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BOSTON UNIVERSITY
College of Liberal Arts Library
GRADUATE SCHOOL AFRICAN STUDIES
TRAVELS
TO DISCOVER THE
SOURCE OF THE NILE.
In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772? and 1773.
IN FIVE VOLUMES.
BY JAMES BRUCE OF KINNAIRD, ESQ. F. R. S.
VOL. III.
N'tlus in cxtremum fuglt perterritus orbem, Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet.
Ovid. Metam.
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED BY J. RUTHVEN, FOR G. G. J. AND J. ROBINSON, PATE RNOSTE R-RO W,
LONDON.
M.DCCXC.
y. ~ -
CONTENTS
O F T H E
THIRD VOLUME.
BOOK V.
ACCOUNT OF MY JOURNEY FROM MASUAH TO GONDAR
TRANSACTIONS THERE — MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ABYSSINIANS.
CHAP. I.
franJaElions at Mafuah and Arkeeko, P. i
CHAP. II.
Directions to travellers for preferving Health — Difeafes of the Coun- try——Mufic— Trade, &C. of Mafuah— Conferences 'with the Nay be. 3 1
Vol. III. a CHAP.
ii CONTENTS.
CHAP. III.
Journey from Arkeeh over the Mountain Tarantay to Dixan, P. 64
CHAP. IV.
Journey from Dixan to Adowa, Capital of Tigre, 93.
CHAP. V.
Arrive at Adowa — Reception there — Vifit Fremona— 'And Ruins of Axum— Arrive at Sire, 1 1 S
CHAP. vr.
Journey from Sire to Addergey,and Tranfaclions there, 152
C H A P. VII.
Journey over Lamalmon to Condar, *72
CHAP.
CONTENTS. iii
CHAP. VIII.
Reception at Gondar — Triumphal Entry of the King— -The Author s ■ frft Audienee, P. 197
CHAP. IX.
Tranfaclions at Gondar, „ 233
CHAP. X.
Geographical Divijicn of Abyjfmia into Provinces, 248
CHAP. XI.
Various Cuftoms in Abyjfmia, fimilar to thofe in Per/iat &C— A bloody Banquet defer ibed, &C. 262;
CHAP. XIL
State of Religion>~-Circumcifwn — Exci/ion, &C. 313
a2 BOOK
is CONTENTS.
BOOK VI.
FIRST ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER THE SOURCE OF THE NILS
FRUSTRATED A SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY THITHER, WITH
A FULL ACCOUNT OF EVERY THING RELATING TO THAT CELEBRATED RIVER.
CHAP. I.
The Author made Governor ofRas el Feel, P. 359
CHAP. II.
Battle of Banja—Confp'iracy againf Michael— The Author retires to Emfras — Dejcription ofGondar, Emfras, and Lake Tzana, 373
CHAP. III.
The King encamps at Lamgue — Tranfaclious there — Paps the Nile, and encamp at Derdera—The Author follows the King, 389
CHAP. IV.
Tafs the River Gomara— Remarkable Accident there— Arrive at
Dam
CONTENTS. v
Dara—¥ifit tbe Great Cataratl of Alata — Leave Dara, and re- fume our Journey ', P- 4°5
CHAP. V.
Pafs tbe Nile, and encamp at Tfoomwa — Arrive at Derdera—^Alatm on approaching the Army — Join the King at Karcagna, 432
C H A P. VI.
Kind's Army retreats towards Gondar — Memorable Faff age of the Nile— Dangerous Situation of the Army — Retreat of Kef a Tafous — Battle ofLimjour — Unexpected Peace with Fafl — Arrival at Gondary 44^
CHAP. VIL
King and Army retreat to Tigre — Interefhrg Events following that
Retreat The Body of Joas is found — Sociniosy a new King,
proclaimed at Gondar ■, 47 0
CHAP. VIII.
Second Journey to difover the Source of the Nile — Favourable turn of
the-
vi CONTENTS.
the King's Affairs in Tigre—Wefall in lintb Faffs Army at Bamba, ' p 495
CHAP. IX.
Interview with Fafil—Tranfaclions in the Camp, 509
CHAP. X.
Leave Bamba, and continue our Journey Southward-— -Fall in with FofiVs Pagan Ga Ha— Encamp on the Kclti. 532
CHAP. XI.
Continue our Journey— -Fall in with a Party ofGalla — Prove our Friends — Pafs the Nile — Arrive at Gouttoy andvift thejirft Ca- tarac7i 550
CHAP. XII.
Leave Goutto — Mountains of the Moon — Roguery ofWoldo our Guide ^Arrive at the Source of the Nile. $yj
CHAP. XIII.
Attempts of the Ancients to dif cover the Source of the Nik-^-No difco-
vcry
CONTENTS. vii
very made in latter Times — No Evidence of the Jefuits having ar- rived there — Kirchers Account fabulous — Difcovtry completely made by the Author, g0 .
CHAP. XIV.
Defcription of the Sources of the Nile— Of Gee/h— Accounts ofitsfe- veral Cataracls — Courfefrom its Rife to the Mediterranean, 632
C HAP. XV.
Various names of this River— Ancient Opinion concerning the Cauf of Us Inundation — Real Manner by which it is cjfcRed—Remarka- able Difpoftion of the Peninfula of Africa, 654
CHAP. XVI,
Egypt not the Gift cf the Nile — Ancient Opinion refuted— Mc da- u Opinion contrary to Proof and Experience, g72
CHAP. XVII.
The fame SubjeB continued— Nilcmeter what—How divided and meafured, gg
CHAP.
viii CONTENTS,
CHAP. XVIII.
Inquiry about the Pojjibility of changing the Courfe of the Nile— Caufe of the Nubia, P. 7 1 2
CHAP. XIX.
Kind reception among the dgows^JTbeir Number, Trade, Charac- ter, &C 726
TRAVELS
The maud
MASILAJH
\ . Jin// iy 'At m/i/rtf
TRAVELS
TO DISC OVER
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.
BOOK V.
ACCOUNT OF MY JOURNEY FROM MASUAH TO OONDAR— TRANSACTIONS THERE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE
ABYSSINIANS.
CHAP. I.
'TratifaEllons at Mafuah and Arhetko,
"ASUAH, which means the port or harbour of the Shepherds, is a fmall ifland immediately on the Abyf- •finian more, having an excellent harbour, and water deep enough for mips of any fize to the very edge of the ifland : here they may ride in the utmoft fecurity, from whatever point* or with whatever degree of ftrength, the wind blows. As it takes its modern, fo it received its ancient name from its harbour. It was called by the Greeks Sebajlicum Os, from Vol. III. A the
2 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
the capacity of its port, which is diflributed 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 citterns to receive the rain-water, and the laft is referved for burying the dead.
Masuah, as we have already obferved, was one of thofe towns on the weft of the Red Sea that followed the con- queft of Arabia Felix by Sinan Baiha, under Selim emperor of Conftantinople. At that time it was a place of great com- merce, poneffing a ihare of the Indian trade in common with the other ports of the Red Sea near the mouth of the Indian Ocean. It had a confiderable quantity of exports brought to it from a great tract of mountainous country behind it, in all ages very unhofpitable, and almoft inac- cehible to ftrangers. Gold and ivory, elephants and buffa- loes 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 iize, water, or colour,, were found all along its coaft. The great convenience of; commodious riding for veffels, joined to thefe valuable ar- ticles of trade, had overcome the inconvenience of want of water, the principal neceffary of life, to which it had been fubjected from its creation.
Masuah continued a place of much refort a« long as com- merce flourished, but it fell into obfeurity veiy fuddenly- under the oppreilion of the Turks, who put the finifhing- hand to the ruin of the India trade in the Red Sea, begun fome years before by the dxfeovcry of the ^ape of Good'
Hope,,
THE SOURCE t3F THE NILE. j
Hope, and the fettlements made by the Portuguefe on the continent of India.
The firft government of Mafuah under the Turks was by a bafha fent from Conftantinople, and from thence, for a time, the conqueft of Abyffinia was attempted, always with great confidence, though never with any degree of fuccefs ; fo that, loling 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 expenfive an eftablilhment as that of a ba- flialik.
The principal auxiliary, when the Turks conquered the place, was a tribe of Mahometans called Belowee, fliepherds inhabiting the coaft of the Red Sea under the mountains of the Habab, about lat. 14". In reward for this affiftance, the Turks gave their chief the civil government of Ma- fuah 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 rppearances, he held it of the grand fignior for an an- nual tribute, upon receiving a firman from the Ottoman Porte.
The body of janizaries, once eftablifhed there in garrifon, were left in the iiland, and their pay continued to them from Conftantinople. Thefe marrying the women of the country, their children fucceeded them in their place and pay as Janizaries ; but being now, by their intermarriages, Moors, and natives of Mafuah, they became of courfe rela- tions to each other, and always fubject to the influence of the Naybe,
A 2 The
4 TRAVEOLS TO DISCOVER
Tiir Naybe finding, the great diitance he was from his - protectors, the Turks in Arabia, on the other fide of the Red Sea, whofe garrifons were every day decaying in flrength, and for the moll part reduced ; fenfibie, too, how much he was in the power of the Abymnians, his enemies andnearcft neighbours, began to think that it was better to iecure him- felf at home, by making fome advances to thofe in whofe power he was. Accordingly it was agreed between them, that one half of the cufloms. Ihould be paid by him to the king of Abyffinia, who was- to fufFen him to enjoy his go- vernment unmolefted ; for Mafuah, as I have before faid,, is absolutely dcflitute of water ; neither can it be fupplied with any fort of provifions but from the mountainous coun- try of AbyfTinia. ,
The fame may be faid of Arkeeko, a large town on the bottom of the bay of Mafuah, which has 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 Abyffinian fide of the mountains when the rains fall there, which is the oppofite fix months. When the feafon is thus reverfed,. they and their cattle are no longer in Samhar, or the domi- nion of the Naybe, but in the hands of the Abyilinians, efpe- cially the governor of Tigre and Baharnagam, who there- by, without being at the expence and trouble of marching agamft 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 fide. In the courfe of this hiflory we have feen this practifed with
great
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. s
great fucccfs more than once, e Specially againft the Nay be Mula in the reign of Yaibus I.
The friendship 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 bafha of Jidda, to whofe government his had been annexed by the porte. He therefore received the firman as a mere form, and returned trifling prefents,but no tribute; and in troublefome times, or a weak government happening in Tigre, he withdrew himfelf equally from paying any con- sideration, either to the balha in name of tribute, or to the king of Abyffinia, as marc of the cultoms. This was pre- cisely his iituation when I arrived in Abyffinia. A great re- volution, as we have already feen, had happened in that king- dom, of which Michael had been the principal author. When he was called to Gondar and made minister there, Tigre remained drained of troops, and without a governor.
Nor was the new king, Hatze Hannes, whom Michael had placed upon the throne after the murder of Joas his predeceffor, a man likely to infufe vigour into the new go- vernment. Hannes was paft feventy at his acceffion, and Michael his minifter lame, fo as fcarcely to be able to Hand, and within a few years of eighty. The Naybe, a man of about forty-eight, judged of the debility of the Abyffinian govern- ment by thofe circumstances, but in this lie was mistaken. -
Already Michael had intimated to him, that, the next campaign, he would lay wafte Arkeeko and Mafuah, till they mould be as defert as the wilds of Samhar ; and as he had been all his life very remarkable for keeping his promi-
2 . fes
6 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
fes of this kind, the ftranger merchants had many of them fled to Arabia, and others to Dobarwa *, a large town in the territories of the Baharnagafh. Notwithllanding this, the Naybe had not fhewn any public mark of fear, nor fent one penny either to the king of Abyflmia or the bailia of Jidda.
On the other hand, the bafha was not indifferent to his own intereft ; and, to bring about the payment, he had made an agreement with an officer of great credit with the Sherriffe of Mecca. This man was originally an Abyilinian flave, his name Metical Aga, who by his addrefs had railed himfelf to the poll of Selictar, or fword-bcarcr, to the Sher- riffe ; 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 flores of arms and ammunition for his laft campaign againlt the king at Gondar.
The bafha had employed Metical Aga to inform Mi- chael of the treatment he had received from the Naybe, de- firing his amflance 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 through- out Arabia to arreft the goods and perfons of fuch Maho- metan merchants as fhould come to Arabia, either from motives of religion or trade. With this menage he had fent the firman from Conflantinople, defiring the return both of tribute and prefents.
Maho-
* Suppofed from its name to have been formerly the capital of the Dobas,
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 7
Mahomet Gibberti, Metical Aga's fervant, had come in- che boat with me ; but Abdelcader, who carried the mef- iage and firman, and who was governor of the ifland ofDa- halac, had failed at fame time with me, and had been, fpectator of the honour which was paid my ihip when fhe left the harbour of Jidda.
Running ftraight over to Mafuah, Abdelcader had pro* claimed what he had feen with great exaggeration, accord- ing to the cuftora 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 after- wards) between the Naybe and his counfellors, what was to be done with this prince. Some were for the moll expe- ditious, and what has long been the moil cuftomary me- thod 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 Hay and fee what letters I had from Arabia to Abyffinia, left this might prove an addition to the ftorm jull ready to break upon them on the part of Metical Aga and Michael Suhul.
But Achmet, the Naybe'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 me in every place where there was any government whatever; it might do even a- mong banditti and thieves inhabiting woods and mountains; that a fumcient quantity of ftrangers blood had been al-
A- ready
-3 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
ready flied at Mafuah, for the purpofe of rapine, and he be- lieved a curfe and poverty had followed it ; that it was im- poflible for thofe who had heard the firing of thofe fhips to conjecture whether I had letters to Abyffiniaor not ; that it would be better to confider whether I was held in efleem by the captains of thofe fhips, as half of the guns they fired in compliment to me, was fufficient 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 fhips, coming next year to Jidda, a day's failing out of their way ; and there being plenty of water when they reached Arkeeko at the fouth-weft of the bay, all this deflruction might be efFe&ed in one afternoon, and repeated once a- year without difficulty, danger, or expence, while they were watering,
Ac h met, therefore, declared it was his refolution that I fhould be received with marks of confideration, till upon infpec"ting my letters, and converfing with me, they might ice what fort of man I was, and upon what errand I was come ; but even if I was a trader, and no priefl or Frank, fuch as came to difturb the peace of the country, he would not then confent to any perfonal injury being done me ; if I was indeed a priefl, or one of thofe Franks, Gcbennim, 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 vefTel appeared, they came to thefe conclu- fions ; and though I have fuppofed that hoifting the colours and faluting me with guns had brought mc into this dan- ger, on the other hand it may be faid, perhaps with greater
realbn.
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 9
reafon, they were the means Providence kindly ufed to fave my life in that flaughter-houfe of itrangcrs.
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 prefent Naybe had all been fwept away by the fmall-pox; fo that Achmet was really, at any rate, to be con- fidered as his fon and fucceflbr. 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- fore agreed the reft mould be only fpectators, and that my iate jQiouLd be left to him.
Achmet was about twenty-five years of age, or perhaps "younger; his flature near five-feet four; he was feebly made, a little bent forward or flooping, thin, long-faced, long-neck- -ed; fmalljbut tolerably well- limbed, agile and active enough in his motions, though of a figure by no means athletic; lie 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 defired, a thick curled beard. This man was known to be very brave in his perf'on, but -exceedingly prone to anger. A near relation to the Bahar- nagafli having faid fomething impertinent to him while he was altering the pin of his tent, which his fervant had not .placed to his mind, in a paflion he flruck the Abyflinian with a wooden mallet, and killed him on the fpot and al- though this was in the Abyflinian territory, by getting
Vol. III. B nimbly
ro TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
nimbly on horfeback, he arrived at Arkeeko without being intercepted, though clofely purfued almoft to the town.
It was the 19th of September 1 769 when we arrived atMa- fuah, 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 leaft before the de- termination of the Naybe had been heard concerning us.
Mahomet Gtbberti, a man whom we had perfectly fe- cured, and who was fully inftructed in our fufpicions as to the Naybe, and the manner we had refolved to behave to him, went afhore that evening ; and, being himfelf an Abyf- fmian, having connections in Mafuah, difpatched that fame night to Adowa, capital of Tigrc, thofe letters which I knew were to be of the greateft importance ; giving our friend Janni (a Greek, confidential fervant of Michael, governor of Tigrc) advice that we were arrived, had letters of Meti- cal 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 inftantly fome man of confidence, who might protect us, or at leaft be a fpeitator of what ihould befal us. We, befides, inftructed him to advife the court of Ahyffinia, that \vc were friends of Metical Aga, had letters from him to the king and the Ras, and diftrufted the Naybe of Mafuah.
Mahomet Gib*] :ti executed this cemmimon in the in- ftant, with all the punctuality of an honeit man, who was
faithruJ-
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. u
faithful to the inftrucfions of his matter, and was indepen- dent 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, difpatched a trufty meffenger, with many of whom he was conilantly provided. This runner, charged with our difpatches, having a friend and correfpondent of his own among the Shiho, palled, by ways beft known to himfelf, and was fafely efcorted by his own friends till the fifth day, when he arrived at the cuilomhoufe of Adowa, and there delivered our difpatches to our friend Janni.
At Cairo, as I have already mentioned, I met with my friend father Chriftopher, who introduced me to the Greek patriarch, Mark. This patriarch had told me, that there were of his communion, to the number of about twenty, then in Abymnia ; fome of them were good men and be- coming 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- fmia, and pofTefling places under government greatly be- yond his expectation. To thefe he wrote letters, in the man- ner of bulls from the pope, enjoining them, with regard to me, to obey his orders flrictly, 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 Abymnia with great reputation, and Michael had appointed him to the cuilomhoufe at Adowa, to fuperintend the affairs of the revenue there, while he himfelf was occu-
B 2 pied
I* TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
pied at Gondar. To him the patriarch gave his firft injunc- tions as to watching the motives of the Naybe, and prevent- ing any ill-ufage from him, before the notice of my arrival, at Mafuah mould reach Abyffinia.
Mahomet Adulai difpatched his mefTenger, and Maho- met Gibberti repaired that fame night to the Naybe at Ar- keeko, with fuch diligence that lulled him afleep as to any prior intelligence, which otherwife he might have thought he was charged to convey to Tigre ; and Mahomet Gibberti; in his converfation that night with Achmet, adroitly con+ firmed 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 ccafts of the Red Sea would be in a dangerous fituation if any thing happened to me, as both the merriffe of Mecca and emperor of Conftaminople would themfelvesj, perhaps, not interfere, but would nioft certainly confider the place; where fuch difobedience mould be fhewn to theiF 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 more. The Naybe himfelf was ftill at Ar- keeko, and Achmet therefore had come down to receive the duties of the merchandife on board the veiRl which brought me. There were two elbow-chairs placed in the middle of the market- x ace. Achmet fat on one of. them, while the
feveral
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. x3
feveral officers opened the bales and packages before him,; the other chair on his left hand was empty.
He was drefled all in white, in a long Banian habit of muflin, and a clofe-bodied frock reaching to his an- cles, 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, I doubled my pace : Mahomet Gibberti's fervant whifpered to me, not to kifs his hand ; which indeed I intended to have done. Achmet flood up,juft as I arrived within arm's length of him ; when we touched each other's hands, car- ried our fingers to our lips, then laid our hands crofs our breads : I pronounced the falutation of the inferior SalamAli- cuml Peace be between us; to which he anfwered immediate- ly, Alkum 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 confiderable prefent is expected. He made a fign to bring coffee directly, as the immediate of- fering of meat or drink is an aflurance your life is not in danger. He began with an air that feemed rather fcrious •: " We have 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 Gulf of Mocha, andcroffed laft from Lohcia."— " Are you not afraid," faidhe, " fo thinly attended, to venture upon thefe long and dangerous voyages. ?"— " The countries where I have been are either fubject to the emperor of Conftanti- nople, whole firman I have now the honour, to prefent yea.
or
i4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
or to the regency of Cairo, and port of Janizaries — here are their letters — or to the fherriffe of Mecca. To you, Sir, I prefent the fherriffe's letters ; and, befides thefe, one from Metigal Aga your friend, who, depending on your character, aflurcd me this alone would be fufficient to preferve me from ill-ufage fo long as I did no wrong : as for the dan- gers of the road from banditti and lawlefs perfons, my fer- vants are indeed few, but they are veteran foldiers, tried and exercifed from their infancy in arms, and I value not the iuperior number of cowardly and diforderly perfons."
He then returned me the letters, faying, " You will give thefe to the Naybe to-morrow ; I will keep Metical's letter, as it is to me, and will read it at home." He put it accord- ingly in his bofom ; and our coffee being done, I rofe to take my leave, and was prefently wet to the fkin by deluges of -orange flower-water fhowered 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 frefh water, now be- come one of the greateft delicacies in life ; and, inflantly after, our baggage was all fent unopened ; with 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 undrefs, his body quite naked, a barracan thrown loofely 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
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 15
arms whatever. I rofe up to meet him, and thank him for his civility in fending my baggage ; and when I obferved, befides, that it was my duty to wait upon him, rather than fuffer him to give himfelf this trouble, he took me by the hand, and we fat down on two cufhions together.
" All that you mentioned," faid he, "is perfectly good and well ; but there are queftions that I am going to aik you which are 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 mips at Jidda. Metical Aga> in his private letter delivered to the Naybe laft night by Mahomet Gibberti, among many unufual expreffions, faid, The day that any accident befals this pcrfon will be looked upon by me always as the moll unfortunate of my life. Now, you are a Chriftian, and he is a Muffulman, and thefe are expreffions of a particular regard not ufed by the one when writing of the other. He fays, moreover, that, in your finnan, the grand figniorftiles you Bey- Adze, orMoft Noble, Tell me, therefore, and tell me 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- pofing yourfelf to lb many difficulties and dangers?1'
" I am neither fon, nor brother of a king. I am a pri- vate EngUihman. 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 jufter 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
ifi TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
of the world, this little fea would be too narrow for their fliips : Your fun, now fo hot, would be darkened by their fails; and when they fired their terrible wide-mouthed can- non, not an Arab would think himfelf fafe on the diflant mountains, while the houfes on the more would totter and fall to the ground as if lhaken 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 affection to him and his family, in which I do not acknowledge any fupe- rior. Yet fo far your correfpondents fay well: My anceflors were the kings of the country in which I was born, and to be ranked among the greater! and mofl 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," laid 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 with- out faith, covetous, barbarous, and in continual war, of which nobody yet has been able to difcover the reafon. But of this another time."
" 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 : but, to convince you that it is truth, I now thank you for the humane part you took a- gainft thele bloody intentions others had of killing and plundering me on my arrival, upon Abdelcader governor of Dahalac's information that I was a prince, becaufe of the
i honour
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 17
nour that the Englifh. fhips paid me, and that I was loaded with gold."
Ullah Acbar ! (in great furprife) " Why, you was in the middle of the fea when that pafled."
" Scarcely advanced fo far, I believe ; but your ad- vice was wife, for a large Engliih fhip will wait for me all this winter in Jidda, till I know what reception I meet here, or in Abyilinia. It is a 64 gun fhip ; its name, the Lion ; its captain, Thomas Price. I mention thefe particu- lars, that you may inquire into the truth. Upon the firft: news of a difafter he would come here, and deftroy Ar- keeko, and this ifland, in a day. But this is not my bufinefs with you at prefent.
It is a very proper cuftom, eftablifhed all over the call, that ftrangers mould make an acknowledgement for the protection they receive, and trouble they are to occafion. I have a prefent for the Naybe, whofe temper and difpofition I know perfectly, — (Ullah Acbar ! repeats Achmet). — I have likewife a prefent for you, and for the Kaya of the Janiza- ries ; all thefe I mail deliver the firft day I fee the Naybe ; but I was taught, in a particular manner, to repofe 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 fliips, and at the broker of that nation, for a pair of Engliih 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 prefent, a pair of excellent workmanfhip ; Vol III. G here
i€ TRAVELS TO DISCOVER'.
here they are : my doubt, which gave rife to this long pri- vate converfation, was, whether you would take them home yourfelf ; or, if you have a confidential fcrvant that you can trull, let him take them, fo that it 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 I never faw, as you do, I know pretty well the hearts of thofe with whom I live. Let the piftols remain with you, and mew 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, Ullab Kcrim, 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 piftols. You may fend by him to me any thing you choofe, In the mean time, fleep found, and fear no evil; but never be perfuaded to trull )Ourfelf to the Cafrs.of Habeih at Ma- mah."
On the 20th of September a female flave came and brought with her the proper credentials, an Indian hand- kerchief full of dry dates, and a pot or bottle of unvarnifh- ed potter's earth, which keeps the water very cool. I had fome doubt upon this change of fex ; but the Have, who was an Abyffinian girl, quickly undeceived me, delivered the dates, and took away the piftols deftined for Achmet, who had himfelf gone to his uncle, the Naybe, at Arkeeko. .
On the 21ft, in the morning, the Naybe came from Ar- keeko. The ufual way is by fea ; it .s about two leagues
ftraight
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. i^
ftraight acrofs the bay, but fomewhat more by land. The paflage from the mam is on the north fide of the ifland, which is not above a quarter of a mile broad ; there is a large ciftern for rain-water on the land- fide, where you em- bark acrofs. He was poorly attended by three or four fer- vants, miferably mounted, and about forty naked favages on foot, armed with iiiort 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 Caftle of Mafuah, began. The caftle 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 are earthen jars, fuch as they fend butter in to Ara- bia ; the mouths of which are covered with a Ikin, fo that a flranger, 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 proceflion was in the fame (tile. The Naybe was dreiled in an old fhabby Turkifh habit, much too fhort for him, and feemed to have been made about the time of Sultan Selim. He wore alio upon his head a Turkifh cowke, or high-cap, which fcarccly admitted any part of his head. In this drefs, which on him had a truly ridiculous appear- ance, he received the caftan, or inveftiture, of the ifland of Mafuah; and, being thereby reprefentative of the grand fignior, confented that day to be called Omar Aga, in ho- nour of the commiilio:;.
C 2 Two
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Two ftandards of white filk, flripcd with red, were car- ried before him to the mofque, from whence he went ta his own houfe to receive the compliments of his friends, fn the afternoon of that day I went to pay my refpects to him, and found him fitting on a large wooden elbow-chair, at the head of two files of naked favages, who made arr avenue from his chair to the door. He had nothing upon him but a coarfe cotton fliirt, fo dirty that, it feemed, all pains to clean it again would be thrown away, and fo fhort 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 moil ftupid 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 greateft bafha in the Tur- kish empire would have rifen upon feeing it, kifTed 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 fhewn this piece of refpeet to his mailer. But he did not even receive it into his hand, and puihed it back to me again, faying, " Do you read it all to me word for word." — " I told him it was Turktfh; that I had never learn- ed to read a word of that language." — " Nor I either," fays he ; " and I believe I never mail." I then gave him Meti- cal Aga's letter, the SherriuVs, Ali Bey's, and the Janiza- rics letters. He took them all together in both his hands, auci laid them unopened befide him, faying, " You mould.
have
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. zr
have brought a moullah along with you. Do you think I fhall read all thele letters ? Why, it would take me a month." And he glared upon me, with his mouth open, fo like an: idiot, that it was with the utmoft difficulty I kept my gra- vity, only anfwering, " Juft as you pleafe ; you know beft."
He affected at firft not to underftand 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 Ara- bic, and fpoke it well.
A silence followed this fliort converfation, and I took the opportunity to give him his prefent, with which he did not feem 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 Habefli 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.
I took my leave of the Naybe, very little pleafcd with my reception, and the fmall account he feemed to make of my letters, or of myfelf; but heartily fatisfied with having fent my difpatches to J.anni, now far out of his power.
The inhabitants of Mafuah were dying of the fmall-pox, ; fo that there was fear the living would not be fufficient to bury the dead. The whole ifland was filled with fhrieks and lamentations both night and day. They at laft began to throw the bodies into the fca, which deprived us of our great fupport, fifli, of which we had ate fome kinds that
were
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were excellent. I had fupprcllcd 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 veffel 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 handfome prefent. He gave in a long lift of particulars to a great amount, which he defired might be divided into three parcels, and prefented three feveral days. One was to be given him as Naybe of Arkeeko ; one as Omar Aga, re- prefentative of the grand fignior; and one for having patted our baggage gratis and unviiitcd, efpecially the large qua- drant. For my part, 1 heartily wiihed he had feen the whole, as he would not have let great value on the brafs and iron.
As Achmet's afTurance of protection had given me cou- rage, I anfwcred him, That, having a firman of the grand fig- nior, and letters from Metical Aga, it was mere generofity in me to give him any prefent at all, either as Naybe or O- mar Aga, and I was not a merchant that bought and fold, nor had merchandife 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 ufelcfs words pafTed on both fides. At lail he peremptorily told me, That unlefs I had 300 ounces of gold ready to pay him on Monday, up- on his landing from Arkeeko, he would confine me in a dungeon, without light, air, or meat, till the bones came through my ikin for want.
An
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 23
An uncle of his, then p.refent, greatly aggravated this affair. He pretented that the Naybe might do what he pleated with his prefents ; but that he could not in any ihape give away the prefent due to the janizaries, which was • 40 ounces of gold, or 400 dollars ; and this was all they Con- tented themlelves to take, on account of the letter I br >uffht from the port of janizaries at Cairo; and in this they only taxed me the fum paid by the A buna for his pailage through Mafuah. I anfwcred firmly, — " Since vou have' broken your faith with the grand fignior, the government of Cairo, the balha 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 Arkeeko, fome morning by day-break." — " I lliould 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; 1 would flrip his ihirt offlirft, and then his fkin, and hang him before your door to teach . you more wifdom." — " But my wifdom has taught rare to prevent all this. My letter is already gone to Jidda ; and if, in twenty days from this, another letter from me does not follow it, you will fee what will arrive. In the mean time, I here an- nounce it to you, that I have letters from Metical Aga and the SherrifFe of Mecca, to Michael Suhul governor of Tigre, and the king of Abyffinia. I, therefore, would wim that you would leave off thefe unmanly altercations, which ferve no fort of purpofe, and let me 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 mefTage came from the Naybe, defiring I would fend him two bottles of aquavits.
I gave
24 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
I gave the fervant two bottles of cinnamon- water, which he refufed till I had firfl tailed them ; but they were not agree- able 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 Arkeeko: at laft 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, laying 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 anfwered me furlily, 1 might go if I could find a boat'; and, indeed, he had taken his raea- fures fo well that not a boat would ftir for money or per- fuafion.
On the 29th of October the Naybe came again from Ar- keeko to Mafuah, and, I was told, in very ill-humour with me. I foon received a meffage to attend him, and found him in a large wafte room like a barn, with about fixty people with him. This was his divan, or grand council, with alLhis janizaries and officers of Hate, all naked, affembled in par- liament. There was a comet that had appeared a few days after our arrival at Mafuah, which had been many days vifible in Arabia Felix, being then in its perihelion ; and, after palling its conjunction with the fun, it now ap- peared at Mafuah early in the evening, receding to its aphe- lion. I had been obferved watching it with great attention ; and the large tubes of the telefcopes had given offence to ignorant people.
The firfl: queftion the Naybe alked me was, What that comet meant, and why it appeared? And before I could an-
4 fwer
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 25
Twer 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 atLoheia; 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 ?"
Without giving me leave to fpeak, his brother Emir Achmet then faid, That he was informed I was an engineer going to Michael, governor of Tigre, to teach the Abyffinians to make cannon and gunpowder ; that the firft attack was to be againft Mafuah. Five or fix others fpoke much in the fame ftrain ; and the Naybe concluded by faying, That he would fend me in chains to Conftantinople, unlefs I went to Hamazen, 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.
1 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," faid 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, lie threw it afide like wafte-paper. The greateft Vizir in the Turkifh dominions would have received it (landing, bowed his head to the ground, then kifled.it, and put it upon his forehead. A general murmur of approbation followed, and I continu- ed,— " Now I muft tell you my refolution is, never to go to Hamazen, or elfewhere, with Emir Achmet. Both he and the Naybe have fhewed themfelves my enemies ; and, I be-
Vol. III. D . lieve,
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lieve, that to fend me to Hamazen is to rob and murder me out of light." — " Dog of a Chriftian !" fays Emir Achmet, putting his hand to his knife, " if the Nay be was to mur- der 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 fuffer any fuch thing. Achmet is the ftranger's friend, and recommended me to-day to fee no in- jury done him; he 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 Arkeeko, but not to Hamazen, nor ever again to the Naybe here in Mafuah. Whatever happens to me muft befal me in my own houfe. Confider what a figure a few naked men will make the day that my countrymen afk the reafon of this cither here or in Arabia." I then turned my back, and went out without ceremony. " A brave man !"" I heard a voice fay behind me, " Wallah Englefe! True Englifh, by G — d !" I went away exceedingly diflurbed, as it was plain my affairs were coming to a crifis 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 me, faying diilinctly in my ear, though in a low voice, firfl in Tigre and then in Arabic, " Fear nothing., or, Be not afraid." This hint, lliort as it was, gave me no fmalL courage.
I had fcarcely dined, when a fervant came with a letter from Achmet at Arkeeko, telling me how ill he had beent and how forty he was that I refufed to come to fee him, as
Mahomet
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 27
Mahomet Gibberti had told him I could help him. He de- fired me alfo to keep the bearer with me 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, in- deed, forbid me to go and fee his nephew, but he had for- bid any boat to carry me; and this I told the fervant, appeal- ing 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 flop for a moment, and go to the Sardar who was in the caftle, as I had been very effentially 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 meffage faithfully, and had heard all that had paffed in the divan. He brought me back a pipe from the Sardar in return for my prefent, with this meffage, That he had heard of my countrymen, though he had never feen 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 fhut the door, and leaving us another man, with or- ders to admit nobody, and advifmg us to defend ourfelves if any one offered to force entrance, be they who they would, for that nobody had bufinefs abroad in the night.
I now began to refume my confidence, feeing that Pro- vidence had ftill kept us under his protection ; and it was not long when we had an opportunity to exercife this con- fidence. About 12 o'clock at night a man came to the door, and defired to be admitted ; which requeft was refufed
D-2 without
28 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
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 afked to fpeak with me, and grew very tumultuous, prefling with their backs againlt the door. When I came to them, a young man a- mong them fakl he was fon to Emir Achmet, and that his father and fome friends were coming to drink a glafs o£ aracky (fo they call brandy) with me. I told him my refo- 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 ftrongly barricaded. But as there were cracks in it, I put the point of a fword through one of them, defiring them, to be cautious of hurting themfelves upon the iron fpikes. Still they attempted to force open the door, when the fer- vant told them, that Achmet, when he left him the charge of that door, had ordered us to fire upon them who offered to- force an entrance at night. A voice afked 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 trou- ble 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 caftle 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 o£ the door ; but Abdelcader's threat being fully fumcient, they, retired, and we heard no more of them.
It
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. ^
It was the 4th of November when the fervant of Achmet returned in a boat from Arkeeko, and with him four ja- nizaries. He was not yet well, and was very defirous to fee me. He fufpected either that he was poiibned or bewitch- ed, and had tried many charms without good effect. We arrived at Arkeeko about eleven, paffed the door of the Naybe without challenge, and found Achmet in his own houfe, ill of an intermitting, fever, under the very vvoril of regimens.
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 occafion of both. " If Achmet, your uncle, had loft the ufe of his. tongue, faid I, it would have faved him a great deal of im- proper difcourfe in the divan." His head ached violently,, and he could only fay, " Aye! aye! the old mifcreant knew I was ill, or that would not have happened." I gave Ach- met proper remedies to eafe his pains and his ftomach, and the next morning began with baric
This medicine operates quickly here; nay, even the bark that remains, after the ftronger fpiritous tincture is drawn from it, feems toanfwer the purpofe very little worle than did the frrft. I ftaid here till the 6th in the morning, at which time he was free from the fever. I left him, how- ever, 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.
Upon
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Upon the 6th, in the morning, while at breakfaft, I was told that three fervants had arrived from Tig-re ; one from Janni, a young man and Have, who fpoke and wrote Greek perfectly ; the ether two fervants were Ras Michael's, or rather the king's, both wearing the red fhort 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 fhort. He faid the king Hatze Hannes's health was bad, and wondered at hearing that the phyfician, fent to him by Metical Aga from Arabia, was not forwarded to him inftantly at Gondar, as he had heard of his being arrived at Mafuah fome time before. He ordered the Naybe, moreover, to furniili me with necefTaries, 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 ftile. He exprefTed the great ncceility 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 wifhed he might be forwarded without delay as foon as he came.
To us Janni fent a menage by a fervant, bidding us a hearty welcome, aknowledging the receipt of the patriarch's letter, and advifing us, by all means, to come fpeedily to him, for the times were very unfettled, and might grow worfe.
In the afternoon I embarked for Mafuah. At the more I received a menage from the Naybe to come and fpeak to him ; but I returned for anfwer, It was impoflible, as I was obliged to go to Mafuah to get medicines for his nephew, Achmet.
x CHAR
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 31
CHAP. II.
Direcllons to Travellers for preferving Health — D'feafes of the Country—. Mufic — 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 inter- ruption, and completed our obfervations upon this inhof- pitable ifland, infamous for the quantity of Chriftian blood flied there upon treacherous pretences.
Masu ah, by a great variety of obfervations of the fun and itars, we found to be in lat. 150 33' s"> and> hY an obfervation of the fecond fatellite of Jupiter, on the 22d of September 1 769, we found its longitude to be 390 36' 30" eaft of the meridian of Greenwich : the variation of the needle was obferved at mid-day, the 23d of September, to be 120 48'. W. From this it follows, that Loheia, being nearly oppofite, (for it is in lat. 1 50 40' 52") the breadth of the Red Sea between Mafuah and Loheia is 40 10' 22". Suppoiing, then, a degree to be equal to 66 ftatute miles, this, in round numbers, will bring the
breadth
%i TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
breadth to be 276 miles, equal to 92 leagues, or there- abouts.
Again, as the generality of maps have placed the coaft of Arabia where Loheia Hands, in the 440, and it is the part of the peninfula that rims fartheft to the weftward, all the weft coaft of Arabia Felix will fall to be brought farther eaft 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 Auguft, upon three feveral trials, the mean of the remits of each trial was, at fix in the morning, 26° 8' 8"; two o'clock in the afternoon, 260 4' \"\ and, half part fix in the evening, 260 6' 2", fair, clear weather, with very little wind at weft.
At Mafuah, the 4th of October, I repeated the fame ex- periment with the fame mercury and tube ; the means were as follow : At fix in the morning 250 8' 1" ; two o'clock in the afternoon, 250 3' 2" ; and, at half paft fix in the evening, 25° 3' 7", clear, with a moderate wind at weft, fo that the ba- rometer fell one inch and one line at Mafuah lower than it was at Loheia, though it often rofe upon violent ftorms of wind and rain ; and, even where there was no rain, it again fell inftantly upon the ftorm ceafing, and never arrived to the height it flood laft at on the coaft of Arabia. The greateft height I ever obferved Fahrenheit's thermometer in the fhadc, at Mafuah, was on the 2 2d of October, at two in the afternoon, 930, wind N. E. and by N. cloudy; the loweft was on the 23d, at four in the morning, 820, wind weft. It was, to fenfe, much hotter than in any part of Arabia Felix ; but
1 we
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 53
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 flrft time, three remarkable circumftances fhewing the increafe of heat. I had carried with me feveral fteel plates for making fcrews of different fizes. The heat had fo fwelied the pin, or male fcrew, that it was cut nearly one-third through by the edge of the fe- male. The fealing-wax, of which we had procured a frefh parcel from the India fhips, was fully more fluid, while ly- ing in our boxes, than tar. The third was the colour of the fpirit in the thermometer, which was quite difcharged, and (licking in maffes at unequal heights, while the liquor was clear like fpring-water.
Masuah is very unwholefome, as, indeed, is the whole coaft of the Red Sea from Suez to Babelmandeb, but more efpecially between the tropics. Violent fevers, called there ncdad, make the principal figure in this fatal lift, and gene- rally 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 ano- ther delude adds to the firft.
lt>v
There is no remedy fo fovereign here as the hark ; but it mult be given in very different times and manners from thofe purfued in Europe. Were a phyfician to take time to prepare his patient for the bark, by firfl giving him purga- tives, he would be dead of the fever before his preparation
Vdl. III. E was
34 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
was completed. Immediately when a naufea or averlion- to eat, frequent fits of yawning, ftraitnefs about the eyes, and an unufual, but not painful fenfation along the fpine, comes on, no time is then to be loil ; fmall dofes of the bark muft be frequently repeated, and perfect abltinence obferved, un- l^fs 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 fwal- lowed, 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 moil 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 follow 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 different 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, ftill I fay bark is a purgative when it is fuccefsful in this fever; but bleeding, at no ftage of this diltemper, is of any fervice ; and, indeed, if attempted the fecond day, the lancet is feldom followed by blood. Ipecacuanha both fatigues the patient and height- ens the fever, and ib conducts the patient more fpeedily to his
2 end.
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 35
end. Black fpots are frequently found on the breaft and belly of the dead perfon. The belly fwells, and the ftench 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 ifland of Mafuah, and all Abyffmia, (for the difeafes are exactly limilar 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 remiffion, though this mould be fomcwhat obicure and uncertain. To fpeak plainly; when the flomach nau- feates, the head akes, yawning becomes frequent, and not an exceffive pain in the nape of the neck, when a fhiver- 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 lafl fcnfations) ; I lay, when any number of thefe fymptoms unite, have recourfe to the powder of bark infilled in water; ftiut your month againlt every fort of food; and, at the o-ifxs, your difeafe will immediately decide its name amon the clafs of fevers.
rr O
All fevers end in intcrmittents; and if thefe intermittcnts continue long, and the firft evacuations by the bark have not been copious and conftant, thefe fevers generally end
E 2 in
•36 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
in dyfcnteries,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 conftant diarrhoea, when the guts at laft are excoriated, and the mucus voided by the flools, this difeafe is rarely cu- red 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 ipeca- cuanha either carry it off, or it changes into an intermitting fever, which yields afterwards to the bark. And it always has feemed to me that there is a great affinity between the fevers and dyfenteries in thefe countries, the one ending in the other almoft perpetually..
The next difeafe, which we may fay is endemial in the countries before mentioned, is called banzecr, the bogs or the /wine, and is a fwelling of the glands of the throat, and un- der 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 tubercules or fwellings appeal' all over the body, but thickefl in the thighs, arms, and legs. Thefe fwellings go and come for weeks together without pain ; though the legs often fwell to a monftrous fize as in the dropfy. Sometimes the patients have ulcers in theis
noies
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 37
nofes and mouths, not unlike thofc which are one of the malignant confequences of the venereal difeafe. The fmall fwellings or eruptions, when fqueezed, very often yield blood ; in other refpe&s the patient is generally in good health, faving the pain the ulcers give him, and the Hill greater uneafinefs of mind which he fuffers from the fpoil- ing of the fmoothnefs of his ikin ; for all the nations in Africa within the tropics are wonderfully affe&ed 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 mould 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 re- lief. Scars and wounds are no blemifhes ; and I have feen them, for three or four pimples on their bracelet arm,fuffer the application of a red-hot iron with great refolution and conflancy.
These two laft difeafes yielded, the firft flowly, and fome- times imperfectly, to mercurials ; and fublimate has by no means in thefe climates the quick and decifive effecSts it has in Europe. The fecond is completely and fpsedily cured by antimonials.
The next complaint I mail mention, as common in thefe countries, is called Farenteit, a corruption of an Arabic word, which ngnifies the worm of Pharaoh ; all bad things being by the Arabs attributed to thefe poor kings, who feem to be looked upon by pofterity as the evil genii of the country which they once governed..
This
38 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER.
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 law it in the face or head ; but, far from affecting the flefhy parts of the body, it generally comes out where the bone has leaf! 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 iilky texture, very like a fmall tendon bared and perfectly clean- ed. 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 reMance, they give over for fear of breaking it. I have fecn 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 ifliicd out upon prefling. In three days it was commonly well, and left no fear or dimple implying lofs of fubitance.
I myself experienced this complaint. I was reading up- on 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.
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 39
bone, about; feven inches below the center of my knee-pan,, an itching refembling what follows the bite of a mufcheto. Upon fcratching, a fmall tumour appeared very like a mufcheto bite. The itching returned in about an hour af- terwards ; and, being more intent upon my reading thnn my leg, I fcratched it till the blood came. I foon after ob- ferved fomething like a black fpot, which had already rifen 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 filk in the firft week, without pain or fever : but it was broken afterwards throueh the careleffnefs and rafhnefs of
O
the furgeon when changing a poultice on board the fhip in which I returned to France : a violent inflammation fol- lowed ; the leg fwelled fo as to fcarce leave appearance of knee or ancle ; the fkin, red and diitended, fecmed glazed like a mirror. The wound was now healed, and difcharged nothing ; and there was every appearance of mortification coming on. The great care and attention procured me in the lazaretto at Marfeilles, by a nation always foremoft 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 clap fed fince 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 quantity of matter was difcharged. I had made conftant ufe of baric, both in fomentations and inwardly; but I did not recover the ftrength of my leg entirely till, near a year after, by
ufmg
4o TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
ufing the baths of Poretta, the property of my friend Count Ranuzzi, in the mountains above Bologna, which I recom- mend, for rheir efficacy, to all thofe who have wounds, as I do to him to have better accommodation, greater abun- dance of, and lefs impofition in, the neceffaries of life than when I was there, It is but a few hours journey over the mountains to Piiloia.
The laft I ihall mention of thefe endemial difeafes, and the mod 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 ftages, 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 fkin of their backs, which, upon fcratching, I have feen leave a mealinefs, or whitenefs ; the only cir- cumitance, to the bed of my recollection, in which it re- fembled the leprofy, but it has no fcalinefs. The hair, too, is of its natural colour; not white, ycllowim, or thin, as in the leprofy, but fo far from it that, though the Abyili- nians have very rarely hair upon their chin, I have feen people, apparently in the laft ft age of the elephantiafis, with a very good beard of its natural colour.
The appetite is generally good during this difeafe, nor does 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 flant
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 4I
ftant thirft, as the lymph, which coniinually oozes from their wounds, probably demands to be replaced. It is averred by the Abyflinians 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 muft own, none of them had the appearance of health. It is faid this difeafe, though furelv born with the infant, does not become vifible till the ap- proach 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 fwelled to a o-reat degree, becoming one fize from bottom to top, and gather- ed into circular wrinkles, like fmall hoops or plaits ; be- tween every one of which there is an opening that feparates it all round from the one above, and which' is all raw flefli, or perfectly excoriated. From between thefe circular divi- fions a great quantity of lymph conftantly 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 feem that the black colour of the fkin, the thicknefs of the leg, and its fhapelefs form, and the rough tubercules, or cxcrefcences, very like thofe feen upon the elephant, give the name to this difeafe, and form a finking refemblance between the diftempered legs of this unfortunate individual of the human fpecies, and thofe of the noble quadruped the elephant, when in full vigour.
Vol.111. F , ^
42 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
An infirmity, to which the Abyffinians are fubject, of much worfe confequence to the community than the ele- phantiafis, I mean lying, makes it impoffible 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 fuggeft fome rational method to cure, cr 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 Eafl 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 muft always confider as one of the greateft ac- quisitions I evef made in travelling, defiredme, among other medical inquiries, to try the effect of the cicuta upon this difeafe ; and a considerable quantity, made according to the direction of Dr Storkc, phyfician in Vienna, was fent me from. Paris, with inllructions 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 Abyffmia, and told them of the con- fequences of giving too great a dole, I obtained their joint permi/fions 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* (the*
only
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 43
only one we ever mall have an opportunity of making) of a medicine which may fave multitudes hereafter from a dif- eafc fo much worfe than death.
It was foon feen, by the conftant adminiftration of ma- ny ordinary dofes, that nothing was to be expected from violent or dangerous ones ; as not the fmalleil degree of amendment ever appeared, either outwardly or in- wardly, 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 furniilied with at my defire, in any quantity he pleafed, during the experi- ment.
The troubles of the times prevented further attention. Dr 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 iearce ever obferved mercury fucceed in any complaint.
It is not for me to attempt to explain what are the caufes of thefe diftempers. Thofe whole iludies lead them to fuch inveftigations will do well to attach themfelves, for firfl principles, to the difference of climate, and the abui'es that obtain under them ; after this, to particular circum- flances in the neceiTaries of life, -to which nature has fubjected the people of thefe countries. Under the firft, we may rank a feafon of fix months rains, fuccceded, without interval, by a cloudlefs Iky and vertical fun ; and cold nights which as immediately follow thefe fcorching
F 2 days.
44 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
days. The earth, notwithstanding' the heat of thefe days, is yet perpetually cold, fo as to feel difagreeably to the foles 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 fliirt) 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. Thele 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 thole countries is impregnated, may be circumftances lefs conducive to health ; to which, however, they have been for ever fubject by nature.
It will be very reafonably expected, that, after this un- favourable account of the climate, and the uncertainty of remedies for thefe frequent and terrible difeafes, I mould 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 Hate 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 light of the many and fudden deaths we fee upon our firft arrival, and our fpirits are fo lowered by perpetual per- fpiration, and our nerves fo relaxed, that v/e are apt to mif- take the ordinary fymptoms of a difeafe, familiar to us in our own country, for the approach of one of thefe terrible diftempers that are to hurry us in a few hours into eter- nity. This has a bad effect in the very ilighteft diforders ;
fo
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 45
fo that it hath become proverbial — If you think you mall die. you mail 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 conititution, he cannot acft more wifely than to follow implicitly the regimen of fober, healthy people of the country, without arguing upon European notions, or fubftituting what we conlider 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 ftomach, being relaxed by-pro fufe perfpiration, needs fomething to flxengthen, but not inflame, and enable it to perform digeftion. For this reafon (inftinct we mould call it, if fpcaking of beads) the natives of all eaflern countries feafon every fpecies of food, even the fimpleft, and mildelt, rice, fo much with fpices, ef- pecially 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 difgufted at this feemingly inflammatory food; and nothing is more com- mon than to hear them fay that they are afraid thefe quan- tities 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 does not the heat of your ikin, the
violent
4f5 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
-violent pain in your head, while the fpirits are filtering through the veffels of your brains, (hew the difference ? and when did any ever feel a like fenlation from black pepper, or any pepper ate to excefs in every meal ?
I lay down, then, as a pofitive rule of health, that the warmeft difhes the natives delight in, are the moft whole- fome ftrangers can ufe in the putrid climates of the Lower Arabia, Abyflinia, Sennaar, and Egypt itfelf ; and that fpi- rits, and all fermented liquors, mould 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 arti- cle. But as, on both coafts of the Red Sea you fcarcely find any but ftagnant water, the way I practiced 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 fprcad it upon a fheet to dry ; I then filled 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 poffible, upon the furface 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- bove the fand ; then threw the remaining fand out upon the cloth, and dried and waflied it again.
This procefs is fooner performed than defcribed. The water is as limpid as the purcft fpring, and little in-
, ferior
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 47
ferior to the fineft Spa. Drink largely of this without fear, according as your appetite requires. By violent perfpira- tion the aqueous part of your blood is thrown off; and it is not fpiritous liquor can reftore this, whatever momentary ftrength it may give you from another caufe. When hot, and almoft fainting with weaknefs from continual perfpira- tion, 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 fhould have weak- ened and overpowered you ; but the fact is otherwife ; and the reafon is, the quantity of water, taken up by your ab- 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 uneafinefs.
In Nubia never fcruple to throw yourfelf into the coldeft ri- ver or fpring you can find, in whatever degree of heat you are. The reafon of the difference in Europe is, that when by vio- lence 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 fuddenly. The me- dium is itfelf too cold, and you do net ufe force fuificicnt to bring back the perfpiration, which nought but action occa- fioned; 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 fhutvthe moment you plunge yourfelf in the cold water, the fimple condition of the outward air again covers you with pearls of fweat the moment you emerge ; and you begin the expence of the aqueous part of your blood afrefh from the new ftock that you have laid in by your immerfion.
2m
43 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
For this reafon, if you are well, deluge yourfelf from head to foot, even in the houfe, where water is plenty, by di- recting 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 inun- dations 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 complete- ly reflored 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 ei- ther fo neceflary or falutary here as in Europe. Ufe fruits fparingly, efpecially if too ripe. The mufa, or banana, in ArabiaFelix, are always rotten-ripe when they are brought to you. Avoid all fort of fruit expofed forfale in the markets, as it has probably been gathered in the fun, and carried miles in it, and 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 pillaw are the bell food ; fowls are very bad, eggs are worfe ; greens are not wholefome. In Arabia the mutton is good, and, when roalted, may be eaten warm with
3 fafety ;
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 4$
fafety; perhaps better if cold. Ail ioups or broths are to be avoided ; all game is bad.
I have known many very fcrupulous about eating {up- pers, but, I am peri'uaded, without reaibn. The great perfpi- ration which relaxes the ftomach fo much through the day has now ceafed, and the breathing of cooler air has given to its opevaiions a much itronger tone. I always made it my moil 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, du- ring the dog-days.
After this, the exceffive heat of the day being paft, co- vering 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 terraffed roof, under a cloud- lefs iky, where the fmalleft ftar 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 ad- hered to from early times to the prefent, and we may there- fore be allured they were always wholefome; they have often been mifapplied 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 Hxpence, one of which is left long for that purpofe. It was always practifed by the Jews, Vol. III. G and
jo TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
and thence adopted by the Abyflinians, though exprefsly forbidden both by the law and by the prophets *. At Ma- fuah, it feems to be particular to dance upon that occafion. The women, friends, and viiitors place themfelves in a ring; then dance flowly, figuring in and out as in a country-dance. This dance is all to the voice, no inftrument being ufed up- on the occafion ; only the drum (the butter-jar before men- tioned) is beat adroitly enough, and feems at once necef- fary to keep the dance and fong in order. In Abymnia, too^ this is purfued in a manner more ridiculous. Upon the death of an ozoro, or any nobleman, the twelve judges, (who are generally between 60 and 7c years of age) fing the fong, and dance the figure- dance, in a manner fo truly ridiculous, that grief muit have taken fait hold of every fpectator who does not laugh upon the occafion. There needs no other proof the deceafed was a friend,
Mahomet Gibeerti married at Arkeeko. For fifteen days afterward, the hulband there is invifible to everybody but the female friends of his wife, who in that fultry country do every thing they can, by hot and fpiced drinks, to throw the man, ftewed in a dole room, into a fever. I do believe that Mahomet Gibberti, in the courfe of thefe fifteen days, was at leaft two ilone lighter. It puts me much in mind of f me of our countrymen fweating themfelves for a horfe- race with a load of flannel on. I conceive that Mahomet Gibberti, had it not been for the fpice, would have made a bad figure in the match he was engaged in. One of thefe nights of his being fequefiered, when, had I not providen- tially
* Levit. chaj>. xix. ver. 28. Jercm. chap, xvi. vet. 6.
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. Si
tially engaged Achmer, his uncle the Naybe would have cut our throats. I heard two girls, profefibrs hired for fucii occafions, fing alternately verfe for verfe in reply to each other, in the moil 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 Hate of perfection little ex- pected in Europe. Upon inquiry into particulars I was miferably difappointed, by being told thefe muficians were all flrangers from Azab, the myrrh country, where all the people were natural muficians, and lung in a better fHle than that I had heard ; but that nothing of this kind was known in Abyflinia, a mountainous, barbarous ccuntrv, without inftrument, and without fong; and that it was the fame here in Atbara ; a miferable truth, which I afterwards completely verified. Thefe fingers were Cufliites, not Shep- herds.
I, however, made myfelf mafler of two or three of thefe alternate fongs upon the guitar, the wretched inftrument of that country; and was furprifed to find the words in a lan- guage equally flrange to Mafuah andAbyffinia. I had fre- quent interviews with thefe muficians in the evening ; they were perfectly black and woolly-headed. Being flaves, they fpoke both Arabic and Tigre,but could fmg in neither; and, from every pomble 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 un- fortunately 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-prefer-
G 2 vation
J2 TR AVE LSTO DISCOVE R.
vation forced to take in the ruder occupations of thofcf times, have, to my very great regret, obliterated long ago the whole from my memory.
Itis a general cuftom in Mafuah for people to burn myrrh and incenfe in their houl'es 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 eachnoflril 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 Hone, fix or eight of which are two floreys each ; though the fecond feldom confifts of more than one room, and that one generally not a large one. The Hones are drawn out of the fea as at Dahalac ; and in thefe we fee the beds of that curious muffel, or lhell-flfh, found to be contained in the folid rock at Mahon, called Dattoll da mare, or fea-dates, the fifh of which I never law in the ked 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 fituated in the very entrance of A- byffinia, a very plentiful country, yet all the necellaries of life are fcarce and dear. Their quality, too, is very indif- ferent. This is owing to the difficulty, expence, and dan- ger of carrying the feveral articles through the defert flat country, called Samhar, which lies between Arkeeko and the mountains of Abyffinia ; a* well as to. the extortions
3 exercifed
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. $3
excrcifed by the Naybe, who takes, under the name of cuf- trnns, whatever part he pleafes of the goods and provitions brought to that iiland ; by which means the profit of the feller is fo final!, as not to be worth the pains and ride of bringing it : 20 rotol of butter coil a pataka and a half, 3* harf ; or, in one term, 45^ harf. A goat is half of a pataka ; a (heep, two-thirds of a pataka ; the ardep of wheat, 4 pa- takas ; Dora, from Arabia, 2 patakas.
-Venit> vilijftma 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 coaft of Arabia ; and it is indeed owing to the com- mercial intercourfe with . that coaft that any coin is cur- rent in this or the weftern fide. It is all valued by the Venetian fequin. But glais beads, called Contaria, of all kinds and colours, perfect and broken, pafs for i'mali money, and are called, in their language, Borjooke.
Table of the relative valve of Monet.
Venetian Sequin, — 2; Pataka.
Pataka or Imperial Dollar, 28 Harf.
1 Harf, — — 4 Diwani.
ioKibeer, — — 1 Diwani,
1 Kibeer, — — 3 Borjooke, or Grams.
The Harf Is likewife called Dahab, a word very equivo- cal, as it means in Arabic, gold, and frequently a fequin. The .Harf is 120 grains of beads.
The
54 TRAVELS T O D ISCOVER
The zermabub, or fequin of Constantinople, is not current here. Thofe that have them, can only difpofe of them to tiic 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 likewife.
There is a conliclerable deal of trade carried on at Mafuah, notwithstanding thefe inconveniencies, narrow and confin- ed as the ifland is, and violent and unjuft as is the govern- ment. But it is all done in a flovenly manner, and for articles where a fmall capital is inverted. Property here is too precarious to rifk a venture in valuable commo- dities, where the hand of power enters into every tranfac- tion.
The goods imported from the Arabian fide are blue cot- ton, 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-glalfes; and cohol, or crude antimony. Thefe three Iaft 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 im- ported.
The Galia, 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- wise here, a univalve of the fpecies of volutes, which fells
4 at
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 55.
at a cuba for 10 paras. It is brought from near Hodeida, though it is fometimes found at Konfodah and Loheia, There are a few alib at Dahalac, but not efteemed : thefc pafs for money among the Djawi and other weltern Galla.
The cuba is a wooden meafure, containing, very exacflly, 62 cubic inches of rain water. The drachm is called Caila; there is 10 drachms in their wakea.
Gold, 16 patakas /<?r wakea.
Civet, 1 1 pataka the wakea.
Elephants teeth, 18 patakas for 35 rotol.
Wax, 4 patakas the faranzala.
Myrrh, 3 patakas per ditto.
Coifee, 1 pataka the 6 rotol.
Honey, \ of a pataka the cuba,
The Banians were once the principal merchants of Ma- fuah ; but the number is now reduced to iix. They are filver-fmiths, that make ear-rings and other ornament? for the women in the continent, and are afTayers of gold ; they make, however, but a poor livelihood.
As there is no water in Mafuah, the number of ani- mals belonging to it can be but lmall. The fea fowl have n -thing Angular in them, and are the grey and the white gull, and the fmall bird, called the fea-lark, or pickerel, The fky-lark is here, but is mute the whole year, till the firlt rains fall in November; he then mounts very high, and fings in the very heat of the day. I law him in the Teha- ma, but he did not fing there; probably for the reafon given above, ao theie was no rain, .
Thirs
56 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
There are no fparrows to be feen here, or on the oppose fhore, nor in the iilands. Although there were fcorpions in abundance at Loheia, we found none of them at Mafuah. Water and greens, efpecially of the melon and cucumber kind, feem to be neceffary to this poifonous infect. Indeed it was only after rains we law them in Loheia, and then the young ones appeared in fvvarms ; this was in the end of Aug-uft. 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 foldicrs 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 Shekh 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 weft end. It is not half a mile in length, when not over- flowed, but has two large points of land 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, hand- ed about with other bad maps and charts of the Red Sea, (of which I have already fpoken) among our Englifh cap- tains from India. It feems to be of as old date as the firft landing of the Pomiguefe under Don Roderigo dc Lima, in the time of David 111. but it is very inaccurate, or rather er- roneous,
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 57
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 greateft attention.
Ac h met, 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 refted at his houfe, I had endeavoured to remove thefe complaints, and had fucceeded in part; for which he teitified the ut- moft gratitude, as he was wonderfully afraid to die.
The Naybe had vifited him feveral times every day ; but as I was uefirous to fee Achmet well before I left Arkeeko, I 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 juft received news, that a fervant of his, fent to colled money at Hama- zen, had run off with it. As I faw he was bufy, I took my leave of him, only alking his commands for Habefh ; to which he anfwered, " 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 ftruck my tent and got all tny baggage in readinefs. He received me as before, then toid me with a grave air, " that he was willing to further my
Vol. III. H journey
58 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
journey into Habefh to the utmoft of his power, provided I mewed him that consideration which was due to him from all pafTengers ; 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 teflified, lefs than iooo patakas offered by me would be putting a great affront up- on him ; however, in confideration of the governor of Ti- gre, to whom I was going, he would confent to receive 300, upon my fwearing not to divulge this, for fear of the fhani£ that would fall upon him abroad.
To this I anfwered in the fame grave tone, " That I thought him very wrong to take 300 patakas with fhame, when re- ceiving 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 intereft together. As for myfelf, I 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 mould return ; but then again I fhould expect ten thoufand patakas from Metical Aga, for the trouble and lofs 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,j#«- tan afrits that devil or tormenting fpirir.
" Look you, (fays one of the king*s fervants, whom I had not heard fpeak before) I was ordered to bring this man to- rn y raafter; I heard no talk of patakas ; the army is ready to march againfl Waragna Fafil, I mufl not lofe my time here." Then taking his fhort red cloak under his arm, and giving it a make to make the duft fly from it, he put
it
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 59
it upon his fhoulders, and, ftretching out his hand very fa- miliarly, faid, " Naybe, within this hour I am for Habefh, my companion will Hay 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 pata- kas ?" He looked very filly, and faid, " Achmet's life is worth aft 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 ex- pedite us for Habefh.
Those friends that I had made at Arkeeko and Mafuah, feeing the Naybe's obflinacy againft our departure, and, knowing the cruelty of his nature, advifed me to abandon all thoughts of Abyilinia ; for that, in palling through Sam- liar, among the many barbarous people whom he com- manded, difficulties would multiply upon us daily, and, either by accident, or order of the Naybe, we mould furely be cut off.
I was too well convinced of the embarrafTment that lay behind me if left alone with the Naybe, and too determined upon my journey to hefitate upon going forward. I even nattered myfelf, that his flock of ftratagems to prevent our going, was by this time exhaufled, and that the morrow would fee us in the open fields, free from further tyranny and controul. In this conjecture I was warranted by tht vifible impreffion the declaration of the king's fervant made upon him.
H 2 On
60 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
On the 15th, early in the morning, I flruck my tent again, and had my baggage prepared, to mew we were determined to flay no longer. At eight o'clock, I went to the Naybe, and found him almofl alone, when he received me in a manner that, for him, might have paffed for civil. He be- gan with a confiderable degree of eloquence, or fluency of ipeech, a long enumeration of the difficulties of our journey, the rivers, precipices, mountains, and woods we were to pafs ; the number of wild beads every where to be found ; as alfo the wild favage people that inhabited thofe places ; the moll of which, he faid, were luckily under his com- mand, and he would recommend to them to do us all manner of good offices. He commanded two of his fecre- taries to write the proper letters, and, in the mean time, ordered us coffee ; converfing naturally enough about the king and Ras Michael, their campaign againft Fafil, and the great improbability there was, they mould be fuccefs- ful.
At this time came in a fervant covered with duft and feem- ingly fatigued, as having arrived in hafte 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 poffeffed 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 feeming devotion, to thank God we were not already on our journey ; for, innocent as he was, when we fhould
have
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 61
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 fevered 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 flruck my tent, in prefence of your nephew Achmet, I fpoke with two Shihojuft arrived from Samhar, who brought let- ters to Achmet, which faid all was in peace. Have you earlier intelligence than that of this morning ?
He was for fome time without fpeaking ; 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 on purpofe 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 friall not attempt it. We have plenty of dif- ferent forts of fire-arms, and your fervants have often feen at Mafuah we are not ignorant in the ufe of them. We, it is true, may lofe our lives, that is in the hand of the Al- mighty ; but we friall not fail to leave enough on the fpot,, to give fufEcient indication to the king and Ras Michael,
z who-
6z TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
who it was that were our afTaffins, Janni of Adowa will ex- plain the reft."
I then rofe very abruptly to go away. It is impoffible to give one, not converfant with thefe people, any conception what perfect matters the raoft clownifh and beaftly among them are of diffimulation. 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 faid, was but to try you ; all is peace. I only wanted to keep you here, if poflible, to cure my nephew Achmet, and his uncle Emir Mahomet ; but fince you are 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 fafety, even if there was danger ; only go and prepare fuch remedies as may be proper for the Emir, and leave them with my nephew Ach- met, 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 Chriitian, the Naybe had married his filler ; his name was Saloome. The common price paid for fuch a conductor is three pieces of blue Surat cotton cloth. The Naybe, how- ever, 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
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 63
Before our fetting out I told this to Achmet, who faid, that the man was not a bad one naturally, but that his un- cle the Naybe made all men as wicked as himfelf. He fur- nifhed me with a man to fhew me where I mould pitch mv tent ; and told me he fhould 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 laft-named materials, and not dif- tinguifhed from any others in the town ; it Hands upon the S. W. fide of a large bay. There is water enough for large mips clofe to Arkeeko, but the bay being open to the N. E. makes it uneafy riding in blowing weather. Befides, you are upon a iee-fhore ; the bottom is compofed of foft land. In (landing in upon Arkeeko from the fea through the canal between Shekh Seide and the main land, it is neceflary to range the coaft about a third nearer the main than the ifland. The point, or Shekh Seide, flretches far out, and has mallow water upon it.
The Cape that forms the fouth-wefl fide of the large bay is called Ras Gedem, being the rocky bafe of a high mountaih- of that name, feen a confiderable diftance from fea, and di~ ftinguilhed by its form, which is that of a hog's back.
CHAP,.
64. TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
m>g&S&a
CHAP. III.
'Journey from Arkceko, over the mountain Taranta, to Dixan.
ACCORDING to Achmet's defire, we left Arkeeko the 15th, taking our road fouthward, along the plain, which is not here above a mile broad, and covered with fhort grafs nothing different from ours, only that the blade is broader. After an hour's journey I pitched my tent at Laberhey, near a pit of rain-water. The mountains of A- byflinia have a fingular afpect 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 mrubs ; the fecond, higher and lleeper, flill more rugged and bare ; the third is a row of fliarp, uneven-edged mountains, which would be counted high in any country in Europe. Far above the top of all, towers that ftupendous mafs, the moun- tain 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 clearefl weather ; at other times abandoned to perpetual mill and darknefs, the feat of lightning, thun- der, and of florm.
Taranta
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 65
Tauanta is the higheft of a long, Ileep ridge of moun- tains, the boundary between the oppofite feafons. On its eaft fide, or towards the Red Sea, the rainy ieafon is from October to April ; and, on the weftern, or Abyffinian fide, cloudy, rainy, and cold weather prevails from May to Odober.
In the evening, a meffenger 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 Saloome for his hire, and this, apparently, with that perfons 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 he perempto- rily, and in feeming anger, difpatched them back to Ar- keeko.
Achmet now came into the tent, called for coffee, and, while drinking it, faid, " You are fufheiently perfuaded that I am your friend ; if you are not, it is too late now to con- vince you. It is neceffary, however, to explain the reafons of what you fee. You are not to go to Dobarwa, though it is the bell road, the fafeft being preferable to the eafieft. Saloome knows the road by Dixan as well as the other. You will be apt to curfe me when you are .oiling and fweating afcending Taranta, the highefl mountain in Abyf- finia, and on this account worthy your notice. You are then to confider if the fatigue of body you then fuffer in that paffage is not overpaid by the abfolute fafcty you will find yourfelves in. Dobarwa belongs to the Naybe, and I
Vol. III. I cannot
«>o, TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
cannot anfwer for the orders he may have given to his ©wife fcrvants; 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, as you are flrong and robuft, the beft I can do for you is to fend you by a rugged road, and a fafe one.
Ac h met again gave his orders to Saloome, and we, all rifing, faid the fedtah, or prayer of peace; which being over, his fervant gave him a narrow web of muflin, 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 alio ; you.; mall 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 had experienced, and of which the bare recital (though perhaps too minute a one) will give but an imperfect idea. Thefe wretches pofiefs talents for tormenting and alarming, far beyond the power of belief ; and, by laying a true fketch of them be- fore a traveller, an author does him the moil real fervice. . In this country the more truely we draw the portrait of man, , the more we feem to fall into caricatura.
On the 16th, in the evening, we left Laberhey; and, after continuing about an hour along me plain, our grafs end- ed, the ground becoming dry, firm, and gravelly, and we then entered into a wood of acacia-trees of conftderable 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 SOURCE OF THE NILE. 6j
the weft, on our right. We encamped this night on a rifing- 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, fliil cover- ed thick with acacia-trees. They were then in blofTom, had a round yellow flower, but we faw 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 clofe together as to leave no valley or plain fpace be- tween 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 wifli for a better. The moifturc it had ilrongly imbibed protected it from the fudden effects of the fun, and produced, all alongil its courfe, a great de- gree of vegetation and verdure. Its banks were lull of rack-trees, capers, and tamarinds ; the two laft bearing lar- ger fruit than I had ever before feen, though not arrived to their greatell 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 pafl eight o'clock we halted, to avoid the heat of the fun, under made of the trees before mentioned, for it was then cxceihvely 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
6% TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
along with them, defcendingfrom the tops of the high moun- tains of Habefli, with their flocks to pafture, on the plains, below near the fea, upon grafs that grows up in the months of Odober and November, when they have already confu- med what grew in the oppofite feafon on the other fide of the mountains.
This change of domicil gives them a propenfity to thie- ving and violence, though otherwife a cowardly tribe. It- is a proverb in Abyffinia, " Beware of men that drink tw& " waters," meaning thefe, and all the tribes of Shepherds, who Ave re in fearch of pafture, and who have lain under the fame imputation from the remotefl 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 reach- ing down to their ancles, girt about the middle with a lea- ther belt, and having very large fleeves ; the men in fhort cotton breeches reaching to the middle of their thighs, and a goat's fkin crofs their ihoulders. 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 confifted of about fifty men, and, I fuppofei not more than thirty women ; from which it feemed pro- bable the Shiho , are Monogam, as afterwards, indeed, I knew them to be. Each of them had a lance in his hand, ajid a knife at the girdle which kept up the breeches. They
had
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 69
had the fuperiority of the ground, as coming down the mountain which we were afcending ; yet I obferved them to feem rather uneafy at meeting us ; and fo far from any appearance of hoftility, that, I believe, had we attacked briikly, they would have fled without much refrftance. They were, indeed, incumbered with a prodigious quantity of goats and other cattle, fo were not in a fighting trim. I faluted the man that feemed to be their chief, and afked him if he would fell us a goat. He returned my falute ; but either could not fpeak Arabic, or declined further con- verfation. However, thofe of our people behind, that were' of a colour nearer to themfelves, bought us a goat that was lame, (dearly they faid) for fome antimony, four large nee- dles, and fome beads. Many of them afked us for kijirab, 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, hiftory fays all thofe Tro- glydite nations were who lived upon the Red Sea. It could not indeed be otherwife : the rich, when trade flourifhed in thefe parts, would probably get corn from Arabia or Abyf- unia ; but, in their own country, no corn would grow.
At 2 o'clock in trie afternoon we refumed our journey through a very flony, uneven road, till j o'clock, when we pitched our tent at a place called Hamhammou, on the fide of a fmall green hill fome hundred yards from the bed of the torrent. The weather had heen perfectly good fince we left Mafuah :■ this afternoon, however, it feemed to threaten rain ; the high mountains were quite hid, and great part of the lower ones covered with thick clouds ; the lightning was very frequent, broad, and deep- tinged with blue ; and long peals of thunder were heard, but at a dif-
tancei ..-.
7o
TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
tancc. This was the firft fample we had of AbyfTinian bad weather.
The river fcarcely ran at our pafilng 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 ft ream 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 itation on the hill.
An antelope, furprifed by the torrent, and I believe hurt by it, was forced over into the peninfula where we were, feemingly 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 themfelves. The acquifi- tion was not great ; it was lean, had a mufky tafte, and was worfe meat than the goat we had bought from the Shiho. The torrent, though now very fenfibly diminilhed, ltill pre- ferved a current till next morning. •
Between Hamhammou and Shillokeeb we firll law the dung of elephants, full of pretty thick pieces of indigefted branches. We likewife, in many places, faw the tracks thro' which they had palled; fome trees were thrown <lown from the roots, forne broken in the middle, and branches half- eaten ftrewed on the ground.
2 Hamhammou
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 71
Hamhammou is a mountain of black (tones, almoft cal- cined by the violent heat of the fun. This is the boundary of the diftricl; Samhar, inhabited by the Shiho from Ham- hammou to Taranta,is called Hadatta ; it belongs to the Ha- zorta.
This nation, though not fo numerous as the Shiho, are yet their neighbours, live in conftant defiance of the Naybe, and are of a colour much refembling new copper; but are inferior to the Shiho in fize, though very agile. All their fubitance 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 live either in caves, or in cabannes, like ca- ges, juft large enough to hold two perfons, and covered with an ox's hide. Some of the better fort of women have cop- per 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 18th, at half paft five in the morning, we left our ilation on the fide of the green hill at Hamhammou : for Tome time 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- fueled our ancient road in the bed of the torrent, now near- ly
7s TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
ly dry, over ftones which the rain of the preceding night had made very flippery.
At half paft feven we came to the mouth of a narrow valley, through which a ftream of water ran 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- sure. It was in tafte excellent. The made of the tamarind- tree, and the coolnefs of the air, invited us to reft on this delightful fpot, though otherwife, perhaps, it was not ex- actly conformable to the rules of prudence, as we faw feve- ral huts and families of the Hazorta along the fide of the ftream, with their flocks feeding on the branches of trees and bullies, entirely neglectful of the grafs they were treading under foot,
The caper-tree here grows as high as the talleft 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 feemed to regard me more than if I had lived among them all their lives, though furely I was the mod extraordinary fight they had ever feen ; whence I concluded that they are a people of fmall talents or genius, having no curioiity.
At two o'clock we continued our journey, among large timber trees, till half paft three, along the fide of the rivulet, when we loft it. At half paft four we pitched our ten at Sadoon, by the fide of another ftream, as clear, as mallow,
4 and
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 7«
and as beautiful as the firft ; but the night here was exceed- ingly cold, though the fun had been hot in the day-time. Our defire for water was, by this time, confiderably abated. We were everywhere furrounded by mountains, bleak, bare, black, and covered with loofe ftones, entirely deftitute of foil ; and, befides this gloomy profpecT:, we faw nothing but the heavens.
On the 19th, at half pad fix in the morning, we left Sa- doon, our road Hill winding between mountains in the bed, 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 meafuring fome of them, I did not find one 7^ 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 exceffive.
At half pad eight o'clock, we encamped at a place called Tubbo, where the mountains are very fteep, and broken, very abruptly, into cliffs and precipices. Tubbo was by much the moll agreeable ftation we had feen ; the trees were thick, full of leaves, and gave us abundance of very dark made. There was a number of many different kinds fo clofely planted that they feemed to be intended for na- tural 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 ftile of mufic flill diftincl: and peculiar to Africa ; as different in the compofition from cur linnet and goldfinch, as ourEngliih language is to that Vox. III. k 0f
74
TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
of Abyffinia : Yet, from very attentive and frequent obfer- vation, I found that the fky-lark at Mafuah fang the fame notes as in England. It was obfervable, that the great eft part of the beautiful painted birds were of the jay, or mag- pie kind : nature feemed, by the finenefs of their drefs, to have marked them for children of noife and impertinence, but never to have intended them for pleafure or medita- tion.
The reafon of the Hazorta making, as it were, a fixed ftation here at Tubbo, feems to be the great exuberancy of the foliage of thefe large trees. Their principal occupa- tion feemed to be to cut down the branches moft within their reach ; and this, in a dry feafon, nearly dripped every tree ; and, upon failure of thefe, th'ey remove their flocks, whatever quantity of grafs remained.
The fycamores conflitute a large proportion of thefe trees, and they are everywhere loaded with figs ; but the procefs of caprification being unknown to thefe favages, thefe figs come to nothing, which elfe might be a great re- fource for food at times, in a country which feems almoft deflitute of the neceffaries of life.
We left Tubbo at three o'clock in the afternon, and we wifhed to leave the neighbourhood of the Hazorta. At four,, we encamped at Lila, where we paffed the night in a nar- row valley, full of trees and brufhwood, by the fide of a ri- vulet. Thefe fmall, but delightful ftreams, which appear, on the plain between Taranta and the fea, run only after October. When the fummer rains in Abyffinia are ceafmg, they begin again on the eait fide of the mountains ; at other
2 times, .
/
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 75
times, no running water is to be found here, but it remains ftagnant in large pools, whilft its own depth, or the fhade of the mountains and trees, prevent it from being exhaled by the heat of the fun till they are again repleniined with frefh fupplies, which are poured into them upon return of the rainy feafon. Hitherto we had conftantly afcended from our leaving Arkecko, but it was very gradually, in- deed almoft imperceptibly.
On the 20th, at fix o'clock in the morning, we left our ftation 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 made it would enjoy from thefe fine trees, by the barbarous axes of the Hazorta. We found everywhere immenfe flocks of antelopes ; as alfo partridges of a fmall kind that willingly took refuge upon trees ; nei- ther of thefe feemed to confider us as enemies. The ante- lopes let us pafs through their flocks, only removing to the right or to the left, or (landing {till and gazing upon us till we palled. But, as we were then on the confines of Tigre, or rather on the territory of the Baharnagafh, and as the Ha- zorta were in motion everywhere removing towards the coaft, far from the dominions of the Abyffinians to which we were going, a friend of their own tribe, who had joined us for fafety, 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 unneceffary indica-
K. 2 tion
76 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
tion of the fpot where we were, till we gained the moun- tain 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 moil rocky, uneven road, if it can deferve the name, not only from its incredible ileep- nefs, but from the large holes and gullies made by the tor- rents, and the huge monitrous 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 poilibilky of human ilrength to carry our baggage and inilruments. Our tent, indeed, fuffered nothing by its falls; but our telcfcopes, 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 firfl few hundred yards. A number of expedients, fuch as trailing it on the ground, (all equally fatal to the inilrument) were propofed. At laft, as I was incomparably the ftrongeft of the company, as well as the moll interefted, I, and a ftranger Moor who had fol- lowed us, carried the head of it for about 400 yards over the raoft difficult and fleepefl 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 I have already lpoken a little, and ffiall be obliged to fay much more ; a perfon whom I had diicQvered to be a man of a moil fagacious turn of mind,
firrxi
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 77
firm heart, and ftrenaous nerves ; never more dininguifhed for all thefe qualities than in the hour of imminent danger ; at other times remarkable for quietnefs and filence, and a conflant fludy of his Koran.
We carried it fteadily up the fleep, eafed the cafe gently over the big ftones on which, from time to time, we relied it ; and, to the wonder of them all, placed the head of the three-foot quadrant, with its double cafe, in fafety far above the flony parts of the mountain. At Yafme's requefl wc again undertook the next moll difficult talk, which was to carry the iron foot of the quadrant in a fmgle deal-cafe, not fo heavy, indeed, nor fo liable to injury, but flail what had been pronounced impomble to carry up fo fteep and rugged a mountain ; and refufing then the faint offers of thole that flood gazing below, excufmg themfelves by foretelling an immediate and certain mifcarriage, we placed the feconxl cafe about ten yards above the firft in perfed good condi- tion.
Declaring ourfelves now without fear of contradict ioa, and, by the acknowledgment of all, upon fair proof, the two bell 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 Hiding down and clambering over the marp points of the rocks ; our clothes torn to pieces ; yet we profefledour ability, without any re- proaches on our comrades, to carry the two telefcopes and time-keeper alio. Shame, and the proof of fupericr con- ftancy, fo much humbled the reft of our companions, that one and all put their hands fo brifkly to work, that, with infinite toil, and as much pleafure, wc advanced fo far as to
1 place
7S TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
place all our inflruments and baggage, about two o'clock in the afternoon, near half way up this terrible mountain of Taranta.
There were five afTes, two of which belonged to Yafme, and thele were fully as difficult to bring up the mountain as any of our burdens. Moll of their loading, the property of Yafine, we carried up the length of my inflruments ; and it was propofed, as a thing that one man could do, to make the unladen light afTes follow, as they had been well taken care of, were vigorous and young, and had not ruffe red by the fliort journies we had made on plain ground. They no fooner, however, found themfeives at liberty, and that a man was compelling them with a flick to afcend the moun- tain, than they began to' bray, to kick, and to bite each o- ther ; and, as it were with one confent, not only ran down the part of the hill we had afcended, but, with the fame jo- vial cries as before, (fmelling, I fuppofe, fome of their com- panions) 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 efpecially the mailers of thefe animals, faw from above, in defpair, all our eagernefs to pafs Taranta defeated by the feceffion of the mofl obfli- 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 impoinble for the principals to give any afliflance. Bread was to be baked, and fupper to be made ready, after this fa- tiguing journey.
At
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 79
At length four Moors, one of them a fervant of Yafine, 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 dilhonefl was offered on the part of the Ha- zorta. But luckily the appetite of the affes returning, they had fallen to eat the buflies, about half way to Lila, where they were found a little before fun-fet.
The number of hyaenas that are everywhere among the buflies, 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 fuffered themfelves to be driven on before their matters. The hye- nas, however, followed them flep by ftep, always incrcafing in number ; and, the men, armed only with lances, began to be fully as much afraid for themfelves as for the affes. At laft the hyxnas 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 the hyamas, had not Yafine's man that carried the firelock difcharged it amongft them, but miffed them all. However, it anfwer- ed the purpofe ; they difappeared, and left the affes and afs- drivers to purfue their way.
The fhot, for a moment, alarmed us all upon the moun- tain. 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 in- tended.
go TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
tended by the mot to let us know they were at hand, tho° it was not till near midnight before our long-eared compa- nions joined their mailers.
We found it impoflible to pitch our tents, from the ex- treme wearinefs in which our lafl 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 fall 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.
All this fide of the mountain of Taranta, which we had pafled, was thick-fet with a fpecies of tree which we had never before feen, but which was of uncommon beauty and curious compofition of parts; its name is kol-quall*. Though we afterwards met it in feveral places of Abyffinia, it never was in the perfection we now faw it in Taranta,
On the 2 ill, at half pad fix in the morning, having en- couraged 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 {Iranger Moor, which was bit by the hyama, was in- capable of carrying his loading further, I defired the reft every one to bear a proportion of the loading till we fhould
arrive
* See the article kol-quall in the appendix.
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 81
arrive at Dixan, where I promifed to procure him another which might enable him to continue his journey.
This propofal gave univerfal fatisfaction to our Mahome- tan attendants. Yafine fwore that my conduct was a re- proach to them all, for that, though a Chriftian, I had fet them an example of charity to their poor brother, highly necefiary to procure God's blefiing upon their journey, but which mould properly have come firit from themfelves. After a great deal of ftrife of kindnefs, it was agreed that I mould pay one-third, that the lame afs mould 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, fteeper, more craggy, rugged, and flippery than the lower, and impeded more with trees, but not embarraffed fo much with large Hones and holes. Our knees and hands, however, were cut to pieces by frequent falls, and our faces torn by the mul- titude of thorny bufhes. I twenty times now thought of what Achmet had told me at parting, that I fliould curfe him for the bad road (hewn to me over Taranta ; but blcfs him for the quiet and fafety attending me in that pafTage.
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 cedrus, 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 lituated a fmall vil-
Vol. III. L lagc
82 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
lage called Halai, the firft we had feen fince our leaving Mafuah. It is chiefly inhabited by poor fervants and fhep- herds keeping the flocks of men of fubftance 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 fhort and curled like that of a negroe's in the weft part of Africa ; but this is done by art, not by nature, each man having a wooden flick with which he lays hold of the lock and twifls it round a fcrew, till it curls in the form he : defires*. The men carry in their hands two lances and a large fhield 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 fluck 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, especially the former ; they are, for the* moft part, completely white, with large dewlaps hanging d .wn to their knees ; their heads, horns, and hoofs per- fectly well-turned ; the horns wide like our Lincolnfhire kine ; and their hair like filk. Their fheep are large, and all black. I never faw one of any other colour in the pro- vince of Tigre. Their heads are large ; their ears remarka- bly
* I apprehend this is the fame inftrument ufed by the ancients, and cenfurtd by the pro- phets, which, in our trupflation, is rendered crifping-pins. Ifa. chap. iii. vet. 22.
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. $3
bly fliort and fmall ; inftead of the wool they have hair, as all the iheep within the tropics have, but this is remark- able for its luitre and foftnefs, without any briftly quality, fuch as thofe in Beja, or the country of Sennaar ; but they are neither fo fat, nor is their flefh fo good, as that or tae iheep in the warmer country. The goats here, too, are of the largefl fize 4 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 harveft 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 of the mountain. The night was remarkably cold, at leaft ap- peared fo to us, whofe pores were opened by the exceffive heat of Mafuah ; for at mid-day the thermometer flood 6i°, and at fix in the evening 590 ; the barometer, at the fame time, iSV inches French. The dew began to fall Wrongly, and fo continued till an hour after fun-fet, though the iky was perfectly clear, and the final left ftars difcerniblc.
I killed 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 flight! v, when on the ground it could not be prevented from attacking the
k 2 men
84 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
men or beafts near it with great force and fiercenefs, fo that I was obliged to ftab it with a bayonet. It was of a dirty white ; only the head and upper part of its wings were of 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 Taran- ta. After this we began to mount a fmall hill, from which we had a diftinct view of Dixan..
The cedar-trees, fo tall and beautiful on the top of Taran-- ta, and alfo on the eaft fide, were greatly degenerated when, we came to the weft, and moftly turned into fmall fhrubs and fcraggy bufhes. We pitched our tent near fome marfhy ground for the fake of water, at three quarters paft ten, but it was very bad, having been, for feveral weeks, ftagnant. We faw here the people bufy at their wheat harveft ; others, who had finilhed theirs, were treading it out with cows or bullocks. They make no ufe of their ftraw ; fometimes they burn it, and fometimes 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 pail four in the evening, on the 2 2d of No- vember, we came to Dixan. Halai was the firft 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 fugar loaf ; a deep valley furrounds it everywhere like a
trench ;
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. Sj
trench, and the road winds fpirally up the hill till it ends among the houfes.
This town, with a large diftritf:, and a confiderable nurtt- ber of villages, belonged formerly to the Baharnagafh, and was one of the ftrong places under his command. After- wards, when his power came to be weakened, and his office in difr'epute by his treafonable behaviour in the war of the Turks, and civil war that followed it, during the Portuguefe fettlement in the reign of Socinios, the Turks poffeffing the fea ports, and being often in intelligence with him, it was thought proper to wink at the ufurpations of the gover- nors of Tigre, who, little by little,, reduced this office to be dependent en. their power..
Dixan, prefuming upon its ftrength, declared for inde- pendence in the time the two parties were contending ; and, as it was inhabited moftly by Mahometans, it was fecrctly fupported by the Naybe. Michael Suhul, however, governor of Tigre, in the reign of king Yafous II. inverted it with a large army of horfe and foot; and, as it hadno water butwhat 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 ftrong ports at every watering- place, defended by fire-arms.
He then fent to them a buffoon, or dwarf, defiring them to furrender within two hours. The paffions of the inhabi- tants were, however, raifed by expectations of fuccour from the Naybc ; and they detefted Michael above every thing that could be imagined. They, therefore, whipt the dwarf,
and
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and inflicted other marks of contumely upon him. Michael bore this with feeming indifference. He fent no more fum- monfes, but ftrengthened his polls, and ordered them to be continually viiited. Several attacks of no confequence were made by the befieged following large Hones, which were rol- led down into the trench, but all to no purpoic. A gene- ral attack, however, from the town, was tried the third day, by which one well was carried, and many relieved their third ; many died there, and the reft were forced back into the town. A capitulation was now offered ; but Michael .anfwered, he waited for the coming of the Naybe. About 7oo people are faid to have died, during the fiege, with thirft; and at lafl, there being no profpect of relief, twelve oi the leaders were delivered and hanged up at the wells. The town fin-rendered at dilcrction, and the foldiers finiihed thofe whom thirft had fpared.
Michael then fanned Dixan to tire Naybe, who repeo- plcd it. There was a high and low town, divided from each other by a confiderable fpace. In the lower abode Chrif- tians, at leaft fo calling che-mfelves ; en the top of the hill were the Naybe's party, who had dug far themfelv.es a fcan- ty well. Saioome, our guide, was Ion oi the governor for the Naybe. Achrnet was the perfon the Moors in the low town had confided in ; and the Chriftian chief was a depen- dent upon Janm, our Greek friend at Adowa, who had di- rection of all the cuftom-houies in Tigr.e, and of that at . ,;\an among the reft.
-Cur baggage had palled the trench, and had reached the low town, through which Saioome bad condjicled me, under pretence of getting a fpeedy ilickcr from the heat;
but
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 87
But he overafted his part ; and Janni, his fervant, who fpoke Greek, giving me a hint to go no farther, I turned iliort towards the houfe, and fat down with my firelock upon a Hone at the door. Our baggage quickly followed, and all was put fafe in a kind of a court inclofed with a fuffieient ftone-wall.
It was nor long till Hagi Abdclcader, Achmct's friend, came to us, inviting me civilly tc his houfe, and declaring to me the friendly orders he had received from Achmer concern- ing me ; bringing along with him alfo a goat, fome butter and honey. I excufed myfelf from leaving Janni's friend, the Chriftian,. where I had fird alighted ; but I recommend- ed Yafme to him, for he had begun to mew great attach- ment to me. In about a quarter of an ribtir came Saloome, with about twenty men, and demanded us, in the name of the Naybe, as his ftrangers : he faid we owed him money for conducting us-, and likewife for the cuftomhoufe dues. In a moment near a hundred men were alTembled round Ha- «n Abdclcader, all with fhields and lances, and we expected to fee a fray of the moft ferious kind. But Abdclcader, with a fwitch' in his hand, went gravely up to Saloome, and, af- ter chiding his party with great authority, he held up his flick twice over Saloome's head, as if to ftrike him; then or- dered 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 was proved that thirteen pieces of blue cloth were the hire agreed on, unci that it had been paid by his order to Achrnet ; and, though he defervc;l no- thing
•88 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
thing for his treacherous inclinations towards us, yet, for Achmet's fake, and our friend Hagi Abdelcader's, we made him a prefent of three pieces more.
It is true of Dixan as, I believe, of moll frontier towns, that the bad people of both contiguous countries refort thi- ther. The town, as I before have faid, confifts of Moors and Chriftians, and is very well peopled ; yet the only trade of either of thefe feels is a very extraordinary one, that of felling of children. The Chriftians bring fuch as they have ftolen in Abyflinia to Dixan as to a fure depofit ; and the Moors receive them there, and carry them to a certain mar- ket at Mafuah, whence they are fent over to Arabia or In- dia. The priefts of the province of Tigre, efpecially thofe near the rock Damo, are openly concerned in this infamous practice ; and fome of thefe have been licenfed by Michael dto carry it on as a fair trade, upon paying fo many firelocks for each dozen or fcore of Haves.
Nothing can elucidate the footing upon which this trade (lands better than a tranfa&ion which happened while I was in Ethiopia, and which reached Gondar by way of complaint from Mafuah, and was told me by Mi- chael himfelf.
Two priefts of Tigre, whore names I have forgot, had been long intimate friends. They dwelt near the rock Da- mo. The youngeft was married, and had two children, both fons ; the other was old, and had none. The old one reproved his friend one day for keeping his children at home idle, and not putting them to fome profeffion by which they might gain their bread. The married prieft a pleaded
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 59
pleaded his poverty and his want of relations that could af- fift him ; on which, the old prieft offered to place his eldeft fon with a rich friend of his own, who had no children, and where he mould want for nothing. The propofal was accepted, and the young lad, about ten years of age, was de- livered by his father to the old prieft, to carry him to this friend, who fent the boy to Dixan and fold him there. Up- on 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- ple, faying he would not take the charge of fo young a boy, unlefs his mother went with him. This being fet- tled, 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 two priefts 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 part- ners in the venture, the old prieft was to receive forty cot- ton-cloths, that is, L. 10 Sterling, for the hufband, wife, and children.
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The payment of the money, perhaps the refentment of the family trepanned, and the appearance of equity which the thing itfelf bore, fuggefted to theMoorim merchants that there was fome more profit, and not more rifk, if they car- ried off the old priefl 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 againfl him whilil there. They began then as it were to repent of their bargain, from a pretended apprehenfion that they might be Hopped and queflioned at going out of town, unlefs he would accompany them to fome fmall diftance ; in confi- deration 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 afleep, they fet 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 pried, threw him down, and bound him. The woman infilled that me 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 reckon- ed too jull 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 Mi- chael at a fmall expence, wrote to him an account of the- tranfaction, and offered^as they were priefts, to reftore them
to
THE SOURCE OF THE NILS. 9t
to him. But the Ras returned for anfwer, that the Nabye mould keep them to be his chaplains ; as he hoped, fome day, he would be converted to the Chriftian faith himfelf ; if not, he might fend them to Arabia with the reft ; they would ferve to be carriers of wood and drawers of water ; and that there flill remained at Damo enough of their kind to carry on the trade with Dixan and Mafuah.
This ftory I heard from Ras Michael himfelf, at his grand- daughter's marriage, when he was feafting, and in great fpirits. He, and all the company, laughed heartily ; and al- though there were in the room at leaft two dozen of priefts, none of them feemed to take this incident more ferioufly than the reft of the company. From this we may guefs at the truth of what the Catholic writers advance, with regard to the refpecl and reverence mown to the priefthood by the government and great men in Abyffinia.
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 contribu- ting to his greatnefs, by furnifhing fire-arms to his province of Tigre, which gives him a fuperiority over all Abyflinia, As a return for this article, about 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. 140 57' 55" North, and long. 40* 7' 30'' eail of the meridian of Greenwich.
M z From
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From Dixan we difeovered 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.
CHAR
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 93
— ^S&^
CHAP. IV.
Journey from Dixan to Adoisua^ Capital of Tigre,
IT was on Nov. 25th, at ten in the morning, we left Dixany defcending the very fleep hill on which the town is fitu- ated. It produces nothing but the Kol-quall tree all around it. We palled a miferable village called Hadhadid, and, at eleven o'clock, encamped under a daroo tree, one of the fi« nefl I have feen in Abyffinia, being 7! 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 ftill ftagnant 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 Saloomc came likewife, to fee if fome occaiion would offer of doing us further mifchief ; but the king's fervants, now upon their own ground, began to take upon them a proper confequence. One of them went
to
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to meet Saloome at the bank of the river, and making a mark on the ground with his knife, declared that his pa- tience was quite exhaufled 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 he mould be left tied to a tree, a prey to the lion and hyama. They all returned, and there our perfecution from the Naybe ended. But it was very evident, from Achmet'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 finiihed, unlefs they had ended with our lives.
We remained under this tree the night of the 25th ; it will be to me a ftation ever memorable, as the firfl where I recovered a portion of that tranquillity of mind to which I had been a ftranger ever fince my arrival at Mafuah. We had been joined by about twenty loaded afTes driven by Moors, and two loaded bulls ; for there is a fmall fort of this kind called Ber, which they make life of as beafts of burden. I called all thefe together to recommend good order to them, defiring every one to leave me that was not refolved to obey implicitly the orders I mould give them, as to the hours and places of encamping, keeping watch at night, and fetting out in the morning. I appointed Yaline the judge of all difputes between them ; and, if the differ- ence mould be between Yafme and any one of them, or, if they fhould not be content with his decifion, then my de- termination was to be final. They all confented with great marks of approbation. We then repeated the fedtah, and fwore to fland by each other till the laft, without confider-
3 m
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.
95
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 mod plea- fant quarters under the daroo-tree, and fet forward with great alacrity. About a quarter of a mile from the river we croffed the end of the plain Zarai, already mentioned. Though this is but three miles long, and one where broad- eft, it was the largeft plain we had feen fince 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 light- ning. 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 palled Addicota, a village planted up- on a high rock ; the iides towards us were as if cut per- pendicular like a wall. Here was one refuge of the Jefuits when banifhed Tigre by Facilidas, when they fled to the re- bel John Akay. We after this palled a variety of fmall vil- lages 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 pall eleven we encamped under a mountain, on the top of which is a village called Hadawi, conlilling 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 diitnct. that he command- ed, after the prefent governor of Tigre, Michael Suhul, had. annexed to his own province what he pleafed of the old domains, and farmed the other part to the Naybe for a lar- ger revenue than he ever could get from any other tenant.
The.
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TheNaybe had now no longer a naval force tofupport him, and the fear of Turkifh conqueft had ceafed in Tigre. The Naybe could be reduced within any bounds that the gover- nor of Tigre might pleafe to prefcribe him ; and the Bahar- nagafli was a fervant maintained to watch over him, and flarve him into obedience, by intercepting his provifions whenever the governor of Tigre commanded him.
This nobleman paid me a vilit in my tent, and was the firft Abyllinian 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 complex- ion, or rather darker ; his head was fhaved clofe, 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 {tuck 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 afkedme, if I had ever feen horfes before ? I faid, Very feldom. He then defcribed their qualities in fuch a manner 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 villa- ges, and was then only juft returned.
To judge by his prefent appearance, he was no very re- fpeetable perfonage ; but in this I was miftaken, as I after- wards found. I gave him a prefent in proportion to the firil idea, with which he feemed very well content, till he observed a number of fire-arms tied up to the pillar in the
i middle
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 97
middle of the tent, among which were two large fhip-blun- derbuffes. He afked me if there was no danger of their go- ing off? I faid, that it happened every now and then, when their time was come. A very little after this, he took the cu- fhion 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 ftruck 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 bar- gain 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. 1 2. Sterling, forty fhillings 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 pro- ved a brown one, old, and wanting an eye. I immediately returned the horfe, infilling on the black one ; but he pro- tefled 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 deli- vered. But they were no foonerin the tent, when the black Vol. III. N horfe
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horfe was fent, and refufed. The whole, kowever, was made- up, by fending us another goat, which I gave, to Yaiine, and two jars of bouza, which we drank among us, promifmg, according to the Baharnagafh's requeft, we would reprefent him well at court. We found, from his fervants, that he had been upon no expedition, nor one ftep from home for three months paft.
I was exceedingly pleafed with this firft acquifitiom The horfe was then lean, as he flood about fixteen and a half hands high, of the breed of Dongola. Yafme, a good horleman, recommended tame one of his fervants, or com- panions, to take care of him. He was an Arab, from the neighbourhood of Medina, a fuperior horfeman himfelf, and wcll-verfed 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 pleafure, and more than once to my fafety ; and was no (lender means of acquiring me the firit attention of the king. I had brought my Arab ftirrups, faddle, and bridle with me, fo that I was now as well equipped as. a. horfe- man could be.
On the 27th we left Hadawi, continuing our journey down a very fteep and narrow path between two ilony hills ; then afcended one (till higher, upon the top of which Hands the large village of Goumbubba, whence we have a profpecl: over a confiderable plain all fown with the different grain this country produces, wheat, barley, teff, and tocuflb ; fim- fim, (or felame) and nook ; the lad is ufed for oil.
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. $g
We paffed the village of Dcrgate, then that of Regticar, 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 off the village called Barranda, where we were overtaken by our friend the Baharnagafh, who was fo well pleafed with our lalt interview, efpecially the bargain of the horfe, that he fent us three goats, two jars of honey-wine, and fome wheat-flour. I invited him to my tent, which he imme- diately accepted. He was attended by two fervants 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-natured man, in- deed, remarkably fo ; a character rarely found in any degree of men in this country. He afked mc how I liked my horfe ? faid, he hoped I did not intend to mount it myfelf ? I an- fwered, God forbid ; I kept him as a curiofity. He commend- ed my prudence very much, and gave me a long detail a- bout what horfes had .done, and would do, on occafions. Some of the people without, however, fhewed his fer- vants my faddle, bridle, and ftirrups, which they well knew, from being neighbours to the Arabs of Sennaar, and prai- fed me as a better horfeman by far than any one in that country; this they told to the Baharnagafh, who, no- thing 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 me for the horfe. He mewed ib much good nature, and open honeil behaviour, that I gave him a pre- fent better than the firit, and which was more agreeable, as lefs expected. Razors, knives, fleels for finking fire, are
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the molt valuable prefents in this country, of the hardware kind.
The Baharnagafh 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 finifhed ; and he little knew, at that time, he was in the tent with a man who was to be his chief cu- flomer for horfes hereafter. I faw him feveral times after at court, and did him fome fervices, 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 youngeft fon, he died afterwards in the king's defence, fighting brave- ly at the battle of Serbraxos.
At five o'clock this afternoon we had a violent mower of hailftones. Nothing is more common than aggravation about the fize of hail ; but, {looping 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 fwelling all the next day.
I had gained the Baharnagafh's heart fo entirely that it was not poflible 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 mare I had taken yefterday of his hydromel had given me fuch a pain in my head that 1 fcarce could, raife it the whole day.
It was the 29th we left our flation at Barranda, and had fcarcely advanced a mile when we were overtaken by a
party
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. ioi
party of about twenty armed men on horfeback. The Shangalla, the ancient Cufhites, are all the way on out- right hand, and frequently venture incurfions into the flat country that was before us. This was the laft piece of at- tention 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 ftate of our fire-arms ; cleaned and charged them anew, which we had not done fince 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 likewife was a tree, in fmell likeahoneyfuckle,whofe large white flower nearly refembles 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 fwallows had begun their nefts. Thefe, and probably many, if not all the birds of pafTage, breed twice in the year, which feems a provifion a- gainft the loflcs made by emigration perfectly confonant to divine wifdom. 1 hefe rocks are, by fome, faid to be the boundaries of the command of the Baharnagafh on this fide ;: though others extend them to the Balezat.
We entered again a flraggling 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 weft to Serawe, then diftant about twelve miles. It extends from Goura- bubba as far fouth as Balezat. The foil is excellent; but fuch flat countries are very rare in AbyfTmia. This, which is one of rhe find! and wideft, is abandoned without
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culture, and is in a ftate of wafte. The reafonof this is, an in- veterate 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 harveft without having a battle with their enemies and neighbours.
Before we entered this wood, and, indeed, on the pre- ceding day, from the time we left Hadawi, we had feen a very extraordinary bird at a diftance, refembling a wild turkey, which ran exceedingly fall, and appeared in great flocks. It is called Erkoom * in Amhara ; Abba Gumba, in Tigre ; and, towards the frontiers of Sennaar, Tier el Naci- ba, or, the Bird of Deftiny.
Our guides afFembled 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 entire- ly cut off. The cavalry is the beft on this fide of Abyffinia. They keep up the breed of their horles by their vicinity to Sennaar whence they get fupply. Neverthelefs, they be- haved very ill at the battle of Limjour ; and I cannot fay I remember them to have diflinguiihed themfelves 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.
After palling the wood, we came to the river, which was then Handing in pools. I here, for the firft time, mounted on horfeback, to the great delight of my compa- nions,
* .See the article Erkoom in .the Appendin,
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 103
nibns from Barranda, and alfo of our own, none of whom had ever before feen a gun fired from a horfe galloping, except- ing Yafine and his fervant, now my groom, but neither of thefe had ever feen a double-barrelled gun. We palled the plain with all the diligence confiflent with the fpecd and ca- pacity of our long-eared convoy ; and, having now gained • the hills, we hade defiance to the Serawe horfe, and fent our guard back perfectly content, and full of wonder at our fire- arms, declaring that their mailer the Baharnagath, had he feen the black horfe behave that day, would have given me another much better*
We entered now into a clofe country covered with bruih- wood, wild oats, and high bent-grafs ; in many places rocky and uneven, fo as fcarce to leave a narrow part to pal's. Jufl in the very entrance a lion had killed a very fine ani- mal called Agazan. It is of the goat kind ; and, excepting a fmall variety in colour, is precifely the fame animal I had feen in Barbary near Capfa. It might be about twelve flone weight, and of the fize of a large afs. (Whenever I mention a flone weight, I would wifli to be undcrilood horfeman's weight, fourteen pound to the flone, as mofl familiar to the generality of thofe who read thefe Travels.) The animal was fcarcely dead ; the blood was running ; and the noife of my gun had probably frightened its conqueror away : every one with their knives cut off a large portion of flefli ; Moors and Chriflians did the fame ; yet the Abymnians averfion to any thing that is dead is fuch, unlcfs killed regularly by the knife, that none of them would lift any bird that was fhot, unlefs by the point or extreme feather of its wing. Hunger was not the excufe, for they had been plentifully fed all this journey ; fo that the diflinction, in this particu-
2 - lar
304 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
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, hyaena, or any other bead. 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 Baharnagafli was called) it falls into the Mareb, or ancient Aftufafpes. It was the firfl river, then actually running, that we had feen fince we pafled Taranta; indeed, all the fpace is but very indifferently watered. This ftream is both clear and rapid, and feems to be full of fifh. We continued for fome time along its banks, the river on our left, and the mountains on our right, through a narrow plain, till we came to Tomumbuflb, 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 vifit them. The mountain itfelf is of porphyry.
There we encamped by the river's fide, and were obli- ged to flay this and the following day, for a duty, or cuftom, to be paid by all paflengers. Thefe duties are called Awides, which fignines gifts ; though they are levied, for the mofl part, in a very rigorous and rude manner ; but they are e- flablifhcd by ufage in particular fpots ; and are, in fact, a regality annexed to the eflate. Such places are called Ber, gaffes', which are often met with in the names of places
3 through-
THE SOURCE OF THENILE. i°5
throughout Abyffmia, as Dinglebcr, Sankraber ; and fo
forth.
There are five of thefe Awides which, like turnpikes, are to be paid at paffing between Mafuah and Adbwa ; one at Samhar, the fecond at Dixan, the third at Darghat the fourth here at Balezat, and the fifth at Kella. The fmall village of Sebow was diftant from us two miles to the eaft; Zarow the fame diftance to the S. S. E. and Noguet, a vil- lage before us, were the places of abode of thefe tax-gather- ers who farm it for a fum from their fuperior, and divide the profit pro rata of the fums each has advanced. It is much of the fame nature as the caphar in the Levant, but le- vied in a much more indifcreet, arbitrary manner. The farmer of this duty values as he thinks proper what each caravan is to pay ; there is no tariff, or reflraint, 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 leafl refiftance; for then the villages around you rife in arms ; you are not only ftript 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, I affecfed to laugh when they talked of detaining me ; and declared peremptorily to them, that I would leave all my baggage to them with great plea- fure rather than that the king's life mould be in danger by ray ftay. They were now ftaggered, and ieemed 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
Vol. III. O each,
io<5 TRAVELS TG DISCOVER
each, and one piece of white, value one pataka. Our com- panions, rather than ftay behind, made the beft bargain they could ; and we all decamped, and fet forward together. I was furprifed to fee, at the fmall village Zarow, leveral families as black as perfect negroes, only they were not woolly-headed, and had prominent features. I afked if they defcended from Haves, or fons of Haves ? They faid, No ; their particular families of that and the neighbouring vil- lage Sebow, 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 ifl of December we departed from Balezat, and' afcended. a fteep mountain upon which Hands die village Noguet, which we palled about half an hour after. On the top of the hill were a few fields of teff. Harvefc was then ended, and they were treading out the teff with oxen. Ha- vingpaiTedanother 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 Caftle, becaufe, nearly at equal dis- tances, the mountains on each fide run for a confiderable extent, ftraight and even, in ihape like a wall, with gapes at certain diftances, refembiing embrafures and baflions.. This rock is otherwife called Damo, anciently the prifoiii of the collateral heirs-male of the royal family,.
The river Kol-quall rifes in the mountains of Tigre, andj,, after a courfe nearly N. \V. falls into the Marebt It was at Kella we faw, for the firil time, the roofs of the houfes made in form of cones ; a furc proof that the tropical rains, grow more violent as they proceed wcflward.
i About
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. tojf
About half a mile on the hill above is the village Kai- bara, wholly inhabited by Mahometan Gibbertis ; that is, na^ tive Abyflinians of that religion. Kella being one of thefe bers, or pauages, 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 for this by information ; fo we began to open fliop 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 furpriiingly populous, notwith- standing the great emigration lately made with Michael. Beads and antimony are the flandard in this way-faring commerce ; but beads are a dangerous fpeculation. You lofe fometimes every thing, or gain more than honeftly you mould do ; for all depends upon fafhion ; and the fancies of a brown, or black beauty, there, gives the tort as decifively as does the example of the faireft in England.
To our great difappointment, the perfon employed te ?buy our beads at Jidda had not received the lafl lift of fa- shions from this country ; fo he had bought us a quantity beautifully flowered with red and green, and as big as a large pea; alio fome large oval, green, and yellow ones ; whereas the ton now among the beauties of Tigre were fmall Iky-coloured 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
I08 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
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 fhrille'ft tongues I ever heard. They decried our mer- chandize in fuch a manner, that I thought they meant to condemn them as unfaleable, to be confifcated or deftroyed.
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, and complacency. Let no man in travelling exalt himfelf above the loweft, in a greater degree than he is able to do fuperior fervice ; for many that have thought themfelves fafe, and been inattentive to this, have perifhed by the un- fufpected machinations of the loweft and meaner! wretch among them. Few have either made fuch long or fuch fre- quent journies 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 your 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 hyaena near Lila, and whofe cargo, likely to be left behind at the foot of Taranta, I had diftributed a- mong the reft 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, fince that time, he continued his journey. That fellow had felt the obliga- tion in filence ; and. not one word, but Good- day, and Good-
e'en>
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. fcog
e'en, had parted between us fince conferring the favour. Undemanding now what was the matter, he called Yafine, and gave him a large package, which he imprudently open- ed, in which was a treafure of all the beads in fafhion, all but the white and blue bugles, and thefe Yaline himfelf fur- nimed us with afterwards.
A great fhout was {et up by the women - purchaferp, 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-heartednels before, in profeiling they would let us itarve rather than give us a handful of flour for all our unfalhionable beads, had quite extinguifhed the regard we elf'e would have un- avoidably 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 be perfectly unconcerned at the fray, and flood laughing without the leaft flgn of wifhing to interfere in favour of either fide. I believe the reftitution would not have been complete, had not Yafine, who knew the country well, fired one of the ihip-blunderbufles 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, and 1 do not believe there was ftrength left in any hand to grafp or carry away afingle bead. My men immediately wrap- 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 withdrawn myfelf, and fat a quiet fpedator ,under a tree.
Some-
no TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
Some of the women were really fo difordered with the fright, that they made but very feeble efforts in the market after- wards. The reft befeeched 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 ^harp conteft and difpute, fomewhat fuperior in noife to that of our fifli-women. We were, however, plentifully fup- plied with honey, butter, flour, and pumpkins of an ex- ceeding good tafte, fcarcely inferior to melons.
Our caravan being fully vi&ualled the firft and fecond day, our market was not opened but by private adventurers, and feemingly favoured more of gallantry than gain. There were three of them the moll diftinguifhed for beauty and for tongue, who, by their difcourfe, had entertained me greatly. I made each of them a prefent of a few beads, and afked them how many kifles they would give for each ? They anfwered very readily, with one accord, " Poh! we don't fell kifles in this country: Who would buy them? We will give you as many as you wifh 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 fmgle firing of thin, white bugles tied about their dirty, black legs, a little above their ancle ; and of this they feem- ed as proud as if the ornament had been gold or jewels.
I easily
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. m
I easily faw that fo much poverty, joined to fo much avarice and pride, made the poffefTor a proper fubject to be employed. My young favourite, who had made fo frank an offer of her kindnefs, had brought me her brother, beg- ging that I would take him with me to Gondar to Ras Mi- chael, and allow him to carry one of my guns, no doubt with an intention to run offwith it by the way. I told her that was a thing eafily done ; but I mull firfl have a trial of his fide- lity, which was this, That he would, without fpeaking to anybody but me and her, go ftraight to Janni at Adowa, and carry the letter I mould give him, and deliver it into his own hand, in which cafe I would give him a lar^e parcel of each of thefe beads, more than ever flie 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 fingle 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 beert niifled at home;,
At the fame time came an officer from Janni, with a vio- lent mandate, in the name of Ras Michael, declaring to the perfon that was the caufe of our detention, That, was it not for ancient friendfhip, the prefent meflengcr; mould have carried him to Ras Michael in irons ;- difcharging me from all awides ; ordering him, as Shum of the place, to fumim. me with provifions ; and, in regard to the time he had can- fed us to lofe,. fixing the awides of the whole caravan at
eig.ht
ii2 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
eight piaftcrs, not the twentieth part of what he would have exacted. One reafon of this feverity was, that, while I was in Mafuahjanni 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 confi- derable expence, had obtained a promife from the Shum, in confideration of favours done him, that he mould let us pafs freely, and, not only fo, but mould fhew us fome little civility. This promife, now broken, was one of the articles of delinquency for which he was punhlied.
Cohol, large needles, goats ikins, coarfe fciflars, razors, and fteels for flriking fire, are the articles of barter at Kel- la. An ordinary goat's fkin is worth a quart of wheat- flour. As we expected an order of deliverance, all was ready up- on its arrival. The Moors with their afTes, grateful for the benefit received, began to blefs the moment they joined us 4 hoping, in my confideration, upon our arrival at the cullomhoufe of Adowa, they might meet with further fa- vour.
Yasine, in the four days we had Maid at Kella, had told me his whole hiflory. It feems he had been fettled in a province of AbyfTmia, near to Sennaar, called Ras el Feel ; had married Abd el Jilleel, the Shekh's daughter ; but, grow- ing more popular than his father-in-law, he had been per- fecuted by him, and obliged to leave the country. He began now to form hopes, that, if I was well received, as he faw, in all appearance, I was to be, he might, by my intereft, be appointed to his father-in-law's place ; efpecially if there was war, as every thing feemed to indicate. Abd "el Jilleel was a coward, and incapable of making himfelf of perfonal
4 value
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. *sg
valued to any party. On the contrary, Yafine was a tried man, an excellent horieman, 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 impoflible to.difpute his title to preferment; but I had not formed that idea of my own fuccefs that I mould be able to be of any ufe or afliitance to him in it. Kella is in lat. 1 4° 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 homes that ieemed to hang over the cliff rather than Hand upon it. A few minutes after three o' clock we pafTed a rivulet, and a quarter of an hour afterwards another, both which run into the Mareb. We ftill continued to defcend, furrounded on all fides with mountains covered with high grafs and brufhwood, 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 pail four o'clock we came to a considerable river called An- gueah, which we crofted, and pitched our tent on the far- ther fide of it. It was about fifty feet broad and three in depth. It was perfectly clear, and ran rapidly over a bed of white pebbles, and was the large it river we had yet feen in Habefh. In fummer there is very little plain ground near it but what is occupied by the ftrcam ; it is full of fmall fifli, in great repute for their goodnefs.
Vol; ILL 4? This
ii4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
This river has its name from a beautiful tree, which co- vers 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 feem- ed now to put on a more favourable afpect ; the air was much freflier, and more pleafant, every llep we-advanced af- ter leaving Dixan; and one caufe was very evident ; the country where we now paffed was well-watered with clear running ftreams ; whereas, nearer Dixan, there were few,, and all llagnant,.
The 5th, we defcendeda fmall mountain for about twenty minutes, and palled the following villages, Zabangella, about a mile N..W. ; at a quarter of an hour after, Moloxito, half a mile further S. E. ; and Manfuetemen, three quarters of a mile E. S. E. Thefe villages are all the property of the A- buna ; who has alfo a duty upon all merchandife palling there ; but Ras Michael had confifcated thefe lafl villages on account of a quarrel he had with the lafl Abuna, Af-Ya-- goube.
We now began firfc to fee the high mountains of A- - dowa, nothing refembling in fhapc to thofe of Europe,"nor, indeed, any other country. Their fides were all perpendicu- lar rocks, high like fleeples, or obelifks, and broken into a thoufand different forms. .
At half paft eight o'clock we left the deep valley, wherein runs, the Mareb W. N. W. ; at the diftance of about nine miles
4 above
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 11$
above it is the mountain, or high hill, on which flands Zarai, now a collection of villages, formerly two convents built by Lalibala ; though the monks tell you a ftory of the queen of Saba rending there, which the reader may be perfectly fatisfied me never did in her life.
The Mareb is the boundary between Tigre and the Ba- harnagafh, on this fide. It runs over a bed of foil ; is large, deep, and fmooth ; but, upon rain falling, it is more danger- ous to pafs than any river in Abyflinia, on account of the frequent holes in its bottom. We then entered the nar- row plain of Yeeha, wherein runs the fmail 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 laft-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 retted 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 moil incorrigible banditti in the province. He furrounded them in one night, burnt their houfes, and extirpated the inhabitants ; and would never fuller any one fince 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 be-
p 2 fore
m6 travels TO DISCOVER
fore four, pafTecl the village of that name, leaving it to the- S. E. and began the moll rugged and" dangerous defcent we had mec with fmceTaranta.
At half part five in the evening we pitched our tent at the foot of the hill, cloie by a fmall, but rapid and clear ftream, which is called Ribieraini. . 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 weltward ; the other from the Red Sea to the eaftward. One of the gang that ufed to be upon the out- look from this ftation, as foon as any caravan came in fighr, cried out, Ribieraini, which in Tigre fignifies they are coming this way, upon which notice every one took his lance and fhield, and flationed himfelf properly to fall with advan- tage upon the unwary merchant; and it was a current report, which his prefent 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, fteepj and rugged mountain of Samayat, which the iame Mi- chael, being in rebellion, chofe 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 fiore of grafs, which is the reafon of the caravans chufing to flop here. Two or three harvefls are alfo obtained by means of this river ; for, provided, there is water, theyfowin Abyffinia in all feafons. We perceived that we were now approaching fome confider- able town, by the great care with which every fmall piece of
ground, ,
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 117
ground, and even the fteep fides of the mountains, were cul- tivated, though they had ever fo little foil.