fince I left Goutto. Fafil's horfe went very -pleafantly, he did not like the fpur, indeed, but he did not need it. On our arrival we found a cow upon the point of being killed ; there was no appearance of any fuch to be found when 1 fet out for the cataract, but the diligence and fagacity of Woldo had overcome that difficulty. By a particular manner of crying through his hands applied to his mouth, he had contrived to make fome beafts anfwer him,
who
who were hid in an unfufpected bye-place, one of which being dete&ed was killed without mercy.
It was now, I thought, the proper time to give Woldo a Ielfon as to the manner in which I was refolved to behave among the Agows, who I knew had been reduced to abfo-lute poverty by Fafd after the battle of Banja. I told him, that fince the king had given me the fmall territory of Geefh, I was refolved to take up my abode there for fome time; and alfo, to make my coming more agreeable, it was my intention for that year to difcharge them of any taxes which they paid the king, or their fuperior Fafil, in whofe places I then (food. " Stay, fays Woldo, don't be in fuch a hurry, fee firft how they behave."—" No, faid I, I will begin by teaching them how to behave; I will not wait till their prcfent mifcry prompts them to receive ill (as they very naturally will do) a man who comes, as they may think, wantonly for curiofity only, to take from them and their ftarved families the little Fafil has left them : the queftion I afk you then is briefly this, Do you conceive yourfelf obliged to obey me, as to what I fhall judge neccftary to direct: you to do, during my journey to Geefh and back again ?" He anfwered, By all means, or he could never elfe return to his mailer Fafil. " This, then, faid I, is the line of conduct. I mean to purfue while I am among the Agows; you fhall have money to buy every thing; you fhall have money, or prefents, or both, to pay thofe that ferve us, or that fhew us any kindnefs, and when we fhall join your mailer Fafil (as 1 hope we fhall do together) you lhall tell him that I have received his maje^ fly's rent of the Agows of Geefh, and I will enter a receipt for it in the king's deftar, or revenue-book at Gondar, if we fee him there, as I expect, we fhall, upon my return. I, £ moreover,
moreover, undertake, that we fhall gain more by this than; by any other method we could have purfued." " There is one thing, however, fays Woldo, you would not furely have me free them the dues paid by every village where a king's fervant is employed to conduct ftrangcrs, as I am you." " No, no, I do not go fo near as that; we ihall only buy what you would have otherwife taken by force for my ufe."
" Some years ago, fays Woldo, when I was a young man, in king Yafous's time, a white man, called Negade Ras Georgis, had both Geefh and Sacala given him by the king ; he went there twice a-ycar, and Raid a month or more at a time ; he was a great hunter and drinker, and a devil for the women ; he not only fpent what he got from the village, but all the money he brought from Gondar into the bargain ; it was a jovial time, as I have heard ; all was merriment : The firft day he came there, fome of the men of Sacala, out of fport, difputing with three of the Agows of Zeegam, fell to it with their knives and lances, and four men were killed in an inftant upon the fpot; fine ftout fellows, every one like a lion; good men all of them; there -are no fuch days feen now, unlefs they come about when vou are there, and then I lhall have my fhare of every thing", " WoldOjfaid l,with all my heart; I fhall be otherwife employed ; but you fhall be at perfect liberty to partake of every fport, always excepting thcdiverfion of killing fourmen," But 1 had obferved this day, with fome furprife, that he doubted feveral times whether we were on the way to the fountains of the Nile or not; and I did not think this profpeet of entertainment which I held out to him was received with fuch joy as I expected, or as if he meant to partake of
iti.
Stratus-
Strates had refufed to go to the firft cataract, having fo violent an appetite that he could not abandon the cow; and, after my arrival, it was his turn to watch that night. When I was lain down to reft in a little hovel like a hog's fly, near where they were fitting, I heard a warm difpute among the fervants, and, upon inquiry, found Strates was preparing fteaks on a gridiron to make an entertainment for himfelf while the reft were fleeping; thefe, on the other hand, were refolved to play him a trick to punifli his gluttony. When the fteaks were fpread upon the gridiron, Woldo had undertaken to pour fome fine dull, or fand, through the hole in the roof, which ferved as a chimney ; and this he had done with fuccefs as often as Strates went to any diftance from the fire. Not content, however, with the pofition in which he then was, but defirous to do it more effectually, he attempted to change his place upon the roof where he flood, thinking it all equally ftrong to bear him ; but in this he was miftaken ; the part he was removing to hidden ly gave way, and down he came upon the floor, bringing half the roof and part of the wall, together with a prodigious duft, into the fire.
The furprife and fight of his own danger made Woldo repeat fome ejaculation to himfelf in Galla. My fervants, who were waiting the fuccefs of the fchemc, cried, The Galla! the Galla! and Strates, who thought the whole army of wild Galla had furrounded the houfe, fell upon his face, calling Maruni! Maruni!—Spare me ! fpare me !—I was in a profound fleep when roufed by the noife of the roof, the falling of the man, and the cry of Galla ! Galla ! 1 ilartcd up, and laid hold of a mufket loaded with ftugs, a bayonet at the end of it, and ran to the door, when the firft
thing
f
thing I faw was Woldo examining his hurts, or burns, but without any arms. A laugh from without made me directly fuppofe what it was, and I was prefently fully fatisfied by the figure Strates and Woldo made, covered with dirt and duR from the roof; but, while they were entertaining thcmfelves with this foolifh trick, the thatch that had fallen upon the fire began to flame, and it was with the utmoft difficulty we extinguifhed it, otherwife the whole village might have been burnt down.—I heard diftinctly the noife of the cataract all this night.
CHAP.
C II A P. XII.
Leave Goutto '-Mountains of the Moon--Roguery of Woldo our Guide- — Arrive at the Source of the Nile*
ITT was the 3d of November, at eight o'clock in the morn-JL ing, that we left the village of Goutro, and continued, for the firft part of the day, through a plain country full of acacia-trees, and a few of other forts ; but they were ail pollards, that is, ftunted, by having their tops cut oif when young, fo that they bore now nothing but fmall twigs, or branches ; thefe, too, feemed to have been lopped yearly. As there appeared no doubt that this had been done purpofely, and for ufe, I aiked, and was informed, that we were now in the honey country, and that thefe twigs were for making large balkets, which they hung upon trees at the fides of their houfes, like bird-cages, for the bees to make their honey in them during the dry months ; all the houfes we palled afterwards, and the trees near them, were fur-Vol. III. 4 D nifhed
nifhcd with thefe balks ts, having numerous hives of bees at work in them ; the people themfelvcs feemed not to heed: them, but they were an exceflive plague to us by their Rings during ihe day, fo that it was only when we were out life the fields, or at night in the houfe, that wc were free from: this inconvenience.
The high mountain of Berfa now bore fouth from us a* bout ten miles diftant; it refembles, in fhape, a gunner's-wedge, and towers up to the very clouds amidft the lefler mountains of the Agow. Sacala is fouth foutla-eaft. The country of the Agows extends from Berfa. on the fouth to the point of due weft, in form of an amphitheatre, formed all round by mountains, of which that of Banja lies fouth fouth-weft about nine miles off. The country of the Shangalla, beyond the Agows, lies weft north-weft. From this point all die territory of Goutto is full of villages, in which the fathers, fons, and grandfons live together; each degree,, indeed, in a feparate houfe, but near or touching each other, as in Maitfha, fo that every village confifts of one family.
At three quarters paft eight we crofted a fmall, but clear river, called Dee-ohha, or the River Dee. It is lingular to ob-fcrve the agreement of names of rivers in different parts of the world, that have never had communication together. The Dec is a river in the north of Scotland. The Dee runs through ^hefhire likewife in England; and Dee is a river here in Abyftinia. Kelti is the name of a river in Monteith ;. Kelti, too, we found in Maitfha. Arno is a well-known river in Tulcany ; and we found another Arno, below Emfras, falling into the lake Tzana. Not one of thefe rivers, as far as I could obferve, refemblc each other in any one circum-2 Ranee,
Ranee, nor have they a meaning or fignification in any one language 1 know.
The church of Abbo is a quarter of a mile to our right, and the church of Eion Mariam bears eaR by fouth half a mile. We refumed our journey at half paft nine, and, after advancing a few minutes, we came in fight of the ever-memorable field of Fagitta. At a quarter paft ten we were pointing to the fouth-eaft, the two great clans of the Agow, Zcegam and Dengui, being to the fouth-weft; the remarkable mountain Davenanza is about eight miles off, bearing fouth-eaft by fouth, and the courfe of the Nile is eaft and weft. Eaft-ward ftill from this is the high mountain of Adama, one of the ridges of Amid Amid, which form the entrance of a narrow valley on the eaft fide, as the mountains of Litch-ambara do on the weft. In this valley runs the large river Jemma, rifing in the mountains, which, after palling thro' part of Maitiha, falls below into the Nile. The mountains from this begin to rife high, whereas at Samfeen they are very low and inconfiderable. Adama is about ten miles from our prefent fituation, which is alfo famous for a battle fought by Fafil's father, while governor of Damot, againft the people of Maitiha, in which they were totally defeated.
We now defcended into a large plain full of marihes, bounded on the weft by the Nile, and at ten and three quarters we crofted the fmall river Diwa, which comes from the eaft and runs to the weftward: though not very broad, it was by much the deepeft river we had paffed; the banks of earth being perpendicular and infirm, and the bottom foul and clayey, we were obliged to difmount ourfelvcs, unload the mules, and carry our baggage over. This was a trouble-
4 D a fome
Ibme operation, though we fucceeded at laft. I often regretted to Woldo, that he could not here find fome of the good*-people like the Agows at the ford of the Nile ; but he fhook Ills head, faying, Thefe are another Tort of ftuif; we maybe very thankful if they let us pafs ourfelvcs : in the flat conn-* try I do n >t wiflx to meet one man.on this fide the mountain Aformalha..
In this plain, the Nile winds more in the fpace of four miles than, 1 believe, any river in the world; it makes above-a hundred turns in that diftance, one of which advances fo abruptly into the plain that we concluded we muft pafs itjr and were preparing accordingly, when we faw it make as fliarp a turn to the right, and run far on in a contrary di-' rection, as if we we re never to have met it again : the Nile is not here above 20 feet broad, and is nowhere above a foot* deep. The church of Yafous was above three quarters of a ; mile to the weft..
At one o'clock we afcended a ridge of low hills which terminates this plain to the fouth.. '1 he mountains behind-them are called Attata; they arc covered thick with brulh-wood, and are cut .through with, gullies and beds of tor-» rents. At half paft one we were continuing S. E.; in a few minutes after we palled a clear but fmall flream, called' fylinch, which fignifies the Fountain. At two o'clock we arrived at the top of the mountain of Attata, and from this difcovcred the river Abola coming from the S. S. E. and in a few minute* palled another, fmall river called Giddili; , which lofes itfelf immediately in a turn, or elbow, which the river Abola makes here below. At half paft two we de-fccnded.the mountain of Attata,. and immediately at tko
foot.
foot of it croffcd a fmall river of the fame name, which terminates the territory of Attata; here, to the fouth, it is indeed narrow, but very difficult to pafs by reafon of its muddy bottom. The fun ali along the plain of Goutto had been very hot till now, and here fo exceffivcly, that it quito overcame us: what was worfe, Woldo declared himfelf fo ill, that he doubted if he could go any farther, but believed he fliould die at the next village. Though I knew too muchv of the. matter to think him in any danger from real difeafe, I Taw eafily that he was infected with a counterfeit oncr which I did not doubt was to give me as much trouble as a* real one would have done. .
At three o'clock, however, we puflicd on towards the S. E. and began to enter into the plain of Abola, one of the divifions of the Agow. The plain, or rather valley, of Abola, is about half a mile broad for the mofl part, and nowhere exceeds a mile. The mountains that form it on the eaft and weft iide are at firft of no. confiderable height, and-are covered with herbage and acacia-trees to the very top; but as they run fouth, they increafe in height, and become more rugged and woody. On the top of thefe arc moft delightful plains, full of excellent pallure; the mountains to the welfare part of, or at leaft join the mountain o£ Aformalha, where, from a direction nearly S. E. they turn< fouth, and. inclofe the villages and territory of Sacala, which . lie at the foot of them, and ftillTower, that is more to the we ft ward, the fmall village of Geeih, where are the long-ex-.-pectcd fountains of the Nile. . -
These mountains are herein the form of a crefcent; the-river runs in.the plain along the fcot of this ridge, and
along ,
along the fide of it Kafmati Fafil pafFed after his defeat at Fagitta. The mountains which form the eaft fide of this olain run parallel to the former in their whole courfe, and are part of, or at leaft join the mountains of Litchambara, and thefe two, when behind Aformalha, turn to the fouth, and then to the S. W. taking the fame form as they do, only making a greater curve, and inclofing them likewife in the form of a crefcent, the extremity of which terminates immediately above the fmall lake Gooderoo, in the plain of Aflba, below Geefh, and directly at the fountains of the Nile.
The river Abdla comes out of the valley between thefe two ridges of mountains of Litchambara and Aformalha, but docs not rife there ; it has two branches, one of which hath its fource in the weftern fide of Litchambara, near the center of the curve where the mountains turn fouth ; the o-ther branch rifes on the mountain of Aformafha, and the eaft fide of our road as we afcended to the church of Mariam. Still behind thefe arc the mountains of Amid Amid, another ridge which begin behind Samfeen, in the S. W. part of the province of Maitfha, though they become high only from the mountain of Adama, but they are in fhape exactly like the former ridges, embracing them in a large curve in the fhape of a crefcent.
Between Amid Amid and the ridge of Litchambara is the deep valley now known by the name of St George; what was its ancient, or Pagan name, I could not learn. Through the middle of this valley runs the Jemma, a river equal to the Nile, if not larger, but infinitely more rapid; after leaving the valley, it crofies that part of Maitiha on 4 the
the eaft of the Nile, and lofes itfelf in that river toelow Samfeen, near the ford where our army paffed in the unfortunate retreat of the month of May: its fources or fountains are three; they rife in the mountains of Amid Amid, and keep on clofe to the eaft fide of them, till the river iftues out of the valley into Maitfha.
This triple ridge of mountains difpofed one range behind the other, nearly in form of three concentric circles, fcem to fuggeft an idea that they are the Mountains of the Moon, or the Monies Luna of antiquity, at the foot of which the Nile was faid to rife; in fact, there are no others. Amid A* mid may perhaps exceed half a mile in height, they certainly do not arrive at three quarters, and are greatly fhort of that fabulous height given them by Kircher. Thefe mountains are all of them excellent foil, and everywhere covered with fine pafture; but as this unfortunate country had been for ages the theatre of war, the inhabitants have only ploughed and fown the top of them out of the reach of enemies or marching armies. On the middle of the mountain are villages built of a white fort of grafs, which makes them confpicuous at a great diftance ; the bottom is all grafs, where their cattle feed continually under their eye ; thefe, upon any alarm, they drive up to the top of the mountains out of danger. The hail lies often upon the top of Amid Amid for hours, but fnow was never feen in this country, nor have they a word*" in their languge for it.   It is alfo remarkable, though we had often violent hail
at
* r this is meant the Amharic, for in Gcez the word for fnow is Tilze : this-may have been invented rb$ tranflating the fcriptures.
*
at Gondar, and even when the fun was vertical, it never came but with the wind blowing directly from Amid Amid.
At ten minutes paft three o'clock wc crofTed the fmall river Iworra, in the valley of Abola ; it comes from the call, and runs weftward into that river. At a quarter after four we halted at a houfe in the middle of the plain, or valley. This valley is not above a mile broad, the river being diftant about a quarter, and runs at the foot of the mountains. This village, as indeed were all the others we had feen fince our crofting the Nile at Goutto, was furrounded by large, thick plantations, of that lingular plant the Enfete, one of the moft beautiful productions of nature, as well as moft agreeable and wholefome food of man. It is faid to have been brought by the Galla from Narca, firft to Maitfha, then to Goutto, the Agows, and Damot, which laft is a province on the fouth fide of the mountains of A-mid Amid. This plant, and the root, called Denitch, (the fame which is known in Europe by the name of the Jerufalem artichoke, a root deferving more attention than is paid to it in our country,) fupply all thefe provinces with food.
We were but feldom lucky enough to get the people of the villages to wait our arrival; the fears of the march of the Galla, and the uncertainty of their deftination, made them believe always we were detachments of that army, to which the prefence of Fafil's horfe driven conftantly before us very much contributed: we found the village where we a-lighted totally abandoned, and in it only an carthcrn pot, with a large flice of the Enfete plant boiling in it; it was about a foot in length, and ten inches broad, and was almoft ready 2 for
THE SOURCE OF
THE NILE.
for eating: wc had fortunately meat with us, and only wanting vegetables to complete our dinner. We appropriated to ourfelves, without fcruple, this enfete; and, by way of reparation, I infilfed upon leaving, at parting, a brick, or wedge of fait, which is ufed as fmall money in Gondar, and all over Abyilinia ; it might be in value about a fhilling-
On the 4th of November, at eight o'clock we left our fmall village on the plain of Abola, without having feen any of the inhabitants; however, we were fure there were among them fome who were curious enough to wiih to look at us, for, in walking late at night, I heard feveral voices fpeaking low among the enfete-trees and canes. It was not poflible to collect, what they faid in the low tone in which they fpoke; and I fhould not probably have been much wifcr, had they fpoken louder, as their language was that of their country, the Agow, of which I did not underfland one word ; however, I thought I could diftinguilh they were women, the men apprehending we were enemies having probably taken refuge in the mountains above. I did every thing poffible to furround or furprife one or two of thefe people, that, by good-ufage and prefents, we might reconcile them to us, and get the better of their fear; but it was all to no purpofc; they fled much quicker than we could purfue them, as they knew the country, and it was not fafe to follow them far into the wildernefs, left we might ftumblc upon people who might mifmterpret our intentions.
I was determined to try whether, by taking away that fcare-crow, Fafil's horfe, from before us, and riding him myfelf, things would change for the better: this I diftincrly faw, that Woldo would have wilhed the horfe to have gone
Vol. III. 4 E rather
rather without a rider, and this I had obferved the night 1 went to the cataracStfrom Goutto, Sitting on the king's faddle, or in his feat at Gondar, is high treafon; and Woldo thought, at all times, but now efpecially, that his matter was inferior to no king upon earth. I even attributed to that laft expedition at Goutto his filcnce and apparent licknefs ever fince ; but in this laft circumftance I found afterwards that I was miftaken: be that as it would, my plan was very different from Woldo's as to the horfe, he was become a favourite, and I was refolved, in the courfe of my journey, to improve his talents fo, that he fliould make a better appearance on his return to Gondar, than he did when I received him from Fafil at Bamba. I compounded, as I conceived, with Woldo's fcruples, by laying afide Fafil's faddle, which was a very uneafy one, befides, that it had iron rings in-llead of ftirrups ; in lhort, as this horfe was very beautiful, (as many of the Galla horfes are) and all of one colour, which was of lead, without any fpot of white, I hoped to make him an acceptable prefent to the king, who was palllonatc-ly fond of horfes. Here it may not be improper to obfervc, that all very great men in Abyflinia choofe to ride horfes of one colour only, which have no diilinguifhing mark whereby they may be traced in retreats, flights, or fuch unlucky expeditions : It is the king alone in battle who rides upon a horfe diftinguiihcd by his marks, and that on purpofe that he may be known.
There were many villages in this valley which feemed to have efcaped the havock of war, nor had they that air of poverty and mifery fo apparent in all the other habitations we had feen. We were pointing nearly eaft fouth-eaft, when we palled the fmall river Coogueri, which, like all the others 1 on
en this fide of the mountain, falls into the Abola. We then left the valley of Abola on our right, and began to travel along the fides of the mountains on the well. At three ■quarters after eight we palled a violent torrent called Kar-ilachiuli, which falls from north-eaft into the Abola. At nine we again defcended into the valley, and, a few minutes after, came to the banks of the Caccino, which flows from the north juft above, and joins the Abola. Here wc halted for a little to reft our men, and to adjuft thoroughly the minutes of our journey, that the whole might appear in a diftincl manner in the map that I intended to make on my return to Gondar.
At half paft nine we again fet out, and, a few minutes after, paffed the river Abola, which gives its name to the valley into which we had defcended, and receives many lef-fer flreams, and is of confiderable breadth. I could difco-ver no traces of fifh either in it or in any river fince we left the Aftar, from which circumftancc I apprehend, that, in thefe torrents from the mountains, almoft dry in fummer, and which run with vaft rapidity in winter, the fpawn and fifh arc both deftroyed in different feafons by different cau fes.
After coafting fome little time along the fide of the valley, wc began to afcend a mountain on the right, from which falls almoft perpendicularly a fmall, but very violent ftream, one of the principal branches of the Abola, which empties itfelf into the Nile, together with the other branch, a ftill more confiderable ftream, coming from eaft fouth-eaft along the valley between Litchambara and Aformalha. At eleven o'clock our courfe was fouth by eaft, and wc paffed
4 E-i near
near a church, dedicated to the Virgin, on our left. The climate feemed here moft agreeably mild, the country covered with the moft lively verdure, the mountains with beautiful trees and Ihrubs, loaded with extraordinary fruits and Rowers. I found my fpirits very much raifed with thefe plea-ling fcenes, as were thofe of all my fervants, who were, by our converfation, made geographers enough to know we were near approaching to the end of our journey. Both Strates and I, out of the Lamb's hearing, had fhot a variety of curious birds and beafts. All but Woldo feemed to have acquired new ftrength and vigour. He continued in his air of defpondency, and feemed every day to grow more and more weak. At a quarter paft eleven we arrived at the top of the mountain, where we, for the firft time, came in light of Sacala, which extends in the plain below from weft to the point of fouth, and there joins with the village c£ Geefh.
Sacala, full of fmall low villages, which, however, had efcaped the ravages of the late war, is the eaftermoft branch of the Agows, and famous for the beft honey. The fmall river Kebezza, running from the eaft, ferves as a boundary between Sacala and Aformalha ; after joining two other rivers, the Gometti and the Googueri, which we prcfently came to, after a fhort courfe nearly from S. E. to N. W. it falls into the Nile a little above its junction with the Abola.
At three-quarters paft eleven we crofted the river Kebezza, and defcended into the plain of Sacala;, in a few minutes we alfo palfed the Googueri, a more confiderable ftream ehan the former ; it is about iixty feet broad, and perhaps eighteen inches deep, very clear and rapid, running over a
rugged.
rugged, uneven bottom of black rock. At a quarter pall twelve we halted on a fmall eminence, where the market of Sacala is held every Saturday. Horned cattle, many of the greateft beauty poifible, with which all this country a-bounds ; large afles, the moll ufeful of all beafts for riding ( r carriage ; honey, butter, enfete for food, and a manufacture of the leaf of that plant, painted with different colours like Mofaic work, are here expofed to fale in great plenty ; the butter and honey, indeed, are chiefly carried to Gondar, or to Bure ; but Damot, Maitiha, and Gojam likewife take a confiderable quantity of all thefe commodities.
At a quarter after one o'clock we palfed the river Gu-metti, the boundary of the plain: we were now afcending a very fleep and rugged mountain, the word pafs wc had met on our whole journey. We had no other path but a road made by the iheep or the goats, which did not feem to have been frequented by men, for it was broken, full of holes, and in other places obftructcd with large ftones that feemed to have been there from the creation. It muft he added to this, that the whole was covered with thick wood, which often occupied the very edge of the precipices on which we flood, and we were everywhere ftopt and entangled by that execrable thorn the kantufta, and feveral other thorns and biambles nearly as inconvenient. We afcenck d, however, with great alacrity, as we conceived we were fur-mounting the laft difficulty after the many thoufands we had already overcome. Juft above this almoft impenetrable wood, in a very romantic fituation, ftands St Michael, in a hollow fpace like a nitch between two hills of the fame height, and from which it is equally diftant. This church has been unfrequented for many years; the excufe they
v iii. 4 e make
make is, that they cannot procure frankincenfe, without which, it feems, their mafs or fervice cannot be celebrated ; but the truth is, they are Rill Pagans ; and the church, having been built in memory of a victory over them above a hundred years ago, is not a favourite object before their eyes, but a memorial of their inferiority and misfortune. This church is called St Michael Sacala, to diftinguim it from another more to the fouthward, called St Michael Geefh.
At three quarters after one we arrived at the top of the mountain, whence we had a diftinct view of all the remaining territory of Sacala, the mountain Geefh, and church of St Michael Geefh, about a mile and a half diftant from St Michael Sacala, where we then wrere. We faw, immediately below us, the Nile itfelf, ftrangely diminifhed in fize, and now only a brook that had fcarcely water to turn a mill. I could not fatiate myfelf with the fight, revolving in my mind all thofe claflical prophecies that had given the Nile up to perpetual obfeurity and concealment. The lines of the poet came immediately into my mind, and I enjoyed here, for the firft time, the triumph which already, by the protection of Providence, and my own intrepidity, I had gained over all that were powerful, and all that were learned, fince the remoteft antiquity:—
Arcanum natura caput von prodidit ulli> Nec licuit populis parvum tcy Nile, videre; Amovitquefunis, et gait as maluit art us Mirari, quam nojje tuos.-
LUC AN.
I was
I was awakened out of this delightful reverie by an alarm that we had loR Woldo our guide. Though I long had expected fomething from his behaviour, I did not think, for his own fake, it could be his intention to leave us. The fervants could not agree when they laft faw him: Strates and Aylo's fervant were in the wood Ihooting, and we found by the gun that they were not far from us ; I was therefore in hopes that Woldo, though not at all fond of fire-arms, might be in their company ; but it was with great difiatisfaction I faw them appear without him. They faid, that, about an hour before, they had feen fome extraordinary large, rough apes, or monkeys, feveral of which were walking upright, and all without tails; that they had gone after them thro* the wood till they could fcarce get out again; but they did not remember to have feen Woldo at parting. Various conjectures immediately followed ; fome thought he had refolved to betray and rob us; fome conceived it was an in-ftruction of Faiil's to him, in order to our being treacheroufly murdered ; fome again fuppofed he was llain by the wild beafts, efpecially thofe apes or baboons, whofe voracity, fize, and fierce appearance were exceedingly magnified, efpecially by Strates, who had not the leaft doubt, if Woldo had met them, but that he would be fo entirely devoured, that we might feek in vain without difcovering even a fragment of him. For my part, I. began to think that he had been really ill wdien he firft complained, and that the fick-nefs might have overcome him upon the road ; and this, too, was the opinion of Ayto Aylo's fervant, who faid, however, with a fignificant look, that he could not be far off; wc therefore fent him, and one of the men that drove the mules, back to feek after him ; and they had not gone but a few hundred yards when they found him coming, but fo
decrepid
decrepid, and fo very ill, that he faid he could go no farther than the church, where he was pofitively reiblved to take up his abode that night. I felt his pulfc, examined every part about him, and faw, I thought evidently, that nothing ailed him. Without lofmg my temper, however, I told him firmly, That I perceived he was an impoftor; that he fliould confidcr that I was a phyfician, as he knew I cured his mailer's firfi friend, Welleta Yafous: that the feeling of his hand told me as plain as his tongue could have done, that nothing ailed him; that it told mc likewife he had in his heart fome prank to play, which would turn out very much to his difadvantage. He feemed difmayed after this, faid little, and only defired us to halt for a few minutes, and he fhould be better; for, fays he, it requires ftrength in •us all to pafs another great hill before we arrive at Geefh.
" Look you, faid I, lying is to no purpofe ; I know where Geefh is as well as you do, and that we have no more mountains or bad places to pafs through; therefore, if you choofe to ftay behind, you may; but to-morrow I fhall inform Welleta Yafous at Bure of your behaviour." I faid this with the moft determined air poflible, and left them, walking as hard as I could down to the ford of the Nile. Woldo remained above with the fervants, who were loading their mules ; he feemed to be perfectly cured of his lamenefs, and was in clofe converfation with Ayto Aylo's fervant for about ten minutes, which I did not choofe to interrupt, as I faw that man was already in poffeftion of part of Woldo's fecret. This being over, they all came down to me, as I was fketching a branch of a yellow rofe-trce, a
number of which hang over the ford.
i The
The whole company paffed without difturbing me ; and Woldo, feeming to walk as well as ever, afcended a gentle-rifing hill, near the top of which is St Michael Geefh. The Nile here is not four yards over, and not above four inches deep where we crofted ; it was indeed become a very trifling brook, but ran fwiftly over a bottom of fmall Rones, with hard, black rock appearing amidft them: it is at this place very eafy to pafs, and very limpid, but, a little lower, full of inconfiderable falls ; the ground rifes gently from the river to the fouthward, full of fmall hills and eminences, which-you afcend and defcend almoft imperceptibly. The whole company had halted on the north fide of St Michael's church, and there I reached them without affecting any hurry.
It was about four o'clock in the afternoon, but the day had been very hot for fome hours, and they were fitting in the fhade of a grove of magnificent cedars, intermixed with fome very large and beautiful culfo-trees, all in the flower; the men were lying on the grafs, and the beafts fed, with the burdens on their backs, in moft luxuriant herbage. I called for my herbary *, to lay the rofe-branch I had in my hand fmoothly, that it might dry without fpoiling the fhape; having only drawn its general form, the piftil and itamina, the finer parts of which (though very necelfary in clafling the plant) crumble and fall oft", or take different forms in drying, and therefore fhould always be fecured by drawing while green. I juft faid indifferently to Woldo in palling, that 1 was glad to fee him recovered ; that he would pre-fently be well, and fliould fear nothing.   Fie then got up,
Vol, III. . 4 F and
Hortus Siccus, a large book for extending aad preferring dry plants.
and deilred to fpeak with me alone, taking Aylo's fervant .along with him. " Now, faid I, very calmly, I know by your face you are going to tell me a lie. I do fwear to you fo-lemnly, you never, by that means, will obtain any thing from me, no not fo much as a good word ; truth and good behaviour will get you every thing ; what appears a great matter in your fight is not perhaps of fuch value in mine ; but nothing except truth and good behaviour will anfwer to you ; now I know for a certainty you are no more lick than I am."—" Sir, faid he, with a very confident look, you are right; I did counterfeit; I neither have been, nor am I at prefent any way out of order; but I thought it beft to tell you fo, not to be obliged to difcover another reafon that has much more weight with me why I cannot go to Geeih, and much lefs fhew myfelf at the fources of the Nile, which I confefs are not much beyond it, though I declare to you there is Hill a bill between you and thofe fources."—u And pray, faid I calmly, what is this mighty reafon ? have you had a dream, or a viiion in that trance you fell into when you lagged behind below the church of St Michael Sacala?" "No, fays he, it is neither trance, nor dream, nor devil either ; I wi(h it was no worfe; but you know as well as I, it my mailer Fafil defeated the Agows at the battle of Lanja. I was there with my mafter, and killed feveral men,, among whom fome were of the Agows of this village Geefh,, and you know the ufage of this country, when a man, in. thefe circumibmces, falls into their hands, his blood muR. pay for their blood.
I burst out into a violent fit of laughter which very much difconcertedhim. " There, faid I, did not I fay to you it wits a lie that you was going to tell me? do not think 1 diibe-
licve
licve or difpute with you the vanity of having killed men; many men were ilain at that battle; fomebody muft, and you may have been the perfon who flew them ; but do you think that I can believe that Fafd, fo deep in that account of blood, could rule the Agows in the manner he does, if he could not put a fervant of his in fafety among them 20 miles from his reftdence; do you think I can believe thi ?" " Come, come, faid Aylo's fervant to Woldo, did you not hear that truth and good behaviour will get you every tiling you afk ? Sir, continues he, I fee this affair vexes you, and what this fooliih man wants will neither make you richer nor poorer; he has taken a great defire for that c rim fon filk-fa fix which you wear about your middle. I told him to ftay till you went back to Gondar; but he fays he is to go no farther than to the houfe of Shalaka Welled Amlac in Maitfha, and does not return to Gondar; I told him to ftay till you had put your mind at cafe, by feeing the fountains of the Nile, which you are fo anxious abouu He laid,'after that had happened, he was fure you would not give it him, for you feemed to think little of the cataract at Goutto, and of alf the line rivers and churches which he had flicwn you ; except the head of the Nile fhall he finer than all thefe, when, in reality, it will be juft like another river, you will then be diflatisfied, and not give him the fafh."
I thought there was fomething very natural in thefe fufpicions of Woldo ; befides, he faid he was certain that, if ever the fafh came into the fight of Welled Amlac, by fome means or other he would get it into his hands. This rational difcourfe had pacified me a little; the fafh was a hand-fome one; but it muft have been fine indeed to have ftocd for a minute between me and the accompliflimcnt of my
4 F 2 wifbes.
wifhes.   ITaid my hand then upon the piftols that ftuck in my girdle, and drew them out to give them to one of my fuite, when Woldo, who apprehended it was for another purpofe, ran fome paces back, and hid himfelf behind Ay-lo's fervant.   We were all diverted at this fright, but none fo much as Strates, who thought himfelf revenged for the alarm he had given him by falling through die roof of the houfe at Goutto.   After having taken off my fafh, u Here is your fafh, Woldo, faid I; but mark what I have faid, and now moft ferioufly repeat to you, Truth and good behaviour will get any thing from me ; but if, in the courfe of this journey, you play one trick more, though ever fo trifling, I will bring fuch a vengeance upon your head that you fhall not be able to find a place to hide it in, when not the fafh only will be taken from you, but your fkin alfo will follow^ it: remember what happened to the feis at Bamba."
He took the fafh, but feemed terrified at the threat, and began to make apologies. " Come, come, faid J, we nnder-ftand each other; no more words; it is now late, lofe no more time, but carry me to Geefh, and the head of the Nile directly,, without preamble, and fhew me the hill that fe-parates me from it. He then carried me round to the fouth fide of the church, out of the grove of trees that furrounded: it, " This is the hill, fays he, looking archly, that, when: you was on the other fide of it, was between you and the fountains of the Nile; there is no other; look at that hillock of green fod in the middle of that watery fpot, it is in that the two fountains of the Nile are to be found : Geefh is on the face of the rock where yon green trees are : if you go the length of the fountains pull off your fhoes as you did the other day, for thefe people are all Pagans, worfe
thaiij
than thofe that were at the ford, and they believe In nothing, that you believe, but only in this river, to which they pray every day as if it were God ; but this perhaps you may da likewife." Half undreffed as I was by lofs of my fafh, and throwing my fhoes off, I ran down the hill towards the little ifland of green fods, which was about two hundred yards diftant; the whole fide of the hill was thick grown over with flowers, the large bulbous roots of which appearing above the furface of the ground, and their fkins coming off on treading upon them, occafioned two very fevere falls before I reached the brink of the marfh ; I after this came to the ifland of green turf, which was in form of an altar, apparently the work of art, and I flood in rapture over the principal fountain which rifes in the middle of it.
It is eafier to guefs than to defcribe the fituation of my mind at that moment—ftanding in that fpot which had baffled the genius, induttry, and inquiry of both ancients and! moderns, for the courfe of near three thoufand years. Kings had attempted this difcovery at the head of armies, and. each expedition was diftinguifhed from the laft, only by the difference of the numbers which had perifhed, and a-greed alone in the difappointment which had uniformly, and without exception, followed them all. Fame, riches, and honour, had been held out for a fcries of ages to every individual of thofe myriads thefe princes commanded, without having produced one man capable of gratifying the curiofity of his fovereign, or wiping off this ftain upon the enterprife and abilities of mankind, or adding this de-fide ra rum for the encouragement of geography. Though a mere private Briton, I triumphed here, in my own mind3. over kings and their armies; .and every comparifon was
leadings
leading nearer and nearer to prefumption, when the place itfelf where I Rood, the object of my vain-glory, fuggefted what depreffed my fhort-lived triumphs. I was but a few minutes arrived at the fources of the Nile, through num-bcrlefs dangers and fuiferings, the lead: of which would have overwhelmed me but for the continual goodnefs and protection of Providence ; I was, however, but then half through my journey ,and all thofe dangers which I had already pafTed, awaited me again on my return. I found a defpondency gaining ground fall upon me, and blafting the crown of laurels I had too rafhly woven for myfelf. I refolved therefore to divert, till I could on more fohd reflection overcome its progrefs.
I saw Strates expecting me on the fide of the hill. " Strates, faid I, faithful fquirc, come and triumph with your Don Quixote at that iiland of Barataria where we have wifely and fortunately brought ourfelves ; come and triumph with me over all the kings of the earth, all their armies, all their philofophers, and all their heroes."—" Sir, fays Strates, I do not undcrftand a wrord of what you fay, and as little what you mean: you very well know I am no fcholar; but you had much better leave that bog, come into the houfe, and look after Woldo; I fear he has fomething further to feek than your fafh, for he has been talking with the old devil-worfh.ipper ever fince we arrived."—" Did they fpeak fecretly together, faid I ?"—" Yes, Sir, they did, I allure you."—" And in whifpers, Strates!"—" As for that, replied he, they need not have been at the pains ; they undcrftand one another, I fuppofe, and the devil their matter un-derftands them both; but as for me I comprehend their difcourfc no more than if it was Greek, as they Jay. Greek I i fays
lays he, I am an afs; I fliould know well enough what they faid if they fpoke Greek."—" Come, faid i, take a draught of this excellent water, and drink with mc a health to his majefly king George III. and a long line of princes," I had in my hand a large cup made of a cocoa-nut fliejl, which I procured in Arabia, and which was brim fall. He drank to the kingfpeedily and chearfully, with the addition of, "Confufion to his enemies," and tolled up his cap with a loud huzza. " Now friend, faid I, here is to a more humble, but ftill a facrcd name, here is to—Maria !" He aiked if that was the Virgin Mary ? 1 anfwered," In faith, I believe fo, Strates," fie did not fpeak, but only gave a humph of disapprobation.
The day had been very hot, and the altercation I had? with Woldo had occasioned me to fpeak fo much that my third, without any help from curiofity, led me to thefe frequent libation.:- at this long fought-for fpring, the moll ancient of ail altars. " Strates, faid I, here is to our happy return. Come, friend,you are yet two toaRs behind me; can you ever be fatiatcd with this excellent water?"-—"Look you, Sir, fays he very gravelyvas for king George 1 drank to him with all my heart, to his wife, to his children, to his brothers and fillers, God blefs them all! Amen;—but as for the Virgin Mary, as I am no Paprft, I beg to be excufed from drinking healths which my church does not drink. As for our happy return, God knows, there is no one wifhes it more fincercly than I do, for I have been long weary of this beggarly country. But you mufl forgive mc if I rcfufe to drink any more water. They fay thefe fayages pray over that hole every morning to the devil, and I am afraid I feel his horns in my belly already, from the great draught o
tha
that hellifh water I drank firft."—It was, indeed, as cold water as ever I tailed. " Come, come, faid I, don't be peevifh, I have but one toaft more to drink."—" Peevifh, or not peevifh, replied Strates, a drop of it never again fhall crofs my throat: there is no humour in this; no joke; Ihew us fomething pleafant as you ufed to do; but there is no jeft in meddling with devil-worfhippers, witchcraft, and inchantments, to bring fome difeafe upon one's felf here, fo far from home in the fields. No, no, as many toalls in wine as you pleafe, or better in brandy, but no more water for Strates. I am fure I have done myfelf harm already with thefe follies— God forgive me !"—"Then, faid I, I will drink it alone,and you are henceforward unworthy of the name of Greek; you do not even defervc that of a Chriftian." Holding the full cup then to my head, " Here is to Catharine, cmprefs of all the Ruflias, and fuccefs to her heroes at Paros; and hear my prediction from this altar to-day, Ages fhall not pafs, before this ground, whereon I now Rand, will become a flou-rifhing part of her dominions."
He leaped on this a yard from the ground. " If the old gentleman has whifpcred you this, fays he, out of the well, he has not kept you long time waiting ; tell truth and ihame the devil, is indeed the proverb, but truth is truth, wherever it comes from ; give me the cup, I will drink that health though I fhould die." He then held out both his hands. " Strates, faid I, be in no fuch hafle ; remember the water is inchanted by devil-worfhippers ; there is no jelling with thefe, and you are far from home, and in the fields, }ou may catch fome difeafe, efpecially if you drjnk the Virgin Mary; God forgive you. Remember the horns the firft draught produced ; they may with this come entirely 2 through
through and through."—" The cup, the cup, fays he, and—, fill it full; I defy the devil, and truR in St George and the dragon.—Here is to Catharine, emprefs of all the Ruflias, con-fufion to her enemies, and damnation to all at Faros."— " Well, friend, faid I, you was long in refolving, but you have done it at laft to fome purpofe ; I am fure I did not drink damnation to all at Paros."—" Ah, fays he, but I did, and will do it again—Damnation to all at Paros, and Cyprus, and Rhodes, Crete, and Mytilene into the bargain : Here it goes with all my heart. Amen, fo be it."—" And who do you think, faid I, are at Paros ?"—" Pray, who fhould be there, fays he, but Turks and devils, the worft race of mon-fters and oppreffors in the Levant; I have been at Paros myfelf ; was you ever there ?"—" Whether I was ever there or not is no matter, faid I; the cmprefs's fleet, and an army of Ruffians, arc now poflibly there ; and here you, without provocation, have drank damnation to the Ruffian fleet and army who have come fo far from home, and are at this moment fword in hand to reftore you to your liberty, and the free exercife of your religion; did not I tell you, you was no Greek, and fcarcely deferved the name of Chriftian ?"—" No, no, Sir, cries Strates, for God's fake do not fay fo, I would rather die. I did not underftand you about Paros ; there was no malice in my heart againft the Ruffians. God will blefs them, and my fplly can do them no harm—Huzza, Catharine, and victory !" whilft he tolled his cap into the air.
A number of the Agows had appeared upon the hill, juft before the valley, in fllent wonder what Strates and I were doing at the altar. Two or three only had come down to the edge of the fwamp, had feen the grimaces and
Vol. Ilk 4 G action
action of Strates, and heard him huzza; on which they had afked Woldo, as he entered into the village, what was the meaning of all this ? Woldo told them, that the man was out of his fenfes, and had been bit by a mad dog; which reconciled them immediately to us. They, moreover, faid, he would be infallibly cured by the Nile ; but the cuRom, after meeting with fuch a misfortune, was to drink the water in the morning falling. I was very well pleafed both with this turn Woldo gave the action, and the remedy we Rumbled upon by mere acciden-t, which difcovered a connection, believed to fnbfift at this day, between this river, and its ancient governor the dog-ftar.
CHAR
CHAP. XIII.
Attempts of the Ancients to difcover the Source of the Nile—No D'fcovery made in latter Times—No Evidence of the ffuits having arrived there—Kirchers Account fabulous—Difcovery completely made by the Author.
FAR in antiquity as hiftory or tradition can lead us, farther ftilFbeyond the reach of either, (if we believe it was the firft fubject of hieroglyphics) begins the inquiry into the origin, caufe of increafe, and courfe, of this famous river. It is one of the few phenomena in natural hiftory that ancient philofophers employed themfclves in inveftigating, and people of all ranks feemed to have joined in the refearch with a degree of perfevcrance very uncommon ; but ftill this difcovery, though often attempted under the moft favourable circumftanccs, has as conftantly mifcarried ; it has baftled the endeavours of all ages, and
4 G 2 at
at laft come down, as great a fecret as ever, to thefe latter times of bold and impartial inquiry.
Though Egypt was not created by the Nile, it was the firft part that received benefit from it; it was there, in the time of its overflowing, that it appeared in all its beauty,, and Egypt meafured its profperity or defolation by the a-bundance or fcantinefs of this ftream. It was not, however,, in Egypt the inquiries into the time and caufe of its inundation began ; all thefe were fettled and reduced to rule be-^ fore a city was built within the reach of the inundation.
Man, that knew not the caufe, was alfo ignorant of the limits of that inundation, having only in his mind a tradition of deluges that had deftroyed the earth, traces of which, appeared on every hill. He was with reafon aftonifhed to fee, that, wild and wide as the torrent appeared, it was fubject to the controul of fome power that prohibited it from irregularity in the time of its coming, and forbade it to de-ftroy the land it was deftined to enrich; they faw it fubfide within its banks, and overflow no more after it had afforded to hufbandry the utmoft advantage it could receive. But what the controuling power was they knew not, confequently could never divine whether this regularity was H'anfitory or perpetual; whether it was not liable, at fome lime, to break its bonds, and fweep both man and his labours together into the ocean.
Whether the Nile was conftant to its time of rifmg, whether it did not revolve in fome cycle or period, or whether, at rived at a certain number of inundations, it war, not to fipp and overflow no more, was what could only be determined
mined by the inveRigation of the caufe, and the obfervations of a feries of years. Before this was thoroughly fettled and known, the farmer might perhaps cultivate the plain of Egypt, but would not build there ; he would fix his dwelling on the mountain in defiance of the flood; and that this was fo, is evident from what we faw at Thebes, which the Aborigines did not build, as wc fee thoufands of caves dug out of folid rock that were the dwellings of the firft inhabitants, the Troglodytes, beyond Mcroe.
The philofophers of Meroc fcem therefore to have been the firft that undertook the compiling a feries of obferva^ tions, which fliould teach their poflerity the proper times in which they could fettle in, and cultivate Egypt, without fear of danger from the Nile. That ifland, full of flocks and fhephcrds, under a fky perpetually cloudlcfs, having a twilight of fhort duration, was placed between the Nile and Aftaboras, where the two rivers collect the waters that fall in the eaft and the weft of Ethiopia, and mix together in a latitude where the tropical rains ccafe ; this land was too high to be overflowed by the Nile, but near enough to behold every alteration in that river's increafe from the inftant it happened.
Sirius, the brighteft ftar in the Ilcavens, probably the largcft, perhaps the neareft f.o us, in either cafe the moft obvious and ufeful for the prefent purpofe, was immediately vertical to Meroc ; and it did net long efcape obfervation, that the heliacal 1 ding of the dog-ftar was found to be the inftant when all Egvpt was to prepare for the reception of a if d, without which the hufbandman's labour
and expectation of harveft were in vain.   The fields were
duily
dufty and dcfert, the farms without tenants, the tenants without feed, the houfes perhaps fituated in the middle of the inundation, when, at a Rated time, this moft brilliant figh fhonc forth to warn the mafter to procure a peafant for his field, the peafant to procure feed for his tenement, and the ftranger to remove his habitation from a fituation foon deftined to be laid wholly under water.
Nothing could be more natural than the inquiries how the encrcafe of the flood was thus connected with the ri-fing of the dog-ftar ; many ufeful difcoveries were therefore probably made in fearch after this, but the caufe of the inundation remained ftill undifcovered; at laft the effects being found regular, and the efficient caufe infcrutable, no wonder if gratitude transferred to the ftar a portion of refpect for the benefits they were perfuaded they received from its influence. Though thefe obfervations were fuch as concerned Egypt and Nubia alone, yet from Egypt they paffed as objects proper for inquiry, as problems of the great-eft confequencc to philofophcrs, and as phamomena worthy the attention of all that ftudied nature.
A great ftep towards the accounting for thefe phocnome-na was believed to be the difcovery of the Nile's fource, and this, as it was attended with very confiderable difficulties, was thought therefore to be a proper object of inveftigation, even by kings, who difcovcred nations by conquering them, and by their power, revenue, and aimies, removed moft of thofe obftacles which, fuccecding each others in detail, weary the diligence, oveicomc the courage, and baffle the ' nleavours of the moft intrepid and perfevering travellers.
3
Sesostris
Sesostris, one of the earlicft and grcateft conquerors of antiquity, is mentioned, amidil all his victories, earncftly to have defired to penetrate to the head of the Nile, as a glory he preferred to almoR univerfal mdnarchy :—
Venit ad oc caftan, m audi que extrema Sefoftris,
Kt Pharios currus reguni cervicibus egit:
Ante tarn en ve/lros amues Rhodan'umque, Padumque,
g^uttm Nilum defuute bibit*-—-
LUC an.
Cambyses' attempt to penetrate intoEthiopia, and the defeat of his fcheriies, I have already narrated atfufficient length *,
---Vefanus in ortus
Cambyfes longi popidos pervenit ad cevi,,
Defeclufque epulis, & pafus cade fuorum
Jgnotote, Nile, reditu---— Luc an.
lii'i j> 1 *. i"'i*/..    tfiV^'OflA -jCi Vil'^i*j431j!jn.* HU £11 9 1 'f
The attention paid by Alexander, the next prince who attempted an expedition towards thefe unknown fountains, merits a little more of our confideration. After he had conquered Egypt, and was arrived at the temple of Jupiter Am-mon, (the celebrated and ancient deity of the fhephcrds) in the Theban defert, the firft queftion he afked was concerning the fpot where the Nile rofe. Having received from the priefts fuflicient directions for attempting the difcovery, he is faid, as the next very fenfiblc ftep, to have chofen natives of Ethiopia as the likclicft people to fucceed in the fearch he had commanded them to make ;—
Summus
* Vp]. U. b. ii, chap. v.
Summits Alexander regum, quern Memphis adorat, Invidit Nib, m'tfitqueper ultima terra JEtbiopnm leclos ; illos rubicunda perujli Zona poll teuuit, Nilum videre calentem*
LUCAN.
These Ethiopians, parting from their temple in the tie-fort of Elvah, or Oafis, or, which will come to the fame thing, from the banks of the Nile, or Thebes, would hold nearly the fame courfe as Poncet had done, till they fell in with the Nile about Mofcho in the kingdom of Dongola; they would continue the fame route till they came to Halfaia, where the Bahar el Abiad (or white river) joins the Nile atHojila, five miles above that town; and, to avoid the mountains of Kuara, they would continue on the weft fide of the Nile, between it and the Bahar el Abiad ; and, keeping the Nile clofe on their left, they would follow its direction fouth to the mountains of Fazuclo, through countries where its courfe muft neceftarily be known. After having palled the great chain of mountains, called Dyre and Tegla, between lat. n° and 120 N. where are the great cataracts, they again came into the flat country of the Gongas, as far as Bizamo, nearly in 90 N. there the river, leaving its hitherto conftant direction, N. and S. turns due E. and furrounds Gojam.
It is probable the difcoverers, always looking for it to the fouth, took this unufual fudden turn eaft to be only a winding of the river, which wroukl foon be compenfated by an equal return to the weft where they would meet it again ; they therefore continued their journey fouth, till near theline, and never faw it more, as they could have no poftible notion
it had turned back behind them, and that they had left it as far north as lat. 1i° They reported then to Alexander what was truth, that they had aicended the Nile as far fouth as lat. 90, where it unexpectedly took its courfe to the eaft, and was feen no more. The river, moreover, was not known, nor to be heard of near the Line, or farther fouthward, nor was it diminifhed in fize, nor had it given any fymptom they were near its fource ; they had found the Nile calentcmy (warm) while they expected its rife among melting fnows.
This difcovery (for fo far it was one) of the courfe of the river to the eaft, feems to have made a ftrong impreffion on Alexander's mind, fo that when he arrived at near the head of the Indus, then fwelled with the thawing fnows of mount Caucafus, and overflowing in fummer, he thought he was arrived at the fource of this famous river the Nile which he had before feen in the weft, and rejoiced at it exceedingly, as the nobleft of his atchievements *; he immediately wrote to acquaint his mother of it; but being foon convinced of his error, and being far above propagating a falfehood, even for his own glory, he inftantly erafed what he had wrote upon that fubject. This however did not entirely diflatisfy Alexander, for he propofed an expedition in perfon towards thefe fountains, if he had returned from India in fafety.
Vol. III. 4 H Non
* Arrianiis de Exped. Alexandri, Jib. \u
--Non illi Jlamma, nec undee,
Nec Jlcrilis Libyc, nec Syrtkus objlitit Ammoiu Iffct in occafus, mundi devexa fecutus : Ambijfetque polos, Nitttmque a fonte bibljfet: Occurrit fuprcma dies, naturaque folum Hunc potidtjinem vefano poncrc regi.
Luc AN.
It muft no doubt fecm prcpoftcrous to thofe that are not very converfant with the dailies, that a prince fo well inflructed as Alexander himfelf was, who had with him in his army many philofophers, geographers, and aftrono* mers, and was in conftant correfpondence with Ariftotle, a man of almoft univerfal knowledge, that, after having feen the Nile in Egypt coming from the fouth, he fhould think he was arrived at the head of it while on the banks of the Indus, fo far to the N. E. of its Ethiopian courfe. This difficulty, however, has a very eafy folution in the prejudices of thofe times. The ancients were incorrigible as to their error in opinion concerning two feas.
The Cafpian Sea they had failed through in feveral directions, and had almoft marched round it; and whilft they conquered kingdoms between it and the fea, its water was fweet, it neither ebbed nor flowed, and yet they moft ridi-culoufly would have it to be part of the ocean. On the other hand, they obftinately perflfted in believing that, from the call coaft of Africa, about latitude 150 fouth, a neck of land ran call and north-eaft, and joined the peninfula of India, and by that means made this part of the ocean a lake. In vain fhips of different nations failed for ages to Sofala, and faw no fuch land ; this only made them remove the 1 neck
neck of kind further to the fouth ; and though Eudoxus had failed from the Red Sea around the Cape of Good Hope, which mud have totally deltroycd the poilibility of the cx-iftence of that land fuppofed to join the two continents, rather than allow this, they neglected the information of this navigator, and treated it as a fable.
It was the conftant opinion of the Greeks, that no river could rife in the torrid zone, as alfo, that the melting of fnow was the caufe of the overflowing of all rivers in the heat of fummcr, and fo of the Nile among the reft ; when, therefore, Alexander heard from his difcovercrs, that the Nile, about latitude 9% ran ftraight to the call, and returned no more, he imagined the river's courfe was eaftward through the imaginary neck of land inclofing the imaginary lake, and joining the peninfula of India, and that the river, after it had crofted, continued north till it came within reach of the thawing of the fnows of Mount Caucafus; and this was alfo the opinion of Ptolemy the geographer.
Ptolemy Philadelphia,the fecond of thofe princes who had fuccecdcd to the throne of Alexander in Egypt, was the next who marched into Ethiopia with an army againft the Shangalla. His object was not only to difcovcr the fource of the Nile, but alfo to procure a perpetual fupply of elephants to enable him to cope with the kings of Syria, the fuccefs of this expedition we have related in the firft volume, book ii. chap. v.
Ptolemy Evehgetes, his fucceffor, in the 27th year of his reign, being in peace with all his neighbours, undertook an expedition to Ethiopia.   His defign was certainly
4H2 to
TRAV E L S TO DISCOVER
to difcover the fountains of the Nile, in which he had pro* bably fucceeded had he not miftaken the river itfelf. He? fuppofed the Siris, now the Tacazze, was the Nile, and, afc cending in the direction of its dream, he came to Axtimt the capital of the province of Sire and of Ethiopia. But the* ftory he tells about the fnow which he found knee-deep or* the mountains of Samen, makes me queftion whether he ever crofted the Siris, or was himfelf an ocular witnefs of what he fays fie obferved there..
Cjbsar, between the acquifition of a rich and powerful kingdom, and the enjoyment of the fineft woman in the world, the queen of it, is faid to have employed fo intereft-ing an interval in a calm inquiry after the fource of this river, and, in fo doing at fuch a time, furely has paid it a greater compliment than it ever yet received from any that attempted the difcovery; On that night, which completed the deftruction of the Egyptian monarchy, it is, faid this* was the topic upon which he entertained the learned of Alexandria at fupper; addrefling himfelf to Achoreus, high . prieft of the Nile, he fays, t
- ■■ ■  'Nihil ejl, quod no/cere tual/'ffi, -
Quam fluvii caujas, perfecula tanta latentisr-. Ignotumque caput: /pes Jit mihi certa videndi r Niliacos fontes, bcllum civile rclinquam*
Luc AN.
The poet here pays Caefar a compliment upon his curio-fity, of defire of knowledge, very much at the cxpence of his patriotifm; for he makes him declare, in fo many words, that he confidered making war with his country as the 2 grcateft
greateft plcafurc of his life, never to he abandoned, but for that fuperior gratification—the difcovery of the fountains-of the Nile.
Achor-eus, proud of being referred to on fuch a mbjccV. by fuch a perfon, enters into a detail of information.
Qua libi nofcendi Nilum, Romane, cupido tfl,
jlu't: Phariis, Perffquc fuit, Macedmnque tyrannis: '
Nullaquc non a/as voluit conferre futuris
Notitiam .- fed vine-d adhuc natura latendu Luc an.
Nero, as we are told, fent two centurions in fearch of" this river, and on their return they made their report in prefence of Seneca, who does not Teem to have greatly dif-tinguhTied himfelf by his inquiries. They reported, that after having gone a very long way, they came to a king of Ethiopia, who-fumifhed them with neceffaries and afliltancc, and with his recommendations they arrived at fome other kingdoms next to thefe, and then came to immenfe lakes, the end of which was unknown to the natives, nor did any one ever hope to find it: this was all the fatisfaetion Nero procured, and it is probable thefe centurions went not far, but were difcouraged, and turned back with a trumped-up Rory invented to cover their want of fpirit, for we know* now that there are no fuch lakes between Egypt and the fource of the Nile, but the lake Tzana, or Dembea, and while on the banks of this, they might have feen the country beyond, and on every iideof it* ; but I rather think no-fuclr
attempt
* Another reafon why I think this journey of the centurions is fictitious is, t;Kat tlicy % the diftance between Syene and Meroc is 660 miles. Plin. lib. 6, cap. 29.
attempt was made, unlefs they endeavoured to pafs the country of the Shangalla about the end of June or July, when that province, as I have already faid, is abfolutely impafliblc, by the rapid vegetation of the trees, and the ground being all laid under water, which they might have miftaken for a feries of lakes.
After all thefe great efforts, the learned of antiquity began to look upon the difcovery as defperate, and not to be attained, for which reafon both poets and hiftorians fpeak of it in a ftrain of defpondency:—
Sccreto de fontc cadens ; qui fempcr inani Quaerendus ratione latet, nec contigit idli, Hoc vidiffe caput, fertur fine tefe ere at us.
Claud i an.
And Pliny, as late as the time of Trajan, fays, that thefe fountains were in his time utterly unknown—Nilus incertis ortus foutibus, it per deferta et ardeutia, ct inunenfo longitudinis [patio
ambidans *,—nor was there any other attempt made later by the ancients.
FroivI this it is obvious, that none of the ancients ever made this difcovery of the fource of the Nile. They gave it up entirely, and caput Ni/i quaercrc became a proverb, marking the difficulty, or rather the impoilibility, of any undertaking. Let us now examine the pretenfions of the moderns.
The
* Pliny, Nat. Hift. lib. v. cap. 9.
The firft in latter days who vifitcd Abyftinia was a monk, and at the fame time a merchant; he was fent by Nonnofus, ambaffador of the emperor Juftin, in the fifth year of the reign of that prince, that is A. D. 5 2 2. He is called Cofmas the hermit, as alfo Indoplauftes. Many have thought that this name was given him from his having travelled much in India, properly fo called ; but we have no evidence that Cofmas was ever in the Afiatic India, and I rather imagine he obtained his name from his travels in-Abyflinia, called by the ancients India; he went as far as Axum, and feems to have paid proper attention to the difference of climates, names, and fituations of places, but he arrived not at the Nile, nor did he attempt it. The province of the Agows was probably at that time inacceflible, as the court was then in Tigre at Axum, a confiderable diftance beyond the Tacazze, and is to the eaftward of it.
None of the Portuguefe who firft arrived in Abyflinia, neither Covillan, Roderigo de Lima, Chriftopher de Gama, nor the patriarch Alphonfo Mendes, ever faw, or indeed pretended to have feen, the fource of the Nile. At laft, in the reign of Za Denghel, came Peter Paez, who laid claim to this honour ; how far his pretenfions are juft I am now going to confider.—Paez has left a hiftory of the million, and fome remarkable occurrences that happened in that country, in two thick volumes octavo, clofcly written in a plain flile ; copies of this work were circulated through every college and feminary of Jefuits that exifted in his time, and which have been everywhere found in their libraries fince the dif-grace of that learned body.
A'TIIANASIUS
• Athanasius Kircher, a Jefuit, well known for his extenfive learning and voluminous writings, and Rill more for the ralhnefs with which he advances the moft improbable facts in natural hiftory, is the man that firft publifhed an account of the fountains of the Nile, and, as he fays, from this journal left by Peter Paez,
I must, however, here obferve, that no relation of this kind was to be found in three copies of Peter Paez's hiftory, to which I had accefs when in Italy, on my return home. One of thefe copies I faw at Milan, and, by the intereft of friends, had an opportunity of perufmg it at my leifure. The other two were at Bologna and Rome. I ran through them rapidly, attending only to the place where the defcrip-tion ought to have been, and where I did not find it; but having copied the firft and laft page of the Milan manu-fcript, and comparing them with thefe two laft mentioned, I found that all the three were, word for word, the fame, and none of them contained one fyllable of the difcovery of the fource.
However this be, I do not think it is right for me to pronounce thus much, unlefs I bring collateral proofs to ftrengthen my opinion, and to fhew that no fuch excurfion was ever pretended to have been made by that miftionary, in any of his works, unlefs that which paffed through the hand of Kircher.
Alphonso Mendes came into Abyftinia about a year after Paez's death. New and defireable as that difcovery muft have been to himfelf, to the pope, king of Spain, and all his pre at patrons in Portugal and Italy, though he wrote the
> hiftory
hiftory of the country, and of the particulars concerning the million in great detail, and with good judgment, yet he ne-yer mentions this journey of Peter Paez, though it probably muft have been conveyed to Rome and Portugal, after his infpection, and under his authority.
Balthazar Tellez, a learned Jefuit, has wrote two volumes in folio with great candour and impartiality, confidcr-ing the fpirit of thofe times ; and he declares his work to be compiled from this hillory of Alphonfo Mendes the patriarch, from the two volumes of Peter Paez, as well as from the regular reports made by the individuals of the company in fome places, and by the provincial letters in others; to ali which he had compleat accefs, as alfo to the annual reports of Peter Paez among the reft, from 1598 to 1622 ; yet Tellez makes no mention of fuch a difcovery, though he is very particular as to the merit of each miftionary during the long reign of Sultan Segued, or Socinios, which occupies more than half of the two volumes.
After thefe ftrong prefumptions, that Peter Paez neither made fuch a journey nor ever pretended it, I fhall fubmit the account that Paez himfelf, or Kircher for him, has given of the expedition and confequent difcovery; and if any of my readers can perfuade themfclves that a man of genius, fuch as was Peter Paez, tranfported by accident to thefe fountains, and exulting as he does upon the difcovery, the value of which he feems to have known well, could yet have given fuch a defcription as he does, I am then contented with being only the partner of Peter Paez,
Vol. III.
Befori
Before I Rate the account of his obfervations in his own? or in Kircher's words, I have one obfervation to make regarding the dates and time of the journey. That memorable day which has been fixed upon for the difcovery, is; the 21R of April 1618. The rains are then begun, and on that account the feafon being very unwholcfome, armies, without extreme neceflity, are rarely in the field ; between September and February at farthelt is the time the Abyflinian army is abroad from the capital, and in action.
There are two nations of Agows in Abyflinia, the one near the fountains of the Nile, called the Agows of Damot j the other near the head of the Tacazze, in the province of Lafla, called the Tcheratz Agows.   Now, we fee from the annals of Socinios's reign, that he had feveral campaigns againft the Agows.   The firft was in the fourth year of his reign, in the year 1608 ; his annals fay it was againft the Tcheratz Agow.   Flis fecond campaign was in the feventh year of his reign, or 1611 ; that, too, was againft the Agows of Lafta; fo that if Peter Paez was with the emperor in either of thefe campaigns, he could not have feen the head of any river but that of the Tacazze.   The third campaign was in in 1625, againft Sacala, Geefh, and Afhoa, when the Galla made an inroad into Gojam, but retired upon the royal army's marching againft them, and crofted the Nile into their own country. Socinios upon this had advanced againft the Agows of Damot, then in rebellion alfo,.and had fought with Sacala, Afhoa, and Geelh likewife, the clan immediately contiguous to the fources.   Now this was furely the time when Peter Paez, or any attendant on the emperor, might have feen the fountains of the Nile in fafety, as the Vi.ng's armyvin whole or in part, muft have been encamped
cd near, or perhaps upon, the very fources themfclves; a place, of all other, fuited for fuch a purpofe ; but this was in the year 1625, and Peter Paez died in the year 1622.
I shall now Rate, inKircher's owri words, tranflated into Englilh, the defcription he has given, as from Paez, of the fources which he faw; and I will fairly fubmit, to any reader of judgment, whether this is a defcription he ought to be content with from an eye-witnefs, whether it may not fait the fources of any other river as well as thofe of the Nile, or whether in itfelf it is diftinct. enough to leave one clear idea behind it,
"The river*, at this day, by the Ethiopians is called the Abaoy; it rifes in the kingdom of Gojam, in a territory called Sabala, whofe inhabitants are called Agows. The fource of the Nile is fituated in the weft part of Gojam, in the higheft part of a valley, which refembles a great plain on every fide, furrounded by high mountains. On the 21ft of April, in the year 1618, being here, together with the king and his army, I afcended the place, and obferved every thing with great attention ; I difcovered firft two round fountains, each about four palms in diameter, and faw, with the great*, eft delight, what neither Cyrus f king of the Perfians, nor Cambyfes, nor Alexander the Great, nor the famous Julius Cxfar, could ever difcover. The two openings of thefe fountains have no iffue in the plain on the top of the mountain, but flow from the root of it.   The fecond fountain lies
41 2 about
* In CEdipo Syntagma, T. cap. vii. p. 57.
j I never heard that Cyrus had attempted thi« difcoyery,
about a ftone-caR weft from the firft: the inhabitants fay that this whole mountain is full of water, and add, that the whole plain about the fountain is floating and un-fteady, a certain mark that there is water concealed under it; for which reafon, the water does not overflow at the fountain, but forces itfelf with great violence out at the foot of the mountain. The inhabitants, together with the emperor, who was then prcfent with his army, maintain that that year it trembled little on account of the drought* but other years, that it trembled and overflowed fo as that it could fcarce be approached without danger. The breadth of the circumference may be about the call of a fling: below the top of this mountain the people live about a league diftant from the fountain to the weft ; and this place is called Geefh, and the fountain feems to be a cannon-fhot diftant from Geefli; moreover, the field where the fountain is; is upon all fides difficult of accefs, except on the north ftde^ where it may be afccnded with eafe."
I shall make only a few obfervations upon this defcription, fuflicient to fhew that it cannot be that of Paez, or any man who had ever been in Abyflinia : there is no fuch place known as Sahara; he fliould have called it Sacala: in the E-thiopic language Sacala means the higheft ridge of land, where the water falls down equally on both fides, from eaft and weft, or from north and fouth. So the fharp roofs of our houfes, or tops of our tents, in that manner arc called Sacala, becaufe the water runs down equally on oppc lite fides ; fo does it in the higheft lands in every country, and fo here in Sacala, where the Nile runs to the north, but feveral ftreams, which form the rivers Lac and Temfi, fall down the cliff, or precipice, and proceed fouthward in
the
THE SOURCE OF T FIE NILE.
the plain of Afhoa about 300 feet below the level of the ground where the mountain of Geefh Rands, at the very-foot of which is the marfh wherein are the fources of the river.
Again, neither Sacala nor Geefh are on the weft fide of Gojam, nor approach to thefe directions; as, firft the high mountains of Litchambara, then the ftill higher of Amid Amid, are to be crofted over, before you reach Gojam from Sacala; and after descending from that high barrier of mountains called Amid Amid, you come into the province of Damot, when the whole breadth of that province is ftill between you and the weft part of Gojam. Thefe are miftakes which it is almoft impoilihle to make, when a man is' upon the fpot, in the midft of a whole army, every one capable, and furely willing (as he was a favourite of the king to give him every fort of information; nor was there probably any one there who would not have thought himfelf honoured to have been employed to fetch aJjraw for him from the top of Amid Amid.
Both the number and fituations of the fountains, and the fituations of the mountain and village of Geefti with refpect to them, are therefore abfolutely falfe, as the reader willob-fcrve in attending to my narrative and the map. This relation of Paez's was in my hand the 5th of November, when I furveyed thefe fountains, and all the places adjacent. I mea-fured all his diftances with a gunier's chain in my own hand, and found every one of them to be imaginary ; and thefe meafurcs fo taken, as alfo the journal now fubmitted to the public, were fairly and fully written the fame day that they were made, before the clofe of each evening.
Ft
It is not eafy to conceive what fpecies of information Paez intends to convey to us by the obfcrvation he makes lower, " That the water, which found way at the foot of the mountain, did not flow at the top of it." It would have been very lingular if it had ; and I fully believe that a mountain voiding the water at its top, when it had free ac-cefs to run out at its bottom, would have been one of the moft curious things the two Jefuits could ever have feen in any voyage. But what mountain is it he is fpeaking of? he has never named any one, but has faid the Nile was fituated in the higheft part of a plain. I cannot think he means by this that the higheft part of a plain is a mountain ; if he does, it is a fpecies of defcription which would need an interpreter. He fays again, the mountain is full of water, and trembles ; and that there is a village below the top of the mountain, on the mountain itfelf. This I never faw; they muft have cold and flippery quarters in that mountain, or whatever it is ; and if he means the mountain of Geefh, there is not a village within a quarter a mile of it. The village of Geefh is in the middle of a high cliff, defcending into the plain of Afhoa. The bottom of that cliff or plain is 30c feet, as I have already faid, below the bafe of the mountain of Geefh, and the place where the fountains rife.
Paez next fays, that it is three miles from that village of Geefh to the fountains of the Nile. Now, as my quadrant was placed in my tent, on the brink of the cliff of Geefh, it was neceflary for me to meafure that diftance ; and by allowing for it to reduce my obfervations to the exact fpot where the fources rofe, I did accordingly with a chain 4 meafure
meafure from the brink of the precipice to the center of the altar, in which the principal fountain Rands, and found it 1760 feet or 586 yards 2 feet, and this is the diftance Paez calls a league, or the largeft range of a fhell Riot from a mortar; this I do aver is an error that is abfolutely impoflible for any travellers to commit upon the fpot, or elfe his narrative in general fhould have very little weight in point of precifion.
I shall clofe thefe obfervations with one which I think muR clearly evince Paez had never been upon the fpot. He fays the field, in which the fountains of the Nile arc, is of very difficult accefs, the afcent to it being very Reep, excepting on the north, where it is plain and eafy. Now, if we look at the beginning of this defcription, wc fliould think it would be the defcent, not the afcent that would be troublefome; for the fountains were placed in a valley, and people rather defcend into valleys than afcend into them; but fuppofing it a valley in which there was a field, upon which there was a mountain, and on the mountain thefe fountains, Rill I fay that thefe mountains are nearly inac-ccillble on the three fides, but that the moll difficult of them all is the north, the way we afcend from the plain of Goutto. From the eaft, by Sacala, the afcent is made from the valley of Litchambara, and from the plain of Alfoa, to the fouth, you have the almoR perpendicular craggy cliff of Geefh, covered with thorny bullies, trees, and bamboos, which conceal the mouths of the caverns; and, on the north, you have the mountains of Aformalha, thick-fet with all forts of thorny fhrubs and trees, efpecially with the kantulfa; thefe thickets are, moreover, full of wild beafts
efpecially
efpecially huge, long-haired baboons, which wc frequently met walking upright. Through thefe high and difficult mountains we have only narrow.paths, like thofe of fheep, made by the goats, or the wild beafts we are fpcaking of, which, after wc had walked on them for a long fpace, landed us frequently at the edge of fome valley, or precipice, and forced us to go back again to fearch for a new road From towards Zeegam, to the weftward, and from the plain whfire the river winds fo much, is the only eafy accefs to the fountains of the Nile, and they that afcend to them by this way will not think even that approach too eafy.
It remains only for me to fay, that neither have the Jefuits, (Paez his brethren in the million, and his contemporaries) made any geographical ufe of this difcovery, either in longitude or latitude; nor have the hiftorians of his focicty, who have followed afterwards, with all the information and documents before them, thought proper even to quote his travels ; it will not be eafy, from the authority of a man like Athanafius Kircher, writing at Rome, to fupport the reality of fuch a difcovery, not to be found in the genuine writings of Peter Paez himfelf. With fuch a voyage, if it had been real, there fliould have been publifhed at leaft an itinerary, and moft of the Jefuits were capable enough to have made a rough obfervation of longitude and latitude, in the country where they refided, for near one hundred years. Add to this, no obfervation appears from any Jefuit of the idolatry or pagan worfhip, which prevailed near the fource of the Nile, and this would feem to have been their immediate province.
3
From
From Dancaz tlicy might have taken very properly their departure, and, by a compafs, the ufe of which was then well known to the Portuguefe, they might have kept their route to thofe fountains without much trouble, and, with a fuilicicnt degree of exactnefs, to fhew all the world the I by which they went.   They were not fifty miles dill ant from Geefh when at Gorgora, and they have erred a-lixty, which is ten miles more than the whole diftance.; this happened becaufe they fought the fountains in Gojam, from wineli, at Gorgora, they knew themfelvcs to be at :e, and where the fource of the Nile never was.
"When I fet out from Gondar, whofe latitude and longitude I had firft well afcertained, I thought in fuch a pur-fuit as this, where local difcovery was the only thing fought after in all ages, that the beft way was to fubftitute perhaps a drier journal, or itinerary, to a more pleafant account; with this view I kept the length of my journics each day by a watch, and my direction by the compafs. I did obferve, indeed, many altitudes of the fun and ftars at Dingieber, at Kelti, and at Goutto; and laftly, I afcertained the other extreme, the fources of the Nile, by a number of obfervations of latitude, and by a very diftinct and favourable one for the longitude: I calculated none of thefe ecleftial obfervations till 1 went back to Gondar. 1 returned by a different way on the other fule of the Nile, and made one obfervation of the fun at Welled Abea Abbo, the houfe of Shalaka Welled Amlac, of whom I am about to fpeak. Arrived at Gondar, I fummed up my days journics, reduced my bearings and difiances to a plain courfe, as if I had been at fea, taking a mean where there was any thing doubtful, and in this topographical draught laid down every village through which
Vol. III. 4 K I had
I had pa fled, or which I had feen at a fmall diflance out of the road, to which [ may add every river, an immenfe number of which I had croiled between Gondar and Geeih, whither I was going. The reader, upon the Inspection of this fmall map, will form fome, but a very inadequate idea of the immenfe labour it cod me: However, the refult, when I arrived at Gondar, amply rewarded me for my pains,, upon comparing my route by the compafs, to what it came to be when afcertained by obfervation ; I found my error of computation upon the whole to be fomething more than 9 miles in latitude, and very nearly 7 in longitude ; an error not perceptible in the journey upon any reduced fcaie, and very immaterial to all purpofes of geography in any large one.
Now Peter Paez, or any man laying claim to a difcovery fo long and fo ardently defirecl, fliould furely have done the fame; efpecially as from Gorgora he had little more than half of the journal to keep. But if it were true, that he made the difcovery which Kircher attributes to him, Rill, for want of this neceflary attention, he has left the world in the darknefs he found it; he travelled like a thief, difcover-ed that fecret fource, and took a peep at it, then covered it again as if he had been aftrightcned at the light of it.
Ludolf and Voflius are very merry, without mentioning names, with this Rory of the difcovery, wriich they think Kircher makes for Peter Paez, whom they call the River Finder: they fay, it is extremely laughable to think, that the emperor of Abyflinia brought a Jcfuit of Europe to be the antiquary of his country, and to inftruct. him firft, that the fountains of the Nile were in his dominions, and in wdiat 1 part
\
part of them. But, with Voflius's leave, this is a fpecies of intemperate ill-founded criticifm ; neither Kircher, nor Paez, nor whoever was author or that work, ever faid they in-ftrucfed the emperor about the place in his dominions where the Nile arofe, as what he fays is only that the Agows of Geelh reported that the mountain trembled in dry weather, and had done fo that year, when the emperor, who was prefent, confirmed the Agow's report: this is not faying that Peter Paez told the emperor encamped with his army upon the fountains, that the Nile role in his dominions, and that this was the fource. Wo be to the works of Scaliger, Bo-chart, or Vofhus, when they mall, in their turn, be fubmittcd to fuch criticifm as this.
A Protestant million was the next, that I know of at leaft, which fucceeded that of the Portuguefe, and confided only of one traveller, Peter Fleyling, of Lubec ; although he lived in the country, nay, governed it feveral years, he never attempted to viftt the fource of that river ; he had dedicated himfelf to a ftudious and folitary life, having, a-mong other parts of his reading, a very competent knowledge of Roman, or civil law ; he is faid to have given a great deal of his time to the compiling an inflitutc of that law in the Abyflinian language for the ufe of that nation, upon a plan he had brought from Germany; but he did not live to finifh it, though that and two other books, written in Geez, ftill cxift in private hands in Abyftinia, at leaft I have been often confidently told fo.
The next and laft attempt I fhall take notice of, and one of the moft extraordinary that ever vras made for the difcovery of the Nile, was that of a German nobleman, Peter
4K2 Jofeph
Jofeph le Roux, comte de Defheval. This gentleman had been in the Danifh navy ever fmce the year 1721, and in 1739 was raifed to the rank of rear-admiral in that fervice. He fays, in a publication of his own now lying before me, that the ambaffador of Louis XIV. (M. du Roule) and alF thofe fent by the Dutch and Englifh to vifit that country, had pcrifhed, becaufe they were ignorant of the proper key to be employed to enter that country, which he flattered himfelf he had found in Denmark.
In 1739 he refigncd his Danifh commifhon, and begarr his firft attempt in Egypt, whilft, for the greater facility of travelling in thefe mild and hofpitable countries, he took his wife along with him. The count and the countefs went as far as Cairo, where they wifely began at a feftival to dif-pute upon the etiquette with a Turkifh mob, and this bringing the janizaries and guards of police upon them to take them into cuftody, the grey mare, as they fay, proved the better horfe; Madame la comteffe de Defncval exerted her-felf fo much, that fhe defeated the body of janizaries, wounding feveral of them, armed only with a very feminine weapon, a pair of fciffars, which, with full as much profit, and much more decency, fhe might have been ufing^ furrounded with her family at home.
However well acquainted the count was with the key for entering into Abyflinia, he had not apparently got the door. In faff, his firft fcheme was a moft ridiculous one ; he refolved to afcend the Nile in a Large armed with fmall cannon, and all ncceflary provifions for himfelf and wife. Some people wifer than himfelf, whom he met at Cairj, fuggefted to him, that, fuppofing government might
protect
protect him fo far as to allow his barge fafeiy to pafs the confines of Egypt and to the firft cataract, where the malice of the pilots would certainly have deflroyed her, and fuppofing fhe was arrived at lbrim or Dcir, the laft garrifons depending on Cairo, and that this might have been atchie-ved by money, (for by money any thing may be obtained from the government of Cairo,) yet ftill, fome days journey above the garrifons of Deir and lbrim, begin the barren and dreadful deferts of Nubia ; and farther fouth, at the great cataract of Jan Adel, the Nile falls twenty feet down a perpendicular rock ; fo here certainly was to be the end of his voyage ; but the count, being ignorant of the manners of thofe countries, and exceedingly prefumptuous of his own powers, flattered himfelf to obtain fuch afliftance from the garrifon of lbrim and Dcir, that he could unferew his veflel, take her to pieces, and carry her, by force of men, round behind the cataract, where he was to refcrew and launch her again into the Nile.
The Kennoufs, inhabiting near the cataract, have feveral' villages, particularly two, one called Succoot, or the place of tents, where Kalid Ibn el Waalid, after taking Sycnc in the Khalifat of Omar, encamped his army in his march to Dongola; the other, in a plain near the river, called Afcl Dimmo, or the Field of Blood, where the fame Kalid defeated an army of Nubians, who were marching to the relief of Dongola, which was by him immediately after bcfic-ged and taken. Thefe two villages are on the Egyptian fide of the cataract; the direct occupation of the inhabitants is gathering fena, where it very much abounds, and they carry it in boats down to Cairo. Above, and on the other fide of the cataract, is another large village of the Kennoufs,
noufs, called Takaki. Some of thefe mifcrable wretches, were brought to the count, and a treaty made, that all th jfe men of the two villages were to aftift him in his re-embarkation, after he had got his barge round the cataract; and among thefe barbarians he would have loR his life.
The count, befides his wife, had brought with him his lieutenant, Mr Norden, a Dane, who was to fervc him as draughtsman; but neither the count, countefs, nor lieutenant underftood one word of the languages. There are always (happily for travellers) wife and honeft men among the French and Venetian merchants at Cairo, who, feeing the obftinacy of the count, pcrfuaded him that it was more military, and more in the ftile of an admiral, to detach Norden, his inferior officer, to reconnoitre lbrim, Deir, and the cataract of Jan Adel, as alfo to renew his treaty with the Ken noufs at Succoot and Afel Dim mo.
Norden accordingly failed in the common embarkations ufed upon the Nile ; the voyage is in every body's hands. It has certainly a confiderable deal of merit, but is full of fquabbles and lightings with boat-men and porters, which might as well have been left out, as they lead to no inftruc-tion, but fervc only to difcourage travellers, for they were chiefly owing to ignorance of language. It was with the utmoft difficulty, and after many di falters, that Norden arrived at Syenc, and the firft cataract; after which greater and greater were encountered, before he reached lbrim, where the Kafchcif put him in prifon, robbed him of what he had in the boat, and fcarcely fullered him to return to Cairo without cutting his throat, which, for a confiderable time, he and his foldiers had determined to do.
This
This fample of the difficulties, or rather impombility of the voyage into Abyfunia by Nubia, difcouraged the count; and much reafon had he to be thankful that his attempt had not ended among the Kennoufs at Succoot. He therefore changed his plan, and refolved to enter Abyffinia by a voyage round the Cape into the Indian Ocean, through the Straits of Babelmandeb into the Red Sea, and fo to Mafuah. In this voyage he began to make ufe of his Spanifh commiifion, and, having taken two Engliih fhips, under protection of a neutral fort in the Hie of May, he was met there fome days after by commodore Barnet, who made all his fhips prizes, and fent the count home paflenger in a. Portuguefe fhip to Liibom
CHAP.
CHAP. XIV.
Defcription of the Sources of the Nile—OfGce/h—Accounts of its feveral Catar atls—Courfe from its Rife to the Mediterranean.
IHOPE that what I have now faid will be thought fufti-cient to convince ali impartial readers, that thefe celebrated fources have, as it were, by a fatality, remained to our days as unknown as they were to antiquity, no good or genuine voucher having yet been produced capable of proving that they were before discovered, or feen by the curious eye of any traveller, from earlicR ■ages to this day ; and it is with confidence I propofe to my reader, that he will confider mc as ftill Handing at thefe fountains, and patiently hear from mc the recital of the origin, courfe, names, and circumftances of this the moft famous river in the world, which he will in vain feck from books, or from any other human authority whatever, and which, by the care and attention I have paid to the fubjccl, will* I hope, be found fatisfaclory here;—
t
Non fabula mendax An/a loqui de fonte tuo eft: ubicunquc videris, Quareris; ct nulli contingit gloria gentit Ut Nilo ft lata [no, tua fwnina prodam, Qua Deus undarum celator, Nile, tuarum Te mihi nojfe dealt,- . ... i
LUC AN.
The Agows of Damot pay divine honour to the Nile; they worihip the river, and thoufands of cattle have been offered, and Rill are offered, to the fpirit fuppofed to refide at its fource. They are divided into clans, or tribes; and it is worthy of obfervation, that it is faid there never was a feud, or hereditary animofity between any two of thefe clans ; or, if the feeds of any fuch were fown, they did not vegetate longer than till the next general convocation of all the tribes, who meet annually at the fource of the river, to which they facrifice, calling it by the name of the God of Peace. One of the leaf! confiderable of thefe clans, for power and number, has ft ill the preference among its brethren, from the circumflance that, in its territory, and near the miferable village that gives it name, are iituated the .much fought-for fprings from which the Nile rifes.
Geesn, however, though not farther diftant from thelc than 600 yards, is not in light of the fources of the Nile. The country, upon the fame plane with the fountains, terminates in a cliff about 300 yards deep down to the plain of Aflba, which flat country continues in the fame fubaltern degree of elevation, till it meets the Nile again about feven-ty miles fouthward, after it has made the circuit of the provinces of Gojam and Damot.   This cliff feems purpofely
Vol. III. 4 L falhioned
fafhioned into many (helves or Rages, each of which occupied by a duller, of houfes feldom above eight or ten in number ; fome above, fome below, fome along the fide of each other, but chiefly occupying the fpace, or two-thirds of the middle of the cliff, that is, none of them nearer to the tup of the cliff, nor to the plain of Affoa below, than a diftance equal to that proportion of the whole. The reafon of choofing this iituation is the fear of the Galla, who have often invaded that part of Abyflinia, and have even exterminated: fome clans of Agows entirely,
In the middle of this cliff, in a direction ftraight north-towards the fountains, is a prodigious cave, whether the work of nature or of art, I cannot determine ; in it are many-bye paths, fo that it is very.difficult for a ftranger to extricate himfelf; it is a natural labyrinth, large enough to contain the inhabitants of the village, and their cattle ; there are likewife two or three lefler ones, which I did not fee;, in tliis large one, I tired myfelf part of feveral days, endeavouring to reach as far northward,as poftihle, but the air, when I had advanced fomething ah-\L One hnro red yards, feemed to threaten to extinguifh my candle b\ its dampnefs ; and the people were befides not at ali difpofed to gratify my curiofity farther, after affuring me that there was nothing at the end more remarkable than I then faw,. which 1 have reafon to believe was the cafe.
The face of this cliff, which fronts to the fouth, has a mod picturefque appearance from the plain of Alloa below, parts of the houfes at every ftage appearing, through the thickets of trees and bufhes with which the whole face of the chif is thickly covered ; impenetrable fences of the very
worft
word kind of thorn, hide the mouths of the caverns above mentioned, even from fight; there is no other communication with the houfes either from above or below, but by narrow-winding fhecp-paths, which through thefe thorns are very difficult to be difcerned, for all are allowed to be overgrown with the utmoft wildnefs, as a part of their defence ; lofty and large trees (moft of them of the thorny kind) tower high up above the edge of the cliff, and feem to be a fence againft people falling down into the plain; thefe are all at their proper feafon covered with flowers of different forts •and colours, fo are the bufhes below on the face of the cliff; every thorn in Abyftinia indeed bears a beautiful flower; a fmall atonement for the evils they occafion.
From the edge of the cliff of Geefh above where the village is fituated, the ground Hopes with a very eafy defcent due north, and lands you at the edge of a triangular marfh above eighty fix-yards broad, in the line of the fountains, and two hundred and eighty-fix yards two feet from the edge of the cliff above the houfe of the prieft of the river, where I refidcd-: this triangle, fuppofing it a right one, will meafure one hundred and ninety-fix yards in its length, or in the perpendicular; I mean it did fo on the 6th of November 1770 ; doubt lefs, like other mar flics, in the middle of the dry feafon, and of the rains, it will vary its dimcnfions. I fuppofe that this perpendicular repreicnts the north of the marfh, and immediately from the brink of it the ground rifes in a rather fleep bank, and forms a round hill not a hundred yards high, upon the top of which is placed the church of St Michael Geefh ; I did not meafure this diflance, but am fure it is very little lefs than five hundred yards from the church to the middle fountain.   On the eaft the
4 L 2 ground
ground defccnds likewife with a very eafy trio' perceptible Hope from the large village of Sacala, which gives its name to that territory; it is diflant fix miles from the fource, but, to fight, feems fcarcely to be two.
I sahll fuppofe the fharp point of the triangle compo-fed of the hypothenufe and the perpendicular, to point like the needle of a compafs to Sacala, and the line of the hypothenufe to rcprefent the fouth fide of the marfh near the village Geefh. The bafe, or line, uniting the well end of the hypothenufe, and forming the right angle with the other fide, I fuppofe to be the edge of the marfh formed by the bottom of the mountain of Geefh, and from this weft fide of it rifes this high and beautiful mountain, quite detached from others, like a pyramid, which it refembles in its elegant and regular form. It is about 4870 feet high measured in the Hope; for near one half way the afcent is very eafy and gradual. The bafe being of a remarkable breadth, it then becomes exceedingly fleep, but all the way covered with good earth, producing fine grafs and clover,, interfperfed with wild flowers.
Upon the rock in the middle of this plain, the Agows ufed to pile up the bones of the beafts killed in facrifice, mixing them with billets of wood, after which they fet them on fire. This is now difcontinued, or rather transfers-red to another place near the church, as they are at prefent indulged in the full enjoyment of their idolatrous rites, both under Faiil and Michael..
In the middle of this marfh (that is about forty yards from each fide of it) and fomething lefs from the bottom
of
of the mountain of Geefh, arifes a hillock of a circular form, about three feet from the furface of the marfh itfelf, though apparently founded much deeper in it. The diameter of this is fomething fhort of twelve feet, it is furrounded by a fhallow trench, which collects the water and voids it eaftward; it is firmly built with fod or earthen turf, brought from the fides, and conftantly kept in repair, and this is the altar upon which all their religious ceremonies are performed. In the middle of this altar is a hole, obvi-oufly made, or at leaft enlarged by the hand of man. It is kept clear of grafs, or other aquatic plants, and the water in it is perfectly pure and limpid, but has no ebullition: or motion of any kind difcernible upon its furface. This mouth, or opening of the fource, is fome parts of an inch lefs than three feet diameter, and the water flood at that time the 5th of November, about two inches from the lip or brim, nor did it either increafe or diminifh during all the time of my ftay at Geefh though wc made plentiful ufe of it.
Upon putting down the fhaft of my lance at fix feet four inches, 1 found a very feeble refiftance, as if from weak rufhes or grafs, and about fix inches deeper I found my lance had entered into foft earth, but met with no ftones or gravel; this was confirmed by another experiment, made on the 9th with a heavy plummet and line befmeared with foap, the bottom of which brought up at the above depth only black earth, fuch as the marfh itlelf and its fides arc compofed of.
Ten feet diftant from the firft of thefe fprings, a little-to the weft of fouth, is the fecond fountain, about eleven inches in diameter, but this is eight feet, three inches deep..
And
And about twenty feet diftant from the firft, to the S. S. \V\ is the third fource, its mouth being fomething more than two feet large, and it is live feet eight inches deep. Both thefe laft fountains Hand in the middle of fmall altars, made, like the former, of firm fod, but neither of them above three feet diameter, and having a foot of lefs elevation than the firft. The altar in this third fource feemed almoft diftblvcd by the water, which in both Hood nearly up to the brim; at the foot of each appeared a clear and brifk running rill; thefe uniting joined the water in the trench of the firft altar, and then proceeded directly out, 1 fuppofe, at the point of the triangle, pointing eaft ward, in a quantity that would have filled a pipe of about two inches diameter.
The water from thefe fountains is very liglit and good, and perfectly taftelefs ; it was at this time moft intenfely cold, though cxpofed to the mid-day fun without flicker, there being no trees nor bufhes nearer it than the cliff of Geefh on its fouth fide, and the trees that furround Saint Michael Geefh on the north, which, according to the cuftom of Abyflinia, is, like other churches, planted in the midft of a grove.
On Monday the 5th of November, the day after my arrival at Geefh, the weather perfectly clear, cloudlefs, and nearly calm, in all refpects well adapted to obfervation, being extremely anxious to alccrtain, beyond the power of controverfy, the prccife fpot on the globe that this fountain had fo long occupied unknown, 1 pitched my tent on the north edge of the cliff, immediately above the pricfi's houfe, having verified the inflrumcnt with all the care pof~ 2 fible
THE SOURCE OF THE NT TE.   . 639
fible, both at the zenith ml hori/oa. With a brafs 1 u.1-drant of three feet radms, by one nefidian altittfde ot the fun's upper limb, all neceffiry aequatioris and deductions confidcred, I determined the latitude of the place of obVer-varion to be io° 59' 11"; and by another obfervation o'f rhe fame kind made on the 6th, io° $9' 8"; after which* by a medium of thirty-three obfervations of Rars, the large t and neareft, the firit vertical, 1 found the latitude to be io(> 59' io/r; a mean of which being 10" 59' gtf\ fay to! 59' 10"; and if we ihould be fo unneceffirily fcrupulous as to add 1 5" for the meafured diRancc the pi ice of the tent was fouth of the altar, then we fhall have io° 59' 25" in round numbers, for the■ exact latitude of the principal fountain of the Nile, though the Jefuits have fuppofed it, 120 N. by a random guefs ; but this being nearly the latitude of Gondar, the capital from which they fet out, mews plainly they knew not the precife latitude of either of thefe places.
On the7th of November I was fortunate enough to be in time for the obfervation of an immcrfion of the liril fa-tellite of Jupiter, the lad vifible here before that planet's conjunction with the fun. My fituation was very unfavourable, my view of the heavens being every way interrupted by a thick, grove of bamboo canes, with high and fhady trees growing upon the head of the precipice. Jupiter war, low, and the prodigious mats of that beautiful mountain of Gecih, bade fair to hide him before our bufinefs was done ; 1 was therefore obliged to remove nry tele-fcope up to the edge of the cliff, after which, the weaiiiev being perfectly favourable, I had as fair and diflinct a view of the plaiiet as 1 c mid defire, and from that obu.-rvatiou I did.conclude unalterably the longitude of the caief fpi n-
taiix
tain of the Nile to be 360 55' 30" eaft of the meridian of Greenwich.
The night of the 4th, that very night of my arrival, melancholy reflections upon my prefent ftate, the doubtful-nefs of my return in fafetv, were I permitted to make the attempt, and the fears that even this would be refufed, according to the rule obferved in Abyflinia with all travellers who have once entered the kingdom ; the confeioufnefs of the pain that I was then occaftoning to many worthy individuals, expecting daily that information concerning my fituation which it was not in my power to give them; iome other thoughts, perhaps, ftill nearer the heart than thofe, crowded upon my mind, and forbade all approach of fleep.
I was, at that very moment, in pofleflion of what had, for many years, been the principal object of my ambition and willies : indifference, which from the ufual infirmity of human nature follows, at leaft for a time, complete enjoyment, had taken place of it. The marfh, and the fountains, upon companion with the rife of many of our rivers, became now a trifling object in my fight. I remembered that magnificent fcene in my own native country, where the Tweed, Clyde, and Annan rife in one hill; three rivers, as I now thought, not inferior to the Nile in beauty, preferable to it in the cultivation of thofe countries through which they flow ; fupcrior, vaftly fupcrior to it in the virtues and qualities of the inhabitants, and in the beauty of its flocks; crowding its paftures in peace, without fear of violence from man or beaft. I had feen the rife of the Rhine and Rhone, and the more magnificent fources of the Soane ; 1 began, in 1 my
my forrow, to treat the in ^nry about the fource of the Nile as a violent effort of a diflempered fancy :—
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he fliould weep for her ?—
Grief or defpondency now rolling upon me like a torrent; r ; :d, not refreihed, by unquiet and imperfect fleep, I darted tr in nay bed in the utmoft agony ; I went to the door of my tent; every thing was ftill; the Nile, at whofe head 1 fto d, w :s not capable either to promote or to interrupt my lb , but the coolnefs and ferenity of the night bra nerves, and chafed away thofe phantoms that,
while in jed, had opprellcd and tormented me.
It was true, that numerous dangers, hardfhips, and for-rows had befet mc through this half of my excurfion ; but it vvas ftill as true, that another Guide, more powerful than my own courage, health, or underftanding, if any of thefe can be called man's own, had uniformly protected mc in all that tedious, half; I found my confidence not abated, that ftill the fame Guide was able to conduct me to my now widied-for home : I immediately relumed my former fortitude, confidcred the Nile indeed as no more than rifing from fprings, as all other rivers do, but widely different in this, that it was the palm for three thoufand years held out to all the nations in the world as a dctur d'gnijjimo, which, in my cool hours, I had thought was worth the attempting at the rifk of my life, which 1 had long cither refolved to lofc, or lay this difcovery, a trophy in which I could have no competitor, for the honour of my country, at the feet of my fovereign, whofe fervant I was.
Vol. HI. 4 M I had
TRAV E L S TO D IS CO VER
I had procured from the Englifh fhips, while at Jidda*, fome quick-iilver, perfectly pure, and heavier than the common fort; warming therefore the tube gently at the (ire, I filled it with this quicksilver, and, to my great furprife,, found that it Rood at the height of 22. Englith inches : fuf-peeting that fome air might have infmuatcd itfelf into the tube, I laid it by in a warm part of the tent, covered till morning, and returning to bed, flept there profoundly till' fix, when, fatisfied the whole was in perfect order, I found, it to Rand at 21 Englifh inches ; neither did it vary fenfibly from that height any of the following days Maid at Geefh* and thence I inferred, that, at the fources of the Nile, I was then more than two miles above the level of the fea ; a prodigious height, to enjoy a fky perpetually clear, as alfo a hot fun never over-caft for a moment with clouds from rifing; to fctting..
On the 6th of November, at a quarter paft five in the morning, Fahrenheit's thermometer flood at 44% at noon 96V and at fun-fet 460. It was, as to fenfe, cold at night, and ftill. more fo an hour before fun-rife,.
The Nile, keeping nearly in the middle of the marfh, runs eaft for thirty yards, with a very little increafe of ftream, but perfectly vifible, till met by the grafly brink of the land-declining from Sacala. This turns it round gradually to the N. E. and then due north ; and, in the two miles it flows in that direction, the river receives many fmall contributions from fprings that rife in the banks on each fide of it: there are two, particularly one on the hill at the back of St Michael Geefh, the other a little lower than it on the other fide, on the ground declining from Sacala.   Thefe laft-mention-
ed
ed fprings arc more than double its quantity ; and being arrived under the hill whereon Rands the church of Saint Michael Sacala, about two miles from its fource, it there becomes a Rream that would turn a common mill, mallow, clear, and running over a rocky bottom about three yards wide: this muft be underftood to be variable according to the feafon ; and the prefent obfervations are applicable to the 5th of November, when the rains had ceafed for feveral weeks. There is the ford which we palled going to Geefh, and we crofted it the day of our arrival, in the time of my converfation with Woldo about the fafh.
Nothing can be more beautiful than this fpot; the fmall riftng hills about us were all thick-covered with verdure,efpe-cially with clover, the largeft and fineft I ever faw; the tops of the heights crowned with trees of a prodigious fize; the ftream, at the banks of which we were fitting, was limpid and pure as the fineft cryftal; the ford, covered thick with a bufhy kind of tree that feemed to aifect to grow to no height, but thick with foliage and young branches, rather to court the furface of the water, whilft it bore, in prodigious quantities, a beautiful yellow flower, not unlike a tingle wild rofe of that colour, but without thorns; and, indeed, upon examination, we found that it was not a fpecies of the role, but of hypcricum.
From the fource to this beautiful ford,below the chinch of St Michael Geefh, I enjoyed my fecond victory over this coy river, after the firft obtained at the fountains themfelvcs. What might ftill be faid of the world in general no longer applied to me :—
4M2 VC£
Nec contlgit ulli \ Hoc vidijfe caput; And again,
Nec licuit populis parvum te, Nile, viderc.
Here, at the ford, after having flopped over it fifty times^. 1 obferved it no larger than a common mill ftream. The Nile, from this ford, turns to the weftward, and, after running over loofe ftones occafionally, in that direction, about four miles farther, the angle of inclination increafing greatly, broken water, and a fall commences of about fix feet*, and thus it gets rid of the mountainous place of its nativity, and iffues into the plain of Goutto, where is its firft cataract ; for, as I have faid before, I don't account the broken water, or little falls, cataracts, which are not at all vifible in the height of the rains.
Arrived in the plain of Goutto, the river feems to have loft all its violence, and fcarcely is feen to flow, but, at the fame time, it there makes fo many fharp, unnatural windings, that it differs from any other river I ever faw, making above twenty fharp angular peninfulas in the courfe of five miles, through a bare, marfhy plain of clay, quite deftitute of trees, and exceedingly inconvenient and unpleafant to travel. After pafling this plain, it turns due north, receives the tribute of many fmall flreams, the Gomctti, the Goo-< gueri, and the Kebezza, which defcend from the mountains of Aformalha; and, united, fall into the Nile about twenty miles below its fource; it begins here to run rapidly, and again receives a number of beautiful rivulets, which have their rife in the heights of Litchambara, the femi-circular range of mountains that pafs behind, and fecm to in clofe
Aformalha:;
Aformalha: Thefe are the Caccino, the Carnachiuli, the Googueri, the Iworra, the Jeddeli, and the Minch, all which., running into the Davola, join the Nile fomething lefs than a mile weft of the church of Abbo.
i
It is now become a confiderable ftream ; its banks high and broken, covered with old timber trees for the fpace of about three miles; it inclines to the north-caft, and winds exceedingly, and is then joined by the fmall river Diwa from the eaft. It then makes a femi-circle, and receives Dee-ohha, turns fharply to the eaft, and falls down its fecond cataract at Kerr. About three miles below this cataract, the large, pleafant, and limpid Jemma pays its tribute to the Nile. Though its courfe is now moftly north, through Maitiha on the eaft, and Aroofti and Sankrabcr on the weft, it ftill is inclining toward the lake Tzana, and, after receiving the rivers Boha and Amlac Ohha, fmall flreams from the weft, and the Aftar, Aroofti, and Kelti, large rivers from the eaft, it crofles the fouth end of the lake Tzana for about feven leagues, preferving the colour of its ftream diftinct from that of the lake, till it iffucs out at the weft fide of it in the territory of Dara, where there is a ford, though very deep and dangerous, immediately, where it firft re-fumes the appearance of a river.-
The deep ftream is here exceedingly rapid; the banks in the courfe of a few miles become very high, and are Covered with a verdure, abundant and varied beyond all do fcription: palling afterwards below Dara, it bounds that narrow ftripc of fiat country whicii is called Foggora, confined bet ween the lake and the mountains of Begemder, till it arrives at its third cataract 01 Alata, a lmall village of Malice 4 metana
mctans, on the eaft fide of the river, and there exhibits a fee lie that requires more fancy, and the defcription of a more poetical pen than mine, although the impreflion the fight of it made upon me will certainly never be removed but with life.
The courfe of the river is now S. E.; in that direction it waflies the weftern part of Begemder and Amhara on the right; the river theninclofes the province of Gojam, fo that, in the circle that it makes in returning towards its fource, that province remains always on the right.
. From both fides, the Nile receives a number of tributary flreams, the Muga, Gammala, Abea, Aiwari, and Malhili \ from the mountains of Gojam ; and the Bafhilo, Boha, and Geelhem from thofe of Begemder and Amhara; it then paft cs below Walaka. The river now has a courfe near thefouth-ward, paffesUpper and Lower Shoa. Fr fth thefe countries, on the eaft of the Nile, come the great rivers Samba, Jemma, Roma, with fome others, and the Tcmfi, Gult, and Tzul from the high country of the Agows, and Amid Amid to the northward. From Shoa the Nile winds to the S. W. to the W. N. W. nearly inclofmg all the fouth of Gojam. Immediately adjoining to it, turning ftill more northerly, is the province of Bizamo, bordering on the river Ynbous, which, coming from the fouthward,and terminating this province, falls into the Nile.
The Nile, now turned almoft due north, approaches its fource fo as to be diftant from it only about 62 miles; it is here very deep and rapid, and is only fordable at certain feafbns of the year. The Galla, however, when they invade Abyftinia, crofs it at all times without difficulty, cither by fwimming, or on goats fkins blown up like bladders: 1 , .other
other means of palling are in fmall rafts, placed upon two-feins filled with wind; or, twilling their hands round the horfe\s tail, they arc drawn over by them ; this lad is the way that the women, who follow the armies of abyilinia, crofs unfordable rivers, a cafe that always occurs in late campaigns. Crocodiles abound exceedingly in this part of the Nile; but the people, who live on the banks of the river, have or pretend to have charms which defend them -from the molt voracious of thefe animals.
Adjoining to the Gongas, and bounding them on the north, arifes a vaft chain of very high mountains; the fouth fide of this is inhabited by tribes of Gongas and o-thers, but on the north-eaft fide, neareft Abyflinia, is a nation of perfect blacks, called Guba. The Nile feems to have forced its way through a gap in this prodigious barrier,. and falls down a cataract of about 280 feet. This is immediately followed by two others in the fame ridge of mountains, both very confiderable, if not compared with the firft. This high ridge runs weft far into the continent of Africa, where it is called Dyre and Tegla ; the eaft end (that is eaft of the Nile) joins the mountainous country of Kuara, and is there called the Mountains of Fazuclo. Thefe mountains, as far as I could learn, are all very fully inhabited throughout by many powerful clans, or nations, moftly Pagans. It-is, however,.a country the leaft known of any in Africa, but a very large quantity of gold is brought from thence, as well as many flaves ; the gold is wafhed down by the torrents in the time of the tropical rains, and, upon thefe ccafing, they fearch after that metal found in fmall pellets entangled among roots, branches, tufts of grafs,
hollows^
hollows, or in any thing that can imprifon and detain it. This is the fine gold of Sennaar, called Tibbar.
The Nile now runs clofe by Sennaar, in a direction nearly north and fouth ; it then turns fharply toward the cad, is brim-full and vallly pleafant in the fair feafon, being indeed the only ornament of this bare and flat, though cultivated country. From Sennaar it pafles many La ge towns inhabited by Arabs, all of them white people. The Nile then pafles Gerri, and runs N. E. to join the Tacazze, palling in its way a large and populous town called Choudi, probably the ancient metropolis of Car/dace *.
If wc are not to reject entirely the authority of ancient hiftory, the ifland of Meroc, fo famous in ihe fn ft ages, muft be found fome where between the fource of the Nile and this point, where the two rivers unite; for of the Nile we are certain, and it feems very clear that the Atbara is the Alia- , boras of the ancients. Pliny f fays, it is the flream which inclofes the left fide of Meroe as the Nile does the right; and we muft confidcr him to be looking fouth ward from Alexandria, when he ufes the otherwife equivocal terms of right and left, and, after this junction of thefe two rivers, the Nile receives or unites itfelf with no other till it falls into the ica at Alexandria.
Much inquiry has been made about this ifland, once a moft diftinguifhed fpot on otn' globe, the cradle of fcicme
and
* Called in the Ethiopic annals Hcndaqnc ; wrote originally, I fuppofe, with an A or Ch. J
t Lib. v. cap. 9. Nat. Hiit.
and philofophy, which fprcad itfelf from this to enlighten other nations, wc are now full of uncertainty, fearching in a defcrt for the place of its exiflence ; fuch is the miferablc inllability of all human excellence. Nothing but confufion has followed this inquiry, becaufe they who were engaged in it rather fubflituted vain fyftcmatical prejudices of their own, than fet themfclves to confider thofe lights which were immediately before them.
The Jefuits, and a French writer, who is a conftant champion of their errors, have fixed the peninfula of Gojam to be the Meroe of the ancients. M. le Grande (the compiler alluded to) having in vain endeavoured to anfwer the objections againft Gojam being Meroc, at laft declares, in a kind of literary paftion, that the ancients have fpoken fo differently about Mcroe, that Gojam is as likely to be the place as any other.
I have a proper efteem for the merit of M. le Grande, where he forms his conjectures from his own opinion, and I have alfo a due deference to that learned Order the Jefuits; it is to their labours, that learning in general, and geography in particular, has been more indebted than to thofe of any o-thcr fet of men whatever. Yet ftill I ca 1 never believe, either that Gojam is Mcroe, or that there is any difficulty in finding its true fituation, or that the ancients have written confufedly about it. On the contrary, I find itdefcribed by its latitude, its diftance from places known, the produce of its foil, colour of its inhabitants, and feveral other circumftanccs which peculiarly belong to it, with greater accuracy and precilion than many other difputed fituations.
Vol. III. 4 N I shaix
I shall begin by giving my reafons why Gojam is not Meroe: and, firR, Diodorus * tells us, this illand had its name from a filler of Cambyfes, king of Perfia, who died there in the expedition that prince had undertaken againft Ethiopia. Now, Cambyfcs's army perifhed in the defert immediately to the fouthward, after he had paffed Meroe, confequently he never was in Gojam, nor within 200 miles of it; his mother, therefore, could not have died there, nor would his army have perifhed with hunger if he had arrived in Go-jam, or near it, for he would then have been in one of the moft plentiful countries in the world.
The next reafon to prove that Gojam is not Meroe, is,, that that illand was inclofed between the Aftaboras and the Nile, but Gojam is furrounded entirely by the Nile ; there is no other river than it that can, or ever did, pafs for the Aftaboras, whofe fituation was diftant, and which, retaining its ancient name, cannot be miflaken, for it is at this day called Atbara. Again, as the ancients knew Meroe, if Go-jam had been Meroe, they muft have known the fountains of the Nile; and this we are fure they did not..
On the other hand, Pliny fays, Meroe, the moft confide r-able of all the iflands of the Nile, is called Aftaboras, from the name of its left channel—M Circa clatifflmam tartan Mcroe " Ajiabans lam alveo Jicius; f" which cannot defcribe any other place than the confluence of thofe two rivers, the Nile and Atbara. The fame author fays farther, that the fun is vertical twice a-year, once when proceeding northward he
enters
* ijicd. Sicul. BMothec lib. i. p. 20.
f Plin. Nat. Hiit. lib. v. cap. 9.
enters into the 18th degree, Taurus, and after returning
fouth ward into the 14th degree of the Lion.-Lucan fays
the fame:—
Late tibi gurgite rupto Ambit ur mgris Meroe' facunda colon is, Lata comis hebeni; qua quamvis arbore multci Frondeat) ajlatem ?ndld fibi mitigat umbra : Liuea tarn reclum inundiferit ilia Lconem*
Now Gojam, being in lat. io°, could never anfwer this defcription.
But there are in thefe lines two circumRances which are peculiar to the peninfula of Athaia, or Meroe, and defcri-bcd as fuch by the poet. The firft is, the inhabitants of Mcroe were black, fuch were the Gymnofophifts, the firft phi-lofophers and inhabitants of this ifland, and fuch they Fiave ever been down to the Saracen conqucft. On the o-ther hand, nobody will pretend to fay that the people of Gojam are black ; they are long-haired, and of as fair a complexion as other Abyftinians ; nor was it ever fuppofed that they had philofophers or feience among them before the Jefuits arrived in the country.
The next circumflance, peculiar to Meroe, is, that the ebony-tree grew there, which is fpread all over the peninfula of Atbara, and out of it this tree is not found, (as far as 1 know) unlefs a few trees in the province of Kuara, in the low and northcrmoft part of it; a country, for its intolerable heat, not inferior to that of Atbara, and contiguous to it; but in
4 N 2 Gojam,
Gojam, a country deluged with fix months rain, this tree would not grow; though fo much farther fouth it is near two Englifh miles higher than Atbara, and is therefore too cold. Such are my reafons for believing that Gojam cannot be Meroe. In my return through the defert I fhall confirm this, by proving that Atbara is Meroe, and that wc are to look for it about lat. i6° 29', near the end of the tropical rains.
The Nile, now united with the Aftaboras, takes its courfe ftraight north for more than two degrees of the meridian; it then makes a very unexpect ed turn W. by S. conlidcrably more than that fpace in longitude, winding very little till it arrives at Korti, the firft town in the Barabra, or kingdom of Dongola. The river by this time, with three fides, inclofed the great deferts of Bahiouda the road through this from Dereira to Korti (before it was cut off by the Arabs, as it now continues to be) made the fourth fide of the fquare which bound this defert; by this route it was that Poncet and the unfortunate M. du Roule went to Abyftinia.
Erom Korti the Nile runs almoft S. W. where it pafies Dongola, a country of the Shepherds, called alfo Beja, the capital of Barabra, and comes to Mofcho, a confiderable town, and welcome place of refrefhment to the weary traveller, when the caravans were fuffered to pafs from Egypt into Ethiopia, who, after traverfing the dreary defert of Seli-ma for near 500 miles, found himfelf at Mofcho, in repofe, in the enjoyment of plenty of frefh water, long ago become to him an indulgence more delicious than ever he had before conceived. From Mofcho the Nile turns gradually to the N. E. and in lat, 220 15' it meets with a chain of moun-3 tains^
tains, and throws itfelf over them down a cataract called Jan Adel, which is its feventh cataract; and, continuing ftill N. E. it pafles lbrim and Deir, two fmall garrifons belonging to Egypt. The fall of the Nile in the country of Kennoufs, which forms the 8th cataract, and its courfe through E-gypt, are already defcribed in my voyage up the river*
ty*-   I........m.......*»*B
CHAP.
CHAR XVL
Various Names of this River—Ancient Opinion concerning the Caufe of its Inundation—Real Manner by which it is effected—Remarkable Difpo-fition of the Feninfula of Africa,
IT is not to be wondered, that, in the long courfe the Nile makes from its fource to the fea, it fhould have acquired a different name in every territory, where a different language was fpoken; but there is one thing remarkable, that though the name in found and in letters is really different, yet the fignification is the fame, and has an obvious reference to the dog-ftar.
Among the Agow, a barbarous and idolatrous nation, it is called Gzeir, Geefa*, Seir; the firft of thefe names figni-fying God; it is alfo called Abba, or Ab, Father; and by many other terms which I cannot write in the language of that nation, whilft, with a fervent and unfeigned devotion,
under
* From a nation of Shangalla of that name, through which it runs, after having parted itc fource, and taken its courfe into Nubia.
under thefe, or fuch-like appellations, they pray to the Nile, or fpirit reading in that river. The next name it receives is when defcended into Gojam, where it is called Abay. Foreigners, of all denominations, not acquainted with the language of the country, have, from hearing it was Riled Ab, Father, by the Agows, or Abai, imagined its name Abawi, a cafe of that noun, which, in their ignorance, they have made to fignify, the Father..
Ludolf, the only one in the age he lived that had any real knowledge of either the Geez or Amharic, was the firit to perceive this : he found in neither of thefe languages A-bawi could be a nominative, and confequently could not be applied to any thing; and next he as truly found it could not be of the Angular number, and, if fo, could not fignify one river. He Hopped, however, as it were, in the , very brink of difcovery, for he knew there was no writing or letters in Amharic, which were therefore neccflarily borrowed from the old and written language Gcez, fo that all that could be done was, firft, attentively to hear the pronunciation of the word in Amharic, and then to write it in Gcez characters as nearly conformable to the found as pof-fible. Now, the name of the river in Amharic is Abay, pronouncing the y open, or like two (i), and the fenfe of that word fo wrote in Geez, as well as Amharic, is, " the river u that fuddenly fwells, or overflows, periodically with rain ;" than which a more appofite name could never have been invented.
By the Gongas, on the fouth of the mountains Dyre and Tegla, who are indigena;, the river is called Dahli, and, on the north of thefe mountains^ where the great cataracts are by i the
the Guba, Nuba, and Shangalla, it is Riled Kowafs, both which names fignify a watching dog,,the latrato'r anubis, or, the dog-Jar. In the plain country, between Fazuclo and Sennaar, it is called Nil, which fignifies blue; and the Arabs interpret it by the word Azcrgue, which it keeps as far as Halfaia, or near it, where it joins the White River.
The next name by which the Nile went was Siris : Pliny tells us it was called Siris both before and after it came into Beja. fi Nec ante Nilus, quam Je tot urn aquis concordibits rnrfus juuxit. ** Sic quoque etiamnum Siris, nt ante nominaius per aliquot millia, ct in " totum Homer0 Egyptus, aliifque Triton*.'" This name the Greeks thought was given to it, becaufe of its black colour during the inundation, which miflake prefently produced confusion ; and we find, according to this idea, the compiler of the OldTeftamcnt, (1 fliould fuppofe Efdras, after the captivity) has tranflated Siris, the black river, by the Hebrew, Shihor; „ but nobody ever faw the Nile black when it overflowed; and it would be a very flrong figure to call it fo in Egypt, where it is always white during the whole of the inundation. Had Efdras, or whoever it was that followed the Greek interpretation of Siris, viz. black, inquired in Beja what was the origin of this name, they would have there learned it imported the River of the Dog-ftar, on whofe vertical appearance this Nile, or Siris, overflows; and this idolatrous worfhip, paid to the Nile, was probably part of the reafon of the queftion the prophet Jeremiah afks " And what haft " thou to do in Egypt, to drink the water of Seir? or the " water profaned by idolatrous rites ?"
As
* Plin. Nat, Hift. lib. v. cap. 9. f Jcrcm* chap. ii. ver. xviiu
As for the Hrft, it is only the tranflation of the word Bahar, applied to the Nile. The inhab; rants of the Barabra, to this day, call it Bahar cl Nil, or, the Sea of the Nile, in con-tradiftinition to the Red Sea, which they know by no other name but Bahar el Melech, the Salt Sea. The junction of the three great rivers; the Nile, flowing on the weft of Mcroe ; the Tacazze, which walhcs the eaft hde, and joins the Nile at Maggiran, in lat. if ; and the Mareb, which falls into this laft, fomething above this junction—gives the name of Triton to the Nile.
More doubt has been raifed as to the third name, iEgyp-tus, which it obtains in Homer, and wdiich, I apprehend, was a very ancient name given it even in Ethiopia. The generality, nay, all interpreters, I may fay, imagine, as in thai of Siris, that this name was given it in relation to its colour, viz. Hack; but with this I cannot agree; Egypt, in the. Ethiopic, is called y Gipt, Agar; and, an inhabitant of the country, Gypt, for precifely fo it is pronounced, which means the country of ditches, or canals, drawn from the Nile 011 both fides at right angles with the river ; nothing, fure-ly is more obvious than to write y Gipt, fo pronouncing Egypt, and, with its termination, us, oi w, Egyptu^. The Nile is alfo called Kronides, Jupiter ; as alfo feveral other names ; but thefe are rather the epithets of poets, relative and tran-fttory, not the permanent appellation of the river.
I would pafs over another name, that of Gcon, which fome of the fathers of the church have fondly given it, pretending it was one of the rivers that came from the terref-trial paradifc, and encompafled the whole land of Cufh, whilft, for this purpofc, they bring it two thoufand miles by
Vol. 111. 4 O a feries
a feries of miracles, as it were, under the earth and under the fea: To do what ? to furround the whole land of Cufh. And docs it furround it, or docs it furround any land whatever ? This, and fome fimilar wonders told by St Auguftine, have been eagerly catched at, and quoted by unbelieving fceptics ; meaning to infinuate, that no better, in other re-fpects, was the authority of thefe fathers when they explain and defend the truths of Chriftianity.   For my own part, though perfectly a friend to free and temperate inquiry, thefe injudicious arguments which I need not quote, have little weight with me.    St Auguftine, when explaining thofe truths,  was undoubtedly under  the direction of that fpirit which could not lie, and was promifed to the priefthpod while occupied in their mailer's commiftion the propagation of Chriftian knowledge ; but when, from vanity and human frailty, he attempted to eftablilh things he had nothing to do with, fpcaking no longer by commandment,, he reafoned like a mere man, milled by vanity and too great confidence in his own underftanding.
We come now to inveftigate the reafon of the inundation of the Nile, which,being once explained, I cannot help thinking that ail further inquiries concerning this fubject are fupcr-ftuous.
It is an obfervation that holds good through all the works of Providence, 7 hat although God, in the beginning, gave an inflance of his almighty power, by creating the world with one fmgle fiat, yet, in the laws he has laid down for the maintaining order and regularity in the details of his creation, he has invariably produced all thefe effects by the leaft degree of power poflible, and by thofe means that fecm moft obvious to human conception. But it feemed, however, not
according:
according to the tenor of his ways and wifdom, to create a country like Egypt, without fprings, or even dews, and fubject it to a nearly vertical fun, that he might fave it by fo extraordinary an intervention as was the annual inundation, and make it the moR fertile fpot of the univerfe.
This violent effort feemed to be too great, above all proportion, for the end for which it was intended, and rhecaufe was therefore thought to merit the application of the fublimcll philofophy; and accordingly, as Diodorus Siculus * tells us, it became the ftudy of the moR learned men of the firft ages, the principal of whom, with their opinions, he quotes, and at the fame time alledges the reafon why they were not univer-fally received. The firft is Thales of Milctum, one of the feven fages, who ailigns for the caufe the Etefian winds, which blowing, ali the hot feafon, from the Mediterranean, in contrary direction to the ftream of the river, force the Nile to accumulate, by obftructing its flowing to the fea, occafion it to rife above its banks, and confequently to overflow the country.
But to this it was anfwered, That, were this the caufe, all rivers running in a northern direction, to the fea, would be fubject to the fame accident; and this it was known they were not. And wre may further add, that were this really the caufe, the inundation of the Nile would be very irregular; for the winds at this feafon often blow from the fouth-weft for two or three days together, and then the inundation would be interrupted. To this it muft be added, that a very confiderable part of Egypt, and that the moft
4O2 fertile,
•T
* i)iod. Sic. lib' i.
fertile, the Delta, is under the dominion of variable winc$>_ which laft long, from one point, at no time.
I shall trefpafs upon my reader's patience, on this head,, by no more than one additional obfervation. If the Etefian winds, by oppoling the ftream, occafioned the inundation, they could effect this no longer than they continued to blow. Now, it was an obfervation we made when on the Nile, and it was almoft without exception, that as often as the Etefian winds blew throughout the day, the night was either calm, or the wind blew gently from the fouth or eaft, fo that it is morally impoflible the river could have overflowed at all, without a much more powerful and conftant agent than the Etefian winds :—•
-Zephyros quoquc vana vetujlas
IBs adfcripfit aqtds,-—■--L u CAN;.
Vain, indeed \ A philofopher of the prefent age would be thought mad who fliould rely on a fyftem fo contrary to. experiment and obfervation ; though Thales, the propagator of this now mentioned, was fo highly efteemed for, his knowledge.
The next opinion quoted is that of Anaxagoras, who attributes the inundation of the Nile to fnow melting in Ethiopia; and this Diodorus contradicts, for a very fubftan-tial reafon, that there is no fnow in Ethiopia to melt. But fuppofing all the mountainous part of Ethiopia north of the Line, that is all Abyftinia, were covered with fnow, then the inundation muft. happen in other months, as it muft begin in January, for the fun being then within few de-2 grees
grccs of being vertical, it muft have been the very height of flood when the fun paffed over that country in April; whereas its increafe is not difcerned till about June, when the fun has left the zenith of all Abyftinia, having then paffed over Nubia, and is Handing vertical to Sycne, or as far to the northward as it can proceed.
It is not my meaning to maintain that there never was fnow in Abyflinia, as climates have wonderfully changed. In Caefar's time, the greater! rivers in the Gaul almoft every year were frozen over for months, fo that armed nations, with their families, cattle, and incumbrances, paffed regularly over them upon the ice without fear; an event that happens not now once in a century. In Pruflia* alfo were found white bears, an animal now confined to the fevereft fnowy regions of the north ; and, what comes ftill nearer to the prefent fubject, in the infeription found in Abyflinia by Cofmas Indoplauftes, Ptolomseus Evergetes,fpeaking there, in the firft perfon, of his own conquefts in Ethiopia, fays,that he had paffed the river Siris, and had entered the kingdom of Samen, a country intolerable on account of cold' and deep fnow.
This account I think almoft incredible. Ptolemy parted from Egypt, his fleet coafting along the Red Sea, oppofite to his army, and carrying- provifions for it; we know, moreover, the time his fhips failed, the beginning of June, when the Nile was overflowed, and confequently of great utility to his army on the firft part of his expedition, while he was in Egypt and part of Nubia.   Now fuppofing him to pafs
the
Paufanius ArcaJ. chap. xvii.
the defert as quickly as poflible, and come to Axum, it muft have been then Summer, or near it; and as it was necelfary his fleet lhould return by the monfoon in October, fo it muft have then rained continually, and the fun been perpendicular to the country when he found the deep fnows in Samen, which is not very probable. The river Tacazze, moreover, which Ptolemy crofted, was really not paffable at that time, and no Abyflinian army did ever attempt it during a flood, though, without, fcruplc at all fcafons they crofs the Nile when moft deep and rapid.
I remember that when I firft afcended Lamalmon, the higheft mountain of that ridge, running the whole length of the province of Samen, it was in the depth of winter; the thermometer flood at 32", wind N. W. clear and cold, but attended with only hoar froft, though at that height, and at that feafon ; the grafs fcarcely was dif coloured, and only felt crifp below my feet, with this fmall degree of freezing ; but this vanifhed into dew after a quarter of an hour's fun, nor did I ever fee any fign of congelation upon the water, however fhaded and flagnant, upon the top of that, or any other hill. I have feen hail indeed lie for three hours in the forenoon upon the mountains of Amid Amid.
The opinion of Democritus was, that the overflowing of the Nile was owing to the fun's attraction of fnowy vapour from the frozen mountains of the north, which being carried by the wind fouthward, and thawed by warmer climates, fell down upon Ethiopia in deluges of rain : and the fame is advanced by Agatharcidcs of Cnidus in his Periplus of the Red Sea. This opinion of Democritus, Diodorus attempts to refute, but we fhall not join him in his refutation, 4 . becaufe
becaufe we are now perfectly certain, from obfervation, that Democritus and Agatharcides both of them had fallen upon the true caufes of the inundation.
I shall now mention a treatife of a modern philofophcr, wrote exprefsly upon this fubject, I mean a difcourfe on the caufes of the inundation of the Nile, by M. de la Chambre, printed at Paris in quarto, 1665, where, in a long dedication, he modeRly alfures the king, he is perfuadcd that his majcfty will coniidcr, as one of the glories of his reign, the difcovery of the true caufe of the Nile's inundation, which he had then made, after it had baffled the inquiry of all philofophers for the fpace of 2000 years ; and, indeed, the caufe and the difcovery would have been both very remarkable, had they been attended with the leaft degree of poftl-bility. M. de la Chambre fays, that the nitre with which the ground in Egypt is impregnated, ferments like a kind of paftc, occaftoning the Nile to ferment likewife, and thus increafes the mafs of water fo much, that it fprcads over the whole land of Egypt..
Far be it from me to bear hard upon thofe attempts with which the ancients endeavoured to folve thofe phenomena, when, for want of a fufticient progrefs in expert mental philofophy and obfervation, they were generally deftitute of the proper means; but there is no excufe for a man's either believing or writing, that earth, impregnated with fo fmall a quantity of any mixture as not to be discernible to the eye, fmcll, or taftc, could periodically fwell the waters of a river, then almoft dry, to fuch an immcn-ftty, as to cover the whole plains of Egypt, and difcharge millions of tons every day into the fea, at the fame time
that
664        •    TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
that it contributed to the health of the people and the fertility of the land. It puts me in mind of an aiTertion of M. de Maillet, almoft as abfurd as de la Chambre's treatife, that the Nile, which in Egypt is the only fountain of plea-fure, of health, and plenty, has a mixture of one renth of mud during the time of the inundation: pleafant n d wholefome ftream, truly, to which Eleetditch would be Hip-pocrene.
But whatever were the conjectures of the dreamers of antiquity, modern travellers and philofophcrs, describing without fyftem or prejudice what their eyes faw have found that the inundation of Egypt has been effected by natural means, perfectly confonant with the ordinary rules of Providence, and the lawrs given for the government of the reft of the univerfc. They have found that the plentiful fall of the tropical rains produced every year at the fame time, by the action of a violent fun, has been uniformly, without miracle, the caufe of J gypt being regularly overflowed
The fun being nearly ftationary for fome days in the tropic of Capricorn, the air there becomes lo much rarifud, that the heavier winds, charged with watery particles, rufh in upon it from the Atlantic on the weft, and from the Indian Ocean on the eaft. The fouth wind, moreover, loaded with heavy vapour, condenfed in that high ridge of mountains not far fouth of the Line, which forms a fpine to the jpeninfula of Africa, and, running northward with the o-
ther two, furnifh wherewithal to rcftore the equilibrium.
i
The
The fun, having thus gathered fuch a quantity of vapours as it were to a focus, now puts them in motion, and drawing them after it in its rapid progrefs northward, on the 7th of January, for two years together, feemed to have extended its power to the atmofphere of Gondar, when, for the firft time, there appeared in the iky white, dappled, thin clouds, the fun being then diftant 340 from the zenith, without any one cloudy or dark fpeck having been feen for feveral months before. Advancing to the Line with increafed velocity, and deferibmg larger fpirals, the fun brings on a few drops of rain at Gondar the ift of March, being then diftant 50 from the zenith; thefe arc greedily abforbed by the thirfty foil, and this feems to be the far theft extent of the fun's influence, capable of cauftng rain, which then only falls in large drops, and lafts but a few minutes : the rainy feafon, however, begins mod ferioufly upon its arrival at the zenith of every place, and thefe rains continue conftant and increafmg after lie has paffed it, in his progrefs northward. Before this, green boughs and leaves appear floating in the II :har el Abiad, and fhew that, in the latitude where it rifes, the rains are already abundant. The Galla, who inhabit, or have palled that river, give account of its fituation, which lies, as far as I could ever calculate, about 50 from the Line.
In April, all the rivers in Arnhara, Begemder, and La'hi, firft difeolourcd, and then beginning to fwell, join the Kile in the feveral parts of its courfe neareft them ; the river then, from the height of its angle of inclination, forces itfelf through the ftagnant lake without mixing with it. In the beginning of May, hundreds of Ureams pour themfelvcs from Gojam, Damot, Maitiha, and Dembea, into the lake Tzana, which had become low by intenfe evaporation, but
Vol. 111. 4 F now
now begins to fill infenfibly, and contributes a large quantity of water to the Nile, before it falls down the,cataract of Alata. In the beginning of June, the fun having now palled all Abyilinia, the rivers there arc all full, and thu.n is the time of the greateft rains in Abyilinia, while it is for fome days, as it were, ilationary in the tropic of Cancer.
These rains arc collected by the four great rivers in A-byflinia; the Mareb, the Bowiha, Tacazze, and the Nile. All thefe principal, and their tributary ftreams, would, however, be abforbed, nor be able to pafs the burning deferts, or find their way into Igypt, were it not for the White River, which, riling in a country of almofl perpetual rain, joins to it a never-failing flream, equal to the Nile itfelf.
In the firft days of May, the fun, in his way to the northern tropic, is vertical over the fmall village of Cerri, the limit of the tropical rains. Not all the influence of the fun, which has already paft its zenith, and for many days has been as it were Ilationary within a few degree? of it over Syenc, in the tropic of Cancer, can bring them one inch farther to the northward, neither do any dews fall there as might be reafonably expected from the quantity of frefh and exhalable water that is then running in the Nile, though it pafles clofe by that village, and after, through that wild and dreary defert. The fact is certain, and fure-ly curious ; the caufe perhaps unknown, although it may be guefled at.
I conceive, that mountains are neceflary to occafion either rain or dew, by arrcfting and flopping the great quantity
tity of vapour which is here driven Southward before the Etefian winds. Now, all that country between Gerri and Syenc is flat and defert,fo that this interruption is wanting; and it is owing to the fame caufe, that the bounds of the tropical rains do Hop farther to the fouth ward as you travel weftward, and in place of lat 16% which is their limits at Gerri, they arc confined within lat. 140 in that pare of the kingdom of Sennaar which lies fouth and weft of that capital, where all is free from mountains till you come to thofe of Kuara and Fa-zuclo.
Yet although the fun's influence when at its greateft, is not ftrong enough to draw the boundaries of the iummer's rain farther north than Gerri, all the time that it is in the tropic of Cancer at its greateft diftance, thefe rains are then at their heavier! throughout all Abyflinia ; and Kgypt,andall its labours, would foon be fwept into the Mediterranean did not the fun now begin to change its fphcrc of action by ha-ftening its progrefs fouthward.
From Syenc the fun pafles over the defert, and arrives at Gerri; here he reveries the effects his influence had when on his paffage northward ; for whereas, in his whole courfe of declination northward, from the Line to Gerri, he brought on the rains at every place where he became vertical, fo now he cuts oft thofe rains the inftant he returns to the zenith of each of thofe places palling over Abyflinia in his journey fouthward, till arrived at the Line, in the autumnal equinox, his influence ceafes on the iidc of Abyflinia, and goes to extend itfelf to the fouthern hemifphcrc. And fo precifely is this ftupendous operation calculated, that, on the 25th of September, only three days after the cquinox,the
4 F 2 Nile
Nile is generally found at Cairo to be at its higher!:, and begins to diminfh every day after.
Thus far as to the caufe and progrefs of the Nile's inundation in our northern hemifphere ; but fo much light and confirmation is to be drawn from our confideration of the remainder of the fun's journey fouthward, that 1 am per-fuaded my following him thither will require no apology to my philofophic or inquifitive reader.
Immediately after the fun has paffed the Line he begins-the rainy feafon to the fouthward, Rill as he approaches the zenith of each place; but the fituation and necellities of this country being varied, the manner of promoting the inundation is changed. A high chain of mountains run from about 6° fouth all along the middle of the continent towards the Cape of Good Hope, and intellects the fouthern part of the peninfula nearly in the fame manner that the river Nile does the northern. A ftrong wind from the fouth, flopping the progrefs of the condenfed vapours, dallies them againft the cold fummits of this ridge of mountains, and forms many rivers which cfcape in the direction either call or weft, as the level prcfents it ft If. If this is towards the well, they fall down the lides of the mountains into the Atlantic, and if on the eaft, into the Indian Ocean. Now all thefe would be ufelefs to man, were the Etefian Winds to reign, as one would think muft be the cafe, analagous to what pafles in Egypt; nay, if any one wind prevailed, thefe rivers, Swelled with rains, would not be navigable, but another wife and. providential difpofltion has remedied this..
The
The clouds, dnvwn by the violent action of the fun, are condenfed, then broken, and fall as rain on the top of this high ridge, and fwell every river, while a wind from the ocean on the call blows like a monfoon up each of thefe Rrcams in a direction contrary to their current, during the whole time of the inundation, and this enables boats to afcend into the weftern parts of Sofala, and the interior country to the mountains, where lies the gold. The fame effect,, from the fame caufe, is produced on the wellern fide towards the Atlantic; the high ridge of mountains being placed between the different countries weft and eaft, is at once the fource of their riches, and of thofe rivers which con-duet to the trcafures which would be otherwife inacccfiiblc in the caftern parts of the kingdoms of Benin, Congo, and Angola..
There are three remarkable appearances attending the inundation of the Nile; every morning in Abyftinia \s clear, and the fun fhines. About nine, a fmall cloud, not above four feet broad, appears in the eaft, whirling violently round as if upon an axis, bnt, arrived near the zenith, it firft abates its motion, then lofes its form, and extends itfelf greatly, and feems to call up vapours from all oppofite quarters. Thefe clouds having attained nearly the fame height, rufh againft each other with great violence, and put me always in mind of j\lifha foretelling rain on Mount Carmel* The air, impelled before the heavieil mafs, or fwifteft mover, makes an impreflion of its own form in the collection of clouds oppofite, and the moment it has taken poilefiion of the fpace-
made
* i lungs, chap. x>iii. yer. 43,
made to receive it, the moR violent thunder poflible to be conceived inflantly follows, with rain; after fome hours, the fky again clears, with a wind at north, and it is always dif-agreeably cold when the thermometer is below 630.
The fecond thing remarkable is the variation of the thermometer; when the fun is in the fouthern tropic, 36^ diftant from the zenith of Gondar, it is feldom lower than 720; but it falls to 6o° and 59" when the fun is immediately vertical; fo happily does the approach of rain compenfate the heat of a too-fcorching fun.
The third is, that remarkable flop in the extent of the rains northward, when the fun, that has conducted the vapours from the Line, and fliould fecm, now more than ever, to be in pofleflion of them, is here over-ruled fuddenly, till, on its return to the zenith of Gerri, again it refumes the ab-folute command over the rain, and reconducts it to the Line to furnifh diilant deluges to the fouthward.
I cannot omit obferving here the particular difpofition of this peninfula of Africa; fuppofmga meridian line, drawn through the Cape of Good Hope, till it meets the Mediterranean where it bounds Egypt, and that this meridian has a portion of latitude that wail comprehend all Abyflinia, Nubia, and Egypt below it, this lection of the continent, from fouth to north, contains 640 divided equally by the equator, fo that, from the Line to the fouthmofl point of Africa, is 32"; and northward, to the edge of the Mediterranean, is 320 alfo : now, if on each lidc we fet off 20, thefe are the limits of the variable winds, and wc have then 300 fouth, and 300 north, within which fpace, on both fides, the % trade-
trade-winds are confined; fet ofF again 160 from the 32% that is, half the diftance between the Cape of Good Hope and the Line, and 160 between the Line and the Mediterranean, and you have the limits of the tropical rains, 160 on each fide of the equator : again, take half of 160, which is 8°, and add it to the limit of the tropical rains, that is to 160, and you have 241', which is the fituation of the tropics.— There is fomething very remarkable in this difpofition.
CHAP,
CHA P. XVI.
Egypt not the Gift of the Nile—Ancient Opinion refuted—Modern Opinion contrary to Proof and Experience.
TT is here we ihail difcufs a queftion often agitated, whether Egypt owed its exiftence to the Nile, and whether it was formerly an arm of the fea, hut in procefs of time, being filled up by the quantity of mud which the Nile dcpofited in its inundation, it at length became firm land, above the furface of the waters ? I believe this is the general opinion, as well of the books, as of the greateft part of travellers of the prefent age; it therefore merits examination, whether it is founded in fact, and obfervation, or whether it is to be ranked among the old and ill fup-ported traditions fancifully now again brought into fa-fhion.
Egypt is a valley bounded on the right and left by very rugged mountains ; it muft, therefore, occur to any one that i the
the Nile, being a torrent falling from very high ground in Ethiopia, were this valley concave, the violent rapidity, or motion, would be much likelier to carry away mud and foil, than to leave it behind in a ilate to accumulate.
The land of Egypt Hopes gently from the middle of the valley to the foot of the mountains on each fide, fo that the center is really the higheft part of the valley, and in the middle of this runs the Nile*. At right angles with the ftream large trenches are cut to the foot of the mountains, in which canals the water enters, and infenfibly flows down to the end of thefe trenches, where it diffufes itfelf over the level ground.
As the river fwells, thefe canals fill with water, which goes feeking a level to the foot of the mountains ; fo that now the flood, which begins to reftagnate towards the bank of the river, acquires no motion, as the califties are formed at right angles to the ftream. Sometimes, indeed, the river is fo high, when the rains in Ethiopia are exceflive, that the back-water joins the current of the Nile, when immediately it communicates its motion to the ftagnant water, and fweeps away every thing that is planted into the fea. It is a miftake then to aflert,—the fuller the Nile, the better for Egypt.
It has been faid by various authors, that it was nccef-fary Egypt fliould be meafured every year, on account of Vol. III. 4 0^ the
* Sec this figure in X)r Shaw, chap, it, feci. 3* p- 385*
the quantity of mud which the Nile brought down by its inundation, which fo covered the land-marks, that no proprietor knew or could difcover the limits of his own farm, and that this annual neceflity firft gave rife to the fcicnce of Geometry*. How or when Geometry was firft known and praclifed, is not my bufinefs in this place to inquire, though I think the origin here given is a very probable one. The land of Egypt was certainly meafured annually: it is as certainly fo at this very time ; and if fo, the prefent reafon for this is probably the very one which firft gave rife to it; but that this is not owing to the mud of the Nile, will appear on the ftighteft confideration ; for if Egypt increafe a foot in a hundred years, one year's increafe of foil could be but the one hundredth part of a foot, which could, hide no land-mark whatever; and we fee to this day thofe in Egypt were huge blocks of granite often with gigantic heads at the end of them; which the Nile, at the rate Herodotus fixes, of a foot in 100 years, as being added to the foil,, would not cover in feveral thoufand years.
It is abfurd to fuppofe that the Nile is to bring down \ an equal quantity of foil every year from the mountains of Abyftinia ; whatever was the cafe at firft when this river began to flow, wc arc fure now, that almoft every river and brook in Abyflinia runs in a bed of hard ftone, the earth having been long removed ; and the rivers now cannot furnifh from their rocky beds what they firft did from their earthy bottoms, when Egypt was fuppofed, according to Herodotus, to have its foundation laid in the
floods ;
Herod, lib. ii. p. 127. feci. 109.
floods; and therefore, on the firR confideration, this annual and equal increafe muft be impoftible.
At Balboch, before the Nile enters Sennaar, I made feveral hundred trials upon its fediment, as it then came down from the cultivated country of Abyftinia; I thereby found this fediment furprilingly fmall, being a mixture of fat earth, and a fmall quantity of fand. At the junction of the Nile and Aftaboras I did the fame, taking up the water from the middle of the ftream, and, having evaporated it afterwards, I found little more fediment than at Sennaar; the water was indeed whiter, and the greateft part of the fediment was fand. I repeated this experiment at Syene with the utmoft attention, where the Nile leaves Nubia, and enters Egypt, and I found the quantity of fediment fully nine times increafed from what it was at Sennaar, and in it only a trifle of black earth, all the reft being fand. The experiment at Rofctto was not fo often repeated as the others ; but the remit was, that, in the ftrength of the inundation, the fediment confifted moftly of fand, and, towards the end, was much the greater part of earth. I think thefe experiments conclufivc, as neither the Nile coming frefh from Abyflinia,-nor the Atbara, though joined by the Mareb, likewife from the fame country, brought any great quantity of foil from thence.
It was at Syene that the water fliould have been moft charged with mud, for all the acceilion it was to bring to Egypt was then in its ftream ; but there the chief part of the fediment was fand, fanned and ventilated with perpetual hot winds, and fpread on the furface of the burning defert, never refrefhed with the dew of heaven.   In that dreary
4 Qj defert,
defert, between Gooz and Syene, we faw huge pillars of this light fand ; their bafe in the earth, and heads in the clouds, crofling the wide expanfe in various directions, and, upon its becoming calm in the evening, falling to pieces, and burying themfclves in the Nile, with whofe Rream they mixed like an impalpable powder, and were hurried down the river, to compofe the many fandy iflands we fee in the; courfe of it..
It feems to be an eftablifhedfact, that water of every fort^ frefli and hilt, that of rivers, and what is Ragnant, has from early times fenfibly diminifhed through the whole world; if then the land of Egypt has been continually rifmg every year, while the quantity of water that was to cover it has become lefs, or at leaft not increafed, dearth in thefe latter years muft have been frequent in Egypt, for want of the Nile's riling to a proper height; but this is fofar from being the cafe, that, in thefe laft 34 years*, there has not been one feafon of fcarcity from the lownefs of the Nile, although the rife having been too great, and the waters too abundant, have thrice in that time occafioned famine by carrying away the millet.
If the land of Egypt increafed (as Herodotus fays) one foot in 100 years, this addition muft have appeared in the moft ancient public monuments: now, the very bafe of all the obelilks in Upper Egypt, are bare and vifible, and even the paved plane, laid vifibly on purpofe to receive the Gncr monical lhade, is not covered, nor fcarcely out of its level,
and
* Several Arabian MSS. atteft thi<>
and thefe fmall deviations are apparently owing to the falling of neighbouring buildings. There are in the plain, immediately before Thebes, two Cololfal flames*, obvioufly dcfigned for Nilomcters, covered with hieroglyphics, as well as more modern infcriptions ; thefe ftatucs are uncovered to the lowefl part of their bafe; whereas we fhould have now been walking on ground nearly equal in height to their heads. The fame may be faid of every public monument,, if there had been any truth in the furface of Egypt increa-fmg a foot in a hundred years,
It appears, at leaflas far as Fladrian's time, that if the pecut-of the Greeks be the peek of the prefent Egyptians, the fame quantity of water overflowed Egypt as now..
The advocates for the fuppofed increafe of the land of Egypt on afoot in 100 years, preffed by this obfervation,, which they cannot contradict, have chofc to evade it, by fuppofing, without foundation, that a fmaller meafure of the Nile's increafe had been introduced by the Saracens to obviate the Nile's fcantinefs, and this has landed them in a palpable abfurdity; for, while the Nile failed, the introduction of a leffer meafure would, not have increafed the crop ; and, if the quantity of grain had been exacted when it was not produced, this would have only doubled the diftrefs,and made it more apparent; this would never have occafioned the joyful cry, Wafaa Ullah, God has given us our defire, men J'tbbel, alia Jlbbel, the Nile has overflowed, from the mountains on one fide of the valley to the mountains on the other. Befides,
Shaamy and Taamy, of whom we hare already fyo^ei,
fides, there is no country in the world, perhaps, but where this trick may be played with impunity, except in Egypt, for a reafon that I am about to explain.
The extenfion of the land of Egypt northward, the diftance between it and Cyprus, and the fituation of Canopus, all ihew, that no or very little alteration has been made thefe 3000 years. Dr Shaw, and the other writers, who arc advocates for what has been advanced by Herodotus *\ that Egypt hath been produced by the Nile, have defcrted this ground of maintaining their hypothecs, and have recourfe to the Nilometcr to prove, that the foil has increafed in height, and that a greater quantity of water is neceftary now to overflow the land of Egypt than was required in the days of Homer.
If the firft part of their affertion can be proved, I fhall make no fort of difficulty of giving up the other. But I rather conceive, that none of thofe wdio have written upon this fubject hitherto, whatever degree of learning and information they may have poflefled, have pollened fuflicient data to explain this fubject intelligibly. It feems, indeed, to have remained with the fource of the river, a lecret referved for latter times.
It will be neceftary for us firft to confider what the ufe of a Nilometcr was, for what caufe it was made, and by whom.
Lt
Herod. Eut. feci. 4, 5.   Diod. Sic. lib. iii. p. 101,    Ariit. Mettorol. lib. i. cap. 14.
It is fcarcely neceffary to obferve, that, in every flate or fociety, the product or revenue mould be known, as well as what will be wanted for the fupply of the ncceilities of the people. Now, it was only the ground overflowed by the Nile that could produce grain for the fubfiflence of the inhabitants and revenue of the ftate..
The firft confideration, then, was, to know how much of the land of Egypt was overflowed in a given term of years, and how much grain was produced upon that average. This could only be afcertained by meafuring, and they, therefore, fettled with precifion the land that was overflowed from the earlieft times, and do fo to this day. Thefe actual meafurements gave them a maximum and a mini* mum, which furnifhed them with a mean, and thus they were in poffeflion of all the principles neceffary for making' aNilometer, by dividing a pillar into correfponding cubits, and divifions of cubits called digits, placing it alfo firm and perpendicular, fo as to be liable to no alteration or injury, though in the middle of the ftream.
The firft ftatcd meafure was certainly that mentioned in fcripture, the cubit, fecuudum cubitum vmlis /nanus, meafuring from the center of the round bone in the elbow to the point of the middle finger * This is ftill the meafure of all unpolifhed nations, but no medium or tcim, cxprcflive of its exact contents, having been applied, writers have differed as to the length of this cubit, and no ftandard exifting to which it might be referred, a great deal of confu-
fion
Deut. chap. iii. ver. n.
fion has thereupon followed. Dr Arbuthnot * fays, that there are two cubits in fcripture, the one, i foot 9 inches, and AVrr parts of an inch, according to our meafure, being the 4th part of a fathom, twice the fpan, and fix times the palm. The other is equal to j foot parts of a foot, or the 4oodth part of a lladium. I fhall not inquire into the grounds he goes on; I believe, however, that neither are precifely the ancient cubit of the eaR, but both are too large ; at leaft the Egyptian I found to be very exactly 1 foot 5} inches, which is 1 inches more than father Mer-fenne \ has made his Hebrew cubit. But this is of lefs confequence to us now, becaufe Herodotus % informs us, that in his time, and probably at the firft inftitution of a Ni-lometer, the meafure was the Samian cubit, which is about 18 inches Englifh, or half an inch lefs than the ancient cubit.
The reader will then confider, that the diviftons of this Nilometcr were a representation of certain facts : That the Nile's reaching to fuch a divifion correfponded to a certain quantity of corn that was fown, a proportion of the produce of which was to be paid to the king, the reft to go to the landlord and the labourer*
The Nilometer then afcertained the contra& between king and people on thefe terms, That, in the event of fo much corn being produced by the land of Egypt, fuch a tribute was to be paid: But, in cafe a certain quantity of ground, lefs than that, was overflowed, or, which is the fame thing, a lefler quantity of grain was produced, then the
4 kinS
* Encyclop. Toce Cubit,    f Vide Encyclop. tocc Cubit.   J Herod, lib. ii. fe& 1G8. p. i49»
king was not to exact his tribute, becaufe it was underftood fuch a quantity only was produced as was fufticicnt for the maintenance of the landholder and labourer. This was referred to the Nilometer, whofe divifion fhewed to what height the Nile had rifen. Men appointed by the fovereign were to fuperintend this Nilometer, and to publifh the height of the Nile, whilft the reafon why the king was to have the direction of the Nilometer, and not his fubjects, was very obvious, though it has not yet been underftood, becaufe the king could not gain by fubllituting falfc meafures, whereas the people might.
The Nile, though in an average of years it brought down nearly the fame quantity of water, yet, in particular ones, it varied fometimes more and fometimes lefs. It is like-wife obferved, like moft other rivers, to run more on one fide of the valley for fome years than to the other. The confequence of this varying and deviation was, that though, upon the whole, the quantity indicated by the Nilometer was the fame, yet nobody knew his quota, or what proportion of the whole was drawn from the property of each individual; as for this they were obliged to apply to actual menfuration, Suppoftng a man's property was a feet ion of the land of H-gypt, of 12,000 feet from the brink of the river to the mountain, and of any given breadth, 4000 feet of this perhaps were overflowed, whilft the other 8000 remained dry, and above the level of the water. The tenant, after having mca-furcd, did not till then know what his farm of 12,000 feet would give him for that year, only 4000 of which had been overflowed by the water, and was then fit for lowing 5 for this he paid his landlord the higheft rent laid upon cultiva-
Vol. III. 4 R ted
red land. But the 8000 feet that Rill remained were not equally ufelefs, though not overflowed by the inundation; for 4000 of the 8000, which lay by the bank of the river, could be overflowed by machines, and by the labour of man, when, for a certain time, the river was high enough to be within reach of machinery; fo that the value of this 4000 feet to the farmer was equal to the firfl, minus the ex-pence and trouble it coll him for watering it by labour; for this, then, he paid one half of the rent only to the landlord.
Now, though it was known that the whole farm was 12,000 feet, yet, till it was mcafured, no one could fay how much of that would be overflowed by the Nile alone, and fo manured without expence; how much was to be watered by labour, and fo pay half rent; and how much was to be incapable of any fuch cultivation, and for that year e-qually ufelefs to landlord and tenant. I fpeak not of a fuel; that happened in antiquity, but one that is neceffary and in practice at this very hour; and though a man, by this menfuration, attains to the knowledge of what his farm produces this fame year, this is no general rule, as his cultivated land next year may be doubled, or perhaps reduced to one-fourth ; and his neighbour, on the other lide of the Nile, may in his farm make up the correfpondent deficiency, or excefs ; and the average quantity produced by them both being the fame, the degree of the Nilometer will be the fame likewife.
From this it is obvious to infer, that there are two points of great advantage to the tenant; The one is, when it is
, juft
juft high enough not to pay the mcery*, for then lie has all the harveft to himfelf, and pays nothing, though lie has very near the fame quantity as if he was fubject to the tax. The other is, when near the whole of thefe 12,000 feet is overflowed by the Nile, but before the water is in contact with the current of the river; for then, though he is liable to pay the meery, he has fown the greateft part of his land poflible, without additional labour or cxpence ; more than this is lofs, for then the water of the inundation is put like-wife in motion, and all the floating pulverifcd earth that has been trode into an impalpable powder, during March, April, and May, is fwept away by the current into the fea, and nothing left but a bare, cold, hard till, which produces little, and is not eafily pulverifed by the' poor inftruments of hutbmdry there in ufe, when neither farmer nor landholder pays any thing, becaufe, indeed, there is not any receipt.
However, from this uncertainty one thing arifes which does not feem to have been underftood ; for the tenant, not knowing precifcly the quantity of feed that he may want, comes to his farm unprovided, and, being uncertain of its produce, takes his land only from year to year; the landlord furnifhes him with feed f, and even with all labouring utenfils.
And here I am to explain what I have before advanced, what to fome will feem a paradox, That the fubftituting
4 R 2 falfe
* The kin^s yearly land-tax, or rent, I Gen. chap, xlvii. ver. zo &. 23,
falfe: meafurcs in the Nilometcr by the fovereign is abftx-lutely impracticable. Suppofmg the height of the Nilometer, when at 8 cubits, Ihe wed that there was juR corn enough to maintain the inhabitants, and that the tenant knew, by the quantity of land meafurcd, that he had bare* ly what was to pay his rent and fupport his family ; this he muft know before he fowed, becaufe he; meafured immediately after the inundation ; and this he muft know likewife by the corn he borrows for feed from his landlord, who, as 1 have faid, furnifhes his tenant both with feed and labouring utenfiis. If, then, he finds he can barely maintain himfelf, and not pay his-rent, upon the proclamation at the. Nilometer, he deferts his farm, and neither plows nor fows *, but flies to Paleftine to the Arabs, or into the cities, and brings famine along with him. The next year there is a plague, and fweeps all thofe poor.wretches, in a bad ftate of health by living upon bad food, into their graves, fo that the introduction, of a fuppofed falfe meafure, directly advanced by DrShawf, and often alluded to by others, but always without poflibility of foundation, is ona of the many errors he has.-fallen into.
He knew nothing but of the Delta, never was in Upper, and no confiderable time even in Lower Egypt, but when the Nile had overflowed it, and I fuppofe never converfed with a fellah, or Egyptian peafant, in his life.   All his wonders are
in
* This was apparently the reafon why Jofeph, who had bought not only the lands, but the people of Kjjypt likewife, transferred them froai farms, not convenient for them, to o-tbers where they could thrive.    The fime they do fpontaneoufly at this day, now they are
j I>r-Sluw?. chap. ii. fe^ 3. p.
in the land of Zoan*, and his obfervations fliould have reached no further, becaufe they arc not fact, but fanciful imaginations of his own ; not from any bad intention, but becaufe he never was in the way of being better informed, but determined not to abandon a fyRem he had-once formed.
Herodotus! mentions, that in the time of Maoris, when the minimum came to be 8 Samian cubits, all Egypt below Memphis was overflowed, but that in his days it took 16 cubits, or at leaft 15, to put the lame land in like condition for cultivation; or, in other words, the minimum, when they paid their meery, was 16, or. at leaft 15 cubits in his time ; and the uncertainty of thefe two terms fhews, that there were unaccountable inequalities, even in his days, as we fhall find there have been ever fince. But I muft here beg^ leave to afk, why we fliould believe I-Ierodotus knew the management of the Nilometer more than travellers have4 done fince, as he tells us conftantly throughout this part of his hiftory, that when he inquired of the priefts concerning the Nile, they would tell him nothing about \\%\
In Maeris's time there were great lakes dug; as Herodotus fays ||, to carry off the fuperftuous water, to what place, is not faid, but furely into the defert for the ufe of the Arabs. Now, unlefs wc knew what time thefe lakes were opened to receive the ftream, we do not know whether it was the evacuation by the lake, or fcarcity of the water that impeded the rife of the Nile upon the Nilometer.   We have no*
account
* Pfulm Ixxyiii, ver. 12.   f Herod, eut. fed. 13.      \ Herod, lib. ii. feci. 10^. 0 Hefod, lib. ii. feci. 4. 101. and 149,..
account of thefe tranfactions, and we fhall be lefs inclined to rely upon them, when I fhall fhew, that the Nilometer could be of no ufe in folving this queftion at all, cither in Hcrodotus's days, or any time fince, without a previous knowledge of feveral other circumftances never yet taken into the calculation, and of which Herodotus muft have been ignorant.
But let us grant that the Nile in Mxris's time rofe only 8 cubits, and in the days of Herodotus to 16, let us fee if, at certain periods afterwards, it kept to any thing like that proportion. Above 400 years after Herodotus, Strabo travelled in Egypt; he went through the whole country from Alexandria to beyond Syene and the firft cataract; and as he is an hiftorian whofe character is cftabiifhed, both for veracity and fagacity, we may receive what he fays as unexceptionable evidence, efpecially as he travelled in fuch company as it is not probable the priefts could have refufed him any thing. Now Strabo % fays, that, in his days, 8 cubits wrcrc a minimum, or the Wafaa Ullah of the Nile's increafe ; therefore, from Maens's time to Strabo there is not an inch difference in the minimum^ and this includes the fpace of 1400 years.
It may be faid, indeed, that the paftage in Strabof imports, that, in the time of Petronius, by a particular care of the banks and califhes, the Nile at 8 peeks (or cubits) enabled the Egyptians to pay their meery without hardfhip ; but this was by particular induftry, more than what had been
in
* Strabo, lib. xiii, p. 945,      | Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 915.
in common ufe, and this, too, I conceive to be Strabo's meaning. But let us compute from Herodotus,, who fays that 16, or at leaft 15, were neceffary in his time, whibl Strabo informs us, that, before Pet:onius exerted himfelf as to the banks and califhcs juft mentioned, the extreme abundance muft then have been at 12, and the r.mumum at 10. Now, by this paftage, beyond all exception, it is clear that there could have been no increafe indicated by the Nilometer; for 10 cubits watered the whole land of. Egypt fufficiently in Stra-bo's time, whereas 16 and 15 were neceftary in the days of Flerodotus: and I muft likewife obferve,. that if we fliould fuppofe the fame induftry and attention ufed in Mairis's time that was in Petronius's, (and there is every reafon to induce us to think there was) then the proof is pofitive, that there was no difference in the foil of Egypt indicated by the Nilometcr for the firft 1400 years..
From this let us defcend to Hadrian, about 100 years afterwards. We know from Pliny*, and from an infeription upon a medal of great brafs of Fladrian's, who was himfelf in Egypt, that 16 cubits were then the fifcal term or rife of the Nile, by which the Egyptians paid their rent; and this is precifely what Flerodotus fays, in his time, was no more than fu flic rent.
Adoct the beginning of the 4th century, in the emperor Julian's reign jy 15 cubits were a fufticient minimum to incur the payment of the tribute, and this is one of the terms
v. iii. 4 r that
* Plin. lib xxxvi. cap. 7. PMlnft. de icon. Nil!, •j- Julian, Epift. egdicio prefedo Egypti.
that Herodotus fixes upon, as being fufficicnt to oblige the payment in his days; and the other is 16, or a cubit more ; lb that if the Nilometer proves any thing at ali, it is this, that prefumptivcly the Nile has never increafed from Mxris to Petronius's, or in 1400 years, and certainly that, if it has not diminilhcd, it has not increafed for 700 years from Herodotus to the emperor Julian.
Procop 1 us, in his firft book, I think, fays, that 18 peeks was too full a Nile, and occaftoncd dearth by its quantity. But, in the middle of the 6th century, tic tells* us it required 18 cubits for a minimum, by which Egypt was to pay the meery; fo that in 100 years from Julian to Jultinian, the minimum had increafed three cubits, which was 4-'- feet; not one foot in 100 years as the propofition bears ; and this would prove too much, if it was true, but it is impofti-ble.
Thus far, then, wc arc at liberty to fay, that, as long as Egypt was a Greek kingdom, no vifiblc alteration or increafe of the foil can be fairly eftablifhcd from hiftory or infpcclion.
* Procop. lib. iii. de Reb. Goth.
CHAP.
1
CHAP. XVII.
The fame Subjecl continued—Nilometer -what.  How divided and mea-
furcd.
TN the 7th century a revolution happened that ftopsour Gre-X cian account from proceeding farther, Egypt was conquered by an ignorant and barbarous enemy, thcSaracen, and Amru lbn el Aas was governor of- Egypt for Omar, the fecond Caliph after Mahomet. Omar was a foreigner, conqueror, bigot and a tyrant; he deflroycd the Grecian Nilometer from motives of religion, the fame which had before moved him to burn the library of Alexandria ; and after, with the fame degree of found judgment, determined to eflabliih his empire at Medina, in the middle of the pcninfnla of Arabia, a country without water, and furrounded on all fides with barren fand:,; but he was never;hclefs defirous of'feeding his famiihed Saracens with the wheat of Egypt, a province he had fub-dned ; for tin purpofe !e ordered Amru to begin a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, to carry the wheat to the Vol. ill. 4 S Arabian
Arabian Gulf, and thence to Yambo, the port of Medina on that gulf.
The traitor Greeks, who had delivered the country to the Saracens, had probably informed him of the great plenty which conftantly reigned in Egypt, and which every body had an opportunity of knowing by the cheapnefs of grain at the market.
til
Omar thought that a larger tribute was due to put the conquerors a little more upon a footing with the conquered ; for Egypt, which had once 20,000 cities, had not then the tenth part of them. Having therefore a larger extent to cultivate, with the fame quantity of water,it produced more grain, and at the fame time having fewer people to cat it, nothing was lefs opprellive than that a part of the furplus of the produce fhould go in augmentation of the tribute. For this purpofe, following the very weak lights of his own judgment, he introduced a different meafure on the Nilometcr, and the confequence of that meafure, impofed by a conqueror, affected the people (not reflecting upon their decrcafe in population) fo much, that they prepared to fly the country; from which it immediately would have followed, that all Egj pt would have lain defolate and uncultivated, and all Arabia been ftarved.
They were perfectly acquainted with their ancient meafure, and it is probable that Omar made an exceflive addition by the new Nilometers which he had erected; fo that faith being thereby broken between the government and people, the Egyptians let about watching the Nile upon the Nilometcr with its new meafure, as the only way of being informed when poverty or famine was to overtake them. This being 2 told
told to Omar, he ordered the new Nilometer to be dcmolifti-ed ; but as it had been part of the complaint to him, that their counting the divifions of the Mikcas * was the reafon why the people were kept in continual terror, he fhut up the accefs to Chriftians, and that prohibition continues in Cairo to this day ; and, inftead of permitting ocular infpec-tion, he ordered the daily increafe to be proclaimed, but in a manner fo unintelligible, that the ligyptians in general no longer underftood it, nor do they underftand it now; for, beginning at a given point, which was not the bottom of the Nilometer, he went on, telling the increafe by fubtracting from the upper divifion; fo that as nobody knew the lower point from which he began, although they might comprehend how much it had rifen fince the crier proclaimed its increafe, yet they never could know the height of the water that was in the Nilometer when the proclamation began, nor what the divifion was to which it had afcended on the pillar.
To underftand this, let us premife, that, on the point of the illand Rhoda, between Geeza and Cairo, near the middle of the river, but nearer to Geeza, is a round tower, and in that an apartment, in the middle of which is a very neat well, or ciftcrn, lined with marble, to which the Nile has free accefs, through a large opening like an embrafure, the bottom of the well being on the fame level with the bottom of the river. In the middle of this well rifes a thin column, as far as I can remember, of eight faces of blue and white marble, to the foot of which, if you are permitted to defcend,
4 S 2 you
* Or Nilometer.
you are then on the fame plane with the foot of the column and bottom of the river. This pillar is divided into 20 peeks, called Draa El Bcllcdy, of 22 inches each".
The two lowcrmoft pecks are not divided at all, but are left abfolutcly without mark, to Rand for the quantity of iludge the water depofits there, and which occupies the place of water. Two peeks are then divided on the right hand into 24 digits each ; then, on the left, four peeks are divided each into 24 digits; then, on the right, four; and, on the left, another four: again, four on the right, which complete the number of 18 pecks from the firft divifion marked on the pillar each of 22 inches. The whole, marked and unmarked, amounts to 36 ,^ feet Englifh.
On the night of St John, when the Nucta has fallen, that is, when they fee the rain-water from Ethiopia is fo mixed with the Nile that at Cairo it is become exhalablc, and falls down in dews upon the earth, which till that time it never docs, they then begin to cry, having five peeks of water marked on the Mikcas, and two unmarked for the fludin\
9 o *
of which they take no notice in the proclamation. rI heir firft proclamation, fuppofe the Nile hath rifen 12 digits, is x2 from fix, or it wants 12 digits to be fix peeks. When it rifes three more, it is nine from fix, or, 77/7/ dm Sine, and fo it goes on, fubtracfing the digits from the upper number, without giving you any information what that fix is, or that they began to count from five, which I fuppofe is the a£ fumed depth of the Nile before it begins to increafe.
When,
f, Vid. geometrical elevation and plan of the Mikeas.
When the river has rifen on the Mikcas eight pecks and 23 digits, they then call Wahad am erba Tup, i. e. one from 14, five pecks of water being left marked in the Mikeas, but only eight of augmentation that has rifen upon the column, according to the divilions, which make in all 13 peeks and 23 digits, which wants one from being nine of augmentation, and that being added, they cry Wafaa Ullah, which obliges the country to the payment of the mceiy. Again, fuppofe 17 pecks, or cubits, and 23 digits to Hand on the column, the cry is Wahad'a?ntcmcnTuJh, i.e. one from 18,and, upon this being filled, and the divilions complete by a certain day in AuguIt, the next is yljharccn, 20, or, menjilbel, alia jibbcl, from mountain to mountain, that is, 18 peeks marked on the pillar, and two unmarked at the foot of it, fuppofed to be covered with mud. All the land of Egypt is then fitted for cultivation ; the great canal at rVianfoura, and feveral others, arc opened, which convey the Water into the defert, and hinder any further ilagnation on the fields, though there is flill a great part of the water to come from Etiiiopia, but which would not drain foon enough, to lit the land for tillage, were the inundation fullered to go on.
Now, from thefe 16 peeks the Wofaa Ullah if wc deduce 5, which were in the well, and marked on the column when the crier began, there will have been but 11 peeks of rife as a minimum, which Rill made the mccry due, or 15, deducing 5 from 20, the mz%\n^nvc\ymen Jibbcl, alia Ji'M, the increafe that fits all Egypt ter cultivation, after which is loft and danger. Therefore, fuppofe the 16 peeks on the medal of Hadrian to have been the minimum or fifeal term, we muft infer, that the fame quantity of inundation produced
the
the JVafaa Ullah or payment of the meery, in Hadrian's time, that it does at this day, and confequently the land of E-gypt has not increafed fince his time, that is, in the laft 1600 years.
As a fummary of the whole relating to this periodical inundation of the Nile, I fhall here deliver my opinion,which I think, as it is founded upon ancient hiftory, confonant to that of intermediate times, and, invincibly eftablifhed by modern obfervation, can never be overturned by any argument whatever. And this I fhall do as Ihortly as poflible, left, having anticipated it in part by reflections explanatory of the narrative, it may at firft fight have the appearance of repetition.
It Is agreed on all hands, that Egypt, in early ages, had water enough to overflow the ground that compofed it. It was then a narrow valley as it is now ; having been early the feat of the arts, crowded with a multitude of people, enriched by the moft ftourifhing and profitable trade, and its numbers fupplied and recruited when needful by the immenfe nations to the fouthward of it, having grain and all the necelfarics and luxuries of life (oil excepted) for the great multitude which it fed, Egypt was averfe to any communication with ftrangcrs till after the foundation of Alexandria,
The firft princes, after the building of Memphis, finding the land turn broader towards the Delta, whereas before it had been a narrow ftripe confined between mountains ; ob-ferving alfo that they had great command of water for fitting their land for cultivation, nay, that great part of it ran
to
to wafle without profit, which muft have been the cafe, ftnee it is fo at this day: obferving likewife, that the fuperabun-dance of water in the Nile did harm, and that the neighbouring fandy plains of Libya needed nothing but a judicious diftribution of that water, to make it equal to the land of Egypt in fertility, and furpafs it in the variety of natural productions, applied themfelves very early to digging large lakes *, that, preferring a degree of level fiifhcient, all the year long watered the dry deferts of Libya like fo many fruitful fhowers. Geometry, architecture, and all the mechanic arts of thofe times, were employed to accompliih thofe defigns. Thefe canals and vaft works communicated one with another to imprifon the water, and fet it again at liberty at proper times.
We may be fatisfied this was obferved attentively all the time of the dynafties, or reigns of the Lgyptian princes. After the acceftion of the Ptolemies, who were ftrangcrs, the multitude of inhabitants had greatly decreafed. There was no occafion for works to water lands that were not peopled; fo far as they were neceffary for cities, gardens, and plea-fure-grounds, they were always kept up. The larger and more extenfive conduits, dykes, and fluiccs, though they were not ufed, were protected by their own folidity and ftrength from hidden ruin. Egypt, now confined within its ancient narrow valley, had water enough to keep it in culture, and make it ftill the granary of the inhabited world.
When
* We know that thefe lakes were dug, and in ufe as early as ftiofts'a time, Exod. chap vii, *er. 19. chap. viii.. ver. 5.
When the ancient race of the Ptolemies ended, a fcene of war and confufion, and bid government at home', was fncceedcd by a worfe under foreigners abroad. The number of its inhabitants was dill greatly decxeafed, and the valley had yet a quantity of water enough to lit 11 for annual culture.
In the reign of the fecond emperor after the Roman con-quell, Petronius Arbiter, a man well known for ta e and learning, was governor of Egypt, lie faw with negret decay of the magnificent works of the ancient native Egyptian princes. His fagacity penetrarcd the uferulnefs and propriety of thofe works. He law they had once made Egypt populous and flourifhing. Like a good citizen and fubject: of the ftate he ferved, and from a humane and rational attachment to that which he governed, he hoped to make it again as flourifhing under the new government as it had been under the old. Like a man of fenfe, and mailer of his fubject., he laughed at the daftardly fpirit of the modern Egyptians, anxious and trembling left the Nile fhould not overflow land enough to give them bread, when they had the power in their hands to procure plenty in abundance for fix times the number of the people then in Egypt. To fhew them this,he repaired their ancient works, railed their banks, refitted their fluices, and by thus imprifoning, as I may fay, the inundation at a proper time in the beginning, he overflowed all Egypt with 8 pecks of water, as fully, and as effectually, as to the purpofes of agriculture, as before and iince it hah been with 16 ; and did not open the fluices to allow the water to run and wafte in the defert (where there was now no le>ngcr any inhabitants), till the land of the valley of Egypt had been lb well watered as only to need i that
tiiat the inundation mould retire in time to leave the far-* mer the ground firm enough for plowing and lowing.
Let any one read what I have already quoted from Strabo; it is juft what I have here repeated, but in fewer words. Let him confider how fair an experiment this of Petronius was, that by rc-cftablifhing the works of Maoris, and putting the inundation to the fame profit that Maeris did, he found the fame quantity of water overflow the fame quantity of ground, and confequently, that the land of Egypt had not been raifed an inch from Mxris's time to that of Petronius, above 1400 years.
Now the fecond part of the queftion comes, what difference of meafure was made by the Saracens, and how does it now Hand, after that period, as to the fuppofed rife of a •foot in a hundred years ? It is now above 1100 years fince the f iirft of the Hegira, and near 900 years fince the erection of the prefent Mikcas, which being equal to the period between Maris and Herodotus, and again to that between Herodotus and Julian, wc ihould begin to be certain if any fuch increafe in the land has ever, from Maoris to the prefent time, been indicated by the Nilometcr.
The reader will "perhaps be furprifed, at what I am going to advance, That thofe writers, as well as their fupportcrs who have pronounced fo polltivery on this fubject., have not furnifhed themfelves with the data which are abfolutely neceftary to folve this queftion.  Quantity is only to be af-
Vol. III. 4 T certaincd
t A. C. 62a.
ccrtained by meafure, yet none of them have fettled that only medium of judging. The Mikcas, or .pillar, is the fubject to be meafured, and they are not yet agreed within 20 feet of its extreme height, nor about the divifion of any part of it. As this accufation appears to be a flrong one, I fhall fet down the proof for the reader's confideration, that it may not be fuppofed I mean to criticife improperly, or to do any author injuftice..
And firft of the Mikeas. Mr Thomas Humes, a gentle^ man quoted by* Dr Shaw, who had been a great many years a factor at Cairo, fays, that the Mikcas is 58 feet Englifh in height. Now, there is really no reafon why fuch an enormous pillar fhould have been built, as the Nile would drown all Cairo before it was to rife to this height; accords ingly, as we have feen, its height is not fo much by near 22 feet. Dr Perry -f next, who has wrote largely upon the fubject, fays, the Mikeas, or column, is divided into 24 peeks, and each peek or cubit is 24 inches nearly. Dr Pococke who travelled at the fame time, agrees in the divifion of 24 pecks, but fays that thefe pecks are unequal. The 16 lower he fuppofes are 21 inches, the 4 next, 24 inches, and the uppermoft, .22. So that one of thefe gentlemen makes the Mikeas 43 feet, which is above fix feet more than the truth, and the other 48, which is above 11; befides the fecond error which Dr Pococke has committed, by faying the divi-fions are of three different dimenfions, when they really are
not
^Shaw's Travels, chap. ii. feci. 3. p. 382.       f Dcfctipt. of the Eaft, vol. I. p. 256. %. A View of the Levant, p. 282. 284. 286.
not any one of them what he conceives, nor is the Mikea* divided unequally.
As for Mr Humes, who had lived long at Cairo, I would by no means be thought to infinuate a doubt of his veracity . There may, in change of times, be occaftons when ChrifUans may be admitted to the Mikeas, and be allowed to meafure exactly. This, however, mull be whh a long rod, divided and brought on purpofe, with a high Rool or fcailbld, and this fort of preparation would be attended with much dan-cr if feen in the hand of a Chriftian without, and much more if he was to attempt to apply it to the column within. At Cairo a man may fee or hear any thing he defires, by the ordinary means of gold, which no Turk can withfland or refufe ; but often one villain is paid for being your guide, and another villain, his brother,pays himfelf, by informing againft. you; the end is mifchief to yourfelf, which, if you are a ftranger, generally involves alfo your friends. You are aiked, "What did you at the Mikeas when you know it is forbidden? and your filence after that queftion is an acknowledgement of guilt; fentence immediately follows, whatever it maybe, and execution upon it. I rather am inclined to think, that though feveral Chrillians have obtained admiflion to the Mikeas, very few have had the means or inftruments, and fewer ftill the courage, to meafure this column exactly; which leads me to believe, as Dr Miaw fays, he procured the number of feet in a letter from Mr Humes, that the Doctor has miilakenjS for 38, which, in a foreign hand, is very eafily done ; it would then be 38, inftead of 58 Englifh feet, and to that number it might approach near enough, and the difference be accounted for, from an aukward manner of meafuring wTkh a trembling hand, there being then only a little more than one foot of error.
4 T 2 From
From what I have juft now mentioned, I hope it is fuftt-ciently plain to the reader, that the length and divifion of the column in the Mikeas, by which the quantity of water, and confequently the increafe of the foil, was to be determined, was utterly unknown to thofe travellers who had undertaken this mode of determining it,
I shall now inquire, whether they were better inftruciv ed in the length of that meafure, which, after the Saracen conqueft, was introduced into the Nilometer, of Geeza, where it has remained unaltered fince the year 245 ? Dr Shaw introduces the confideration of this fubject by an enumeration of many different peeks, feven of which he quotes from Arabian authors, as being then in ufe. Firft, the Homaraeus if digit of the common cubit. 2. The Ha-famean, or greater peek, of 24 digits. 3. The Belakean, lefs than the Hafamean. 4. The black cubit lefs than the Bela-lean 2y digits. 5. The Joftippazan ■§- of a digit lefs than the black cubit. 6. The Chord, or Afaba, if digit lefs than the black peek. 7. The Maharanius, 2| digits lefs than the black cubit*. Now, I will appeal to any one to what all this information amounts, when I am not told the length of the common peek to which he refers the reft, as being 14-digit, or 2 digits more or lefs. He himfelf thinks that the mcafuring peek is the Stambouline peek, but then, for computation's fake, he takes a peek of his own invention, being a medium of 4 or 5 guefles, and fixes it at 25 inches, for. which he has no authority but his own imagination.
I WILL
• Shaw, p. 380. 381.
I will not perplex the reader more with the different meafures of thefe pecks, between the Hafamean and great peek of Kalkafendas, which is 18 inches, and the black peek, a model of which Dr Bernard* has given us from an Arabic MS. at Oxford, the difference is 10 inches. The lii ft being 18 inches equal to the Samian peck, the other 28 [ inches, and from this difference we may judge, joined to the uncertainties of the height and divilions of the Mikcas, how impoffible it is for us to determine the increafe of 12 inches in a hundred years.
As the generality of writers have fixed upon the Conftantinople, or Stambouline peck, for the meafure of the Mikeas, in which choice they have erred, wc will next feek what is the meafure of the Stambouline peek, and whether they have in this article been better informed.
M. de Maillet, French conful at Cairo, fays, that this peek is equal to 2 French feet, or very nearly 26 inches of our meafure : and, to add to this another miftake, he ftates, that by this peek the Mikeas is meafured; and, for the completing of the confufion, he adds, that the Nile muft; rife 48 French feet before it covers all their lands. What he means by all their lands is to very little purpofe to inquire, for he would probably have been drowned in his clofet in which he made thefe computations, long before he had feen the Nile at that height, or near it.
Without, then, wandering longer in this extraordinary confufion, which I have only ftated to fhew that a traveller
4 may
* Dcicript. de I'Egypte, p. Co.
is
may differ from Dr Shaw, and yet be right, and that this writer, however learned he may be, cannot, for want of information, be competent to folve this queftion which he fo much infills upon, I fliall now, with great fubmiillon to the judgment of my reader, endeavour to explain, in as few words as poflible, how the real ftate of the matter Rands, and he will then apply it as he pleafes.
There was a very ingenious gentleman whom I met with at Cairo, M. Antes, a German by birth, and of the Moravian perfuafion, who, both to open to himfelf more freely the opportunities of propagating his religious tenets, and to gratify his own mechanical turn, rather than from a view of gain, to which all his fociety are (as he was) perfectly indifferent, exercifed the trade of watch-maker at Cairo, This very worthy and fagacious young man was often my unwearied and ufeful partner in many inquiries and trials, as to the manner of executing fome inftruments in the moft compendious form for experiments propofed to be made in my travels.   By his afthlance, I formed a rod of brafs, of half an inch fquare, and of a thicknefs which did notcafily warp, and would not alter its dimenfions unlefs with a violent heat.   Upon the three faces of this brafen rod we traced, with good glaffcs and dividers, the meafure of three different peeks, then the only three known in Cairo, the exact length of which was taken from the ftandard model furnifhed me by the Cadi,   fhe firft was the Stambouline, or Conftantinople peek, exactly 23 } inches ; the fecond, the f lendaizy, of 24-/^ inches; and the third the peek El Belledy, of 22 inches, all Englifh meafure.
It
It was natural to fuppofe, that, after knowing i.s we do, that no alteration has been made in the Mikeas fince the245th year of the Hegira, that the peek of Constantinople, a foreign meafure, was probably then not known, nor introduced into Egypt; nor, till after the conqueft of Sultan Se-lim, in the year 1516, was it likely to be the peek with which the Mikeas was meafurcd. It did not, as 1 conceive, exift in the 245th of the Hegira, though, even if it had, its dimenfions may have been widely dilFcrent from thofe fixed upon by the number of writers whofe authority we have quoted, but who do not agree. It was not likely to be the Hendai/y peck either, for this, too, was a foreign meafure, originally from the ifland of Mcroe, and well known to the Egyptians in Upper Egypt, but not at all to the Saracens their prefent matters. The peek, El Belledy, the meafure in common ufe, and known to all the Egyptians, was the proper cubit to be employed in an operation which concerned a whole nation, and was, therefore, the meafure made ufe of in the divifion of the Mikcas, for that column, . as I have faid, is divided equally into peeks, or draas, called Draa El Belkdy, confifting of 22 inches ; and each of thefe peeks is again divided into 24 digits. .
Avery ingenious author, who treats of the particular circumftances of thofe times, in his MS. called Han el Moba-derat, fays, that the inhabitants of Seide counted 24 peeks on their Nilometer, when there were 18 peeks marked as the rife of the water upon the Mikeas at Rhoda ; and this fhews perfectly two things: FirR, That they knew the whole fe-cret of counting there both by the marked and unmarked part of the column ; for the peek of the Mikeas being 22 inches Englifh, it was, by confequence, four inches larger
each
each peck than the Samian peek; fo that if, to 20 peeks of Seide, you add twenty times four inches, which is 80, the difference of the two peeks, when divided by 18, gives four, which, added to the 20 peeks on the column, make 24 peeks, the number fought. Secondly, That this obfervation in the Han el Mohaderat fufficicntly confirms what I have faid both of the length of the column and length of the peek ; that the former is 20 peeks in height, and that the meafure, by which this is afcertained, is the peek El Belledy of 22 inches, as it appears on the brafs rod, four inches longer than the Samian peek, and confequently is not the peek of Stambouline, nor any foreign meafure whatever.
A traveller thinks he has attained to a great deal of prccilion, when, obferving 18 peeks on the higheft divifion of the column from its bafe, or bottom of the well, he finds it 37 feet; he divides this by 18, and the quotient is 24 inches; when he fliould divide it by 20, and the anfwer would be 22 and a fraction, the true content of the peek El Belledy, or peck of the Mikeas. This erroneous divifion of his he calls the peck of the Mikeas; and comparing it with what authors, lefs informed than himfelf, have faid, he names the Stambouline peek, and then the black peek, when it really is his own peek, the creature of his own error or inadvertence ; but, as he does not know this, it is handed down from traveller to traveller, till unfortunately it is adopted by fome man of reputation, and it then becomes, as in this cafe, a fort of literary crime to any man, from the authority of his own eyes and hands, to difputc it.
Mr
Mr Pococke makes two very curious and fenfible remarks in point of fact, but of which he does not know the reafon. " The Nile, lie fays, in the beginning, turns red, and fometimes green ; then the waters are unwholefome. Hefuppofes that the fource of the Nile beginning to flow plentifully, the waters at firft bring away that green or red filth which may be about the lakes at its rife, or at the rife of thefe fmall rivers that flow into it, near its principal fource ; for, though there is fo little water in the Nile, when at loweft, that there is hardly any current in many parts of it, yet it cannot be fuppofed that the water fliould ftagnate in the bed of the Nile, fo as to become green. Afterwards the water becomes very red and ftill more turbid, and then it begins to be whole fome V
The true reafon of this appearance is from thofe immenfe niarfhes fpread over the country about Narcaand Caffa,wherc there is little level, and where the water accumulates, and is llagnant, before it overflows into the river Abiad, which rifes there. The overflowing of thefe immenfe marfhes carry firft that difcoloured water into Egypt, then follows, in Abyf-finia,the overflowing of the great lake Tzana, through which the Nile pafles, which, having been ftagnated and without rain for fix months, under a fcorching fun, joins its putrid waters with the firft. There arc, moreover, very few rivers in Abyflinia that run after November, as they Hand in prodigious pools below, in the country of the Shangalla, and afford drink for the elephant, and habitation and food for the hippopotamus. Thefe pools likewife throw off their ftagnant water into the Nile on receiving the firft rains ;
Vol. III. 4U at
* Pococke, vol. i. p. 199. 200.
at laft the rivers, marines, and lakes, being refrefhed by lhowers, (the rain becoming conftant) and palling through the kingdom of Sennaar, the foil of which is a red bole ; This mixture, and the moving lands of the deferts, fall into the current, and precipitate all the vifcous and putrid fubftanccs, which cohere and float in the river; and thence (as Pococke has well obferved) the ftgn of the Nile being wholcfomc, is not when it is clear and green, but when mingled with frefh water, and after precipitation it becomes red and turbid, and ftains the water of the Mediterranean.
The next remark of Mr Pococke * is equally true. It has been obferved, fays he, that after the rainy feafon is over, the Nile fallen, and the whole country drained from inundation, it has begun again to rife ; and he gives an inftance of that in December 1737, when it had a fudden increafe, which alarmed all Egypt, where the received opinion was that it prefaged calamities. This alfo is faid to have happened in the time of Cleopatra, when their government was fubverted, their ancient race of kings extinguifhed in the perfon of that princefs, and Egypt became a province to the Romans.
The reader will not expect, in thefe enlightened times, that I fliould ufe arguments to convince him, that this riling of the Nile had nothing to do with the extinction of the race of the Ptolemies, though popular preachers and prophets have always made ufe of thefe fortuitous events to confirm the vulgar in their prejudices.
The
* Pococke,. vol. i. p. 201.
The rains, that ceafc in Abyflinia about the 8th of September, leave generally a iickly feafon in the low country; but other rains begin towards the end of October, in the lall days of the Ethiopic month Tekemt, which continue moderately about three weeks, and end the 8th of November, or the 12th of the Ethiopic month Hcdar. All ficknefs and epidemical difeafes then difappear, and the 8th of that month is the feaft of St Michael, the day the king marches, and his army begins their campaign ; but the eifect of thefe fecond rains feldom make any, or a very lhort appearance in Egypt, all the canals being open. But thefe are the rains upon which depend their latter crops, and for which the Agows, at the fource of the Nile, pray to the river, or to the genius reiiding in the river. We had plentiful lhowers both in going and coming to that province, efpecially in our journey out. Whenever thefe rains prove exceflivc, as in fome particular years it feems they do, though but very rarely, the land-floods, and thofe from the marines, falling upon the ground, already much hardened and broken into chafms, by two months intenfe heat of the fun, run violently into the Nile without linking into the earth. The confequence is this temporary riling of the Nile in December, which is as unconnected with the good and bad crops of Egypt, as it is on thofe of Palclline or Syria.
The quantity of rain that falls in Ethiopia varies greatly from year to year, as do the months in which it falls. The quantity that fell, during 1770, in Gondar, between the vernal equinox and the 8th of September, through a funnel of one foot En glifii in diameter, was 35-555 inches ; and, in
4 ^T 2 1771,
1771, the quantity that fell in the fame circumference was 41.355 inches in the fame fpacc *.
In 1770, Auguft was the rainy month; in 1771 July. Both
thefe years the people paid the mcery, and the Wafaa Ullah was in Auguft. When July is the rainy month, the rains generally ceafe for fome days in the beginning of Auguft, and then a prodigious deal falls in the latter end of that month and the firft week of September. In other years, July and Auguft are the violent rainy months, whilft June is fair. And laftly, in others, May, June, July, Auguft and the firft week of September. Now we fhall fuppofe (which is the moft common cafe of all) that every month from June doubles its rain. The Wafaa Ullah generally takes place a-bout the 9th of Auguft, the tribute being then due, and all attention to the Mikeas is abandoned at 14 real pecks, the Caliih is then cut, and the water let down to the Delta.
Now thefe 14 peeks arc not a proof how much water there is to overflow the land ; for fuppofing nine days for its paffage from Ethiopia, then the 9th of Auguft receives at Cairo no later rains than thofe that have fallen the ill of Auguft in Ethiopia, and from that date till the 17th of September, the Nile increafes one third of its whole inundation, which is never fuffercd to appear on the Mikeas, but is turned down to the lakes in the Delta, as I fuppofe it always has been ; fo that the quantity of water which falls in Ethiopia hath never yet been afcertained, and never can be by the Mikeas, nor can it ever be known what quantity
of
* Sec Table, or Regifter of Ruin, that fell in thefe ycar?t inferted at the end of Lhis volume.
of water comes in to Egypt, or what quantity of ground it is fufheient to overflow, unlefs the dykes were to be kept clofe till the Nile attained its extreme height,which would be about the 25th of September, long before which it would be over the banks and mounds, if they held in till then, or have fwept Cairo and all the Delta into the Mediterranean, and if it fliould not do that, it would retire fo late from the fields as to leave the ground in no condition to be fown that yean
I do not comprehend what idea other travellers have formed of the beginning of the inundation of the Nile, as they feem to admit that the banks are not overflowed; and this is certainly the cafe ; becaufe the cities and villages arc built there as fecurely as on the higheit part of t gypt, and even when .the Nile has rifen to its greateft height they ftill are obliged to water thofe fpots with machines, In another part of the work it is explained how the califlics carry the water upon the lands, approaching ahvays to the banks as the river rifes in proportion, and thefe califhe^ being derived from the Nile at right angles with.the ftream, and carrying the water by the inclination of the ground, in a direction different from the courfe of the river, the water is perfectly ftagnated at the foot of the hills, till accumulated as the ftream rifes, it moves in a contrary direction backwards again, and approaches its banks. But when the inundation is fo great that the back-water comes in contact with the current of the Nile, by known laws it mud partake the fame motion with it, and fo all Egypt become one torrent.
Dir
)
Dr Shaw, indeed *, fays, that there feems to be a defcent from the banks to the foot of the mountains, but this he confiders as an optic fallacy; I wilh he had told us upon what principle of optics ; but if it was really fo, how comes it that the banks are every year dry, when the foot of the mountains is at fame time under inundation ; or, in other words, what is the reafon of that undifputed fact, that the foot of the mountains is laid under water in the beginning of the rivers riling, while the ground which they cultivate by labour near the banks, cannot fupply itfelf from the river by machines, till near the height of the inundation ? thefe facts will not be contravened by any traveller, who has ever been in Upper Egypt; but if this had been admitted as truth inltcad of an optic fallacy, this queftion would have immediately followed. If the land of Egypt at the foot of the mountains, is the lowed, the firft overflowed, and the longeft covered with water, and often the only part overflowed at all, whence can it arife that it is not upon a level with the banks of the river if it is true that the land of Egypt receives additional height every year by the mud from Abyflinia depofited by the ftream ? and this queftion would not have been fo eafily anfwer-ed.
The Nile for thefe thirty years has but once fo failed as to occafion dearth, but never in that period fo as to produce famine in Egypt. The redundance of the water fweeping every thing before it, has thrice been the caufe, not of dearth, hut of famine and emigration ; but careleilhcfs, I 4 believe,
* Shaw's Travels, fitft. 4. p. .;oi.
believe, hath been, the occafion of both, and very often the malice of the Arabs; for there are in Egypt, from Siout downwards, great remains of ancient works, valt lakes, canals, and large conduits for water, deftined by the ancients to keep this river under controul, ferving as refervoirs to fupply a fcanty year, and as drains, or outlets, to prevent the over abundance of water in wet years, by fpreading it in the thirfty fands of Libya to the great advantage of the Arabs, rather than letting it run to wafle in the Mediterranean. The mouths of thefe immenfe drains being out of repair, in a fcanty year, contribute by their evacuation to make it Rill fcantier by not retaining water, and if after a dearth they are well fecured, or railed too high, and a wet feafon follows, they then occafion a deftructive inundation-
I hope I have now fatisfied the reader, that Egypt was never an arm of the fea, or formed by fediments brought down in the Nile, but that it was created with other parts of the globe at the fame time, and for the fame purpofes; and we are warranted to fay this, till we receive from the hand of Providence a work of fuch imperfection, that its deflruction can be calculated from the very means by which it was firft formed, and which wrerc the apparent fources of its beauty and pre-eminence. Egypt, like other countries, will perifh by the fat of Flim that made it, but when, or in what manner, lies hid where it ought to be, inaccclllble to the ufelefs, vain inquiries, and idle fpeculations of man.
CHAP.
CHAP. XVITI.
Inquiry about the ToJJibtlity of changing the Courfe of the Nile—Caufe of
the Nucla.
T T has been thought a problem that merited to be confidcr-^ ed, Whether ir was poflible to turn the current of the Nile into the Red - ea, and thereby to famifh Igypt ? I think the qu (libii Ihould more properly be, Whether the water of the Nile, running mtoEgvpt, could be fo diminifhed, or diverted, that it Ihould never be fufficicnt to prepare that country for annual cultivation ? Now to this it is anlwered, That there fccm> to be no doubt but that it is poflible, becaufe the Nile, and all the rivers that run into it, and all the rains thai iwell thofe rivers, fall in a country fully two miles a-bove the level of the fea ; therefore, it cannot be denied, that there is level enough to divert many of the rivers into the Fed >;ea, the Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, or, perhaps, fliil eafier, by turning the courfe of the river Abiad till it me ts
be lev* 1 of the Niger, or pafs through the defert into the
•: •.-   ' mean.
Lalti'Ala,
Lalibala, as we have already feen, attempted the former method with great appearance of fuccefs ; and this prince, to whom the accidental circumftances of the time had given extraordinary powers, and who was otherwife a man of great capacity and refolution, might, if he had perfe-vered, completed his purpofe, the thing being poflible, that is, no law of nature againft it, and all difficulties ate only-relative to the powers veiled in thofe who are engaged in the undertaking. Alexander the Great would have fuc-ceeded—his father Philip would have mifcarricd—Lewis the XIV. would perhaps have accomplifhcd it, as eafily as he united the two feas by the canal of Languedoc, and with the fame engineers; but he is the only European prince of whom this could have been expected with any degree of probability.
Alphonso Albuquerque, viceroy of India, is faid to have wrote frequently to the king of Portugal, Don Emanuel, to fend him fome pioneers from Madeira, people accuftc tried to level ground, and prepare it for fugar-canes, with whofe afliftance he was to execute that enterprise of turning the Nile into the Red Sea, and famifhing Egypt. His fon mentions this very improbable ftory in his * father's commentaries; and he fays further, that he imaginesitmight have been done, becaufe it was a known fact that the Arabs in Upper Egypt, when in rebellion againft the Soldan, ufed to interrupt the courfe of the canal between Coffeiron the Red Sea, and Kenna in Egypt.
Vol. III. 4 X Tellez
- Alph. d'Albu^ucrquc, Comment, lib. iv. cap. 7.
Tellez and le Grande, mentioning the two opinions of the father and the fon upon this fubject, give great praife to the fon at the cxpcnce of the father, but without reafon.
In the firft place, wc have feen that the utmoft exertion Don Emanuel could make was to fend 400 men to allift the king of Abyflinia, whofe country was then almoft conquered by the Turks and Moors. It was not then from India we were to expect the execution of fo arduous an undertaking. And as to the fecond, the younger Albuquerque is mif-taken cgregioufly in point of fact, for there never was a canal between Cofleir and Kcnna, the goods from the Red Sea were tranfported by a caravan, and arc fo yet. Wc have feen, in the beginning of this work, the account of my travelling thither from Kcnna; this intercourfe probably was often interrupted by the Arabs in the days he mentions, and fo it is ftill; but it is the caravan, not the canal, that is ftopt by/ the Arabs, for no canal ever cxifteck
The fum of all this ftory is, a long and violent perfecution
followed theconqucft of Egypt by the Saracens, who were ac-cuftonicd to live in tents, which, with their diilike to the Chriftian. churches, made them deftroy all the buildings of ftone, as alfo perfecute the mafons, whom they considered as being craplo} ed in the advancement of idolatry: thefe unhappy workmen, therefore, fled in numbers to LaLbala, an Abyflinian prince of their own religion, who employed them in many ftupendous works for diverting the Nile into the Red Sea, or the Indian Ocean, which I have already defcribed, and which exift entire to this day*.
This
* Vol..I..b.. ii. chap. 8.
Tins idea, indeed, had fubftftcd as long as the royal family lived in the fouth part of Abyflinia, in Shoa, in the neighbourhood, and fometimes on the very fpot where the attempt was made. When the court, however, removed northward, and the princes, no longer confined in Gefhen, (a mountain in Amhara) were imprifoned, as they now are, in Wechne, in Beleflen, near Gondar, thefe tranfaclions of remote times and places were gradually forgot, and often mifrcprcfented ; though, fo far down as the beginning of this century, we find Tecla Haimanout I. * (king of Abyifinia) expoftulating by a letter with the hatha of Cairo upon the m tr terdf the French envoy M. duRoule, and threateningthe Turkifh regency, that, if they perfifted in fuch mifbehaviour, he would make the Nile the ii llrument of his vengeance, the keys of which were in his hand, to give them famine or plenty, as they fliould deferve of him. In my time, no fen-Able man in Abyflinia believed that fuch a thing was pof-fible, and few that it had ever been attempted.
As for the opinion of thofe, that the Nile may be turned into the Red Sea from Nubia or Egypt, it deferves no anfwer. What could be the motive of fuch an undertaking? Would the Egyptians fulfer fuch an operation to be carried on in their own country for the fake of ftarving themfelvcs ? and if the country had been taken from them by an enemy, Rill it could not be the interefl of that conqueror to let the inhabitants, now become his fubjecls, pcrifh, and much lefs to reduce them to the necefiity of fo doing by fuch an undertaking.
4X2 Much
* See this letter in the life of that prir.ee.
Much has been wrote about a miraculous drop, or dew, called Gotta, or Nucta, which falls in Egypt precifely on St John's day, and is believed to be the peculiar gift of that faint; it ftops the plague, caufes dough to leaven, or ferment, and announces a fpeedy and plentiful inundation.
I hope my reader will not expect that I fliould enter into . the difcuflion of the part St John is thought to have in this event, my bufinefs is only.with natural caufes.
Memphis and Alexandria, and all the ancient cities of Lower Egypt, Rand upon cifterns, into which the Nile, upon its overflowing, was admitted, and there remained till it had. depofited all its fediment, and became fit for drinking. Thefe cifterns are now full of filth; though indifrepair, the water, when the Nile is high infinuates itfelf into them through the broken conduits.
In February and March the fun 13 on its approach to the zenith of one extremity of Egypt, and of courfe has a very confiderable influence upon the other. The Nile being now fallen low, the water in the cifterns putrifics, and the river itfelf has loft all its volatile and finer parts by the continued action of a vertical fun ; fo that, inftead of being fubject to evaporation, it becomes daily more and more inclined to putrefaction.- About St John's day * it receives a plentiful mixture of the frefh and fallen rain from Ethiopia, which dilutes and refrefhes the almoft corrupted river, and the fun
near
* In .Abyflinia, the 24th June.
near at hand exerts its natural influence upon the water,-which now is become light enough to be exhaled, though it has Hill with it a mixture of the corrupted fluid, fo that it rifes but a fmall height during the firR few days of the inundation, then falls down and returns to the earth in plentiful and abundant dews; and that this is really fo, I am pcr-fuaded from what I obferved myfelf at Cairo.
My quadrant was placed on the flat roof, or terrafs, of a gentleman's houfe where 1 was taking obfervations ; I had gone down to fupper, and foon after returned, when I found the brafs limb of the quadrant covered with fmall drops of dew, which were turned to a perfect: green, or copperas colour; and this green had fo corroded the brafs in an hour's time, that the marks remained on the limb of the quadrant for fix months ; and the cavities made by the corrofion . were plainly difccrnible through a micro-fcope. .
It is in February, March, or April only, that the plague begins in Egypt. I do not believe it an endemial difeale, I rather think it comes from Conflantinople with mcrchandife, or paffengers, and at this time of the year that the air having attained a degree of putridity proper to receive it by the long abfence of dews, the infection is thereto joined, and continues to rage till the period I juft fpoke of, when it is fuddenly flopped by the dews occafioncd by a refrefhing mixture of rain-water, which is poured out into the Nile at the beginning of the inundation.
The firft and moft remarkable fign of the change brought about in the air is the fudden flopping of the plague at.
2. Saint
Saint John's day; every perfon, though fhut up from focicty for months before, buys, fells, and communicates with his neighbour without any fort of apprehenfion ; and it was never known, as far as I could learn upon fair inquiry, that one fell fick of the plague after this anniverfary : it will be obferved I don't fay died; there are, I know, examples of that, though I believe but few; the plague is not always a difeafe that fuddcnly terminates, it often takes a confiderable time to come to a head, appearing only by fymptoms; fo that people taken ill, under the molt putrid influence of the air, linger on, ftruggling with the difeafe which has already got fuch hold that they cannot recover ; but What I fay, and mean is, that no perfon is taken ill of the plague fo as to die after the dew has fallen in June ; and no fymptoms of the plague are ever commonly feen in Egypt but in thofe fpring months already mentioned, the greater part of which are totally dellitute of moifture.
I think the inftance I am going to give, which is univer-fully known, and cannot be denied, brings this fo home that bo doubt can remain of the origin of this dew, and its powerful effects upon the plague.
The Turks and Moors arc known to be prcdcflinarians; they believe the hour of man's death is fo immutably fixed that nothing can either advance or defer it an inftant. Secure in this principle, they expofe in the market-place, immediately after Saint John's day, the clothes of the many thoufands that have died during the late continuance of the plague, all which imbibe the moift air of the evening and the morning, are handled, bought, put on, and worn without any apprehenfion of danger; and though thefe i confift
<*onfift of furs, cotton, filk, and woollen cloths, which are ftulf\ the mot retentive of the infection, no accident happens to thofe who wear them from this their happy confidence.
I shall here fum up all that I have to fay relating to the river Nile, with a tradition handed down to us by flerodotus, the father of ancient hiftory, upon which moderns lefs inftructcd have grafted a number of errors. Herodotus * fays, that he was informed by the fecretary of Minerva's trcafury, that one half of the water of the Nile flowed due north into Egypt, while the other half took an oppofite courfe, and flowed direetly fouth into Ethiopia.
The fecretary was probably of that country himfelf, and feems by his obfervation to have known more of it than all the ancients together. In fact, we have feen that, between 130 and 140 N. latitude, the Nile, with all its tributary ilreams, which have their rife and courfe within the tropical rains,, falls down into the flat country, (the kingdom of Sennaar), which is more than a mile lower than the high country in Abyilinia, and thence, with a little inclination, it runs into Egypt..
Again, in lat. 90 in the kingdom of Omgcro, the Zehce runs fouth, or fouth-cail, into the inner Ethiopia, as do alibi many other rivers, and, as I have heard from the natives of that country, empty thenitelvcs into a lake, as thofe on the north of the Line do into the lake Tzana; thence diflributc:
their
*'lkrod. lib. ii. p. <jS. Ct&, 28,
their waters to the can: and to the wed. Thefe become the heads of great rivers that run through the interior countries of Ethiopia (corre('ponding to the fea-coait of Mclinda and Mombaza) into the Indian Ocean, whiht, on the weft-ward, they are the origin of the vaft flreams that fall into the Atlantic, palling through Benin and Congo, fouthward of the river Camber, and the Sierraleona.
In fhort, the periodical rains from the tropic of Capricorn to the Line, being in equal quantity with thofe that fall between the Line and the tropic of Cancer, it is plain, that if the land of Ethiopia Hoped equally from the Line fouthward and northward, half of the rains that fall on each fide would go north, and half fouth, but as the ground from N. declines all fouthward, it follows that the river wdiich runs to the fouthward muft be equal to thofe that run to the northward,plus the rain that falls in the 50 north latitude, where the ground begins to Hope to the fouthward, and there can be little doubt this is at leaft one of the reafons why there arc in the fouthern continent fo many rivers larger than the Nile that run both into the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
From this very truemnd fcnftble relation handed to us by Herodotus, from the authority of the fecretary of Minerva, the Nubian geographer has framed a fiction of his own, which is, that the river Nile divides itfelf into two branches,one of which runs into Egypt northward, and one through the country of the negroes weftward, into the Atlantic Ocean. And this opinion has been greedily adopted by M. Ludolf*,
who
* Vid. Ludolf in Proemio Hiftor. /AUiop. I, 8. Id. lib. i, cap. viii, 178. Leo Africam.-s jn defcrip. Africa., lib. i. cap. vii.
-who cites the authority of Leo Africanus, and that of his monk Gregory, both of them, in thefe refpects, fully as much miRakcn as the Nubian geographer himfelf. M.Ludolf, after quoting a paftage of Pliny, tells us that he had confuhed the famous Bochart upon that fubject, whether the Nile and the Niger (the river that runs through Nigritia into the Wcftern Ocean) were one and the fame river ? The famous Bochart anfwers him peremptorily in the true fpirit of a fchoolman,—-That there is nothing more certain than that the Niger is a part of the river Nile. With great fubmiftion, however, I muft venture to fay there is not the leaft foundation for this allertion.
Pliny feems the firft who gave rife to it, but he fpeaks mod eft ly upon the fubjec% giving his reafons as he goes along. " Nigh fluvio eadem natura, qua: Nilo, calamum " & papyrum, & cafdem gignit animantes, iifdemque " temporibus augefcit. *V That it has the fame foil from which the Nile takes its colour, the water is the fame in tafte, produces the fame reeds, and efpecially the papyrus; has the fame animals in it, fuch as the crocodile and hippopotamus, and overflows at the fame feafon ; this is faying •nothing but what may be applied with equal truth to every other river between the northern tropic and the Line ; but the other two authors, the Nubian and the monk, aflcrt each of them a direct, falfehood. The Nubian fays, that if the Nile carried all the rains that fall in Abyftinia down into Egypt, the people would not be fafe in their houfes. To this I anfwer by a matter of fact, the map of the whole
Vol. III. 4 Y courfe
• Plio, !ib. *. cap. 8.
courfe of the Nile is before the reader ; and it is plain front thence, that the whole rain in Abyffinia muft now go, and ever has gone down into Egypt, and yet the people are very fafe in their houfes, and very feldom is the whole land of Egypt compleatly overflowed : and it is by no means lefs certain from the fame inflection, that, unlefs a river as large as the Nile, conftantly full, having its rife in countries fubject to perpetual rains, and pouring its Rream, which never decreafes, into that river, as the Abiad docs at Halfaia, all the waters in Abyffinia collected in the Nile would not be fufficient to pafs its fcanty Rream through the burning defer ts of Nubia and the Barabra, fo as it fliould be of any utility when arrived in Egypt.
The next falfehood in point of fact is that of the monk Gregory, who fays that this left branch of the Nile parts from it, after having paffed the kingdom of Dongola into Nubia, after which it runs through Elvah, and fo down the defert into the Mediterranean, between the Cyrenaicum and Alexandria, Now, firR, wc know, from the authority of all antiquity, that there is not a defert more deftitute of rivers than that of the Thebaid. This want of water-(not the diftance) made the voyage to the temple of Jupiter Amnion an enterprife next to defperate, and fo worthy of Alexander, who never, however, met a river in his way; had there been there fuch a ftream, there could be no doubt that the banks of it would have been fully as well inhabited as thofe of the Nile, and the thebaid confequently no defert.   Bclidcs the caravans, which for
ages
ages patted between Egypt and Sennaar, mufl: have feen this river, and drunk of it; fo muft the travellers, in the beginning of this century, Poncet and M. du Roule. They were both at Elvah; and, palling through the dreary deferts of Selima, they muft have gone along its fide, and crofted it, where it parted from the Nile in their journey to Sennaar. Whereas we know they never faw running water from the time they left the Nile at Siout in Egypt, till they fell in again with it at Mofcho, during which period they had nothing but well water, which they carried in fkins with them.
The diftrict: of Elvah is the Oafis Magna and Oafis Parva of the ancients; large plentiful fprings breaking out in the middle of the burning fands, and running conftantly without diminution, have invited inhabitants to flock around them. Thefe conduding'.olf the water that fpills over the fountain by trenches, the neighbouring lands have quickly produced a plentiful vegetation : gardens and verdure arc fpread on every fide, large groves of palm tree have been planted, and the overflowings of every fountain have produced a little paradife, like fo many beautiful and fruitful iflands amidft an immenfe ocean.
The coaft of the Mediterranean, from the Cyrcnaicum or Ptolemaid (that is, the coaft from Bcngazi, or Dcrna, to Alexandria) is well known by the fhipping of every nation; but what pilot or paftcnger ever faw this magnificent watering-place in that defert coaft, where this branch of the Nile comes down into the Mediterranean ? Befides, the author of this fable betrays his ignorance in the very begin-
4 Y 2 ningv
ning, where he derives this left branch of the Nile from the principal river, and fays, that, after palling the kingdom? of Dongola, it enters Nubia. Now, when it entered Dongola it muft have already palled Nubia, for Dongola is the capital of the Barabra, every inch of which is to the northward of Nubia. I do not know worfe guides in the geography of Africa than Leo Africanus and the Nubian geographer. I believe them both impoftors, and the commentators upon them have greatly increafed by their own conjectures, the confufion and errors which the text has everywhere occafioncd.
As far as I have been ever able to learn, by a very diligent and cautious inquiry, from the inhabitants of the neighbours ing countries, 1 believe the origin of the Niger is in lat. 11" north, and in long. 300 from the meridian of Greenwich nearly; that it is compofed of various rivers failing down the fides of very high mountains, called Dyre and 'J egla ; and runs ftraight weft into the heart of Africa. 1 conclude alfo, that this river (though it has abundant fiipply from every mountain) is very much diminifhed by evaporation,running in a long courfe upon the very limits of the tropical rains, when entire, under the name of Senega ; or, perhaps, wdien divided under thofe of Senega and Gambia, it lofes itfelf in the Atlantic Ocean. 1 conceive alfo, that, as Pliny fays, it has the fame tafte and natural produetions with the1 Nile, becaufe it runs in the fame climate, and like that liver owes, if not its exiftence, yet certainly its increafe and ful-nefs to the fame caufe, the tropical rains in the northern; hemilphcre falling from high mountains.
I iiobe;
I hope I have now fully exhaufted every fubject worthy of inquiry as to the place where the fountains of the Nile are fituated, alfo as to its courfe and various names, the different countries through which it flows, the true caufe, and every thing curious attending its inundations; and that as, in old times, Caput Nili Quserere, to feek the fource of the Nile, was a proverb in ufe to fignify the impoflibility of an attempt, it may hereafter be applied, with as much reafon, to> denote the inutility of any fuch undertakings.
CHAP,
=^3
CHAP. XIX.
Kind reception among the Agows—Their Number, Trade, Character,
&c.
A ETER having given my reader ft> long, though. I X jl hope, no unentertaining lecture, it is time to go ba :k to Woldo, whom we had left fettling our reception with the chief of the village of Geefh. We found the meafures taken by this man fuch as convinced us at once of his capacity and attachment. The miferable Agows, affembled all around him, were too much intercfted in the appearance we made, not to be exceedingly inquiHtive how long our Hay was to be among them. They faw, by the horfe driven before us, wc belonged to Fafil, and fufpected, for the fame reafon, that they were to maintain us, or, in other words, that wc fhould live at difcrction upon them as long as we chofe to tarry there ; but Woldo, with great addrefs, had difpcllcd thefe fears almoft as foon as they were formed.
3 He
He informed them of the king's grant to me of the village of Geefh; that FafiFs tyranny and avarice would end that day, and another mafter, like Negade Ras Georgis, was come to pafs a chearful time among them, with a refolution to pay for every labour they were ordered fo perform, and purchafe all things for ready money: he added, moreover, that no military fervice was further to be exacted from them, either by the king or governor of Damot, nor from their prefent mafter, as he had no enemies. We found thefe news had circulated with great rapidity, and we met with a hearty welcome upon our arrival at the village.
Woldo had afked a houfe from the Shum, who very civilly had granted me his own; it was juR large enough to ferve me, but we were obliged to take poffeflion of four or five others, and we were fcarcely fettled in thefe when a fervant arrived from Fafd to intimate to the Shum his fur-rendry of the property and fovereignty of Geefh to me, in confequence of a grant from the king: he brought with him a fine, large, milk-white cow, two fheep, and two goats ; the fheep and goats I underftood were from Welleta Yafous. Fafil alfo fent us fix jars of hydromel, fifty wheat loaves of very excellent bread, and to this Welleta^
Yafous had added two middle-fized horns of excellent ftron^
ex
fpirits. Our hearts were now perfectly at eafe, and we paffed a very merry evening. Strates, above all, endeavoured, with many a bumper of the good hydromel of Bure, to fubdue the devil which he had fwallowed in the inchanted water. Woldo, who had done his part to great perfection, and had reconciled the minds of all the people of the village to us, had a little apprehenfion for himfelf; he thought he had loft credit with me, and therefore employed the fervant of
Ayton
Ayto Aylo to defire me not to fpeak of the fafh to FafiTs fervant. I allured him, that, as long as I faw him acting properly, as he now did, it was much more probable I fhould give him another fafh on our return, than complain of the means he had ufed to get this Laft. This entirely removed all his fears, and indeed as long after as he was with us, he every day deferved more and more our commendations.
Before we went to bed I fatisfied FafiTs fervant, who had orders from Welleta Yafous to return immediately; and, as he faw we did not fpare the liquor that he brought us, he promifed to fend a frefh fupply as foon as he returned home, Which he did not fail to perform the day after,
Woldo was now perfectly happy ; he had no fuperior or fpy over his actions; he had explained himfelf to the Shum, that we mould want fomebody to buy ncceftaries to make bread for us, and to take care of the management of our houfe. We difplayed our lefler articles for barter to the Shum, and told him the moft confiderable purchafes, fuch as oxen and fheep, were to be paid in gold. He was ftruck with the appearance of our wealth, and the gencroftty of our propofals, and told Woldo that he infilled, fince we were in his houfes, we would take his daughters for our houfe-keepers. The propofal was a moft reafon able one, and readily accepted. He accordingly fent for three in an inftant, and we delivered them their charge. The eldeft took it upon her readily, fhe was about fixteen years of age, of a flature above the middle fize, but fhe was remarkably genteel, and, colour apart, her features would have made her a beauty in any country in Europe; fhe was, befides, very fprightly; we underftood not one word of her
i language,,
language, though fhe comprehended very eafily the figns that we made. This nymph of the Nile was called by nickname Ircpone, which fignifies fome animal that delfroys mice, but whether of the ferret or fnake kind I could not perfectly underftand ; fometimes it was one and fometimes another, but which it was 1 thought of no great importance.
The firft and fecond day, after difpofing of fome of our Rock in purchafes, fhe thought herfelf obliged to render us an account, and give back the rcfiduc at night to Woldo, with a proteftation that (he had not ftolcn or kept any thing to herfelf. 1 looked upon this regular accounting as an ungenerous treatment of our bencfacTrcfs. I called on Woldo, and made him produce a parcel that contained the fame with the firft commodities we had given her ; this c milted of beads, antimony, fmall fciffars, knives, and large needles; I then brought out a pacquet of the fame that had not been broken, and told her they were intended to be diftributed among her friends, and that we expected no account from her; on the contrary, tha^, after fhe had beftowed thefe, to buy us ncccflai ies, and for any purpofes flic pleafed, I had ftill as many more to leave her at parting, for the trouble fhe had given herfelf. I often thought the head of the little favagc would have turned with the pof-fcihon of fo much riches, and fo great confidence, and it was impoftible to be fo blinded, as not to fee that I had already made great progrefs in her affections. To the number of trifles 1 had added one ounce of gold, value about fifty (hillings fterling, which I thought would defray our expences all the time we (laid ; and having now perfectly arranged
Vol. III. 4 Z the
<
tlie ccconomy of our family, nothing remained but to make the proper obfervations.
The houfes arc all of clay and ftraw. There was no place for fixing my clock ; I was therefore obliged to employ a very excellent watch made for me by Elicott. The dawn now began, and a few minutes afterwards every body was at their doors; all of them crowded to fee us, and we brcakfafted in public with very great chcarfulnefs. The white cow was killed, and every one invited to his ihare of her. The Shum, prieft of the: river, fhould likewife have been of the party, but he declined either fitting or eating with us, though his fons were not fo fcrupulous.
It is upon the principal fountain and altar, already mentioned, that once a-year, on the firft appearance of the dog-ftar, (or, as others fay, eleven days after) this prieft af-fembles the heads of. the clans; and having facrificed a black heifer that never bore a calf, they plunge the head of it into this fountain, they then wrap it up in its own hide, fo as no more to be feen, after having fprinkled the hide within and without with water from the fountain. The carcafe is then fplit in half, and cleaned with extraordinary care ; and, thus, prepared, it is laid upon the hillock over the firft fountain, and wafhed all over with its water,, while the elders, or confiderable people, carry water in their hands joined (it muft not be in any difh) from the two o-ther fountains; they then aftcmbk upon the fmall hill a little weft of St Michael, (it ufed to be the place where the church now ftands) there, they divide the carcafe into pieces correfponding to the number of the tribes, and each tribe has its privilege, or pretentions, to particular parts, which
are
are not in proportion to the prefent confequence of the feveral clans. Geefh has a principal Rice, though the moR inconfiderable territory of the whole ; Sacala has the next; and Zeegam, the moft confiderable of them all in power and riches, has the leaft of the whole. I found it in vain to afk upon what rules this diftribution was founded ; their general and conftant anfwer was, It was fo obferved in o!4 times.
After having ate this carcafe raw, according to their cuftom, and drunk the Nile water to the exclufion of any other liquor, they pile up the bones on the place where they fit, and burn them to afhes. This ufed to be performed where the church now Hands ; but Ras Scla Chriftos, fome time after, having beaten the Agows, and dcfirous, at the Jefuits inftigation, to convert them to Chrillianity, he demolifhed their altar where the bones were burnt, and built a church upon the fite, the doors of which, 1 believe, were never opened fince that reign, nor is there now, as far as we could perceive, any Chriftian there who might wifh to fee it frequented. After Sela Chriftos had demolished their altar by building this church, ihey ate the carcafe, and burnt the bones, on the top of the mountain of Geefh out of the way of profanation, where the veftiges of this ceremony may yet be feen ; but probably the fatigue attending this, and the great indifference their late governors have had for Chrillianity, have brought them back to a fmall hillock by the fide of the marfh, weft of faint Michael's church, and a little to the fouth ward, where they perform this folcmnity every year, and they will probably rcfume their firft altar when the church is fallen to ruins, which .they are every day privately haftening,
4 Z 2 After
After they have finifhed their bloody banquet, they carry the head, clofe wrapt from light in the hide, into the cavern, which they fay reaches below the fountains, and there, by a common light, without torches, or a number of candles, as denoting a folemnity, they perform their wor-fhip, the particulars of which I never could learn; it is apiece of free-mafonry, which every body knows, and no body ventures to reveal. At a certain time of the night they leave the cave, but at what time, or by what rule, I could not learn ; neither would they tell me what became of the head, whether it was ate, or buried, or how confumed. The Abyftinians have a ftory, probably created by themfclves, that the devil appears to them, and with him they cat the head, fwearing obedience to him upon certain conditions, that of lending rain, and a good feafon for their bees and cattle : however this may be, it is certain that they pray to the fpirit refiding in the river, whom they call the Everlaft-ing God, Light of the World, Eye of the World, God of Peace, their Saviour, and father of the Univerfe.
Our landlord, the Shum, made no fcruple of reciting his prayers for fcafonable rain, for plenty of grafs, for the pre-fcrvation of ferpents, at leait of one kind of this reptile ; he alfo deprecated thunder in thefe prayers, which he pronounced very pathetically with a kind of tone or fong ; he called the river "Moft High God, Saviour of the World ;" of the other words 1 could not well judge, but by the interpretation of Woldo. Thofe titles, however, of divinity which he gave the river, I could perfectly comprehend without an interpreter, and for thefe only 1 am a voucher,
I ASKED
I asked the prieft, into whofe good graces I had purpofely insinuated myfelf, if ever any fpirit had been feen by him? He anfwercd, without hefitation, Yes; very frequently. Fie faid he had feen the fpirit the evening of the 3d, (juft as the fun was letting) under a tree, which he fhe wed me at a diftance, who told him of the death of a fon, and alfo that a party from Fafil's army was coming; that, being afraid, he confulted his ferpent, who ate readily and heartily, from which he knew no harm was to bcfal him from us, I afked him if he could prevail on the fpirit to appear to mc? He faid he could not venture to make this rcqueft. If he thought he would appear to me, if, in the evening, I fat under that tree alone ? he faid he believed not. FIc faid he was of a very graceful figure and appearance; he thought rather older than middle age ; but he feldom chofe to look at his face; he had a long white beard, his cloaths not like theirs, of leather, but like filk, of the fafhion of the country. 1 afked him how he was certain it was not a man I he laughed, or rather fneered, fhaking his head, and faying, No, no, it is no man, but a fpirit. I afked him then what fpirit he thought it was ? he faid it was of the rl-vrr, it was God, the Father of mankind; but I never could bring him to be more explicit. 1 then defned to know why he prayed againft thunder. He faid, becaufe it was hurtful to the bees, their great revenue being honey and wax : then, why he prayed for ferpents ? he replied, Becaufe they taught him the coming of good or evil. It feems they have all feveral of thefe creatures in their neighbourhood, and the richer (ort always in their houfes, whom they take care of, and feed before they undertake a journey, or any affair of confequence. They take this animal from his hole, and put butter and milk before him, of which he is
ex-
extravagantly fond; if he does not cat, ill-fortune is near at hand.
Nanna Georgis, chief of the Agows of Banja, a man of the greateft confideration at Gondar, both with the king and Has Michael, and my particular friend, as I had kept him in my houfe, and attended him in his ficknefs, after the campaign of 1769, confefted to me his appreheniions that lie fhould die, becaufe the ferpent did not eat upon his leaving his houfe to come to Gondar. He was, indeed, very ill of the low country fever, and very much alarmed; but he recovered, and returned home, by Ras Michael's order, to gather the Agows together againft Waragna Fafd ; which he did, and foon after, he and other feven chiefs of the Agows were llain at the battle of Banja; fo here the ferpent's warning was verified by a fecond trial, though it failed in the firft.
Before an invafion of the Galla, or an inroad of the enemy, they fay thefe ferpents difappear, and are nowhere to be found. I alii, the fagacious and cunning governor of the country,, was, as it was faid, greatly addicted to this fpecies of divination, in fo much as never to mount his horfe, or go from home, if an animal of this kind, which he had in his keeping, refilled to cat.
The Slium's name was Kefla Abay, or Servant of the river ; he was a man about feventy, not very lean, but infirm, fully as much fo as might have been expected from that age. He conceived that he might have had eighty-four or eighty-five children. That honourable charge which he poliefled had been in his family from the beginning of the 2 world,
world, as he imagined. Indeed, if all his predecefFors had , as numerous families as he, there was no probability of the fuccellion devolving to Rrangers. He had a long white beard, and very moderately thick; an ornament rare in Abyffinia, where they have feldom any hair upon their chin. Fie had round his body a (kid wrapt and tied with a broad belt: I mould rather fay it was an ox's hide ; but it was fo fcraped, and rubbed, and manufactured, that it was of the Confidence and appearance of fhamoy, only browner in colour. Above this he wore a cloak with the hood up, and covering his head; he was, bare-legged, but had fandals, much like thofe upon ancient Ratucs ; thefe, however, he put off as foon as ever he approached the bog where the Nile rifes, which we were all likewife obliged to do. We were allowed to drink the water, but make no other ufe of it. None of the inhabitants of Geelh wafli themfclves, or their cloaths, in the Nile, but in a Rream that falls from the mountain of Geefh down into the plain of Affoa, which runs fouth, and meets the Nile in its turn northward, palling the country of the Gafats and Gongas..
The Agows, in whofe country the Nile rifes, are, in point of number, one of the mod confiderable nations in Abyffinia; when their whole force is raifed, which feldom happens, they can bring to the field 4000 horfe, and a great number of foot; they were, however, once much more powerful; feveral unfuccefsful battles, and the perpetual inroads of the Galla, have much diminilhed their ilrength. The country, indeed, is Rill full of inhabitants, but from their hiftory we learn, that one clan, called Zeegam, maintained fingly a war againft the king himfelf, from the time of Socinios to that of Yafous the Great, who, after all,.
overcame
overcame them by furprife and ftratagem ; and that another clan, the Denguis, in like manner maintained the war againft Facilidas, Hanncs I. and Yafous IL all of them active princes. Their riches, however, are ftill greater than their power, for though their province in length is no where 60 miles, nor half that in breadth, yet Gondar and all the neighbouring country depend for the neceftaries of life, cattle, honey, butter, wheat, hides, wax, and a number of fuch articles, upon the Agows, who come conftantly in fucceffion, a thoufand and fifteen hundred at a time, loaded with thefe commodities, to the capital*
As the dependence upon the Agows is for their produce rather than on the forces of their country, it has been a maxim with wife princes to compound with them for an additional tribute, inftead of their military fervice; the ne-ceftities of the times have fometimes altered thefe wife regulations, and between their attachment to Fafil, and afterwards to Ras Michael, they have been very much reduced, whereby the ftate hath fullered.
It will naturally occur, that, in a long carriage, fuch as that of a hundred miles in fuch a climate, butter muft melt, and be in a ftate of fufion, confequently very near putrefaction ; this is prevented by the root of an herb, called Moc-moco, yellow in colour, and in fhape nearly re-fembling a carrot; this they bruife and mix with their butter, and a very fmall quantity preferves it frefh for a confiderable time; and this is a great laving and convenience,for, fuppofing lah was employed, it is very doubtful if it would anfwer the intention ; befides, fait is a money in this coun-4 try,
try, being circulated in the form of wedges, or bricks; it ferves the purpofe of fdver coin, and is the change of gold ; fo that this herb is of the utmoR ufe in preventing the increafe in price of this neceffary article, which is the principal food of all ranks of people in this country. Brides paint their feet likewife from the ancle downwards, as alfo their nails and palms of their hands, with this drug. I brought with me into Europe a large quantity of the feed refembling that of coriander, and difperfed it plentifully through all the royal gardens: whether it has fuc-ceeded or not I cannot fay.
Besides the market of Gondar, the neighbouring black favages, the woolly-headed Shangalla, purchafe the greateft part of thefe commodities from them, and many others, which they bring from the capital when they return thence; they receive in exchange elephants teeth, rhinoceros horns, gold in fmall pellets, and a quantity of very fine cotton ; of which goods they might receive a much greater quantity were they content to cultivate trade in a fair way, without making inroads upon thefe favages for the fake of flaves, and thereby difturbing them in their occupations of feeking for gold and hunting the elephant.
The way this trade, though very much limited, is efta-bliihcd, is by two nations fending their children mutually to each other ; there is then peace between thofe two families which have fuch hoftages ; thefe children often intermarry ; after which that family is underftood to be protected, and at peace, perhaps, for a generation : but fuch inftanccs arc rare, the natural propenfity of both nations being to theft
Vol. III. 5 A and
and plunder; into thefe they always relapfe; mutual enmity follows in confequence.
The country of the Agows, called Agow Mid re, from its elevation, muft be of courfe temperate and whnlefome ; >hc days, indeed, are hot, even at Sacala, and, when cxpofed o the fun, we are fenfible of a fcorching heat; but whenever you are featcd in the fhade, or in a houfe, the temperature is cool, as there is a conftant breeze which makes the fun tolerable even at mid-day, though we are here but 10* from the Line, or a few minutes more.
Though thefe Agows are fo fortunate in their climate, they are not faid to be long-livers; but their precife age is very difficult to afcertain to any degree of exactnefs, as they have no fixed or known epoch to refer to ;* and, though their country abounds with all the neceflaries of life, their taxes, tributes, and fervices, efpecially at prefent, are fo multiplied upon them, whilft their diftreiles of late have been fo great and frequent, that they are only the manufacturers of the commodities they fell, to fatisfy thefe conftant exorbitant demands, and cannot enjoy any part of their own produce themfelvcs, but live in mifery and penury fcarce to be conceived. We faw a number of women, wrinkled and fun-burnt fo as fcarce to appear human, wandering about under a burning fun, with one and fometimes two children upon their back, gathering the feeds ot bent grafs to make a kind of bread.
The
The cloathing of the Agows is all of hides, which they foften and manufacture in a method peculiar to themfclves, and this they wear in the rainy feafon, when the weather is cold, for here the rainy feafons are of long duration, and violent, which Hill increafes the nearer you approach the Line, for the reafons I have already alligned. The younger fort are chiefly naked, the married women carrying their children about with them upon their backs ; their cloathing is like a Quirt down to their feet, and girded with a belt or girdle about their middle; the lower part of it rcfcmblcs a large double petticoat, one ply of which they turn back over their moulders, faftening it with a broach, or fkewer, acrofs their breafl before, and carry their children in it behind. The women are generally thin, and, like the men, below the middle fize. There is no fuch thing as barrcn-nefs known among them. They begin to bear children before eleven; they marry generally about that age, and are marriageable two years before: they clofe child-bearing before they are thirty, though there are feveral inflances to the contrary. .
Dengui, Sacala, Dengla, and Geefh, arc all called by the name of Ancafha, and their tribute is paid in honey. Qua-quera and Azena pay honey likewife; Banja, honey and gold; Mctakcl, gold ; Zeegam, gold. There comes from Dengla a particular kind of fheep, called Macoot, which are faid to be of a breed brought from the fouthward of the Line; but neither fheep, butter, nor flaves make part of their tribute, being refcrved for prefents to the king and great men.
, Besides
Besides what they fell, and what they pay to the governor of Damot, the Agows have a particular tribute which they prefent to the king, one thoufand dabra of honey, each dabra containing about fixty pounds weight, being a large earthen veffel. They pay, moreover, fifteen hundred oxen and iooo ounces of gold: formerly the number of jars of honey was four thoufand, but feveral of thefe villages being daily given to private people by the king, the quantity is dimini/hed by the quota fo alienated. The butter is all fold ; and, fmce the fatal battle of Banja, the king's fhare comes only to about one thoufand jars. The officer that keeps the accounts, and fees the rents paid, is called Agow Mizikcr* ; his poft is worth one thoufand ounces of gold ; and by this it may be judged with what ceconomy this revenue is collected. This poft is generally the next to the governor of Damot, but not of courfe; they are feparate provinces, and united only by the fpecial grant of the king.
Although I had with me two large tents fufficicnt for my people, I was advifed to take poffefllon of the houfes to fecure our mules and horfes from thieves in the night, as alfo from the afiaults of wild beafts, of which this country is full. Almoft every fmall collection of houfes has behind it a large cave, or fubterrancous dwelling, dug in the rock, of a prodigious capacity, and which muft have been the work of great labour. It is not poflible, at this diftance of time, to fay whether thefe caverns were the ancient habitation of the Agows when they were Troglodytes, or whether
they
* Accountant of the Agows.
they were intended for retreats upon any alarm of an irruption of the Galla into their country.
At the fame time I muft obferve, that all the clans, or diftricts of the Agows, have the whole mountains of their country perforated in caves like thefe; even the clans of Zeegam and Quaquera, the firft of which, from its power arifing from the populous ftate of the country, and the number of horfes it breeds, feems to have no reafon to fear the irregular invafiotis of naked and ill-armed favages fuch as are the Galla. The counrry of Zeegam, however, which has but few mountains, hath many of thefe caverns, one range above another, in every mountain belonging to them. Quaquera, indeed, borders upon the Shangalla; as thefe are all foot, perfectly contiguous, and fcparated by the river, the caverns were probably intended as retreats for cattle and women again tt the attacks of thofe barbarians, which were every minute to be apprehended.
In the country of the Tcheratz Agow, the mountains are all excavated like thefe in Damot, although they have no Galla for their neighbours whofe invaiions they need be afraid of. Lalibala, indeed, their great king and faint, about the twelfth century, converted many of thefe caves into churches, as if he had confidcred them as formerly the receptacles of Pagan fuperftition. At the fame time, it is not improbable that thefe caverns were made ufe of for religious purpofes; that of Geefh, for inftance, was probably, in former times, a place of fecret worihip paid to the river, becaufe of that ufe it ftill is, not only to the inhabitants of the village, but to the aftembly of the clans in general, who, after the ceremonies 1 have already fpoken of, retire, and 4 then
then perform their facred ceremonies, to which none Lii: the heads of families in the Agows country are ever admitted.
When I (liewed our landlord, Kefla Abay, the dog-Ran (Syrius) he knew it perfectly, faying it was Seir, it was the ilar of the river, the meilcnger or liar of the convocation of the tribes, or of the feaft ; but I could not obferve he ever prayed to it, or looked at it otherwife than one does to a dial, nor mentioned it with the refpect he did the Abay; nor did he fhew any fort of attention to the planets, or to -any other ftar .whatever.
On the 9th of November, having finifhed my memoran--dum relating to thefe remarkable places, I traced again on foot the whole courfe of this river from its fource to the plain of Goutto. 1 was unattended by any one, having with me only two hunting dogs, and my gun in my hand. The quantity of game of all forts, efpecially the deer kind, was, indeed, furprifing; but though I was, as ufual, a very fuc--ccfsful fportfman, I was obliged, for want of help, to leave each deer-where he fell.   They fleep in the wild oats, and ! do not rife till you are about to tread upon them, and then flare at you for half a minute before they attempt to run off.
The only mention I fhall make of the natural productions of this place comes the more properly in here, as it relates to my account of the religion of this people. In the writings of the Jefuits, the Agows are faid to worfhip canes*;
but
* See a very remarkable letter of Ras Sela Chriftos to the emperor Socinios, in Balthazar Tillez, torn. 2. p. 496.
but of this I could find no traces among them. I faw no plant of this kind in their whole country, excepting fome large bamboo-trees. This plant, in the Agows language, is called Krihaha. It grows in great quantity upon the fides of the precipice of Geefh, and helps to conceal the cavern wc have already mentioned ; but though we cut feveral pieces of thefe canes, they fhewed no fort of emotion, nor to be the leaft intereiled in what we were doing.
Our bufinefs being now done, nothing remained but to depart. We had palfed our time in perfect harmony ; the ad drefs of Woldo, and the great attachment of our friend Irepone,had kept our houfe in a chcarful abundance. We had lived, it is true, too magnificently for phi~ lofophers, but neither idly nor riotoufly ; and I believe never will any fovereign of Geefh be again fo popular, or reign over his fubjects with greater mildnefs. 1 had prac-tifed medicine gratis, and killed, for three days fucceffively, a cow each day for the poor and the neighbours. 1 had cloathed the high prieft of the Nile from head to foot, as alfo his two fons, and had decorated two of his daughters with beads of all the colours of the rainbow, adding every other little prefent they feemed fond of, or that we thought would be agreeable. As for our amiable Irepone, we had refcrved for her the choiceft of our pre fen ts, the moft valuable of every article we had with us, and a large proportion of every one of them ; we gave her, befides, fome gold; but Ihe, more generous and nobler in her fentiments than us, feemed to pay little attention to thefe that announced to her the feparation from her friend ; fhe tore her fine hair, which fhe had every day before braided in a newer and more graceful manner ; fhe threw herfelf upon 2 the
the ground in the houfe, and refufed to fee us mount on horfeback, or take our leave, and came not to the door till we were already fet out, then followed us with her good wifhes and her eyes as far as Ihe could fee or be heard.
I took my leave of Kefla Abay, the venerable prieft of the moft famous river in the world, who recommended me with great earneftnefs to the care of his god, which, as Strates hurnoroully enough obferved, meant nothing lefs than he hoped the devil would take me. All the young men in the village, with lances and fhields, attended us to Saint Michael Sacala, that is, to the borders of their country, and end of my little fovereignty.
Q^,—=—  . =--,--
REGISTER
REGISTER
OF THE
QJJANTITY OF RAIN-WATER,
IN INCHES AND DECIMALS,
which fell at gondar, in abyssinia, in the year 1770,. through a funnel OF one FOOT english in diameter.
The rain began this year on the firft of March: there fell! inches-. in fhowers, that lafted only a few minutes, between the > 1 ft of March and the laft of April, - J ,039
MAY.
l. T^ROMtrieift to the 6th, X/  From the 6th to the 8th,
From the 10th to the 12 th it rained chiefly in the night, From the 12th to the 14th, -ig. At four in the afternoon a fmall fhower, but heavy rain
in the night, -21. At 7 o'clock in the evening a fmall fhower, which continued moderately through the night, 27. At 6 in the evening heavy rain for an hour,
Vol. ILL 5 B 29. At
•°3* .120
.711 .123
.526
.171 •54^
MAY. INCHES. £9. At 3 in die afternoon frequent fhowers of light rain.
It continued one hour 30 minutes,        - - .487
Total rain in May, 2.717
JUNE.
1. At 12 noon, light rain for 15 minutes, ,028
2. Between 12 o'clock night it has rained 30 minutes, in
fmall mowers, which Lifted 5 or 6 minutes at a time, .049
4. At 8 in the morning flight fhowers for 30 minutes, .014
5. Between 6 and 10 in the morning four fmall fhowers,
that Lifted 32 minutes, and at 12 a very gentle rain
that lafted 15 minutes, - - .031
10. It has rained very violently for 6 hours 30 minutes, .342
11. Between 2 and 6 in the afternoon, at three feveral times,
it has rained 20 minutes, - - .014
12. At noon a violent rain for one hour 30 minutes. At half
paft 1 in the afternoon light rain for an hour. At 4 afternoon, light rain for 30 minutes. At half paft fix fame afternoon, a very gentle rain for 3 hours, ,421
13. Between 4 and 5 afternoon it rained twice for 15 mi-
nutes, hut not perceptible in the recipient, - ——•
16. Between 2 and 6 afternoon it has rained three times
fmart fhowers, in all about 20 minutes, - .033
17. There fell in the night fmall rain for an hour,        - .002 iS. At 1 afternoon there was a ftrong fhower for 15 minutes.   At half paft 1 another for 45 minutes. Same
day at 6 afternoon, it rained at intervals for 2 hours, - - - .750
19. At half after 2 afternoon it began to rain violently with
intervals.   At night a flight fhower for 20 minutes, .118
20. At twelve noon there was a very flight fhower for 6 mi-
nutes. At half paft 5, fame day, a fmall fhower that Lilted 30 minutes. At 8 o'clock evening it began to rain fmartly at intervals for 4 hours, - .171
21. At a quarter paft 11 it rained violently with thunder and
lightning for about 2 hours.   At half paft 4 in the 4 evening
(  747 )
JUNE. , ^ . INCHES,
evening it rained, with intervals, in all about 45 minutes, - - -330.
22. At half paft 12 noon, it rained an hour, - .175
23. At one o'clock afternoon flight fhowers for 2 hours.
Heavy rain in the night for 4 hours,       -        - .358
25. At a quarter paft one afternoon, a fmall fhower, which
lafted one hour 35 minutes. At night it rained one hour
30 minutes ; heavy rain with thunder and lightning, .552
26. At two in the afternoon, violent rain with intervals for 30
minutes. At half paft five it rained for 30 minutes ;
and the beginning of the night for three hours,      - .233
27. At a quarter paft twelve, a fmall fhower for one hour 45
minutes, and at night a moderate fhower,       - .302
28. At half paft twelve, a gentle rain.   At 50 minutes after
twelve, violent. At two in the afternoon very gentle rain for 15 minutes; and at 7,moderate rain for one hour and 30 minutes, - - - .29a
#9. At 1 in the afternoon, light rain, but a heavy rain muft have fallen fomewhere elfe, as the river Kahha is overflowed,       .  - - - - .092
30, At noon a very gentle rain for 15 minutes, - .002
Total rain- in June, 4^307
JULY.
1. At 2,0 minutes paft eleven, ftrong rain for 30 minutes,
with fome fhowers through the night, - .306
2. At half paft eleven, a fmall fhower for 30 minutes, and
then, at twelve, a violent fhower, wind fouth-weft,
for 45 minutes, - - - - .792
3. It rained at four in the afternoon, and in the night, .311
4. It rained from twelve to two, and in the night likewife, »390
5. It rained at noon, and fome in the night, - .029
7. It rained and hailed violently.   It rained in the night
like wile, - - - 1.686
8. Light rain in the night, - - - ,038
5 £ 2 9> Ligtvt
(   74* )
JULY. ^ rNCHfiS. 9, Light rain for a few minutes, and no more all day; hut the river Kahha has fuddenly overflowed, and there
is appearance of rain on the Mountain of the Sun, .017
10. No rain, ~ - ---.
5 1. Ditto, - - -
12. At half an hour paft noon it rained violently, .4.22
13. Violent rain at mid-day, and alfo in the night 1.185;
14. A few light fhowers night and day,          -    .     - .054
15. A fmall fhower in the evening, and another in the night, .251
16. No rain,             - _
17. A fmall fhower at one in the afternoon, and flying
fhowers throughout the day.   It rained at ten at
night violently,             -             -              - .658
18. A gentle fhower at noon, but continued raining in the
night,              -                                   - .463
19. Light fhowers all the night,            -                  - »237
20. It rained all night till eight o'clock next morning, *7l4-
21. Light fhowers in the afternoon, but violent rairi in the
t night,              -                  - 1.329
22. Light fhowers in the evening,               -         - •I74
23. It rained one fhower at half paft ten in the morning, .107
24. Light fhowers night and day,                    - .226
25. Light rains and frequent,                 -                   - .015
26. Light fhowers throughout the evening,              +- .081
27. Light rains,          -                                      - ,148
28. Flying fhowers,       -          -          -          -      - .070
29. Ditto,          -         -         -         «. .08r.
30. Light fhowers,       -          -         *-          - >oi^
31. Flying light fhowers night and day,         -      - .292,
Total rain in July, 10.0.89
AUGUST.
t. Light rain in the afternoon,             -             - ^056
2. It rained in the night fmartly,           - '           - .329
3. It rained at noon violently,          -         -      - I-31^
4. It rained from mid-day to evening, and fome fhowers in
the night, m - T,723
5. At
AUGUST.                                                (      ( INCHES.
5. At 2 in trie afternoon it began.to rain violently for 2
hours,                -                - - 1.042
6. Smart fhowers at different times in the evening and night, .490
7. It rained in the night,                 - *-        ( .580
8. Light rain in the night,                - - .053
9. Flying fhowers through the day, but for 6 minutes.
Evening very violent,                 - - .186
io. Smart fhowers in the evening and night, - .342
j 1. & 12. Frequent mowers, with a high wind, - 1.184 13. & 14. Light rain the firft day, but violent on the fecond, 14.23
15. Fair all day, but rained at night, - «475
16. Flying fhowers night and day, & «T44
17. A very violent fhower of flrort duration, h .371 18. ck 19. Several fmall fhowers, - .609 20. & 21. Frequent light fhowers, - - .236 22. & 23. Conftant rain,                 - ."1.502
24. Frequent fhowers in the evening, - >3o6
2,5. & 26. Conftant rain,                         - * 1-763
27. Frequent fhowers,             - - .289
28. Ditto,                             - m .280
29. It rained in the night,                    ► .355
30. Ditto,                        - -        - .302
31. Ditto,                        - - .2U
Total rain in Auguft, * 5*569
SEPTEMBER.
1, It rained in the night,      ^                  m .079
2. Ditto, - - .107 3. &4« Frequent fhowers night and day, - , .358 5. &6. Ditto,                -                     - .568
7. It rained in the night only,                 - »2I3
8. No rain,                  -                   * --• ■
9. it rained violently for a few minutes at 8 in the Evening,             -                    - .055
10. No rain,                 -                    - 1——.
11. It rained in the night only,               « .227
12. It rained fmartly in the night,                - ,566
13. No
(   75° )
SEPT. INCHES,
ig. No rain,               - * —r—
14. Light mowers in the day, - .042
■   15. Frequent fhowers night and day, .159
16. It rained a little in the night, - .132
18. No rain, -                         ■  - ■
19. Ditto, - —m •   20. Flying mowers night and day, - .263
21. No rain,               - ,4 ■
22. Ditto,             -                 - ■   ■ -«
23. Some rain in the night, -              - .039
24. Ditto,              -               - .026
25. The rain ccafed,              - - —
Total rain in September, 2.834
N. B. This is the feftival of the Crofs in Egypt, when the inundation begins to abate. It rains no more in Abyflinia till towards the beginning of November, and then only for a few days ; but thefe are the rains Abyflinia cannot want for their latter cFops, and it was for thefe the Agows prayed when we were at the fountains of the Nile the 5th of November 1770.
STATE
STATE
OF THE
QUANTITY OF RAIN-WATER,
WHICH FELL IN ABYSSINIA AT KOSCAM, THE QUEEN'S PALACE, IN I771, DURING THE RAINY MONTHS,
(THROUGH A FUNNEL OF ONE FOOT ENGLISH IN  Dt A METER, AS IN THE PRECEDING TEAR 1JJO,
FEBRUARY.
INCHES.
23. rX^HIS day it rained, for the firft time, from a
X.     quarter before four o'clock afternoon to half paft four ditto, - - .003
28. It rained in the night one hour and a quarter, .001
MARCH.
4. It rained in the night near two hours fmall rain, .042
7. It rained a fmall fhower in the evening, .014
12. It rained three quarters of an hour this afternoon, .017
24. It rained and hailed violently for 18 minutes in
the night, - - ,017
29. It
(   7S2 )
*JARCH.          ^ INCHES.
29. It rained an hour and a half in the afternoon, .066
30. It rained hard in the night,             - ,504.
Total rain in February and March, ^664. APRIL
3. It rained, or rather hailed, nine minutes, —
5. It rained an hour in the afternoon, - .067
8. Small rain at intervals throughout the afternoon, .002
10. It rained an hour in the night, - .003
30, It rained one hour and a quarter in the night, .013
Total rain in April, .085.
M A Y.
1. From the 31ft ult. to this day, at different times, •330
3. It rained hard in the night,              -          - -35.5
6. It has rained violently fince three in the afternoon,
wind S. F„ variable,..         —             - *°95:
7. It has rained heavily in the night, wind varying
from N. to S. and S. W.               - .368
8. It rained fmall rain in the afternoon j .042. 1.1. It has rained fmall rain this afternoon, wind N. W. .002 14. It has rained fince yefterday at three all night, and
till noon-to-day,              -               - -^75' 27. From yefterday at two P. M. it rained to half paft fix, and heavily moft part of the night, wind varying from N.. to S.               -            - *^34i-
Total rain in May, 2.5oj;
JUNE,
JUNE,
2NCHE3.
i; From yefterday at noon, in the night, and this
day, wind W. S. W. - - .212
3, At night, fouth, - - .002
5. It rained in the night, S. W. - - *223
6. Ditto, - ,006 9. It rained in the night and afternoon, wind W. by S. .725
10. Ditto, - - .463
11, It rained in the night, - - .343
13. It rained from the 12th, at noon, to the 13th at
ten, S. S. W. - - l'2^S
14. It rained from three till feven, - ,120
15. It rained laft night from fun-fet till midnight, S. .160
N. B. The 16th at night, is the day the Egyptians fay the Nile ferments, and is troubled, by falling of the nutta.
18. After three days fair, wind frefh, N. it began to
rain yefterday, and rained three quarters of an
hour, wind varying from north to weft, ,490
19. It rained with intervals from fnnr  tn ten laft
night, wind north, varying by eaft to fouth, . and fouth-weft, where it fell calm, and rained violently, . - -- '53°
20. It rained from a quarter before fix, till ten at night,
wind at north, frefh ; changed to eaft, then to fouth, and there fell calm ; violent thunder and lightning,    ■       * - - .635
2*t. It began to rain yefterday at three, and rained till near five; wind changed from north to fouth, and fell calm ; cleared with wind at north, .55 b
4T2. It began to rain at three, and rained till five ; wjnd changed from north to eaft, then to fouth, and fell calm ; cleared with wind at north ; fair all night, - «i ,140
25. It has been fair till yefterday evening: at three it Vol. III. 5 G began
(   754 )
JUNE. INCHES, began raining, and rained till five this morning, a few drops ; wind north, - .067
26. It rained fmall rain at feveral times yefterday after-
noon, and a few drops this morning, wind N.
calm ; at ten it came to fouth and then to weft, .120
27. It rained yefterday afternoon from four to five;
wind changed from north to weft, but fpcedily returned to north, frefh, - .054
28. &2r). It rained the 27th in the afternoon and in the night, wind at north. Yefterday it rained fmall rain all day till five, and cleared in the night, with wind at north, - .268
Total rain in June, 6.388
JULY.
i. There fell fmall fhowers the night of the 29th, and
of the 30th, - - .093
3. There fell a fmall fhower the fecond in the after-
noon, and laft night hard, - .267
4. It rained final! rain at noon.     From two, and ah
night, heavy and conftant rain.   It thundered
from noon till three, - - .373
5. It rained all yefterday afternoon, and by intervals,
till nine at night.   Small rain this morning;
calm ; W. S. W. and S. W. - *423
6. It rained yefterday afternoon and in the night;
S.W. - - - .489
N. B. The 6th of July is the firft of the month TIamlie, and of the Egyptian month Ahih. It is this day they firft begin to cry the Nile's increafe in the Streets of Cairo. The night before, or 30th of Senne^ is called at Cairo the Eide el Bilhaara, or the eve of good news, becaufe, after having measured at the Mikeas, they come and tell at Cairo that to-mou*ow they begin to count the Nile's ri-fing.
7. it
(   755 )
fULY, INCHES. 7. It rained from two in the afternoon till four, and
from ten till midnight, - .318
10. It rained yefternight, and in the afternoon and
night the day before, - .289
11. It rained till yefterday afternoon : in the night a
violent fhower that lafted 39 minutes; wind
fouth by weft, - - 1.162
12. It rained a little from two to three in the afternoon,
but in the night violently for a fhort time, .319
13. It rained yefterday from three quarters paft twelve
till midnight; W. S. W. calm, - .912
14. It rained all yefterday afternoon till midnight, .739
15. It rained the 14th in the afternoon, and the 15th
a few fhowers through the day, - .816
16. It rained in the night, and fmall rain in the af-
ternoon, - - ,290
17. It rained in the afternoon two fhowers, and in the
night a little ; S. W. - .212
19. It rained in the afternoon the 17th and 18th, and
the 18th only in the night, - .912
20. It rained yefterday from twu till half paft ten con-
ftant rain, and the hail lay all the afternoon on the hills S. E. of the town ; very cold wind; S. by W. '    - 1.371
si, ck 22. It rained but one fmall fhower the 20th, the 21ft it rained little in the afternoon, hut hard in the night, - 1.185
24. It rained in the morning of yefterday only, fair in the afternoon ; to-day, in the morning, fair in the night, - .766
2^. It rained all yefterday afternoon,  and all this
morning fmall rain, hut none in the night, '45-
28. From the 25th in the afternoon to tins day at
noon, -       \ - 2.137
29. From the 28th at noon to the 29th it rained in
the firft part of the night, but was fair all afternoon and this morning, - - .267 From the 29th at noon, to the 31ft at ditto, .568
Total rain in July, 14.360 5 C 2 AUGUST.
(   75<> ) A U G U S To
INCHES.
I. It rained yefterday afternoon, but' in the night little.
To day fair,     - - .544
4. It rained only the third in the evening, and night
and this morning, - 1.188
5. It rained yefterday evening and in; the night, till
noon little, - .544
6. It rained yefterday afternoon, and all night, and
a little this morning, - ^250
.8. It was fair.thefe two days, and only -rained one
hard fhower laft night, - .178
9. It rained laft night only, was fair all day, and is this
morning. - .214
10. It rained yefterday all the afternoon, and the firft
of the night.   To-day fair, .869
11. It.rained in the night yefterday; all day and this
morning fair, - - .188
12. ,It rained a fmall fhower yefterday afternoon, and
;inthe night a little, - ...268
13. It rained yefterday at three a hard fliower, and
a little in the night, - *3>o&
14. It rained a few drops in the day, and .a hard
fhower at night, - »3^o
15. It rained a hard fhower near three, and at ten
at'night, .386
16. In the night, .027 ,17. It rained hard feveral times in the evening and
night, - " I .831
18. It rained bard yefterday afternoon, and in the
night, - - .329
19. It rained all day, but not hard, - .491
20. It rained in the afternoon only, - .010
21. Ditto, - - .097
22. It was fair all yefterday, and rained only a hard
fhower at 9, - <424
23. It rained hard at noon, and the evening, with little
in-
{   757 )
august. t    t        t. inches,
intervals, till 9 at night, and again this morning at
fun-rife till 7,                                       - 1.148
24. It did not rain yefterday, - - -.
25. It rained an hour between two and three, .332
26. It rained a fmall fliower yefterday, and none in the
night,                       - .005
27. It rained a hard fliower at four, and this day at 12
morning, the night clear,                    - .268
28. It rained hard yefterday at 2 for a few minutes, .201
29. It rained a hard fhower for near an hour, after
two, but clear all night and this morning, 450 30. & 31. It rained a fmall fhower the 30th, and heavily for
a quarter of an hour the 31ft, at night, at ten, .109
Total rain in Auguft, 10.019
SEPTEMBER.
It rained yefterday a hard fliower in the evening,
and at ten at night, - .664
3. It rained only a few drops, which did not appear
in the funnel, - - -•
4. It rained from noon till fun-iet yefterday, with hard
and violent thunder : night fair, l*739 N. B. It is obferved at Gondar, the Pagomen is always rainy. It begins this year the 4th, and con-fifts of fix days, being Leap Year. 9. It rained yefterday all afternoon, fmall rain, .399 6. It rained yefterday all afternoon, and fmall rain in
tlie night till ten, - .306
•7. It rained from before noon till four, fmall rain;
the night fair.   Wind high at north, .846 $. It rained from noon for an hour, fmall rain, .214 4 9- &
.     (   758 )
SEPTEMBER. INCHES; 9, It rained a fmall fliower at noon ; clouds drive
from eaft to weft ; wind north, - .107
10. Saint John's day, no rain, - ■■-
11. It rained from noon till live o'clock, wind W.
cold ; clouds drive from eaft and weft, I-i35
12. It rained a fmart fliower a little before noon.
Clouds drive from eaft and from weft, .214
13. It rained a fmall fliower a little after noon. Cold
and calm.   Clouds drive from eaft and weft,      , «°35 34. It rained fmall rain from noon to three, and hard
from eleven till near midnight, - *344
15. It was fair all yefterday, but rained hard for a few
minutes at feven, and alfo a little before midnight, from the eait, - .186
16. No rain to-day, —
18. It rained a fmall fliower laft night, and to-day at
noon, - - .053
19. It rained and hailed violently in the afternoon, 1.096
Total rain in September, 7.33S
The rain totally ceafed the 19th, none having fallen from this day to the 25th.
Saint John's day is the time obferved for the rains beginning to abate.
N., B. At the 5th of October the people were all crying for rain ; the ground all in cracks, and teffin the blade burnt up.
TOTAL
TOTAL of RAIN that fill in Abyssinia in the Tears 1770 and 1771, in the Rainy Months.
GONDAR.
1770.
March
INCHES.
•°39
2.717
4*307 10.089
2.854 35-555
KOSCAM,
1 77 1.
February,
& March, April, May, June, ,
July>
Auguil, September,
INCHES.
.664
.085 2.501 6.388 14.360 10.019
7-338 4*-355
MXD OF THE THIRD VOLUME*
X