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1436	----	This etext was prepared from the 1887 Cassell and Company edition by Les Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset. A VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA. BY FATHER JEROME LOBO. _Translated from the French_ by SAMUEL JOHNSON. CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: _LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_. 1887. INTRODUCTION. Jeronimo Lobo was born in Lisbon in the year 1593. He entered the Order of the Jesuits at the age of sixteen. After passing through the studies by which Jesuits were trained for missionary work, which included special attention to the arts of speaking and writing, Father Lobo was sent as a missionary to India at the age of twenty-eight, in the year 1621. He reached Goa, as his book tells, in 1622, and was in 1624, at the age of thirty-one, told off as one of the missionaries to be employed in the conversion of the Abyssinians. They were to be converted, from a form of Christianity peculiar to themselves, to orthodox Catholicism. The Abyssinian Emperor Segued was protector of the enterprise, of which we have here the story told. Father Lobo was nine years in Abyssinia, from the age of thirty-one to the age of forty, and this was the adventurous time of his life. The death of the Emperor Segued put an end to the protection that had given the devoted missionaries, in the midst of dangers, a precarious hold upon their work. When he and his comrades fell into the hands of the Turks at Massowah, his vigour of body and mind, his readiness of resource, and his fidelity, marked him out as the one to be sent to the headquarters in India to secure the payment of a ransom for his companions. He obtained the ransom, and desired also to obtain from the Portuguese Viceroy in India armed force to maintain the missionaries in the position they had so far won. But the Civil power was deaf to his pleading. He removed the appeal to Lisbon, and after narrowly escaping on the way from a shipwreck, and after having been captured by pirates, he reached Lisbon, and sought still to obtain means of overawing the force hostile to the work of the Jesuits in Abyssinia. The Princess Margaret gave friendly hearing, but sent him on to persuade, if he could, the King of Spain; and failing at Madrid, he went to Rome and tried the Pope. He was chosen to go to the Pope, said the Patriarch Alfonso Mendez, because, of all the brethren at Goa, the 'Pater Hieronymus Lupus' (Lobo translated into Wolf) was the most ingenious and learned in all sciences, with a mind most generous in its desire to conquer difficulties, dexterous in management of business, and found most able to make himself agreeable to those with whom there was business to be done. The vigour with which he held by his purpose of endeavouring in every possible way to bring the Christianity of Abyssinia within the pale of the Catholic Church is in accordance with the character that makes the centre of the story of this book. Whimsical touches arise out of this strength of character and readiness of resource, as when he tells of the taste of the Abyssinians for raw cow's flesh, with a sauce high in royal Abyssinian favour, made of the cow's gall and contents of its entrails, of which, when he was pressed to partake, he could only excuse himself and his brethren by suggesting that it was too good for such humble missionaries. Out of distinguished respect for it, they refrained from putting it into their mouths. Good Father Lobo gave up the desire of his heart, when it was proved unattainable, and returned to India six years after the breaking up of his work in Abyssinia, at the age of forty-seven. He came to be head of the Provincials of the Jesuit settlement at Goa, and after about ten more years of active duty in the East returned in 1658 to Lisbon, when he died in the religious house of St. Roque in 1678, at the age of eighty-five. A comrade of Father Lobo's, Baltazar Tellez, said that Lobo had travelled thirty-eight thousand leagues with no other object before him but the winning of more souls to God. His years in Abyssinia stood out prominently to his mind among all the years of his long life, and he wrote an account of them in Portuguese, of which the manuscript is at Lisbon in the monastery of St. Roque, where he closed his life. Of that manuscript, then and still unprinted (though use was made of it by Baltazar Tellez in his History of 'Ethiopia-Coimbra,' 1660), the Abbe Legrand, Prior of Neuville-les-Dames, and of Prevessin, published a translation into French. The Abbe Legrand had been to Lisbon as Secretary to the Abbe d'Estrees, Ambassador from France to Portugal. The negotiations were so long continued that M. Legrand was detained five years in Lisbon, and employed the time in researches among documents illustrating the Portuguese possessions in India and the East. He obtained many memoirs of great interest, and published from one of them an account of Ceylon; but of all the manuscripts he found none interested him so much as that of Father Lobo. His translation was augmented with illustrative dissertations, letters, and a memoir on the circumstances of the death of M. du Roule. It filled two volumes, or 636 pages of forty lines. This was published in 1728. It was on the 31st of October, 1728, that Samuel Johnson, aged nineteen, went to Pembroke College, Oxford, and Legrand's 'Voyage Historique d'Abissinie du R. P. Jerome Lobo, de la Compagnie de Jesus, Traduit du Portugais, continue et augmente de plusieurs Dissertations, Lettres et Memoires,' was one of the new books read by Johnson during his short period of college life. In 1735, when Johnson's age was twenty-six, and the world seemed to have shut against him every door of hope, Johnson stayed for six months at Birmingham with his old schoolfellow Hector, who was aiming at medical practice, and who lodged at the house of a bookseller. Johnson spoke with interest of Father Lobo, whose book he had read at Pembroke College. Mr. Warren, the bookseller, thought it would be worth while to print a translation. Hector joined in urging Johnson to undertake it, for a payment of five guineas. Although nearly brought to a stop midway by hypochondriac despondency, a little suggestion that the printers also were stopped, and if they had not their work had not their pay, caused Johnson to go on to the end. Legrand's book was reduced to a fifth of its size by the omission of all that overlaid Father Lobo's personal account of his adventures; and Johnson began work as a writer with this translation, first published at Birmingham in 1735. H.M. THE PREFACE The following relation is so curious and entertaining, and the dissertations that accompany it so judicious and instructive, that the translator is confident his attempt stands in need of no apology, whatever censures may fall on the performance. The Portuguese traveller, contrary to the general vein of his countrymen, has amused his reader with no romantic absurdities or incredible fictions; whatever he relates, whether true or not, is at least probable; and he who tells nothing exceeding the bounds of probability has a right to demand that they should believe him who cannot contradict him. He appears by his modest and unaffected narration to have described things as he saw them, to have copied nature from the life, and to have consulted his senses, not his imagination; he meets with no basilisks that destroy with their eyes, his crocodiles devour their prey without tears, and his cataracts fall from the rock without deafening the neighbouring inhabitants. The reader will here find no regions cursed with irremediable barrenness, or blessed with spontaneous fecundity, no perpetual gloom or unceasing sunshine; nor are the nations here described either devoid of all sense of humanity, or consummate in all private and social virtues; here are no Hottentots without religion, polity, or articulate language, no Chinese perfectly polite, and completely skilled in all sciences: he will discover, what will always be discovered by a diligent and impartial inquirer, that wherever human nature is to be found there is a mixture of vice and virtue, a contest of passion and reason, and that the Creator doth not appear partial in his distributions, but has balanced in most countries their particular inconveniences by particular favours. In his account of the mission, where his veracity is most to be suspected, he neither exaggerates overmuch the merits of the Jesuits, if we consider the partial regard paid by the Portuguese to their countrymen, by the Jesuits to their society, and by the Papists to their church, nor aggravates the vices of the Abyssins; but if the reader will not be satisfied with a Popish account of a Popish mission, he may have recourse to the history of the church of Abyssinia, written by Dr. Geddes, in which he will find the actions and sufferings of the missionaries placed in a different light, though the same in which Mr. Le Grand, with all his zeal for the Roman church, appears to have seen them. This learned dissertator, however valuable for his industry and erudition, is yet more to be esteemed for having dared so freely in the midst of France to declare his disapprobation of the Patriarch Oviedo's sanguinary zeal, who was continually importuning the Portuguese to beat up their drums for missionaries, who might preach the gospel with swords in their hands, and propagate by desolation and slaughter the true worship of the God of Peace. It is not easy to forbear reflecting with how little reason these men profess themselves the followers of Jesus, who left this great characteristic to His disciples, that they should be known by loving one another, by universal and unbounded charity and benevolence. Let us suppose an inhabitant of some remote and superior region, yet unskilled in the ways of men, having read and considered the precepts of the gospel, and the example of our Saviour, to come down in search of the true church: if he would not inquire after it among the cruel, the insolent, and the oppressive; among those who are continually grasping at dominion over souls as well as bodies; among those who are employed in procuring to themselves impunity for the most enormous villainies, and studying methods of destroying their fellow-creatures, not for their crimes but their errors; if he would not expect to meet benevolence, engaged in massacres, or to find mercy in a court of inquisition, he would not look for the true church in the Church of Rome. Mr. Le Grand has given in one dissertation an example of great moderation, in deviating from the temper of his religion, but in the others has left proofs that learning and honesty are often too weak to oppose prejudice. He has made no scruple of preferring the testimony of Father du Bernat to the writings of all the Portuguese Jesuits, to whom he allows great zeal, but little learning, without giving any other reason than that his favourite was a Frenchman. This is writing only to Frenchmen and to Papists: a Protestant would be desirous to know why he must imagine that Father du Bernat had a cooler head or more knowledge; and why one man whose account is singular is not more likely to be mistaken than many agreeing in the same account. If the Portuguese were biassed by any particular views, another bias equally powerful may have deflected the Frenchman from the truth, for they evidently write with contrary designs: the Portuguese, to make their mission seem more necessary, endeavoured to place in the strongest light the differences between the Abyssinian and Roman Church; but the great Ludolfus, laying hold on the advantage, reduced these later writers to prove their conformity. Upon the whole, the controversy seems of no great importance to those who believe the Holy Scriptures sufficient to teach the way of salvation, but of whatever moment it may be thought, there are not proofs sufficient to decide it. His discourses on indifferent subjects will divert as well as instruct, and if either in these, or in the relation of Father Lobo, any argument shall appear unconvincing, or description obscure, they are defects incident to all mankind, which, however, are not too rashly to be imputed to the authors, being sometimes, perhaps, more justly chargeable on the translator. In this translation, if it may be so called, great liberties have been taken, which, whether justifiable or not, shall be fairly confessed; and let the judicious part of mankind pardon or condemn them. In the first part the greatest freedom has been used in reducing the narration into a narrow compass, so that it is by no means a translation but an epitome, in which, whether everything either useful or entertaining be comprised, the compiler is least qualified to determine. In the account of Abyssinia, and the continuation, the authors have been followed with more exactness, and as few passages appeared either insignificant or tedious, few have been either shortened or omitted. The dissertations are the only part in which an exact translation has been attempted, and even in those abstracts are sometimes given instead of literal quotations, particularly in the first; and sometimes other parts have been contracted. Several memorials and letters, which are printed at the end of the dissertations to secure the credit of the foregoing narrative, are entirely left out. It is hoped that, after this confession, whoever shall compare this attempt with the original, if he shall find no proofs of fraud or partiality, will candidly overlook any failure of judgment. PART I--THE VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA CHAPTER I The author arrives after some difficulties at Goa. Is chosen for the Mission of AEthiopia. The fate of those Jesuits who went by Zeila. The author arrives at the coast of Melinda. I embarked in March, 1622, in the same fleet with the Count Vidigueira, on whom the king had conferred the viceroyship of the Indies, then vacant by the resignation of Alfonso Noronha, whose unsuccessful voyage in the foregoing year had been the occasion of the loss of Ormus, which being by the miscarriage of that fleet deprived of the succours necessary for its defence, was taken by the Persians and English. The beginning of this voyage was very prosperous: we were neither annoyed with the diseases of the climate nor distressed with bad weather, till we doubled the Cape of Good Hope, which was about the end of May. Here began our misfortunes; these coasts are remarkable for the many shipwrecks the Portuguese have suffered. The sea is for the most part rough, and the winds tempestuous; we had here our rigging somewhat damaged by a storm of lightning, which when we had repaired, we sailed forward to Mosambique, where we were to stay some time. When we came near that coast, and began to rejoice at the prospect of ease and refreshment, we were on the sudden alarmed with the sight of a squadron of ships, of what nation we could not at first distinguish, but soon discovered that they were three English and three Dutch, and were preparing to attack us. I shall not trouble the reader with the particulars of this fight, in which, though the English commander ran himself aground, we lost three of our ships, and with great difficulty escaped with the rest into the port of Mosambique. This place was able to afford us little consolation in our uneasy circumstances; the arrival of our company almost caused a scarcity of provisions. The heat in the day is intolerable, and the dews in the night so unwholesome that it is almost certain death to go out with one's head uncovered. Nothing can be a stronger proof of the malignant quality of the air than that the rust will immediately corrode both the iron and brass if they are not carefully covered with straw. We stayed, however, in this place from the latter end of July to the beginning of September, when having provided ourselves with other vessels, we set out for Cochin, and landed there after a very hazardous and difficult passage, made so partly by the currents and storms which separated us from each other, and partly by continual apprehensions of the English and Dutch, who were cruising for us in the Indian seas. Here the viceroy and his company were received with so much ceremony, as was rather troublesome than pleasing to us who were fatigued with the labours of the passage; and having stayed here some time, that the gentlemen who attended the viceroy to Goa might fit out their vessels, we set sail, and after having been detained some time at sea, by calms and contrary winds, and somewhat harassed by the English and Dutch, who were now increased to eleven ships of war, arrived at Goa, on Saturday, the 16th of December, and the viceroy made his entry with great magnificence. I lived here about a year, and completed my studies in divinity; in which time some letters were received from the fathers in AEthiopia, with an account that Sultan Segued, Emperor of Abyssinia, was converted to the Church of Rome, that many of his subjects had followed his example, and that there was a great want of missionaries to improve these prosperous beginnings. Everybody was very desirous of seconding the zeal of our fathers, and of sending them the assistance they requested; to which we were the more encouraged, because the emperor's letters informed our provincial that we might easily enter his dominions by the way of Dancala, but unhappily, the secretary wrote Zeila for Dancala, which cost two of our fathers their lives. We were, however, notwithstanding the assurances given us by the emperor, sufficiently apprised of the danger which we were exposed to in this expedition, whether we went by sea or land. By sea, we foresaw the hazard we run of falling into the hands of the Turks, amongst whom we should lose, if not our lives, at least our liberty, and be for ever prevented from reaching the court of AEthiopia. Upon this consideration our superiors divided the eight Jesuits chosen for this mission into two companies. Four they sent by sea and four by land; I was of the latter number. The four first were the more fortunate, who though they were detained some time by the Turkish bassa, were dismissed at the request of the emperor, who sent him a zebra, or wild ass, a creature of large size and admirable beauty. As for us, who were to go by Zeila, we had still greater difficulties to struggle with: we were entirely strangers to the ways we were to take, to the manners, and even to the names of the nations through which we were to pass. Our chief desire was to discover some new road by which we might avoid having anything to do with the Turks. Among great numbers whom we consulted on this occasion, we were informed by some that we might go through Melinda. These men painted that hideous wilderness in charming colours, told us that we should find a country watered with navigable rivers, and inhabited by a people that would either inform us of the way, or accompany us in it. These reports charmed us, because they flattered our desires; but our superiors finding nothing in all this talk that could be depended on, were in suspense what directions to give us, till my companion and I upon this reflection, that since all the ways were equally new to us, we had nothing to do but to resign ourselves to the Providence of God, asked and obtained the permission of our superiors to attempt the road through Melinda. So of we who went by land, two took the way of Zeila, and my companion and I that of Melinda. Those who were appointed for Zeila embarked in a vessel that was going to Caxume, where they were well received by the king, and accommodated with a ship to carry them to Zeila; they were there treated by the Check with the same civility which they had met with at Caxume. But the king being informed of their arrival, ordered them to be conveyed to his court at Auxa, to which place they were scarce come before they were thrown by the king's command into a dark and dismal dungeon, where there is hardly any sort of cruelty that was not exercised upon them. The Emperor of Abyssinia endeavoured by large offers to obtain their liberty, but his kind offices had no other effect than to heighten the rage of the king of Zeila. This prince, besides his ill will to Sultan Segued, which was kept up by some malcontents among the Abyssin nobility, who, provoked at the conversion of their master, were plotting a revolt, entertained an inveterate hatred against the Portuguese for the death of his grandfather, who had been killed many years before, which he swore the blood of the Jesuits should repay. So after they had languished for some time in prison their heads were struck off. A fate which had been likewise our own, had not God reserved us for longer labours! Having provided everything necessary for our journey, such as Arabian habits, and red caps, calicoes, and other trifles to make presents of to the inhabitants, and taking leave of our friends, as men going to a speedy death, for we were not insensible of the dangers we were likely to encounter, amongst horrid deserts, impassable mountains, and barbarous nations, we left Goa on the 26th day of January in the year 1624, in a Portuguese galliot that was ordered to set us ashore at Pate, where we landed without any disaster in eleven days, together with a young Abyssin, whom we made use of as our interpreter. While we stayed here we were given to understand that those who had been pleased at Goa to give us directions in relation to our journey had done nothing but tell us lies. That the people were savage, that they had indeed begun to treat with the Portuguese, but it was only from fear, that otherwise they were a barbarous nation, who finding themselves too much crowded in their own country, had extended themselves to the sea-shore; that they ravished the country and laid everything waste where they came, that they were man- eaters, and were on that account dreadful in all those parts. My companion and I being undeceived by this terrible relation, thought it would be the highest imprudence to expose ourselves both together to a death almost certain and unprofitable, and agreed that I should go with our Abyssin and a Portuguese to observe the country; that if I should prove so happy as to escape being killed by the inhabitants, and to discover a way, I should either return, or send back the Abyssin or Portuguese. Having fixed upon this, I hired a little bark to Jubo, a place about forty leagues distant from Pate, on board which I put some provisions, together with my sacerdotal vestments, and all that was necessary for saying mass: in this vessel we reached the coast, which we found inhabited by several nations: each nation is subject to its own king; these petty monarchies are so numerous, that I counted at least ten in less than four leagues. CHAPTER II The author lands: The difficulty of his journey. An account of the Galles, and of the author's reception at the king's tent; Their manner of swearing, and of letting blood. The author returns to the Indies, and finds the patriarch of AEthiopia. On this coast we landed, with an intention of travelling on foot to Jubo, a journey of much greater length and difficulty than we imagined. We durst not go far from our bark, and therefore were obliged to a toilsome march along the windings of the shore, sometimes clambering up rocks, and sometimes wading through the sands, so that we were every moment in the utmost danger of falling from the one, or sinking in the other. Our lodging was either in the rocks or on the sands, and even that incommoded by continual apprehensions of being devoured by lions and tigers. Amidst all these calamities our provisions failed us; we had little hopes of a supply, for we found neither villages, houses, nor any trace of a human creature; and had miserably perished by thirst and hunger had we not met with some fishermen's boats, who exchanged their fish for tobacco. Through all these fatigues we at length came to Jubo, a kingdom of considerable extent, situated almost under the line, and tributary to the Portuguese, who carry on a trade here for ivory and other commodities. This region so abounds with elephants, that though the teeth of the male only are valuable, they load several ships with ivory every year. All this coast is much infested with ravenous beasts, monkeys, and serpents, of which last here are some seven feet in length, and thicker than an ordinary man; in the head of this serpent is found a stone about the bigness of an egg, resembling bezoar, and of great efficacy, as it is said, against all kinds of poison. I stayed here some time to inform myself whether I might, by pursuing this road, reach Abyssinia; and could get no other intelligence but that two thousand Galles (the same people who inhabited Melinda) had encamped about three leagues from Jubo; that they had been induced to fix in that place by the plenty of provisions they found there. These Galles lay everything where they come in ruin, putting all to the sword without distinction of age or sex; which barbarities, though their numbers are not great, have spread the terror of them over all the country. They choose a king, whom they call Lubo: every eighth year. They carry their wives with them, and expose their children without any tenderness in the woods, it being prohibited, on pain of death, to take any care of those which are born in the camp. This is their way of living when they are in arms, but afterwards when they settle at home they breed up their children. They feed upon raw cow's flesh; when they kill a cow, they keep the blood to rub their bodies with, and wear the guts about their necks for ornaments, which they afterwards give to their wives. Several of these Galles came to see me, and as it seemed they had never beheld a white man before, they gazed on me with amazement; so strong was their curiosity that they even pulled off my shoes and stockings, that they might be satisfied whether all my body was of the same colour with my face. I could remark, that after they had observed me some time, they discovered some aversion from a white; however, seeing me pull out my handkerchief, they asked me for it with a great deal of eagerness; I cut it into several pieces that I might satisfy them all, and distributed it amongst them; they bound them about their heads, but gave me to understand that they should have liked them better if they had been red: after this we were seldom without their company, which gave occasion to an accident, which though it seemed to threaten some danger at first, turned afterwards to our advantage. As these people were continually teasing us, our Portuguese one day threatened in jest to kill one of them. The black ran in the utmost dread to seek his comrades, and we were in one moment almost covered with Galles; we thought it the most proper course to decline the first impulse of their fury, and retired into our house. Our retreat inspired them with courage; they redoubled their cries, and posted themselves on an eminence near at hand that overlooked us; there they insulted us by brandishing their lances and daggers. We were fortunately not above a stone's cast from the sea, and could therefore have retreated to our bark had we found ourselves reduced to extremities. This made us not very solicitous about their menaces; but finding that they continued to hover about our habitation, and being wearied with their clamours, we thought it might be a good expedient to fright them away by firing four muskets towards them, in such a manner that they might hear the bullets hiss about two feet over their heads. This had the effect we wished; the noise and fire of our arms struck them with so much terror that they fell upon the ground, and durst not for some time so much as lift up their heads. They forgot immediately their natural temper, their ferocity and haughtiness were softened into mildness and submission; they asked pardon for their insolence, and we were ever after good friends. After our reconciliation we visited each other frequently, and had some conversation about the journey I had undertaken, and the desire I had of finding a new passage into AEthiopia. It was necessary on this account to consult their lubo or king: I found him in a straw hut something larger than those of his subjects, surrounded by his courtiers, who had each a stick in his hand, which is longer or shorter according to the quality of the person admitted into the king's presence. The ceremony made use of at the reception of a stranger is somewhat unusual; as soon as he enters, all the courtiers strike him with their cudgels till he goes back to the door; the amity then subsisting between us did not secure me from this uncouth reception, which they told me, upon my demanding the reason of it, was to show those whom they treated with that they were the bravest people in the world, and that all other nations ought to bow down before them. I could not help reflecting on this occasion how imprudently I had trusted my life in the hands of men unacquainted with compassion or civility, but recollecting at the same time that the intent of my journey was such as might give me hopes of the divine protection, I banished all thoughts but those of finding a way into AEthiopia. In this strait it occurred to me that these people, however barbarous, have some oath which they keep with an inviolable strictness; the best precaution, therefore, that I could use would be to bind them by this oath to be true to their engagements. The manner of their swearing is this: they set a sheep in the midst of them, and rub it over with butter, the heads of families who are the chief in the nation lay their hands upon the head of the sheep, and swear to observe their promise. This oath (which they never violate) they explain thus: the sheep is the mother of them who swear; the butter betokens the love between the mother and the children, and an oath taken on a mother's head is sacred. Upon the security of this oath, I made them acquainted with my intention, an intention, they told me, it was impossible to put in execution. From the moment I left them they said they could give me no assurance of either life or liberty, that they were perfectly informed both of the roads and inhabitants, that there were no fewer than nine nations between us and Abyssinia, who were always embroiled amongst themselves, or at war with the Abyssins, and enjoyed no security even in their own territories. We were now convinced that our enterprise was impracticable, and that to hazard ourselves amidst so many insurmountable difficulties would be to tempt Providence; despairing, therefore, that I should ever come this way to Abyssinia, I resolved to return back with my intelligence to my companion, whom I had left at Pate. I cannot, however, leave this country without giving an account of their manner of blood-letting, which I was led to the knowledge of by a violent fever, which threatened to put an end to my life and travels together. The distress I was in may easily be imagined, being entirely destitute of everything necessary. I had resolved to let myself blood, though I was altogether a stranger to the manner of doing it, and had no lancet, but my companions hearing of a surgeon of reputation in the place, went and brought him. I saw, with the utmost surprise, an old Moor enter my chamber, with a kind of small dagger, all over rusty, and a mallet in his hand, and three cups of horn about half a foot long. I started, and asked what he wanted. He told me to bleed me; and when I had given him leave, uncovering my side, applied one of his horn cups, which he stopped with chewed paper, and by that means made it stick fast; in the same manner he fixed on the other two, and fell to sharpening his instrument, assuring me that he would give me no pain. He then took off his cups, and gave in each place a stroke with his poignard, which was followed by a stream of blood. He applied his cups several times, and every time struck his lancet into the same place; having drawn away a large quantity of blood, he healed the orifices with three lumps of tallow. I know not whether to attribute my cure to bleeding or my fear, but I had from that time no return of my fever. When I came to Pate, in hopes of meeting with my associate, I found that he was gone to Mombaza, in hopes of receiving information. He was sooner undeceived than I, and we met at the place where we parted in a few days; and soon afterwards left Pate to return to the Indies, and in nine-and- twenty days arrived at the famous fortress of Diou. We were told at this place that Alfonso Mendes, patriarch of AEthiopia, was arrived at Goa from Lisbon. He wrote to us to desire that we would wait for him at Diou, in order to embark there for the Red Sea; but being informed by us that no opportunities of going thither were to be expected at Diou, it was at length determined that we should meet at Bazaim; it was no easy matter for me to find means of going to Bazaim. However, after a very uneasy voyage, in which we were often in danger of being dashed against the rocks, or thrown upon the sands by the rapidity of the current, and suffered the utmost distress for want of water, I landed at Daman, a place about twenty leagues distant from Bazaim. Here I hire a catre and four boys to carry me to Bazaim: these catres are a kind of travelling couches, in which you may either lie or sit, which the boys, whose business is the same with that of chairmen in our country, support upon their shoulders by two poles, and carry a passenger at the rate of eighteen or twenty miles a day. Here we at length found the patriarch, with three more priests, like us, designed for the mission of AEthiopia. We went back to Daman, and from thence to Diou, where we arrived in a short time. CHAPTER III The author embarks with the patriarch, narrowly escapes shipwreck near the isle of Socotora; enters the Arabian Gulf, and the Red Sea. Some account of the coast of the Red Sea. The patriarch having met with many obstacles and disappointments in his return to Abyssinia, grew impatient of being so long absent from his church. Lopo Gomez d'Abreu had made him an offer at Bazaim of fitting out three ships at his own expense, provided a commission could be procured him to cruise in the Red Sea. This proposal was accepted by the patriarch, and a commission granted by the viceroy. While we were at Diou, waiting for these vessels, we received advice from AEthiopia that the emperor, unwilling to expose the patriarch to any hazard, thought Dagher, a port in the mouth of the Red Sea, belonging to a prince dependent on the Abyssins, a place of the greatest security to land at, having already written to that prince to give him safe passage through his dominions. We met here with new delays; the fleet that was to transport us did not appear, the patriarch lost all patience, and his zeal so much affected the commander at Diou, that he undertook to equip a vessel for us, and pushed the work forward with the utmost diligence. At length, the long-expected ships entered the port; we were overjoyed, we were transported, and prepared to go on board. Many persons at Diou, seeing the vessels so well fitted out, desired leave to go this voyage along with us, imagining they had an excellent opportunity of acquiring both wealth and honour. We committed, however, one great error in setting out, for having equipped our ships for privateering, and taken no merchandise on board, we could not touch at any of the ports of the Red Sea. The patriarch, impatient to be gone, took leave in the most tender manner of the governor and his other friends, recommended our voyage to the Blessed Virgin, and in the field, before we went on shipboard, made a short exhortation, so moving and pathetic, that it touched the hearts of all who heard it. In the evening we went on board, and early the next morning being the 3rd of April, 1625, we set sail. After some days we discovered about noon the island Socotora, where we proposed to touch. The sky was bright and the wind fair, nor had we the least apprehension of the danger into which we were falling, but with the utmost carelessness and jollity held on our course. At night, when our sailors, especially the Moors, were in a profound sleep (for the Mohammedans, believing everything forewritten in the decrees of God, and not alterable by any human means, resign themselves entirely to Providence), our vessel ran aground upon a sand bank at the entrance of the harbour. We got her off with the utmost difficulty, and nothing but a miracle could have preserved us. We ran along afterwards by the side of the island, but were entertained with no other prospect than of a mountainous country, and of rocks that jutted out over the sea, and seemed ready to fall into it. In the afternoon, putting into the most convenient ports of the island, we came to anchor; very much to the amazement and terror of the inhabitants, who were not used to see any Portuguese ships upon their coasts, and were therefore under a great consternation at finding them even in their ports. Some ran for security to the mountains, others took up arms to oppose our landing, but were soon reconciled to us, and brought us fowls, fish, and sheep, in exchange for India calicoes, on which they set a great value. We left this island early the next morning, and soon came in sight of Cape Gardafui, so celebrated heretofore under the name of the Cape of Spices, either because great quantities were then found there, or from its neighbourhood to Arabia the Happy, even at this day famous for its fragrant products. It is properly at this cape (the most eastern part of Africa) that the Gulf of Arabia begins, which at Babelmandel loses its name, and is called the Red Sea. Here, though the weather was calm, we found the sea so rough, that we were tossed as in a high wind for two nights; whether this violent agitation of the water proceeded from the narrowness of the strait, or from the fury of the late storm, I know not; whatever was the cause, we suffered all the hardships of a tempest. We continued our course towards the Red Sea, meeting with nothing in our passage but a gelve, or kind of boat, made of thin boards, sewed together, with no other sail than a mat. We gave her chase, in hopes of being informed by the crew whether there were any Arabian vessels at the mouth of the strait; but the Moors, who all entertain dismal apprehensions of the Franks, plied their oars and sail with the utmost diligence, and as soon as they reached land, quitted their boat, and scoured to the mountains. We saw them make signals from thence, and imagining they would come to a parley, sent out our boat with two sailors and an Abyssin, putting the ships off from the shore, to set them free from any suspicion of danger in coming down. All this was to no purpose, they could not be drawn from the mountain, and our men had orders not to go on shore, so they were obliged to return without information. Soon after we discovered the isle of Babelmandel, which gives name to the strait so called, and parts the sea that surrounds it into two channels; that on the side of Arabia is not above a quarter of a league in breadth, and through this pass almost all the vessels that trade to or from the Red Sea. The other, on the side of AEthiopia, though much larger, is more dangerous, by reason of the shallows, which make it necessary for a ship, though of no great burthen, to pass very near the island, where the channel is deeper and less embarrassed. This passage is never made use of but by those who would avoid meeting with the Turks who are stationed on the coast of Arabia; it was for this reason that we chose it. We passed it in the night, and entered that sea, so renowned on many accounts in history, both sacred and profane. In our description of this famous sea, an account of which may justly be expected in this place, it is most convenient to begin with the coast of Arabia, on which part at twelve leagues from the mouth stands the city of Moca, a place of considerable trade. Forty leagues farther is the Isle of Camaram, whose inhabitants are annoyed with little serpents, which they call basilisks, which, though very poisonous and deadly, do not, as the ancients have told us, kill with their eyes, or if they have so fatal a power, it is not at least in this place. Sailing ninety leagues farther, you see the noted port of Jodda, where the pilgrims that go to Mecca and Medina unlade those rich presents which the zeal of different princes is every day accumulating at the tomb of Mahomet. The commerce of this place, and the number of merchants that resort thither from all parts of the world, are above description, and so richly laden are the ships that come hither, that when the Indians would express a thing of inestimable price, they say, "It is of greater value than a ship of Jodda." An hundred and eighteen leagues from thence lies Toro, and near it the ruins of an ancient monastery. This is the place, if the report of the inhabitants deserves any credit, where the Israelites miraculously passed through the Red Sea on dry land; and there is some reason for imagining the tradition not ill grounded, for the sea is here only three leagues in breadth. All the ground about Toro is barren for want of water, which is only to be found at a considerable distance, in one fountain, which flows out of the neighbouring mountains, at the foot of which there are still twelve palm-trees. Near Toro are several wells, which, as the Arabs tell us, were dug by the order of Moses to quiet the clamours of the thirsty Israelites. Suez lies in the bottom of the Gulf, three leagues from Toro, once a place of note, now reduced, under the Turks, to an inconsiderable village, where the miserable inhabitants are forced to fetch water at three leagues' distance. The ancient Kings of Egypt conveyed the waters of the Nile to this place by an artificial canal, now so choked with sand, that there are scarce any marks remaining of so noble and beneficial a work. The first place to be met with in travelling along the coast of Africa is Rondelo, situate over against Toro, and celebrated for the same miraculous passage. Forty-five leagues from thence is Cocir. Here ends that long chain of mountains that reaches from this place even to the entrance of the Red Sea. In this prodigious ridge, which extends three hundred leagues, sometimes approaching near the sea, and sometimes running far up into the land, there is only one opening, through which all that merchandise is conveyed, which is embarked at Rifa, and from thence distributed through all the east. These mountains, as they are uncultivated, are in some parts shaded with large forests, and in others dry and bare. As they are exceedingly high, all the seasons may be here found together; when the storms of winter beat on one side, on the other is often a serene sky and a bright sunshine. The Nile runs here so near the shore that it might without much difficulty be turned through this opening of the mountains into the Red Sea, a design which many of the Emperors have thought of putting in execution, and thereby making a communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, but have been discouraged either by the greatness of the expense or the fear of laying great part of Egypt under water, for some of that country lies lower than sea. Distant from Rondelo a hundred and thirty leagues is the Isle of Suaquem, where the Bassa of that country chooses his residence, for the convenience of receiving the tribute with greater exactness, there being a large trade carried on here with the Abyssins. The Turks of Suaquem have gardens on the firm land, not above a musket shot from the island, which supply them with many excellent herbs and fruits, of which I doubt whether there be not a greater quantity on this little spot than on the whole coast of Africa besides, from Melinda to Suez. For if we except the dates which grow between Suez and Suaquem, the ground does not yield the least product; all the necessaries of life, even water, is wanting. Nothing can support itself in this region of barrenness but ostriches, which devour stones, or anything they meet with; they lay a great number of eggs, part of which they break to feed their young with. These fowls, of which I have seen many, are very tame, and when they are pursued, stretch out their wings, and run with amazing swiftness. As they have cloven feet, they sometimes strike up the stones when they run, which gave occasion to the notion that they threw stones at the hunters, a relation equally to be credited with those of their eating fire and digesting iron. Those feathers which are so much valued grow under their wings: the shell of their eggs powdered is an excellent remedy for sore eyes. The burning wind spoken of in the sacred writings, I take to be that which the natives term arur, and the Arabs uri, which blowing in the spring, brings with it so excessive a heat, that the whole country seems a burning oven; so that there is no travelling here in this dreadful season, nor is this the only danger to which the unhappy passenger is exposed in these uncomfortable regions. There blows in the months of June, July, and August, another wind, which raises mountains of sand and carries them through the air; all that can be done in this case is when a cloud of sand rises, to mark where it is likely to fall, and to retire as far off as possible; but it is very usual for men to be taken unexpectedly, and smothered in the dust. One day I found the body of a Christian, whom I knew, upon the sand; he had doubtless been choked by these winds. I recommended his soul to the divine mercy and buried him. He seemed to have been some time dead, yet the body had no ill smell. These winds are most destructive in Arabia the Desert. CHAPTER IV The author's conjecture on the name of the Red Sea. An account of the cocoa-tree. He lands at Baylur. To return to the description of the coast: sixty leagues from Suaquem is an island called Mazna, only considerable for its ports, which make the Turks reside upon it, though they are forced to keep three barks continually employed in fetching water, which is not to be found nearer than at a distance of twelve miles. Forty leagues from hence is Dalacha, an island where many pearls are found, but of small value. The next place is Baylur, forty leagues from Dalacha, and twelve from Babelmandel. There are few things upon which a greater variety of conjectures has been offered than upon the reasons that induced the ancients to distinguish this gulf, which separates Asia from Africa, by the name of the Red Sea, an appellation that has almost universally obtained in all languages. Some affirm that the torrents, which fall after great rains from the mountains, wash down such a quantity of red sand as gives a tincture to the water: others tell us that the sunbeams being reverberated from the red rocks, give the sea on which they strike the appearance of that colour. Neither of these accounts are satisfactory; the coasts are so scorched by the heat that they are rather black than red; nor is the colour of this sea much altered by the winds or rains. The notion generally received is, that the coral found in such quantities at the bottom of the sea might communicate this colour to the water: an account merely chimerical. Coral is not to be found in all parts of this gulf, and red coral in very few. Nor does this water in fact differ from that of other seas. The patriarch and I have frequently amused ourselves with making observations, and could never discover any redness, but in the shallows, where a kind of weed grew which they call gouesmon, which redness disappeared as soon as we plucked up the plant. It is observable that St. Jerome, confining himself to the Hebrew, calls this sea Jamsuf. Jam in that language signifies sea, and suf is the name of a plant in AEthiopia, from which the Abyssins extract a beautiful crimson; whether this be the same with the gouesmon, I know not, but am of opinion that the herb gives to this sea both the colour and the name. The vessels most used in the Red Sea, though ships of all sizes may be met with there, are gelves, of which some mention hath been made already; these are the more convenient, because they will not split if thrown upon banks or against rocks. These gelves have given occasion to the report that out of the cocoa-tree alone a ship may be built, fitted out with masts, sails, and cordage, and victualled with bread, water, wine, sugar, vinegar, and oil. All this indeed cannot be done out of one tree, but may out of several of the same kind. They saw the trunk into planks, and sew them together with thread which they spin out of the bark, and which they twist for the cables; the leaves stitched together make the sails. This boat thus equipped may be furnished with all necessaries from the same tree. There is not a month in which the cocoa does not produce a bunch of nuts, from twenty to fifty. At first sprouts out a kind of seed or capsula, of a shape not unlike the scabbard of a scimitar, which they cut, and place a vessel under, to receive the liquor that drops from it; this drink is called soro, and is clear, pleasant, and nourishing. If it be boiled, it grows hard, and makes a kind of sugar much valued in the Indies: distil this liquor and you have a strong water, of which is made excellent vinegar. All these different products are afforded before the nut is formed, and while it is green it contains a delicious cooling water; with these nuts they store their gelves, and it is the only provision of water which is made in this country. The second bark which contains the water is so tender that they eat it. When this fruit arrives to perfect maturity, they either pound the kernel into meal, and make cakes of or draw an oil from it of a fine scent and taste, and of great use in medicine; so that what is reported of the different products of this wonderful tree is neither false nor incredible. It is time we should come now to the relation of our voyage. Having happily passed the straits at the entrance of the Red Sea, we pursued our course, keeping as near the shore as we could, without any farther apprehensions of the Turks. We were, however, under some concern that we were entirely ignorant in what part of the coast to find Baylur, a port where we proposed landing, and so little known, that our pilots, who had made many voyages in this sea, could give us no account of it. We were in hopes of information from the fishermen, but found that as soon as we came near they fled from us in the greatest consternation; no signals of peace or friendship could prevail on them to stay; they either durst not trust or did not understand us. We plied along the coast in this uncertainty two days, till on the first of March having doubled a point of land, which came out a great way into the sea, we found ourselves in the middle of a fair large bay, which many reasons induced us to think was Baylur; that we might be farther assured we sent our Abyssin on shore, who returning next morning confirmed our opinion. It would not be easy to determine whether our arrival gave us greater joy, or the inhabitants greater apprehensions, for we could discern a continual tumult in the land, and took notice that the crews of some barks that lay in the harbour were unlading with all possible diligence, to prevent the cargo from falling into our hands, very much indeed to the dissatisfaction of many of our soldiers, who having engaged in this expedition, with no other view than of filling their pockets, were, before the return of our Abyssin, for treating them like enemies, and taking them as a lawful prize. We were willing to be assured of a good reception in this port; the patriarch therefore sent me to treat with them. I dressed myself like a merchant, and in that habit received the four captains of gelves which the Chec sent to compliment me, and ordered to stay as hostages, whom I sent back, that I might gain upon their affections by the confidence I placed in their sincerity; this had so good an effect, that the Chec, who was transported with the account the officers gave of the civilities they had been treated with, came in an hour to visit me, bringing with him a Portuguese, whom I had sent ashore as a security for his return. He informed me that the King his master was encamped not far off, and that a Chec who was then in the company was just arrived from thence, and had seen the Emperor of AEthiopia's letters in our favour; I was then convinced that we might land without scruple, and to give the patriarch notice of it ordered a volley of our muskets to be fired, which was answered by the cannon of the two ships that lay at a distance, for fear of giving the Moors any cause of suspicion by their approach. The Chec and his attendants, though I had given them notice that we were going to let off our guns in honour of the King their master, could not forbear trembling at the fire and noise. They left us soon after, and next morning we landed our baggage, consisting chiefly of the patriarch's library, some ornaments for the church, some images, and some pieces of calico, which were of the same use as money. Most of the soldiers and sailors were desirous of going with us, some from real principles of piety, and a desire of sharing the labours and merits of the mission, others upon motives very different, the hopes of raising a fortune. To have taken all who offered themselves would have been an injury to the owners of the ships, by rendering them unable to continue their voyage; we therefore accepted only of a few. CHAPTER V An account of Dancali. The conduct of Chec Furt. The author wounded. They arrive at the court of the King of Dancali. A description of his pavilion, and the reception they met with. Our goods were no sooner landed than we were surrounded with a crowd of officers, all gaping for presents; we were forced to gratify their avarice by opening our bales, and distributing among them some pieces of calico. What we gave to the Chec might be worth about a pistole, and the rest in proportion. The kingdom of Dancali, to which this belongs, is barren, and thinly peopled; the king is tributary to the Emperor of Abyssinia, and very faithful to his sovereign. The emperor had not only written to him, but had sent a Moor and Portuguese as his ambassadors, to secure us a kind reception; these in their way to this prince had come through the countries of Chumo-Salamay and Senaa, the utmost confines of Abyssinia, and had carried thither the emperor's orders concerning our passage. On Ascension Day we left Baylur, having procured some camels and asses to carry our baggage. The first day's march was not above a league, and the others not much longer. Our guides performed their office very ill, being influenced, as we imagined, by the Chec Furt, an officer, whom, though unwilling, we were forced to take with us. This man, who might have brought us to the king in three days, led us out of the way through horrid deserts destitute of water, or where what we found was so foul, nauseous, and offensive, that it excited a loathing and aversion which nothing but extreme necessity could have overcome. Having travelled some days, we were met by the King's brother, to whom, by the advice of Chec Furt, whose intent in following us was to squeeze all he could from us; we presented some pieces of Chinese workmanship, such as cases of boxes, a standish, and some earthenware, together with several pieces of painted calico, which were so much more agreeable, that he desired some other pieces instead of our Chinese curiosities; we willingly made the exchange. Yet some time afterwards he asked again for those Chinese goods which he had returned us, nor was it in our power to refuse them. I was here in danger of losing my life by a compliment which the Portuguese paid the prince of a discharge of twelve muskets; one being unskilfully charged too high, flew out of the soldier's hand, and falling against my leg, wounded it very much; we had no surgeon with us, so that all I could do was to bind it hard with some cloth. I was obliged by this accident to make use of the Chec Furt's horse, which was the greatest service we received from him in all our journey. When we came within two leagues and a half of the King's court, he sent some messengers with his compliments, and five mules for the chief of our company. Our road lay through a wood, where we found the ground covered over with young locusts, a plague intolerably afflictive in a country so barren of itself. We arrived at length at the bank of a small river, near which the King usually keeps his residence, and found his palace at the foot of a little mountain. It consisted of about six tents and twenty cabins, erected amongst some thorns and wild trees, which afforded a shelter from the heat of the weather. He received us the first time in a cabin about a musket shot distant from the rest, furnished out with a throne in the middle built of clay and stones, and covered with tapestry and two velvet cushions. Over against him stood his horse with his saddle and other furniture hanging by him, for in this country, the master and his horse make use of the same apartment, nor doth the King in this respect affect more grandeur than his subjects. When we entered, we seated ourselves on the ground with our legs crossed, in imitation of the rest, whom we found in the same posture. After we had waited some time, the King came in, attended by his domestics and his officers. He held a small lance in his hand, and was dressed in a silk robe, with a turban on his head, to which were fastened some rings of very neat workmanship, which fell down upon his forehead. All kept silence for some time, and the King told us by his interpreter that we were welcome to his dominions, that he had been informed we were to come by the Emperor his father, and that he condoled the hardships we had undergone at sea. He desired us not to be under any concern at finding ourselves in a country so distant from our own, for those dominions were ours, and he and the Emperor his father would give us all the proofs we could desire of the sincerest affection. We returned him thanks for this promise of his favour, and after a short conversation went away. Immediately we were teazed by those who brought us the mules, and demanded to be paid the hire of them; and had advice given us at the same time that we should get a present ready for the King. The Chec Furt, who was extremely ready to undertake any commission of this kind, would needs direct us in the affair, and told us that our gifts ought to be of greater value, because we had neglected making any such offer at our first audience, contrary to the custom of that country. By these pretences he obliged us to make a present to the value of about twenty pounds, with which he seemed to be pleased, and told us we had nothing to do but prepare to make our entry. CHAPTER VI The King refuses their present. The author's boldness. The present is afterwards accepted. The people are forbidden to sell them provisions. The author remonstrates against the usage. The King redresses it. But such was either the hatred or avarice of this man, that instead of doing us the good offices he pretended, he advised the King to refuse our present, that he might draw from us something more valuable. When I attended the King in order to deliver the presents, after I had excused the smallness of them, as being, though unworthy his acceptance, the largest that our profession of poverty, and distance from our country, allowed us to make, he examined them one by one with a dissatisfied look, and told me that however he might be pleased with our good attentions, he thought our present such as could not be offered to a king without affronting him; and made me a sign with his hand to withdraw, and take back what I had brought. I obeyed, telling him that perhaps he might send for it again without having so much. The Chec Furt, who had been the occasion of all this, coming to us afterwards, blamed us exceedingly for having offered so little, and being told by us that the present was picked out by himself, that we had nothing better to give, and that what we had left would scarce defray the expenses of our journey, he pressed us at least to add something, but could prevail no farther than to persuade us to repeat our former offer, which the King was now pleased to accept, though with no kinder countenance than before. Here we spent our time and our provisions, without being able to procure any more. The country indeed affords goats and honey, but nobody would sell us any, the King, as I was secretly informed, having strictly prohibited it, with a view of forcing all we had from us. The patriarch sent me to expostulate the matter with the King, which I did in very warm terms, telling him that we were assured by the Emperor of a reception in this country far different from what we met with, which assurances he had confirmed by his promise and the civilities we were entertained with at our first arrival; but that instead of friends who would compassionate our miseries, and supply our necessities, we found ourselves in the midst of mortal enemies that wanted to destroy us. The King, who affected to appear ignorant of the whole affair, demanded an account of the injuries I complained of, and told me that if any of his subjects should dare to attempt our lives, it should cost him his own. We were not, replied I, in danger of being stabbed or poisoned, but are doomed to a more lingering and painful death by that prohibition which obliges your subjects to deny us the necessaries of life; if it be Your Highness's pleasure that we die here, we entreat that we may at least be despatched quickly, and not condemned to longer torments. The King, startled at this discourse, denied that he had given any such orders, and was very importunate to know the author of our intelligence, but finding me determined not to discover him, he sent me away with a promise that for the future we should be furnished with everything we wanted, and indeed that same day we bought three goats for about a crown, and some honey, and found ourselves better treated than before. CHAPTER VII They obtain leave, with some difficulty, to depart from Dancali. The difficulties of their march. A broil with the Moors. They arrive at the plain of salt. This usage, with some differences we had with a Moor, made us very desirous of leaving this country, but we were still put off with one pretence or other whenever we asked leave to depart. Tired with these delays, I applied myself to his favourite minister, with a promise of a large present if he could obtain us an audience of leave; he came to us at night to agree upon the reward, and soon accomplished all we desired, both getting us a permission to go out of the kingdom, and procuring us camels to carry our baggage, and that of the Abyssinian ambassadors who were ordered to accompany us. We set out from the kingdom of Dancali on the 15th of June, having taken our leave of the King, who after many excuses for everything that had happened, dismissed us with a present of a cow, and some provisions, desiring us to tell the Emperor of AEthiopia his father that we had met with kind treatment in his territories, a request which we did not at that time think it convenient to deny. Whatever we had suffered hitherto, was nothing to the difficulties we were now entering upon, and which God had decreed us to undergo for the sake of Jesus Christ. Our way now lay through a region scarce passable, and full of serpents, which were continually creeping between our legs; we might have avoided them in the day, but being obliged, that we might avoid the excessive heats, to take long marches in the night, we were every moment treading upon them. Nothing but a signal interposition of Providence could have preserved us from being bitten by them, or perishing either by weariness or thirst, for sometimes we were a long time without water, and had nothing to support our strength in this fatigue but a little honey, and a small piece of cows' flesh dried in the sun. Thus we travelled on for many days, scarce allowing ourselves any rest, till we came to a channel or hollow worn in the mountains by the winter torrents; here we found some coolness, and good water, a blessing we enjoyed for three days; down this channel all the winter runs a great river which is dried up in the heats, or to speak more properly, hides itself under ground. We walked along its side, sometimes seven or eight leagues without seeing any water, and then we found it rising out of the ground, at which places we never failed to drink as much as we could, and fill our bottles. In our march, there fell out an unlucky accident, which, however, did not prove of the bad consequence it might have done. The master of our camels was an old Mohammedan, who had conceived an opinion that it was an act of merit to do us all the mischief he could; and in pursuance of his notion, made it his chief employment to steal everything he could lay hold on; his piety even transported him so far, that one morning he stole and hid the cords of our tents. The patriarch who saw him at the work charged him with it, and upon his denial, showed him the end of the cord hanging from under the saddle of one of his camels. Upon this we went to seize them, but were opposed by him and the rest of the drivers, who set themselves in a posture of opposition with their daggers. Our soldiers had recourse to their muskets, and four of them putting the mouths of their pieces to the heads of some of the most obstinate and turbulent, struck them with such a terror, that all the clamour was stilled in an instant; none received any hurt but the Moor who had been the occasion of the tumult. He was knocked down by one of our soldiers, who had cut his throat but that the fathers prevented it: he then restored the cords, and was more tractable ever after. In all my dealings with the Moors, I have always discovered in them an ill-natured cowardice, which makes them insupportably insolent if you show them the least respect, and easily reduced to reasonable terms when you treat them with a high hand. After a march of some days we came to an opening between the mountains, the only passage out of Dancali into Abyssinia. Heaven seems to have made this place on purpose for the repose of weary travellers, who here exchange the tortures of parching thirst, burning sands, and a sultry climate, for the pleasures of shady trees, the refreshment of a clear stream, and the luxury of a cooling breeze. We arrived at this happy place about noon, and the next day at evening left those fanning winds, and woods flourishing with unfading verdure, for the dismal barrenness of the vast uninhabitable plains, from which Abyssinia is supplied with salt. These plains are surrounded with high mountains, continually covered with thick clouds which the sun draws from the lakes that are here, from which the water runs down into the plain, and is there congealed into salt. Nothing can be more curious than to see the channels and aqueducts that nature has formed in this hard rock, so exact and of such admirable contrivance, that they seem to be the work of men. To this place caravans of Abyssinia are continually resorting, to carry salt into all parts of the empire, which they set a great value upon, and which in their country is of the same use as money. The superstitious Abyssins imagine that the cavities of the mountains are inhabited by evil spirits which appear in different shapes, calling those that pass by their names as in a familiar acquaintance, who, if they go to them, are never seen afterwards. This relation was confirmed by the Moorish officer who came with us, who, as he said, had lost a servant in that manner: the man certainly fell into the hands of the Galles, who lurk in those dark retreats, cut the throats of the merchants, and carry off their effects. The heat making it impossible to travel through this plain in the day- time, we set out in the evening, and in the night lost our way. It is very dangerous to go through this place, for there are no marks of the right road, but some heaps of salt, which we could not see. Our camel drivers getting together to consult on this occasion, we suspected they had some ill design in hand, and got ready our weapons; they perceived our apprehensions, and set us at ease by letting us know the reason of their consultation. Travelling hard all night, we found ourselves next morning past the plain; but the road we were in was not more commodious, the points of the rocks pierced our feet; to increase our perplexities we were alarmed with the approach of an armed troop, which our fear immediately suggested to be the Galles, who chiefly beset these passes of the mountains; we put ourselves on the defensive, and expected them, whom, upon a more exact examination, we found to be only a caravan of merchants come as usual to fetch salt. CHAPTER VIII They lose their way, are in continual apprehensions of the Galles. They come to Duan, and settle in Abyssinia. About nine the next morning we came to the end of this toilsome and rugged path, where the way divided into two, yet both led to a well, the only one that was found in our journey. A Moor with three others took the shortest, without directing us to follow him; so we marched forwards we knew not whither, through woods and over rocks, without sleep or any other refreshment: at noon the next day we discovered that we were near the field of salt. Our affliction and distress is not to be expressed; we were all fainting with heat and weariness, and two of the patriarch's servants were upon the point of dying for want of water. None of us had any but a Moor, who could not be prevailed upon to part with it at less than the weight in gold; we got some from him at last, and endeavoured to revive the two servants, while part of us went to look for a guide that might put us in the right way. The Moors who had arrived at the well, rightly guessing that we were lost, sent one of their company to look for us, whom we heard shouting in the woods, but durst make no answer for fear of the Galles. At length he found us, and conducted us to the rest; we instantly forgot our past calamities, and had no other care than to recover the patriarch's attendants. We did not give them a full draught at first, but poured in the water by drops, to moisten their mouths and throats, which were extremely swelled: by this caution they were soon well. We then fell to eating and drinking, and though we had nothing but our ordinary repast of honey and dried flesh, thought we never had regaled more pleasantly in our lives. We durst not stay long in this place for fear of the Galles, who lay their ambushes more particularly near this well, by which all caravans must necessarily pass. Our apprehensions were very much increased by our suspicion of the camel-drivers, who, as we imagined, had advertised the Galles of our arrival. The fatigue we had already suffered did not prevent our continuing our march all night: at last we entered a plain, where our drivers told us we might expect to be attacked by the Galles; nor was it long before our own eyes convinced us that we were in great danger, for we saw as we went along the dead bodies of a caravan who had been lately massacred, a sight which froze our blood, and filled us with pity and with horror. The same fate was not far from overtaking us, for a troop of Galles, who were detached in search of us, missed us but an hour or two. We spent the next night in the mountains, but when we should have set out in the morning, were obliged to a fierce dispute with the old Moor, who had not yet lost his inclination to destroy us; he would have had us taken a road which was full of those people we were so much afraid of: at length finding he could not prevail with us, that we charged the goods upon him as belonging to the Emperor, to whom he should be answerable for the loss of them, he consented, in a sullen way, to go with us. The desire of getting out of the reach of the Galles made us press forward with great expedition, and, indeed, fear having entirely engrossed our minds, we were perhaps less sensible of all our labours and difficulties; so violent an apprehension of one danger made us look on many others with unconcern; our pains at last found some intermission at the foot of the mountains of Duan, the frontier of Abyssinia, which separates it from the country of the Moors, through which we had travelled. Here we imagined we might repose securely, a felicity we had long been strangers to. Here we began to rejoice at the conclusion of our labours; the place was cool and pleasant, the water was excellent, and the birds melodious. Some of our company went into the wood to divert themselves with hearing the birds and frightening the monkeys, creatures so cunning that they would not stir if a man came unarmed, but would run immediately when they saw a gun. At this place our camel drivers left us, to go to the feast of St. Michael, which the AEthiopians celebrate the 16th of June. We persuaded them, however, to leave us their camels and four of their company to take care of them. We had not waited many days before some messengers came to us with an account that Father Baradas, with the Emperor's nephew, and many other persons of distinction, waited for us at some distance; we loaded our camels, and following the course of the river, came in seven hours to the place we were directed to halt at. Father Manuel Baradas and all the company, who had waited for us a considerable time on the top of the mountain, came down when they saw our tents, and congratulated our arrival. It is not easy to express the benevolence and tenderness with which they embraced us, and the concern they showed at seeing us worn away with hunger, labour, and weariness, our clothes tattered, and our feet bloody. We left this place of interview the next day, and on the 21st of June arrived at Fremone, the residence of the missionaries, where we were welcomed by great numbers of Catholics, both Portuguese and Abyssins, who spared no endeavours to make us forget all we had suffered in so hazardous a journey, undertaken with no other intention than to conduct them in the way of salvation. PART II--A DESCRIPTION OF ABYSSINIA CHAPTER I The history of Abyssinia. An account of the Queen of Sheba, and of Queen Candace. The conversion of the Abyssins. The original of the Abyssins, like that of all other nations, is obscure and uncertain. The tradition generally received derives them from Cham, the son of Noah, and they pretend, however improbably, that from his time till now the legal succession of their kings hath never been interrupted, and that the supreme power hath always continued in the same family. An authentic genealogy traced up so high could not but be extremely curious; and with good reason might the Emperors of Abyssinia boast themselves the most illustrious and ancient family in the world. But there are no real grounds for imagining that Providence has vouchsafed them so distinguishing a protection, and from the wars with which this empire hath been shaken in these latter ages we may justly believe that, like all others, it has suffered its revolutions, and that the history of the Abyssins is corrupted with fables. This empire is known by the name of the kingdom of Prester-John. For the Portuguese having heard such wonderful relations of an ancient and famous Christian state called by that name, in the Indies, imagined it could be none but this of AEthiopia. Many things concurred to make them of this opinion: there was no Christian kingdom or state in the Indies of which all was true which they heard of this land of Prester-John: and there was none in the other parts of the world who was a Christian separated from the Catholic Church but what was known, except this kingdom of AEthiopia. It has therefore passed for the kingdom of Prester-John since the time that it was discovered by the Portuguese in the reign of King John the Second. The country is properly called Abyssinia, and the people term themselves Abyssins. Their histories count a hundred and sixty-two reigns, from Cham to Faciladas or Basilides; among which some women are remarkably celebrated. One of the most renowned is the Queen of Sheba, mentioned in Scripture, whom the natives call Nicaula or Macheda, and in their translation of the gospel, Nagista Azeb, which in their language is Queen of the South. They still show the ruins of a city which appears to have been once of note, as the place where she kept her court, and a village which, from its being the place of her birth, they call the land of Saba. The Kings of AEthiopia draw their boasted pedigree from Minilech, the son of this Queen and Solomon. The other Queen for whom they retain a great veneration is Candace, whom they call Judith, and indeed if what they relate of her could be proved, there never was, amongst the most illustrious and beneficent sovereigns, any to whom their country was more indebted, for it is said that she being converted by Inda her eunuch, whom St. Philip baptised, prevailed with her subjects to quit the worship of idols, and profess the faith of Jesus Christ. This opinion appears to me without any better foundation than another of the conversion of the Abyssins to the Jewish rites by the Queen of Sheba, at her return from the court of Solomon. They, however, who patronise these traditions give us very specious accounts of the zeal and piety of the Abyssins at their first conversion. Many, they say, abandoned all the pleasures and vanities of life for solitude and religious austerities; others devoted themselves to God in an ecclesiastical life; they who could not do these set apart their revenues for building churches, endowing chapels, and founding monasteries, and spent their wealth in costly ornaments for the churches and vessels for the altars. It is true that this people has a natural disposition to goodness; they are very liberal of their alms, they much frequent their churches, and are very studious to adorn them; they practise fasting and other mortifications, and notwithstanding their separation from the Roman Church, and the corruptions which have crept into their faith, yet retain in a great measure the devout fervour of the primitive Christians. There never were greater hopes of uniting this people to the Church of Rome, which their adherence to the Eutichian heresy has made very difficult, than in the time of Sultan Segued, who called us into his dominions in the year 1625, from whence we were expelled in 1634. As I have lived a long time in this country, and borne a share in all that has passed, I will present the reader with a short account of what I have observed, and of the revolution which forced us to abandon AEthiopia, and destroyed all our hopes of reuniting this kingdom with the Roman Church. The empire of Abyssinia hath been one of the largest which history gives us an account of: it extended formerly from the Red Sea to the kingdom of Congo, and from Egypt to the Indian Sea. It is not long since it contained forty provinces; but is now not much bigger than all Spain, and consists but of five kingdoms and six provinces, of which part is entirely subject to the Emperor, and part only pays him some tribute, or acknowledgment of dependence, either voluntarily or by compulsion. Some of these are of very large extent: the kingdoms of Tigre, Bagameder, and Goiama are as big as Portugal, or bigger; Amhara and Damote are something less. The provinces are inhabited by Moors, Pagans, Jews, and Christians: the last is the reigning and established religion. This diversity of people and religion is the reason that the kingdom in different parts is under different forms of government, and that their laws and customs are extremely various. The inhabitants of the kingdom of Amhara are the most civilised and polite; and next to them the natives of Tigre, or the true Abyssins. The rest, except the Damotes, the Gasates, and the Agaus, which approach somewhat nearer to civility, are entirely rude and barbarous. Among these nations the Galles, who first alarmed the world in 1542, have remarkably distinguished themselves by the ravages they have committed, and the terror they have raised in this part of Africa. They neither sow their lands nor improve them by any kind of culture; but, living upon milk and flesh, encamp like the Arabs without any settled habitation. They practise no rites of worship, though they believe that in the regions above there dwells a Being that governs the world: whether by this Being they mean the sun or the sky is not known; or, indeed, whether they have not some conception of the God that created them. This deity they call in their language Oul. In other matters they are yet more ignorant, and have some customs so contrary even to the laws of nature, as might almost afford reason to doubt whether they are endued with reason. The Christianity professed by the Abyssins is so corrupted with superstitions, errors, and heresies, and so mingled with ceremonies borrowed from the Jews, that little besides the name of Christianity is to be found here; and the thorns may be said to have choked the grain. This proceeds in a great measure from the diversity of religions which are tolerated there, either by negligence or from motives of policy; and the same cause hath produced such various revolutions, revolts, and civil wars within these later ages. For those different sects do not easily admit of an union with each other, or a quiet subjection to the same monarch. The Abyssins cannot properly be said to have either cities or houses; they live either in tents, or in cottages made of straw and clay; for they very rarely build with stone. Their villages or towns consist of these huts; yet even of such villages they have but few, because the grandees, the viceroys, and the Emperor himself are always in the camp, that they may be prepared, upon the most sudden summons, to go where the exigence of affairs demands their presence. And this precaution is no more than necessary for a prince every year engaged either in foreign wars or intestine commotions. These towns have each a governor, whom they call gadare, over whom is the educ, or lieutenant, and both accountable to an officer called the afamacon, or mouth of the King; because he receives the revenues, which he pays into the hands of the relatinafala, or grand master of the household: sometimes the Emperor creates a ratz, or viceroy, general over all the empire, who is superior to all his other officers. AEthiopia produces very near the same kinds of provisions as Portugal; though, by the extreme laziness of the inhabitants, in a much less quantity: however, there are some roots, herbs, and fruits which grow there much better than in other places. What the ancients imagined of the torrid zone being uninhabitable is so far from being true, that this climate is very temperate: the heats, indeed, are excessive in Congo and Monomotapa, but in Abyssinia they enjoy a perpetual spring, more delicious and charming than that in our country. The blacks here are not ugly like those of the kingdoms I have spoken of, but have better features, and are not without wit and delicacy; their apprehension is quick, and their judgment sound. The heat of the sun, however it may contribute to their colour, is not the only reason of it; there is some peculiarity in the temper and constitution of their bodies, since the same men, transported into cooler climates, produce children very near as black as themselves. They have here two harvests in the year, which is a sufficient recompense for the small produce of each; one harvest they have in the winter, which lasts through the months of July, August, and September, the other in the spring; their trees are always green, and it is the fault of the inhabitants that they produce so little fruit, the soil being well adapted to all sorts, especially those that come from the Indies. They have in the greatest plenty raisins, peaches, sour pomegranates, and sugarcanes, and some figs. Most of these are ripe about Lent, which the Abyssins keep with great strictness. After the vegetable products of this country, it seems not improper to mention the animals which are found in it, of which here are as great numbers, of as many different species, as in any country in the world: it is infested with lions of many kinds, among which are many of that which is called the lion royal. I cannot help giving the reader on this occasion a relation of a fact which I was an eye-witness of. A lion having taken his haunt near the place where I lived, killed all the oxen and cows, and did a great deal of other mischief, of which I heard new complaints every day. A servant of mine having taken a resolution to free the country from this destroyer, went out one day with two lances, and after he had been some time in quest of him, found him with his mouth all smeared with the blood of a cow he had just devoured; the man rushed upon him, and thrust his lance into his throat with such violence that it came out between his shoulders; the beast, with one dreadful roar, fell down into a pit, and lay struggling, till my servant despatched him. I measured the body of this lion, and found him twelve feet between the head and the tail. CHAPTER II The animals of Abyssinia; the elephant, unicorn, their horses and cows; with a particular account of the moroc. There are so great numbers of elephants in Abyssinia that in one evening we met three hundred of them in three troops: as they filled up the whole way, we were in great perplexity a long time what measures to take; at length, having implored the protection of that Providence that superintends the whole creation, we went forwards through the midst of them without any injury. Once we met four young elephants, and an old one that played with them, lifting them up with her trunk; they grew enraged on a sudden, and ran upon us: we had no way of securing ourselves but by flight, which, however, would have been fruitless, had not our pursuers been stopped by a deep ditch. The elephants of AEthiopia are of so stupendous a size, that when I was mounted on a large mule I could not reach with my hand within two spans of the top of their backs. In Abyssinia is likewise found the rhinoceros, a mortal enemy to the elephant. In the province of Agaus has been seen the unicorn, that beast so much talked of, and so little known: the prodigious swiftness with which this creature runs from one wood into another has given me no opportunity of examining it particularly, yet I have had so near a sight of it as to be able to give some description of it. The shape is the same with that of a beautiful horse, exact and nicely proportioned, of a bay colour, with a black tail, which in some provinces is long, in others very short: some have long manes hanging to the ground. They are so timorous that they never feed but surrounded with other beasts that defend them. Deer and other defenceless animals often herd about the elephant, which, contenting himself with roots and leaves, preserves those beasts that place themselves, as it were, under his protection, from the rage and fierceness of others that would devour them. The horses of Abyssinia are excellent; their mules, oxen, and cows are without number, and in these principally consists the wealth of this country. They have a very particular custom, which obliges every man that hath a thousand cows to save every year one day's milk of all his herd, and make a bath with it for his relations, entertaining them afterwards with a splendid feast. This they do so many days each year, as they have thousands of cattle, so that to express how rich any man is, they tell you he bathes so many times. The tribute paid out of their herds to the King, which is not the most inconsiderable of his revenues, is one cow in ten every three years. The beeves are of several kinds; one sort they have without horns, which are of no other use than to carry burthens, and serve instead of mules. Another twice as big as ours which they breed to kill, fattening them with the milk of three or four cows. Their horns are so large, the inhabitants use them for pitchers, and each will hold about five gallons. One of these oxen, fat and ready to be killed, may be bought at most for two crowns. I have purchased five sheep, or five goats with nine kids, for a piece of calico worth about a crown. The Abyssins have many sort of fowls both wild and tame; some of the former we are yet unacquainted with: there is one of wonderful beauty, which I have seen in no other place except Peru: it has instead of a comb, a short horn upon its head, which is thick and round, and open at the top. The feitan favez, or devil's horse, looks at a distance like a man dressed in feathers; it walks with abundance of majesty, till it finds itself pursued, and then takes wing, and flies away. But amongst all their birds there is none more remarkable than the moroc, or honey- bird, which is furnished by nature with a peculiar instinct or faculty of discovering honey. They have here multitudes of bees of various kinds; some are tame, like ours, and form their combs in hives. Of the wild ones, some place their honey in hollow trees, others hide it in holes in the ground, which they cover so carefully, that though they are commonly in the highway, they are seldom found, unless by the moroc's help, which, when he has discovered any honey, repairs immediately to the road side, and when he sees a traveller, sings, and claps his wings, making many motions to invite him to follow him, and when he perceives him coming, flies before him from tree to tree, till he comes to the place where the bees have stored their treasure, and then begins to sing melodiously. The Abyssin takes the honey, without failing to leave part of it for the bird, to reward him for his information. This kind of honey I have often tasted, and do not find that it differs from the other sorts in anything but colour; it is somewhat blacker. The great quantity of honey that is gathered, and a prodigious number of cows that is kept here, have often made me call Abyssinia a land of honey and butter. CHAPTER III The manner of eating in Abyssinia, their dress, their hospitality, and traffic. The great lords, and even the Emperor himself, maintain their tables with no great expense. The vessels they make use of are black earthenware, which, the older it is, they set a greater value on. Their way of dressing their meat, an European, till he hath been long accustomed to it, can hardly be persuaded to like; everything they eat smells strong and swims with butter. They make no use of either linen or plates. The persons of rank never touch what they eat, but have their meat cut by their pages, and put into their mouths. When they feast a friend they kill an ox, and set immediately a quarter of him raw upon the table (for their most elegant treat is raw beef newly killed) with pepper and salt; the gall of the ox serves them for oil and vinegar; some, to heighten the delicacy of the entertainment, add a kind of sauce, which they call manta, made of what they take out of the guts of the ox; this they set on the fire, with butter, salt, pepper, and onion. Raw beef, thus relished, is their nicest dish, and is eaten by them with the same appetite and pleasure as we eat the best partridges. They have often done me the favour of helping me to some of this sauce, and I had no way to decline eating it besides telling them it was too good for a missionary. The common drink of the Abyssins is beer and mead, which they drink to excess when they visit one another; nor can there be a greater offence against good manners than to let the guests go away sober: their liquor is always presented by a servant, who drinks first himself, and then gives the cup to the company, in the order of their quality. The meaner sort of people here dress themselves very plain; they only wear drawers, and a thick garment of cotton, that covers the rest of their bodies: the people of quality, especially those that frequent the court, run into the contrary extreme, and ruin themselves with costly habits. They wear all sorts of silks, and particularly the fine velvets of Turkey. They love bright and glaring colours, and dress themselves much in the Turkish manner, except that their clothes are wider, and their drawers cover their legs. Their robes are always full of gold and silver embroidery. They are most exact about their hair, which is long and twisted, and their care of it is such that they go bare-headed whilst they are young for fear of spoiling it, but afterwards wear red caps, and sometimes turbans after the Turkish fashion. The ladies' dress is yet more magnificent and expensive; their robes are as large as those of the religious, of the order of St. Bernard. They have various ways of dressing their heads, and spare no expense in ear- rings, necklaces, or anything that may contribute to set them off to advantage. They are not much reserved or confined, and have so much liberty in visiting one another that their husbands often suffer by it; but for this evil there is no remedy, especially when a man marries a princess, or one of the royal family. Besides their clothes, the Abyssins have no movables or furniture of much value, or doth their manner of living admit of them. One custom of this country deserves to be remarked: when a stranger comes to a village, or to the camp, the people are obliged to entertain him and his company according to his rank. As soon as he enters a house (for they have no inns in this nation), the master informs his neighbours that he hath a guest; immediately they bring in bread and all kinds of provisions; and there is great care taken to provide enough, because, if the guest complains, the town is obliged to pay double the value of what they ought to have furnished. This practice is so well established that a stranger goes into a house of one he never saw with the same familiarity and assurance of welcome as into that of an intimate friend or near relation; a custom very convenient, but which gives encouragement to great numbers of vagabonds throughout the kingdom. There is no money in Abyssinia, except in the eastern provinces, where they have iron coin: but in the chief provinces all commerce is managed by exchange. Their chief trade consists in provisions, cows, sheep, goats, fowls, pepper, and gold, which is weighed out to the purchaser, and principally in salt, which is properly the money of this country. When the Abyssins are engaged in a law-suit, the two parties make choice of a judge, and plead their own cause before him; and if they cannot agree in their choice, the governor of the place appoints them one, from whom there lies an appeal to the viceroy and to the Emperor himself. All causes are determined on the spot; no writings are produced. The judge sits down on the ground in the midst of the high road, where all that please may be present: the two persons concerned stand before him, with their friends about them, who serve as their attorneys. The plaintiff speaks first, the defendant answers him; each is permitted to rejoin three or four times, then silence is commanded, and the judge takes the opinions of those that are about him. If the evidence be deemed sufficient, he pronounces sentence, which in some cases is decisive and without appeal. He then takes the criminal into custody till he hath made satisfaction; but if it be a crime punishable with death he is delivered over to the prosecutor, who may put him to death at his own discretion. They have here a particular way of punishing adultery; a woman convicted of that crime is condemned to forfeit all her fortune, is turned out of her husband's house, in a mean dress, and is forbid ever to enter it again; she has only a needle given her to get her living with. Sometimes her head is shaved, except one lock of hair, which is left her, and even that depends on the will of her husband, who has it likewise in his choice whether he will receive her again or not; if he resolves never to admit her they are both at liberty to marry whom they will. There is another custom amongst them yet more extraordinary, which is, that the wife is punished whenever the husband proves false to the marriage contract; this punishment indeed extends no farther than a pecuniary mulct, and what seems more equitable, the husband is obliged to pay a sum of money to his wife. When the husband prosecutes his wife's gallant, if he can produce any proofs of a criminal conversation, he recovers for damages forty cows, forty horses, and forty suits of clothes, and the same number of other things. If the gallant be unable to pay him, he is committed to prison, and continues there during the husband's pleasure, who, if he sets him at liberty before the whole fine be paid, obliges him to take an oath that he is going to procure the rest, that he may be able to make full satisfaction. Then the criminal orders meat and drink to be brought out, they eat and drink together, he asks a formal pardon, which is not granted at first; however, the husband forgives first one part of the debt, and then another, till at length the whole is remitted. A husband that doth not like his wife may easily find means to make the marriage void, and, what is worse, may dismiss the second wife with less difficulty than he took her, and return to the first; so that marriages in this country are only for a term of years, and last no longer than both parties are pleased with each other, which is one instance how far distant these people are from the purity of the primitive believers, which they pretend to have preserved with so great strictness. The marriages are in short no more than bargains, made with this proviso, that when any discontent shall arise on either side, they may separate, and marry whom they please, each taking back what they brought with them. CHAPTER IV An account of the religion of the Abyssins. Yet though there is a great difference between our manners, customs, civil government, and those of the Abyssins, there is yet a much greater in points of faith; for so many errors have been introduced and ingrafted into their religion, by their ignorance, their separation from the Catholic Church, and their intercourse with Jews, Pagans, and Mohammedans, that their present religion is nothing but a kind of confused miscellany of Jewish and Mohammedan superstitions, with which they have corrupted those remnants of Christianity which they still retain. They have, however, preserved the belief of our principal mysteries; they celebrate with a great deal of piety the passion of our Lord; they reverence the cross; they pay a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and the saints; they observe the festivals, and pay a strict regard to the Sunday. Every month they commemorate the assumption of the Virgin Mary, and are of opinion that no Christians beside themselves have a true sense of the greatness of the mother of God, or pay her the honours that are due to her. There are some tribes amongst them (for they are distinguished like the Jews by their tribes), among whom the crime of swearing by the name of the Virgin is punished with forfeiture of goods and even with loss of life; they are equally scrupulous of swearing by St. George. Every week they keep a feast to the honour of the apostles and angels; they come to mass with great devotion, and love to hear the word of God. They receive the sacrament often, but do not always prepare themselves by confession. Their charity to the poor may be said to exceed the proper bounds that prudence ought to set it, for it contributes to encourage great numbers of beggars, which are a great annoyance to the whole kingdom, and as I have often said, afford more exercise to a Christian's patience than his charity; for their insolence is such, that they will refuse what is offered them if it be not so much as they think proper to ask. Though the Abyssins have not many images, they have great numbers of pictures, and perhaps pay them somewhat too high a degree of worship. The severity of their fasts is equal to that of the primitive church. In Lent they never eat till after sunset; their fasts are the more severe because milk and butter are forbidden them, and no reason or necessity whatsoever can procure them a permission to eat meat, and their country affording no fish, they live only on roots and pulse. On fast-days they never drink but at their meat, and the priests never communicate till evening, for fear of profaning them. They do not think themselves obliged to fast till they have children either married or fit to be married, which yet doth not secure them very long from these mortifications, because their youths marry at the age of ten years, and their girls younger. There is no nation where excommunication carries greater terrors than among the Abyssins, which puts it in the power of the priests to abuse this religious temper of the people, as well as the authority they receive from it, by excommunicating them, as they often do, for the least trifle in which their interest is concerned. No country in the world is so full of churches, monasteries, and ecclesiastics as Abyssinia; it is not possible to sing in one church or monastery without being heard by another, and perhaps by several. They sing the psalms of David, of which, as well as the other parts of the Holy Scriptures, they have a very exact translation in their own language; in which, though accounted canonical, the books of the Maccabees are omitted. The instruments of music made use of in their rites of worship are little drums, which they hang about their necks, and beat with both their hands; these are carried even by their chief men, and by the gravest of their ecclesiastics. They have sticks likewise, with which they strike the ground, accompanying the blow with a motion of their whole bodies. They begin their concert by stamping their feet on the ground, and playing gently on their instruments; but when they have heated themselves by degrees, they leave off drumming, and fall to leaping, dancing, and clapping their hands, at the same time straining their voices to the utmost pitch, till at length they have no regard either to the tune or the pauses, and seem rather a riotous than a religious assembly. For this manner of worship they cite the psalm of David, "O clap your hands all ye nations." Thus they misapply the sacred writings to defend practices yet more corrupt than those I have been speaking of. They are possessed with a strange notion that they are the only true Christians in the world; as for us, they shunned us as heretics, and were under the greatest surprise at hearing us mention the Virgin Mary with the respect which is due to her, and told us that we could not be entirely barbarians since we were acquainted with the mother of God. It plainly appears that prepossessions so strong, which receive more strength from the ignorance of the people, have very little tendency to dispose them to a reunion with the Catholic Church. They have some opinions peculiar to themselves about purgatory, the creation of souls, and some of our mysteries. They repeat baptism every year, they retain the practice of circumcision, they observe the Sabbath, they abstain from all those sorts of flesh which are forbidden by the law. Brothers espouse the wives of their brothers, and to conclude, they observe a great number of Jewish ceremonies. Though they know the words which Jesus Christ appointed to be used in the administration of baptism, they have without scruple substituted others in their place, which makes the validity of their baptism, and the reality of their Christianity, very doubtful. They have a few names of saints, the same with those in the Roman martyrology, but they often insert others, as Zama la Cota, the Life of Truth; Ongulari, the Evangelist; Asca Georgi, the Mouth of Saint George. To bring back this people into the enclosure of the Catholic Church, from which they have been separated so many ages, was the sole view and intention with which we undertook so long and toilsome a journey, crossed so many seas, and passed so many deserts, with the utmost hazard of our lives; I am certain that we travelled more than seven thousand leagues before we arrived at our residence at Fremona. We came to this place, anciently called Maigoga, on the 21st of June, as I have said before, and were obliged to continue there till November, because the winter begins here in May, and its greatest rigour is from the middle of June to the middle of September. The rains that are almost continually falling in this season make it impossible to go far from home, for the rivers overflow their banks, and therefore, in a place like this, where there are neither bridges nor boats, are, if they are not fordable, utterly impassable. Some, indeed, have crossed them by means of a cord fastened on both sides of the water, others tie two beams together, and placing themselves upon them, guide them as well as they can, but this experiment is so dangerous that it hath cost many of these bold adventurers their lives. This is not all the danger, for there is yet more to be apprehended from the unwholesomeness of the air, and the vapours which arise from the scorched earth at the fall of the first showers, than from the torrents and rivers. Even they who shelter themselves in houses find great difficulty to avoid the diseases that proceed from the noxious qualities of these vapours. From the beginning of June to that of September it rains more or less every day. The morning is generally fair and bright, but about two hours after noon the sky is clouded, and immediately succeeds a violent storm, with thunder and lightning flashing in the most dreadful manner. While this lasts, which is commonly three or four hours, none go out of doors. The ploughman upon the first appearance of it unyokes his oxen, and betakes himself with them into covert. Travellers provide for their security in the neighbouring villages, or set up their tents, everybody flies to some shelter, as well to avoid the unwholesomeness as the violence of the rain. The thunder is astonishing, and the lightning often destroys great numbers, a thing I can speak of from my own experience, for it once flashed so near me, that I felt an uneasiness on that side for a long time after; at the same time it killed three young children, and having run round my room went out, and killed a man and woman three hundred paces off. When the storm is over the sun shines out as before, and one would not imagine it had rained, but that the ground appears deluged. Thus passes the Abyssinian winter, a dreadful season, in which the whole kingdom languishes with numberless diseases, an affliction which, however grievous, is yet equalled by the clouds of grasshoppers, which fly in such numbers from the desert, that the sun is hid and the sky darkened; whenever this plague appears, nothing is seen through the whole region but the most ghastly consternation, or heard but the most piercing lamentations, for wherever they fall, that unhappy place is laid waste and ruined; they leave not one blade of grass, nor any hopes of a harvest. God, who often makes calamities subservient to His will, permitted this very affliction to be the cause of the conversion of many of the natives, who might have otherwise died in their errors; for part of the country being ruined by the grasshoppers that year in which we arrived at Abyssinia, many, who were forced to leave their habitations, and seek the necessaries of life in other places, came to that part of the land where some of our missionaries were preaching, and laid hold on that mercy which God seemed to have appointed for others. As we could not go to court before November, we resolved, that we might not be idle, to preach and instruct the people in the country; in pursuance of this resolution I was sent to a mountain, two days' journey distant from Maigoga. The lord or governor of the place was a Catholic, and had desired missionaries, but his wife had conceived an implacable aversion both from us and the Roman Church, and almost all the inhabitants of that mountain were infected with the same prejudices as she. They had been persuaded that the hosts which we consecrated and gave to the communicants were mixed with juices strained from the flesh of a camel, a dog, a hare, and a swine; all creatures which the Abyssins look upon with abhorrence, believing them unclean, and forbidden to them, as they were to the Jews. We had no way of undeceiving them, and they fled from us whenever we approached. We carried with us our tent, our chalices, and ornaments, and all that was necessary for saying mass. The lord of the village, who, like other persons of quality throughout AEthiopia, lived on the top of a mountain, received us with very great civility. All that depended upon him had built their huts round about him; so that this place compared with the other towns of Abyssinia seems considerable; as soon as we arrived he sent us his compliments, with a present of a cow, which, among them, is a token of high respect. We had no way of returning this favour but by killing the cow, and sending a quarter smoking, with the gall, which amongst them is esteemed the most delicate part. I imagined for some time that the gall of animals was less bitter in this country than elsewhere, but upon tasting it, I found it more; and yet have frequently seen our servants drink large glasses of if with the same pleasure that we drink the most delicious wines. We chose to begin our mission with the lady of the village, and hoped that her prejudice and obstinacy, however great, would in time yield to the advice and example of her husband, and that her conversion would have a great influence on the whole village, but having lost several days without being able to prevail upon her to hear us on any one point, we left the place, and went to another mountain, higher and better peopled. When we came to the village on the top of it, where the lord lived, we were surprised with the cries and lamentations of men that seemed to suffer or apprehend some dreadful calamity; and were told, upon inquiring the cause, that the inhabitants had been persuaded that we were the devil's missionaries, who came to seduce them from the true religion, that foreseeing some of their neighbours would be ruined by the temptation, they were lamenting the misfortune which was coming upon them. When we began to apply ourselves to the work of the mission we could not by any means persuade any but the lord and the priest to receive us into their houses; the rest were rough and untractable to that degree that, after having converted six, we despaired of making any farther progress, and thought it best to remove to other towns where we might be better received. We found, however, a more unpleasing treatment at the next place, and had certainly ended our lives there had we not been protected by the governor and the priest, who, though not reconciled to the Roman Church, yet showed us the utmost civility; the governor informed us of a design against our lives, and advised us not to go out after sunset, and gave us guards to protect us from the insults of the populace. We made no long stay in a place where they stopped their ears against the voice of God, but returned to the foot of that mountain which we had left some days before; we were surrounded, as soon as we began to preach, with a multitude of auditors, who came either in expectation of being instructed, or from a desire of gratifying their curiosity, and God bestowed such a blessing upon our apostolical labours that the whole village was converted in a short time. We then removed to another at the middle of the mountain, situated in a kind of natural parterre, or garden; the soil was fruitful, and the trees that shaded it from the scorching heat of the sun gave it an agreeable and refreshing coolness. We had here the convenience of improving the ardour and piety of our new converts, and, at the same time, of leading more into the way of the true religion: and indeed our success exceeded the utmost of our hopes; we had in a short time great numbers whom we thought capable of being admitted to the sacraments of baptism and the mass. We erected our tent, and placed our altar under some great trees, for the benefit of the shade; and every day before sun-rising my companion and I began to catechise and instruct these new Catholics, and used our utmost endeavours to make them abjure their errors. When we were weary with speaking, we placed in ranks those who were sufficiently instructed, and passing through them with great vessels of water, baptised them according to the form prescribed by the Church. As their number was very great, we cried aloud, those of this rank are named Peter, those of that rank Anthony. And did the same amongst the women, whom we separated from the men. We then confessed them, and admitted them to the communion. After mass we applied ourselves again to catechise, to instruct, and receive the renunciation of their errors, scarce allowing ourselves time to make a scanty meal, which we never did more than once a day. After some time had been spent here, we removed to another town not far distant, and continued the same practice. Here I was accosted one day by an inhabitant of that place, where he had found the people so prejudiced against us, who desired to be admitted to confession. I could not forbear asking him some questions about those lamentations, which we heard upon our entering into that place. He confessed with the utmost frankness and ingenuity that the priests and religious have given dreadful accounts both of us and of the religion we preached; that the unhappy people were taught by them that the curse of God attended us wheresoever we went; that we were always followed by the grasshoppers, that pest of Abyssinia, which carried famine and destruction over all the country; that he, seeing no grasshoppers following us when we passed by their village, began to doubt of the reality of what the priests had so confidently asserted, and was now convinced that the representation they made of us was calumny and imposture. This discourse gave us double pleasure, both as it proved that God had confuted the accusations of our enemies, and defended us against their malice without any efforts of our own, and that the people who had shunned us with the strongest detestation were yet lovers of truth, and came to us on their own accord. Nothing could be more grossly absurd than the reproaches which the Abyssinian ecclesiastics aspersed us and our religion with. They had taken advantage of the calamity that happened the year of our arrival: and the Abyssins, with all their wit, did not consider that they had often been distressed by the grasshoppers before there came any Jesuits into the country, and indeed before there were any in the world. Whilst I was in these mountains, I went on Sundays and saints' days sometimes to one church and sometimes to another. One day I went out with a resolution not to go to a certain church, where I imagined there was no occasion for me, but before I had gone far, I found myself pressed by a secret impulse to return back to that same church. I obeyed the influence, and discovered it to proceed from the mercy of God to three young children who were destitute of all succour, and at the point of death. I found two very quickly in this miserable state; the mother had retired to some distance that she might not see them die, and when she saw me stop, came and told me that they had been obliged by want to leave the town they lived in, and were at length reduced to this dismal condition, that she had been baptised, but that the children had not. After I had baptised and relieved them, I continued my walk, reflecting with wonder on the mercy of God, and about evening discovered another infant, whose mother, evidently a Catholic, cried out to me to save her child, or at least that if I could not preserve this uncertain and perishable life, I should give it another certain and permanent. I sent my servant to fetch water with the utmost expedition, for there was none near, and happily baptised the child before it expired. Soon after this I returned to Fremona, and had great hopes of accompanying the patriarch to the court; but, when we were almost setting out, received the command of the superior of the mission to stay at Fremona, with a charge of the house there, and of all the Catholics that were dispersed over the kingdom of Tigre, an employment very ill-proportioned to my abilities. The house at Fremona has always been much regarded even by those emperors who persecuted us; Sultan Segued annexed nine large manors to it for ever, which did not make us much more wealthy, because of the expensive hospitality which the great conflux of strangers obliged us to. The lands in Abyssinia yield but small revenues, unless the owners themselves set the value upon them, which we could not do. The manner of letting farms in Abyssinia differs much from that of other countries: the farmer, when the harvest is almost ripe, invites the chumo or steward, who is appointed to make an estimate of the value of each year's product, to his house, entertains him in the most agreeable manner he can; makes him a present, and then takes him to see his corn. If the chumo is pleased with the treat and present, he will give him a declaration or writing to witness that his ground, which afforded five or six sacks of corn, did you yield so many bushels, and even of this it is the custom to abate something; so that our revenue did not increase in proportion to our lands; and we found ourselves often obliged to buy corn, which, indeed, is not dear, for in fruitful years forty or fifty measures, weighing each about twenty-two pounds, may be purchased for a crown. Besides the particular charge I had of the house of Fremona, I was appointed the patriarch's grand-vicar through the whole kingdom of Tigre. I thought that to discharge this office as I ought, it was incumbent on me to provide necessaries as well for the bodies as the souls of the converted Catholics. This labour was much increased by the famine which the grasshoppers had brought that year upon the country. Our house was perpetually surrounded by some of those unhappy people, whom want had compelled to abandon their habitations, and whose pale cheeks and meagre bodies were undeniable proofs of their misery and distress. All the relief I could possibly afford them could not prevent the death of such numbers that their bodies filled the highways; and to increase our affliction, the wolves having devoured the carcases, and finding no other food, fell upon the living; their natural fierceness being so increased by hunger, that they dragged the children out of the very houses. I saw myself a troop of wolves tear a child of six years old in pieces before I or any one else could come to its assistance. While I was entirely taken up with the duties of my ministry, the viceroy of Tigre received the commands of the Emperor to search for the bones of Don Christopher de Gama. On this occasion it may not be thought impertinent to give some account of the life and death of this brave and holy Portuguese, who, after having been successful in many battles, fell at last into the hands of the Moors, and completed that illustrious life by a glorious martyrdom. CHAPTER V The adventures of the Portuguese, and the actions of Don Christopher de Gama in AEthiopia. About the beginning of the sixteenth century arose a Moor near the Cape of Gardafui, who, by the assistance of the forces sent him from Moca by the Arabs and Turks, conquered almost all Abyssinia, and founded the kingdom of Adel. He was called Mahomet Gragne, or the Lame. When he had ravaged AEthiopia fourteen years, and was master of the greatest part of it, the Emperor David sent to implore succour of the King of Portugal, with a promise that when those dominions were recovered which had been taken from him, he would entirely submit himself to the Pope, and resign the third part of his territories to the Portuguese. After many delays, occasioned by the great distance between Portugal and Abyssinia, and some unsuccessful attempts, King John the Third, having made Don Stephen de Gama, son of the celebrated Don Vasco de Gama, viceroy of the Indies, gave him orders to enter the Red Sea in pursuit of the Turkish galleys, and to fall upon them wherever he found them, even in the Port of Suez. The viceroy, in obedience to the king's commands, equipped a powerful fleet, went on board himself, and cruised about the coast without being able to discover the Turkish vessels. Enraged to find that with this great preparation he should be able to effect nothing, he landed at Mazna four hundred Portuguese, under the command of Don Christopher de Gama, his brother. He was soon joined by some Abyssins, who had not yet forgot their allegiance to their sovereign; and in his march up the country was met by the Empress Helena, who received him as her deliverer. At first nothing was able to stand before the valour of the Portuguese, the Moors were driven from one mountain to another, and were dislodged even from those places, which it seemed almost impossible to approach, even unmolested by the opposition of an enemy. These successes seemed to promise a more happy event than that which followed them. It was now winter, a season in which, as the reader hath been already informed, it is almost impossible to travel in AEthiopia. The Portuguese unadvisedly engaged themselves in an enterprise, to march through the whole country, in order to join the Emperor, who was then in the most remote part of his dominions. Mahomet, who was in possession of the mountains, being informed by his spies that the Portuguese were but four hundred, encamped in the plain of Ballut, and sent a message to the general that he knew the Abyssins had imposed on the King of Portugal, which, being acquainted with their treachery, he was not surprised at, and that in compassion of the commander's youth, he would give him and his men, if they would return, free passage, and furnish them with necessaries; that he might consult upon the matter, and depend upon his word, reminding him, however, that it was not safe to refuse his offer. The general presented the ambassador with a rich robe, and returned this gallant answer: "That he and his fellow-soldiers were come with an intention to drive Mahomet out of these countries, which he had wrongfully usurped; that his present design was, instead of returning back the way he came, as Mahomet advised, to open himself a passage through the country of his enemies; that Mahomet should rather think of determining whether he would fight or yield up his ill-gotten territories, than of prescribing measures to him; that he put his whole confidence in the omnipotence of God and the justice of his cause, and that to show how just a sense he had of Mahomet's kindness, he took the liberty of presenting him with a looking-glass and a pair of pincers." This answer, and the present, so provoked Mahomet, who was at dinner when he received it, that he rose from table immediately to march against the Portuguese, imagining he should meet with no resistance; and indeed, any man, however brave, would have been of the same opinion; for his forces consisted of fifteen thousand foot, beside a numerous body of cavalry, and the Portuguese commander had but three hundred and fifty men, having lost eight in attacking some passes, and left forty at Mazma, to maintain an open intercourse with the viceroy of the Indies. This little troop of our countrymen were upon the declivity of a hill near a wood; above them stood the Abyssins, who resolved to remain quiet spectators of the battle, and to declare themselves on that side which should be favoured with victory. Mahomet began the attack with only ten horsemen, against whom as many Portuguese were detached, who fired with so much exactness, that nine of the Moors fell, and the tenth with great difficulty made his escape. This omen of good fortune gave the soldiers great encouragement; the action grew hot, and they came at length to a general battle; but the Moors, dismayed by the advantages our men had obtained at first, were half defeated before the fight. The great fire of our muskets and artillery broke them immediately. Mahomet preserved his own life not without difficulty, but did not lose his capacity with the battle: he had still a great number of troops remaining, which he rallied, and entrenched himself at Membret, a place naturally strong, with an intention to pass the winter there, and wait for succours. The Portuguese, who were more desirous of glory than wealth, did not encumber themselves with plunder, but with the utmost expedition pursued their enemies, in hopes of cutting them entirely off. This expectation was too sanguine: they found them encamped in a place naturally almost inaccessible, and so well fortified, that it would be no less than extreme rashness to attack them. They therefore entrenched themselves on a hill over against the enemy's camp, and though victorious, were under great disadvantages. They saw new troops arrive every day at the enemy's camp, and their small number grew less continually; their friends at Mazna could not join them; they knew not how to procure provisions, and could put no confidence in the Abyssins; yet recollecting the great things achieved by their countrymen, and depending on the Divine protection, they made no doubt of surmounting all difficulties. Mahomet on his part was not idle; he solicited the assistance of the Mahometan princes, pressed them with all the motives of religion, and obtained a reinforcement of two thousand musketeers from the Arabs, and a train of artillery from the Turks. Animated with these succours, he marched out of his trenches to enter those of the Portuguese, who received him with the utmost bravery, destroyed prodigious numbers of his men, and made many sallies with great vigour, but losing every day some of their small troops, and most of their officers being killed, it was easy to surround and force them. Their general had already one arm broken, and his knee shattered with a musket-shot, which made him unable to repair to all those places where his presence was necessary to animate his soldiers. Valour was at length forced to submit to superiority of numbers; the enemy entered the camp and put all to the sword. The general with ten more escaped the slaughter, and by means of their horses retreated to a wood, where they were soon discovered by a detachment sent in search of them, and brought to Mahomet, who was overjoyed to see his most formidable enemy in his power, and ordered him to take care of his uncle and nephew, who were wounded, telling him he should answer for their lives; and, upon their death, taxed him with hastening it. The brave Portuguese made no excuses, but told him he came thither to destroy Mahometans, and not to save them. Mahomet, enraged at this language, ordered a stone to be put on his head, and exposed this great man to the insults and reproaches of the whole army. After this they inflicted various kinds of tortures on him, which he endured with incredible resolution, and without uttering the least complaint, praising the mercy of God who had ordained him to suffer in such a cause. Mahomet, at last satisfied with cruelty, made an offer of sending him to the viceroy of the Indies, if he would turn Mussulman. The hero took fire at this proposal, and answered with the highest indignation that nothing should make him forsake his heavenly Master to follow an impostor, and continued in the severest terms to vilify their false prophet, till Mahomet struck off his head. Nor did the resentment of Mahomet end here; he divided his body into quarters, and sent them to different places. The Catholics gathered the remains of this glorious martyr, and interred them. Every Moor that passed by threw a stone upon his grave, and raised in time such a heap, as I found it difficult to remove when I went in search of those precious relics. What I have here related of the death of Don Christopher de Gama I was told by an old man, who was an eye-witness of it: and there is a tradition in the country that in the place where his head fell, a fountain sprung up of wonderful virtue, which cured many diseases otherwise past remedy. CHAPTER VI Mahomet continues the war, and is killed. The stratagem of Peter Leon. Mahomet, that he might make the best use of his victory, ranged over a great part of Abyssinia in search of the Emperor Claudius, who was then in the kingdom of Dambia. All places submitted to the Mahometan, whose insolence increased every day with his power; and nothing after the defeat of the Portuguese was supposed able to put a stop to the progress of his arms. The soldiers of Portugal, having lost their chief, resorted to the Emperor, who, though young, promised great things, and told them that since their own general was dead, they would accept of none but himself. He received them with great kindness, and hearing of Don Christopher de Gama's misfortune, could not forbear honouring with some tears the memory of a man who had come so far to his succour, and lost his life in his cause. The Portuguese, resolved at any rate to revenge the fate of their general, desired the Emperor to assign them the post opposite to Mahomet, which was willingly granted them. That King, flushed with his victories, and imagining to fight was undoubtedly to conquer, sought all occasions of giving the Abyssins battle. The Portuguese, who desired nothing more than to re-establish their reputation by revenging the affront put upon them by the late defeat, advised the Emperor to lay hold on the first opportunity of fighting. Both parties joined battle with equal fury. The Portuguese directed all their force against that part where Mahomet was posted. Peter Leon, who had been servant to the general, singled the King out among the crowd, and shot him into the head with his musket. Mahomet, finding himself wounded, would have retired out of the battle, and was followed by Peter Leon, till he fell down dead; the Portuguese, alighting from his horse, cut off one of his ears. The Moors being now without a leader, continued the fight but a little time, and at length fled different ways in the utmost disorder; the Abyssinians pursued them, and made a prodigious slaughter. One of them, seeing the King's body on the ground, cut off his head and presented it to the Emperor. The sight of it filled the whole camp with acclamations; every one applauded the valour and good fortune of the Abyssin, and no reward was thought great enough for so important a service. Peter Leon, having stood by some time, asked whether the King had but one ear? if he had two, says he, it seems likely that the man who killed him cut off one and keeps it as a proof of his exploit. The Abyssin stood confused, and the Portuguese produced the ear out of his pocket. Every one commended the stratagem; and the Emperor commanded the Abyssin to restore all the presents he had received, and delivered them with many more to Peter Leon. I imagined the reader would not be displeased to be informed who this man was, whose precious remains were searched for by a viceroy of Tigre, at the command of the Emperor himself. The commission was directed to me, nor did I ever receive one that was more welcome on many accounts. I had contracted an intimate friendship with the Count de Vidigueira, viceroy of the Indies, and had been desired by him, when I took my leave of him, upon going to Melinda, to inform myself where his relation was buried, and to send him some of his relics. The viceroy, son-in-law to the Emperor, with whom I was joined in the commission, gave me many distinguishing proofs of his affection to me, and of his zeal for the Catholic religion. It was a journey of fifteen days through part of the country possessed by the Galles, which made it necessary to take troops with us for our security; yet, notwithstanding this precaution, the hazard of the expedition appeared so great, that our friends bid us farewell with tears, and looked upon us as destined to unavoidable destruction. The viceroy had given orders to some troops to join us on the road, so that our little army grew stronger as we advanced. There is no making long marches in this country; an army here is a great city well peopled and under exact government: they take their wives and children with them, and the camp hath its streets, its market places, its churches, courts of justice, judges, and civil officers. Before they set forward, they advertise the governors of provinces through which they are to pass, that they may take care to furnish what is necessary for the subsistence of the troops. These governors give notice to the adjacent places that the army is to march that way on such a day, and that they are assessed such a quantity of bread, beer, and cows. The peasants are very exact in supplying their quota, being obliged to pay double the value in case of failure; and very often when they have produced their full share, they are told that they have been deficient, and condemned to buy their peace with a large fine. When the providore has received these contributions, he divides them according to the number of persons, and the want they are in: the proportion they observe in this distribution is twenty pots of beer, ten of mead, and one cow to a hundred loaves. The chief officers and persons of note carry their own provisions with them, which I did too, though I afterwards found the precaution unnecessary, for I had often two or three cows more than I wanted, which I bestowed on those whose allowance fell short. The Abyssins are not only obliged to maintain the troops in their march, but to repair the roads, to clear them, especially in the forests, of brambles and thorns, and by all means possible to facilitate the passage of the army. They are, by long custom, extremely ready at encamping. As soon as they come to a place they think convenient to halt at, the officer that commands the vanguard marks out with his pike the place for the King's or viceroy's tent: every one knows his rank, and how much ground he shall take up; so the camp is formed in an instant. CHAPTER VII They discover the relics. Their apprehension of the Galles. The author converts a criminal, and procures his pardon. We took with us an old Moor, so enfeebled with age that they were forced to carry him: he had seen, as I have said, the sufferings and death of Don Christopher de Gama; and a Christian, who had often heard all those passages related to his father, and knew the place where the uncle and nephew of Mahomet were buried, and where they interred one quarter of the Portuguese martyr. We often examined these two men, and always apart; they agreed in every circumstance of their relations, and confirmed us in our belief of them by leading us to the place where we took up the uncle and nephew of Mahomet, as they had described. With no small labour we removed the heap of stones which the Moors, according to their custom, had thrown upon the body, and discovered the treasure we came in search of. Not many paces off was the fountain where they had thrown his head, with a dead dog, to raise a greater aversion in the Moors. I gathered the teeth and the lower jaw. No words can express the ecstasies I was transported with at seeing the relics of so great a man, and reflecting that it had pleased God to make me the instrument of their preservation, so that one day, if our holy father the Pope shall be so pleased, they may receive the veneration of the faithful. All burst into tears at the sight. We indulged a melancholy pleasure in reflecting what that great man had achieved for the deliverance of Abyssinia, from the yoke and tyranny of the Moors; the voyages he had undertaken; the battles he had fought; the victories he had won; and the cruel and tragical death he had suffered. Our first moments were so entirely taken up with these reflections that we were incapable of considering the danger we were in of being immediately surrounded by the Galles; but as soon as we awoke to that thought, we contrived to retreat as fast as we could. Our expedition, however, was not so great but we saw them on the top of a mountain ready to pour down upon us. The viceroy attended us closely with his little army, but had been probably not much more secure than we, his force consisting only of foot, and the Galles entirely of horse, a service at which they are very expert. Our apprehensions at last proved to be needless, for the troops we saw were of a nation at that time in alliance with the Abyssins. Not caring, after this alarm, to stay longer here, we set out on our march back, and in our return passed through a village where two men, who had murdered a domestic of the viceroy, lay under an arrest. As they had been taken in the fact, the law of the country allowed that they might have been executed the same hour, but the viceroy having ordered that their death should be deferred till his return, delivered them to the relations of the dead, to be disposed of as they should think proper. They made great rejoicings all the night, on account of having it in their power to revenge their relation; and the unhappy criminals had the mortification of standing by to behold this jollity, and the preparations made for their execution. The Abyssins have three different ways of putting a criminal to death: one way is to bury him to the neck, to lay a heap of brambles upon his head, and to cover the whole with a great stone; another is to beat him to death with cudgels; a third, and the most usual, is to stab him with their lances. The nearest relation gives the first thrust, and is followed by all the rest according to their degrees of kindred; and they to whom it does not happen to strike while the offender is alive, dip the points of their lances in his blood to show that they partake in the revenge. It frequently happens that the relations of the criminal are for taking the like vengeance for his death, and sometimes pursue this resolution so far that all those who had any share in the prosecution lose their lives. I being informed that these two men were to die, wrote to the viceroy for his permission to exhort them, before they entered into eternity, to unite themselves to the Church. My request being granted, I applied myself to the men, and found one of them so obstinate that he would not even afford me a hearing, and died in his error. The other I found more flexible, and wrought upon him so far that he came to my tent to be instructed. After my care of his eternal welfare had met with such success, I could not forbear attempting something for his temporal, and by my endeavours matters were so accommodated that the relations were willing to grant his life on condition he paid a certain number of cows, or the value. Their first demand was of a thousand; he offered them five; they at last were satisfied with twelve, provided they were paid upon the spot. The Abyssins are extremely charitable, and the women, on such occasions, will give even their necklaces and pendants, so that, with what I gave myself, I collected in the camp enough to pay the fine, and all parties were content. CHAPTER VIII The viceroy is offended by his wife. He complains to the Emperor, but without redress. He meditates a revolt, raises an army, and makes an attempt to seize upon the author. We continued our march, and the viceroy having been advertised that some troops had appeared in a hostile manner on the frontiers, went against them. I parted from him, and arrived at Fremona, where the Portuguese expected me with great impatience. I reposited the bones of Don Christopher de Gama in a decent place, and sent them the May following to the viceroy of the Indies, together with his arms, which had been presented me by a gentleman of Abyssinia, and a picture of the Virgin Mary, which that gallant Portuguese always carried about him. The viceroy, during all the time he was engaged in this expedition, heard very provoking accounts of the bad conduct of his wife, and complained of it to the Emperor, entreating him either to punish his daughter himself, or to permit him to deliver her over to justice, that, if she was falsely accused, she might have an opportunity of putting her own honour and her husband's out of dispute. The Emperor took little notice of his son-in- law's remonstrances; and, the truth is, the viceroy was somewhat more nice in that matter than the people of rank in this country generally are. There are laws, it is true, against adultery, but they seem to have been only for the meaner people, and the women of quality, especially the ouzoros, or ladies of the blood royal, are so much above them, that their husbands have not even the liberty of complaining; and certainly to support injuries of this kind without complaining requires a degree of patience which few men can boast of. The viceroy's virtue was not proof against this temptation. He fell into a deep melancholy, and resolved to be revenged on his father-in-law. He knew the present temper of the people, that those of the greatest interest and power were by no means pleased with the changes of religion, and only waited for a fair opportunity to revolt; and that these discontents were everywhere heightened by the monks and clergy. Encouraged by these reflections, he was always talking of the just reasons he had to complain of the Emperor, and gave them sufficient room to understand that if they would appear in his party, he would declare himself for the ancient religion, and put himself at the head of those who should take arms in the defence of it. The chief and almost the only thing that hindered him from raising a formidable rebellion, was the mutual distrust they entertained of one another, each fearing that as soon as the Emperor should publish an act of grace, or general amnesty, the greatest part would lay down their arms and embrace it; and this suspicion was imagined more reasonable of the viceroy than of any other. Notwithstanding this difficulty, the priests, who interested themselves much in this revolt, ran with the utmost earnestness from church to church, levelling their sermons against the Emperor and the Catholic religion; and that they might have the better success in putting a stop to all ecclesiastical innovations, they came to a resolution of putting all the missionaries to the sword; and that the viceroy might have no room to hope for a pardon, they obliged him to give the first wound to him that should fall into his hands. As I was the nearest, and by consequence the most exposed, an order was immediately issued out for apprehending me, it being thought a good expedient to seize me, and force me to build a citadel, into which they might retreat if they should happen to meet with a defeat. The viceroy wrote to me to desire that I would come to him, he having, as he said, an affair of the highest importance to communicate. The frequent assemblies which the viceroy held had already been much talked of; and I had received advice that he was ready for a revolt, and that my death was to be the first signal of an open war. Knowing that the viceroy had made many complaints of the treatment he received from his father-in-law, I made no doubt that he had some ill design in hand; and yet could scarce persuade myself that after all the tokens of friendship I had received from him he would enter into any measures for destroying me. While I was yet in suspense, I despatched a faithful servant to the viceroy with my excuse for disobeying him; and gave the messenger strict orders to observe all that passed, and bring me an exact account. This affair was of too great moment not to engage my utmost endeavours to arrive at the most certain knowledge of it, and to advertise the court of the danger. I wrote, therefore, to one of our fathers, who was then near the Emperor, the best intelligence I could obtain of all that had passed, of the reports that were spread through all this part of the empire, and of the disposition which I discovered in the people to a general defection; telling him, however, that I could not yet believe that the viceroy, who had honoured me with his friendship, and of whom I never had any thought but how to oblige him, could now have so far changed his sentiments as to take away my life. The letters which I received by my servant, and the assurances he gave that I need fear nothing, for that I was never mentioned by the viceroy without great marks of esteem, so far confirmed me in my error, that I went from Fremona with a resolution to see him. I did not reflect that a man who could fail in his duty to his King, his father-in-law, and his benefactor, might, without scruple, do the same to a stranger, though distinguished as his friend; and thus sanguine and unsuspecting continued my journey, still receiving intimation from all parts to take care of myself. At length, when I was within a few days' journey of the viceroy, I received a billet in more plain and express terms than anything I had been told yet, charging me with extreme imprudence in putting myself into the hands of those men who had undoubtedly sworn to cut me off. I began, upon this, to distrust the sincerity of the viceroy's professions, and resolved, upon the receipt of another letter from the viceroy, to return directly. In this letter, having excused himself for not waiting for my arrival, he desired me in terms very strong and pressing to come forward, and stay for him at his own house, assuring me that he had given such orders for my entertainment as should prevent my being tired with living there. I imagined at first that he had left some servants to provide for my reception, but being advertised at the same time that there was no longer any doubt of the certainty of his revolt, that the Galles were engaged to come to his assistance, and that he was gone to sign a treaty with them, I was no longer in suspense what measures to take, but returned to Fremona. Here I found a letter from the Emperor, which prohibited me to go out, and the orders which he had sent through all these parts, directing them to arrest me wherever I was found, and to hinder me from proceeding on my journey. These orders came too late to contribute to my preservation, and this prince's goodness had been in vain, if God, whose protection I have often had experience of in my travels, had not been my conductor in this emergency. The viceroy, hearing that I was returned to my residence, did not discover any concern or chagrin as at a disappointment, for such was his privacy and dissimulation that the most penetrating could never form any conjecture that could be depended on, about his designs, till everything was ready for the execution of them. My servant, a man of wit, was surprised as well as everybody else; and I can ascribe to nothing but a miracle my escape from so many snares as he laid to entrap me. There happened during this perplexity of my affairs an accident of small consequence in itself, which yet I think deserves to be mentioned, as it shows the credulity and ignorance of the Abyssins. I received a visit from a religious, who passed, though he was blind, for the most learned person in all that country. He had the whole Scriptures in his memory, but seemed to have been at more pains to retain them than understand them; as he talked much he often took occasion to quote them, and did it almost always improperly. Having invited him to sup and pass the night with me, I set before him some excellent mead, which he liked so well as to drink somewhat beyond the bounds of exact temperance. Next day, to make some return for his entertainment, he took upon him to divert me with some of those stories which the monks amuse simple people with, and told me of a devil that haunted a fountain, and used to make it his employment to plague the monks that came thither to fetch water, and continued his malice till he was converted by the founder of their order, who found him no very stubborn proselyte till they came to the point of circumcision; the devil was unhappily prepossessed with a strong aversion from being circumcised, which, however, by much persuasion, he at last agreed to, and afterwards taking a religious habit, died ten years after with great signs of sanctity. He added another history of a famous Abyssinian monk, who killed a devil two hundred feet high, and only four feet thick, that ravaged all the country; the peasants had a great desire to throw the dead carcase from the top of a rock, but could not with all their force remove it from the place, but the monk drew it after him with all imaginable ease and pushed it down. This story was followed by another, of a young devil that became a religious of the famous monastery of Aba Gatima. The good father would have favoured me with more relations of the same kind, if I had been in the humour to have heard them, but, interrupting him, I told him that all these relations confirmed what we had found by experience, that the monks of Abyssinia were no improper company for the devil. CHAPTER IX The viceroy is defeated and hanged. The author narrowly escapes being poisoned. I did not stay long at Fremona, but left that town and the province of Tigre, and soon found that I was very happy in that resolution, for scarce had I left the place before the viceroy came in person to put me to death, who, not finding me, as he expected, resolved to turn all his vengeance against the father Gaspard Paes, a venerable man, who was grown grey in the missions of AEthiopia, and five other missionaries newly arrived from the Indies; his design was to kill them all at one time without suffering any to escape; he therefore sent for them all, but one happily being sick, another stayed to attend him; to this they owed their lives, for the viceroy, finding but four of them, sent them back, telling them he would see them all together. The fathers, having been already told of his revolt, and of the pretences he made use of to give it credit, made no question of his intent to massacre them, and contrived their escape so that they got safely out of his power. The viceroy, disappointed in his scheme, vented all his rage upon Father James, whom the patriarch had given him as his confessor; the good man was carried, bound hand and foot, into the middle of the camp; the viceroy gave the first stab in the throat, and all the rest struck him with their lances, and dipped their weapons in his blood, promising each other that they would never accept of any act of oblivion or terms of peace by which the Catholic religion was not abolished throughout the empire, and all those who professed it either banished or put to death. They then ordered all the beads, images, crosses, and relics which the Catholics made use of to be thrown into the fire. The anger of God was now ready to fall upon his head for these daring and complicated crimes; the Emperor had already confiscated all his goods, and given the government of the kingdom of Tigre to Keba Christos, a good Catholic, who was sent with a numerous army to take possession of it. As both armies were in search of each other, it was not long before they came to a battle. The revolted viceroy Tecla Georgis placed all his confidence in the Galles, his auxiliaries. Keba Christos, who had marched with incredible expedition to hinder the enemy from making any intrenchments, would willingly have refreshed his men a few days before the battle, but finding the foe vigilant, thought it not proper to stay till he was attacked, and therefore resolved to make the first onset; then presenting himself before his army without arms and with his head uncovered, assured them that such was his confidence in God's protection of those that engaged in so just a cause, that though he were in that condition and alone, he would attack his enemies. The battle began immediately, and of all the troops of Tecla Georgis only the Galles made any resistance, the rest abandoned him without striking a blow. The unhappy commander, seeing all his squadrons broken, and three hundred of the Galles, with twelve ecclesiastics, killed on the spot, hid himself in a cave, where he was found three days afterwards, with his favourite and a monk. When they took him, they cut off the heads of his two companions in the field, and carried him to the Emperor; the procedure against him was not long, and he was condemned to be burnt alive. Then imagining that, if he embraced the Catholic faith, the intercession of the missionaries, with the entreaties of his wife and children, might procure him a pardon, he desired a Jesuit to hear his confession, and abjured his errors. The Emperor was inflexible both to the entreaties of his daughter and the tears of his grand-children, and all that could be obtained of him was that the sentence should be mollified, and changed into a condemnation to be hanged. Tecla Georgis renounced his abjuration, and at his death persisted in his errors. Adero, his sister, who had borne the greatest share in his revolt, was hanged on the same tree fifteen days after. I arrived not long after at the Emperor's court, and had the honour of kissing his hands; but stayed not long in a place where no missionary ought to linger, unless obliged by the most pressing necessity: but being ordered by my superiors into the kingdom of Damote, I set out on my journey, and on the road was in great danger of losing my life by my curiosity of tasting a herb, which I found near a brook, and which, though I had often heard of it, I did not know. It bears a great resemblance to our radishes; the leaf and colour were beautiful, and the taste not unpleasant. It came into my mind when I began to chew it that perhaps it might be that venomous herb against which no antidote had yet been found, but persuading myself afterwards that my fears were merely chimerical, I continued to chew it, till a man accidentally meeting me, and seeing me with a handful of it, cried out to me that I was poisoned; I had happily not swallowed any of it, and throwing out what I had in my mouth, I returned God thanks for this instance of his protection. I crossed the Nile the first time in my journey to the kingdom of Damote; my passage brought into my mind all that I had read either in ancient or modern writers of this celebrated river; I recollected the great expenses at which some Emperors had endeavoured to gratify their curiosity of knowing the sources of this mighty stream, which nothing but their little acquaintance with the Abyssins made so difficult to be found. I passed the river within two days' journey of its head, near a wide plain, which is entirely laid under water when it begins to overflow the banks. Its channel is even here so wide, that a ball-shot from a musket can scarce reach the farther bank. Here is neither boat nor bridge, and the river is so full of hippopotami, or river-horses, and crocodiles, that it is impossible to swim over without danger of being devoured. The only way of passing it is upon floats, which they guide as well as they can with long poles. Nor is even this way without danger, for these destructive animals overturn the floats, and tear the passengers in pieces. The river horse, which lives only on grass and branches of trees, is satisfied with killing the men, but the crocodile being more voracious, feeds upon the carcases. But since I am arrived at the banks of this renowned river, which I have passed and repassed so many times; and since all that I have read of the nature of its waters, and the causes of its overflowing, is full of fables, the reader may not be displeased to find here an account of what I saw myself, or was told by the inhabitants. CHAPTER X A description of the Nile. The Nile, which the natives call Abavi, that is, the Father of Waters, rises first in Sacala, a province of the kingdom of Goiama, which is one of the most fruitful and agreeable of all the Abyssinian dominions. This province is inhabited by a nation of the Agaus, who call, but only call, themselves Christians, for by daily intermarriages they have allied themselves to the Pagan Agaus, and adopted all their customs and ceremonies. These two nations are very numerous, fierce, and unconquerable, inhabiting a country full of mountains, which are covered with woods, and hollowed by nature into vast caverns, many of which are capable of containing several numerous families, and hundreds of cows. To these recesses the Agaus betake themselves when they are driven out of the plain, where it is almost impossible to find them, and certain ruin to pursue them. This people increases extremely, every man being allowed so many wives as he hath hundreds of cows, and it is seldom that the hundreds are required to be complete. In the eastern part of this kingdom, on the declivity of a mountain, whose descent is so easy that it seems a beautiful plain, is that source of the Nile which has been sought after at so much expense of labour, and about which such variety of conjectures hath been formed without success. This spring, or rather these two springs, are two holes, each about two feet diameter, a stone's cast distant from each other; the one is but about five feet and a half in depth--at least we could not get our plummet farther, perhaps because it was stopped by roots, for the whole place is full of trees; of the other, which is somewhat less, with a line of ten feet we could find no bottom, and were assured by the inhabitants that none ever had been found. It is believed here that these springs are the vents of a great subterraneous lake, and they have this circumstance to favour their opinion, that the ground is always moist and so soft that the water boils up under foot as one walks upon it. This is more visible after rains, for then the ground yields and sinks so much, that I believe it is chiefly supported by the roots of trees that are interwoven one with another; such is the ground round about these fountains. At a little distance to the south is a village named Guix, through which the way lies to the top of the mountain, from whence the traveller discovers a vast extent of land, which appears like a deep valley, though the mountain rises so imperceptibly that those who go up or down it are scarce sensible of any declivity. On the top of this mountain is a little hill which the idolatrous Agaus have in great veneration; their priest calls them together at this place once a year, and having sacrificed a cow, throws the head into one of the springs of the Nile; after which ceremony, every one sacrifices a cow or more, according to their different degrees of wealth or devotion. The bones of these cows have already formed two mountains of considerable height, which afford a sufficient proof that these nations have always paid their adorations to this famous river. They eat these sacrifices with great devotion, as flesh consecrated to their deity. Then the priest anoints himself with the grease and tallow of the cows, and sits down on a heap of straw, on the top and in the middle of a pile which is prepared; they set fire to it, and the whole heap is consumed without any injury to the priest, who while the fire continues harangues the standers by, and confirms them in their present ignorance and superstition. When the pile is burnt, and the discourse at an end, every one makes a large present to the priest, which is the grand design of this religious mockery. To return to the course of the Nile: its waters, after the first rise, run to the eastward for about a musket-shot, then turning to the north, continue hidden in the grass and weeds for about a quarter of a league, and discover themselves for the first time among some rocks--a sight not to be enjoyed without some pleasure by those who have read the fabulous accounts of this stream delivered by the ancients, and the vain conjectures and reasonings which have been formed upon its original, the nature of its water, its cataracts, and its inundations, all which we are now entirely acquainted with and eye-witnesses of. Many interpreters of the Holy Scriptures pretend that Gihon, mentioned in Genesis, is no other than the Nile, which encompasseth all AEthiopia; but as the Gihon had its source from the terrestrial paradise, and we know that the Nile rises in the country of the Agaus, it will be found, I believe, no small difficulty to conceive how the same river could arise from two sources so distant from each other, or how a river from so low a source should spring up and appear in a place perhaps the highest in the world: for if we consider that Arabia and Palestine are in their situation almost level with Egypt; that Egypt is as low, if compared with the kingdom of Dambia, as the deepest valley in regard of the highest mountain; that the province of Sacala is yet more elevated than Dambia; that the waters of the Nile must either pass under the Red Sea, or take a great compass about, we shall find it hard to conceive such an attractive power in the earth as may be able to make the waters rise through the obstruction of so much sand from places so low to the most lofty region of AEthiopia. But leaving these difficulties, let us go on to describe the course of the Nile. It rolls away from its source with so inconsiderable a current, that it appears unlikely to escape being dried up by the hot season, but soon receiving an increase from the Gemma, the Keltu, the Bransu, and other less rivers, it is of such a breadth in the plain of Boad, which is not above three days' journey from its source, that a ball shot from a musket will scarce fly from one bank to the other. Here it begins to run northwards, deflecting, however, a little towards the east, for the space of nine or ten leagues, and then enters the so much talked of Lake of Dambia, called by the natives Bahar Sena, the Resemblance of the Sea, or Bahar Dambia, the Sea of Dambia. It crosses this lake only at one end with so violent a rapidity, that the waters of the Nile may be distinguished through all the passage, which is six leagues. Here begins the greatness of the Nile. Fifteen miles farther, in the land of Alata, it rushes precipitately from the top of a high rock, and forms one of the most beautiful water-falls in the world: I passed under it without being wet; and resting myself there, for the sake of the coolness, was charmed with a thousand delightful rainbows, which the sunbeams painted on the water in all their shining and lively colours. The fall of this mighty stream from so great a height makes a noise that may be heard to a considerable distance; but I could not observe that the neighbouring inhabitants were at all deaf. I conversed with several, and was as easily heard by them as I heard them. The mist that rises from this fall of water may be seen much farther than the noise can be heard. After this cataract the Nile again collects its scattered stream among the rocks, which seem to be disjoined in this place only to afford it a passage. They are so near each other that, in my time, a bridge of beams, on which the whole Imperial army passed, was laid over them. Sultan Segued hath since built here a bridge of one arch in the same place, for which purpose he procured masons from India. This bridge, which is the first the Abyssins have seen on the Nile, very much facilitates a communication between the provinces, and encourages commerce among the inhabitants of his empire. Here the river alters its course, and passes through many various kingdoms; on the east it leaves Begmeder, or the Land of Sheep, so called from great numbers that are bred there, beg, in that language, signifying sheep, and meder, a country. It then waters the kingdoms of Amhara, Olaca, Choaa, and Damot, which lie on the left side, and the kingdom of Goiama, which it bounds on the right, forming by its windings a kind of peninsula. Then entering Bezamo, a province of the kingdom of Damot, and Gamarchausa, part of Goiama, it returns within a short day's journey of its spring; though to pursue it through all its mazes, and accompany it round the kingdom of Goiama, is a journey of twenty-nine days. So far, and a few days' journey farther, this river confines itself to Abyssinia, and then passes into the bordering countries of Fazulo and Ombarca. These vast regions we have little knowledge of: they are inhabited by nations entirely different from the Abyssins; their hair is like that of the other blacks, short and curled. In the year 1615, Rassela Christos, lieutenant-general to Sultan Segued, entered those kingdoms with his army in a hostile manner; but being able to get no intelligence of the condition of the people, and astonished at their unbounded extent, he returned, without daring to attempt anything. As the empire of the Abyssins terminates at these deserts, and as I have followed the course of the Nile no farther, I here leave it to range over barbarous kingdoms, and convey wealth and plenty into Egypt, which owes to the annual inundations of this river its envied fertility. I know not anything of the rest of its passage, but that it receives great increases from many other rivers; that it has several cataracts like the first already described, and that few fish are to be found in it, which scarcity, doubtless, is to be attributed to the river-horses and crocodiles, which destroy the weaker inhabitants of these waters, and something may be allowed to the cataracts, it being difficult for fish to fall so far without being killed. Although some who have travelled in Asia and Africa have given the world their descriptions of crocodiles and hippopotamus, or river-horse, yet as the Nile has at least as great numbers of each as any river in the world, I cannot but think my account of it would be imperfect without some particular mention of these animals. The crocodile is very ugly, having no proportion between his length and thickness; he hath short feet, a wide mouth, with two rows of sharp teeth, standing wide from each other, a brown skin so fortified with scales, even to his nose, that a musket-ball cannot penetrate it. His sight is extremely quick, and at a great distance. In the water he is daring and fierce, and will seize on any that are so unfortunate as to be found by him bathing, who, if they escape with life, are almost sure to leave some limb in his mouth. Neither I, nor any with whom I have conversed about the crocodile, have ever seen him weep, and therefore I take the liberty of ranking all that hath been told us of his tears amongst the fables which are only proper to amuse children. The hippopotamus, or river-horse, grazes upon the land and browses on the shrubs, yet is no less dangerous than the crocodile. He is the size of an ox, of a brown colour without any hair, his tail is short, his neck long, and his head of an enormous bigness; his eyes are small, his mouth wide, with teeth half a foot long; he hath two tusks like those of a wild boar, but larger; his legs are short, and his feet part into four toes. It is easy to observe from this description that he hath no resemblance of a horse, and indeed nothing could give occasion to the name but some likeness in his ears, and his neighing and snorting like a horse when he is provoked or raises his head out of water. His hide is so hard that a musket fired close to him can only make a slight impression, and the best tempered lances pushed forcibly against him are either blunted or shivered, unless the assailant has the skill to make his thrust at certain parts which are more tender. There is great danger in meeting him, and the best way is, upon such an accident, to step aside and let him pass by. The flesh of this animal doth not differ from that of a cow, except that it is blacker and harder to digest. The ignorance which we have hitherto been in of the original of the Nile hath given many authors an opportunity of presenting us very gravely with their various systems and conjectures about the nature of its waters, and the reason of its overflows. It is easy to observe how many empty hypotheses and idle reasonings the phenomena of this river have put mankind to the expense of. Yet there are people so bigoted to antiquity, as not to pay any regard to the relation of travellers who have been upon the spot, and by the evidence of their eyes can confute all that the ancients have written. It was difficult, it was even impossible, to arrive at the source of the Nile by tracing its channel from the mouth; and all who ever attempted it, having been stopped by the cataracts, and imagining none that followed them could pass farther, have taken the liberty of entertaining us with their own fictions. It is to be remembered likewise that neither the Greeks nor Romans, from whom we have received all our information, ever carried their arms into this part of the world, or ever heard of multitudes of nations that dwell upon the banks of this vast river; that the countries where the Nile rises, and those through which it runs, have no inhabitants but what are savage and uncivilised; that before they could arrive at its head, they must surmount the insuperable obstacles of impassable forests, inaccessible cliffs, and deserts crowded with beasts of prey, fierce by nature, and raging for want of sustenance. Yet if they who endeavoured with so much ardour to discover the spring of this river had landed at Mazna on the coast of the Red Sea, and marched a little more to the south than the south-west, they might perhaps have gratified their curiosity at less expense, and in about twenty days might have enjoyed the desired sight of the sources of the Nile. But this discovery was reserved for the invincible bravery of our noble countrymen, who, not discouraged by the dangers of a navigation in seas never explored before, have subdued kingdoms and empires where the Greek and Roman greatness, where the names of Caesar and Alexander, were never heard of; who have demolished the airy fabrics of renowned hypotheses, and detected those fables which the ancients rather chose to invent of the sources of the Nile than to confess their ignorance. I cannot help suspending my narration to reflect a little on the ridiculous speculations of those swelling philosophers, whose arrogance would prescribe laws to nature, and subject those astonishing effects, which we behold daily, to their idle reasonings and chimerical rules. Presumptuous imagination! that has given being to such numbers of books, and patrons to so many various opinions about the overflows of the Nile. Some of these theorists have been pleased to declare it as their favourite notion that this inundation is caused by high winds which stop the current, and so force the water to rise above its banks, and spread over all Egypt. Others pretend a subterraneous communication between the ocean and the Nile, and that the sea being violently agitated swells the river. Many have imagined themselves blessed with the discovery when they have told us that this mighty flood proceeds from the melting of snow on the mountains of AEthiopia, without reflecting that this opinion is contrary to the received notion of all the ancients, who believed that the heat was so excessive between the tropics that no inhabitant could live there. So much snow and so great heat are never met with in the same region; and indeed I never saw snow in Abyssinia, except on Mount Semen in the kingdom of Tigre, very remote from the Nile, and on Namera, which is indeed not far distant, but where there never falls snow sufficient to wet the foot of the mountain when it is melted. To the immense labours and fatigues of the Portuguese mankind is indebted for the knowledge of the real cause of these inundations so great and so regular. Their observations inform us that Abyssinia, where the Nile rises and waters vast tracts of land, is full of mountains, and in its natural situation much higher than Egypt; that all the winter, from June to September, no day is without rain; that the Nile receives in its course all the rivers, brooks, and torrents which fall from those mountains; these necessarily swell it above the banks, and fill the plains of Egypt with the inundation. This comes regularly about the month of July, or three weeks after the beginning of a rainy season in AEthiopia. The different degrees of this flood are such certain indications of the fruitfulness or sterility of the ensuing year, that it is publicly proclaimed in Cairo how much the water hath gained each night. This is all I have to inform the reader of concerning the Nile, which the Egyptians adored as the deity, in whose choice it was to bless them with abundance, or deprive them of the necessaries of life. CHAPTER XI The author discovers a passage over the Nile. Is sent into the province of Ligonus, which he gives a description of. His success in his mission. The stratagem of the monks to encourage the soldiers. The author narrowly escapes being burned. When I was to cross this river at Boad, I durst not venture myself on the floats I have already spoken of, but went up higher in hopes of finding a more commodious passage. I had with me three or four men that were reduced to the same difficulty with myself. In one part seeing people on the other side, and remarking that the water was shallow, and that the rocks and trees which grew very thick there contributed to facilitate the attempt, I leaped from one rock to another, till I reached the opposite bank, to the great amazement of the natives themselves, who never had tried that way; my four companions followed me with the same success: and it hath been called since the passage of Father Jerome. That province of the kingdom of Damot, which I was assigned to by my superior, is called Ligonus, and is perhaps one of the most beautiful and agreeable places in the world; the air is healthful and temperate, and all the mountains, which are not very high, shaded with cedars. They sow and reap here in every season, the ground is always producing, and the fruits ripen throughout the year; so great, so charming is the variety, that the whole region seems a garden laid out and cultivated only to please. I doubt whether even the imagination of a painter has yet conceived a landscape as beautiful as I have seen. The forests have nothing uncouth or savage, and seem only planted for shade and coolness. Among a prodigious number of trees which fill them, there is one kind which I have seen in no other place, and to which we have none that bears any resemblance. This tree, which the natives call ensete, is wonderfully useful; its leaves, which are so large as to cover a man, make hangings for rooms, and serve the inhabitants instead of linen for their tables and carpets. They grind the branches and the thick parts of the leaves, and when they are mingled with milk, find them a delicious food. The trunk and the roots are even more nourishing than the leaves or branches, and the meaner people, when they go a journey, make no provision of any other victuals. The word ensete signifies the tree against hunger, or the poor's tree, though the most wealthy often eat of it. If it be cut down within half a foot of the ground and several incisions made in the stump, each will put out a new sprout, which, if transplanted, will take root and grow to a tree. The Abyssins report that this tree when it is cut down groans like a man, and, on this account, call cutting down an ensete killing it. On the top grows a bunch of five or six figs, of a taste not very agreeable, which they set in the ground to produce more trees. I stayed two months in the province of Ligonus, and during that time procured a church to be built of hewn stone, roofed and wainscoted with cedar, which is the most considerable in the whole country. My continual employment was the duties of the mission, which I was always practising in some part of the province, not indeed with any extraordinary success at first, for I found the people inflexibly obstinate in their opinions, even to so great a degree, that when I first published the Emperor's edict requiring all his subjects to renounce their errors, and unite themselves to the Roman Church, there were some monks who, to the number of sixty, chose rather to die by throwing themselves headlong from a precipice than obey their sovereign's commands: and in a battle fought between these people that adhered to the religion of their ancestors, and the troops of Sultan Segued, six hundred religious, placing themselves at the head of their men, marched towards the Catholic army with the stones of the altars upon their heads, assuring their credulous followers that the Emperor's troops would immediately at the sight of those stones fall into disorder and turn their backs; but, as they were some of the first that fell, their death had a great influence upon the people to undeceive them, and make them return to the truth. Many were converted after the battle, and when they had embraced the Catholic faith, adhered to that with the same constancy and firmness with which they had before persisted in their errors. The Emperor had sent a viceroy into this province, whose firm attachment to the Roman Church, as well as great abilities in military affairs, made him a person very capable of executing the orders of the Emperor, and of suppressing any insurrection that might be raised, to prevent those alterations in religion which they were designed to promote: a farther view in the choice of so warlike a deputy was that a stop might be put to the inroads of the Galles, who had killed one viceroy, and in a little time after killed this. It was our custom to meet together every year about Christmas, not only that we might comfort and entertain each other, but likewise that we might relate the progress and success of our missions, and concert all measures that might farther the conversion of the inhabitants. This year our place of meeting was the Emperor's camp, where the patriarch and superior of the missions were. I left the place of my abode, and took in my way four fathers, that resided at the distance of two days' journey, so that the company, without reckoning our attendants, was five. There happened nothing remarkable to us till the last night of our journey, when taking up our lodging at a place belonging to the Empress, a declared enemy to all Catholics, and in particular to the missionaries, we met with a kind reception in appearance, and were lodged in a large stone house covered with wood and straw, which had stood uninhabited so long, that great numbers of red ants had taken possession of it; these, as soon as we were laid down, attacked us on all sides, and tormented us so incessantly that we were obliged to call up our domestics. Having burnt a prodigious number of these troublesome animals, we tried to compose ourselves again, but had scarce closed our eyes before we were awakened by the fire that had seized our lodging. Our servants, who were fortunately not all gone to bed, perceived the fire as soon as it began, and informed me, who lay nearest the door. I immediately alarmed all the rest, and nothing was thought of but how to save ourselves and the little goods we had, when, to our great astonishment, we found one of the doors barricaded in such a manner that we could not open it. Nothing now could have prevented our perishing in the flames had not those who kindled them omitted to fasten that door near which I was lodged. We were no longer in doubt that the inhabitants of the town had laid a train, and set fire to a neighbouring house, in order to consume us; their measures were so well laid, that the house was in ashes in an instant, and three of our beds were burnt which the violence of the flame would not allow us to carry away. We spent the rest of the night in the most dismal apprehensions, and found next morning that we had justly charged the inhabitants with the design of destroying us, for the place was entirely abandoned, and those that were conscious of the crime had fled from the punishment. We continued our journey, and came to Gorgora, where we found the fathers met, and the Emperor with them. CHAPTER XII The author is sent into Tigre. Is in danger of being poisoned by the breath of a serpent. Is stung by a serpent. Is almost killed by eating anchoy. The people conspire against the missionaries, and distress them. My superiors intended to send me into the farthest parts of the empire, but the Emperor over-ruled that design, and remanded me to Tigre, where I had resided before. I passed in my journey by Ganete Ilhos, a palace newly built, and made agreeable by beautiful gardens, and had the honour of paying my respects to the Emperor, who had retired thither, and receiving from him a large present for the finishing of a hospital, which had been begun in the kingdom of Tigre. After having returned him thanks, I continued my way, and in crossing a desert two days' journey over, was in great danger of my life, for, as I lay on the ground, I perceived myself seized with a pain which forced me to rise, and saw about four yards from me one of those serpents that dart their poison at a distance; although I rose before he came very near me, I yet felt the effects of his poisonous breath, and, if I had lain a little longer, had certainly died; I had recourse to bezoar, a sovereign remedy against these poisons, which I always carried about me. These serpents are not long, but have a body short and thick, and their bellies speckled with brown, black, and yellow; they have a wide mouth, with which they draw in a great quantity of air, and, having retained it some time, eject it with such force that they kill at four yards' distance. I only escaped by being somewhat farther from him. This danger, however, was not much to be regarded in comparison of another which my negligence brought me into. As I was picking up a skin that lay upon the ground, I was stung by a serpent that left his sting in my finger; I at least picked an extraneous substance about the bigness of a hair out of the wound, which I imagined was the sting. This slight wound I took little notice of, till my arm grew inflamed all over; in a short time the poison infected my blood, and I felt the most terrible convulsions, which were interpreted as certain signs that my death was near and inevitable. I received now no benefit from bezoar, the horn of the unicorn, or any of the usual antidotes, but found myself obliged to make use of an extraordinary remedy, which I submitted to with extreme reluctance. This submission and obedience brought the blessing of Heaven upon me; nevertheless, I continued indisposed a long time, and had many symptoms which made me fear that all the danger was not yet over. I then took cloves of garlic, though with a great aversion, both from the taste and smell. I was in this condition a whole month, always in pain, and taking medicines the most nauseous in the world. At length youth and a happy constitution surmounted the malignity, and I recovered my former health. I continued two years at my residence in Tigre, entirely taken up with the duties of the mission--preaching, confessing, baptising--and enjoyed a longer quiet and repose than I had ever done since I left Portugal. During this time one of our fathers, being always sick and of a constitution which the air of Abyssinia was very hurtful to, obtained a permission from our superiors to return to the Indies; I was willing to accompany him through part of his way, and went with him over a desert, at no great distance from my residence, where I found many trees loaded with a kind of fruit, called by the natives anchoy, about the bigness of an apricot, and very yellow, which is much eaten without any ill effect. I therefore made no scruple of gathering and eating it, without knowing that the inhabitants always peeled it, the rind being a violent purgative; so that, eating the fruit and skin together, I fell into such a disorder as almost brought me to my end. The ordinary dose is six of these rinds, and I had devoured twenty. I removed from thence to Debaroa, fifty-four miles nearer the sea, and crossed in my way the desert of the province of Saraoe. The country is fruitful, pleasant, and populous; there are greater numbers of Moors in these parts than in any other province of Abyssinia, and the Abyssins of this country are not much better than the Moors. I was at Debaroa when the prosecution was first set on foot against the Catholics. Sultan Segued, who had been so great a favourer of us, was grown old, and his spirit and authority decreased with his strength. His son, who was arrived at manhood, being weary of waiting so long for the crown he was to inherit, took occasion to blame his father's conduct, and found some reason for censuring all his actions; he even proceeded so far as to give orders sometimes contrary to the Emperor's. He had embraced the Catholic religion, rather through complaisance than conviction or inclination; and many of the Abyssins who had done the same, waited only for an opportunity of making public profession of the ancient erroneous opinions, and of re-uniting themselves to the Church of Alexandria. So artfully can this people dissemble their sentiments that we had not been able hitherto to distinguish our real from our pretended favourers; but as soon as this Prince began to give evident tokens of his hatred, even in the lifetime of the Emperor, we saw all the courtiers and governors who had treated us with such a show of friendship declare against us, and persecute us as disturbers of the public tranquillity, who had come into AEthiopia with no other intention than to abolish the ancient laws and customs of the country, to sow divisions between father and son, and preach up a revolution. After having borne all sorts of affronts and ill-treatments, we retired to our house at Fremona, in the midst of our countrymen, who had been settling round about us a long time, imagining we should be more secure there, and that, at least during the life of the Emperor, they would not come to extremities, or proceed to open force. I laid some stress upon the kindness which the viceroy of Tigre had shown to us, and in particular to me; but was soon convinced that those hopes had no real foundation, for he was one of the most violent of our persecutors. He seized upon all our lands, and, advancing with his troops to Fremona, blocked up the town. The army had not been stationed there long before they committed all sorts of disorders; so that one day a Portuguese, provoked beyond his temper at the insolence of some of them, went out with his four sons, and, wounding several of them, forced the rest back to their camp. We thought we had good reason to apprehend an attack; their troops were increasing, our town was surrounded, and on the point of being forced. Our Portuguese therefore thought that, without staying till the last extremities, they might lawfully repel one violence by another, and sallying out to the number of fifty, wounded about three score of the Abyssins, and had put them to the sword but that they feared it might bring too great an odium upon our cause. The Portuguese were some of them wounded, but happily none died on either side. Though the times were by no means favourable to us, every one blamed the conduct of the viceroy; and those who did not commend our action made the necessity we were reduced to of self-defence an excuse for it. The viceroy's principal design was to get my person into his possession, imagining that if I was once in his power, all the Portuguese would pay him a blind obedience. Having been unsuccessful in his attempt by open force, he made use of the arts of negotiation, but with an event not more to his satisfaction. This viceroy being recalled, a son-in-law of the Emperor's succeeded, who treated us even worse than his predecessor had done. When he entered upon his command, he loaded us with kindnesses, giving us so many assurances of his protection that, while the Emperor lived, we thought him one of our friends; but no sooner was our protector dead than this man pulled off his mask, and, quitting all shame, let us see that neither the fear of God nor any other consideration was capable of restraining him when we were to be distressed. The persecution then becoming general, there was no longer any place of security for us in Abyssinia, where we were looked upon by all as the authors of all the civil commotions, and many councils were held to determine in what manner they should dispose of us. Several were of opinion that the best way would be to kill us all at once, and affirmed that no other means were left of re-establishing order and tranquillity in the kingdom. Others, more prudent, were not for putting us to death with so little consideration, but advised that we should be banished to one of the isles of the Lake of Dambia, an affliction more severe than death itself. These alleged in vindication of their opinions that it was reasonable to expect, if they put us to death, that the viceroy of the Indies would come with fire and sword to demand satisfaction. This argument made so great an impression upon some of them that they thought no better measures could be taken than to send us back again to the Indies. This proposal, however, was not without its difficulties, for they suspected that when we should arrive at the Portuguese territories, we would levy an army, return back to Abyssinia, and under pretence of establishing the Catholic religion revenge all the injuries we had suffered. While they were thus deliberating upon our fate, we were imploring the succour of the Almighty with fervent and humble supplications, entreating him in the midst of our sighs and tears that he would not suffer his own cause to miscarry, and that, however it might please him to dispose of our lives--which, we prayed, he would assist us to lay down with patience and resignation worthy of the faith for which we were persecuted--he would not permit our enemies to triumph over the truth. Thus we passed our days and nights in prayers, in affliction, and tears, continually crowded with widows and orphans that subsisted upon our charity and came to us for bread when we had not any for ourselves. While we were in this distress we received an account that the viceroy of the Indies had fitted out a powerful fleet against the King of Mombaza, who, having thrown off the authority of the Portuguese, had killed the governor of the fortress, and had since committed many acts of cruelty. The same fleet, as we were informed, after the King of Mombaza was reduced, was to burn and ruin Zeila, in revenge of the death of two Portuguese Jesuits who were killed by the King in the year 1604. As Zeila was not far from the frontiers of Abyssinia, they imagined that they already saw the Portuguese invading their country. The viceroy of Tigre had inquired of me a few days before how many men one India ship carried, and being told that the complement of some was a thousand men, he compared that answer with the report then spread over all the country, that there were eighteen Portuguese vessels on the coast of Adel, and concluded that they were manned by an army of eighteen thousand men; then considering what had been achieved by four hundred, under the command of Don Christopher de Gama, he thought Abyssinia already ravaged, or subjected to the King of Portugal. Many declared themselves of his opinion, and the court took its measures with respect to us from these uncertain and ungrounded rumours. Some were so infatuated with their apprehensions that they undertook to describe the camp of the Portuguese, and affirmed that they had heard the report of their cannons. All this contributed to exasperate the inhabitants, and reduced us often to the point of being massacred. At length they came to a resolution of giving us up to the Turks, assuring them that we were masters of a vast treasure, in hope that after they had inflicted all kinds of tortures on us, to make us confess where we had hid our gold, or what we had done with it, they would at length kill us in rage for the disappointment. Nor was this their only view, for they believed that the Turks would, by killing us, kindle such an irreconcilable hatred between themselves and our nation as would make it necessary for them to keep us out of the Red Sea, of which they are entirely masters: so that their determination was as politic as cruel. Some pretend that the Turks were engaged to put us to death as soon as we were in their power. CHAPTER XIII The author relieves the patriarch and missionaries, and supports them. He escapes several snares laid for him by the viceroy of Tigre. They put themselves under the protection of the Prince of Bar. Having concluded this negotiation, they drove us out of our houses, and robbed us of everything that was worth carrying away; and, not content with that, informed some banditti that were then in those parts of the road we were to travel through, so that the patriarch and some missionaries were attacked in a desert by these rovers, with their captain at their head, who pillaged his library, his ornaments, and what little baggage the missionaries had left, and might have gone away without resistance or interruption had they satisfied themselves with only robbing; but when they began to fall upon the missionaries and their companions, our countrymen, finding that their lives could only be preserved by their courage, charged their enemies with such vigour that they killed their chief and forced the rest to a precipitate flight. But these rovers, being acquainted with the country, harassed the little caravan till it was past the borders. Our fathers then imagined they had nothing more to fear, but too soon were convinced of their error, for they found the whole country turned against them, and met everywhere new enemies to contend with and new dangers to surmount. Being not far distant from Fremona, where I resided, they sent to me for succour. I was better informed of the distress they were in than themselves, having been told that a numerous body of Abyssins had posted themselves in a narrow pass with an intent to surround and destroy them; therefore, without long deliberation, I assembled my friends, both Portuguese and Abyssins, to the number of fourscore, and went to their rescue, carrying with me provisions and refreshments, of which I knew they were in great need. These glorious confessors I met as they were just entering the pass designed for the place of their destruction, and doubly preserved them from famine and the sword. A grateful sense of their deliverance made them receive me as a guardian angel. We went together to Fremona, and being in all a patriarch, a bishop, eighteen Jesuits, and four hundred Portuguese whom I supplied with necessaries, though the revenues of our house were lost, and though the country was disaffected to us, in the worst season of the year. We were obliged for the relief of the poor and our own subsistence to sell our ornaments and chalices, which we first broke in pieces, that the people might not have the pleasure of ridiculing our mysteries by profaning the vessels made use of in the celebration of them, for they now would gladly treat with the highest indignities what they had a year before looked upon with veneration. Amidst all these perplexities the viceroy did not fail to visit us, and make us great offers of service in expectation of a large present. We were in a situation in which it was very difficult to act properly; we knew too well the ill intentions of the viceroy, but durst not complain, or give him any reason to imagine that we knew them. We longed to retreat out of his power, or at least to send one of our company to the Indies with an account of persecution we suffered, and could without his leave neither do one nor the other. When it was determined that one should be sent to the Indies, I was at first singled out for the journey, and it was intended that I should represent at Goa, at Rome, and at Madrid the distresses and necessities of the mission of AEthiopia; but the fathers reflecting afterwards that I best understood the Abyssinian language, and was most acquainted with the customs of the country, altered their opinions, and, continuing me in AEthiopia either to perish with them or preserve them, deputed four other Jesuits, who in a short time set out on their way to the Indies. About this time I was sent for to the viceroy's camp to confess a criminal, who, though falsely, was believed a Catholic, to whom, after a proper exhortation, I was going to pronounce the form of absolution, when those that waited to execute him told him aloud that if he expected to save his life by professing himself a Catholic, he would find himself deceived, and that he had nothing to do but prepare himself for death. The unhappy criminal had no sooner heard this than, rising up, he declared his resolution to die in the religion of his country, and being delivered up to his prosecutors was immediately dispatched with their lances. The chief reason of calling me was not that I might hear this confession: the viceroy had another design of seizing my person, expecting that either the Jesuits or Portuguese would buy my liberty with a large ransom, or that he might exchange me for his father, who was kept prisoner by a revolted prince. That prince would have been no loser by the exchange, for so much was I hated by the Abyssinian monks that they would have thought no expense too great to have gotten me into their hands, that they might have glutted their revenge by putting me to the most painful death they could have invented. Happily I found means to retire out of this dangerous place, and was followed by the viceroy almost to Fremona, who, being disappointed, desired me either to visit him at his camp, or appoint a place where we might confer. I made many excuses, but at length agreed to meet him at a place near Fremona, bringing each of us only three companions. I did not doubt but he would bring more, and so he did, but found that I was upon my guard, and that my company increased in proportion to his. My friends were resolute Portuguese, who were determined to give him no quarter if he made any attempt upon my liberty. Finding himself once more countermined, he returned ashamed to his camp, where a month after, being accused of a confederacy in the revolt of that prince who kept his father prisoner, he was arrested, and carried in chains to the Emperor. The time now approaching in which we were to be delivered to the Turks, we had none but God to apply to for relief: all the measures we could think of were equally dangerous. Resolving, nevertheless, to seek some retreat where we might hide ourselves either all together or separately, we determined at last to put ourselves under the protection of the Prince John Akay, who had defended himself a long time in the province of Bar against the power of Abyssinia. After I had concluded a treaty with this prince, the patriarch and all the fathers put themselves into his hands, and being received with all imaginable kindness and civility, were conducted with a guard to Adicota, a rock excessively steep, about nine miles from his place of residence. The event was not agreeable to the happy beginning of our negotiation, for we soon began to find that our habitation was not likely to be very pleasant. We were surrounded with Mahometans, or Christians who were inveterate enemies to the Catholic faith, and were obliged to act with the utmost caution. Notwithstanding these inconveniences we were pleased with the present tranquillity we enjoyed, and lived contentedly on lentils and a little corn that we had; and I, after we had sold all our goods, resolved to turn physician, and was soon able to support myself by my practice. I was once consulted by a man troubled with asthma, who presented me with two alquieres--that is, about twenty-eight pounds weight--of corn and a sheep. The advice I gave him, after having turned over my books, was to drink goats' urine every morning; I know not whether he found any benefit by following my prescription, for I never saw him after. Being under a necessity of obeying our acoba, or protector, we changed our place of abode as often as he desired it, though not without great inconveniences, from the excessive heat of the weather and the faintness which our strict observation of the fasts and austerities of Lent, as it is kept in this country, had brought upon us. At length, wearied with removing so often, and finding that the last place assigned for our abode was always the worst, we agreed that I should go to our sovereign and complain. I found him entirely taken up with the imagination of a prodigious treasure, affirmed by the monks to be hidden under a mountain. He was told that his predecessors had been hindered from discovering it by the demon that guarded it, but that the demon was now at a great distance from his charge, and was grown blind and lame; that having lost his son, and being without any children except a daughter that was ugly and unhealthy, he was under great affliction, and entirely neglected the care of his treasure; that if he should come, they could call one of their ancient brothers to their assistance, who, being a man of a most holy life, would be able to prevent his making any resistance. To all these stories the prince listened with unthinking credulity. The monks, encouraged by this, fell to the business, and brought a man above a hundred years old, whom, because he could not support himself on horseback, they had tied on the beast, and covered him with black wool. He was followed by a black cow (designed for a sacrifice to the demon of the place), and by some monks that carried mead, beer, and parched corn, to complete the offering. No sooner were they arrived at the foot of the mountain than every one began to work: bags were brought from all parts to convey away the millions which each imagined would be his share. The Xumo, who superintended the work, would not allow any one to come near the labourers, but stood by, attended by the old monk, who almost sang himself to death. At length, having removed a vast quantity of earth and stones, they discovered some holes made by rats or moles, at sight of which a shout of joy ran through the whole troop: the cow was brought and sacrificed immediately, and some pieces of flesh were thrown into these holes. Animated now with assurance of success, they lose no time: every one redoubles his endeavours, and the heat, though intolerable, was less powerful than the hopes they had conceived. At length some, not so patient as the rest, were weary, and desisted. The work now grew more difficult; they found nothing but rock, yet continued to toil on, till the prince, having lost all temper, began to inquire with some passion when he should have a sight of this treasure, and after having been some time amused with many promises by the monks, was told that he had not faith enough to be favoured with the discovery. All this I saw myself, and could not forbear endeavouring to convince our protector how much he was imposed upon: he was not long before he was satisfied that he had been too credulous, for all those that had so industriously searched after this imaginary wealth, within five hours left the work in despair, and I continued almost alone with the prince. Imagining no time more proper to make the proposal I was sent with than while his passion was still hot against the monks, I presented him with two ounces of gold and two plates of silver, with some other things of small value, and was so successful that he gratified me in all my requests, and gave us leave to return to Adicora, where we were so fortunate to find our huts yet uninjured and entire. About this time the fathers who had stayed behind at Fremona arrived with the new viceroy, and an officer fierce in the defence of his own religion, who had particular orders to deliver all the Jesuits up to the Turks, except me, whom the Emperor was resolved to have in his own hands, alive or dead. We had received some notice of this resolution from our friends at court, and were likewise informed that the Emperor, their master, had been persuaded that my design was to procure assistance from the Indies, and that I should certainly return at the head of an army. The patriarch's advice upon this emergency was that I should retire into the woods, and by some other road join the nine Jesuits who were gone towards Mazna. I could think of no better expedient, and therefore went away in the night between the 23rd and 24th of April with my comrade, an old man, very infirm and very timorous. We crossed woods never crossed, I believe, by any before: the darkness of the night and the thickness of the shade spread a kind of horror round us; our gloomy journey was still more incommoded by the brambles and thorns, which tore our hands; amidst all these difficulties I applied myself to the Almighty, praying him to preserve us from those dangers which we endeavoured to avoid, and to deliver us from those to which our flight exposed us. Thus we travelled all night, till eight next morning, without taking either rest or food; then, imagining ourselves secure, we made us some cakes of barley-meal and water, which we thought a feast. We had a dispute with our guides, who though they had bargained to conduct us for an ounce of gold, yet when they saw us so entangled in the intricacies of the wood that we could not possibly get out without their direction, demanded seven ounces of gold, a mule, and a little tent which we had; after a long dispute we were forced to come to their terms. We continued to travel all night, and to hide ourselves in the woods all day: and here it was that we met the three hundred elephants I spoke of before. We made long marches, travelling without any halt from four in the afternoon to eight in the morning. Arriving at a valley where travellers seldom escape being plundered, we were obliged to double our pace, and were so happy as to pass it without meeting with any misfortune, except that we heard a bird sing on our left hand--a certain presage among these people of some great calamity at hand. As there is no reasoning them out of superstition, I knew no way of encouraging them to go forward but what I had already made use of on the same occasion, assuring them that I heard one at the same time on the right. They were happily so credulous as to take my word, and we went on till we came to a well, where we stayed awhile to refresh ourselves. Setting out again in the evening, we passed so near a village where these robbers had retreated that the dogs barked after us. Next morning we joined the fathers, who waited for us. After we had rested ourselves some time in that mountain, we resolved to separate and go two and two, to seek for a more convenient place where we might hide ourselves. We had not gone far before we were surrounded by a troop of robbers, with whom, by the interest of some of the natives who had joined themselves to our caravan, we came to a composition, giving them part of our goods to permit us to carry away the rest; and after this troublesome adventure arrived at a place something more commodious than that which we had quitted, where we met with bread, but of so pernicious a quality that, after having ate it, we were intoxicated to so great a degree that one of my friends, seeing me so disordered, congratulated my good fortune of having met with such good wine, and was surprised when I gave him an account of the whole affair. He then offered me some curdled milk, very sour, with barley-meal, which we boiled, and thought it the best entertainment we had met with a long time. CHAPTER XIV They are betrayed into the hands of the Turks; are detained awhile at Mazna; are threatened by the Bassa of Suaquem. They agree for their ransom, and are part of them dismissed. Some time after, we received news that we should prepare ourselves to serve the Turks--a message which filled us with surprise, it having never been known that one of these lords had ever abandoned any whom he had taken under his protection; and it is, on the contrary, one of the highest points of honour amongst them to risk their fortunes and their lives in the defence of their dependants who have implored their protection. But neither law nor justice was of any advantage to us, and the customs of the country were doomed to be broken when they would have contributed to our security. We were obliged to march in the extremity of the hot season, and had certainly perished by the fatigue had we not entered the woods, which shaded us from the scorching sun. The day before our arrival at the place where we were to be delivered to the Turks, we met with five elephants, that pursued us, and if they could have come to us would have prevented the miseries we afterwards endured, but God had decreed otherwise. On the morrow we came to the banks of a river, where we found fourscore Turks that waited for us, armed with muskets. They let us rest awhile, and then put us into the hands of our new masters, who, setting us upon camels, conducted us to Mazna. Their commander, seeming to be touched with our misfortunes, treated us with much gentleness and humanity; he offered us coffee, which we drank, but with little relish. We came next day to Mazna, in so wretched a condition that we were not surprised at being hooted by the boys, but thought ourselves well used that they threw no stones at us. As soon as we were brought hither, all we had was taken from us, and we were carried to the governor, who is placed there by the Bassa of Suaquem. Having been told by the Abyssins that we had carried all the gold out of AEthiopia, they searched us with great exactness, but found nothing except two chalices, and some relics of so little value that we redeemed them for six sequins. As I had given them my chalice upon their first demand, they did not search me, but gave us to understand that they expected to find something of greater value, which either we must have hidden or the Abyssins must have imposed on them. They left us the rest of the day at a gentleman's house, who was our friend, from whence the next day they fetched us to transport us to the island, where they put us into a kind of prison, with a view of terrifying us into a confession of the place where we had hid our gold, in which, however, they found themselves deceived. But I had here another affair upon my hands which was near costing me dear. My servant had been taken from me and left at Mazna, to be sold to the Arabs. Being advertised by him of the danger he was in, I laid claim to him, without knowing the difficulties which this way of proceeding would bring upon me. The governor sent me word that my servant should be restored to me upon payment of sixty piastres; and being answered by me that I had not a penny for myself, and therefore could not pay sixty piastres to redeem my servant, he informed me by a renegade Jew, who negotiated the whole affair, that either I must produce the money or receive a hundred blows of the battoon. Knowing that those orders are without appeal, and always punctually executed, I prepared myself to receive the correction I was threatened with, but unexpectedly found the people so charitable as to lend me the money. By several other threats of the same kind they drew from us about six hundred crowns. On the 24th of June we embarked in two galleys for Suaquem, where the bassa resided. His brother, who was his deputy at Mazna, made us promise before we went that we would not mention the money he had squeezed from us. The season was not very proper for sailing, and our provisions were but short. In a little time we began to feel the want of better stores, and thought ourselves happy in meeting with a gelve, which, though small, was a much better sailer than our vessel, in which I was sent to Suaquem to procure camels and provisions. I was not much at my ease, alone among six Mahometans, and could not help apprehending that some zealous pilgrim of Mecca might lay hold on this opportunity, in the heat of his devotion, of sacrificing me to his prophet. These apprehensions were without ground. I contracted an acquaintance, which was soon improved into a friendship, with these people; they offered me part of their provisions, and I gave them some of mine. As we were in a place abounding with oysters--some of which were large and good to eat, others more smooth and shining, in which pearls are found--they gave me some of those they gathered; but whether it happened by trifling our time away in oyster-catching, or whether the wind was not favourable, we came to Suaquem later than the vessel I had left, in which were seven of my companions. As they had first landed, they had suffered the first transports of the bassa's passion, who was a violent, tyrannical man, and would have killed his own brother for the least advantage--a temper which made him fly into the utmost rage at seeing us poor, tattered, and almost naked; he treated us with the most opprobrious language, and threatened to cut off our heads. We comforted ourselves in this condition, hoping that all our sufferings would end in shedding our blood for the name of Jesus Christ. We knew that the bassa had often made a public declaration before our arrival that he should die contented if he could have the pleasure of killing us all with his own hand. This violent resolution was not lasting; his zeal gave way to his avarice, and he could not think of losing so large a sum as he knew he might expect for our ransom: he therefore sent us word that it was in our choice either to die, or to pay him thirty thousand crowns, and demanded to know our determination. We knew that his ardent thirst of our blood was now cold, that time and calm reflection and the advice of his friends had all conspired to bring him to a milder temper, and therefore willingly began to treat with him. I told the messenger, being deputed by the rest to manage the affair, that he could not but observe the wretched condition we were in, that we had neither money nor revenues, that what little we had was already taken from us, and that therefore all we could promise was to set a collection on foot, not much doubting but that our brethren would afford us such assistance as might enable us to make him a handsome present according to custom. This answer was not at all agreeable to the bassa, who returned an answer that he would be satisfied with twenty thousand crowns, provided we paid them on the spot, or gave him good securities for the payment. To this we could only repeat what we had said before: he then proposed to abate five thousand of his last demand, assuring us that unless we came to some agreement, there was no torment so cruel but we should suffer it, and talked of nothing but impaling and flaying us alive; the terror of these threatenings was much increased by his domestics, who told us of many of his cruelties. This is certain, that some time before, he had used some poor pagan merchants in that manner, and had caused the executioner to begin to flay them, when some Brahmin, touched with compassion, generously contributed the sum demanded for their ransom. We had no reason to hope for so much kindness, and, having nothing of our own, could promise no certain sum. At length some of his favourites whom he most confided in, knowing his cruelty and our inability to pay what he demanded, and apprehending that, if he should put us to the death he threatened, they should soon see the fleets of Portugal in the Red Sea, laying their towns in ashes to revenge it, endeavoured to soften his passion and preserve our lives, offering to advance the sum we should agree for, without any other security than our words. By this assistance, after many interviews with the bassa's agents, we agreed to pay four thousand three hundred crowns, which were accepted on condition that they should be paid down, and we should go on board within two hours: but, changing his resolution on a sudden, he sent us word by his treasurer that two of the most considerable among us should stay behind for security, while the rest went to procure the money they promised. They kept the patriarch and two more fathers, one of which was above fourscore years old, in whose place I chose to remain prisoner, and represented to the bassa that, being worn out with age, he perhaps might die in his hands, which would lose the part of the ransom which was due on his account; that therefore it would be better to choose a younger in his place, offering to stay myself with him, that the good old man might be set at liberty. The bassa agreed to another Jesuit, and it pleased Heaven that the lot fell upon Father Francis Marquez. I imagined that I might with the same ease get the patriarch out of his hand, but no sooner had I begun to speak but the anger flashed in his eyes, and his look was sufficient to make me stop and despair of success. We parted immediately, leaving the patriarch and two fathers in prison, whom we embraced with tears, and went to take up our lodging on board the vessel. CHAPTER XV Their treatment on board the vessel. Their reception at Diou. The author applies to the viceroy for assistance, but without success; he is sent to solicit in Europe. Our condition here was not much better than that of the illustrious captives whom we left behind. We were in an Arabian ship, with a crew of pilgrims of Mecca, with whom it was a point of religion to insult us. We were lodged upon the deck, exposed to all the injuries of the weather, nor was there the meanest workman or sailor who did not either kick or strike us. When we went first on board, I perceived a humour in my finger, which I neglected at first, till it spread over my hand and swelled up my arm, afflicting me with the most horrid torture. There was neither surgeon nor medicines to be had, nor could I procure anything to ease my pain but a little oil, with which I anointed my arm, and in time found some relief. The weather was very bad, and the wind almost always against us, and, to increase our perplexity, the whole crew, though Moors, were in the greatest apprehension of meeting any of those vessels which the Turks maintain in the strait of Babelmandel; the ground of their fear was that the captain had neglected the last year to touch at Moca, though he had promised. Thus we were in danger of falling into a captivity perhaps more severe than that we had just escaped from. While we were wholly engaged with these apprehensions, we discovered a Turkish ship and galley were come upon us. It was almost calm--at least, there was not wind enough to give us any prospect of escaping--so that when the galley came up to us, we thought ourselves lost without remedy, and had probably fallen into their hands had not a breeze sprung up just in the instant of danger, which carried us down the channel between the mainland and the isle of Babelmandel. I have already said that this passage is difficult and dangerous, which, nevertheless, we passed in the night, without knowing what course we held, and were transported at finding ourselves next morning out of the Red Sea and half a league from Babelmandel. The currents are here so violent that they carried us against our will to Cape Guardafui, where we sent our boats ashore for fresh water, which we began to be in great want of. The captain refused to give us any when we desired some, and treated us with great insolence, till, coming near the land, I spoke to him in a tone more lofty and resolute than I had ever done, and gave him to understand that when he touched at Diou he might have occasion for our interest. This had some effect upon him, and procured us a greater degree of civility than we had met with before. At length after forty days' sailing we landed at Diou, where we were met by the whole city, it being reported that the patriarch was one of our number; for there was not a gentleman who was not impatient to have the pleasure of beholding that good man, now made famous by his labours and sufferings. It is not in my power to represent the different passions they were affected with at seeing us pale, meagre, without clothes--in a word, almost naked and almost dead with fatigue and ill-usage. They could not behold us in that miserable condition without reflecting on the hardships we had undergone, and our brethren then underwent, in Suaquem and Abyssinia. Amidst their thanks to God for our deliverance, they could not help lamenting the condition of the patriarch and the other missionaries who were in chains, or, at least, in the hands of professed enemies to our holy religion. All this did not hinder them from testifying in the most obliging manner their joy for our deliverance, and paying such honours as surprised the Moors, and made them repent in a moment of the ill-treatment they had shown us on board. One who had discovered somewhat more humanity than the rest thought himself sufficiently honoured when I took him by the hand and presented him to the chief officer of the custom house, who promised to do all the favours that were in his power. When we passed by in sight of the fort, they gave us three salutes with their cannon, an honour only paid to generals. The chief men of the city, who waited for us on the shore, accompanied us through a crowd of people, whom curiosity had drawn from all parts of our college. Though our place of residence at Diou is one of the most beautiful in all the Indies, we stayed there only a few days, and as soon as we had recovered our fatigues went on board the ships that were appointed to convoy the northern fleet. I was in the admiral's. We arrived at Goa in some vessels bound for Camberia: here we lost a good old Abyssin convert, a man much valued in his order, and who was actually prior of his convent when he left Abyssinia, choosing rather to forsake all for religion than to leave the way of salvation, which God had so mercifully favoured him with the knowledge of. We continued our voyage, and almost without stopping sailed by Surate and Damam, where the rector of the college came to see us, but so sea-sick that the interview was without any satisfaction on either side. Then landing at Bazaim we were received by our fathers with their accustomed charity, and nothing was thought of but how to put the unpleasing remembrance of our past labours out of our minds. Finding here an order of the Father Provineta to forbid those who returned from the missions to go any farther, it was thought necessary to send an agent to Goa with an account of the revolutions that had happened in Abyssinia and of the imprisonment of the patriarch. For this commission I was made choice of; and, I know not by what hidden degree of Providence, almost all affairs, whatever the success of them was, were transacted by me. All the coasts were beset by Dutch cruisers, which made it difficult to sail without running the hazard of being taken. I went therefore by land from Bazaim to Tana, where we had another college, and from thence to our house of Chaul. Here I hired a narrow light vessel, and, placing eighteen oars on a side, went close by the shore from Chaul to Goa, almost eighty leagues. We were often in danger of being taken, and particularly when we touched at Dabal, where a cruiser blocked up one of the channels through which ships usually sail; but our vessel requiring no great depth of water, and the sea running high, we went through the little channel, and fortunately escaped the cruiser. Though we were yet far from Goa, we expected to arrive there on the next morning, and rowed forward with all the diligence we could. The sea was calm and delightful, and our minds were at ease, for we imagined ourselves past danger; but soon found we had flattered ourselves too soon with security, for we came within sight of several barks of Malabar, which had been hid behind a point of land which we were going to double. Here we had been inevitably taken had not a man called to us from the shore and informed us that among those fishing-boats there, some crusiers would make us a prize. We rewarded our kind informer for the service he had done us, and lay by till night came to shelter us from our enemies. Then putting out our oars we landed at Goa next morning about ten, and were received at our college. It being there a festival day, each had something extraordinary allowed him; the choicest part of our entertainments was two pilchers, which were admired because they came from Portugal. The quiet I began to enjoy did not make me lose the remembrance of my brethren whom I had left languishing among the rocks of Abyssinia, or groaning in the prisons of Suaquem, whom since I could not set at liberty without the viceroy's assistance, I went to implore it, and did not fail to make use of every motive which could have any influence. I described in the most pathetic manner I could the miserable state to which the Catholic religion was reduced in a country where it had lately flourished so much by the labours of the Portuguese; I gave him in the strongest terms a representation of all that we had suffered since the death of Sultan Segued, how we had been driven out of Abyssinia, how many times they had attempted to take away our lives, in what manner we had been betrayed and given up to the Turks, the menaces we had been terrified with, the insults we had endured; I laid before him the danger the patriarch was in of being either impaled or flayed alive; the cruelty, insolence and avarice of the Bassa of Suaquem, and the persecution that the Catholics suffered in AEthiopia. I exhorted, I implored him by everything I thought might move him, to make some attempt for the preservation of those who had voluntarily sacrificed their lives for the sake of God. I made it appear with how much ease the Turks might be driven out of the Red Sea, and the Portuguese enjoy all the trade of those countries. I informed him of the navigation of that sea, and the situation of its ports; told him which it would be necessary to make ourselves masters of first, that we might upon any unfortunate encounter retreat to them. I cannot deny that some degree of resentment might appear in my discourse; for, though revenge be prohibited to Christians, I should not have been displeased to have had the Bassa of Suaquem and his brother in my hands, that I might have reproached them with the ill- treatment we had met with from them. This was the reason of my advising to make the first attack upon Mazna, to drive the Turks from thence, to build a citadel, and garrison it with Portuguese. The viceroy listened with great attention to all I had to say, gave me a long audience, and asked me many questions. He was well pleased with the design of sending a fleet into that sea, and, to give a greater reputation to the enterprise, proposed making his son commander-in-chief, but could by no means be brought to think of fixing garrisons and building fortresses there; all he intended was to plunder all they could, and lay the towns in ashes. I left no art of persuasion untried to convince him that such a resolution would injure the interests of Christianity, that to enter the Red Sea only to ravage the coasts would so enrage the Turks that they would certainly massacre all the Christian captives, and for ever shut the passage into Abyssinia, and hinder all communication with that empire. It was my opinion that the Portuguese should first establish themselves at Mazna, and that a hundred of them would be sufficient to keep the fort that should be built. He made an offer of only fifty, and proposed that we should collect those few Portuguese who were scattered over Abyssinia. These measures I could not approve. At length, when it appeared that the viceroy had neither forces nor authority sufficient for this undertaking, it was agreed that I should go immediately into Europe, and represent at Rome and Madrid the miserable condition of the missions of Abyssinia. The viceroy promised that if I could procure any assistance, he would command in person the fleet and forces raised for the expedition, assuring that he thought he could not employ his life better than in a war so holy, and of so great an importance, to the propagation of the Catholic faith. Encouraged by this discourse of the viceroy, I immediately prepared myself for a voyage to Lisbon, not doubting to obtain upon the least solicitation everything that was necessary to re-establish our mission. Never had any man a voyage so troublesome as mine, or interrupted with such variety of unhappy accidents; I was shipwrecked on the coast of Natal, I was taken by the Hollanders, and it is not easy to mention the danger which I was exposed to both by land and sea before I arrived at Portugal. 
8815	----	A NARRATIVE OF CAPTIVITY IN ABYSSINIA; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LATE EMPEROR THEODORE, HIS COUNTRY AND PEOPLE. BY HENRY BLANC, M.D., M.R.C.S.E., F.A.S.L., ETC., STAFF ASSISTANT-SURGEON HER MAJESTY'S BOMBAY ARMY, (LATELY ON SPECIAL DUTY IN ABYSSINIA.) CONTENTS PREFACE CHAPTER I. The Emperor Theodore--His Rise and Conquests--His Army and Administration--Causes of his Fall--His Personal Appearance and Character--His Household and Private Life CHAPTER II. Europeans in Abyssinia--Bell and Plowden--Their Career and Deaths--Consul Cameron--M. Lejean--M. Bardel and Napoleon's Answer to Theodore--The Gaffat People--Mr. Stern and the Djenda Mission--State of Affairs at the End of 1863 CHAPTER III. Imprisonment of Mr. Stern--Mr. Kerans arrives with Letters and Carpet--Cameron, with his Followers, is put in Chains--M. Bardel returns from the Soudan--Theodore's Dealings with Foreigners--The Coptic Patriarch--Abdul Rahman Bey--The Captivity of the Europeans explained CHAPTER IV. News of Cameron's Imprisonment reaches Home--Mr. Rassam is selected to proceed to the Court of Gondar, and is accompanied by Dr. Blanc--Delays and Difficulties in communicating with Theodore--Description of Massowah and its Inhabitants--Arrival of a Letter from the Emperor CHAPTER V. From Massowah to Kassala--The Start--The Habab--Adventures of M. Marcopoli--The Beni Amer--Arrival at Kassala--The Nubian Mutiny--Attempt of De Bisson to found a Colony in the Soudan CHAPTER VI. Departure from Kassala--Sheik Abu Sin--Rumours of Theodore's Defeat by Tisso Gobazé--Arrival at Metemma--Weekly Market--The Takruries at Drill--Their Foray into Abyssinia--Arrival of Letters from Theodore CHAPTER VII. Entrance into Abyssinia--Altercation between Takruries and Abyssinians at Wochnee--Our Escort and Bearers--Applications for Medicine--First Reception by his Majesty--The Queen's Letter translated and Presents delivered--Accompany his Majesty through Metsha--His Conversation _en route_ CHAPTER VIII. Leave the Emperor's Camp for Kourata--The Tana Sea--The Abyssinian Navy--The Island of Dek--Arrival at Kourata--The Gaffat People and former Captives join us--Charges preferred against the Latter--First Visit to the Emperor's Camp at Zagé--Flattery before Coercion CHAPTER IX. Second Visit to Zagé--Arrest of Mr. Rassam and the English Officers --Charges brought against Mr. Rassam--The former Captives are brought in Chains to Zagé--Public Trial--Reconciliation--Mr. Flad's Departure --The Imprisonment at Zagé--Departure for Kourata CHAPTER X. Second Residence at Kourata--Cholera and Typhus break out in the Camp--The Emperor resolves to march to Debra Tabor--Arrival at Gaffat--The Foundry transformed into a Palace--Political Trial at Debra Tabor--The Black Tent--Dr. Blanc and Mr. Rosenthal seized at Gaffat--Another Public Trial--The Black Hole--March with the Emperor to Aibankab--Sent to Magdala, and Arrival at the Amba CHAPTER XI. Our first House at Magdala--The Chief has a "little Business" with us--Feelings of a European when being put in Chains--The Operation described--The Prisoners' Toilette--How we Lived--Our first Messenger a Failure--How we obtained Money and Letters--A Magdala Diary--A Rainy Season in a Godjo CHAPTER XII. Description of Magdala--Climate and Water Supply--The Emperor's Houses--His Harem and Magazines--The Church--Prison-house--Guards and Gaol--Discipline--A previous Visit of Theodore to Magdala--Slaughter of the Gullas--Character and Antecedents of Samuel--Our friends, Zenab the Astronomer, and Meshisha the Lute-player--Day Guards--We build new Huts--Abyssinian and Portuguese Servants--Our Inclosure is enlarged CHAPTER XIII. Theodore writes to Mr. Rassam about Mr. Flad and the Artisans--His two Letters contrasted--General Merewether arrives at Massowah--Danger of sending Letters to the Coast--Ras Engeddah brings us a few Stores--Our Garden--Successful Results of Vaccination at Magdala--Our Day Guard again--Second Rainy Season--The Chiefs are Jealous--The Ras and his Council--Damash, Hailo, Daily Life during Rainy Season--Two Prisoners attempt to Escape--The Knout in Abyssinia--A Dying Man's Prophecy CHAPTER XIV. Second Rainy Season ends--Scarcity and dearness of Provisions--Meshisha and Comfou plot their Escape--They succeed--Theodore is robbed--Damash pursues the Fugitives--The Night Attack--The Galla War-cry, and the "Sauve qui peut"--The Wounded left on the Field--Hospitality of the Gallas--Theodore's Letter on the Subject--Mastiate's Troubles--Wakshum Gabra Medhin--Sketch of Gobaz's Career--He invites the Co-operation of the Bishop in seizing Magdala--The Bishop's plan--All the rival Chiefs intrigue for the Amba--Mr. Rassam's Influence overrated CHAPTER XV. Death of Abouna Salama--Sketch of his Life and Career--Grievances of Theodore against him--His Imprisonment at Magdala--The Wallo Gallas--Their Habits and Customs--Menilek appears with an Army in the Galla Country--His Policy--Advice sent to him by Mr. Rassam--He invests Magdala, and fires a _feu-de-joie_--The Queen's behavior --Steps taken by the Chiefs--Our Position not improved--The Effects of Smoke on Menilek--Our Disappointment followed by great Joy--We receive news of the Landing of British Troops CHAPTER XVI. Theodore's Proceedings during our stay at Magdala--His treatment of Begemder--A Rebellion breaks out--Forced March on Gondar--The Churches are plundered and burnt--Theodore's Cruelties--The Insurgents increase in Strength--The Designs of the Emperor on Kourata frustrated--Mr. Bardel betrays the new Workmen--Theodore's Ingratitude towards the Gaffat People--His Raid on Foggara unsuccessful CHAPTER XVII. Arrival of Mr. Flad from England--Delivers a Letter and Message from the Queen--The Episode of the Telescope--Our Property taken care of--Theodore will not yield except to Force--He recruits his Army--Ras Adilou and Zallallou desert him--He is repulsed at Belessa by Lij Abitou and the Peasants--The Expedition against Metraha--His Cruelties there--The great "Sebastopol" is cast--Famine and Pestilence compel the Emperor to raise his Camp--The difficulties of his March to Magdala--His arrival in Dalanta CHAPTER XVIII. Theodore in the Vicinity of Magdala--Our feelings at the Time--An Amnesty granted to Dalanta--The Garrison of Magdala join the Emperor--Mrs. Rosenthal and other Europeans are sent to the Fortress--Theodore's Conversation with Flad and Waldmeier on the Coming of the Troops--Sir Robert Napier's Letter to Theodore reaches us--Theodore plunders Dalanta--He abuses Mr. Waldmeier--Reaches the Bechelo--Correspondence between Mr. Rassam and Theodore--Mr. Rassam is released from his Fetters--Theodore arrives at Islamgee--His Quarrel with the Priests--His First Visit to the Amba--Trial of the two Chiefs--He places a new Commandant over the Garrison CHAPTER XIX. We are counted by the new Ras, and condemned to Sleep in one Hut--Theodore's Second Visit to the Amba--He sends for Mr. Rassam, and gives orders that Prideaux and myself should have our Chains taken off--The Operation described--Our Reception by the Emperor--We are sent for to see "Sebastopol" landed on Islamgee--Conversation with his Majesty--The remaining Prisoners are freed from their Fetters--Theodore is unable to plunder his own Property CHAPTER XX. All the Prisoners leave the Amba for Islamgee--Our Reception by Theodore--He harangues his Troops, and releases some of the Prisoners--He informs us of the Advance of the English--The Massacre--We are sent back to Magdala--Effects of the Battle of Fahla--Messrs. Prideaux and Flad sent to Negotiate--Release of the Captives, and their narrow Escape--Their Arrival in the British Camp * * * * * CONCLUSION * * * * * LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PASS OF LOOKUM (Frontispiece). FORT, MISSION HOUSE, AND TOWN OF MASSOWAH GROVE HOUSE AT MONCULLOU VILLAGE OF DANKORA IN ATCHEFUR CHURCH OF KEDUS GEORGIS AND VILLAGE OF NEFASA, AGAU MEDAR VILLAGE OF KANOA IN WANDIGÉ VIEW FROM WANDIGÉ OF LAKE TANA SUMMIT OF ZER AMBA, A FORTRESS NEAR TSCHELGA * * * * * _The Fetters on the Cover of this Volume represent the Leg-chains worn by Dr. Blanc. Their weight is about seven pounds._ PREFACE. * * * * * With a view of gratifying the natural curiosity evinced by a large circle of friends and acquaintance to obtain accurate information as to the cause of our captivity, the manner in which we were treated, the details of our daily life, and the character and habits of Theodore, I undertook the task of writing this account of our captivity in Abyssinia. I have endeavoured to give a correct sketch of the career of Theodore, and a description of his country and people, more especially of his friends and enemies. In order to make the reader familiar with the subject, it was also necessary to say a few words about the Europeans who played a part in that strange imbroglio--the Abyssinian difficulty. My knowledge of them, and of the events that occurred during our captivity, was acquired through personal experience, and also by intercourse with well-informed natives, during long months of enforced idleness. In preparing this work for the press, I found it necessary to the completeness of the narrative, to incorporate some portions of my Report to the Government of Bombay on Mr. Rassam's mission, which appeared in an Indian newspaper, and was subsequently republished in a small volume. For the same reason I have also included a few articles contributed by me to a London newspaper. The sufferings of the Abyssinian captives will be ever associated, in the annals of British valour, with the triumphant success of the expedition, so skilfully organized by its commander, whose title, Lord Napier of Magdala, commemorates the crowning achievement of a glorious career. _London, July 23, 1868._ A NARRATIVE OF CAPTIVITY IN ABYSSINIA. CHAPTER I. The Emperor Theodore--His Rise and Conquests--His Army and Administration--Causes of his Fall--His Personal Appearance and Character--His Household and Private Life. Lij Kassa, better known as the Emperor Theodore, was born in Kouara about the year 1818. His father was a noble of Abyssinia, and his uncle, the celebrated Dejatch Comfou, had for many years governed the provinces of Dembea, Kouara, Tschelga, &c. On the death of his uncle he was appointed by Ras Ali's mother, Waizero Menen, governor of Kouara; but, dissatisfied with that post, which left but little scope for his ambition, he threw off his allegiance, and occupied Dembea as a rebel. Several generals were sent to chastise the young soldier; but he either eluded their pursuit or defeated their forces. However, on the solemn promise that he would, be well received, he repaired to the camp of Ras Ali. This kind-hearted but weak ruler thought to attach to his cause the brave chieftain, and to accomplish that object gave him his daughter Tawavitch (she is beautiful). Lij Kassa returned to Kouara, and for a time remained faithful to his sovereign. He made several plundering expeditions in the low lands, carried fire and sword into the Arab huts, and always returned from these excursions bringing with him hordes of cattle, prisoners, and slaves. The successes of Kassa, the courage he manifested on all occasions, the abstemious life he led, and the favour he showed to all who served his cause, soon collected around him a band of hardy and reckless followers. Being ambitious, he now formed the project of carving out an empire for himself in the fertile plains he had so often devastated. Educated in a convent, he had not only studied theological subjects, but made himself conversant with the mystic Abyssinian history. His early education always exercised great influence on his after-life, giving to his intercourse with others a religious character, and impressed vividly upon his mind the idea that the Mussulman race having for centuries encroached on the Christian land, it should be the aim of his life to re-establish the old Ethiopian empire. Urged on, therefore, both by ambition and fanaticism, he advanced in the direction of Kedaref at the head of 16,000 warriors; but he had soon to learn the immense superiority of a small number of well-armed and well-trained troops over large but undisciplined bodies of men. Near Kedaref he came in sight of his mortal foes the Turks, a mere handful of irregulars; yet they were too much for him: for the first time, defeated and disheartened, he had, for a while, to abandon his long-cherished scheme. Instead of returning to the seat of his government, he was obliged, on account of a severe wound received during the fight, to halt on the frontier of Dembea. From his camp he informed his mother-in-law of his condition, and requested that she would send him a cow--the fee required by the Abyssinian doctor. Waizero Menen, who had always hated Kassa, now took advantage of his fallen condition to humble his pride still more; she sent him, instead of the cow, a small piece of meat with an insulting message. Near the couch of the wounded chieftain sat the brave companion who had shared his fortunes, the wife whom he loved. On hearing the sneering message of the Queen, her fiery Galla blood flamed with indignation. She rose and told Kassa that she loved the brave but abhorred the coward; and she could not remain any longer by his side if, after such an insult, he did not revenge it in blood. Her passionate words fell upon willing ears; vengeance filled the heart of Kassa, and as soon as he had sufficiently recovered he returned to Kouara and openly proclaimed his independence. For the second time Ras Ali called him to his court; but the summons met with a stern refusal. Several generals were sent to enforce the command, but the young soldier easily routed these courtiers; whilst their followers, charmed with Kassa's insinuating manners and dazzled by his splendid promises, almost to a man enrolled themselves under his standard. His wife again exerted her influence, showing him how easily he might secure for himself the supreme power, and, as he hesitated, again threatened to leave him. Kassa resisted no longer; he advanced into Godjam, and carried all before him. The battle of Djisella, fought in 1853, decided the fate of Ras Ali. His army had been but for a short time engaged when, panic-stricken, the Ras left the field with a body of 500 horse, leaving the rest of his large host to swell the ranks of the conqueror. Victory followed victory, and after a few years, from Shoa to Metemma, from Godjam to Bogos, all feared and obeyed the commands of the Emperor Theodore; for under that name he desired to be crowned, after he had by the battle of Deraskié, fought in February, 1855, subdued Tigré, and conquered his most formidable opponent, Dejatch Oubié. Shortly after the battle of Deraskié, Theodore turned his victorious arms against the Wallo Gallas, possessed himself of Magdala, and ravaged and destroyed so completely the rich Galla plain that many of the chiefs joined his ranks, and fought against their own countrymen. He had now not only avenged the long-oppressed Christians, so often victims of the Galla inroads, but curbed for a long time the haughty spirit of these clans. At the height of success, he lost his brave and loving wife. He felt the cruel blow deeply. She had been his faithful counsellor, the companion of his adventures, the being he most loved; and he cherished her memory while he lived. In 1866, when one of his artisans almost forced himself into his presence to request permission for me to remain a few days near the man's dying wife, Theodore bent his head, and wept at the remembrance of his own wife whom he had so deeply loved. The career of Theodore may be divided into three very distinct periods:--First, from his early days to the death of his first wife; secondly, from the fall of Ras Ali to the death of Mr. Bell; thirdly, from this last event to his own death. The first period we have described: it was the period of promise. During the second--which extends from 1853 to 1860--there is still much to praise in the conduct of the Emperor, although many of his actions are unworthy of his early career. From 1860 to 1868 he seems little by little to have thrown off all restraint, until he became remarkable for reckless and wanton cruelty. His principal wars during the second period were with Dejatch Goscho Beru, governor of Godjam; with Dejatch Oubié, whom he conquered, as we have already stated, at the battle of Deraskié, and with the Wallo Gallas. He could, however, still be merciful, and though he imprisoned many of the feudal chiefs, he promised to release them as soon as the pacification of his empire should be complete. In 1860 he advanced against his cousin Garad, the murderer of Consul Plowden, and gained the day; but he lost his best friend and adviser, Mr. Bell, who saved the Emperor's life by sacrificing his own. In January, 1861, Theodore marched with an overwhelming force against a powerful rebel, Agau Negoussi, who had made himself master of all northern Abyssinia; by cunning and skilful tactics, he easily overthrew his adversary but tarnished his victory by horrid cruelties and gross breach of faith. Agau Negoussi's hands and feet were cut off, and though he lingered for days, the merciless emperor refused him even a drop of water to moisten his fevered lips. His cruel vengeance did not stop there. Many of the compromised chiefs, who had surrendered on his solemn pledge of amnesty, were either handed over to the executioner or sent to linger for life, loaded with fetters, in some of the prison ambas. For the next three years Theodore's rule was acknowledged throughout the land. A few petty rebels had risen here and there, but with the exception of Tadla Gwalu, who could not be driven from the fastness of his amba in the south of Godjam, all the others were but of little importance, and did not disturb the tranquillity of his reign. But though a conqueror, and endowed with military genius, Theodore was a bad administrator. To attach his soldiery to his cause, he lavished upon them immense sums of money; he was therefore forced to exact exorbitant tributes, almost to drain the land of its last dollar, in order to satisfy his rapacious followers. Finding himself at the head of a powerful host, and feeling either reluctant or afraid to dismiss them to their homes, he longed for foreign conquests; the dream of his younger days became a fixed idea, and he believed himself called upon by God to re-establish in its former greatness the old Ethiopian empire. He could not, however, forget that he was unable to cope single-handed with the well-armed and disciplined troops of his foes; he remembered too well his signal failure at Kedaref, and therefore sought to gain his long-desired object by diplomacy. He had heard from Bell, Plowden, and others, that England and France were proud of the protection they afforded to Christians in all parts of the world; he therefore wrote to the sovereigns of those two countries, inviting them to join him in his crusade against the Mussulman race. A few passages selected from his letter to our Queen will prove the correctness of this assertion. "By his power (of God) I drove away the Gallas. But for the Turks, I have told them to leave the land of my ancestors. They refuse!" He mentions the death of Plowden and Bell, and then adds:--"I have exterminated those enemies (those who killed Bell and Plowden), that I may get, by the power of God, _your friendship_." He concludes by saying, "_See how the Islam oppress the Christian!_" Theodore's army at this time consisted of some 100,000 or 150,000 fighting men; and if we take as the average four followers for every soldier, his camp must have numbered between 500,000 and 600,000 souls. Admitting, also, the population of Abyssinia to be nearly 3,000,000, about one fourth of the number had to be paid, fed, and clothed by the contributions of the remainder. During a few years, such was Theodore's prestige that this terrible oppression was quietly accepted; at last, however, the peasants, half-starved and almost naked, finding that with all their sacrifices and privations they were still far from satisfying the daily increasing demands of their terrible master, abandoned the fertile plains, and under the guidance of some of the remaining hereditary chiefs, retired to high plateaus, or concealed themselves in secluded valleys. In Godjam, Walkait, Shoa, and Tigré, the rebellion broke out almost simultaneously. Theodore had for a while to abandon his ideas of foreign conquest, and did his utmost to crush the mutinous spirit of his people. Whole rebel districts were laid waste; but the peasants, protected by their strongholds, could not be reached: they quietly awaited the departure of the invader and then returned to their desolated homes, cultivating just enough for their maintenance; thus, with only a few exceptions, the peasants evaded the terrible vengeance of the now infuriate Emperor. His immense army soon suffered severely from this mode of warfare. Each year the provinces which the soldiers could plunder became fewer; severe famines broke out; large districts such as Dembea, the granary of Gondar and of central Abyssinia, lay waste and uncultivated. The soldiers, formerly pampered, now in their turn half starved and badly clad, lost confidence in their leader; desertions were numerous; and many returned to their native provinces, and joined the ranks of the discontented. The fall of Theodore was even more rapid than his rise. He was still unconquered in the battlefield, as, after the example of Negoussi's fate, none dared to oppose him; but against the passive warfare of the peasantry and the Fabian-like policy of their chiefs he could do nothing. Never resting, almost always on the march, his army day by day becoming reduced in strength, he went from province to province; but in vain: all disappeared at his approach. There was no enemy; but there was no food! At last, reduced by necessity, in order to keep around him some remnants of his former immense army, he had no alternative left but to plunder the few provinces still faithful to him. When I first met Theodore, in January, 1866, he must have been about forty-eight years of age. His complexion was darker than that of the majority of his countrymen, the nose slightly curved, the mouth large, the lips so small as hardly to be perceived. Of middle size, well knit, wiry rather than muscular, he excelled as a horseman, in the use of the spear, and on foot would tire his hardiest followers. The expression of his dark eyes, slightly depressed, was strange; if he was in good humour they were soft, with a kind of gazelle-like timidity about them that made one love him; but when angry the fierce and bloodshot eye seemed to shed fire. In moments of violent passion his whole aspect was frightful: his black visage acquired an ashy hue, his thin compressed lips left but a whitish margin around the mouth, his very hair stood erect, and his whole deportment was a terrible illustration of savage and ungovernable fury. Yet he excelled in the art of duping his fellow-men. Even a few days before his death he had still, when we met him, all the dignity of a sovereign, the amiability and good-breeding of the most accomplished "gentleman." His smile was so attractive, his words were so sweet and gracious, that one could hardly believe that the affable monarch was but a consummate dissembler. He never perpetrated a deed of treachery or cruelty without pleading some specious excuse, so as to convey the impression that in all his actions he was guided by a sense of justice. For example, he plundered Dembea because the inhabitants were too friendly towards Europeans, and Gondar because one of our messengers had been betrayed by the inhabitants of that city. He destroyed Zagé, a large and populous city, because he pretended that a priest had been rude to him. He cast into chains his adopted father, Cantiba Hailo, because he had taken into his service a female servant he had dismissed. Tesemma Engeddah, the hereditary chief of Gahinte, fell under his displeasure because after a battle against the rebels he had shown himself "too severe," and our first head-jailor was taken to the camp and put in chains because he had "formerly been a friend" of the King of Shoa. I could adduce hundreds of instances to illustrate his habitual hypocrisy. In our case, he arrested us because we had not brought the former captives with us; Mr. Stern he nearly killed, merely for putting his hand to his face, and he imprisoned Consul Cameron for going to the Turks instead of bringing him back an answer to his letter. Theodore had all the dislike of the roving Bedouin for towns and cities. He loved camp life, the free breeze of the plains, the sight of his army gracefully encamped around the hillock he had selected for himself; and he preferred to the palace the Portuguese had erected at Gondar for a more sedentary king, the delights of roaming about incognito during the beautiful cool nights of Abyssinia. His household was well-regulated; the same spirit of order which had introduced something like discipline into his army, showed itself also in the arrangements of his domestic affairs. Every department was under the control of a chief, who was directly responsible to the Emperor, and answerable for everything connected with the department entrusted to him. These officers, all men of position, were the superintendents of the tej makers, of the women who prepared the large flat Abyssinian bread, of the wood-carriers, of the water girls, &c.; others, like the "Balderas," had charge of the Royal stud, the "Azage" of the domestic servants, the "Bedjerand" of the treasury, stores, &c.; there were also the Agafaris or introducers, the Likamaquas or chamberlain, the Afa Negus or mouth of the King. Strange to say, Theodore preferred as his personal attendants those who had served Europeans. His valet, the only one who stood by him to the last, had been a servant of Barroni, the vice-consul at Massowah. Another, a young man named Paul, was a former servant of Mr. Walker; others had at one time been in the service of Plowden, Bell, and Cameron. Excepting his valet, who was almost constantly near his person, the others, although they resided in the same inclosure, had more especially to take care of his guns, swords, spears, shields, &c. He had also around him a great number of pages; not that I believe he required their presence, but it was an "honour" he bestowed on chiefs entrusted with distant commands or with the government of remote provinces. Almost all the duties of the household were performed by women; they baked, they carried water and wood, and swept his tent or hut, as the case might be. The majority of them were slaves whom he had seized from slave-dealers at the time he made "manly" efforts to put a stop to the trade. Once a week, or more often as the case required, a colonel and his regiment had the honour of proceeding to the nearest stream, to wash the Emperor's linen and that of the Imperial household. No one, not even the smallest page, could, under the penalty of death, enter his harem. He had a large number of eunuchs, most of them Gallas, or soldiers and chiefs who had recovered from the mutilation the Gallas inflict on their wounded foe. The queen or the favourite of the day had a tent or house to herself, and several eunuchs to attend upon her; at night these attendants slept at the door of her tent, and were made responsible for the virtue of the lady entrusted to their care. As for the ordinary women, the objects of passing affections or of stronger passions that time had quenched, a tent or hut in common for ten or twenty, one or two eunuchs and a few female slaves for the whole, was all the state he allowed these neglected ladies. Theodore was more bigoted than religious. Above all things he was superstitious; and that to a degree incredible in a man in other respects so superior to his countrymen. He had always with him several astrologers, whom he consulted on all important occasions --especially before undertaking any expedition,--and whose influence over him was unbounded. He hated the priests, despised them for their ignorance, spurned their doctrines, and laughed at the marvellous stories some of their books contain; but still he never marched without a tent church, a host of priests, defteras, and deacons, and never passed near a church without kissing its threshold. Though he could read and write, he never condescended to correspond personally with any one, but was always accompanied by several secretaries, to whom he would dictate his letters; and so wonderful was his memory that he could indite an answer to letters received months, nay years, before, or dilate on subjects and events that had occurred at a far remote period. Suppose him on the march. On a distant hillock arose a small red flannel tent--it is there where Theodore fixed his temporary abode and that of his household. To his right is the church tent; next to his own the queen's or that of the favourite of the day. Then came the one allotted to his former lady friends, who travelled with him until a favourable opportunity presented itself of sending them to Magdala, where several hundreds were dwelling in seclusion, spinning cotton for their master's shamas and for their own clothes. Behind were several tents for his secretaries, his pages, his personal attendants, and one for the few stores he carried with him. When he made any lengthened stay at a place he had huts erected by his soldiers for himself and people, and the whole was surrounded by a double line of fences. Though not wanting in bravery, he never left anything to chance. At night the hillock on which he dwelt was completely surrounded by musketeers, and he never slept without having his pistols under his pillow, and several loaded guns by his side. He had a great fear of poison, taking no food that had not been prepared by the queen or her "remplacante;" and even then she and several attendants had to taste it first. It was the same with his drink: be it water, tej, or arrack, the cup-bearer and several of those present at the time had first to drink before presenting the cup to his Majesty. He made, however, an exception in our favour one day that he visited Mr. Rassam at Gaffat. To show how much he respected and trusted the English, he accepted some brandy, and allowing no one to taste it before him, he unhesitatingly swallowed the whole draught. He was a very jealous husband. Not only did he take the precautions I have already mentioned, but (except in the last months of his life, when it was beyond possibility for him to do otherwise) he never allowed the queen or any other lady in his establishment to travel with the camp. They always marched at night, well concealed, with a strong guard of eunuchs; and woe to him who met them on the road, and did not turn his back on them until they had passed! On one occasion a soldier who was on guard crept near the queen's tent, and, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, whispered to one of the female attendants to pass him a glass of tej under the tent. She gave him one. Unfortunately, he was seen by a eunuch, who seized him, and at once brought him before his Majesty. After hearing the case, Theodore, who happened to be in good spirits that evening, asked the culprit if he was very fond of tej; the trembling wretch replied in the affirmative. "Well, give him two wanchas [Footnote: A wancha is a large horn cup.] full to make him happy, and afterwards fifty lashes with the girf [Footnote: A long hippopotamus whip.] to teach him another time not to go near the queen's tent." Evidently, Theodore, with a large experience of the _beau sexe_ of his country, was profoundly convinced that his precautions were necessary. On one of his visits to Magdala, one of the chiefs of that amba made a complaint to him against one of the officers of the Imperial household, whom he had caught some time before in his lady's apartment. Theodore laughed, and said to him, "You are a fool. Do I not look after my wife? and I am a king." Theodore was always an early riser; indeed, he indulged in sleep but very little. Sometimes at two o'clock, at the latest before four, he would issue from his tent and give judgment on any case brought before him. Of late his temper was such that litigants kept out of his way; he nevertheless retained his former habits, and might be seen, long before daybreak, sitting solitary on a stone, in deep meditation or in silent prayer. He was also very abstemious in his food, and never indulged in excesses of the table. He rarely partook of more than one meal a day; which was composed of injera [Footnote: The pancake loaves made of the small seed of the teff.] and red pepper, during fast days; of wât, a kind of curry made of fish, fowl, or mutton, on ordinary occasions. On feast days he generally gave large dinners to his officers, and sometimes to the whole army. At these festivals the "brindo" [Footnote: Raw beef] would be equally enjoyed by the sovereign and by the guests. At these public breakfasts and dinners the King usually sat on a raised platform at the head of the table. No one has ever been known, except perhaps Bell, to have dined out of the same basket at the same time as Theodore; but when he desired specially to honour some of his guests, he either sent them some food from his basket, or had others placed on the platform near him, or, what was a still higher honour, sent to the favoured one his own basket with the remains of his dinner. Unfortunately Theodore had for several years before his death greatly taken to drink. Up to three or four o'clock he was generally sober and attended to the business of the day; but after his siesta he was invariably more or less intoxicated. In his dress he was generally very simple, wearing only the ordinary shama, [Footnote: A white cotton cloth, with a red border, woven in the country.] native-made trousers, and a European white shirt; no shoes, no covering to the head. His rather long hair--for an Abyssinian--was divided in three large plaits, and allowed to fall on his neck in three plaited tails. Of late he had greatly neglected his hair; for months it had not been plaited; and to show the grief he felt on account of the "badness" of his people, he would not allow it to be besmeared with the heavy coating of butter in which Abyssinians delight. On one occasion he apologized to us for the simplicity of his dress. He told us that, during the few years of peace that followed the conquest of the country, he used often to appear in public as a king should do; but since he had been by the bad disposition of his people obliged to wage constant war against them, he had adopted the soldier's raiments, as more becoming his altered fortune. However, after his fall became imminent, he on several occasions clad himself in gorgeous costumes, in shirts and mantles of rich brocaded silks, or of gold-embroidered velvet. He did so, I believe, to influence his people. They knew that he was poor, and though he hated pomp in his own attire, he desired to impress on his few remaining followers that though fallen he was still "the King." During the lifetime of his first wife and for some years afterwards, Theodore not only led an exemplary life, but forbade the officers of his household and the chiefs more immediately around him to live in concubinage. One day in the beginning of 1860 Theodore perceived in a church a handsome young girl silently praying to her patron, the Virgin Mary. Struck with her beauty and modesty, he made inquiries about her, and was informed that she was the only daughter of Dejatch Oubié, the Prince of Tigré, his former rival, whom he had dethroned, and who was then his prisoner. He asked for her hand, and met with a polite refusal. The young girl desired to retire into a convent, and devote herself to the service of God. Theodore was not a man to be easily thwarted in his desires. He proposed to Oubié that he would set him at liberty, only retaining him in his camp as his "guest," should the Prince prevail on his daughter to accept his hand. At last Waizero Terunish ("thou art pure") sacrificed herself for her old father's welfare, and accepted the hand of a man whom she could not love. This union was unfortunate. Theodore, to his great disappointment, did not find in his second wife the fervent affection, the almost blind devotion, of the dead companion of his youth. Waizero Terunish was proud; she always looked on her husband as a "parvenu," and took no pains to hide from him her want of respect and affection. In the afternoon, Theodore, as it had been his former habit, tired and weary, would retire for rest in the queen's tent; but he found no cordial welcome there. His wife's looks were cold and full of pride; and she even went so far as to receive him without the common courtesy due to her king. One day when he came in she pretended not to perceive him, did not rise, and remained silent when he inquired as to her health and welfare; she held in her hand a book of psalms, and when Theodore asked her why she did not answer him, she calmly replied, without lifting up her eyes from the book, "Because I am conversing with a greater and better man than you--the pious King David." Theodore sent her to Magdala, together with her new-born son, Alamayou ("I have seen the world"), and took as his favourite a widowed lady from Yedjow, named Waizero Tamagno, a rather coarse, lascivious-looking person, the mother of five children by her former husband; she soon obtained such an ascendancy over his mind that he publicly proclaimed "that he had divorced and discarded Terunish, and that Tamagno should in future be considered by all as the queen." Soon Waizero Tamagno had numerous rivals; but she was a woman of tact; and far from complaining, she rather encouraged Theodore in his debauchery, and always received him with a smile. One day she said to her fickle lord, who felt rather astonished at her forbearance, "Why should I be jealous? I know you love but me; what is it if you stoop now and then to pick up some flowers, to beautify them by your breath?" Although Theodore had several children, Alamayou is the only legitimate one. The eldest, a lad of about twenty-two, called Prince Meshisha, is a big, idle, lazy fellow. Though at Zagé, Theodore introduced him to us, and desired us to make him a friend with the English, he did not love him: the young man was, indeed, so unlike the Emperor that I can well understand Theodore having had serious doubts of his being really his son. The other children, five or six in number, the illegitimate offspring of some of his numerous concubines, resided at Magdala, and were brought up in the harem. He seems to have taken but very little notice of them: but every time he passed through Magdala he would send for Alamayou, and play with the boy for hours. A few days before his death he introduced him to Mr. Rassam, saying, "Alamayou, why do you not bow to your father?" and after the audience he sent him to accompany us back to our quarters. Waizero Terunish, Almayou's mother, never made any complaint; though forsaken by her husband, she remained always faithful to him. She spent usually the long days of her seclusion reading the books she delighted in--the psalms, the lives of the saints and of the Virgin Mary--and bringing up by her side her only son, for whom she had a deep affection. Although she had never loved her husband, in difficult times she bravely stood by his side. When Menilek, the King of Shoa, made his demonstration before the amba, and treachery was feared, she sent out her son and made all the chiefs and soldiers swear fidelity to the throne. Two days before his death, Theodore sent for the wife he had not seen for years, and spent part of the afternoon with her and his son. After the storming of Magdala, Waizero Terunish and her rival, Waizero Tamagno, were told to come to our former prison, where they would meet with protection and sympathy. It fell to my lot to receive them on their arrival; and I did my utmost to inspire them with confidence, to assuage their fears, and to assure them that under the British flag they would be treated with scrupulous honour and respect. It was on the 13th of April, 1866, that Theodore, still powerful, had treacherously seized us in his own house; and strange to say, on the 13th of April, two years afterwards, his dead body lay in one of our huts, while his wife and favourite had to seek shelter under the roof of those whom he had so long maltreated. Both his queens and Alamayou accompanied the English army on its march back, Waizero Tamagno left, with feelings of gratitude for the kindness and attention she had received at the hands of the English commander-in-chief, as soon as she could with safety return to her native land, Yedjow; but poor Terunish died at Aikullet. Her child, Alamayou, the son of Theodore, and grandchild of Oubié, has now reached the English shore, an orphan, an exile, but well cared for. CHAPTER II. Europeans in Abyssinia--Bell and Plowden--Their Career and Deaths --Consul Cameron--M. Lejean--M. Bardel and Napoleon's Answer to Theodore--The Gaffat People--Mr. Stern and the Djenda Mission--State of Affairs at the end of 1863. Abyssinia seems to have had a strange fascination for Europeans. The two first who were connected with the late Abyssinian affairs are Messrs. Bell and Plowden, who both entered Abyssinia in 1842. Mr. John Bell, better known in that country under the name of Johannes, first attached himself to the fortunes of Ras Ali. He took service with that prince, and was elevated to the rank of basha (captain); but it seems that Ras Ali never gave him much confidence, and tolerated him rather on account of his (Ras Ali's) friendship for Plowden, than for any liking for Bell himself. Bell shortly afterwards married a young lady belonging to one of the good families of Begemder. From this union he had three children: two daughters, afterwards married to two of the King's European workmen, and a son, who left the country together with the released captives. Bell fought by Ras Ali's side at the battle of Amba Djisella, which ended so fatally for that prince, and afterwards retired into a church, awaiting in that asylum the good pleasure of the victor. Theodore hearing of the presence of a European in the sanctuary, sent him word to come to him, giving him a most solemn pledge that he would be treated as a friend. Bell obeyed, and a strong friendship sprang up between the Emperor and the Englishman. Bell had for many years quite identified himself with the Abyssinians both in dress and mode of life. He was a man of sound judgment, brave, well-informed, appreciated all that was great and good; and seeing in Theodore an ideal he had often conceived, he attached himself to him with disinterested affection--almost worshipped him. Theodore gave him the rank of likamaquas, and always kept him near his person. Bell slept at the door of his friend's tent, dined off the same dish, joined in every expedition, and would frequently remain for hours, at the Emperor's request, narrating to him all the wonders of civilized life, the advantages of military discipline, and the rules of good government. Theodore gave him on several occasions a few hundred young men to drill; but European tactics being distasteful to the unruly Abyssinians, he obtained such indifferent results that the Emperor soon relieved him from that hopeless task. Theodore ordered his friend to marry his wife "by the sacrament." Bell at once consented; but, strange to say, the family of his wife, out of dislike to Theodore, refused to give their consent. Whereupon the Emperor presented him with a Galla slave, to whom he was married, the Emperor officiating as father to the bride. Bell was much beloved by all who knew him, and all Europeans who came into the country were sure to find in him a friend. Between him and Plowden the brotherly friendship that united them only increased with time; and on hearing of the murder of his friend, Bell took a solemn oath that he would avenge his death. About seven months afterwards the Emperor marched against Garad, and suddenly came upon him not far from the spot where Plowden fell. The Emperor was riding ahead, next to him came his faithful chamberlain; on their entering a small wood the two brothers Garad appeared in the middle of the road, only a few yards in front of them. Seeing the danger that threatened his master, Bell rushed forward, placed himself before the Emperor, so as to protect him with his body, and, with a steady aim, fired at his friend Plowden's murderer. Garad fell. Immediately the brother, who had been watching the Emperor's movements, turned upon Bell, and shot him through the heart. Theodore promptly avenged his faithful friend, for hardly had Bell fallen to the ground than his opponent was mortally wounded by the Emperor himself. Theodore ordered the place to be at once surrounded, and all Garad's followers--some 1,600, I believe--were made prisoners and murdered in cold blood. Theodore mourned for several days the death of his faithful follower, in whom he lost more than a brave chief and a hardy soldier: I may almost say he lost his kingdom, for none dared honestly to advise and fearlessly to counsel him as Bell had done, and none ever enjoyed that confidence which rendered Bell's advice so acceptable. Plowden seems to have been of a more ambitious turn of mind than his friend. Whilst Bell adopted Abyssinia as his home, and contented himself with service under the native princes, it is evident that Plowden strove to represent England in that distant land, and to be acknowledged by the rulers of Abyssinia as consuls are in the East,--a small _imperium in imperio_. He went the right way to work: induced Ras Ali to send presents to the Queen, and carried them himself; impressed upon Lord Palmerston the advantages of a treaty with Abyssinia; spoke a great deal about Mussulmans, slave-trade, oppressed Christians, &c.; and at length prevailed upon the Foreign Secretary to assent to his plans, and appoint him consul for Abyssinia. In justice to him, I must say, that from all accounts no man could have been better fitted for the post: he was beloved by all classes, and his name is still mentioned with respect. He did not, so much as Bell, identify himself with the natives; he always wore a European dress, and kept his house in a semi-English style. On the other hand, he was fond of show, and never travelled without being followed by several hundred servants, all well armed--a mere parade, as on the day of his death his numerous retinue did not afford him the slightest assistance. Plowden returned to Abyssinia as consul in 1846. He was well received by Ras Ali, with whom he was a favourite, and he soon after concluded a paper treaty with that prince. Ras Ali was a weak-minded debauchee; all he asked for was to be left alone, and on the same principle he allowed every one around him to do pretty well as they liked. One day Plowden asked permission to erect a flag-staff. Ras Ali gave a willing consent, but added, "Do not ask me to protect it, I do not care for such things; but I fear the people will not like it." Plowden hoisted the Union Jack above his consulate; a few hours afterwards it was torn to pieces by the mob. "Did not I tell you so?" was all the satisfaction he could obtain from the ruler of the land. After the fall of Ras Ali, Bell, who had, as I have already mentioned, followed the fortunes of Theodore, wrote to his friend in enthusiastic terms, depicted in the eloquent language of admiring friendship all the good qualities of the rising man, and advised Plowden to present himself before the powerful chieftain who undoubtedly before long would be the acknowledged ruler of the whole of Abyssinia. Plowden's first reception by Theodore was courteous in the extreme; but he had this time to deal with a very different kind of man to his predecessor. Theodore was all amiability, even offered money, but declined to recognize in him "the consul," or to ratify the treaty he (Plowden) had made with Ras Ali. For several years Plowden seemed to have joined his friend Bell in singing the praises of Theodore; he was to be the reformer of his country, had introduced a certain discipline in his army, and, to use Plowden's own words, "he is an honest man, and strives to be just, and, though firm, far from cruel." During the last years of his life, Plowden's opinion had been greatly modified. Theodore did not like him; he feared him; and it was only on account of his friendship for Bell that he did not lay violent hands on him. Plowden, on one occasion, was told to accompany his Majesty to Magdala; arrived there, Theodore called for the Head of the mountain, who was at that time the son of the Galla queen, Workite, and asked him his advice as to whether he should put Plowden in chains or not. The prince, who had a great regard for Plowden, told his Majesty that if they watched him with the eye it was sufficient, and that he would be answerable for his prisoner. Plowden returned with Theodore some time afterwards to the Amhara country, but was constantly surrounded by spies. All his actions were reported to the Emperor, and for a long time, under some pretence or the other, he was refused leave to return to England. At last, broken in health, and disappointed, Plowden almost insisted on going. His Majesty granted his request, but at the same time informed him that the roads were infested with rebels and thieves, and strongly advised him to await his return. I was told on good authority that his Majesty only acquiesced in Plowden's wishes because he believed that it was quite impossible for him to leave. However, Plowden, trusting in his popularity, and, perhaps, also in his retinue, started at once on his homeward journey. At a short distance from Gondar he was attacked and made prisoner by a rebel named Garad, a cousin of Theodore. It is probable that he would have been let off with a ransom, but for an unfortunate circumstance. Plowden, sick and tired, was resting under a tree, and while Garad was speaking to him, put his hand towards his belt, as his servant told us, to take out his handkerchief; but the rebel chief, believing that he intended to draw a pistol, immediately wounded him mortally with the lance he held in his hands. Plowden was ransomed by the Gondar merchants, but died a few days afterwards, in March, 1860, from the effects of the wound. During our stay at Kuarata, at the time we were in high favour, office copies of Plowden's official letters for the year preceding his death, were brought to us. How altered his impression, how changed his opinion! He had begun to see through the fine words of the Emperor; he more than suspected that before long a hateful tyranny would replace the firm but just rule he had formerly so greatly admired. I remember well that at Zagé, when our luggage was returned to us a few hours after the arrest, with what haste and anxiety Prideaux, in whose charge the manuscript was at the time, opened his trunk behind his bed, so that the guards should not perceive the dangerous paper before he had time to destroy it. If Bell and Plowden had been both living, it may be asked, would Theodore have dealt with them so as ultimately to call for the intervention of Government on Abyssinian affairs? I believe so. The King, as I have said, disliked Plowden personally; he repaid his ransom to the Gondar merchants, it is true, but it was only a political "dodge" of his; he knew well to whom he gave the money, and took it back "with interest," a few years later. Often he has been heard to sneer at the manner in which Plowden was killed, and say, "The white men are cowards: look at Plowden; he was armed, but he allowed himself to be killed without even defending himself." This was a malicious assertion on the part of Theodore, as he was well aware that Plowden was so sick at the time that he could hardly walk, and that though he carried a pistol, _it was not loaded_. Not long before his own death, Theodore spoke, on several occasions, in very harsh terms of Bell's eldest daughter, and on some of her friends representing to his Majesty that he should not forget that she was the daughter of the man who died protecting him, Theodore quietly replied, "Bell was a fool; he would never carry a shield!" A few months after the news of Consul Plowden's death had reached England, Captain Charles Duncan Cameron was appointed to the vacant post, but for some reason or other, he reached Massowah only in February, 1862, and Gondar in July of the same year. Captain Cameron had not only served with distinction during the Kaffir war, and passed alone through more than 200 miles of the enemy's country, but had also been employed on the staff of General Williams, and had been for several years in the consular service. He was, in all respects, well fitted for his post; but, unfortunately for him, when he entered Abyssinia he had to deal with a fascinating, vainglorious, shrewd man, hiding his cunning under an appearance of modesty: in a word, with Theodore who had become an over-bearing despot. On his first arrival, Cameron was received with great honours, and treated by the Emperor with marked respect, and when he left in October, 1862, he was loaded with presents, escorted by the Emperor's servants, and almost acknowledged as a consul. Like so many others--I can say, like ourselves,--at first he had been so completely taken in by Theodore's manners that he did not discern the true character of the man he had to deal with, and but too late found out the worth of his gracious reception and the flatteries which had been so liberally bestowed upon him. From Adowa Captain Cameron forwarded Theodore's letter to our Queen by native messengers, and proceeded to the province of Bogos, where he deemed his presence necessary. He found out during his stay that Samuel, the Georgis balderaba [Footnote: An introducer: generally given to foreigners in the capacity of a spy.] whom Theodore had given him--a clever, but rather unscrupulous Shoho--was intriguing with the chiefs of the neighbourhood, tributaries of Turkey, in favour of his imperial master. Captain Cameron thought it therefore advisable, in order to avoid future difficulties with the Egyptian Government, to leave Samuel behind with the Servants he did not require. Samuel was much hurt at not being allowed to accompany Cameron in his tour through the Soudan, and though he pretended to be well pleased with the arrangement, he shortly afterwards wrote a long letter to his master in which he spoke in very unfavourable terms of Captain Cameron. Arrived at Kassala, Captain Cameron one evening at a friend's house asked his Abyssinian servants to show the guests their native war-dance; some refused, others complied, but as it was not appreciated by the spectators, they were told to leave off. (I mention this fact as it was made a serious offence by Theodore, and is a sample of the pretences adopted by him when he desired to vindicate his conduct.) Arrived at Metemma, Cameron, who was at the time suffering from fever, wrote to his Majesty to inform him of his arrival, and requesting his permission to proceed to the missionary station of Djenda; which was granted. Mr. Bardel, a Frenchman, had accompanied Cameron on his first voyage to Abyssinia; they disagreed, and Bardel left Cameron's service to enter the Emperor's. At the time Theodore sent Cameron with a letter to the Queen of England, he also entrusted one to Bardel for the Emperor of the French. During Bardel's absence M. Lejean, the French Consul at Massowah, arrived in Abyssinia; he was the bearer of credentials to the Emperor Theodore, and also brought with him a few trifles to be presented to his Majesty in the name of the Emperor Napoleon. M. Lejean was not allowed to leave before the arrival of Mr. Bardel; who returned to Gondar in September, 1863, with an answer from the French Secretary for Foreign Affairs, whom he described to Theodore as the mouthpiece (_afa negus_) of Napoleon. All the Europeans were summoned from Gondar to witness the reading of the letter; the King, seated at the window of the palace, had the letter read, and asked Bardel how he had been received. "Badly," he replied. "I had an audience with the Emperor, when Mr. D'Abbadie whispered to him that your Majesty was in the habit of cutting off hands and feet; on that, without a word more, Napoleon turned his back upon me." Theodore then took the letter, and, tearing it to pieces, said:--"Who is that Napoleon? Are not my ancestors greater than his? If God made him great, can he not make me also great?" After which his Majesty ordered a safe conduct to be given to M. Lejean, with orders that he should leave the country at once. The Abouna, at that time in favour, afraid above all things of the Roman Catholics, urged the Emperor to let Lejean depart, lest the French should be afforded an excuse for taking possession of some part of the country, from whence their priests would endeavour to propagate their doctrines. But two days after Lejean's departure, Theodore, who had by that time regretted that he had let him go, sent to have him arrested on the road and brought back to Gondar. In the autumn of 1863 the Europeans in Abyssinia numbered about twenty-five; they were, Cameron and his European servants, the Basle mission, the Scottish mission, the missionaries of the London Society for the Conversion of the Jews, and some adventurers. In 1855 Dr. Krapf, accompanied by Mr. Flad, entered Abyssinia as pioneers for a mission which Bishop Gobat desired to establish in that country. The lay missionaries he intended to send were to be workmen, who would receive a small salary, if necessary, but were supposed to support themselves by their work: they were also to open schools, and seize every opportunity to preach the Word of God. Mr. Flad made several journeys backwards and forwards, and, at the time of the first trouble that befell the Europeans since the beginning of Theodore's reign, the lay missionaries, who had been joined by a few adventurers,--the whole of them better known by natives and Europeans under the name of the "Gaffat people" (on account of the name of the village they usually resided in), amounted to eight. Mr. Flad had some time previously abandoned the Basle Mission for the London Mission for the Conversion of the Jews. The "Gaffat people" played an important part in all the transactions that, from 1863, took place between his Abyssinian Majesty and the Europeans residing in the country. Their position was not an enviable one; they had not only to please his Majesty, but, in order to keep themselves free from imprisonment or chains, to forestall his wishes, and to keep his fickle nature always interested in their work by devising some new toy suited to please his childish love for novelty. On their first arrival in the country they did their best to fulfil the instructions of their patron, the Bishop of Jerusalem. But on Theodore learning that these men were able workmen, he sent for them one day and told them, "I do not want teachers in my country, but workmen: will you work for me?" They bowed, and with good grace placed themselves at his Majesty's disposal. Gaffat, a small hillock about four miles from Debra Tabor, was assigned to them as a place of residence. There they built semi-European houses, established workshops, &c. Knowing that he would have a greater hold upon them, and that they would have more difficulty in leaving the country, Theodore ordered them to marry: they all consented. The little colony flourished, and Theodore for a long time behaved very liberally to them; gave them large sums of money, grain, honey, butter, and all necessary supplies in great abundance. They were also presented with silver shields, gold-worked saddles, mules, horses, &c.; their wives with richly embroidered burnouses, ornaments of gold and silver; and to enhance their position in the country they were allowed all the privileges of a Ras. "His children," as Theodore called them, so far had nothing to complain of; but the Emperor soon got tired of carriages, pickaxes, doors, and such like; he was bent on having cannons and mortars cast in his country. He gently insinuated his desire; but they firmly refused, on the ground that they had no knowledge of such work. Theodore knew how to make them consent; he had only to appear displeased, to frown a little, and they awaited in trembling to have his good pleasure made known to them. Theodore asked for cannons; they would try. His Majesty smiled; he knew the men he had to deal with. After the guns, they made mortars; then gunpowder; then brandy; again more cannons, shells, shots, &c. Some were sent to make roads, others erected foundries; a large number of intelligent natives were apprenticed to them, and with their assistance executed some really remarkable works. I, who happened to witness one day the harsh, imperative tone he took with them because he felt annoyed at a mere trifle, can well understand their complete submission to his iron will, and cannot blame them. They had given in at first, and accepted his bounty; they had wives and children, and desired to be left in quiet possession of their homes, and were only anxious to please their hard taskmaster. Another missionary station had been established at Djenda. These gentlemen, most of them scripture-readers, not conversant with any trade, and striving but for one object,--the conversion of the Falashas, or native Jews,--declined to work for Theodore. The Emperor could not understand their refusal. According to his notions every European could work in some way or the other. He attributed their refusal to ill-will towards him, and only awaited a suitable opportunity to visit them with his displeasure. They and the Gaffat people were not in accord; though, for appearance' sake, a kind of brotherhood was kept up between the rival stations. The Djenda Mission consisted of two missionaries, of the Scottish Society: a man named Cornelius, [Footnote: He died at Gaffat in the beginning of 1865.] brought to Abyssinia by Mr. Stern, on his first trip; of Mr. and Mrs. Flad, and of Mr. and Mrs. Rosenthal, who had accompanied Mr. Stern on his second journey to Abyssinia. The Rev. Henry Stern is really a martyr to his faith. A fine type of the brave self-denying missionary, he had already exposed his life in Arabia, where he had, with the recklessness of conviction, undertaken a dangerous, almost impossible, journey, in order to bring the "good tidings" to his oppressed brethren the Jews of Yemen and Sanaa. He had just escaped almost by a miracle from the hands of the bigoted Arabs, when he undertook a first voyage to Abyssinia, in order to establish a mission in that country, where thousands of Jews were living. Mr. Stern arrived in Abyssinia in 1860, was well received and kindly treated by his Majesty. On his return to Europe he published a valuable account of his tour, under the title of _Wanderings amongst the Falashas of Abyssinia_. In that book Mr. Stern gives a very favourable account of Theodore; but, as becomes a true historian, gave some details of the Emperor's family, which were, to a certain extent, the cause of many of the sufferings he had afterwards to undergo. About that time several articles appeared in one of the Egyptian newspapers, purporting to have issued from the pen of Mr. Stern, and reflecting rather severely on the marriage of the Gaffat people. Mr. Stern has always denied having been the author of these articles; and though I, and every one else who knows Mr. Stern, will place unlimited confidence in his word, still the Gaffat people would not accept his denial: to the very last they believed him to have written the obnoxious articles, and harboured bitter feelings against him, in consequence. Mr. Stern undertook a second journey to Abyssinia in the autumn of 1862, accompanied this time by Mr. and Mrs. Rosenthal. He and his party reached Djenda in April, 1863. As soon as the Gaffat people heard of the arrival of Mr. Stern at Massowah, they went in a body to the Emperor and begged him not to allow Mr. Stern to enter Abyssinia. His Majesty gave an evasive answer, but did not comply with the request; on the contrary, he seems to have rejoiced at the idea of an enmity existing between the Europeans in his country, and chuckled at the prospect of the advantages he might reap from their jealousy and rivalry. Mr. Stern soon perceived the great change that had already taken place in the deportment of Theodore, and saw but too plainly, during his several missionary tours, abundant proofs of the cruelty of the man he had so shortly before admired and praised. The Abouna (Abyssinian bishop) at the time in frequent collision with the Emperor, spoke but too openly of the many vices of the ruling sovereign, and as he had always been friendly disposed towards Mr. Stern, this gentleman frequently visited him, even made some short stays in his house. This friendship was construed by the Emperor as implying an understanding between the bishop and the English priest unfavourable to himself, and with a view to the cession of the church lands for a certain sum of money, which was to be placed in Egypt at the Abouna's disposal. To sum up, this was the state of the different parties when the storm at last burst on the head of the unfortunate Mr. Stern:--Bell and Plowden, the only Europeans who might have had some influence for good over the mind of the Emperor, were dead. The Gaffat people worked for the King, were frequently near his person, and entertained anything but friendly feelings towards Mr. Stern and the Djenda Mission. While Captain Cameron and his party were watched in Gondar, and in no way mixed up with the differences that unfortunately divided the other Europeans. CHAPTER III. Imprisonment of Mr. Stern--Mr. Kerans arrives with Letters and Carpet--Cameron, with his Followers, is put in Chains--Mr. Bardel's Return from the Soudan--Theodore's Dealings with Foreigners--The Coptic Patriarch--Abdul Rahman Bey--The Captivity of the Europeans explained. Such was the state of affairs when Mr. Stern obtained leave to return to the coast. Unfortunately it was impossible for him to avail himself at once of this permission. On Mr. Stern at last taking his departure he had to remain at Gondar a few days, and, but too late, thought of presenting his respects to his Majesty. He also accepted during his short stay there the hospitality of the bishop. On the 13th October Mr. Stern, accompanied for a short distance by Consul Cameron and Mr. Bardel, started on his homeward journey. On arriving on the Waggera Plain he perceived the King's tent. What followed is well known: how that unfortunate gentleman was almost beaten, to death; and from that hour, almost without remission, loaded with chains, tortured, and dragged from prison to prison, until the day of his deliverance from Magdala by the British army. When speaking of Theodore's treatment of foreigners, I will endeavour to explain the real cause of the misfortunes that befell Mr. Stern. That he was only the victim of circumstances, is a fact beyond any doubt. The extracts from his book and the notes from his diary, brought as charges against him, were only discovered several weeks _after_ many cruelties had been inflicted upon him. But I believe that many small, apparently trifling, incidents combined to make him the first European victim of the Abyssinian monarch. The Emperor could not endure the thought that Europeans in his country should do aught else but work for him. On his first interview with Mr. Stern, after this gentleman's return to Abyssinia, Theodore, on being informed as to the motives of Mr. Stern's journey, said, in an angry mood, "I have enough of your Bibles." Theodore also believed that by ill-using Mr. Stern he would please his "Gaffat children," therefore, immediately after Mr. Stern's imprisonment, he wrote to them saying, "I have chained your enemy and mine." That the crisis was at last brought on by malicious representations to his Majesty of trifling incidents, was proved to us quite accidentally on our way down. At Antalo I had a few friends at dinner, amongst them Mr. Stern, when, in the evening, Peter Beru, an Abyssinian who had received his education at Malta and had been one of the interpreters of Mr. Stern's book at the famous public trial at Gondar, came into the tent, and, being a little excited, told Mr. Stern that three things had called down upon him the King's displeasure: first, the enmity of the Gaffat people against him; secondly, his (Mr. Stern's) intimacy with the Abouna; thirdly, his not having called upon his Majesty during his last stay at Gondar. On the 22nd of November Mr. Laurence Kerans arrived at Gondar. He came for the purpose of joining Captain Cameron in the capacity of private secretary. He brought with him some letters for Captain Cameron; amongst them one from Earl Russell ordering the consul back to his post at Massowah. Of all the captives none deserves greater sympathy than poor Kerans. Quite a youth when he entered Abyssinia, he suffered four years of imprisonment in chains, for no reason whatever except that he arrived at an inauspicious time. It is true that, according to his wonted habit, his Majesty charged him with having intended to insult him by offering him a carpet representing Gerard the lion-killer. Gerard, in his Zouave costume, Theodore said, represented the Turks, the lion was himself, upon whom the infidel was firing, the attendant a Frenchman; but he added, "I do not see the Englishman who ought to be by my side." Poor Kerans remained only a few weeks in semi-liberty at Gondar; he had presented on his own account a rifle to his Majesty (the carpet was supposed to have been sent by Captain Speedy, who had previously been in Abyssinia); and every morning Samuel, who was the balderaba of the Europeans, would present himself, with supposed compliments from his Majesty, adding, "The Emperor desires to know what you would like?" Kerans answered, "A horse, a shield, and a lance." The next morning Samuel would ask, from his Majesty, what kind of horse he preferred, and so on, until at last the poor lad, who was obliged every day to bow to the ground in thankfulness for the supposed gift, began to suspect that all was not right. Consul Cameron, a few days after the arrival of Kerans, was called to the King's camp and told to remain there until further orders. He was already so far a prisoner that he was not allowed to return to Gondar, when, on the plea of bad health, he applied for permission to do so. Cameron waited until the beginning of January, daily expecting a letter for the Emperor, but at last, as none came, he considered himself bound to obey his instructions, and accordingly, informed his Majesty that he had received orders from his Government to return to Massowah, and begged that he might be allowed to leave in a few days. The next morning, 4th January, Cameron, his European servants, the missionaries from Gondar, and Messrs. Stern and Rosenthal (both since some time already in chains), were all sent for by his Majesty. They were ushered into a tent close to the Emperor's inclosure, with two loaded twelve-pounders placed in front of it and pointed in that direction. The place was crowded with soldiers; everything was so arranged as to make resistance impossible. Shortly after Cameron's arrival Theodore sent several messages, asking, "Where is the answer to the letter I gave you? Why did you go to my enemies the Turks? Are you a consul?" At last the messages ceased with this last one: "I will keep you a prisoner until I get an answer, and see if you are a consul or not." On that Cameron was very rudely handled by the soldiers; he was knocked down, his beard torn off, and heavy fetters hammered on him. The captives were all placed in a tent near the Emperor's inclosure; for a time they were well supplied with rations, and, apart from the fetters, not otherwise ill used. On the 3rd of February Mr. Bardel returned from a mission the Emperor had intrusted to him, viz., to spy the land, and report about the doings of an Egyptian general, who, at the head of a considerable force, had been for some time staying at Metemma, the nearest post to Abyssinia on the north-west frontier. The following day the Gaffat people were called by the Emperor to consult about the liberation of the European captives. On their recommendation, two missionaries of the Scottish society, two German hunters, Mr. Flad and Cornelius, were freed from their fetters, and allowed to remain at Gaffat with the workmen. The head of the Gaffat people then told Captain Cameron that he would request Theodore to release the whole of them and allow them to depart, if Captain Cameron would give a written document to the effect that no steps would be taken by England to avenge the insult inflicted upon her in the person of her representative. Cameron, not considering himself justified in taking upon himself such a responsibility, declined. A few days afterwards Mr. Bardel having offended his Majesty, or rather being of no more use to him, was sent to join those whom he had been greatly instrumental in depriving of their liberty. The Rev. Mr. Stern has ably described the painful captivity which he and his fellow-sufferers experienced up to their first release on the arrival of our mission in the beginning of 1865; how they were dragged from Gondar to Azazo; the horrid torture inflicted upon them on the 12th of May: their long march in chains from Azazo to Magdala; their confinement in chains on that amba in the common jail; and the horrid tale of sufferings and misery they had for so many months to endure. Suffice it to say, that on the date of Captain Cameron's note--14th of February, 1864--which gave the first intimation of their imprisonment, the captives, eight altogether, were Captain Cameron and his followers (Kerans, Bavdel, McKilvie, Makerer, and Pietro), Messrs. Stern and Rosenthal. Much of what I have said, and a great deal of what I have still to narrate, would appear unintelligible if I were not to describe the conduct Theodore had adopted towards foreigners. It is plain, from facts that I will now adduce, that Theodore had for several years systematically insulted them. He did so partly to dazzle the people with his power, and partly because he believed that complete impunity would always attend his grossest misdeeds. In December, 1856, David, the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria, arrived in Abyssinia, bearer of certain presents for Theodore, and the expression of the good-will of the Pasha of Egypt. The fame of Theodore had spread far and wide in the Soudan; and probably the Egyptian authorities, in order to save that province from being plundered, or unwilling to engage at the time in an expensive war with their powerful neighbour, adopted that expedient as the best suited to appease the ire of their former foe. As usual, Theodore found an excuse for the ill treatment he inflicted upon the aged Patriarch, on the ground that a diamond cross presented to him was only intended as an insult: it meant, he said, that they considered him as a vassal; and on the Patriarch proposing that he should send a letter to the Pasha, accompanied with suitable presents, and that the Pasha would in return send him fire-arms, cannons, and officers to drill his troops, his Majesty exclaimed, "I see, they now desire me to declare myself their tributary." Most probably Theodore, always jealous of the power of the Church, took advantage of the presence of its highest dignitary to show to his army whom they had to fear and obey. On the pretexts above mentioned he caused one day a hedge to be built around the Patriarch's residence, and for several days the eldest son of the Coptic Church kept his father in close confinement. Theodore had some time previously been excommunicated by the Bishop; he therefore enjoyed very much the disreputable quarrel which took place on that matter, as he induced the Patriarch, through fear, to take off the excommunication of his inferior. After a while, however, Theodore apologized, and allowed the terrified old man to depart. The Patriarch on his return told his tale, but the fame for justice and wisdom of the would-be descendant of Solomon was so great that, far from being credited, the Turkish Government, who attributed the failure of the negotiation to the unfitness of their agent, soon after despatched a mission on a larger scale, together with numerous and costly presents, under the orders of an experienced and trusty officer, Abdul Rahman Bey. The Egyptian envoy reached Dembea in March, 1859. At first Theodore, gratified at receiving such beautiful gifts, treated the ambassador with all courtesy and distinction; but on account of the unsafe condition of the country at the time, he took his guest with him, and considering Magdala a proper and suitable place of residence, left him there. He soon ignored him entirely, and the unfortunate man had to remain nearly two years, a semi-prisoner, on that amba. At last, on the reception of several strongly worded and threatening letters from the Egyptian Government, he allowed him to depart, but caused him to be plundered of all he had near the frontier, by the Shum of Tschelga. Theodore, after the departure of Abdul Rahman Bey, wrote to the Egyptian Government, denying any knowledge of the plunder, and accusing the envoy of serious crimes. Hearing of this, the unfortunate Bey, fearing that his denials would not stand against the charge brought against him by the pious Emperor, poisoned himself at Berber. His third victim was the Nab of Arkiko. He had accompanied the Emperor to Godjam, when, without reason given, the Emperor cast him into prison and loaded him with chains. It was only on the representation of several influential merchants, who, fearing that the Nab's relations would retaliate on the Abyssinian caravans, impressed upon his Majesty the prudence of letting him depart, that the Emperor allowed his vassal to return to his country. The same day on which he imprisoned the Nab of Arkiko, M. Lejean, a member of the French diplomatic service, disgusted with Abyssinia and the many discomforts of camp life, presented himself before the Emperor to apply for leave to depart. Theodore could not grant the desired interview, but M. Lejean persisted in his demand, and sent a second time, representing that, as his Majesty was _en route_ for Godjam, each day would increase the difficulty of his return. Such presumption could not be tolerated. Theodore had defied Egypt; he would now defy France. Lejean was seized, and had to remain in full uniform for twenty-four hours in chains. He was only released on his making an humble apology, and desisting from his desire to leave the country. He was sent to Gaffat, and ordered to abide there until the return of Mr. Bardel. Theodore scoffed at and imprisoned the Patriarch of Alexandria; the Egyptian ambassador he kept a semi-prisoner for several years; the Nab he chained; the French consul he chained, insulted, and kicked out of the country. Nothing came of all this: on the contrary, in his own camp his influence was greater. Under these circumstances, any barbarian would have done and thought exactly as Theodore did. He came to the conviction that, either through fear of his power or the impossibility of reaching him, whatever ill treatment he might inflict on strangers, no punishment could possibly overtake him. That such was his impression is evident from the gradually increasing brutality of his conduct, always most severe, but never so outrageous as in the case of the British captives. The savage, barbarous treatment he inflicted on Messrs. Stern, Cameron, Rosenthal, and their followers, is without precedent in modern history. Theodore at last took no trouble to hide his contempt for Europeans and their governments. He knew in August, 1864, that before a month an answer to his letter to the Queen had arrived at Massowah. "Let them wait my good pleasure," was the only observation he made on the subject. It is probable that he would never have taken any notice of her Majesty's letter or of the mission sent to him, if his rapid fall--at that time beginning--had not influenced his conduct. When we arrived at Massowah in July, 1864, Theodore was still powerful, at the head of a large army, and master of the greater part of the country. His campaign to Shoa in 1865 was most disastrous. He lost by it, not only that prosperous kingdom, but a large portion of his army; the Gallas seizing the occasion to annoy him greatly on his return. He foresaw his fall, and it probably struck him that the friendship of England might be useful to him; or should he doubt its possibility, he might seize us as hostages, in order to make capital out of us; therefore, but with apparent reluctance, he granted us the long-expected permission to enter his country. We have now the solution of a part of this difficult problem; we can understand, to a certain degree, the strange character of this man so remarkable in many ways. Imbued with a few European notions, he longed to obtain some of the advantages he had heard of: but how? England and France would only return his friendship by words--he wanted deeds; sweet phrases he would not listen to. He soon became convinced that he might with impunity insult foreigners or envoys from friendly states; and at last it struck him that, while he insulted and ill used Europeans, he might as well keep in his hands an important man like a consul, as a hostage. CHAPTER IV. News of Cameron's Imprisonment reaches Home--Mr. Rassam is selected to proceed to the Court of Gondar, and is accompanied by Dr. Blanc--Delays and Difficulties in Communicating with Theodore--Description of Massowah and its Inhabitants--Arrival of a Letter from the Emperor. In the spring of 1864 it was vaguely rumoured that an African potentate had imprisoned a British consul; the fact appeared so strange, that few credited the assertion. It was soon ascertained, however, that a certain Emperor of Abyssinia, calling himself Theodore, had cast into prison and loaded with chains, Captain Cameron, the consul accredited to his court, and several missionaries stationed in his dominions. A small pencil note from Captain Cameron at last reached Mr. Speedy, the acting vice-consul at Massowah, giving the number and names of the captives, and suggesting that their release depended entirely on the receipt of a civil letter in answer to the one the King had forwarded some months before. There is no doubt that much difficulty presented itself in order to meet the request expressed by Consul Cameron. Little was known about Abyssinia, and the conduct of its ruler was so strange, so contrary to all precedents, that it became a matter of grave consideration how to communicate with the Abyssinian Emperor without endangering the liberty of others. In the official correspondence on Abyssinian affairs there is a letter from Mr. Colquhoun, her Majesty's Agent and Consul-General in Egypt, dated Cairo, 10th May, 1864, in which that gentleman informs Earl Russell "that it is difficult to get at Theodore." He was expecting to learn what means the Bombay Government could place at his disposal, as from Egypt none were available; he adds, "except from Aden I really can see no measures feasible, and such could only be of a mild nature, for from the character we have had of late of the King, he would appear to become subject to fits of rage which almost deprive him of reason, and would _render all approach dangerous_." On June 16th the Foreign Office selected for the difficult and dangerous task of Envoy to Theodore, Mr. Hormuzd Bassam, Assistant Political Resident at Aden; instructions were at the same time forwarded to that gentleman to the effect that he should hold himself in readiness to proceed to Massowah, and, if needful, to Abyssinia, with a view of obtaining the release of Captain Cameron and other Europeans detained in captivity by King Theodore. A letter from her Majesty the Queen of England, one from the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria for the Abouna, and one from the same to King Theodore, were forwarded to Mr. Rassam, in order to facilitate his mission. Mr. Rassam was to be conveyed to Massowah in a ship-of-war; he was at once to inform Theodore of his arrival, bearing a letter to him from the Queen of England, and also forward, by the same messenger, the letters from the Patriarch to the Abouna and to the Emperor. He was to await a reply at Massowah, before deciding whether he should proceed himself, or forward the Queen's letter to Captain Cameron for delivery. The instructions added that Mr. Rassam might, however, adopt any other course which might appear to him more advisable; but he should take special care not to place himself in a position that might cause further embarrassment to the British Government. It so happened that at the time Mr. Rassam received an intimation that he was selected for the duty of conveying a letter from the Queen to the Emperor of Abyssinia, I had gone with him on a visit to Lahej, a small Arab town about twenty-five miles from Aden. We talked a great deal about that strange land, and on my expressing my desire to accompany Mr. Rassam to the Abyssinian Court, that gentleman proposed to Colonel Merewether, the Political Resident at Aden, to allow me to go with him as his companion: a request that Colonel Merewether immediately granted, and which was shortly afterwards sanctioned by the Governor of Bombay and the Viceroy of India. We had to wait a few days, as the Queen's letter had been detained in Egypt, in order to have it translated, and it was only on the 20th of July, 1864, that Mr. Rassam and myself left Aden for Massowah in her Majesty's steamer _Dalhousie_. On the morning of the 23rd, at a distance of about thirty miles from the shore, we sighted the high land of Abyssinia, formed of several consecutive ranges, all running from N. to S., the more distant being also the highest; some of the peaks, such as Taranta, ranging between 12,000 and 13,000 feet. As the outline of the coast became more distinct, the sight of a small island covered with white houses surrounded by green groves, reflecting their welcome shadows in the quiet blue water of the bay, gave us a thrill of delight; it seemed as if at last we had come to one of those enchanted spots of the East, so often described, so seldom seen, and to the longing of our anxious hearts the quick motion of the steamer seemed slow to satisfy our ardent wishes. But nearer and nearer as we approached the shore, one by one all our illusions disappeared; the pleasant imagery vanished, and the stern reality of mangrove swamps, sandy and sunburnt beach, wretched and squalid huts, stared us in the face. Instead of the semi-Paradise distance had painted to our imagination, we found (and, alas! remained long enough to verify the fact) that the land of our temporary residence could be described in three words--sun, dirt, and desolation. Massowah, latitude 15.36 N., longitude 39.30 E., is one of the many coral islands that abound in the Red Sea; it is but a few feet above high-water mark, about a mile in length, and a quarter in breadth. Towards the north it is separated from the mainland by a narrow creek about 200 yards in breadth, and is distant from Arkiko, a small town situated at the western extremity of the bay, about two miles. Half-a-mile south of Massowah, another small coral island, almost parallel to the one we describe, covered with mangroves and other rank vegetation, the proud owner of a sheik's tomb of great veneration, lies between Massowah and the Gedem peak, the high mountain forming the southern boundary of the bay. The western half of the island of Massowah is covered with houses: a few two stories high, built of coral rock, the remainder small wooden huts with straw roofs. The first are inhabited by the wealthier merchants and brokers, the Turkish officials, and the few Banians, European consuls; and merchants whose unfortunate fate has cast them on this inhospitable shore. There is not a building worth mentioning: the Pasha's residence is a large, ungainly mansion, remarkable only for its extreme filthiness. During our stay the offensive smell from the accumulation of dirt on the yards and staircases of the palace was quite overwhelming: it is easier to imagine than to describe the abominable stench that pervaded the whole place. The few mosques are without importance--miserable whitewashed coral buildings. One, however, under construction promised to be a shade better than the others. [Illustration: Fort, Mission House and Town of Massowah] The streets--if by this name we may call the narrow and irregular lanes that run between the houses--are kept pretty clean; whether with or without municipal intervention I cannot say. Except in front of the Pasha's residence, there is no open space worthy of the name of square. The houses are much crowded together, many even being half built over the sea on piles. Land is of such value on this spot so little known, that reclamation was at several points going on; though I do not suppose that shares and dividends were either issued or promised. The landing-place is near the centre of the island, opposite to the gates of the town, which are regularly shut at eight P.M.; why, it is difficult to say, as it is possible to land on any part of the island quite as easily, if not more so, than on the greasy pier. On the landing-place a few huts have been erected by the collector of customs and his subordinates; these, surrounded by the brokers and tallow-scented Bedouins, register the imports, exacting such duties as they like, before the merchandise is allowed to be purchased by the Banians or conveyed to the bazaar for sale. This last-named place--the _sine qua non_ of all Eastern towns--is a wretched affair. Still, the Bedouin beau, the Bashi-bazouk, the native girls, and the many _flaneurs_ of the place, must find some attractions in its precincts, for though redolent with effluvia of the worst description, and swarming with flies, it is, during part of the day, the rendezvous of a merry and jostling crowd. The eastern half of the island contains the burial-ground, the water-tanks, the Roman Catholic mission-house, and a small fort. The burial-ground begins almost with the last houses, the boundary between the living and the dead being merely nominal. To improve the closer relationship between the two, the water-tanks are placed amongst the graves! but there are but few tanks still in good condition. After heavy showers, the surface drainage finds its way into the reservoirs, carrying with it the detritus of all the accumulated filth of the last year or two, and adding an infusion of human bodies, in all stages of decomposition. Still, the water is highly prized, and, strange to say, seems to have no noxious effects, on the drinkers. At the north and south points of this part of the island two buildings have been erected--the one the emblem of good-will and peace; the other, of war and strife--the mission-house and the fort. But it is difficult to decide which of the two means the most mischief; many are inclined to give the palm to the worthy fathers' abode. The fort appears formidable, but only at a great distance; on near approach it is found to be but a relic of former ages, a crumbled-down ruin, too weak to bear any longer its three old rusty guns now lying on the ground: it is the terror, not of the neighbourhood, but of the unfortunate gunner, who has already lost an arm whilst endeavouring to return a salute through their honeycombed tubes. On the other hand, the mission-house, garbed in immaculate whiteness, smiles radiantly around, inviting instead of repulsing the invader. But within, are they always words of love that fill the echoes of the dome? Is peace the only sound that issues from its walls? Though the past speaks volumes, and though the history of the Roman Church is written in letters of blood all over the Abyssinian land, let us hope that the fears of the people have no foundation, and that the missionaries here, like all Christian missionaries, only strive to promote one object--the cause of Christ. Massowah, as well as the immediate surrounding country, is mainly dependent on Abyssinia for its supplies. Jowaree is the staple food; wheat is little used; rice is a favourite amongst the better classes. Goats and sheep are killed daily in the bazaar, cows on rare occasions; but the flesh of the camel is the most esteemed, though, on account of the expense, rarely indulged in except on great occasions. The inhabitants being Mussulmans, water is the ordinary beverage; _tej_ and araki (made from honey) can, however, be purchased in the bazaar. The limited supply of water obtained from the few remaining tanks is quite inadequate to meet the wants of even a small portion of the community; water is consequently brought in daily from the wells a few miles north of Massowah, and from Arkiko. The first is brought in leather bags by the young girls of the village; the latter conveyed in boats across the bay. The water in both cases is brackish, that from Arkiko highly so. For this reason, and also on account of the greater facility in the transport, it is cheaper, and is purchased only by the poorer inhabitants. To avoid useless repetitions, before speaking of the population, climate, diseases, &c., a short account of the immediate neighbourhood is necessary. About four miles north of Massowah is Haitoomloo, a large village of about a thousand huts, the first place where we meet with sweet water; a mile and a quarter further inland we came upon Moncullou, a smaller but better built village. A mile westward of the last place we find the small village of Zaga. These, with a small hamlet east of Haitoomloo, constitute all the inhabited portions of this sterile region. The next village, Ailat, about twenty miles from Massowah, is built on the first terrace of the Abyssinian range, 600 feet above the level of the sea. All these villages are situated in the midst of a sandy and desolate plain; a few mimosas, aloes, senna plants, and cactuses struggle for life in the burning sand. The country residences of the English and French consuls shine like oases in this desert, great pains having been taken to introduce trees that thrive even in such a locality. [Illustration: Grove House at Moncullou.] The wells are the wealth of the villages--their very existence. Most probably, huts after huts have been erected in their vicinity until the actual prosperous villages have arisen, surrounded as they are on all sides by a burnt and desert tract. The wells number about twenty. Many old ones are closed, but new ones are frequently dug, so as to keep up a constant supply of water. The reason old wells are abandoned is, that after a while the water becomes very brackish. In a new well the water is almost sweet. The water obtained from these wells proceeds from two different sources: First, from the high mountains in the vicinity. The rain filters and impregnates the soil, but not being able to soak beyond a certain depth, on account of the volcanic rocks of the undersoil, forms a small stratum always met with at a certain depth. Secondly, from the sea by filtration. The wells, though about four miles from the shore, are only from twenty to twenty-five feet deep, and consequently on or below the level of the sea. The proof of an undercurrent of water, due to the presence of the high range of mountains, becomes more apparent as the traveller advances into the interior; though the soil is still sandy and barren, and little vegetation can as yet be seen, trees and shrubs become more plentiful, and of a larger size. A few miles farther inland, even during the summer months, it is always possible to obtain water by digging to the depth of a few feet in the dried-up bed of a water-torrent. It often struck me that what artesian wells have done for the Sahara they could equally accomplish for this region. The locality seems even more favourable, and there is every hope that, like the great African desert, the now desolate land of Samhar could be transformed into a rich date-bearing land. Taken as they are; these wells could certainly be improved. On our arrival at Moncullou, we found the water of the well belonging to the consular residence scarcely used, on account of its very brackish taste; we had the well emptied, a large quantity of saltish sand removed, and we dug deeper until large rocks appeared. The result was that we had the best well in the place, and requests for our water were made by many, including the Pasha himself. Unfortunately, the forefathers of the present Moncullites never did such a thing to their wells, and as all innovations are distasteful to a semi-civilized race, the fact was admired, but not imitated. Arkiko, at the extremity of the bay, is much nearer the mountains than the villages situated north of Massowah, but the village is built almost on the beach itself; the wells, not a hundred yards from the sea, are also much more superficial than those on the northern side, consequently the sea-water, having a much shorter distance to filter through, retains a greater proportion of saline particles, and I believe, were, it not for the presence of a small quantity of sweet water from the hills, it would be quite unpalatable. In the neighbourhood of Maasowah there are several hot mineral springs. The most important are those of Adulis and Ailat. In the summer of 1865 we made a short trip to Annesley Bay, to inspect the locality. The ruins of Adulis are several miles from the shore, and, with the exception of a few fragments of broken columns, contain no traces of the former important colony. The place was even hotter than Massowah; there was no vegetation, no trace of habitations on that desolate shore. Fancy our surprise, on reaching the same spot in May, 1868, to find piers, railways, bazaars, &c.--a bustling city had sprung out of the wilderness. The springs of Adulis [Footnote: A short time before our departure for the interior, some of the water of the hot springs of Adulis was collected and forwarded to Bombay for analysis.] are only a few hundred yards from the sea-shore, surrounded by a pleasing green patch covered with a vigorous vegetation, the rendezvous of myriads of birds and quadrupeds, who, morning and evening, swarm thither to quench their thirst. At Ailat [Footnote: Water collected and sent to Bombay, November, 1864.] the hot spring issues from basaltic rocks on a small plateau between high and precipitous mountains. At the source itself the temperature is 141 Fahrenheit, but as the water flows down the different ravines, it gradually cools until it differs in no way from other mountain streams. It is palatable, and used by the inhabitants of Ailat for all purposes: it is also highly esteemed by the Bedouins. On account of its medicinal properties, numbers resort to the natural baths, formed of hollowed volcanic roots, for the relief of every variety of disease. From what I could gather, it appears to prove beneficial in chronic rheumatism and in diseases of the skin. Probably in these cases any warm water would act as well, considering the usual morbid condition of the integument in those dirty and unwashed races. The population of Massowah, including the surrounding villages (as far, at least, as I could ascertain), amounts to 10,000 inhabitants. The Massowah race is far from pure; being a mixture of Turkish, Arab, and African blood. The features are generally good, the nose straight, the hair in many instances short and curly; the skin brown, the lips often large, the teeth even and white. The men are of the middle height; the women under it. So much for their physical appearance. Morally they are ignorant and superstitious, having apparently retained but few of their forefathers' virtues, but a great many of their vices. A very good distinction can be made, in the male portion of the community, between those who wear turbans and long white shirts, and those hard-working wretches who, girded with a single leather skin, roam about with their flocks in search of pasture and water. The first live I know not how. They call themselves brokers! It is true that three or four times a year caravans arrive from the interior, but as a rule, with the exception of a skin or two of honey, and a few bags of jowaree, nothing is imported. What possible business can about 500 brokers have? How ten dollars' worth of honey and fifty of grain can give a brokerage sufficient to clothe and feed, not only themselves but also their families, is a problem I have in vain endeavoured to solve! In the East, children, instead of being a burden to poor people, are often a source of wealth: at Massowah they certainly are. The young girls of Moncullou, &c., bring in a pretty good income to their parents. I know big, strong, but lazy fellows who would squat down all day in the shade of their huts, living on the earnings of two or three little girls, who daily went once or twice to Massowah laden with a large skin full of water. The water-girls vary in age from eight to sixteen. The younger ones are rather pretty, small, but well made, the hair neatly braided and falling on the shoulders. A small piece of cotton reaching from the waist to the knee is generally the only garment of the poorest. Those better off wear also a piece of plaid thrown gracefully across the shoulders. The right nostril is ornamented with a small copper ring; as a substitute, a shirt-button is much esteemed, and during our stay our buttons were in constant demand. If we take into consideration that Massowah is situated within the tropics, possessing no running stream, that it is surrounded by burning deserts, and that rain seldom falls, the conclusion we could beforehand have arrived at is, that the climate is essentially hot and dry. From November to March the nights are cool, and during that period the day, in a good house or tent, is pleasant enough. From April to October the nights are close, and often very oppressive. During those hot months, both in the morning before the sea-breeze springs up and in the evening when it has died away, all animal creation falls into a torpid state. The perfect calm that then reigns is fearful in its stillness and painful in its effects. From May to August sand-storms frequently occur. They begin usually at four P.M. (though occasionally they appear in the morning), and last from a few minutes only to a couple of hours. Long before the storm is felt, the horizon towards the N.N.W. is quite dark; a black cloud extends from the sea to the mountain range, and as it advances the sun itself is obscured. A few minutes of dead calm, and then suddenly the dark column approaches; all seems to disappear before it, and the roar of the terrible hurricane of wind and sand now coursing over the land is almost sublime in its horrors. Coming after the moist sea breeze, the hot and dry wind appears quite cool, though the thermometer rises to 110 or 115 degrees. After the storm a gentle land breeze follows, and often lasts all night. The amount of sand carried by the wind in these storms can be imagined by the mere mention of the fact that we could not discern, at a short distance from us, such a large object as a tent. It seldom rains; occasionally there are a few showers in August and November. As far as Europeans are concerned, climates like the one we have just described cannot be considered as unhealthy; they debilitate and weaken the system, and predispose to tropical diseases, but seldom engender them. I expected to find many cases of scurvy, due to the brackish condition of the water and to the absence of vegetables; but either scurvy did not exist to a great extent or did not come under my observation, as during my stay I did not meet with more than three or four cases. Fevers affect the natives after a fall of rain, but though some cases are of a very pernicious type, the majority belong to the simple intermittent or remittent, and yield rapidly to a proper treatment. Small-pox now and then makes fearful ravages. When it breaks out, a mild case is chosen, and from it a great many are inoculated. The mortality is considerable amongst those who submit to the operation. On several occasions during the summer I received vaccine lymph, and inoculated with it. In no case did it take; owing, I suppose, to the extreme heat of the weather. During, the cold season I applied again, but could not obtain any. The greatest mortality is due to childbirth--a strange fact, as in the East confinements are generally easy. The practice in use here has probably much to do with this unfavourable result. After her confinement the woman is placed upon an alga or small native bed; underneath which, fire with aromatic herbs is so arranged as almost to suffocate the newly-delivered woman. Diarrhoea was frequent during the summer of 1865, and dysentery at the same period proved fatal to many. Diseases of the eyes are seldom met with, except simple inflammation caused by the heat and glare of the sun. I suffered from a severe attack of ophthalmia, and was obliged in consequence to proceed to Aden for a few weeks. I have met with no case of disease of the lungs, and bronchial affections seem almost unknown. I had occasion to attend upon cases of neuralgia, and one of gouty rheumatism. For several years locusts have been committing great damage to the crops. In 1864 they occasioned a scarcity and dearness of the first necessaries of life, but in 1865 the whole of Tigré, Hamasein, Bogos, &c. had been laid waste by swarms of locusts, and at last no supplies whatever reached from the interior. The local Government sent to Hodeida and other ports for grain, and rice, and thus avoided the horrors of a complete famine. As it was, numbers died, and many half-starved wretches were ready victims for such a disease as cholera. This last-named scourge made its appearance in October, 1865, at the time we were making our preparations to proceed into the interior. The epidemic was severely felt. All those who had been suffering from the effects of insufficient or inferior food became an easy prey; few, indeed, of those who contracted the disease rallied; almost all died. During our residence at Massowah, out of the small community of Europeans five died, two from heat apoplexy, two from debility, and one from cholera. (None came under my care.) The Pasha himself was several times on the point of death, from debility and complete loss of tone of the digestive organs. He was at last prevailed upon to leave, and saved his life by a timely trip to sea. The Bedouins of the Samhar, like all bigoted and ignorant savages, have great confidence in charms, amulets and exorcisms. The "medicine man" is generally an old, venerable-looking Sheik--a great rascal, for all his sanctified looks. His most usual prescription is to write a few lines of the Koran upon a piece of parchment, wash off the ink with water, and hand it over to the patient to drink; at other times the writing is enclosed in small squares of red leather, and applied to the seat of the disease. The Mullah is no contemptible rival of his, and though he also applies the all-efficacious words of the revealed "cow," he effects more rapid cures by spitting several times upon the sick person, muttering between each ejection appropriate prayers which no evil spirit could withstand, should his already sanctified spittle not have been sufficient to cast them off. Massowah boasts, moreover, of a regular medical practitioner, in the shape of an old Bashi-bazouk. Though superior in intelligence to the Sheik and the Mullah, his medical knowledge is on a par with theirs. He possesses a few drugs, given to him by travellers; but as he is not acquainted with their properties or doses, he wisely keeps them on a shelf for the admiration of the natives, and employs simples, with which, if he effects no wonderful cures, he still does no harm. Our _confère_ is not at all conceited, though he no doubt imposes upon the credulity of the aborigines; when we met in "consultation," he always, with becoming meekness, acknowledged his ignorance. Massowah, as I have already stated, is built on a coral rock; the same formation exists on many parts of the coast, and forms cliffs, some of them thirty feet above the level of the sea. Further inland, towards Moncullou and Haitoomloo, volcanic rocks begin to appear, scattered here and there as if carelessly thrown on the sandy plain; at first isolated landmarts over the level space, they soon become more united, increasing in number, size, and importance, until the mountains themselves are reached, where almost every stone declares the predominance of the volcanic formation. The flora is scanty, and belongs, with but few exceptions, to the _Leguminosae_. Several varieties of antelopes roam over the desert. Partridges, pigeons, and several species of the _Natatores_ at certain seasons, arrive in great numbers. Apart from these, nothing useful to man is met with amongst the other members of the animal creation, consisting principally of hosts of hyenas, snakes, scorpions, and innumerable insects. We remained at Massowah from the 23rd of July, 1864, to the 8th of August, 1865, the date of our departure for Egypt, where we went in order to receive instructions, when a letter at last reached us from the Emperor Theodore. Massowah offered no attractions: the heat was so intense at times that we could hardly breathe; and we ardently longed for our return to Aden or India, as we had given up all hopes regarding the acceptance of our mission by the Abyssinian Emperor. No pains were spared, no stone was left unturned, no possible chance left untried to obtain information as to the condition of the captives, to supply them with the necessaries of life, or induce the obstinate potentate to call for the letter it was said he was so anxious to receive. The very day of our arrival at Massowah, efforts were made to engage messengers to proceed to the Abyssinian court and inform his Ethiopian Majesty that officers had arrived at the coast with the answer to his letter to the Queen of England. But such was the dread of his name, that it was with great difficulty, and only on the promise of a large reward, that any could be obtained. On the evening of the 24th, the day after our arrival, the messengers were despatched with the letters to the Abouna and the Emperor from the Patriarch, one from Mr. Rassam to the Abouna, and one to the Emperor, the messengers promising to be back in the course of a month or so. Mr. Rassam, in his letter to the Emperor Theodoros, informed him, in courteous language, that he had arrived at Massowah the day before, bearing a letter from H.M. the Queen of England to his address, and that he was desirous of delivering it into his Majesty's hands. He also informed him that he would await the answer at Massowah, and requested, should his Majesty send for him, kindly to provide him with an escort. He, however, left to Theodore the option of sending the prisoners down with a trustworthy person to whom he could deliver the letter from the Queen of England. He concluded by advising his Majesty that his embassy to the Queen had been accepted, and should it reach the coast before his (Mr. Rassam's) departure for Aden, he would take the necessary steps to see that it reached England in safety. A month--six weeks--two months, passed in hourly expectation of the return of the messengers. All suppositions were exhausted: perhaps the messengers had not reached; possibly the King had detained them; or they might have lost the packet whilst crossing some river, etc.; but as no reliable information could moreover be obtained, as to the exact condition of the captives, it was impossible to remain any longer in such a state of uncertainty. Mr. Rassam, therefore, despatched with considerable difficulty two more messengers, with a copy of his letter of July 24, accompanied by an explanatory note. Private messengers were, at the same time, sent to the Emperor's camp to report on his treatment of the captives, and to different parts of the country, from whence we supposed information might possibly be obtained. A short time afterwards, having succeeded in securing the names of some of the Gaffat people who had formerly been in communication with Consul Cameron, we wrote to them in English, French, and German, not knowing what language they understood, earnestly requesting that they would inform us as to what steps they considered most advisable in order to obtain the release of the captives. Again we waited on the desert shore of Massowah for that answer so long expected; none came, but on Christmas-day we received a few lines from Messrs. Flad and Schimper, the two Europeans with whom we had communicated. All they had to say was, that the misfortunes which had befallen the Europeans were due to the Emperor's letter not having been answered, and they advised Mr. Rassam to send the letter he had brought with him to his Majesty. However, Mr. Rassam thought it unbecoming the British Government to force upon the Emperor a letter signed by the Queen of England, when, by his refusing even to acknowledge its presence at Massowah, he clearly showed that he had changed his mind and did not care any more about it. In the meanwhile some of the prisoners' servants had arrived with letters from their masters; other messengers despatched from Massowah were also equally successful; stores, money, letters were now regularly forwarded to the captives, who, in return, kept us informed as to their condition and the movements of the King. So far our presence at Massowah was of the utmost importance, since without the supplies and money we were able to provide them with, their misery would have been increased tenfold, if even they had not at last succumbed to privation and want. The friends of the captives and, to a great extent, the public, unaware of the efforts made by Mr. Rassam to accomplish the object of his mission, and of the great difficulties that were to be contended with, attributed the apparent failure to causes far removed; many suggestions were advanced, a few even tried, but no result followed. It was said that one of the reasons his Majesty did not vouch us an answer was, that the mission was not of sufficient importance; that his Majesty considered himself slighted, and therefore would not condescend to acknowledge us. To remedy this, in February, 1865, Government decided on adding another military officer to our party, and, as the press reported at the time, it was confidently expressed that great results would follow this step. Hence, Lieut. Prideaux, of her Majesty's Bombay Staff Corps, arrived in Massowah in May. As might reasonably be expected, his presence at the coast did not in the least influence Theodore's mind. The only advantage gained by the addition of this officer to the mission was a charming companion, who was doomed to spend with me in a tent on the sea-beach the hot months of hot Massowah. More months elapsed: still no answer! the condition of the prisoners was very precarious; they saw with great apprehension another rainy season about to set in; their letters were written in a most desponding tone; and though we had done our utmost to supply them with money and a few comforts, the distance and the rebellious state of the country made it difficult to provide more abundantly for their wants. At last, in March, we determined on a last effort; should it fail we would request our recall. We had heard of Samuel, how he had been in many respects mixed up in the affair, and we knew that he enjoyed in some degree the confidence of his master; so when we were informed that one of his relations was willing to convey a letter and he assured us of an answer before forty days, once more our hopes were excited and we trusted in the possibility of success. The forty days expired, then two, then three months; but we heard nothing!! It seemed as if a kind of fatality attended our messengers: from whatever class they were taken--simple peasants, followers of the Nab, or relatives of one of the Emperor's courtiers--the result was invariably the same; not only they did not bring back any answer from the Emperor, but not even one returned to us. The prolonged delay of Mr. Rassam's mission at Massowah without any apparent good results having been achieved, was so contrary to all expectations, that it was at last decided to resort to other means. In February, 1865, a Copt, Abdul Melak, presented himself at the consulate of Jeddah, pretending to have just arrived from Abyssinia with a message from the Abouna to the Consul-General, purporting that if he could bring from H.M.'s Consul-General in Egypt a written declaration to the effect that, should the Emperor allow the Europeans in chains to depart, no steps would be taken to punish the offence, he, the Abouna, would engage himself to obtain their liberation, and become their security. That impostor, who had never been in Abyssinia at all, gave such wonderful details that he completely imposed upon the Consul of Jeddah and the Consul-General. The fact that he pretended to have passed through Massowah without entering into communication with Mr. Rassam was by itself suspicious; but had these gentlemen possessed the slightest knowledge of Abyssinia, they would at once have discovered the deception when he purchased some "suitable" presents for the Abouna, before proceeding on the mission that had been intrusted to him. In Abyssinia tobacco is considered "unclean" by the priests; none ever smoke; and even admitting that in his privacy the Abouna might have now and then indulged in a weed, he would have taken great care to keep the matter as quiet as possible. Therefore to present him with an _amber mouthpiece_ would have been a gratuitous insult to a man who was supposed to have rendered an important favour. It was, indeed, the very last testimonial any one in the slightest degree conversant with Abyssinian priesthood would ever have selected. As it is, the man started, and lived for months amongst the Arab tribes between Kassala and Metemma, on the strength of a certificate that described him as an ambassador and recommended him to the protection of the tribes that lay on his road. We met him not for from Kassala; he acknowledged the deceit he had practised, and was delighted when he heard that we had no intention of requesting the Turkish authorities to make him a prisoner. Government at last decided on recalling us, and appointed Mr. Palgrave, the distinguished Arabian traveller, in our stead. In the beginning of July we went for a short trip to the Habab country, situate north of Massowah; on our return, we were met in the desert of Chab by some of the Naib's relations, who informed us that Ibrahim (the relative of Samuel) had returned with an answer from his Majesty, and was expected daily; that all our former messengers had obtained leave to depart; but what was still more gratifying was the intelligence, brought down by them, that Theodore, to show his regard for us, had liberated Consul Cameron and his fellow-captives. On July 12, Ibrahim arrived. He gave full details about the release of the Consul; a story which was corroborated a few days afterwards by another relative of his, also one of our former messengers. I believe, from what I afterwards learnt, that Theodore himself was party to the lie, as he publicly, in presence of the messengers, gave orders to some of his officers to go and remove the Consul's fetters; only the messengers improved on it by stating that they had seen the Consul after the chains had been removed. The reply Theodore had at last granted to our repeated demands was not courteous, nor even civil--it was neither signed nor sealed; he ordered us to proceed through the distant and unhealthy route of the Soudan, and, once arrived at Metemma, to inform him of our arrival there, and that he would then provide us with an escort. We did not like the letter; it seemed more the production of a madman than of a reasonable being. I select a few extracts from this letter, as they are really curiosities in their way. He said:-- "The reason I do not write to you in my name, because of Abouna Salama, the so-called Kokab (Stern) the Jew, and the one you called Consul, named Cameron (who was sent by you). I treated them with honour and friendship in my city. When I thus befriended them, on account of my anxiety to cultivate the friendship of the English Queen, they reviled me. "Plowden and Johannes (John Bell), who were called Englishmen, were killed in my country, whose death, by the power of God, I avenged on those who killed them; on account these (the three above mentioned) abused me, and denounced me as a murderer. "Cameron, who is called Consul, represented to me that he was a servant of the Queen. I invested him with a robe of honour of my country, and supplied him with provisions for the journey. I asked him to make me a friend of the Queen. "When he was sent on his mission, he went and stayed some time with the Turks, and returned to me. "I spoke to him about the letter I sent through him to the Queen. He said, that up to that time he had not received any intelligence concerning it. What have I done, said I, that they should hate me, and treat me with animosity? By the power of the Lord my creator, I kept silent." Although the steamer _Victoria_ only arrived in Massowah on the 23rd of July, we had as yet received no letters from Consul Cameron, nor from any of the captives. By the _Victoria_ we were informed that Mr. Rassam was recalled and Mr. Palgrave appointed. Under the new aspect matters had suddenly taken, Mr. Rassam could but refer to Government for instructions. We therefore at once started for Egypt, where we arrived on the 5th of September. Through her Majesty's Agent and Consul-General, Government was apprised of the receipt of a letter from Theodore, granting us permission to enter Abyssinia; that the letter was uncourteous, and not signed; that Cameron was released, and though Cameron had always insisted on our not proceeding into the interior with or without safe-conduct, we were ready to go at once, should Government consider it advisable. Mr. Palgrave was told to remain, Mr. Rassam and his companions to go; a certain sum of money was allowed for presents; letters for the governors of the Soudan were obtained; and, our necessary stores and outfit being purchased; we returned to Massowah, where we arrived on the 25th of September. There we heard that messengers had arrived from the prisoners; that they had been taken to Aden by a man-of-war; and that they had verbally reported, that far from having been released, hand-chains had been added to the captives' previous fetters. As we could not find anybody to accompany us through the Soudan (on account of its unhealthiness at that time of the year) before the middle of October, we thought it advisable to proceed at once to Aden, in order to gain correct information from the captives' letters, as to their actual condition, and to confer with the Political Resident of that station, as to the expediency of complying with the Emperor's requests, under the totally different aspect matters now presented. Although Captain Cameron, in several of his former communications, had repeatedly insisted that on no account we should enter Abyssinia, in the note just received he implored us to come up at once, as our declining to do so would prove of the utmost danger to the prisoners. The Political Resident, therefore, taking into consideration Captain Cameron's earnest appeal for Mr. Rassam to acquiesce with Theodore's request, advised us to proceed and hope for the best. After a short stay at Aden we again returned to Massowah, and, with the utmost diligence, made all our arrangements for the long journey that lay before us. Unfortunately cholera had broken out, the natives were unwilling to cross the plains of Braka and Taka, on account of the malarious fever, so deadly at that time of the year, and it required all the influence of the local authorities to insure our speedy departure. CHAPTER V. From Massowah to Kassala--The Start--The Habab--Adventures of M. Marcopoli--The Beni Amer--Arrival at Kassala--The Nubian Mutiny--Attempt of De Bisson to found a Colony in the Soudan. On the afternoon of the 15th October, all our preparations being apparently complete, the mission, composed of Mr. H. Rassam, Lieut. W.F. Prideaux, of her Majesty's Bombay Staff Corps, and myself, started on its dangerous enterprise. We were accompanied by a nephew of the Naib of Arkiko; and an escort of Turkish Irregulars had been graciously sent by the Pasha to protect our sixty camels, laden with our personal luggage, stores, and presents for the Ethiopian monarch. We also took with us several Portuguese and other Indian servants, and a few natives of Massowah as muleteers. On a first march something is always found wanting. On this occasion many of the cameleers were unprovided with ropes: boxes, portmanteau-bags, were strewed all over the road, and night was far advanced before the last camel reached Moncullou. A halt was in consequence absolutely necessary, so that the actual start was only made on the afternoon of the 16th. From Moncullou our route lay N.W. across the desert of Chab, a dreary wilderness of sand, intersected by two winter torrents, generally dry: but by digging in their sandy beds it is possible at all seasons to obtain some muddy water. The rapidity with which these torrents fill up is most astonishing. During the summer of 1865, we had made a trip to Af-Abed, in the Hababs' country. On our return, whilst crossing the desert, we experienced a very severe storm. We had just reached our encamping-ground on the Southern bank of one of these water-courses, and half the camels had already crossed the dry bed of the river, when, on a sudden, a tremendous roar was heard, shortly afterwards followed by a fearful rush of water. In the former empty bed of the torrent now dashed a mighty stream, tearing down trees and rocks, so that no human being could possibly cross. Our luggage and servants were still on the opposite bank, and although we were only a stone's throw from the party so suddenly cut off from us, we had to spend the night on the bare ground, with no other covering than our clothing. In the very centre of the desert of Chab, arises, Amba Goneb, a conical basaltic rock several hundred feet high, an advanced sentry detached from the now approaching mountains. On the evening of the 18th, we reached Ain, and from the glaring and dreary desert passed into a lovely valley, watered by a small winding stream, cool and limpid, shaded by mimosas and tamarinds, and glowing with the freshness and luxuriance of topical vegetation. [Footnote: The distance from Massowah to Ain is about forty-five miles.] We were fortunate enough to leave the cholera behind us. Apart from a few cases of diarrhoea, easily checked, the whole party was in excellent health; every one in high spirits at the prospect of visiting almost unknown regions, and above all at having at last bid adieu to Massowah, where we had spent in anxious expectation long and dreary months. From Ain to Mahaber [Footnote: From Ain to Mahaber (direction E. by N.) about twenty miles.] the road is most picturesque; always following the winding of the small river Ain, here and there compressed to only a few yards by perpendicular walls of trachyte, or basalt; further on expanding into miniature green plateaus, bordered by conical hills, covered to the very summit by mimosas and huge cactuses, alive with large hordes of antelopes (the agazin), which, bounding from rock to rock, scared by their frolics the countless host of huge baboons. The valley itself, graced by the presence of gaudy-feathered and sweet-singing birds, echoed to the shrill cry of the numerous guinea-fowls, so tame, that the repeated reports of our fire-arms did not disturb them in the least. At Mahaber we were obliged to remain several days awaiting fresh camels. The Hababs, who had now to supply us, frightened by the presence of the hairy nephew of the Nab and the Bashi-hazouks, made themselves scarce, and it was only after much parley and the repeated assurance that every one would be paid, that the camels at last made their appearance. The Hababs are a large pastoral tribe, inhabiting the Ad Temariam, a hilly and well-watered district, about fifty miles north-west of Massowah, included between longitude 38.39 and latitude 16 to 16.30. They represent the finest type of the roving Bedouins; of middle height, muscular, well made, they claim an Abyssinian origin. With the exception of a darker hue of the skin, certainly in other respects they do not differ from the inhabitants of the table-land, and have but few characteristics of the aboriginal African races. Some fifty years ago they were a Christian tribe--nominally, at least--but were converted to Mohammedanism by an old Sheik, still alive, who resides near Moncullou, and is an object of great veneration all over the Samhar. Once their doubts removed, their suspicions lulled, the Hababs proved themselves friendly, willing, and obliging. Gratitude is no common virtue in Africa, at least as far as my own experience goes. Its rarity brings back to my memory a fact that I will here record. On our previous trip to the Ad Temariam, I had seen several patients, amongst them a young man, suffering from remittent fever, and I gave him some medicine. Hearing of our arrival at Mahaber, he came to thank me, bringing as an offering a small skin of milk. He apologized for the absence of his aged father, who also, he said, wished to kiss my feet, but the distance (about eight miles) was too much for the old man's strength. I may as well mention here that a young commercial traveller, Mr. Marcopoli, had accompanied us from Massowah. He was going to Metemma, _viâ_ Kassala, to be present at the annual fairs held at that place in winter. He took advantage of our short stay at Mahaber, to proceed to Keren, in the Bogos, where he was called by business, intending to join again our party a few stages ahead. We looked at our map, and estimated the distance from our halting-place to the Bogos at the utmost eighteen miles. As he was provided with excellent mules, in four or five hours he naturally expected to reach his destination. He accordingly started at daybreak, and never halted once; but night was far advanced before he perceived the lights of the first village on the Bogos plateau: so much for travellers' maps. The poor man's anxiety had been great. Soon after dark he perceived--or, as I suspect, imagination worked to a high pitch of excitement through fear, conjured to his fancy the phantom of some huge animal--a lion, a tiger, he did not know very exactly; but, at all events, he saw some horrid beast of prey, glaring at him through the brushwood, with fiery and bloodshot eyes, watching all his movements for a suitable opportunity to fall upon his helpless prey. However, he reached Keren in safety. He found that we were expected by the Bogos people, who believed that we were proceeding by the upper route. Flowers were to be strewed in our path, and our entrance was to be welcomed by dances and songs in our praise; the officer in command of the troops was to receive us with military honours, the civil governor intended to entertain us on a large scale: in a word, a grand reception was to be offered to the English friends of the mighty Theodore. The disappointment was no doubt great when Mr. Marcopoli informed the Bogosites that our route lay in an opposite direction to their fair province. On that the military commander decided on accompanying Mr. Marcopoli back, and paying us his respects at our halting-place. Marcopoli was delighted; he had a too vivid recollection of _his lion_ not to be overjoyed at the idea of having companions with him. Late in the evening they started, the Abyssinian officer and his men having before marching indulged in deep draughts of tej to keep out the cold. On their way down, the "warriors" cantered about in the most frantic manner; now riding at a full gallop up to poor Marcopoli, the lance in rest, and dexterously wheeling round when the weapon almost touched his breast; then charging upon him at full speed and firing off their loaded pistols quite close, and only a few feet above his head. Marcopoli felt very uncomfortable in the society of his bellicose and drunken escort, but not knowing their language, he had nothing to do but to appear pleased. Early in the morning, at our second stage from Mahaber, these specimens of Abyssinian soldiers made their appearance, and a batch of more villanous-looking scoundrels I have never seen during my stay in Abyssinia: evidently Theodore was not very particular as to whom he selected for such distant outposts, unless he considered the roughest and most disorderly the fittest for such duties. They presented us with a cow they had stolen on the road, and begged us not to forget to mention to their master that they had come all the distance from Bogos to pay their respects to his guests. After having refreshed themselves with a few glasses of brandy and partaken of a slight collation, they kissed the ground in acknowledgment of the pleasant things they had received in return for their gift, and departed--to our great satisfaction. On that 23rd we started from Mahaber, going due west, and following for eight miles longer the charming valley of Ain. Afterwards, we diverged to the left, going in a south-west direction, until we reached the province of Barka; when again our route lay west by north, until we came to Zaga. From this point to Kassala the general direction is west by south. [Footnote: The distance from Mahaber to Adart on the frontier of Barka is about fifty miles; from Adart to Kassala about 130 miles.] From Mahaber to Adart the road is very pleasant; for several days we continually ascended, and the more we advanced into the mountainous region the more agreeable and pleasant did we feel it, and we enjoyed the sight of splendid and luxuriant vegetation. On the 25th we crossed the Anseba, a large river flowing from the high lands of Bogos, Hamasien, and Mensa, and joining the river Barka at Tjab. [Footnote: Tjab, lat. 17 10', long. 37 15'.] We spent a pleasant day in the beautiful Anseba valley, but aware of the danger of remaining after sunset near its flowery but malarious banks, we pitched our tent on a rising ground at some distance, and the next morning proceeded to Haboob, the highest point we had to gain before descending into the Barka through the difficult pass of Lookum. After this abrupt descent of more than 2,000 feet, the roads generally slope towards the low land of Barka. From Ain to Haboob [Footnote: The Anseba, at the point we crossed, is about 4,000 feet above the level of the sea; Haboob about 4,500.] the country is well wooded, and watered by innumerable small streams. The soil is formed of the detritus of the volcanic rocks, specially of feldspar; pumice abounds in the ravines. The channels of the rivulets are the only roads for the traveller. This mountain chain is, on the whole, a pleasant spot, more delightful for the reason that it rises between the arid shores of the Red Sea and the flat, hot, and level plains of the Soudan. The province of Barka is a boundless prairie, about 2,500 feet above the level of the sea, covered at the time of our journey with half-dried grass some five or six feet high, and dotted here and there with small woods of stunted mimosas. From Barka to Metemma we find alluvium as the general formation. Water is scarce; even a month after the rainy season all the rivers are dried up, and water is only obtained by digging in the sand of the dry beds of the river Barka and its tributaries. When we passed through these plains many spots were still green; but a few months later we should have crossed a parched-up prairie little better than the desert itself. Our pretty songsters of Ain were no more to be seen. The guinea-fowl was seldom met with, and only a few tiny antelopes wandered over the solitary expanse. Instead, we were aroused by the roar of the lion, the laugh of the hyena, and we had to protect our sheep and goats, as the spotted leopard was lurking around our tents. On the 31st of October we reached Zaga, a large sloping plain situated at the junction of the Barka and the Mogareib. Water can be obtained at that spot by digging wells in the dried-up beds of the rivers, in sufficient quantity to have induced the Beni Amer to make it their winter encamping-ground. We had that day made a very long march, on account of the absence of water on the road. Starting at two P.M., we only reached our halting ground (the bed of a dried-up winter torrent, a few hundred yards below the Beni Amer's camp), a couple of hours before daybreak. We were so sleepy and tired that during the latter part of the stage it had been with great difficulty that we managed to keep in the saddle; and no sooner did our guide give us the grateful intelligence that we had arrived, than we stretched on the ground the piece of tanned cowhide we carried with us, and covering ourselves with our cloaks, lay down to rest until daybreak. I offered to Mr. Marcopoli to share my "bedding," as his own had not arrived, and in a few minutes we both fell into that deep slumber that follows the exhaustion of a long weary march. I remember my disgust at being violently shaken by my bed companion; who, in a faint and trembling voice, whispered into my ear: "Look there!" I understood at once his look of anguish and terror, for two splendid lions, not more than twenty paces from us, were drinking near the wells that had been sank by the Arabs. I thought, and told my companion, that as we had no fire-arms with us; the wisest plan was to go to sleep and remain as quiet as possible. I set him the example, and only woke up late in the morning, when the sun was already high up and pouring its burning rays over my uncovered head. Marcopoli, with an absent terrified look impressed on his countenance, was still sitting near me. He told me that he had not slept, but kept watching the lions: they had remained for a long time, drinking, roaring and beating their sides with their tails; and even when they departed he kept listening to their dreadful roar, sounding more distant as the first rays of day appeared. We had, no doubt, had a narrow escape, as that night a lion had carried away a man and a child who had strayed from the Arab encampment. The Sheik of the Beni Amer, during the few days we remained at Zaga, with true Arab hospitality, always placed at night a strong guard around our tent, to watch the large fires that they kindle in order to keep at a respectful distance these unwelcome night rovers. We had agreed with the Hababs that we would exchange camels at this spot, but none could be obtained for love or money. It was lucky for us that the Bedouins had by this time found out that all white men are not Turks, otherwise we should have been cast helpless in the very centre of Barka. The Beni Amers could never be induced even to acknowledge that they had camels, though more than 10,000 were grazing under our very eyes. The Beni Amers are Arabs, speak the Arab language, and have preserved up to the present day all the characteristics of their race. A roving Bedouin of the Yemen and a Beni Amer are so much alike that it seems hardly credible that the Beni Amers possess no record of their advent on the African coast, or of the causes that induced them to leave the land of their ancestors. Their long, black, silky hair has not acquired the woolly texture of that of the sons of Ham, and the small extremities, the well-knit limbs, the straight nose and small lips, the dark bronzed complexion, distinguish them alike from the Shankallas and the Barias, and from the mixed races of the plateaus. They wear a piece of cloth a few yards in length, folded round the body, with an elegance peculiar to the savage. Even with this dirty rag, they must be admired, like the Italian beggar, not only for their beautiful forms, but also for the look of impudence and roguery displayed in the bright glare of their dark eyes. The Beni Amers retain to a high degree that nuisance so well described by a distinguished traveller in the East, and, like their brethren of the Arabian shore, they are _une race bavarde et criarde_. They pay a nominal tribute to the Egyptian Government, and the reason we could not obtain camels was that, troops being moved about, they feared that on their arrival at Kassala they would be pressed into the Government service, and not only receive no pay, but most likely in the end lose the greater number of their camels. This tribe roams along the banks of the Barka and its many tributaries. Zaga is only their winter station; at other times they wander over the immense plains north of Barka in search of pasture and water for their innumerable flocks. All over the district of Zaga camps appeared in every direction; the herds of cattle, especially camels, seemed without number: this all indicates that they form a wealthy, powerful tribe. We encamped near their head-quarters, where resides the Sheik of all the Beni Amers, Ahmed, surrounded by his wives, children, and people. He is a man of middle age, conspicuous among his cunning followers by a shrewd and crafty look. He was friendly to us, and presented us with a few sheep and cows. His camp covered several acres of ground, the whole enclosed by a strong fence; the wigwams are built in a circle a few feet from the hedge; the open space in the centre being reserved for the cattle, always driven in at night. The chief's small circular wood and grass huts contrasted favourably with the dwellings of his followers. The latter, constructed in a circle, are formed by thrusting into the ground the extremities of small branches; a few pieces of coarse matting thrown over them complete the structure. They cannot be more than four feet high, and their average circumference is twelve feet; nevertheless, some eight or ten unwashed faces were seen peeping through the small door, staring with their black, frightened eyes at the strange white men. Small-pox was raging at the time with great virulence; fever also was daily claiming many victims. I gave medicine to several of the sufferers, and good hygienic advice to Sheik Ahmed. He listened with all becoming respect to the good things that fell from the Hakeem's lips: he would see; but they had never done so before, and with Mussulman bigotry and superstition he put an end to the conversation by an "Allah Kareem." [Footnote: "God is merciful"] On the 3rd of November we were again on the march. On the 5th we arrived al Sabderat, the first permanent village we had met with since leaving Moncullou. This village--in appearance similar to those of the Samhar--is built on the side of a large granitic mountain, cleft in two from the summit to the base. Numerous wells are dug in the dried-up bed of the water-course that separates the village. The inhabitants of this divided village often contend between themselves for the possession of the precious fluid; and when the rushing waters have disappeared, human passions too often fill with strife and warfare the otherwise quiet bed of the stream. On the morning of November 6 we entered Kassala. The Nab's nephew had preceded us, to inform the governor of our arrival, and present him with a letter recommending us to the care of the authorities, written by the Pasha of Egypt. To honour us according to his masters firman, the governor sent all the garrison to meet us a few miles from the town, with a polite apology for his absence, due to sickness. The senior partner of the Greek firm of Paniotti also came to welcome us, and afforded us the hospitality of his house and board. Kassala, the capital of Takka, a walled town near the River Gash, containing about 10,000 inhabitants, is on the model of most modern Egyptian towns, public as well as private buildings being alike of mud. The arsenal, barracks, &c. are the only structures of any importance. Beautiful gardens have been made at a short distance from the town, near the Biver Gash, by the European portion of the community. Just before, and immediately after the rains, the place is very unhealthy. During those months malarious fever and dysentery prevail to a great extent. Kassala, formerly a prosperous city, the centre of all the trade of the immense tract of country included from Massowah and Suakin to the Nile, and from Nubia to Abyssinia, was, at the date of our arrival, almost deserted, covered with ruins and rank vegetation, destitute of the most common necessaries of life, the spectre of its former self, haunted by its few remaining ghost-like and plague-stricken citizens. Kassala had just gone through the ordeal of a mutiny of Nubian troops. Pernicious fevers, malignant dysenteries and cholera had decimated both rebels and loyalists; war and sickness had marched hand in hand to make of this fair oasis of the Soudan a wilderness painful to contemplate. The mutiny broke out in July. The Nubian troops had not been paid for two years, and when they claimed a portion of their arrears, they only met with a stern refusal. Under these circumstances, it is not astonishing that they became ready listeners to the treasonable words and extravagant promises made to them by one of their petty chiefs, named Denda, a descendant of the former Nubian kings. They matured their plot in great secresy, and every one was horrified one morning to learn that the black troops had broken out in open mutiny and murdered their officers, and, no longer restrained, had followed their natural inclinations to revel in carnage and plunder. A few Egyptian regulars had, luckily, possession of the arsenal, and held it against these infuriated savages until troops could arrive from Kedaref and Khartoum. The Europeans and Egyptians gallantly defended their part of the town. They erected walls and small earthworks between themselves and the mutineers, and continually on the alert, though few in number, they repulsed with great gallantry the assault of the fiends thirsting for their lives and property. Egyptian troops poured in from all directions and relieved the besieged city. More than a thousand of the mutineers were killed near the gates of the town; nearly a thousand more were tried and executed; and those who attempted to escape the vengeance of the merciless pasha and fled for safety to the wilderness, were hunted down like beasts by the roving Bedouins. Though order was now restored, it was no easy matter to obtain camels. It required all the power and persuasion of the authorities to induce the Shukrie-Arabs to enter the town and convey us to Kedaref. We heard at Kassala the miserable end of Le Comte de Bisson's mad enterprise. It appears that the Comte, formerly an officer in the Neapolitan army, had married at an advanced age a beautiful, accomplished and rich heiress, the daughter of some contractor; it was "a mariage de convenance," a title bought by wealth and beauty. In the autumn of 1864, De Bisson reached Kassala accompanied by some fifty adventurers, the scum of the outcasts of all nations, who had enrolled themselves under the standard of the ambitions Comte, "on the promised assurance that power and wealth would be, before long, their envied portion." De Bisson's idea seems to have been to personify a second Moses: he came not only to colonize, but also to convert. The wild roving Bedouin of the Barka plains would, he believed, not only at once and with gratitude acknowledge his rule, but would soon, abandoning his false creed, fall prostrate before the altar he intended to erect in the wilderness. About a hundred town Arabs were induced to join the European party,--a useless set of vagabonds, who adorned themselves with the regimental uniform, accepted the rifle, pistol, and sword, drew their rations, were punctual in their attendance and always ready to salaam, but showed much dislike to the drill and other civilized notions the Comte and his officers endeavoured to impress upon them. Their departure from Kassala for the land of milk and honey was quite theatrical; in front rode on a camel, a gallant captain (who had taken his discharge from the Austrian service,) playing on the bugle a parting "fanfare;" behind him, the second in command, mounted on a prancing charger, and followed by the European part of the force, who with military step, and shoulder to shoulder, marched as men for whom victory is their slave. Behind came Le Comte himself, clad in a general's uniform, his breast covered with the many decorations which sovereigns had only been too proud to confer on such a noble spirit; next to him rode gracefully his beautiful wife, looking handsomer still in the picturesque kepi and red uniform of a French zouave; behind, closing the march, the well-knit Arabs, with plunder written in their dark bright eyes, marched with a quick elastic step and as much regularity as could be expected from men who abhorred order and had been drilled for so short a time. Need I say that the expedition failed utterly? The Arabs of the plains declined to accept another pontiff and king in the person of the gallant and noble Comte. They were even vicious enough to induce those of their brethren who had accepted service, to return to their former occupations, and _forget to leave_ behind them on their departure the arms, clothes, etc., which had been dealt out to them on their entering the Comte's service. The return to Kassala was humble: there was no trumpet this time; the brilliant uniforms had given way to soiled and patched raiments: even the general adopted a civilian's dress; the lady alone was still smiling, laughing, beautiful as ever; but no Arab in gaudy attire closed the hungry-looking and worn out cortege. De Bisson had failed: but why?--Because the Egyptian Government had not only afforded none of the assistance that had been promised to him, but all at once stopped the supplies he considered himself entitled to expect. A claim of I do not know how many millions was at once made on the Egyptian Government. A commissioner was sent out, who it appears took a very different view of the question, as he declared the "Comte's" pretensions absurd and unreasonable. The Comte soon afterwards, with his wife, returned to Nice, leaving at Kassala the remnant of his European army; the few who had not succumbed to fever or other malarious diseases. At the time of the mutiny of the Nubian troops, a few not in hospital or on their way to Khartoum or Massowah, fought well; two even paid with their lives their gallant attempt at a sortie, and they had gained for themselves, by their bravery in those difficult times, the respect they had lost during the long days of inaction. De Bisson was instrumental in spreading the most fallacious reports as to the condition of the captives held by Theodore, and even when an army was already marching to their rescue, "correct" accounts appeared of the repulse of the British by Theodore; at another time a mendacious report was spread that a great battle had been fought in Tigré between Theodore and a powerful rebel--a battle which was said to have lasted three days without any marked success having been gained by either side; and that Theodore, having perceived in the enemy's camp some Europeans, had sent orders for our immediate execution; the fulfilment of the sentence resting with the Empress, who was residing at Gondar, and that his (De Bisson's) agent was using his influence to stay the execution. Absurd and ridiculous as were these reports, they were not the less productive of great distress to the families and friends of the captives. During the five days we spent at Kassala, I am happy to say that I was able to relieve many sufferers; amongst them our host himself, and one of his guests, a young, well-educated Egyptian officer, laid at death's door by a severe attack of dysentery. A Nubian colonel called on us one morning; he strongly advised us to stop before it was too late. He had heard much about Theodore's doings, and assured us that we would meet but with deceit and treachery at his hands. On our telling him that we were officers and bound to obey, he said, nothing more, but bid us good-by in a sorrowful voice. CHAPTER VI. Departure from Kassala--Sheik Abu Sin--Rumours of Theodore's Defeat by Tisso Gobazé--Arrival at Metemma--Weekly Market --The Takruries at Drill--Their Foray into Abyssinia--Arrival of Letters from Theodore. On the afternoon of the 10th November we started for Kedaref. Our route now lay in a more southerly direction. On the 13th we crossed the Atbara, a tributary of the Nile, bringing to the father of rivers the waters of Northern Abyssinia. On the 17th we entered Sheik Abu Sin, the capital of the province of Kedaref. [Footnote: From Kassala to Kedaref is about 120 miles.] Our cameleers belonged to the Shukrie-Arabs. They are a semi-pastoral, semi-agricultural tribe, and reside principally in the neighbourhood of and along the course of the Atbara, or wander over the immense plains that extend almost without limit from this river to the Nile. They are more degenerated than the Beni-Amers, having mixed more with the Nubian and other tribes that dwell around them. They speak an impure Arabic. Many have retained the features and general appearance of the original race, whilst others might be looked upon as half-castes, and some can with difficulty be distinguished from the Nubians or Takruries. From Kassala to Kedaref we crossed interminable plains, covered with high grass, speckled here and there with woods of mimosas, too scanty to afford the slightest shade or protection during the fearful heat of the mid-day sun. Here and there on the horizon appeared a few isolated peaks; the Djbel Kassala, a few miles south of the capital of Takka. Eastward, the Ela Hugel and the Abo-Gamel were in sight for many days, whilst towards the west, lost almost in the misty horizon, appeared in succession the outlines of Derkeda and Kassamot. The valley of the Atbara, luxuriant in vegetation, inhabited by all varieties of the feathered tribe, visited by the huge thirsty quadruped of the savannah, presented a spectacle so grand in its savage beauty that we could with difficulty tear ourselves from its shady groves; had it not been that "Forward" was our watchword, we would, braving malaria, have spent a few days near its green and fragrant banks. Sheik Abu Sin is a large village; the houses are circular and built of wood and covered with straw; A small hut belonging to the firm of Paniotti, our host of Kassala, was placed at our disposal. We shortly afterwards received the visit of a Greek merchant, who came to consult me for a stiff joint brought on by a gun-shot wound. It appears, that some years before, whilst riding a camel on an elephant-hunting expedition, the gun, a large half-ounce bore, went off by itself, he never knew how. All the bones of the fore-arm had been smashed, the cicatrice of a dreadful flesh-wound showed what sufferings he had undergone, and it was indeed a wonder for me that, residing as he did in such a hot unhealthy climate, deprived of all medical advice, he had not succumbed to the effects of the wound, still more that he had been able to save the limb. I considered the cure so extraordinary, that, as there was nothing to be done, I advised him to leave well alone. The governor also called upon us, and we returned his civility. Whilst sipping our coffee with him and other grandees of the place, we were told that Tisso Gobazé, one of the rebels, had beaten Theodore and made him a prisoner. He said he believed the news to be correct, but advised us to inquire into it on our arrival at Metemma, and should we find it untrue, to return on our steps and on no account to enter Abyssinia if Theodore was still the ruler. He then gave us some examples of the Emperor's cruelty and treachery; but we did not put much credence in his word, as we knew that of old a bad feeling existed between the Abyssinian Christians and their Mussulman neighbours of the plain. At Metemma that rumour was not even known; however, we had no choice, and never thought one instant of anything else but of accomplishing the mission intrusted to us, in face of all perils and dangers. At Kedaref we were lucky enough to arrive on a market-day, consequently had no difficulty in exchanging camels. That very evening we were _en route_ again, still towards the south, but this time making almost an angle with our former route, marching towards the rising sun. Between Sabderat and Kassala, between that town and the Gash, we had for the first time seen some cultivation; but it was nothing compared to the immense vista of cultivated fields, beginning a day's journey from Sheik Abu Sin, and extending, almost without interruption, throughout the provinces of Kedaref and Galabat. Villages appeared in all directions, crowning every rounded hillock. As we advanced, these eminences increased in size until they gave place to hills and mountains, which ultimately blend with the uninterrupted chain of high peaks forming the Abyssinian table-land, now again, after so many days, rising before us. We arrived at Metemma on the afternoon of the 21st of November. In the absence of Sheik Jumma, the potentate of these regions, we were received by his _alter ego_, who put one of the Imperial residences --a wretched barn--at the disposal of the "great men from England." If we deduct the seven days we were obliged to halt _en route_, on account of the difficulty we had in obtaining camels, we performed the whole journey between Massowah and Metemma, a distance of about 440 miles, in thirty days. Our journey on the whole was extremely dreary and fatiguing. Apart from a few pretty spots, such as from Ain to Haboob, the valleys of the Anseba and Atbara, and from Kedaref to Galabat, we crossed only endless savannahs, saw not a human being, not a hut, only now and then a few antelopes, or the tracks of elephants, and heard no sound but the roar of wild beasts. Twice our caravan was attacked by lions; unfortunately we did not see them, as we were on both occasions riding ahead, but every night we heard their awful roar, echoing like distant thunder in the still nights of those silent prairies. The heat of the day was at times really painful. In order that the camels might start in time, our tents were packed early; sometimes we would sit for hours waiting the good pleasure of the cameleers under the scanty shade of a mimosa, vainly endeavouring to find in its dwarfed foliage a relief from the burning rays of the sun. Night after night, be it moonlight or starlight, on we went; the task was before us, and duty urged us on to reach the land where our countrymen were lingering in chains. Often in the saddle between three and, four P.M., we have jogged along on our wearied mules until the morning star had disappeared before the first rays of day. For several days we had no water but the hot and filthy fluid we carried in leathern skins; and even this nauseous decoction was so scanty and precious, that we could not afford to soothe the sun-burnt skin and refresh the exhausted frame by a timely ablution. Notwithstanding the discomfort, inconveniences, nay, danger of crossing the Soudan in that unhealthy season of the year, by care and attention we reached Metemma without having had a single death to lament. Several of the followers and native servants, even Mr. Rassam, suffered more or less from fever. They all eventually recovered, and when a few weeks later we started for Abyssinia, the whole party was in better health than when we left the hot and sultry shores of the Red Sea. Metemma, the capital of Galabat, a province situated on the western frontier of Abyssinia, is built in a large valley, about four miles from the Atbara. A small rivulet runs at the foot of the village, and separates Galabat from Abyssinia. On the Abyssinian side there is a small village, inhabited by the few Abyssinian traders who reside there during the winter months; at which period a large traffic is carried on with the interior. The round, conical hut is here again the abode of all classes the size and better state of repair being the only visible difference between the dwelling of the rich and that of his less fortunate neighbour. Sheik Jumma's palaces are inferior to many of his subjects' huts, probably to dispel the credited suspicion that he is rich, and that incalculable treasures are buried under the ground. The huts put at our disposal were, as I have already stated, his property; they are situated on one of the small hills that overlook the town; the Sheik removes there with his family during the rainy season, as it is in some degree less unhealthy than the swampy ground below. Though following the creed of the Medina prophet, the capital of Galabat cannot boast of a single mosque. The inhabitants of Galabat are Takruries, a negro race from Darfur. They number about 10,000; of these 2,000 reside in the capital, the remainder in the many villages that arise in all directions amidst cultivated fields and green meadows. The whole province is well adapted for agricultural purposes. Small rounded hillocks, separated by sloping valleys watered by many rivulets, impart a pleasing aspect to the whole district; and if it was not for the extreme unhealthiness of the place, it is possible to understand the selection made by the Darfur pilgrims: though it is no compliment paid to their own native land. The pious Darfur Mussulmans, on their way to Mecca, observed this favoured spot, and fancied it realized, _minus_ the houris, some of the inferior Paradises of Mohammed. At last some remained; Metemma was built; other pilgrims followed the example; and soon, though a lazy and indolent race, owing to the extreme fertility of the soil, they formed a prosperous colony. At the outset they acknowledged the Sultan of Darfur, paid him tribute, and were governed by one of his officers. But the Galabat colony soon found out that the Egyptians and Abyssinians were more to be feared than their distant sovereign, who could neither protect nor injure them; accordingly, they quietly murdered the viceroy from Darfur, and elected a Sheik from amongst themselves. The ruler at once made terms with both Egyptians and Abyssinians, and tendered yearly tribute to both. This wise but servile policy met with the best results; the colony increased and prospered, trade flourished, Abyssinians and Egyptians flocked to the well-supplied market, and the tribute of a few thousand dollars to each party fell lightly on the now rich and cunning negroes. From November to May, on Mondays and Tuesdays, the market is held on a large open space in the centre of the village. Abyssinians bring horses, mules, cattle, and honey; the Egyptian merchant displays in his stall, calico, shirtings, hardware, and gaudy prints. Arabs and Takruries arrive with camels laden with cotton and grain. The market-place is now a crowded and exciting scene: horses are tried by half-naked jockeys, who, with whip and heel, drive at a furious pace their diminutive steeds, reckless as to the limbs and lives of the venturous spectators. Here cotton is being loaded on donkeys, and will soon find its way to Tschelga and Gondar; here some fat Nubian girls, redolent with rancid castor-oil flowing from their woolly heads down their necks and shoulders, issue grinning from a Frank's store, holding in their hands red and yellow kerchiefs, the long-desired object of their dreams. The whole scene is lively; good-humour prevails; and though the noise is fearful, the bargaining being long and clamorous, and every one is armed with lance or club, still, all is peaceful: no blood is ever shed on these occasions but that of a few cows, killed for the many visitors from the high country who enjoy their raw beefsteak under the cool shadow of the willows that border the stream. On Friday the scene changes. On that day the whole community is seized with martial ardour. Having no mosque, the Takruries devote their holy day to ceremonies more suited to their taste, and resort to the market-place, now transformed into a parade-ground, a few to drill, the greater number to admire. Some Takruries, having served for a time in the Egyptian army, returned to their adopted land full of the value of disciplined troops, and of the superiority of muskets over lances and sticks. They prevailed on their countrymen to form a regiment on the model of "master's," Old muskets were purchased, and Sheik Jumma had the glory to see during his reign the 1st, or Jumma's Own, rise to existence. A more ludicrous sight could not, I believe, be witnessed. About a hundred flat-nosed, woolly, grinning negroes march around the parade-ground in Indian file, out of step, for about ten minutes. Line is then formed, but not being as yet well up to the proper value of the words of command, half face on one side, half on the other. Still the crowd admires; white teeth are displayed from ear to ear. The yellow-eyed monsters now feel confident that with such support nothing is impossible, and no sooner is "stand at ease" proclaimed, than the spectators rush, forward to admire more closely, and to congratulate, the future heroes of Metemma. Sheik Jumma is an ugly specimen of an ugly race: he is about sixty years of age, tall and lank, with a wrinkled face, very black, having a few grey patches on the chin, and the owner of a nose so flat that it requires time to see that he has one at all; He is generally drunk, and spends the greater part of the year carrying the tribute either to the Abyssinian Lion, or to his other master the Pasha of Khartoum. A few days after our arrival at Metemma he returned from Abyssinia, and politely paid us a visit, accompanied by a motley and howling train of followers. We returned his call; but he had got drunk in the interval, and was at least uncivil, if not positively rude. During our stay we had occasion to witness the great yearly, festival of the re-election of the Sheik. Early in the morning a crowd of Takruries came pouring in from all directions, armed with sticks or spears, a few mounted, the majority on foot, all howling and screeching (I believe they call it singing), so that before even the dust raised by a new party could be seen, the ear was deafened by their clamour. Every Takrurie warrior--that is, every one who can howl and carry a bludgeon or lance--is entitled to a vote; for this privilege he pays a dollar. The polling consists in counting the money, and the amount decides the ruler's fate. The re-elected Sheik (such was the result of the election we witnessed) killed cows, supplied jowaree loaves, and, above all, immense jars of merissa (a kind of sour toast-and-water, intoxicating for all that), and feasted for two days the whole body of the electors. It is difficult to say which of the two is out of pocket, the elector or the Sheik. There is no doubt that every Takrurie will eat and drink to the full amount of his dollar; is content with paying his homage, and wishes to have the worth of his money. Bribery is unknown! The drums, the sign of royalty, have been silent for three days (during the interregnum), but the cows are no sooner slaughtered and the merissa handed round by black maidens or fair Galla slaves, than their monotonous beat is again heard; soon to be drowned under the howling chorus of two thousand intoxicated negroes. The following morning the whole assembled "by orders" on a place some distance from the town. Arranged in a large crescent, Sheik Jamma addressed his warriors in these words: "We are a strong and mighty people, unequalled in horsemanship and in the use of the club and the spear!" Moreover, (said he), they had increased their power by adopting the system of fire-arms, the real strength of the Turks. He was all-confident that the very sight of their gunmen would strike terror into every neighbouring tribe. He ended by proposing a raid into Abyssinia, and said: "We will take cows, slaves, horses, and mules, and please our master the great Theodore by plundering his enemy Tisso Gobazé!" A wild _feu-de-joie_, and a terrible roar, from the excited crowd, informed the old Sheik that his proposal was accepted. That very same afternoon they started on their expedition, and probably surprised some peaceful district, as they returned after a few days, driving before them several thousand heads of cattle. Metemma, from May to November, is very unhealthy. The principal diseases are continued, remittent, and intermittent fevers, diarrhoea, and dysentery. The Takruries are a tough race, and resist well the noxious influences of the climate; but not so the Abyssinian, or the white man: the first is almost certain to die should he attempt to spend the dreaded months in the malarious low country, the second most probably will suffer much in health, but resist for a season or two. During our stay, I had many demands for medicine. Large, cake-like spleens were greatly reduced by local applications of tincture of iodine, and the internal administration of small doses of quinine and iodine of potassium. Chronic diarrhoea yielded readily to a few doses of castor oil, followed by opium and tannic acid. Acute and chronic dysentery was treated by ipecacuanha, followed by astringents. One of my patients was the son and heir of the Sheik. He had been suffering for the last two years from chronic dysentery; and although under my care he entirely recovered, his ungrateful father never even thanked me for all my trouble. Simple ophthalmia, skin diseases, and glandular swellings were also common. The Takruries have no knowledge whatever of medicine: charms are here, as throughout the Soudan, the great remedy. They are also used as preventatives to keep off the evil eye, bad spirits, and genii of different sorts; for these reasons almost every individual-- nay, cattle, mules, and horses, are covered with amulets of all shapes and sizes. The day after our arrival at Metemma we despatched two messengers with a letter to the Emperor Theodore, to inform him that we had reached Metemma, the place he had himself fixed upon, and were only waiting for his permission to proceed to his presence. We feared that the fickle despot might change his mind, and leave us for an unlimited period in the unhealthy Galabat. More than a month had elapsed, and we were giving way to despair, when, to our great joy, on the 25th of December (1865), the messengers we had despatched on our arrival, also those sent from Massowah at the time of our departure, returned, bringing for us civil and courteous answers from his Majesty. Sheik Jumma was also ordered by his Abyssinian master to treat us well, and to provide us with camels up to Wochnee. At that village, Theodore informed us, we should be met by an escort and by some of his officers, by whom arrangements would be made to convey our luggage to the imperial camp. CHAPTER VII. Entrance into Abyssinia--Altercation between Takruries and Abyssinians at Wochnee--Our Escort and Bearers--Applications for Medicine--First Reception by his Majesty--The Queen's Letter Translated, and Presents Delivered--Accompany his Majesty through Metcha--His Conversation _en route_. Heartily sick of Metemma, and longing to climb the high range so long a forbidden barrier to our hopes and wishes, we soon made our preparations, but were delayed a few days on account of the camels. Sheik Jumma, probably proud of his late achievements seemed to take his orders pretty coolly, and, had we not been more anxious ourselves to penetrate into the tiger's den than the Sheik to comply with the King's request, we should no doubt have remained many a day longer at the court of that negro potentate. By dint of courteous messages; promises, and threats, the required number of camels was at last forthcoming, so that on the afternoon of the 28th December, 1865, we passed the Ethiopian Rubicon, and halted for the night on Abyssinian ground. On the morning of the 30th we arrived at Wochnee, and pitched our tents under some sycamores at a short distance from the village. This, our first stage in Abyssinia, led us through woods of mimosas, acacias, and incense-trees; the undulating ground, waving like the ocean after a storm, was covered with high and still green grass. As we advanced, the ground became more irregular and broken, and we crossed several ravines, having each its small running rivulet of crystal water. By-and-by the rounded hillocks acquired a more abrupt and steep appearance; the grass was no longer tall and green, but fine and dry; the sycamore, the cedar, and large timber-trees began to appear. As we approached Wochnee, our route was a succession of ascents and descents more precipitous and very fatiguing, as we trudged through deep ravines and climbed the almost perpendicular sides of the first range of the Abyssinian mountains. At Wochnee we found no one to welcome us. The cameleers, having unladen their camels, were going to depart, when a servant of one of the officers sent to receive us by his Majesty arrived. He brought us compliments from his master, who could not join us for a few days, as he was collecting bearers; he told us that we must proceed another stage by the camels, as no bearers could be obtained in the district of Wochnee. A serious altercation then took place between the governor of Wochnee and the cameleers. They declined to proceed any further, and after a short consultation between themselves, each man seized his camel and walked away. But the governor and the officer's servant had also been consulting together: seeing the cameleers departing, they went to the village, and, as it happened to be market-day, soon collected a good number of soldiers and peasants. As the cameleers were passing close to the village, on a given signal, the whole of the camels were seized. I regret to say, for the honour of the Arabs and Takruries, that, though well armed, they did not show fight, but on the contrary, ran away in every direction. Unwilling to lose their precious beasts of burden, the owners returned by twos and threes. More consultations followed: at last, on the promise of an extra dollar for each, and a cow for all, peace and harmony were satisfactorily restored. After a couple of hours' march, we reached Balwaha. I can understand the difficulties the cameleers raised, as the road is exceedingly bad for camels, passing as it does over two high and steep mountains and across two narrow ravines densely overgrown with tall bamboos. At Balwaha we encamped in a small natural enclosure, formed by beautiful foliaged trees. Three days after our arrival, two of the officers sent by Theodore to meet us at last made their appearance, but no bearers. We had unfortunately arrived during the last days of the long feast before Christmas, and we must, said the chief of the escort, have patience till the feast was over. On the 6th January about twelve hundred peasants were assembled, but the confusion was so great that no start could be made before the following day, and even then we only made the short stage of four miles. The greater part of the heavy baggage was left behind, and it required a reinforcement from Tschelga to allow us to proceed on our journey. On the 9th we made a better stage, and halted for the night on a small plateau opposite the high hill fort of Zer Amba. We were now fairly in the mountains, and had often to dismount to descend some precipitous declivity, wondering how our mules could climb the opposite steep, wall-like ascent. On the 10th the same awful road, only worse and worse as we advanced; and when at last we had ascended the almost perpendicular precipice that leads to the Abyssinian plateau itself, and admired the grand vista that lay at our feet, we congratulated ourselves upon having at last reached the land of promise. We halted a few miles from the market town of Tschelga, at a place called Wali Dabba. Here we had to exchange bearers and consequently to wait several days till the new ones arrived, or anything like order could be introduced. From that day my troubles began. I was at all hours of the day surrounded by an importuning crowd, of all ages and sexes, afflicted by the many ills that flesh is heir to. I had no more privacy, and no more rest. Did I leave our camp with my gun in search of game, a clamorous crowd followed me. On the march, at every halt from Wali Dabba to Theodore's camp in Damot, I heard nothing else from sunrise to sunset but the incessant cries of "_Abiet, abiet; medanite, medanite_." [Footnote: "Lord Master, medicine, medicine."] I did my best; I attended at any hour of the day those who would benefit from a few doses of medicine. But this did not satisfy the great majority, composed of old syphilitic cases, nor the leper, nor those suffering from elephantiasis, the epileptic, the scrofulous, or those who had been mutilated at the hands of the cruel Gallas. Day after day the crowd of patients increased; those who had met with refusal remained in the hope that on another day the "Hakeem's" boxes of unheard-of medicine might be opened, for them also. New ones daily poured in. The many cures of simple cases that I had been able to accomplish spread my fame far and wide, and even reached my countrymen at Magdala, who heard that an English Hakeem had arrived, who could break bones and instantly set them, so that the individual operated upon walked away like the paralytic in Holy Writ. At last the nuisance became intolerable, and I was obliged to keep my tent closed all day long; whenever I left it I was surrounded by an admiring crowd. The officers of the escort were obliged to place a guard round my tent, and only allowed their relatives and friends to approach. Still, these were often countless, and it was not till the dread of the despot overcame even their love of life and health, that successful and unsuccessful postulants returned to their homes. On the 13th January we began our march towards the Emperor's camp, and passed successively through the provinces of Tschelga, part of Dembea, Dagossa, Wandigé, Atchefur, Agau Medar, and Damot, leaving the Tana Sea on our left. The three first-named provinces had a few years before fallen under the wrath of the despot; every village had been burnt, every crop destroyed, and the inhabitants had either perished from famine or been absorbed into the Imperial army. A few had just then returned to their broken-down homes, on hearing of the pardon proclaimed by the Emperor; who, after three years, had relented, and allowed those who still wandered in distant provinces, destitute and homeless, to return again to the land of their fathers. Here and there, amongst the ruins of former prosperous villages, some half-starved and almost naked peasants were seen erecting small sheds on the ashes of their ancestral huts, near the land they were going again to cultivate. Alas, they knew not how soon the same merciless hand would be stretched upon them! Atchefur had also been plundered at the same date; but their "crime" not having been so great, the "father of his people" had been content to strip them of all their property, and did not call fire in aid to complete his vengeance. The villages of Atchefur are large and well built; some, such as Limju, can rank with small towns; but the people had a poor and miserable appearance. The small amount of cultivation indicated but too plainly that they expected another plunder, and just tilled the soil enough to meet their immediate wants. [Illustration: VILLAGE OF DANKORA IN ATCHEFUR.] [Illustration: CHURCH OF KEDUS GEORGIS AND VILLAGE OF NEFASA AGAU MEDUR.] The Agau Medars were always pets of the Emperor; he never plundered them, or, what is the same, he never made any lengthened "friendly stay" among them. The rich and abundant harvest ready for the sickle, the numerous herds of cattle grazing in the flower-speckled meadows, the large and neat villages, the happy look of the peasants, clearly proved what Abyssinia can do for its children if their rich and fertile soil was not laid waste in wanton destruction, and themselves driven by warfare and bloodshed to perish from misery and hunger. Theodore's camp was at this time in Damot. He had already burnt, plundered, and slaughtered to his heart's content; it is therefore not astonishing that from Agau to his camp we saw, apart from our escort and bearers, not a human being: no sleek cattle, no smiling hamlet--a dire, contrast to the happy Agau that "St. Michael protects." The 25th of January was our last stage. We had halted the night before at a short distance from the Imperial camp. The black and white tents of Theodore, pitched on a high conical hill, stood out in bold relief as the setting sun made the dark background darker still. A faint, distant hum, such as one hears on approaching a large city, came now and then to us, carried by the soft evening breeze, and the smoke that arose for miles around the dark hill crowned by its silent tents, left us no, doubt that we should before long find ourselves face to face with the African despot, and that we were even then almost in the midst of his countless host. As we approached, messenger after messenger came to meet us; we had to halt several times, march on again for a while, and then halt anew; at last the chief of the escort told us that it was time to dress. A small rowtie was accordingly pitched; we put on our uniforms, and, mounting again, we had hardly proceeded a hundred yards, when, coming to a sudden turn in the road, we saw displayed before us one of those Eastern scenes which brought back to our memory the days of Lobo and of Bruce. A conical wooded hill, opposite to the one honoured by the Imperial tents, was covered to the very summit by the gunners and spearmen of Theodore; all in gala dress; they were clad in shirts of rich-coloured silks, the black, brown, or red lamd [Footnote: A peculiar mantle of fur or velvet.] falling from their shoulders, the bright iron of the lances glancing in the light of the midday sun which poured its rays through the dark foliage of the cedars. In the valley between the hills a large body of cavalry, about 10,000 strong, formed a double line, between which we advanced. On our right, dressed in gorgeous array, almost all bearing the silver shield and the Bitwa, their horses adorned with richly plated bridles, stood the whole of the officers of his Majesty's army and household, the governors of provinces and of districts, &c. All were mounted, some on really noble-looking animals, tribute from the plateaus of Yedjow and the highlands of Shoa. On our left, the corps of cavalry was darker, but more compact, than its aristocratic _vis-à-vis_. The horses, though on the whole, perhaps, less graceful, were strong and in good condition; and seeing their iron ranks, we could well understand how panic-stricken the poor scattered peasants must have been when Theodore, at the head of his well-armed and well-mounted band of ruthless followers, suddenly appeared among their peaceful homes, and, before his very presence was suspected, had come, destroyed, and gone. In the centre opposite to us stood Ras Engeddah, the Prime Minister, distinguished from all by his gentlemanly appearance and the great simplicity of his attire. Bare-headed, the shama girded in token of respect, he delivered the Imperial message of welcome, translated into Arabic by Samuel, who stood by him, and whose finely chiselled features and intellectual countenance at once proclaimed his superiority over the ignorant Abyssinian. Compliments delivered, the Ras and ourselves mounted, and advanced towards the Imperial tents, preceded by the body of mounted grandees, and followed by the cavalry. Arrived at the foot of the hill, we dismounted, and were conducted to a small red flannel tent pitched for our reception on the ascent itself. There we rested for a while, and partook of a slight collation. Towards three o'clock we were informed that the Emperor would receive us; we ascended the hill on foot, escorted by Samuel and several other officers of the Imperial household. As soon as we reached the small plateau on the summit, an officer brought us renewed greetings and compliments from his Majesty. We advanced slowly towards the beautiful durbar-tent of red and yellow silk, between a double line of gunners, who, on a signal, fired a salute very creditable to their untaught skill. Arrived at the entrance of the tent, the Emperor again inquired after our health and welfare. Having acknowledged with due respect his courteous inquiries, we advanced towards the throne, and delivered into his hands the letter from her Majesty the Queen. The Emperor received it civilly, and told us to sit down on the splendid carpets that covered the ground. The Emperor was seated on an alga, wrapped up to the eyes in a shama, the sign of greatness and of power in Abyssinia. On his right and left stood four of his principal officers, clad in rich and gay silks, and behind him watched one of his trusty familiars, holding a double-barrelled pistol in each hand. The King made a few complaints about the European prisoners, and regretted that by their conduct they had interrupted the friendship formerly existing between the two nations. He was happy to see us, and hoped that all would be well again. After a few compliments had been exchanged, on the plea that we must be tired, having come so far, we were allowed to depart. The letter from the Queen of England, which we had handed over to his Abyssinian Majesty, was in English, and no translation had been affixed to it. His Majesty did not break the seal before us, probably on account of the presence of his high officers; as he would not have liked them to witness his disappointment had the letter not suited his views. As soon as we had reached our tent, the letter was sent to us to be translated; but as we had with us no European who understood the language of the country, it had to be rendered first by Mr. Rassam into Arabic to Samuel, and by him from that language into Amharic. There is much reason to regret that none of the Europeans in the country who were conversant with the Amharic language were sent for before that important document was made over to his Majesty; for I believe that not only the translation was--in many respects--a bad one, but, moreover, incorrect. A simple phrase was rendered into one of deep importance to the success of the mission--one of such serious meaning, considering Theodore's position, that I am still inclined to believe that it was introduced in the Amharic translation by Theodore's instructions. The English ran thus:--"And so, not doubting that you will receive our servant Rassam in a favourable manner, and give entire credit to all that he shall say to you on our part." This was rendered:--"He will do for you whatever you require," or words to that effect. His Majesty was greatly pleased, so his confidential servants said, with the Queen's letter; and intimated that he would before long release the captives. On the following morning Theodore sent for us. He had no one near him except Ras Engeddah. He was standing at the entrance of his tent, leaning gracefully on his lance. He invited us to enter the tent; and there, before us, he dictated to his secretary, in presence of Ras Engeddah, Samuel, and our interpreter, a letter to the Queen,--an humble, apologizing letter, which he never intended to despatch. In the afternoon we had the honour of another interview, in order to make over to him the presents we had brought with us. He first asked if the gifts came from the Queen or from Mr. Rassam himself. Having been informed that they had been purchased in the name of the Queen, he accepted them; remarking, at the same time, that he did so not for their value, but as a token from a friendly Power whose renewed friendship he was so happy to acknowledge. Amongst the presents there was a large looking-glass. Mr. Rassam, on presenting it, told his Majesty that he had intended it for the Queen. On that his Majesty looked rather serious; but calmly replied that he had not been happy in his married life, and that he was on the point of marrying another lady, to whom he would offer the splendid mirror. Soon after our arrival, cows, sheep, honey, tej, and bread were sent in abundance, and ourselves and followers were daily supplied with all necessaries of life from the Imperial kitchen. His Majesty accompanied us several stages towards the Tana Sea, Kourata having been fixed upon as our place of residence until the arrival of our countrymen from Magdala. On the first day's march we were left behind, on account of our luggage, and had a good opportunity of experiencing what it is to travel with an Abyssinian army. The fighting men were in front with the king, but the camp-followers (numbering on that occasion about 250,000), encumbered as they were with the tents and provisions of the soldiers, came more slowly behind. It is almost impossible to describe the crush and confusion that frequently took place when a small river had to be forded, or when a single footpath led along a steep, incline of almost naked rocks. Thousands heaped together pushed, screamed, and vainly endeavoured to penetrate the living mass, which always increased as the mules and donkeys became more frightened, and the muddy banks of the stream more slippery and broken. Several times, driven to despair by hours of patient waiting, we went in search of another road, or some other ford, where the crush and crowd might be less. It was only late in the afternoon that we reached our encamping-ground: we had been the whole day upon a march that the Emperor accomplished in an hour and a half. Theodore, having heard to what inconvenience we had been put, had the heavy luggage conveyed as before; but ourselves, with a few light articles, were allowed the privilege of riding with him in front of the army. During the few days he accompanied us we made but short stages, never more than ten miles a day. Theodore travelled with us for several reasons: he wanted to take us by a short cut by the Tana Sea, and as the country was depopulated, he was obliged to have our luggage carried by his soldiers. He had not as yet plundered that part of Damot; the inhabitants had fled, but the harvest ready for the sickle remained, and at a sign from the Emperor was reaped by thousands of hands. Whilst the greater part of his soldiers were thus employed, and the sword was practically used as an implement of peace, the King, with a large body of cavalry, left the camp, and shortly afterwards the smoke that arose far and wide proclaimed their merciless errand. A few incidents that occurred during our short stay with Theodore deserve to be recorded, as they will illustrate his character during his friendly moods. On our second day's march with his Majesty, (February 1st,) the Blue Nile was crossed not far from its source; the banks were steep and slippery, the crush was fearful, and many a child or woman would have been drowned or otherwise killed had not Theodore sent some of the chiefs, who waited on him, to make steps on the slope with their spears, whilst he remained there until the last camp-follower had passed. When we arrived his Majesty sent us word not to dismount. We crossed the water on our mules; but the moment we reached the opposite bank we alighted, and climbed to the spot where his Majesty was standing. The road was so precipitous and slippery that Mr. Rassam, who was in front, had some difficulty in reaching the summit; Theodore; seeing his position, advanced, took him by the hand, and said, in Arabic, "Be of good cheer, do not be afraid." The following day, during the march, Theodore sent Samuel backwards and forwards with questions,--such as: "Is the American war over? How many were killed? How many soldiers had they? Did the English fight with the Ashantees? Did they conquer them? Is their country unhealthy? Is it like this? Why did the King of Dahomey kill so many of his subjects? What is his religion?" He then gave one of his _excuses_ for not having sent for us sooner. He had been disappointed, he said, with all the Europeans that had entered his country. None were good but Bell and Plowden; and he wanted to know, by report, if the Englishman who had landed at Massowah was like all the rest. His patience was such that he had believed him to be a good man, and had, therefore, decided upon sending for him. On the 4th he again sent for us. He was alone, sitting in the open air. He made us sit down on a carpet near him,--and spoke at length about his former career. He told us how he dealt with the rebels: first he sent them word to pay tribute; if they refused, he went himself and plundered their, country. On the third refusal, to use his own words, "he sent their bodies to the grave; and their souls to hell." He also told us that Bell had spoken to him so much about our Queen, that for many years he had intended sending her an embassy; he had even everything ready when; Captain Cameron made him an enemy of his former friend. He had ordered, he said, some tokens of his regard to be made for us, as he had nothing with him fit to offer us; he had been pleased to see us, and considered us as "three brothers." The interview was long; when at last his Majesty dismissed us, he informed us that the following day he would send us to Kourata to await there the arrival of our countrymen from Magdala. Shortly after reaching our tent, Mr. Rassam received a polite note, informing him that he would receive 5,000 dollars, which he might spend as he liked, but always _in a manner agreeable to the Lord_. A verbal message was also sent to me to inquire if I knew anything about smelting iron, casting guns, etc.: to which I answered, in pursuance of friendly advice, that I was ignorant of everything except my own medical profession. CHAPTER VIII. Leave the Emperor's Camp for Kourata--The Tana Sea--The Abyssinian Navy--The Island of Dek--Arrival at Kourata--The Gaffat People and former Captives join us--Charges preferred against the latter--First Visit to the Emperor's Camp at Zagé--Flattery before Coercion. On the 6th of February his Majesty sent us word to depart. We did not see him, but before we left he sent us a letter informing us that as soon as the prisoners joined us he would take steps to send us out of his country in "honour and safety." The officer ordered to proceed to Magdala to deliver the captives, and conduct them to us, was one of our escort; we were the bearers of an humble apology from Theodore to our Queen: all smiled upon us; and rejoiced beyond expression by the apparently complete success of our mission, we retraced our steps with a light and thankful heart through the plains of Agau Medar. On the afternoon of the 10th of February, we encamped on the shore of the Tana Sea, a large fresh-water lake, the reservoir of the Blue Nile. The river enters at the south-west extremity of the lake, and issues again at its south-east extremity, the two branches being only separated by the promontory of Zagé. [Illustration: VILLAGE OF KANOA, IN WANDIGÉ.] The spot we pitched our camp upon was not far from Kanoa, a pretty village in the district of Wandigé, Kourata being almost opposite to us, bearing N.N.E. We had to wait several days while boats were constructed for ourselves, escort, and luggage. These boats--of the most primitive kind of construction still in existence--are made of bulrushes, the papyrus of the ancients. The bulrushes are tied together so as to form a flat surface some six feet in breadth and from ten to twenty feet in length. The two extremities are then rolled up and tied together. The passengers and boatmen sit upon a large square bundle of bulrushes forming the essential part of the boat, which the outward cage serves only to keep in place, and by its pointed extremities to favour progression. To say that these boats leak is a mistake; they are full of water, or rather, like a piece of cork, always half submerged: their floating is simply a question of specific gravity. The manner in which the boats are propelled adds greatly to the discomfort of the traveller. Two men sit in front, and one behind. They use long sticks, instead of oars, beating the water alternately to the right and left; at each stroke they send in front and from behind jets of spray like a shower-bath, and the unfortunate occupant of the boat, who had beforehand taken off his shoes and stockings and well tucked up his trousers, finds that he would have been wiser had he adopted a more simple costume still, and followed the example of the naked boatmen. The Abyssinian navy does not weigh heavily on the estimates, nor does it take years to construct a fleet; two days after our arrival fifty new vessels had been launched, and several hundreds had joined from Zagé and the Isle of Dek. The few days we spent on the shore of the Tana Sea were among the small number of happy ones we have seen in this country. Samuel, now our balderaba (introducer) and chief of the escort, did not allow the former crowds to invade my tent. Being an intelligent man, and his relatives and friends less numerous than those of his predecessor, he only brought to me those he knew would benefit by a few doses of medicine, or whom he was compelled to introduce; for by refusing the petty chiefs and important men of the several neighbouring districts he would have made serious enemies. It was now a recreation, instead of a fatigue; a study of the diseases of the country; a fact almost impossible, before, when I could only defend myself against the importunities of a crowd, and in peace not examine a single case. The remainder of my time was spent in shooting. Aquatic birds, ducks, geese, &c., were in abundance, and so tame that the survivors did not move away, but remained bathing, feeding, and cleaning their bright feathers around the dead bodies of their mates and companions. [Illustration: View from Wandige of Lake Tana] On the morning of the 16th we started for Dek, the largest and most important island of the Tana Lake; it is situated about half-way from our starting-place and Kourata. We were shower-bathed for about six hours; our speed was about two and a half knots, so that the distance must be about fifteen miles. Dek is a very pretty island indeed; a long, flat volcanic rock, surrounded by conical hillocks, forming so many island pearls around a coronet. The whole island is well wooded, covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, dotted with numerous and prosperous villages, and proudly boasts of four old and revered churches--the shrines of many devoted pilgrims. We spent the night in the heart of the picturesque island--the ideal of an earthly abode. Alas! we knew only some time afterwards that the passage of the white men caused tears and distress among the Arcadian inhabitants of that peaceful land. The inhabitants of the island had been ordered to supply us with 10,000 dollars. The chiefs, almost despairing of being able to raise so large a sum, made a powerful appeal to their friends and neighbours; painted in true colours the wrath of the despot should he learn that his request had not been complied with, and the wilderness that would then replace their rich and happy isle. The eloquence of some, and the threats of others, were equally successful. All the savings of years were brought to the chiefs; silver rings and chains--the dower and fortune of many a young maiden--were added to the newly spun shama of the matron: all were reduced to poverty, and were trembling; though they smiled whilst making the sacrifice of all their worldly goods. How they must have cursed, in the bitterness of their grief, the poor white strangers who were the innocent cause of all their misfortunes! The following morning we started for Kourata, the distance and inconvenience being about the same as on the preceding day. Once again on _terra firma_, we hailed with delight the end of our short and disagreeable passage. On the beach we were received by the clergy, who had turned out in full canonicals to welcome us with all the pomp usually accorded only to royalty; for such had been the Imperial command. Two of the wealthiest merchants of the place claimed us as their guests, in the name of their royal master, and, mounted on beautiful mules, we ascended the hill on which Kourata is built; the privilege of riding through the sacred streets having been conferred on, the honoured guests of the sovereign of the land. Kourata is, after Gondar, the most important and wealthy city of Abyssinia; it is a town of priests and merchants, built on the sides of a conical hill and bathed by the waters of the Tana Sea. The houses, many of them built of stone, are superior to any we saw in Abyssinia. The church erected by the Queen of Socinius is held in such sanctity that the whole town is considered sacred, and none but the bishop or the emperor are allowed to ride through its narrow and steep lanes. From the sea it is almost impossible to see the town, so close and compact are the towering dark cedars and sycamores--the just pride of the inhabitants. The whole hillock is so completely covered with vegetation of every description, that the spot from a distance seems more like a luxuriant waste untouched by man's hand, than the abode of thousands, and the central mart of Western Abyssinia. For a few days we resided in the town, where several of the best houses had been put at our disposal; but the countless host of unmentionable insects fairly drove us away. We obtained permission to pitch our tents on the sea beach, on a pleasant spot only a few hundred yards from the town, where we enjoyed the double luxury of fresh air and abundance of water. A few days after our arrival at Kourata we were joined by the "Gaffat people." The Emperor had written to them to come and remain with us during our stay, as he feared that we might feel lonely and unhappy in his country, separated from our own people. Agreeably to the instructions they had received, on arriving at a short distance from our encampment, they sent to inform us of their arrival, and requested permission to present themselves before us. I was never so much taken aback as at the sight of these Europeans wearing the Abyssinian gala dress, silk shirts of gaudy colours, trousers of the same material, the shama thrown over the left shoulder, many with naked feet, several without covering to their head. They had been so long in Abyssinia that I doubt not they considered themselves very smart; and, if we did not admire them, the natives certainly did. They pitched their camp a little distance in rear of ours. A few days later their wives and children arrived, and on more intimate acquaintance we soon perceived that several amongst them were well-educated and well-informed men--not at all despicable companions in that distant laud. On the 12th of March our poor countrymen, so long in chains and misery, at last arrived. We provided tents for those who had none, and they remained in our inclosure. They all, more or less, bore traces of the many sufferings they had endured; but Messrs. Stern and Cameron more than the others. We endeavoured to cheer them up by the prospect of a speedy return to Europe, and only regretted that we could not show them more kindness; as Mr. Rassam did not think it advisable, on account of Theodore's suspicious character, to appear to be on too intimate terms with them. They knew the Emperor better than we did, and now and then expressed doubts as to the favourable issue of the affair. They had heard _en route_ that they would have to make boats for Theodore, and were always anxious and nervous each time a messenger arrived from the Imperial camp. Theodore, after plundering Metcha, the fertile province at the southern extremity of Lake Tana, destroyed the large and populous town of Zagé, and pitched his camp on a small strip of land connecting the promontory of Zagé with the mainland. The Emperor was very attentive; he sent us 5,000 dollars more, supplies in abundance, and put thirty milch cows at our disposal; he also sent us lion cubs, monkeys, &c., and almost every second day wrote civil and courteous letters to Mr. Rassam. All our interpreters, all the messengers, even Mr. Rassam's butler, went one after the other to Zag to be invested with "the order of the shirt." To the messenger who had brought us down the false intelligence of Captain Cameron's release, he gave a marguf (silk-bordered) shama, a title, and the government of a district; and requested Mr. Rassam to love him, and cause him to be loved by our Queen, as his stratagem had fortunately succeeded, and had induced us to come to him. When one of our interpreters, Omar Ali, a native of Massowah, went in his turn to be decorated, he found his Majesty sitting near the beach making cartridges. He told him, "You see my occupation; but I am not ashamed of it. I cannot make up my mind to let Stern and Cameron go; but, for the sake of your masters, I will. I like them because they are always so well behaved, hold their caps in their hand as soon as they approach my presence, and are respectful before me, whilst Cameron used to pull his beard about all the time." If I mention these apparent trifles, it is to show that Theodore was still doubtful in his mind whether he would allow any one to depart or not. As he was still wavering, he might, perhaps, have allowed himself to be guided by his better qualities, had not a few incidents that occurred at the time worked upon his suspicious nature. Theodore, always fond of showing himself as a just man before his people, desired a kind of trial of the former captives to take place, before him and us, and in presence of his soldiers; when, had they acknowledged that they were wrong, and begged his Majesty's pardon, he would probably have gone through the form of a public reconciliation, and after presenting them with a few gifts, allowed them to depart. Mr. Rassam, on the contrary, believed it to be advisable that his Majesty should not see the former captives, as their sight might put him in a passion; and as everything appeared to progress so favourably, he considered it more prudent to do his utmost to avoid a meeting between the two. Shortly after the arrival of the Magdala prisoners, who had been joined at Debra Tabor by those who had been detained there on parole, his Majesty, at Mr. Rassam's instigation, instead of calling them to him as he had intended, sent several of his officers, his secretary, etc., to Kourata, and requested us to have certain charges read publicly to the captives, who would declare whether he or they were in the wrong. All the captives, the Gaffat people, and the Abyssinian officers, being assembled in Mr. Rassam's tent, the scribe read the charges. The first was against Captain Cameron. Theodore began by stating that Cameron, on his representing himself to be a messenger from the Queen, was received with all due honour and respect, and welcomed to the best of his ability. He accepted with humility the presents the Queen sent to him, and on Cameron explaining that an exchange of consuls between the two countries would be greatly to the interest of Abyssinia, Theodore, to use his own words, said, "I was glad on hearing this, and said, very well!" He continued by stating that he impressed upon the consul that the Turks were his enemies, and requested him to protect the mission and presents he intended to send to the Queen; that he gave him a friendly letter, and sent him away, but Cameron, instead of delivering the letter, went to the Turks who hated him, and before whom he insulted and lowered him; that on Cameron's return, he asked him, "'Where is the answer to the friendly letter I entrusted you with? what have you come for?' He answered: 'I do not know;' so I said to him, 'You are not the servant of my friend the Queen, as you had represented yourself to be,' and by the power of my creator I imprisoned him. Ask him if he can deny this." The second charge was against Mr. Bardel; but he had evidently got tired of the affair, as the charges against Stern, Rosenthal, &c. are not specified; though on former occasion he several times referred to his grievances against them. They are included in a general charge which runs as follows:-- "The other prisoners have abused me, I am well aware, I used to love, and honour them. A friend ought to be a shield to his friend, and they ought to have shielded me. Why did they not defend me? On this account I disliked them. "Now, by the power of God! for the sake of the Queen, and the British people, and yourselves, I cannot continue my dislike against them. I wish you to make between us a reconciliation from the heart. If I am in fault, do you tell me and I will requite them; but if you find that I am wronged, I wish you to get them to requite me." After the charges had been read, the captives were asked if they had done wrong or not. It would have been absurd for them not to have acknowledged their faults, and begged for pardon. We knew that they were innocent, injured men, and that any errors of judgment they might have committed were so trivial compared to the sufferings they had undergone, that they could, under any other circumstances, have applied for the requital he offered them. In acknowledging that they were wrong they acted wisely: it was what we counselled, nay ordered. The sitting concluded with the public reading of the Amharic translation of the Queen's letter, and of the reply which Theodore said he would send by us. Though all seemed smooth and favourable, no doubt a storm was imminent; and shortly afterwards, though everything was as yet friendly, we should have been far less confident had our knowledge of Theodore been greater. On our way to Kourata we had been asked indirectly by his servants whether we knew anything about boat-making? We replied in the negative. As I have stated, some of the escort had told Captain Cameron, that at Kourata he would be employed in ship-building. There was no doubt that his Majesty had made up his mind to have a small navy, and I believe that the real reason we were sent to Kourata, and the Gaffat people to keep us company there, was that Theodore imagined that we knew more about making boats than we wished to say, and hoped to coax us into undertaking the work. The Gaffat people, were told to make boats; they replied that they knew nothing about it, but would work with any one who could direct them: at the same time they intimated that his Majesty ought to take advantage of Mr. Rassam's friendship to ask him to write for some proper person and instruments; that they had no doubt that on Mr. Rassam making the application, his Majesty would obtain anything he required. A few days later Theodore wrote to Mr. Rassam requesting him to write for workmen, and to await their return. Until that date all had been plain sailing. I acknowledged that the letter was rather a "damper" on Mr. Rassam. Two courses were left open to him: to decline, in courteous terms, on the ground that his instructions did not warrant his making such a request; or accept, on condition that the former captives should be allowed to depart, himself remaining with one of his companions until the workmen arrived. Instead of that Mr. Rassam took a half-way course; he told Theodore that it would be better for him if he was allowed to depart, as at home he could better represent the desires of his Majesty, but if the Emperor insisted upon it he would write. Theodore was so far confirmed in the impression conveyed to him by his workmen that through the intervention of Mr. Rassam he could obtain anything he liked, that the only thing which for a few days longer remained undecided by him was--should he endeavour to gain his object by flatteries or by bullying? He at once went to work, and did the best to succeed by amicable measures. For this purpose he sent us a polite invitation to come and spend a day with him at Zagé, ordering at the same time his workmen to accompany him. On the 25th of March we proceeded by native boats and reached Zagé after a four-hours' shower-bath; at a short distance from the landing-place we dressed ourselves in uniform, and were met on our arrival by Ras Engeddah (Commander-in-Chief), the Master of the Horse, and several other high officials of the Imperial household. His Majesty had sent us by the Ras polite greetings, and mounting the beautiful mules sent from the royal stable, we proceeded to the Emperor's inclosure. We were at first conducted to some silk tents, which had been pitched at a short distance from his banqueting-hall, so that we might rest awhile and partake of the collation his Queen had forwarded to us. In the afternoon the Emperor sent us word that he would come and see us. We shortly afterwards went out to meet him, and to our astonishment saw him coming towards us, his cloth folded and the right arm uncovered: a sign of inferiority, of high respect--an honour Theodore was never known to have paid to any man. He was all smiles, all amiability, sat down a few minutes on Mr. Rassam's couch, and when he left he shook hands in the most friendly manner with him. A little later we returned his call. We found him in the audience-hall, seated on a carpet; he gracefully saluted us, and made us sit down by his side. To his left stood his eldest son Prince Meshisha, and Ras Engeddah; his workmen were also present standing in the centre of the hall in front of him. He had before him quite an arsenal of guns and pistols; he spoke about and showed those we had brought with us, guns that had been made to order by the brother of a gunmaker in his service, a manufacturer at St. Etienne, near Lyons. He conversed on various topics, about the different ranks in his army, presented us to his son, and ordered him at the conclusion of the audience, together with the Gaffat people, to escort us back to our tent. The following day Theodore sent repeated kind messages; but we did not see him. In the morning he called, all his chiefs together, and asked them to advise him as to whether he should allow the Europeans to depart or not. All exclaimed, "Let them go;" one only remarking that if once out, and they wanted to fight, "let them come, we will then have God on our side." As soon as he had dismissed his chiefs, he called the Gaffat people and asked them also what he should do. They told us that they had strongly advised him to let us depart. It was reported that on returning to his house; his valet said to him, "Every one tells you to let them go; you know that they are your enemies, and what will you have in your hands?" In the evening his Majesty was rather excited: he sent for the Gaffat people, and taking hold of the rude pillar of his hut, said: "Is that the dwelling fit for a king?" What conversation passed between them at the time, I cannot say; but a few days afterwards one of them told me that his Majesty was much put out, as Mr. Rassam had not mentioned to him the objects he had so dear at heart, viz.: the artisans and instruments, and that on our applying to be allowed to return to Kourata, his Majesty looked very black at first, and refused, and that they had had great fears that he might have forcibly detained us. On our return to Kourata the correspondence between Theodore and Mr. Rassam began afresh. The letters, as a rule, contained nothing of importance, but the messages brought backwards and forwards were highly special, and had significant reference to the former captives, with whom Theodore was bent on having a reconciliation before their departure. Apprehensive that Theodore might get into a passion at the sight of them, Mr. Rassam endeavoured: by all means to avoid a meeting he so much dreaded; and, at last, his Majesty seemed to have been convinced by his friend's reasonings, and to all appearance gave in to him. Some of the former captives were naturally anxious, and would have much preferred the risk of having to bear a few harsh words rather than excite Theodore's suspicions. It was too late. He had already made up his mind to detain us forcibly, and at the time he pretended to agree not to see the former captives, he was all the while, building a fence for their reception. Mr. Rassam, to divert the Emperor's mind, proposed to him to institute an order to be called the "Cross of Christ and Solomon's Seal;" the rules and regulations were drawn out, one of the workmen made a model of the badges according to Mr. Rassam's direction, his Majesty approved of them, and nine were ordered--three of the first, three of the second, three of the third orders. Mr. Rassam, together with Ras Engeddah and Prince Meshisha, were to be made knights of the first order; the English officers of the mission were to be second class; as for the third, I do not know for whom they were destined, unless for such as Bappo, his butler. Quite unaware of all that was going on behind the scenes, we fancied that we had nothing more to fear, and that all obstacles had been cleverly removed; we were building castles in the air--seeing in imagination dear friendly faces once more, and, thinking we were homeward bound, we laughed at the scorching heat of the Soudan's hottest months: when suddenly all our plans, hopes, and expectations were cruelly crushed. CHAPTER IX. Second visit to Zagé--Arrest of Mr. Rassam and the English Officers--Charges brought against Mr. Rassam--The former Captives are brought in Chains to Zagé--Public Trial--Reconciliation--Mr. Flad's Departure--The Imprisonment at Zagé--Departure for Kourata. On the 13th of April we made our third experiment of the bulrush boats, as the Emperor desired once more to see his dear friends before they left. The European workmen of Gaffat accompanied us. All the Magdala and Gaffat prisoners started the same day, but by another route; the whole party was to rendezvous at Tankal, near the north-west extremity of the lake, where the luggage was also to be conveyed by boats. On our arrival at Zagé, we were received with the usual marks of respect. Ras Engeddah and several high officers came to meet us on the beach, and richly harnessed mules were provided for us from the royal stables. We dismounted at the entrance of his Majesty's inclosure, and were conducted at once to the large audience-hall, erected quite close to the Emperor's private fence. On entering, we were surprised to see the large hall lined on both sides by Abyssinian officers in their gala dress. The throne had been placed at the extremity of the hall, but was empty, and the large circular space around it was filled with the highest officers of the realm. We had only advanced a few stages, preceded by Ras Engeddah, when he bowed and kissed the ground, we thought out of respect for the throne; but it was the signal for an act of base treachery. No sooner had the Ras prostrated himself, than nine men, posted for the purpose, rushed upon each of us, and in less time than I can express it our swords, belts, and caps were cast to the ground, our uniforms torn, and the officers of the English mission, seized by the arm and neck, were dragged, to the upper part of the hall, degraded and reviled before the whole of Theodore's courtiers and grandees! We were allowed to sit down, our captors sitting next to us. The Emperor did not appear, but questions were brought to us by the Ras Engeddah, Cantiba Hailo (the Emperor's adopted father), Samuel, and the European workmen. Some of the questions asked by his Majesty were, to say the least, childish: "Where are the prisoners? Why have you not brought them to me? You had no right to send them without my permission. I wished you to reconcile me with them. I intended also to give to those who had no mule a mule, and to those who had no money some money for the road. Why have you given them fire-arms? Did you not come with a friendly letter from the Queen of England? Why have you sent letters to the coast?" and such like rubbish. Many of the highest officers several times expressed openly their approval of our answers--a rare proceeding in an Abyssinian Court. They evidently did not like, nor could they justify, the treacherous conduct of their master. Between the questions, a paper was partially read, referring to his Majesty's pedigree. As it had nothing to do with, our alleged offences, I could not understand its object, except that it was a certain weakness of this _parvenu_ to glory in his supposed ancestors. His Majesty's last message was: "I have sent for your brethren, and when they arrive, I will see what I shall do." The assembly having been dismissed, we waited a little while, whilst a tent was pitched for us near the Emperor's inclosure. At the time we were undergoing our trial, all the luggage we had brought with us was personally examined by his Majesty. All arms, money, papers, knives, &c., were confiscated; the remainder being sent to us after we had been escorted to the tent; We had hardly entered our new abode, and had not yet recovered from our surprise at the turn the Abyssinian _imbroglio_ had just taken, when cows and bread in abundance were sent to us by Theodore a strange contrast to his recent dealings. At about the same hour which witnessed this reverse in our fortunes, the released captives were also destined to meet with a fearful disappointment. Their fate was even worse than ours. After about two hours' ride they came to a village, and were resting under the shade of a few trees, until their tents should be pitched, when they were called for, and told to enter the house of the chief of the village. As soon as they were all collected, a number of soldiers entered, and the chief of the escort, showing them a letter, asked them if it was his Majesty's seal. On their replying in the affirmative, they were told to sit down. They were rather perplexed, but imagined that perhaps his Majesty had sent them a letter to bid them farewell, and that they were allowed to sit down as they were tired. However, their conjectures were soon set at rest. On a signal given by the chief of the escort, they were seized by the soldiers who lined the room. The letter from Theodore was then read to them. It was addressed to the chief of the escort, and ran thus:--"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to Bitwaddad Tadla. By the power of God, we, Theodore, the king of kings, are well. We are angry with our friends, and with the Europeans, who say, 'We are going to our country,' and we are not yet reconciled. Until we consult as to what we shall do, seize them; but do not make them uncomfortable or afraid, and do not hurt them." In the evening they were chained two by two, their servants were watched, and but two allowed to each individual to prepare his food; the following morning they were taken to Kourata. There they heard of our arrest, and even reports to the effect that we had been killed. The wives of the Gaffat people treated them very kindly: they themselves were in great anguish, as they were quite ignorant of the fate of their relatives. On the morning of the 15th they were taken over by boat to Zagé. On their arrival they were received by guards, who conducted them to a fenced space; mules had been brought for Captain Cameron, Mrs. Rosenthal, and Mrs. Flad, and shortly afterwards the Emperor sent them cows, sheep, bread, &c., in abundance. The three days we spent in the small tent at Zagé were days of great anxiety. We had until then seen but the good side, the amiable mood of our host, and we were not as yet accustomed to his sudden bursts of temper, to his violence and treachery. As soon as our luggage was returned, we destroyed every letter, paper, note, diary, in our possession, and repeatedly questioned Samuel as to our future prospects. On the morning of the second day Theodore sent us his compliments, and told us that as soon as the captives arrived, everything would be all right. We sent him some shirts that had been made for him during our stay at Kourata; he received them, but declined the soap that accompanied them, as, he said, we should require it for the road. In the afternoon we watched him through the links of the tent, whilst he was sitting for hours on a raised platform in front of his inclosure. He appeared calm, and remained, for a long time, in conversation with his favourite, Ras Engeddah, who stood below. We were guarded night and day, and could not move a few steps outside the tent without being followed by a soldier; at night, if we had to go out, we were told to carry a lantern with us. Our guards were all old confidential chiefs of the Emperor, men of rank and position, who executed their orders, but did not abuse their position to make us feel still more our disgrace. On the evening of the 15th a small farce was played that amused me at the time. I was going out a short distance, a servant carrying a lantern before me. We had only advanced a few steps when a soldier roughly seized my servant; immediately the officer on guard ran up towards us, and pretending to be very indignant at the soldier's conduct, told him to let my servant go, and lifting up his stick, gave him a few strokes on the back, exclaiming, "Why do you stop him? These are not prisoners; they are the friends of the King." On turning round; I saw the chief and the soldier having a good laugh together. The following morning the reconciliation was to take place. Theodore desired to impress us with the idea that we might be still his friends, and that we had better give in to him with good grace, as the arrest of the 13th would prove to us that he could also treat us as enemies. His plan was not a bad one; at all events it succeeded. On the 17th we received a message from his Majesty, telling us to go to him, as he desired to try before us the Europeans who had, he said, formerly insulted him. Theodore knows well how to make a display; and on this occasion he did his utmost to impress all, Europeans as well as natives, with an idea of his power and greatness. He was seated on an alga in the open air, in front of the audience-hall. All the great officers of state were stationed on his left hand in front; on his right were the Europeans, and around these more important individuals, the petty chiefs and soldiers formed an almost complete circle. As soon as we approached, his Majesty rose and saluted us; received us, in short, as though we were still his honoured guests, and not the heralds from a great Power he had recently so grossly insulted. We were told to sit down. A few minutes of silence followed, and we saw advancing from the outer gate our countrymen guarded as criminals, and chained two by two. They were arranged in a line in front of his Majesty, who, after observing them for a few seconds, "kindly" inquired after their health, and how they had spent their time. The captives acknowledged these compliments by repeatedly kissing the ground before that incarnation of the Evil One, who all the time grinned in delight at the sight of the misery and humiliation of his victims. Captain Cameron's and Mr. Bardel's fetters were then opened, and they were told to come and sit down near us. All the other captives remained standing in the sun, and had to answer to the Emperor's questions. He was collected, and calm; only once, when addressing us, did he appear in any way excited. He asked them, "Why did you wish to leave my country before you took leave of me?" They answered that they had only acted according to Mr. Rassam's orders, to whom they had been made over. He then said, "Why did you not ask Mr. Rassam to bring you to me, and be reconciled before you left?" and turning towards Mr. Rassam, said, "It is your fault. I told you to reconcile me with them; why did you not do so?" Mr. Rassam replied: that he had believed the written reconciliation that followed the trial of the charges he had sent against them to be sufficient. The Emperor then said to Mr. Rassam, "Bid I not tell you I wanted to give them mules and money, and you answered me that you had bought mules for them, and that you had money enough to take them to their country? Now, on your account, you see them in chains. From the day you told me that you desired to send them by another road I became suspicious, and imagined that you did so in order that you might say in your country that they were released through your cunning and power." The former captives' supposed crimes are well known, and its the remainder of the trial was only a repetition of the one of Gondar, it would be a mere waste of time to speak of it here; suffice it to say that these unfortunate and injured men answered with all humility and meekness, and endeavoured by so doing to avert the wrath of the wretch in whose power they were. The Emperor's pedigree was then read: from Adam to David all went on smoothly enough; from Solomon's supposed son Menilek to Socinius few names were given--perhaps they were patriarchs in their own way; but when it came to Theodore's father and mother the difficulty increased, indeed it became serious; many witnesses were brought forward to testify to their royal descent, and even the opinion of the puppet-Emperor Johannes was recorded in favour of Theodore's legal right to the throne of his ancestors. We were then called forward, and the scene of the 18th enacted over, again. After we had been told to sit down, Theodore called his workmen before him, and asked them if he ought to get "kassa?" (meaning a reparation for what he had suffered at the hands of the Europeans). Some did not audibly reply; whilst others loudly proclaimed that "kassa was good." In conclusion, his Majesty said, addressing himself to us "Do you want to be my masters? You will remain with me; and wherever I go, you will go; wherever I stay, you will stay." On that we were dismissed to our tents, and Captain Cameron was allowed to accompany us. The other Europeans, still in chains, were sent to another part of the camp, where several weeks before a fence had been erected, no one knew why. The following day we were again called before Theodore, but this time it was quite a private affair. The prisoners were first conducted to our tent, and released from their fetters. We were then called into his presence; the former captives followed us, and the Gaffat people shortly afterwards entered, and were told to sit at the Emperor's right. As soon as the released prisoners entered; they bowed their heads to the ground and begged for pardon. His Majesty told them to rise, and after informing them that they had never done anything wrong, and that they were his friends, bowed his head to the ground, and in his turn begged for pardon. He remained in that attitude until they had repeatedly told him, "For God's sake, we forgive you!" Captain Cameron then read aloud Dr. Beke's letter and the petition of the prisoners' relatives. The reconciliation effected, the Emperor dictated a letter for our Queen, and Mr. Flad was selected to convey it. We then all had our tents pitched in a large enclosure, fenced that very morning under his Majesty's supervision. We were once more all united; but this time all prisoners. Mr. Flad left; we expected that his mission would be unsuccessful, and that England, disgusted with so much treachery, would not condescend to treat further, but enforce her demands. The day Mr. Flad left, his wife accompanied the workmen, who were ordered back to Kourata; with them we had much less intercourse than before, as they were at all times timid, and very careful not to have many dealings with doubtful friends of the King. Zagé was one of the principal towns of the formerly prosperous and populous district of Metsha, but when we came we saw nought but ruins; and had we not been told that the guicho and coffee-covered hill was only a few weeks before the abode of thousands, we could not have credited it; nor that the small circular patches, now green with grass and weeds, had been the homes of a thriving and industrious population. A few days after the reconciliation--the very morning Flad left for England--his Majesty returned us our arms, and a portion of our money; he also presented us at the same time with silver-mounted shields, spears, and mules, and a few days later with horses. We saw him on several occasions: twice he came to see us in our tents; one day we went with him to assist at the trial of some guns made by his European workmen; once duck-shooting with him on the lake; another time to see him play the national game of goucks. He endeavoured to appear friendly, supplied us with abundant rations, and twice a day sent his compliments; he even fired a salute and gave a feast on our Queen's birthday. Nevertheless, we felt unhappy: our cage was gilt, but still a cage; and the experience we had had of the King's treachery made us constantly fear a recurrence of it. When we met him in Damot, and when we visited him before at Zagé, we had only seen the actor in his smiling mood; now all restraint was thrown off: women were flogged to death close to our tents, and soldiers laden with chains or beaten to death on the most trivial pretexts. The true character of the tyrant became daily more apparent, and we felt that our position was most dangerous and critical. Theodore was still bent on building boats; seeing that everybody seemed reluctant to help him he went to work himself; he made an immense flat-bottomed bulrush boat of great thickness, and to propel it made two large wheels worked by hand: in fact he had invented a paddle steamer, only the locomotive agent was deficient. We saw it several times on the water; the wheels were rather high up and it required at least a hundred men on it to make them dip sufficiently. Strange to say he spent his time in that frivolous way and never took notice of a large rebel force not four miles from his camp. Cholera had been making havoc in Tigré; we were not surprised, therefore, to hear that it had spread over other provinces, and that several cases had already broken out at Kourata. The King's camp was pitched in a very unhealthy situation, on a low, swampy ground; fevers, diarrhoea, and dysentery had prevailed to a great extent. Informed of the approach of cholera, his Majesty wisely decided upon moving his camp to the highlands of Begemder. Mrs. Rosenthal was at the time very unwell, and could not stand the journey by land; she was therefore allowed to proceed by water to Kourata, accompanied by her husband, myself, and Captain Cameron, also in delicate health. We started on the evening of the 31st of May, and reached Kourata early the next morning. A gale of wind was blowing at the time, and we had to make frequent stoppages on the lee of the land, as the heavy sea frequently threatened to swamp our frail boats. Without exaggeration, this last passage was in all respects the _ne plus ultra_ of discomfort. CHAPTER X. Second Residence in Kourata--Cholera and Typhus break out in the Camp--The Emperor resolves to march to Debra Tabor--Arrival at Gaffat--The Foundry transformed into a Palace--Political Trial at Debra Tabor--The Black Tent--Dr. Blanc and Mr. Rosenthal seized at Gaffat--Another Public Trial--The Black Hole--March with the Emperor to Aibankab--Sent to Magdala, and Arrival at the Amba. At Kourata a few empty houses were put at our disposal, and we went to work to make these dirty native dwellings inhabitable. It was rumoured that Theodore intended to spend the rainy season in the neighbourhood, and on the 4th he made a sudden visit; he was only accompanied by a few of his chiefs. He came and returned by water. Ras Engeddah arrived about an hour before him. I was advised to go and meet him on the beach; I therefore accompanied the Gaffat people, who also went to present him their respects. His Majesty, on seeing me, asked me how I was, if I liked the place, &c. No one ever knew why he came. I believe, to judge for himself if the cholera was raging there at the time or not, as he made many inquiries on the subject. On the 6th of June Theodore left Zagé with his army; Mr. Rassam and the other prisoners accompanied him; all the heavy baggage had been sent by boat to Kourata. On the 9th, his Majesty encamped on a low promontory south of Kourata. Cholera had by this time broken out in the camp, and hundreds were dying daily. In the hope of improving the sanitary condition of the army, the Emperor moved his camp to some high ground a mile or so north of the town; but the epidemic continued to rage with great virulence both in the camp and in the town. The church was so completely choked up with dead bodies that no more could be admitted, and the adjoining streets offered the sad sight of countless corpses, surrounded by the sorrowful relatives, awaiting for days and nights the hallowed grave in the now crowded cemetery. Small-pox and typhus fever also made their appearance, and claimed the victims cholera had spared. On the 12th June we received orders to join the camp, as Theodore intended to leave on the following day for the higher and more healthy province of Begemder. On the 13th, at early morning, the camp was struck, and we encamped in the evening on the banks of the Gumaré, a tributary of the Nile. The next day the march was resumed. We had been more or less ascending since our departure from Kourata, and Outoo (a beautiful plateau, our halting-place of the 14th) must have been several thousand feet higher than the lake; nevertheless, cholera, small-pox, and typhus fever continued unabated. His Majesty inquired what was usually done in our country under similar circumstances. We advised him to proceed at once to the higher plateau of Begemder, to leave his sick at some distance from Debra Tabor, to break up as far as possible his army, and distribute it over the whole province, selecting a few healthy and isolated localities where every fresh case that broke out should be sent. He acted upon this advice, and before long had the satisfaction of seeing the several epidemics lose their virulence, and, before many weeks, disappear entirely. On the 16th we made a very long march. We started at about 6 A.M. and never halted once until we arrived at Debra Tabor at about 2 P.M. As soon as we reached the foot of the hill on which the Imperial houses arise, we received a message from his Majesty telling us not to dismount, and shortly afterwards he rode towards us, accompanied by a few of his bodyguard. We all started for Gaffat, the European station, about three miles east of Debra Tabor. _En route_ we were overtaken by the most severe hailstorm I have ever seen or experienced; such was its violence, that Theodore was several times obliged to halt. The hail poured down in such thick masses, and the stones were of such an enormous size, that it was indeed quite painful to bear. At last we reached Gaffat, frozen and drenched to the skin; but the Emperor, seemingly quite unaffected by the recent shower, acted as our cicerone, and took us about the place, explaining to us the foundry, workshops, water-wheels, &c. A few planks were transformed into seats, and a fire lighted by his order, and we remained with him alone for more than three hours, discussing the laws and customs of England. Some carpets and cushions had been left behind at Debra Tabor, and he sent back Ras Engeddah to have them conveyed. As soon as he returned with the bearers, Theodore led the way up the hill to Gaffat, and with his own hands spread the carpets, and placed the throne in the house selected for Mr. Rassam. Other houses were distributed to the other Europeans, after which his Majesty left. On the 17th June the European workmen, who had remained behind at Kourata, arrived at Debra Tabor. We are not aware that they made any objection to our occupying their houses, but the Emperor perceived by their demeanour that they were not pleased; he therefore accompanied them to Gaffat, and in a few hours had the foundry, by means of shamas, gabis, and carpets, transformed into a very decent abode. The throne was also conveyed there, and when all was ready we were called. His Majesty, after apologizing for the accommodation he was obliged to give us for a few days, returned to Debra Tabor, promising that the next day he would see for a more suitable dwelling for his guests. Accordingly, the following morning he arrived, and had several native houses on a small hill opposite Gaffat cleared out for our reception. As Mr. Rassam's house was rather small, that gentleman took advantage of the circumstance to request that the Emperor would withdraw the honour of placing the throne in his room. His Majesty acquiesced, but had the place well carpeted, and the walls and ceiling lined with white cloth. After all these daily changes we thought that we were settled for the rainy season. Cholera and typhus fever had made their appearance at Gaffat, and from morning to night I was in constant attendance on the sick. One of my patients, the wife of one of the Europeans, greatly occupied my time: she had first been attacked with cholera, and was afterwards laid for many days at death's door with typhus fever. On the morning of the 25th of June we received a message from the Emperor, to the effect that Mr. Rassam, his companions, the priests, and any one he would like to take with him, should repair to Debra Tabor, to be present at a political trial. The European workmen, Cantiba, Hailo, and Samuel accompanied us. Arrived at Debra Tabor, we were surprised at not being received with the usual salutations, and instead of being at once conducted to the presence of Theodore, we were ushered into a black tent pitched in the King's inclosure. We surmised that the political trial concerned ourselves. We had been seated but a few minutes, when the European workmen were sent for by his Majesty. After a while they returned, with Cantiba Hailo, Samuel, and an Afa Negus (mouth of the King), who delivered the Imperial messages. The first and most important was, "I have received a letter from Jerusalem, in which I am told that the Turks are making railways in the Soudan, to attack my country conjointly with the English and French." The second message was much to the same effect, only adding that as Mr. Rassam must have seen the railway in construction, he ought to have informed his Majesty of it. The third question was, "Is it not true that the Egyptian railway was built by the English?" Fourthly, "Did he not give a letter to Consul Cameron for him to deliver to the Queen of England, and did not the Consul return without an answer? Did not Mr. Rosenthal say that the English Government had laughed at his letter?" Altogether; there were some seven or eight questions, but the others were insignificant, and I do not remember them. A few days before a Greek priest had arrived from the coast with a letter for his Majesty: Whether these statements were contained in the missive; or were merely a pretext invented by Theodore himself, to give a reason for the ill treatment he intended to inflict upon his innocent guests, it is impossible to say. The concluding message was, "You must remain here; your arms his Majesty no longer trusts in your hands, but your property will be sent to you." Mr. Rosenthal obtained permission to return to Gaffat to see his wife, and I was granted leave to accompany Samuel, as Mrs. Waldmeier was that day in a very critical state. Mr. Rassam and the other Europeans remained in the tent. Mr. Waldmeier, on account of his wife's serious illness, had remained at Gaffat, and he was much startled and grieved when he heard of our new misfortune; especially as it would deprive his wife of medical attendance at a time her life was despaired of. He begged me to remain near her for an hour, whilst he would gallop to Debra Tabor to entreat his Majesty to let me remain with him until his wife should be out of danger. Mrs. Waldmeier is a daughter of the late Mr. Bell, who was held in great esteem and affection by the Emperor. Not only did Theodore at once grant Waldmeier's request, but added, that if Mr. Rassam had no objection, he would allow me to remain at Gaffat, as sickness was prevailing there, during the expedition he intended to make. As I was much reduced by chronic diarrhoea and overexertion, I was much pleased at the prospect of remaining at Gaffat, instead of campaigning during the rains. Mr. Rassam himself on the following day requested his Majesty to allow me and some of our companions to remain for the rainy season at Gaffat. In my case and in Mr. Rosenthal's, permission was granted, but was refused to all the others. Every day we heard that orders had been issued for the camp to be struck, but his Majesty did not leave. He daily inquired after Mrs. Waldmeier, and sent me his compliments. He visited Gaffat twice during the few days I was there, and on each occasion sent for me and received me courteously. Mr. Rassam and the other Europeans were allowed to come to Gaffat and spend the day with us; and although now and then the word "Magdala" was whispered, still it seemed as if the storm had blown over, and we hoped before long to be all again united at Gaffat, and there in peace spend the rainy season. On the 3rd of July an officer brought me the Imperial compliments, and stated that his Majesty was coming to inspect the works, and that I might present myself before him. I went at once to the foundry, and on the road I met two of the Gaffat workmen also proceeding there. A little incident then occurred, which was followed by serious consequences. We met the Emperor near the foundry, riding ahead of his escort; he asked us how we were, and we all lowed and took off our hats. As he passed, along, the two Europeans with whom I walked, covered themselves; but aware how touchy his Majesty, was on all points of etiquette, I kept my head uncovered, though the sun was hot and fierce. Arrived at the foundry, the Emperor again greeted me cordially; examined for a few minutes the drawing of a gun his workmen proposed to cast for him, and then left, all of us following. In the courtyard he passed close to Mr. Rosenthal, who did not bow, as Theodore took no notice of him. As the Emperor issued from the foundry fence a poor old beggar asked for alms, saying, "My lords (gaitotsh) the Europeans have always been kind to me. Oh! my king, do you also relieve my distress!" On hearing the expression "lord" applied to his workmen, he got into a fearful passion. "How dare you call any one 'lord' but myself. Beat him, beat him, by my death!" Two of the executioners at once rushed upon the beggar, and began beating him with their long sticks, Theodore all the while exclaiming, "Beat him, beat him, by my death!" The poor old cripple, at first in heartrending terms, implored for mercy; but his voice grew fainter and fainter, and in a few minutes more there lay his corpse, that none dare remove or pray for. The laughing hyenas that night caroused undisturbed on his abandoned remains. Theodore's rage was by no means abated by this act of cruelty; he advanced a few steps, then stopped, turned, his lance in rest, looking around, the very image of ungovernable fury. His eyes fell upon Mr. Rosenthal. "Seize him!" cried he; Immediately several soldiers rushed forward to obey the imperial command. "Seize the man they call a Hakeem." Instantly a dozen ruffians pounced upon me, and I was held fast by the arms, coat, trousers--by every place that afforded a grip. He then addressed himself to Mr. Rosenthal. "You donkey, why did you call me the son of a poor woman? Why did you abase me?" Mr. Rosenthal said, "If I have offended your Majesty, I beg for pardon." All the while the Emperor was shaking his lance in a threatening manner, and every minute I expected that he would throw it; I feared that, blind with rage, he would not be able to control himself; and I well knew that if once he began to give vent to his passions, my fate was also sealed. Fortunately for us both, Theodore turned towards his European workmen and abused them in no measured terms. "You slaves! Have I not bought you with money? Who are you that you dare call yourselves 'lords?' Take care!" Then addressing the two I had met on the road, he said, "You are proud, are you? Slaves! Women! Rotten donkeys! you cover your heads, in my presence! Did you not see me? Did not the Hakeem keep his head uncovered? Poor men that I have made rich!" He then turned towards me, and seeing me held by a dozen soldiers, he cried out, "Let him go; bring him before me." All drew back except one, who conducted me to within a few feet from the Emperor. He then asked me, "Do you know Arabic?" Though I understand a little of that language, I thought it more prudent, under the circumstances, to reply in the negative. He then told Mr. Schimper to translate what he was going to say. "You, Hakeem, are my friend. I have nothing against you; but others have abused me, and you must come up with me to witness their trial." Then ordering Cantiba Hailo to give me his mule, he mounted, I and Mr. Rosenthal following; the latter on foot, dragged the whole way by the soldiers who had first seized him. As soon as we reached Debra Tabor, the Emperor sent word to Mr. Rassam to come out with the other Europeans, as he had something to tell him. Theodore sat upon a rock, about twenty yards in front of us; between him and ourselves stood a few of his high officers, and behind us a deep line of soldiers. He was still angry, breaking the edges of the rock with the butt-end of his lance, and spitting constantly between his words. He at once addressed himself to the Rev. Mr. Stern, and asked him, "Was it as a Christian, a heathen, or a Jew, that you abused me? Tell me where you find in the Bible that a Christian ought to abuse? When you wrote your book, by whose authority did you do it? Those who abused me to you, were they my enemies or yours? Who was it told you evil things against me?" &c. He afterwards said to Mr. Rassam, "You, also, have, abused me." "I?" replied Mr. Rassam. "Yes, you; in four instances. First, you read Mr. Stern's book, wherein I am abused; secondly, you did not reconcile me with the prisoners, but wanted to send them out of the country; thirdly, your Government allows the Turks to keep Jerusalem--it is my inheritance. The fourth I have forgotten." He then asked Mr. Rassam whether he knew or not that Jerusalem belonged to him, and that the Abyssinian convent there had been seized by the Turks? As the descendant of Constantine and Alexander the Great, India and Arabia belonged to him. He put many foolish questions of the same kind. At last he said to Samuel, who was interpreting, "What have you to say if I chain your friends?" "Nothing," replied Samuel; "are you not the master?" Chains had been brought, but the answer somewhat pacified him. He then addressed one of his chiefs, saying, "Can you watch these people in the tent?" The other, who knew his answer, replied, "Your Majesty, the house would be better." On that he gave orders for our baggage to be conveyed from the black tent to a house contiguous to his own, and we were told to go. The house assigned to us was formerly used as a godown: it was built of stone, with a large verandah all around, and closed by a single small door, with no window or other aperture. It was only when several lighted candles had been brought that we could find our way into the dark central room, and it only required numbers to react the fearful drama of the Calcutta Black Hole. Some soldiers carried in our bedding, and a dozen guards sat near us, holding lighted candles in their hands. The Emperor sent us several messages. Mr. Rassam took advantage of this circumstance to complain bitterly of the unfair treatment inflicted upon us. He said, "Tell his Majesty that I have done my best to bring on a good understanding between my country and him; but when to-day's work is known, whatever the consequences may be, let him not throw the blame upon me." Theodore sent back word, "If I treat you well or not; it is the same; my enemies will always say that I have ill-treated you, so it does not matter." A little later we were rather startled by a message from his Majesty, informing us that he could not rest before comforting his friend, and that he would come and see us. Though we did our best to dissuade him from such a step, he soon afterwards came; accompanied by some slaves carrying arrack and tej. He said, "Even my wife told me not to go out, but I could not leave you in grief, so I have come to drink with you." On that he had arrack and tej presented to all of us, himself setting the example. He was calm, and rather serious, though he made great efforts to appear gay. He must have remained at least an hour; conversing on different topics, the Pope of Rome being the principal one discussed. Amongst other things: he said, "My father was mad, and though people often say that I am mad also; I never would believe it; but now I know it is true." Mr. Rassam answered, "Pray do not say such a thing." His Majesty replied, "Yes, yes, I am mad," Shortly before leaving, he said, "Do not look at my face or take heed of my words when I speak to you before my people, but look at my heart: I have an object." As he returned, he gave orders to the guards to withdraw outside, and not to inconvenience us. Though we have seen him since then once or twice, at a distance, it is the last time we conversed with him. The two days we spent in the black hole at Debra Tabor, all huddled up together, obliged to have lighted candles day and night, and in anxious uncertainty about our future fate, were really days of mental torture and physical discomfort. We hailed with joy the announcement that we were going to move; any alternative was preferable to our position--be it rain in a worn-out tent, be it chains in one of the ambas--anything was better than close confinement, deprived of all comforts, even of the cheering light of day. At noon on the 5th of July, we were informed that his Majesty had already left, and that our escort was in attendance. All were delighted at the prospect of seeing fresh air and green fields and bright sun. We did not require a second command, and did not even give a second thought to the journey, rain, mud, and such like inconveniences. On that day we made but a short stage, and encamped on a large plain called Janmêda, a few miles south of Gaffat. Early morning the following day the army moved off, but we waited in the rear at least three hours before the order came for us to start. Theodore, seated on a rock, had allowed the whole force, camp-followers included, to go on in advance, and like us, unprotected from the pouring rain, and seemingly in deep thought, examined the different corps as they passed before him. We were now strictly watched; several chiefs with their men guarded us day and night, a detachment marched ahead of us, another in the rear, and a strong party never lost sight of us. We halted that afternoon on a large plain near a small eminence called Kulgualiko, on which the Imperial tents were pitched. The following day, the same mode of departure was adopted, and after travelling all night we halted at a place called Aibankab, at the foot of Mount Guna, the highest peak in Begemder, often covered during the rainy season with frozen hail. We remained the 8th at Aibankab. In the afternoon his Majesty told us to ascend the hill on which his tents were pitched, to see the snow-covered summit of the Guna, as from our position below we could not obtain a good view of it. A few polite messages passed between us, but we did not see him. Early on the 9th, Samuel, our balderaba, was sent for. He stayed away a long time, and on his return informed us that we were to go on in advance, that our heavy baggage would be sent after us, and that we must keep with us a few light articles which the soldiers of our escort and our mules could carry. Several of the officers of the Imperial household, to whom we had shown some kindness, came to bid us good-by, all looking very sad--one with tears in his eyes. Though no one informed us of our destination, we all surmised that Magdala and chains were our lot. Bitwaddad Tadla, with the men under his command, now took charge of us. We soon perceived that we were more strictly guarded than ever; one or two mounted soldiers had special charge of each separate individual of our party, flogging the mules if they did not go fast enough, or causing those in front to wait until the less well mounted could come up. We made a very long march on that day, from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M., without a halt. The soldiers, who carried a few parcels, came on shortly after us, but the baggage mules only arrived at sunset, and dead tired. As the small rowties we had brought with us had not arrived, the head of the guard had a house in the village of Argabea cleared out for our reception. No food being forthcoming, we killed a sheep and broiled it over the fire, Abyssinian fashion; hungry and tired, we thought it the most exquisite meal we had ever made. At sunrise, the following morning, our guards told us to get ready, and soon after we were in the saddle. Our route lay E.S.E. Any slight doubts we might still have had about our destination now vanished; the former prisoners knew too well the road to Magdala to have any misgivings on the subject. On the previous day the road was a gradual ascent over a well-cultivated and populous district; but on the 10th, the country bore a wild aspect, few villages were to be seen, and but few dark tufts of cedars graced the summit of the distant hills, proclaiming the presence of a church. The scenery was grand, and for the artist no doubt full of attractions; but for Europeans, driven like cattle by semi-barbarians, the precipitous descents and steep acclivities had certainly no charms. After a few hours' march, we arrived at an almost perpendicular precipice (almost 1,500 feet in height, and not more than a quarter of a mile in breadth), that we had both to descend and ascend in order to reach the next plateau. Another couple of hours' march brought us to the gate's of Begemder. In front of us arose the plateau of Dahonte, only about a couple of miles distant, but we had to ascend a more abrupt precipice than the one we had just passed and climb again a steeper ascent before we could reach it. The valley of the Jiddah, a tributary of the Nile, was between us and our halting-place--a stiff march, as the silver thread we viewed from the narrow passage between the basaltic columns of the Eastern Begemder ridge was 3,000 feet below us. Tired and worn out, at last; we accomplished our task. We halted for the night at a place called Magat, on the first terrace of the Dahonte plateau, about 500 feet from the summit. Our small tent arrived in time, our servants had carried with them a few provisions, and we managed to make a frugal meal; but only one or two of the best baggage mules made their appearance, so that we had to lie on the bare ground--those best off on leathern skins. It was five days after our arrival at Magdala before a small portion of our luggage arrived, and until then we could not even change our clothes, and had nothing to protect ourselves against the cold nights of the rainy season. Early on the morning of the 11th we continued our ascent, and soon reached the splendid plateau of Dahonte. This small province is but a large circular plain about twelve miles in diameter, covered at the time of our journey, with fields in all stages of cultivation, and with beautiful green meadows, where grazed thousands of heads of cattle, and where mules, horses, and innumerable flocks everywhere meet the eye. The whole circumference of this plain is dotted with small rounded hillocks, and from their base to the summit numerous well-built villages arise. Dahonte is certainly the most fertile and picturesque district I have seen in Abyssinia. By noon we reached the eastern extremity of the plateau, and there before us again appeared one of those awful chasms we had encountered twice on our road since leaving Debra Tabor. We did not at all rejoice at the idea of having to descend, then wade through the wide and rapid Bechelo, and again climb the opposite precipice--a perfect wall--to complete our day's work. Fortunately, our mules were so tired that the chief of our guard halted, for the night half way down the descent, at one of the villages that are perched on the several terraces of this basaltic mountain. At dawn on the 12th we continued our descent, crossed the Bechelo, and ascended to the opposite plateau of Watat, where we arrived at eleven A.M. There we made a slight halt and partook of a frugal breakfast, sent by the chief of Magdala to Bitwaddad Tadla, who kindly shared it with us. From Watat to Magdala the road is an inclined plain, constantly but gradually shelving upwards towards the high plateau of the Wallo country--the end of our journey, as Magdala is on its border. The amba, with a few isolated mountains, all perpendicular and crowned with walls of basalt, seem like miniatures of the large expanses of Dahonte and Wallo--small particles detached from the neighbouring gigantic masses. The road on nearing Magdala is more abrupt; one or two conical hills have to be crossed before the amba itself is reached. Magdala is formed of two cones, separated by a small plateau named Islamgee, a few hundred feet lower than the two peaks it divides. The northern peak is the higher of the two, but on account of the absence of water and the small space it affords, it is not inhabited; and to Magdala alone belonged the privilege of being Theodore's most famous fortress, his treasury, and his gaol. From Islamgee the ascent is steeper, but we were able to ride on our mules up to the second door; a feat we could not perform whilst ascending from the Bechelo and Jiddah, as we had not only to descend almost all the way on foot, but had frequently to dismount at the ascent, and climb on all-fours, leaving the mules to find their way as best they could. The distance from Watat to Magdala is generally accomplished in five hours, but we were nearly seven, as we had to make frequent halts, and messengers came to and fro from the Amba. Many of the chiefs of the mountain came out to meet Bitwaddad Tadla. At Islamgee another long halt was made, I suppose while our _lettre de cachet_ was examined by the chiefs in council. At last, one by one, counted like sheep, we passed the doors, and were taken to a large open space in front of the King's house. There we were met by the Ras (Head of the mountain) and the six superior chiefs, who join with him in council on every important occasion. As soon as they had greeted Bitwaddad Tadla they retired a few yards, and consulted with him and Samuel. After a few minutes, Samuel told us to come on; and, accompanied by the chiefs, escorted by their followers, we were taken to a house near the Imperial fence. A fire was lighted. To fatigued and dejected men the prospect of a roof, after so many days passed in the rain, cheered us even in our misery, and when the chiefs had retired, leaving a guard at the door, we soon forgot--talking, smoking, or sleeping near the fire--that we were the innocent victims of base treachery. Two houses had been allowed to our party. At first we all slept in one of them, the other being made over to the servants, and used as a kitchen. CHAPTER XI. Our First House at Magdala--The Chief has a "little Business" with us--Feelings of an European when being put in Chains--The Operation described--The Prisoner's Toilet--How we Lived--Our first Messenger a Failure--How we obtained Money and Letters--A Magdala Diary--A Rainy Season in a Godjo. It was already dark when we had arrived the evening before. Our first thought in the morning was to examine our new abode. It consisted of two circular huts, surrounded by a strong thorny fence, adjoining the Emperor's Enclosure. The largest hut was in a bad state of repair; and as the roof, instead of being supported by a central pole, had about a dozen of lateral ones forming as many separate divisions, we made it over to our servants and to our balderaba Samuel. The one we kept for ourselves had been built by Ras Hailo, at one time a great favourite of Theodore, but who had unfortunately fallen under his displeasure. Ras Hailo was not chained during the time he remained in that house: for a time he was even "pardoned," and made chief of the mountain. But Theodore, after a while, again deprived him of his command and confidence, and sent him to the common gaol, chained like the other prisoners. For an Abyssinian house it was well built; the roof was almost the best I saw in the country, being made with small bamboos closely arranged and bound with rings of the same material. After Ras Hailo had been sent to the gaol, his house had been made over to the favourite of the day, Ras Engeddah; but, according to custom, Theodore took it away from him to lodge his English guests. For us it was small: we were eight, and the place could not contain easily more than four. The evenings and nights were bitterly cold, and the fire occupying the centre of the room, some of us had to lay half the body in a recess that leaked, and half in the room. At first we felt our position bitterly. The rainy season had set in, and hailstorms occurred almost every day. Many of us (Prideaux and myself amongst them) had not even a change of clothes, no bedding, nor anything to cover ourselves with during the long cold damp nights; and I always shall remember with feelings of gratitude the Samaritan act of Samuel, who, pitying me, kindly lent me one of his shamas. We had hardly any money, and we had not the remotest idea from whence we could obtain any. Though there was some talk of rations being supplied from the Imperial stores, the former captives only laughed at the idea; they knew, from bitter experience, that prisoners on Amba Magdala "were expected to give, but never to receive." The event proved that their surmises were right: we never received anything from the man who on all occasions loudly proclaimed himself our friend but a small jar of tej, that for some months was daily sent to Samuel: (I believe all the time it was intended for him; at all events, he and his friends drank it;) and on great feast days a couple of lean, hungry-looking cows, of which, I am delighted to say, I declined a share. To the European, accustomed to find at his door every necessary of life, the fact that not a shop exists throughout the breadth and width of Abyssinia may appear strange; but still it is so. We had, therefore, to be our own butchers and bakers, and as for what is called grocery stores, we had simply to dispense with them. Our food was abominably bad; the sheep we purchased were little better than London cats; and as no flour-mill is to be found in Abyssinia, far less any bakers, we were obliged to purchase the grain, beat it to remove the chaff, and grind it between two stones--not the flat grinding-stones of Egypt or India, but on a small curved piece of rock, where the grain is reduced to flour by means of a large hard kind of pebble held in the hand. It was brown bread with a vengeance. On the mountain we might buy eggs and fowls; but as the first were generally bad when sold to us, we soon got disgusted with them; and though we put up with the fowls as a change of diet, their toughness and leanness would have made them rejected everywhere else. Being the rainy reason, we had great difficulty in purchasing a little honey. Wild coffee was now and then obtainable; but it made, in the absence of sugar, and with or without smoky milk, such a bitter, nauseous compound, that, after a while, I and others preferred doing without it. Such was then the amount of "luxuries" we had to depend on during our long captivity,--coarse, vitreous-looking, badly-baked bread; the ever-returning dish of skinny, tough mutton, the veteran cock, smoked butter, and bitter coffee. Tea, sugar, wine, fish, vegetables, &c., were not, either for love or money, to be obtained anywhere. The coarseness and uniformity of our food, however, was as nothing compared with our dread of being starved to death; for even the few and inferior articles I have mentioned would fail us when our money was expended. I was very badly off for clothes. Before leaving Debra Tabor, I was told to leave everything behind in the charge of the Gaffat people, and only take with me the few things I required for the road. My only pair of shoes, what from rain, sun, and climbing, had become so thoroughly worn-out, and so hard, as to bring on a wound that took months to heal, so that until the arrival of one of my servants from the coast, many months afterwards, I had to walk, or rather crawl, about on naked feet. Life in common among men of different tastes and habits is, indeed, dreadful. There we were, eight Europeans, all huddled up in the same small place, a waiting-room, a dining-room, a dormitory; most of us entire strangers before, and only united by one bond--common misfortune. Adversity is but little fitted to improve the temper: on the contrary, it breaks down all social habits; the more so if education and birth do not enable the sufferer to contend against the greatest difficulties. We feared above all things that familiarity which creeps on so naturally between men of totally different social positions, and leads to harsh words and contempt. We had to live on terms of equality with one of the former servants of Captain Cameron; we had to be quiet if some remained talking part of the night, and put up silently with the defects of others in the hope that our own might meet with the same leniency. A party of soldiers, varying from fifteen to twenty, came every evening a little before dusk, and pitched a small black tent almost opposite our door. As it frequently rained at night, the greater number of the soldiers remained in the tent; only two or three, supposed to be watching, went to sleep under the shelter of a projecting part of the roof. They did not disturb us, and, if we went out after dark, they merely watched where we went, but did not follow. In the daytime we had four guards, two taking it in turn to watch the gate of our inclosure. These men were never changed during all the time of our stay; but we had not much reason to be satisfied with the selection made, as, with one exception, our day guards were fearful rascals and dangerous spies. We had already spent three days at Magdala, and were beginning to hope that our punishment would be limited to "simple imprisonment," when about noon on the 16th we perceived the chief, accompanied by a large escort, coming in the direction of our prison. Samuel was sent for, and a long consultation took place between him and the chief outside the gate. We were yet in ignorance of what was going on, and felt rather uncomfortable when Samuel returned to us with a serious countenance, and told us that we must all go into the room, as the chief had a "little business" with us. We obeyed, and shortly afterwards the Ras (Head of the mountain), the five members of council, and about eight or ten more presented themselves. The Ras and the principal chiefs, all armed to the teeth, squeezed themselves into the room, the others remaining outside. The ordinary Abyssinian conversation--that is to say, a great deal of talking about religion, looking pious, taking God's and the King's name in vain every minute--opened the proceedings. I was sitting near the door, and as the conversation did not interest me much, I was looking at the motley crowd outside, when all at once I perceived that two or three men were carrying large bundles of chains. I pointed them out to Mr. Rassam, and asked him if he believed they intended them for us; he spoke to Samuel in Arabic on the subject, and the affirmative answer he received revealed to us the subject of the long consultation that had taken place outside. The Ras now dropped the desultory conversation he had been holding since his arrival, and in quiet terms informed us that it was the custom of the mountain to chain every prisoner sent there; that he had received no instructions from the Emperor, and would at once despatch a messenger to inform him that he had put us in irons, and he had no doubt that before long his master would send orders for our fetters to be removed, but that in the meanwhile we must submit to the rules of the amba; he added that in our case it was with regret that he felt himself obliged to enforce them. The poor fellow really meant well; he was kind-hearted and, for an Abyssinian, had gentlemanly manners; he had some hope that Theodore might have by that time regretted the unnecessary and cruel order, and would perhaps seize the opportunity he thus offered him and cancel it. I may as well add here that, not many months afterwards, the Ras was accused of being in correspondence with the king of Shoa; he was taken in irons to the camp, where he shortly afterwards died from the consequences of the many tortures inflicted upon him. The chains were brought, and the real business of the day began; one after another we had to submit to the operation, the former captives being first served and favoured with the heaviest chains. At last my turn came. I was made to sit down on the ground, tuck up my trousers, and place my right leg on a large stone that had been brought for the purpose. One of the rings was then placed on my leg a couple of inches above the right ankle, and down came, upon the thick cold iron, a huge sledge-hammer: every stroke vibrated through the whole limb, and when the hammer fell not quite straight it pressed the iron ring against the bone, causing most acute pain. It took about ten minutes to fix on properly the first ring; it was beaten down until a finger could just be introduced between the ring and the flesh, and then the two pieces, where they overlapped one another, were hammered down until they perfectly joined. The operation was then performed on the left leg. I was always afraid of the blacksmith missing the iron and smashing my leg to pieces. All at once I felt as if the limb was being torn asunder; the ring had broken just when the operation was nearly completed. For the second time I had to submit to the hammering process, and this time the fetter was rivetted to the entire satisfaction of the smith and chief. I was now told that I might rise and go to my seat; but that was no easy matter, and, having no practice in this, for me, quite new way of locomotion, I could hardly take the necessary three or four steps. Although I was in great bodily pain, and felt deeply the degradation we were subjected to, I would not give the officers of the man who was thus ill-treating us cause to believe that I cared in the least about it. On rising to my legs I lifted up my cap and shouted, to their great astonishment, "God save the Queen," and went on laughing and chatting as if I felt perfectly happy. As every detail of our life was reported to Theodore, and my contempt for his chains was public, he was at once informed of it: but he only mentioned the fact twenty-one months afterwards, when he alluded to it in conversation with Mr. Waldmeier, to whom he said that every one allowed themselves to be chained without saying a word; that even Mr. Rassam had smiled upon them; but that the doctor and Mr. Prideaux had looked at them with anger. After the operation was over, and the witnesses of the scene had each favoured us with a "May God open thee," the messenger the chiefs were sending to Theodore (a fellow named Lib, a great spy, and confidant of the Emperor; the same who had brought our _lettres de cachet_,) was introduced to receive any message Mr. Rassam desired to convey to his Majesty. That gentleman, in quiet and courteous words, reproached his Majesty for his treachery, and cast upon him the onus of the consequences such unfair treatment would most likely bring upon him. Unfortunately Samuel, always timid, and at this time almost dead with fright, as he did not know whether chains were not in reserve for him also, declined to interpret, and simply sent the ordinary compliments instead. When our gaolers had withdrawn, we looked at one another, and the sight was so ridiculous, so absurd, that for all our sorrow we could not help laughing heartily. The chains consisted of two heavy rings connected together by three small thick links, leaving just a span between one ring and the other; and these we wore for nearly twenty-one months! At first we could not walk at all; our legs were bruised and sore from the hammering on, and the iron pressing on the ankles was so painful that we were obliged to tie bandages under the chains during the daytime. At night I always took off the bandages, as the constant impediment to the circulation they occasioned, caused the feet to swell; yet at night we felt the weight and pressure even more than during the day: our legs seemed for a long time never to get rest; we could not move them about, and when in our sleep we turned from one side to the other, the links, by striking the bone of the leg, caused such acute pain as to awake us at once. Though after a time we got more accustomed to them, and could walk about our small inclosure with more ease, still every now and then we had to remain quiet for some days, as the legs got sore, and small ulcers appeared on the parts where the greatest pressure bore. Even since they have been removed, for months my legs were weaker than before, the ankles smaller, and the feet somewhat enlarged. The evening we were put in chains we had to cut open our trousers as the only way of getting them off. During their former captivity at Magdala, Messrs. Cameron, Stern and others, either wore petticoats or native drawers, which they had been taught to pass between the leg and the chain. But we had no material at hand to make the first, and as for passing even the thinnest cambric through the rings in the swollen condition of the limb, that was quite out of the question. Necessity, it is said, is the mother of invention: at all events I invented the "Magdala trousers." On taking off mine that evening, I cut them near the outward seam, and collecting all the buttons I could obtain, had them sewed on, and button-holes made along the Beam as near to one another as my limited supply allowed. Some weeks afterwards I was able, with the assistance of a native, to pass through the rings calico drawers; and as my legs grew thinner, in time, I was able to put on trousers made of thin Abyssinian cotton cloth; and such is the force of habit and practice, that at last I could take off or put on my trousers as quickly almost as if my legs were free. We had gone to bed early that evening, not knowing what to do, when we heard a discussion going on outside our hut between Samuel and the chief of the guard that night, named Mara, a descendant of some Armenian and a great worshipper of his Imperial master. Samuel at last came in and told us that he had endeavoured to persuade the officer not to disturb us, but that he insisted on examining our chains to see if they were all right. We declined at first to submit to the inspection, and only consented, in order to get rid of the fellow, to shake our chains under the shama with which we were covered, as he passed from one to another. As we expected to be at least six months in Magdala--giving time for the news to reach England, and the troops to arrive that we felt certain would immediately be despatched to set us free and punish the despot--Mr. Rassam endeavoured, through Samuel, to obtain a few more huts for our accommodation. Samuel spoke to the Ras and to the other chiefs, and they agreed to give us a small hut and two godjos, (small huts, the roof formed by the ends of the twigs being tied together at the free extremity, and the whole covered with straw,) when they would have collected wood enough to make a new fence. In the meanwhile two of us, Pietro and Mr. Kerans, were induced to live in the kitchen, where they would have more room and leave more space for ourselves. Our first thought on reaching Magdala was to communicate the intelligence to our friends and to Government; since we had been chained we knew that every hour lost was a day added to our discomfort and misery, and that we ought to lose no time in sending a trusty messenger to Massowah. It was always very difficult for us to write, but more so in the beginning, as we were afraid even of Samuel, afterwards so useful in all that concerned our messengers. All the country up to Lasta still recognized Theodore, and we were obliged to be very guarded in our expressions, in case the letter should fall into the hands of some of his chiefs and be forwarded to him. On the 18th, our packet was ready; but, strange to say, it was the only time our letter came to grief. We could only trust servants that had been some time with us,--at least, so we thought at the time,--and therefore selected an old servant of Cameron who had been formerly, on several occasions, employed as messenger. He was a good man, a first-rate walker, but very quarrelsome; and to spite his adversary was capable of anything. To accompany him through the rebel country we obtained a servant from a political prisoner, Dejatch Maret: they were to travel together and return with an answer from Mr. Munzinger. Soon after, leaving Magdala, the two began to quarrel, and on reaching the rebels' outposts, a question of precedence between them led to the discovery of our packet; both messengers were seized, tied with ropes for a few days, and when released, our man was told to go back, and the letters were burnt. Afterwards we made better arrangements: the messengers carried in their belts the letters which were of a dangerous nature; otherwise we sewed them up in leather, in the shape of the amulets and charms worn by the natives, or had them stitched between patches on old trousers, or near the seams. Those writing from the coast used the same precautions; and though we must have sent about forty messengers with letters during our captivity, without mentioning those employed elsewhere, they all, with the one exception I have mentioned, reached in safety. Next came the question so vital to us, how to get money. It so happened that Theodore, about that time, gave a thousand dollars to each of his workmen. Many of them, judging from the political condition of the country that the Emperor's power would soon fall entirely, were desirous of sending their money out of the country, and as we were only too anxious to get some, the matter was easily arranged to our mutual satisfaction. We sent servants to Debra Tabor; and as the road was still safe, and we had, by suitable presents, made friends of the chiefs of the districts that lay in the way, the servants were not molested or plundered. They carried the dollars either in bags, on mules, laden at the same time with grain or flour which the Gaffat people now and then sent us, or tied in the long cotton sash that Abyssinians wear as a belt. Directions were also given to Mr. Munzinger to forward money to Metemma, from whence we could draw it by sending servants. It was only during the second year of our captivity that we experienced any serious difficulty on that score. The Emperor's power became more and more limited; rebels and thieves infested the roads; the route between Metemma and Magdala was closed; the Gaffat people had none to spare; and at one time it seemed as if it was perfectly impossible for messengers to reach us. Though for months we were rather hard up, what by employing servants of political prisoners, friends or relatives of the rebels, by using the influence of the Bishop, or through the protection of Wagshum Gobazé, money again found its way to Magdala, and relieved us from our apprehensions. Theodore knew indirectly that we sent servants to the coast, but as it is the custom to allow prisoners' servants to go to their masters' families to beg for them, he could not well forbid us; the more so as he never gave us anything. If messengers had fallen into his hands he would probably have plundered the money, but not injured them. As for letters it was quite a different affair: if those we wrote had by accident come into his possession, he would have made short work of the messenger, and most certainly of us also. It might appear strange that the Abyssinians--a race of thieves--should have proved themselves so honest on these occasions, and not absconded with the couple of hundred dollars entrusted to them: a fortune for a poor servant. Though it would be ungrateful to run down these men, who exposed themselves to great perils, often travelled the whole distance from Massowah to Magdala at night, and who, I may say, saved us from starvation; still I believe that they acted more on the old adage that honesty is the best policy, than from any innate virtue. First, they were handsomely rewarded, well treated, and expected a further reward (which they very properly received) should fortune once more smile upon us; Secondly, all the great rebel chiefs befriended us, and we should have had but to communicate with them directly, or, better still, through the Bishop; for them to have at once seized the delinquent, deprived him of his ill-gotten wealth, and punished him severely. This they knew perfectly well. Looking back, I cannot imagine how I got through the long, dreary days of idleness, always the same, for twenty-one months. Chains were nothing compared to the fearful want of occupation. Suppose we had kept a daily diary, the entries would have been generally as follows:--"Took a bath (a painful operation, as the chains, unsupported by the bandages, hurt fearfully); small boy helps to pass my trousers between the chains. To-day, being dry, we crawled up and down our fifteen yards' walk. Breakfast; felt happier that task over. Sick came for medicine. As I am doctor and apothecary, prescribed and made the medicine myself. Samuel, or some trusty native friend who knows that my tej is ripe, came for a glass or two. Go now and smoke a pipe with Cameron. Lay down and read McCulloch's _Commercial Dictionary_; very interesting book, but sends me to sleep. Afternoon, lay down and got up again; tried once more the _Commercial Dictionary_. Dinner (I wonder what age the cock we ate had reached); crawled about for, an hour between the huts; lay down, took Gadby's _Appendix_; but as I knew it by heart, even his curious descriptions have no more attraction. Small boy lighted the fire; the wood was green, the smoke fearful. Had a game of whist with Rassam and Prideaux. I do not suppose they would play with our dirty cards in a guard-room. Lost twenty points. Small boy took off the trousers. The guards were cursing us because they had to sleep outside in the rain. Bravo, Samuel, you are a friend indeed!" This imaginary page I might repeat _ad infinitum_. As a change, sometimes we wrote to our friends, or received letters and some scraps of newspapers--delightful days; few and far between. On Sundays we had divine service; Mr. Stern, though sick and weary, always did his utmost to comfort and encourage us. Such was, as a rule, our daily life: it is true we had our exciting times, perhaps too much of it at the end; we had also, now and then, a few other occupations, such as building a new hut, making a small garden, settling a quarrel amongst the servants: details that will come in our narrative as we proceed. I mentioned that the chiefs had promised to enlarge our fence; they kept to their word. Four or five days after we had undergone the chaining operation, they made us another visit, consulted, discussed for a long time, and at last agreed to make a small break in the fence and inclose the three huts they had promised us. Samuel, who had the distribution of the new premises, gave the small house to Rassam, took one of the godjos for himself, and gave the third one to Prideaux and myself. Kerans and Pietro were still to remain in the kitchen, so that our first house was left to Messrs. Cameron, Stern, and Rosenthal. On the 23rd July, 1866, Prideaux and myself entered our new abode: and, without exaggeration, if a dog were tied up in a similar shed in England I may say that the owner would be prosecuted by the Society for the Protection of Animals. As it was, we were only too happy to get it, and at once went to work--not to make it comfortable, that was quite out of the question, but--to try to keep out the rain. CHAPTER XII. Description of Magdala--Climate and Water Supply--The Emperor's Houses--His Harem and Magazines--The Church--Prison-house--Guards and Gaol--Discipline--A previous Visit of Theodore to Magdala--Slaughter of the Gallas--Character and Antecedents of Samuel--Our friends Zenab the Astronomer, and Meshisha the Lute--player--Day Guards--We build new Huts--Abyssinian and Portuguese Servants--Our Inclosure is enlarged. Amba Magdala, distant about 320 [Footnote: According to Mr. C. Markham.] miles from Zulla, and about 180 from Gondar, arises in the province of Worahaimanoo, on the border of the Wallo Galla country. The approach is difficult on account of the steep ascent and narrow precipitous ravines that separate it from the rivers Bechelo and Jiddah and from the table-land of Wallo. It stands almost isolated--amongst gigantic surrounding masses, and viewed from the western side possesses the appearance of a crescent. On the extreme left of this curve appears a small flat plateau called Fahla, connected by a strip of land with a peak higher than the amba itself, and called Selassié (trinity), on account of the church erected upon it, and designated by that name. From Selassié to Amba Magdala itself there is a large plain called Islamgee, several hundred feet lower than the two peaks it separates. At Islamgee several small villages had been erected by the peasants who cultivate the land for the Emperor, the chiefs, and soldiers of the amba. The servants of the prisoners had also there a spot given to them where they were allowed to build huts for themselves and cattle. On Saturday a weekly market, formerly well supplied, was held at the foot of Selassié. Numerous wells were generally sunk during the dry season close to the springs of Islamgee, which wells afforded a small but constant supply of water. From Islamgee the road up to Magdala is very steep and difficult. To the first gate it follows, at times very abruptly, the flank of the mountain. To the right, the sides of the amba rise like a huge wall; below is a giddy abyss. From the first to the second gate the road is exceedingly narrow and steep, turning to the right at a sharp angle with the first part of the road. Small earthworks had been erected on the flanks near the gates, protecting every weak point; The summit of the ridge was strongly fenced and loopholed. Two other gates led from the amba to the foot of the mountain; one had some time before been closed, but the other, called Kafir Ber, opened in the direction of the Galla country. The amba is well fortified by nature, and Theodore, to increase its strength, added some rude fortifications. The Magdala plateau is oblong and somewhat irregular, about a mile and a half in length, and on the average about a mile broad. It was one of the strongest fortresses in Abyssinia, and by its position between the rich and fertile plateau of Dahonte, Dalanta, and Worahaimanoo, easily provisioned. Magdala is more than 9,000 feet above the level of the sea; and enjoys a splendid climate. In the evenings, almost all the year round, a fire is welcome, and, though a month or two before the rains the temperature rises somewhat, in the huts we never found it too hot to be uncomfortable. The high land that surrounds the amba in the distance is barren and bleak, due to the great altitude, and many of the peaks in the Galla country are, for several months in the year, covered with snow or frozen hail. Water, during and for some months after the rainy season, is abundant, but from March to the first week in July it gets scarcer and scarcer, until it is obtained only with difficulty. In order to remedy this disadvantage, Theodore, with his usual forethought, had several large tanks constructed on the mountain, and also sunk wells in promising places. The effort was pretty successful; the wells gave only a small supply of water, it is true, but it was a constant one all the year round. The water collected in the tanks was of very little use. Those reservoirs were not covered after the rains, and the water, impregnated with all kinds of vegetable and animal matter, soon became quite unfit to drink. The principal springs are at Islamgee; there are a few on the amba itself, and numerous less important ones issue from the sides, not many feet from the summit, at the base of the ridge itself. Magdala was not only used by Theodore as a fortress, but also as a gaol, a magazine, a granary, and as a place of protection for his wives and family. The King's house and the granary stood almost in the centre of the amba; in front towards the west a large space had been left open and clear; behind stood the houses of the officers of his household; to the left, huts of chiefs and soldiers; to the right, on a small eminence, the godowns and magazines, soldiers' quarters, the church, the prison; and behind again another large open space looking towards the Galla plateau of Tanta. Theodore's houses had nothing regal about them. They were built on the same pattern as the ordinary huts of the country, but only on a larger scale. He himself, I believe, never, or at least very rarely, lived in them; he preferred his tent at Islamgee, or on some neighbouring height, to the larger and more commodious abode on the amba. To his dislike to houses in general, I believe was added a particular objection to shutting himself up in the fort. The majority of these houses were occupied by Theodore's wives and concubines, the eunuchs, and female slaves. The granary and tej houses were in the same inclosure, but separated from the ladies' department by a strong fence; the granary consisted of half a dozen huge huts, protected from the rain by a double roof. They contained barley, tef, beans, peas, and a little wheat. All the grain was kept in leather bags piled up until they reached almost to the roof. It is said that, at the time of the capture of Magdala by our troops, there was grain in sufficient quantity stored in these granaries to last the garrison and other inhabitants of the amba for at least six months. The dwellings of the chiefs and soldiers were built on the model of the Amhara houses--circular, with a pointed thatched roof. The huts of the common soldiers were built without order, in some places in such close proximity that if, as it happened on one or two occasions, a fire broke out, in a few seconds twenty or thirty houses were at once burnt to the ground: nothing could possibly stop the conflagration but rapidly pulling down to leeward the huts not as yet on fire. The principal chiefs had several houses for themselves, all in one inclosure, surrounded and separated from the soldiers' huts by a high and strong fence. Since about a year before his death Theodore had been gradually accumulating at Magdala the few remnants of his former wealth. Some sheds contained muskets, pistols, &c.; others books and paper; others carpets, shamas, silks, some powder, lead, shot, caps; and the best the little money he still possessed, the gold he had seized at Gondar, and the property of his workmen sent over to Magdala for safe custody. All the store-huts were during the rainy season covered with black woollen cloth, called màk, woven in the country. Once or twice a week the chiefs would meet in consultation in a small house erected for that purpose in the magazine inclosure to discuss public affairs, but, above all, to assure themselves by personal inspection that the "treasures" entrusted to their care were in perfect order and in safe keeping. The Magdala church, consecrated to the Saviour of the World (Medani Alum), was not in any respect worthy of such an important place. It was of recent date, small, unadorned with the customary representations of saints, of the life of the Apostles, of the Trinity, of God the Father, and the devil. No St. George was seen on his white charger, piercing the dragon with his Amhara lance; no martyr smiled benignly at his fiend-like tormentors. The mud walls had not even been whitewashed; and every pious soul longed for the accomplishment of Theodore's promise--the building of a church worthy of his great name. The inclosure was as bare as the holy place itself; no graceful juniper, tall sycamore, or dark green guicho solemnized its precincts, or offered cool shade where the hundred priests, defteras, and deacons who daily performed service, could repose after the fatiguing ceremony--the howling and the dancing to David's psalms. On the same line, but below the hillock on which stood the church, the Abouna possessed a few houses and a garden; but, alas for him, his _pied-à-terre_ had for several years become his prison. The prison-house, a common gaol for the political offenders, thieves, and murderers, consisted of five or six huts inclosed by a strong fence, and surrounded by the private dwellings of the more wealthy prisoners and guards, extending from the eastern slope of the hillock to the edge of the precipice and to the open space towards the south. At the time of our captivity these houses cannot have contained less than 660 prisoners. Of these, about 80 died of remittent fever, 175 were released by his Majesty, 307 executed, and 91 owed their liberty to the stormers of Magdala. The prison rules were in some respects very severe, in others mild and foreign to our civilized ideas. At sunset every prisoner was ordered into the central inclosure. As they passed the gate they were counted and their fetters examined. The women had a hut for themselves; only a late arrangement, however, as before they had to sleep in the same houses as the men. The space was very limited and the prisoners were packed in like herrings in a barrel. Abyssinians themselves, hard-hearted as they are, described the scene at night as something fearful. The huts, crowded to excess, were close, the atmosphere fetid, the stench unbearable. There lay, side by side, the poor, starved vagabond, chained hands and feet, and often with a large forked piece of wood several yards long fixed round his neck, and the warrior who had bled in many a hard-won fight, the governor of provinces--nay, the sons of kings and conquered rulers themselves. In the centre the guards, keeping candles lighted all night, laughed or played some noisy game, indifferent to the sufferings of the unfortunates they watched. At day-dawn, always about 6 A.M. in that latitude, the prison-door was opened, and those who were lucky enough to possess any, repaired to the huts they had erected in the vicinity of the sleeping-houses, while the poorer crawled about the prison inclosure, awaiting their pancake loaf with all the impatience of hungry men, just kept from immediate starvation by the _bounty_ of the Emperor. Others strolled about in couples, begging from their more favoured companions, or, when leave was granted, went from house to house imploring alms in the name of the "Saviour of the World." The prison guards were the greatest ruffians I have ever seen. They had been for so many years in contact with misery in its worst shape that the last spark of human feeling had died out in their callous hearts. Instead of showing compassion or pity for their prisoners, many of them innocent victims of a low treachery, they added to their misery by the harshness and cruelty of their conduct. Had a chief received at last a small sum of money from his distant province, he was soon made aware that he must satisfy the greed of his rapacious gaolers. But that was nothing compared to the moral tortures they inflicted on their prisoners. Many of them had been for years confined on the amba, and had brought their families to reside near them. Woe to the woman who would not listen to the solicitations of these infamous wretches; threatened and even beaten, few indeed of the sorrowful wives and daughters held out; others willingly met advances; and when the chief, the man of rank, or the wealthy merchant, left his day house, he knew that his wife would immediately receive her chosen lover, or, what was still more heartrending, a man she despised but feared. Such was the daily life of those whose fault was to have given ear to the fair words of Theodore, an error that weighed heavier upon them than a crime. But when the Emperor, on his way, stopped a few days at Magdala, what anxiety, what anguish, reigned in that accursed place! No day house, no hours spent with the family or the friend, no food hardly; the prisoners must remain in the night houses, as the Emperor at any moment might send for some one of them to set him at liberty, or, more likely, to put an end to his miserable existence. Let us take, for example, his visit to Magdala in the first days of July, 1865, on his return from his unsuccessful campaign in Shoa. No doubt long-continued misfortunes crush the better qualities of men, and induce them to perform acts at the mere thought of which in better days they would have blushed. Such was the case with Beru Goscho, formerly the independent ruler of Godjam. Since years he had lingered in chains. In the hope of improving his position, he had the baseness to report to his Majesty that when a rumour was started that he had been killed in Shoa, a great many of the prisoners had rejoiced. Theodore, on receiving this message, gave orders for all the political prisoners who were only chained by the leg to have hand chains put on--exempting only from this order his informer Beru Goscho. However, some days later, this chief having sent a servant to Theodore to ask as a reward to be allowed to have his wife near him, the Emperor, who did not approve of treachery in others, pretended to be annoyed at his request, and gave orders that he should also be put in hand chains. But this was trifling compared with the massacre of the Gallas, which happened during that same visit of Theodore. After subduing the Galla country he required hostages. Accordingly, the Queen Workite sent him her son, the heir to the throne; and many chiefs, believing in the high character of Theodore, willingly accompanied him. The Galla prince had at first been kindly treated; even made governor of the mountain; but soon, on some pretext or other, he was disgraced: first made a prisoner at large, and then sent to the common gaol, to endure chains and misery for years. Menilek, the grandson of Sehala Selassié, had been since his youth brought up near the Emperor; he was entrusted with an independent command, and in order to strengthen his adherence to his cause, Theodore gave him his daughter in marriage. Under these circumstances, I can easily fancy the rage and passion of Theodore when, one morning, he was informed that Menilek had deserted with his followers, and was already on his way to claim the dominions of his fathers. The Emperor with a telescope saw on the distant Wallo plain Menilek received, with honour by the Galla Queen Workite. Blind, with rage, he had no thought but revenge. He dared not venture to pursue Menilek and encounter the two allies; at hand he had easy victims--the Galla prince and his chiefs. Theodore mounted his horse, called his body-guard, and sent for those men, who had already lingered long in captivity through trusting to his word, and then followed a scene so horrible that I dare not write the details. All were killed some--thirty-two, I believe--and their still breathing bodies hurled over the precipice. It is probable that shortly afterwards Theodore regretted having allowed himself to be guided by passion. With Menilek he had lost Shoa; by the murder of the Galla prince he had made those tribes his deadly foes. He sent word to the Bishop, "Why, if I was acting wrongly, did you not come out with the 'Fitta Negust' (Abyssinian code of law) in your hands, and tell me I was wrong?" The Bishop's reply was simple and to the point:--"Because I saw blood written in your face." However, Theodore soon consoled himself. The rains were late, and water scarce on the amba: the next day it rained. Theodore, full of smiles, addressed his soldiers, saying, "See the rain; God is pleased with me because I have killed the infidels." Such is Magdala, the sun-burnt barren rock, the arid lonely spot where we had to undergo nearly two years of captivity in chains. We furnished our house without much expense; two tanned cows' hides were all we required. These, together with a few old carpets Theodore had presented us with at Zagé, was about the extent of our worldly goods. I had a small folding table and a camp-stool (some of our kit had arrived a few days before); but our hovel was too small to admit them and us. The rainy season had fairly set in, and the broken roof of our godjo was rapidly giving way under the weight of the wet grass; we propped it up as best we could by means of a long stick, still it looked very shaky, and leaked worse and worse. The ground, always damp now, had quite the appearance of an Irish bog; and if the straw that was placed underneath the skins to make our bed a little softer was not removed every other day, the steam rose even through the old carpets that adorned our abode. At last I could stand it no longer: I was afraid of falling ill. It was bad enough to be in chains and in a hovel, but sickness into the bargain would have driven me to despair. I sent my Abyssinian servants to cut some wood, and made a small raised platform; it was rather irregular and hard, but I preferred it to sleeping for so long on the wet ground. Well do I still remember that long, dreary, rainy season, and with what impatience we looked for the Feast of the Cross, about the 25th of September; as the natives told us that the rains always ceased about that time! I had brought with me from Gaffat an Amharic grammar. "Faute de mieux," I struggled hard to study it, but the mind was not fitted for such work; and, book in hand, I was in spirit, thousands of miles away, thinking of home, dreaming awake of beloved friends, of freedom and liberty. Towards the end of August, shortly after the return of our ill-fated messenger, we wrote again and sent another man: by this time we had abundant proof that Samuel,--formerly our introducer, now our gaoler,--was completely in our interests; and by his good arrangements the messenger started without any one knowing of it, and managed to reach Massowah with his letter. I have spoken often of Samuel, and shall again and again have to mention his name in my narrative. He was, from the beginning, mixed up with the affairs of the Europeans, and I believe at one time he was rather unfriendly towards them; but since our arrival and during our captivity, he behaved exceedingly well. He was a shrewd, cunning man, and one of the first who perceived that Theodore was losing ground. Outwardly he swore by his name, and kept his confidence; but all the while he was serving us, and helping us in our communications with the coast, the rebels, &c. In his youth his left leg had been broken and badly set; and though Theodore liked him, he did not give him a military command, but always employed him in a civil capacity. He did not like to speak of the accident that occasioned his deformity, and would, if asked, always give an evasive answer. Pietro, the Italian, was a great gossip, and his stories could not always be relied upon. His account of the broken leg was that when Samuel went to Shoa, some Englishman there gave him a kick which sent him rolling down some small ravine, and in the fall the leg was broken. It was on account of that blow from an Englishman, Pietro said, that Samuel hated them all so much, and was so bitter against them at first. It may be so; but I believe that he had not been understood. Samuel fancied that he was a very great man in his own country. His father had been a small sheik; and Theodore, after Samuel's native country had rebelled, made him governor of it. With all the appearance of great humility, Samuel was proud; and by treating him as if he was in reality a great man, he was as easily managed as a child. He had suffered from a severe attack of dysentery during our stay at Kourata. I attended him carefully, and he always felt grateful for my attentions towards him. When we separated and lived in different houses, he did not allow the guards to sleep inside our hut. It is true it would have been difficult; but Abyssinian soldiers are not particular: they sleep anywhere,--on their prisoner's bed, if there is no other place, making use of him as a pillow. Of course Mr. Rassam had none; but he was the great man, the dispenser of favours. Stern, Cameron, and Rosenthal, being neither rich nor favourites, had the advantage of the presence of two or three of those ruffians as their companions every night; nor were those in the kitchen better off, as some soldiers were always sent in at night not to watch Kerans and Pietro, but the King's property (our own kit). Samuel soon made friends with some of the chiefs. After a while, two of them were constantly in our inclosure, and, under the pretext of coming to see Samuel, would spend hours with us. Kerans, a good Amharic scholar, was the interpreter on those occasions: one of them, Deftera Zenab, the King's chief scribe, (now tutor to Alamayou,) is an intelligent; honest man; but he was quite mad on astronomy, and would listen for hours to anything concerning the solar system. Unfortunately, either the explanations were faulty or his comprehension dull as each time he came he wanted the whole dissertation over again until at last our patience was fairly exhausted, and we gave him up as a bad job. His other intimate was a good-natured young man called Afa Negus Meshisha, son of a former governor of the Amba; Theodore, on the death of the father, had given Meshisha the title, but nothing more. His forte was playing the lute, or a rude instrument something like it. Samuel could listen to him for hours; but two minutes was quite enough to make us run off. He was, however, useful in his way, as he gave us good information about what was going on in Theodore's camp,--intelligence which his position as an occasional member of the council enabled him to obtain. Such, apart from ourselves, was our only society. It is true that the Ras and the great men would occasionally call on Mr. Rassam, much more frequently since he give them arrack and toj, instead of the coffee he used to offer them at first; but, unless one of them wanted some medicine, it was very rare that they honoured us with a visit; they thought that they had done quite enough--indeed bestowed a great favour, for which we ought to be grateful--if, as they passed near our hut, they shouted "May God open thee!" But our enemy was one of the day guards, named Abu Falek, an old rascal who delighted in making mischief; he was hated by every one on the mountain, and on that account outwardly respected. The day he was on guard it was very difficult to write, as he was always putting his ugly grey head in at the door to see what we were doing. He did his best to do us harm, but could reach no higher than our servants: our dollars were too much for him. Everything has an end. With Maskal (the Feast of the Cross) came sunshine and pleasant cool weather. We had already been two months and a half in chains, and we expected that soon some comforting news would reach us, telling us "Be of good cheer; we are coming." Since our arrival at Magdala we had not received a single letter: and more than six months had elapsed without news from our friends, or any intelligence whatsoever from Europe. Immediately after the rains, Mr. Rassam had his house repaired and improved, and a new hut built, as Mrs. Rosenthal was expected to join our party; Samuel obtained a piece of ground adjoining our inclosure, which was afterwards included in it, and on which he built a hut for himself and family. Samuel had several times spoken to me about pulling down our wretched godjo, and building a larger hut instead; but I thought it was hardly worth the while, as before many months some change or the other would take place: another reason was, that part of the old fence stood in front of my godjo, and I should hardly have gained more than a foot of ground. Samuel promised to do his best to have the fence removed if I would build; I agreed to do so, and he endeavoured to fulfil his part of the contract, but failed. However, a few weeks later, one of the chiefs, whom I had attended almost since our arrival, in his first burst of gratitude at being cured, took upon himself to break down the fence, and promised to send me his men to help me. All the materials--wood, bamboos, cow-hides, straw--could be purchased below the mountain, and in a few days all was ready. I sent word to my patient, who came at once, with about fifty soldiers, who, by his orders, broke down the fence, and pulled down my godjo. The ground was afterwards levelled, the circumference of the hut traced with a stick, fixed to the centre by a piece of string, and a trench a foot and a half deep dug. Two strong sticks were placed at the spot where the door would be, and each soldier, carrying several of the branches with which the walls are built, placed them in the ditch, filling up the vacant space with the earth that had been taken out; they had only to tie, with strips of cow-hide, flexible branches transversely in order to keep the vertical ones together, and the first part of the structure was complete. A few days afterwards they returned, made the framework of the roof, and lifted it up on the walls; it then only required the thatcher to render our new abode inhabitable. The servants brought water and made mud, with which the walls were coated inside, and a week from the day the godjo had been pulled down, Prideaux and myself were able to give our house-warming. The soldiers were delighted with their job, and always came in large numbers when we required their assistance, as we treated them very liberally: for instance, the materials for our new hut cost eight dollars, but we spent fourteen dollars in feasting those who had assisted us. We had now seven feet of ground each, the table could be placed in the centre, and the folding chair offered to a visitor. Mr. Rassam had tried, with success, to whitewash the interior of his hut with a kind of soft white yellowish sandstone, that could be obtained in the vicinity of the Amba; we, therefore, also put our servants to work, but first had the mud walls several times besmeared with cow-dung, in order to make the whitewash adhere. We enjoyed very much the neat clean appearance of our hut. Unfortunately, being situate between two high fences and surrounded by other huts, it was rather dark. To obviate this defect, we cut out of the walls some of the framework, and made four windows; this was certainly a great improvement, but at night we felt the cold bitterly. Luckily, our friend Zenab gave us some parchment; out of an old box we made some rude frames, and the parchment, previously well soaked in oil served instead of glass. We were obliged to keep a large staff of servants, as we had to prepare everything for ourselves. Some women were engaged to grind flour for us and the Abyssinian servants; others to bring water or wood. Men-servants went to the market or to the neighbouring districts to purchase grain, sheep, honey, &c.; many were employed as messengers to the coast or to Gaffat. I had with me two Portuguese, who were the torment of my life, as they were always quarrelling, often drunk, impertinent, and unwilling to work. The Portuguese lived in the kitchen, but as they were always fighting with the other servants, and we were perfectly helpless, and could not possibly enforce our commands, I had a small hut erected for them. The inclosure had been enlarged again by the chief, and Cameron had built a log-house for himself, and Mr. Rosenthal had had one made for his servants; mine for the Portuguese was built on the same spot, and before the rainy season I had another one made for the Abyssinians, as they grumbled and threatened to leave, if they had to spend the rains in a tent. All these arrangements took us some time; we had been glad to have something to do, as the days passed much quicker, and time did not weigh so heavily upon us. Our Christmas was not very merry, nor did we on New Year's Day wish one another many returns of a similar one; but we were on the whole more accustomed to our captivity, and certainly in many respects more comfortable. CHAPTER XIII. Theodore writes to Mr. Rassam about Mr. Flad and the Artisans--His two Letters contrasted--General Merewether arrives at Massowah--Danger of sending Letters to the Coast--Ras Engeddah brings us a few Stores --Our Garden--Successful Results of Vaccination at Magdala--Our Day Guard again--Second Rainy Season--The Chiefs are Jealous--The Ras and his Council--Damash, Hailo, &c.--Daily Life during Rainy Season--Two Prisoners attempt to Escape--The Knout in Abyssinia--A Dying Man's Prophecy. About this time a servant of Mr. Rassam, whom he had sent to his Majesty some months previously, returned on the 28th of December with a letter from Theodore, in which was inclosed one from our Queen. Theodore informed Mr. Rassam that Mr. Flad had arrived at Massowah, and had sent him the letter which he had forwarded us for perusal; he told Mr. Rassam to await his arrival, as he would be coming before long, and they would consult together about an answer. We were greatly rejoiced at the tenor of the Queen's letter: it was plain that at last a higher tone had been adopted, that the character of Theodore was better known, and all his futile plans would be frustrated by the attitude our Government had taken. On the 7th of January, 1867, Ras Engeddah arrived on the Amba, having accompanied thither a batch of prisoners. He sent us his compliments and a letter from Theodore. Theodore's letter was rather a boastful and imperious one: he, first gave a summary of Flad's letter to himself, in which he had been informed by that gentleman that everything he had required had been consented to, but that in the meanwhile he had changed his behaviour towards us. Theodore also gave us his intended reply: he said Ethiopia and England had formerly been on a footing of friendship; and for that reason he had loved the English exceedingly. But since then (to use his own words), "having heard that they have calumniated and hated me with the Turks, I said to myself, Can this be true? and I felt some misgiving in my heart." He evidently wanted to ignore the ill treatment he had inflicted upon us, as he said: "Mr. Rassam and his party you sent to me I have placed in my house in my capital at Magdala, and I will treat them well until I obtain a token of friendship." He concluded his letter by ordering Mr. Rassam to write to the proper authorities, so that the things should be sent a to him; he desired Mr. Rassam's letter to be forwarded to him, and quickly, so that Mr. Flad might come without delay. This letter must probably have been a post-prandial one; it was not the line of conduct he wanted to adopt: he knew too well that his only chance was to natter, appear humble, meek and ignorant; he might, he knew, enlist England's sympathy by appearing in that light, and that an overbearing tone would not suit his purpose, nor secure him the object he longed for. Early the following day a messenger arrived from the Imperial camp with a letter from General Merewether, and another from Theodore. How different this letter from the one brought by Ras Engeddah! It was insinuating, courteous; he orders no more, he humbly requests; he meekly entreats and begs: he begins by saying:--"Now in order to prove the good relationship between me and yourself, let it be shown by your writing, and by getting the skilful artisans and Mr. Flad to come _viâ_ Metemma; This will be the sign of our friendship." He quotes the story of Solomon and Hiram on the occasion of the building of the temple; then adds, "And now when I used to fall girded at the feet of the great Queen, her nobles, people; hosts, etc., could it be possible to be more humble?" He then describes his reception of Mr. Rassam, and the way he treated him; how he released the former captives the very day of his arrival, in order to comply with the request of the Queen; he explains the cause of our imprisonment by reproaching Mr. Rassam with having taken away the prisoners without first bringing them to him; and concludes by saying, "As Solomon fell at the feet of Hiram, so I, beneath God, fall at the feet of the Queen, and her Government, and her friends. I wish you to get them (the artisans) _viâ_ Metemma, in order that they may teach me wisdom, and show me clever arts. When this is done I will make you glad and send you away, by the power of God." Mr. Rassam replied to his Majesty at once, informing him that he had complied with his request. The messenger, on his arrival at the Emperor's camp, was well received, presented with a mule, and quickly despatched on his errand. For several months we heard nothing more upon the subject. General Merewether, in his letter to Theodore, informed him that he had arrived at Massowah with the workmen and presents, and that on the captives being made over to him he would allow the workmen to proceed to his Majesty's camp. We were quite overjoyed when we heard that General Merewether was entrusted with the negotiation: we knew his ability, and had full confidence in his tact and discretion. Indeed, he deserves our sincere gratitude; for he was the captives' friend: from the moment he landed at Massowah to the day of our release, he spared himself neither trouble nor pains to effect our deliverance. Messengers now were despatched more regularly; by them we wrote long accounts of Theodore's proceedings, and urged that force should be employed to obtain our release. We knew the great risk we ran, but we preferred death to a continuance of such a miserable existence. We informed our friends that we had quite made up our minds, and that our safety was not to weigh for one instant in the balance. It was a chance: the only one left to us, and we implored that we might have the advantage of it. We gave all the information in our power as to the resources of the country, the movements of his Majesty, the strength of his army, the course he would probably follow should troops land, how to deal with him, and the means to adopt in order to insure success. We knew that should any of such letters fall into Theodore's hands, we had no mercy, no pity to expect; but we considered it our duty to submit our opinion, and to the best of our ability assist those who were labouring for our release. At this time we frequently received news from our friends, as well as newspapers, or a few articles cut out of them, and inclosed in an envelope. War was still but little talked of; the press, with but few exceptions, seemed to look upon it as a rash undertaking that would only lead to failure. Correspondents, to our despair and disgust, expatiated on guinea-worms, poisonous flies, absence of water, and such like rubbish. For another two months and a half we led the same monotonous life. My medicines were getting low, and as the number of my patients was great, I was very anxious to receive some more. On the 19th of March Ras Engeddah arrived on the Amba with a few thousand soldiers. He had brought with him some money, powder, and various stores which Theodore thought would be safer at Magdala. At the same time he sent us some stores, medicines, &c., which Captain Goodfellow had forwarded to Metemma soon after Mr. Flad's arrival. I will give credit to Theodore for having behaved well on that occasion. As soon as we were informed that the stores had arrived at Metemma, Mr. Rassam wrote to the Emperor, asking his permission to send servants and mules, in order to have them conveyed to Magdala. Theodore said that he would have them carried himself, and moreover kept his word. He sent one of his officers to Wochnee, with instructions to the various chiefs of districts to have our things carried to Debra Tabor. I had long ago given everything up, and was agreeably surprised when those few comforts reached us. For some days, we treated ourselves to green peas, potted meats, cigars, &c., and felt in better spirits; not so much on account of the stores themselves, as for the attention our dangerous host had shown us. I remember that during the following months we felt more than at any time the burden of such an existence. We had expected great things, and nothing was effected: we could not have believed, on our first arrival at Magdala, that another rainy season was in reserve for us; we never would have credited the assertion that long before that date all would not have been over, some way or the other. What we disliked above all things was the uncertainty in which we were now placed: we trembled at the idea of the cruelties and tortures Theodore inflicted upon his victims; and each time a royal messenger arrived, we could be seen going from one hut to the other, exchanging anxious looks, and repeatedly asking our fellow-sufferers, "In there any news? Is there anything concerning us?" General Merewether, with kind forethought, had sent us some seeds, and we obtained more from Gaffat. Rassam's inclosure had been considerably enlarged by the chiefs, and he was able to arrange a nice garden. He had before sown some tomato seeds; these plants sprang up wonderfully well, and Mr. Rassam, with great taste, made with bamboos a very pretty trellis-work, soon entirely covered by this novel creeper. Between our hut, the fence, and the hut opposite ours, we had a small piece of ground, about eight feet broad on the average, and about ten feet long. Prideaux and myself laboured hard, delighted at the idea of having something to do; with slit-up bamboos we made a small trellis-work, dividing our garden into squares, triangles, &c., and on the 24th of May, in honour of our Queen's birthday, we sowed the seed. Some things came out very quickly; peas, in six weeks, were seven or eight feet high, mustard, cress, radishes, and salads prospered. But our central flower-bed remained for a long time barren; and when at last a few plants came out, they belonged to some biennial species, as they only flowered in the following spring. A few peas, just to taste (our garden was too small to enable us to get from it more than a scanty dish or two), raw lettuces (we had no oil, and only inferior vinegar made out of tej), with now and then a radish, were luxuries we immensely enjoyed after our long meat diet. When a second parcel of seeds reached us, we transformed into "gardens" every available spot, and had the pleasure of eating a few turnips, more lettuces, and a cabbage or two. Soon after the rainy season everything withered away; the sun burnt up our treasures, and left us again to our mutton and fowls. A month or so before the rainy season of 1867, fever of a malignant type broke out in the common gaol. The place was dirty enough before, and the horrors of that abode were indescribable even when sickness did not prevail; but when about 150 men of all ranks lay prostrate on the ground, contaminating still more the already impure atmosphere, the scene was horrible in the extreme, giving a better idea of the place of torments than even Dante's vivid description. The epidemic lasted until the first rains set in. About eighty died; and many more would have succumbed, had not, fortunately, some of the guards contracted the disease. As long as it was only the prisoners, they turned a deaf ear to all my suggestions; now they had become willing listeners, and quickly adopted the advice they had spurned but a short time before. To all who claimed my services I willingly sent medicine; and, when some of the guards also came to me for treatment, I gave them some also: but on condition that they would treat with more kindness the unfortunate men in their charge. General Merewether, always thoughtful and kind, aware that much of our comfort depended on our being on friendly terms with the garrison, sent me some vaccine lymph in small tubes. I explained to some of the more intelligent natives the wonderful properties of that prophylactic, and induced them to bring me their children to be inoculated. Amongst semi-civilized races it is often difficult to introduce the blessings of vaccination; but on this occasion they were universally and gratefully accepted. For about six weeks an immense crowd collected outside the gates on vaccinating days; so much so that it was with some difficulty that they were kept back, so anxious were they to avail themselves of the famous medicine that protected from the dreaded "koufing" (small-pox). It so happened that, amongst the children I operated upon, was the child of old Abu Falek (or rather his wife's), the day guard I have already mentioned. He was naturally ill-natured and disobliging, and to save himself the trouble of bringing his child to have others inoculated from it, and at the same time so as not to be accused of selfishness, he spread the rumour that the children from whom the lymph was taken would shortly afterwards die. This was the death-blow to my endeavours to introduce vaccine amongst the natives; numbers still collected to be vaccinated, but none came to give the lymph, and as I had no more tubes, I was obliged to discontinue an experiment which had so wonderfully succeeded. The rainy season of 1867 set in about the end of the first week in July. We had better shelter, and had time to make arrangements for provision for our followers and ourselves before the rains fairly commenced, and in that respect were better off than the year before; but, for other reasons, such as the political condition of the country, the daily increasing difficulty of communicating with the coast, it was perhaps, on the whole, more trying and disagreeable. The chiefs of the mountain had not been long in finding out that the English captives had money. They all had frequently been presented with _douceurs_, in the shape of dollars for themselves, shamas or ornaments for their wives; also tej and arrack, which was brewed by Samuel under Mr. Rassam's direction, of which they partook frequently and freely. They tried to cut one another out; each one in his private visits pretending to be "the best friend;" but they could not openly leave the council-room, and start off for a glass, without being accompanied by the whole batch, so they forbade every one but themselves from visiting us. Poor Zenab for months took no more lessons in astronomy, and Meshisha played the lute to his wives and followers. They even went so far as to forbid the petty chiefs and soldiers coming to me for medicine. But this was too much; though a despotism, the constitution of the country only acknowledged one master. The soldiers therefore sent their petty chiefs in a body to the Ras and members of the council; they talked even of representing the matter to Theodore; and, as the chiefs were far from being immaculate, and dreaded nothing so much as reports to their master, they were obliged to give in, and cancel the order. Theodore had, after his capture of Magdala, appointed a chief as governor of the Amba, giving him a kind of unlimited power over the garrison; but some years later he adjoined to him a few chiefs as his councillors, still allowing the Head of the mountain to retain a great deal of his former power. Always suspicious, but less able to satisfy his soldiers than before, he took every precaution to avoid treachery, and to make certain that, when engaged on distant expeditions, he might depend on his fortress of Magdala. With that object he ordered a council to assemble on all important occasions, and to consult on all matters concerning the internal economy of the mountain. Every head of department, and every chief of a corps, had a voice; the officers in command of the troops were to send separate and private messengers; the Ras was still considered as the Head of the mountain, but his authority was limited, and his responsibility great, should he think proper to overrule his companions. Under these circumstances, it is not astonishing that, as a rule, he would follow the advice of those chiefs whom he knew to be the greatest worshippers of his master, his most faithful spies and beloved tale-bearers. The Head of the mountain on our arrival, Ras Kidana Mariam, was, on account of his family connections and his position in the country, considered "dangerous" by Theodore, and, as I have already mentioned, was on a false charge taken to the camp. Shortly before depriving Ras Kidana Mariam of his command he had promoted him from a Dedjazmatch to the rank of Ras. Every umbel (colonel) was promoted by the same order to be a Bitwaddad (something like a Brigadier-General), or a Dedjazmatch, a title only applied in former days to governors of one large or of several small provinces; bachas (captains) were made colonels, and so on throughout the whole garrison; which after this consisted only of officers and non-commissioned officers, the lowest in rank being at least a sergeant. Theodore wrote to them at the time to inform them that they would draw the pay and rations according to their rank, and when, as he expected before long, he should see them, he would treat them so generously that even the "unborn babe would rejoice in his mother's womb." Theodore, on three or four occasions, out of his few remaining dollars, gave them a small advance of pay. About forty dollars was the amount a general touched during the time we were there; a sergeant, during the same period, about eight, I believe. With that they were supposed to feed and clothe themselves, families, and followers; for no rations were distributed at the same time as the money. At first they were all dazzled by their new ranks--the only thing Theodore could distribute with a liberal hand; but they soon found out what these were worth, and, ragged, hungry, and cold, they were the first to joke about their high-sounding but empty titles. A distant relation of Theodore by his mother's side, named Ras Bisawar, was, on the dismissal of Kidana Mariam, selected for the vacant post. He had in his youth been brought up for the church, had even been made a deftera, when the brilliant example of his relative took him from the peaceful and quiet life he had first chosen to cast him amidst the turmoil of camp life. He was a great big hulking fellow, bald-headed, and rather good-natured; but for all his sword and pistols could not conceal his first pursuit in life: he was still the deftera in borrowed plumage. His great fault was to be too weak; he had no decision of character, no firmness, and was always guided in his actions by the last talker. Next in importance came Bitwaddad Damash, the ugliest and most pompous puppy and the biggest-boasting villain on the whole mountain. He was very sick when we first arrived, but though he could not come himself he was far too much interested in our affairs not to be at all hours of the day informed of our doings; for that purpose he sent his eldest son, a lad of about twelve, several times in the day with compliments and inquiries after our welfare. As soon as he could walk about a little he came now and then himself, to see me for advice, and when restored to health, in the thankfulness of the first moment, he helped to build our house. But gratitude is not a lasting quality--in Abyssinia it hardly exists--and not long afterwards Damash gave strong hints that if we wanted him to be our friend we must not "forget him." Prideaux and myself had not much money to spare, but as he was known to be a great scoundrel, we thought it would not be prudent to make an enemy of him, and therefore sent him, as a token of friendship, Prideaux's small folding looking-glass, the only presentable thing we had between us. For some time the looking-glass consolidated our friendship, but when, on a second application for "tokens," we turned a deaf ear to his soft words, he would have nothing more to do with as; he called us bad men, sneered at us, made us take off our caps before him, and even went so far as to insult Cameron and Stern, shaking his head at them in a threatening manner as, more or less intoxicated, he left in the afternoon the room of his beloved and generous friend, Mr. Rassam. Damash had command of half the gunmen, some 270, the Ras of the rest, about 200. The third member of council was Bitwaddad Hailo, the best of the lot; he was in charge of the gaol, but was never known to abuse his position. His two brothers had commanded our escort from the frontier to the Emperor's camp in Damot; his mother, a fine old lady, also accompanied us part of the way: the brothers and the mother had been well treated by us, so that even before we came to the Amba we were known to him, and he always conducted himself very civilly, and proved useful on many occasions. When he heard of Theodore's approach, as he knew that charges were going, to be brought against him, he ran, away and joined the English camp. He managed his escape, in a very clever manner indeed. According to the, rules of the mountain, not even a Bitwaddad could pass the gate without permission from the Ras, and since desertions had taken place the permission was no more granted. His wife and child were also on the Amba, and since he was suspected, if they had left he would have been strictly watched. His mother had accompanied Theodore's camp, being desirous of seeing her son. When his Majesty encamped in the valley of the Bechelo, she asked his permission to be allowed to go to Magdala, and on her arrival at Islamgee she sent word to her son to give orders at the gate to let her in; but he declined, stating publicly, as the motive of his refusal, that, not having received intimation from his Majesty that he had granted her request, he could not take upon himself to admit her into the fort. The mother had been made a party to the plot beforehand, and played her part well; it was market-day, and therefore the place was crowded with soldiers and petty chiefs. On hearing of her son's refusal to admit her, she pretended to be driven to despair, tore her hair and cried aloud, quite overcome by the ingratitude of the son she had made such a long journey to embrace. The spectators took her part, and, in her name, sent to him again; but he was firm. "To-morrow," he said, "I will send word to the Emperor; if he allows you to come I will be only too happy to admit you; to-day, all I can do is to send you my wife and child to remain with you until the evening." The old lady, with the wife and child, retired to a quiet corner for a friendly chat, and when no more noticed, quietly walked away. At about ten at night, accompanied by one of his men, and assisted by some friends, Hailo made his escape and rejoined his family. Another member of council was called Bitwaddad Wassié: he also was in charge of the prison alternatively with Hailo. He was a good-tempered man, always laughing, but, it appears, not beloved by the prisoners, for, after the taking of Magdala, the women flew at him, and gave him a sound thrashing. He was remarkable in one respect: he would never accept anything, and though money was repeatedly offered to him he always declined it. Dedjazmatch Goji, in command of 500 spearmen, a tall old man, was as big a fool as he was bulky; he loved but one thing, tej, and worshipped but one being, Theodore. Bitwaddad Bakal, a good soldier, a simple-minded man, in charge of the Imperial household, and a few insignificant old men, completed the quorum. Let us suppose a wet day during the rainy season of 1867. Our money was getting very scarce, and all communication with Metemma, Massowah, or Debra Tabor was completely interrupted. War had been talked of more seriously at home, and, in the absence of news, we were in anxious expectation of what would be decided. The weather did not permit us to do much gardening; and other occupations were few. We wrote home, (an easier task during the rains, as the guards kept to their huts,) studied Amharic, read the famous _Commercial Dictionary_, or visited one another, and smoked bad tobacco, simply to kill time. Mr. Rosenthal, a very clever linguist, managed, with an Italian Bible, to master that language, and, to drive away dull care, spent his evenings studying French with only the help of a portion of Guizot's _Histoire de la Civilisation_. If it cleared up a little, we puddled about in the small road between the now increased huts; but probably, before long, would be scared away by some one shouting out,--"The Ras and the chiefs are coming!" If we could directly run away we did so; but if perceived, we had to put on our blandest smile, bow to the rude inquiry, "How art thou? good afternoon to thee" (the second person singular is only employed as a sign of disrespect, towards an inferior), and, O gods! pull off our ragged caps and keep our heads uncovered. To see them waddling along, ready to burst with self-conceit; whilst we knew that the clothes they were clad with, and the food they had partaken of that day, were all purchased with British money, was very annoying. As they accepted bribes the least they could do was to be civil; on the contrary, they looked down upon us as if we were semi-idiots, or a species between them and monkeys,--"white donkeys," as they called us when they spoke of us among themselves. Preceded by Samuel, they would make straight for Mr. Rassam's house; they were hardly swore civil to him than to us, though they always swore to him eternal friendship. I often admired Mr. Rassam's' patience on these occasions: he could sit, talk, and laugh with them for hours, gorging them with bumpers of tej until they reeled out of his place, the laughing-stocks, yet envied objects, of the soldiers who helped them to regain their homes. On the whole they were a vile set: to please their master they would have shuddered at no crime, and stopped at no infamy. When they thought that any cruel act of theirs might please Theodore, their god, no consideration of friendship or family ties would arrest their hands or soften their hearts. They came to Mr. Rassam, though he was kind to them, out of no regard, only because it was part of their instructions, and they could indulge their appetite for spirituous drinks; but had we been, by want of money, reduced to appeal to them, I doubt whether they would have sanctioned for us, to whom they owed so much, even the small pittance daily doled out to the poor Abyssinian prisoners. About that time these wretches had a good opportunity of showing their zeal for their beloved master. One Saturday two prisoners took advantage of the bustle always attending market-days, to attempt their escape. One of them, Lij Barié, was the son of a chief in Tigré; some years before he had been imprisoned on "suspicion," or, more likely, because he might prove dangerous, as he was much liked in his province. His companion was a young lad, a semi-Galla, from the Shoa frontier, who had been kept for years in chains on the Amba awaiting his trial. One day, as he was cutting wood, a large splinter flew off, and, striking his mother in the chest, caused her death. Theodore was, at the time, on an expedition, and to conciliate the Bishop, he made over the case to him; who, however, declined to investigate it as it did not fall under his jurisdiction. Theodore, vexed at the Bishop's refusal, sent the lad to Magdala, where he was chained, awaiting the good pleasure of his judges. Lij Barié had only been able to open one of the rings, the other being too strong; so he fastened the chain and ring on one leg by means of a large bandage as well as he could, and put on the shirt and cloth of one of the servant-girls, who was in his confidence, and, carrying on his shoulder the gombo (earthen jar for water), left the prison inclosure without being seen. The boy had fortunately been able to get rid of his fetters altogether, and he slipped out also without being noticed; not being encumbered with much clothing, and quite free in his limbs, he soon reached the gate, passed out with the followers of some chief, and was already far away and in safety before his disappearance was noticed. Lij Barié failed in his attempt. What with the chain fastened on one leg, the woman's dress, and the gombo, he could not advance quickly. He was, however, already half way between the prison and the gate, somewhere not far from our inclosure, when a young man, perceiving a good-looking girl coming in his direction, advanced to speak to her; but as he came closer, his eyes fell upon the bandage, and to his astonishment he saw a piece of chain peeping through the interstices of the cloth. He guessed at once that this was a prisoner endeavouring to escape, and followed the individual until he met some soldiers; he told them his suspicions, and they fell upon Lij Barié and made him a prisoner. A crowd soon collected around the unfortunate young man, and the alarm being given that a prisoner had been seized as he was endeavouring to escape, several of the guards rushed to the spot, and at once recognizing their old inmate, claimed him as their property. In an instant all his clothes were torn off his back, and the cowardly ruffians struck him with the butt-ends of their lances, and with the back of their swords, until his whole body was a mass of wounds and sores, and he lay senseless, nearly dead, on the ground. But even this was not enough to satisfy their savage revenge; they carried him off to the prison, hammered on hand and foot chains, placed a long heavy log of wood round his neck, put his feet in the stocks, and left him there for days, more dead than alive, until the good pleasure of the Emperor should be known. An immediate search was made for his companion and for the servant-girl, his accomplice. The first was already beyond their reach, but they succeeded in capturing the unfortunate young woman. The Ras and council immediately assembled, and condemned her to receive, in front of the Emperor's house, one hundred blows from the heavy girãf. The next morning the Ras, accompanied by a large number of chiefs and soldiers, came to the spot to witness the execution of the sentence. The girl was thrown down on the ground, stripped of her skirt, and leather ropes tied to her feet and hands to keep her at full stretch. A strong, powerful ruffian was entrusted with the execution of the punishment. Each fall of the whip could be heard from our inclosure, resounding like a pistol-shot; every blow tore off a strip of flesh; and after every ten strokes the girãf became so heavy with blood that, it had to be wiped before the operation could be continued. She never said a word, nor even groaned. When she was removed, after the hundredth stroke, the naked ribs and the back-bone were visible through the flowing blood: the whole of the flesh of the back having been torn to pieces. Some time afterwards a messenger brought back Theodore's answer. Lij Barié was first to have his hands and feet cut off, before all the Abyssinian prisoners, and afterwards to be thrown over the precipice. The chiefs made quite a holiday of that execution; and even sent a polite message to Samuel requesting him to "come and see the fun." Lij Barié was brought out, a dozen of the bravest fell upon him at once; and, with their ungainly blunt swords, hacked away at his hands and feet with all the delight an Abyssinian has for spilling blood. Whilst submitting to this agonizing torture, Lij Barié never lost his courage or presence of mind, and it is very remarkable that whilst they were so unmercifully murdering him, he prophesied, almost to a letter, the fate that before long awaited them. "You cowards," he shouted out, "fit servants of the robber your master! He can seize no man but by treachery; and you can kill them only when they are unarmed and in your power. But before long the English will come to release their people; they will avenge in your blood the ill treatment you have inflicted upon their countrymen, and punish, you and your master for all your cowardice, cruelties, and murders." The wretches took little notice of the dying words of the brave lad; they hurled him over the precipice, and, in a body, walked over to our place to finish the day, so well begun, by partaking of Mr. Rassam's generous hospitality. CHAPTER XIV. Second Rainy Season ends--Scarcity and Dearness of Provisions--Meshisha and Comfou plot their Escape--They succeed--Theodore is robbed--Damash pursues the Fugitives--The Night Attack--The Galla War-cry and the "Sauve qui peut"--The wounded left on the Field--Hospitality of the Gallas --Theodore's Letter on the Subject--Mastiate's Troubles--Wakshum Gabra Medhin--Sketch of Gobazé's Career--He invites the Co-operation of the Bishop in seizing Magdala--The Bishop's Plan--All the rival Chiefs intrigue for the Amba--Mr. Rassam's Influence overrated. Another Maskal (Feast of the Cross) had gone by and September ushered in fine, pleasant weather. No important change had taken place in our daily life: it was the same routine over again; only we were beginning to be very anxious about the long delay of our messengers from the coast, as our money was running short: indeed, we had hardly any left, and every necessary of life had risen to fabulous prices. Five oblong pieces of salt were now given in exchange for a Maria Theresa dollar, whilst formerly, at Magdala, during their first captivity, our companions had often got as much as thirty, never less than fifteen or eighteen. Though the value of the salt had so greatly increased, the articles purchased with it had not followed the same proportion, they were, on the contrary, lowered in amount and quality. When the salts were abundant we could buy four old fowls for a salt; now that they were scarce, we could only buy two; and everything in the same ratio; consequently all our expenses had risen 200 per cent. Supplies. in the market were also getting very scarce; and often we could not purchase grain for our Abyssinian servants. The soldiers on the mountain suffered greatly from this scarcity and high prices; they were continually begging, and many, no doubt, were saved from starvation by the generosity of those they kept prisoners. Very fortunately, I had put aside a small sum of money in case of accident, otherwise I believe the Abyssinian difficulty would have been at an end, so far as we were concerned. I kept a little for myself, and handed the rest over to Mr. Rassam, as he usually supplied us with money from the sums forwarded to him by the agent at Massowah. We dismissed as many servants as we possibly could, reduced our expenses to a minimum, and sent messengers after messengers to the coast to bring us up as much money as they could. At that time, if we had fortunately been provided with a large sum of ready cash, I do really believe that we might have bought the mountain; so discouraged and mutinous were the soldiers of the garrison at the long privations and semi-starvation they were enduring for a master of whom they had no reliable information. The agent at the coast did his best. Hosts of messengers had been despatched, but the condition of the country was such that they had to bury the money they were carrying in the house of a friend at Adowa, and abide there for several months, until they could, with great prudence and by travelling only at night, venture to pass through districts infested with thieves, and a prey to the greatest anarchy. On the morning of the 5th of September, whilst at breakfast, one of our interpreters rushed into the hut, and told us that our friend Afa Negus Meshisha (the lute-player), and Bedjerand Comfou, one of the officers in charge of the godowns, had run away. Theirs was a long-preconcerted and ably managed plan. At the beginning of the rainy season, ground had been allotted to the various, chiefs and soldiers, at Islamgee and at the foot of the mountain. Some of the chiefs made arrangements with the peasants living below for them to till the soil on their account, they supplying the seed grain, and the harvest to be divided between the two; others, who had many servants, did the work themselves. Afa Negus Meshisha's and Bedjerand Comfou's lots happened to be at the foot of the mountain; they themselves undertook the cultivation, occasionally visited their fields, and sent once or twice a week all their male and female servants to pull out the weeds under the superintendence of their wives. The whole of the land they had received had not been put under cultivation, and, a few days before, Comfou spoke to the Ras about it, who advised him to sow some tef, as, with the prevailing scarcity, he would be happy to reap a second harvest. Comfou approved of the idea, and asked the Ras to send him a servant on the morning of the 5th, to allow him to pass the gates. The Ras agreed. On that very morning Meshisha went to the Ras, and told him that he also wanted to sow some tef, and asked him to allow him to go down. The Ras, who had not the slightest suspicion, granted his request. Both had that morning sent down several of their servants to weed the fields, and, not to excite suspicion, had sent their wives by another gate, also under the same pretence. As the Gallas often attacked the soldiers of the garrison at the foot of the mountain, the door-keepers were not surprised to see the two officers well armed and preceded by their mules; nor did they take much notice of the bags their followers carried, when they were told that it was tef they were going to sow, a statement moreover corroborated by the Ras's servant himself. Off they started in open daylight, meeting many of the soldiers of the mountain on the way down. Arrived, at the fields, they told their servants to follow them, and made straight for the Galla plain. Some of the soldiers who were at the time working at their fields suspected that all was not right, and at once returned to the Amba and communicated their suspicions to the Ras. He had but to take a telescope to perceive the two friends winding their way in the distance along the road that led to the Galla plain. All the garrison was at once called out, and an immediate pursuit ordered; but during the interval the fugitives had gained ground, and were at last perceived quietly resting on the plain above, in company with such a respectable-looking body of Galla horsemen that prudence dictated to the braves of Magdala the advisability of not following any further. On their way back they found, hiding herself in the bushes, the wife of Comfou, carrying her infant babe in her arms. It appears that, flurried and excited, that young woman failed to find the place of rendezvous, and was concealing herself until the soldiers had passed by, when the cries of her child attracted their attention. She was triumphantly brought back, chained hand and feet, and cast into the common gaol, "awaiting orders." Whilst the garrison had been sent on their unsuccessful errand, the chiefs had met together, and as one of the runaways was superintendent of the storehouses and magazines, an immediate search was made, in order to ascertain whether he had helped himself to some of the "treasures" before taking his unceremonious leave. To their horror they soon found out that silks, caps, powder, even the Emperor's gala dress, his favourite pistol and rifle, together with a large sum of money, were missing: in fact, the _bags of tef_ were full of spoils. The Ras felt the gravity of his position; he had not only allowed himself to be grossly duped, but, moreover, some of the most valuable of the Emperor's property intrusted to his care had been carried off by his former friend. He utterly lost his head; he painted to himself Theodore's rage on hearing the news; he saw himself an inmate of the gaol, loaded with fetters, or perhaps condemned to a speedy and cruel death. He assembled the council, and laid the case before the chiefs; the wisest and most experienced were for trusting to his relationship with the Emperor, and to his well-known friendship for him; others proposed an expedition in the Galla country, a night attack on the village where it was supposed the fugitive would spend the nights: a few hundred would start in the evening, they said, surprise the fugitives, bring them back, recover the lost property, and, at the same time, murder a few Gallas, and plunder as much as they could--exploits that would immensely gratify their royal master, and make him forget the easy way the Ras had been imposed upon. This last advice was carried out; and, though some still dissented, the Ras overruled their objections: he was already so deeply compromised that he clutched at every chance that offered itself of retrieving his position. Bitwaddad Damash, the friend and countryman of Theodore, the brave warrior, was intrusted with the command; under him were, placed Bitwaddad Hailo, Bitwaddad Wassié, and Dedjazmatch Goji, all of them "old friends of ours," and of whom I have given a short description. Two hundred of Damash's gunmen, and two hundred of Goji's spearmen, all picked soldiers, well armed and well mounted, formed the attacking party. Towards sunset they all assembled. Before leaving, Damash, clad in a silk shirt, wearing gallantly over his shoulders a splendid tiger's skin, armed with a pair of pistols and a double-barrelled gun; came to our prison to bid us good-by; or rather to gratify his vanity by our compelled admiration, and to obtain a parting blessing from his friend Mr. Rassam, who courteously performed the ceremony. Twice before, Damash had, during our stay at Magdala, started for Watat, a village some twelve miles distant from Magdala, not far from where the Bechelo separates the province of Worahaimanoo from the plateau of Dahonte. There the Emperor's cattle were kept, and messengers had been sent to the Amba by the peasants requesting immediate assistance, as a Galla force had made its appearance, and they felt themselves unable to protect Theodore's cows. On these occasions the very sight of Damash and his gunmen had driven the Gallas away: at least so they said on their return; but _mauvaises langues_ asserted that it was only a trick of the country people themselves, who desired to be reported to the Emperor as faithful subjects of his and anxious to protect the cattle they had in charge. Many of the younger and inexperienced soldiers felt confident that on this occasion the result would be the same; the fugitives would be surprised, and the Gallas run away in all directions at the sight of Damash and his valiant companions, leaving their homesteads and property at the mercy of the invaders. The Ras passed an anxious, sleepless night; at day-dawn he and his friends went upon the small hillock near the prison, and telescope in hand anxiously watched the Galla plain. Hours passed away, and they saw nothing. What had occurred? why had not Damash and his men come back? such were the questions every, one asked: the old men shook their heads; they had fought in their days in the Galla country, and knew the valour of these savage horsemen. Even our old spy, Abu Falek, probably to see what we would say exclaimed, "That fool Damash had the impudence to make a raid in the Galla country, when even Theodore himself could not go there now." At last the welcome intelligence that Damash and his men were coming back, spread like wild-fire all over the mountain: they had been seen descending a steep ravine, not the road they had taken on going, but a shorter one. Soon afterwards horses and men were perceived on the plain; and something like confusion, and cattle being hurried down could be made out by the glasses. The party from the garrison were seen to halt at a short distance from the ravine they had descended, and march on very slowly. Something was wrong evidently; horsemen were at once despatched by the Ras to ascertain the result of the expedition. They returned with a doleful tale, and the Amba soon rang with the wailing of widows and orphans; eleven dead, thirty wounded, scores of fire-arms lost, the fugitives at large, was in sum the intelligence they brought back to the desponding Ras. A Galla renegade had the night before led Damash and his men straight to the village of the chief in whose company they had been seen in the morning, and under whose hospitable roof he justly surmised that they would spend the night. At first all succeeded as they had expected. They reached the doomed village an hour before day-dawn, and surrounded at once the house of the chief, whilst a small body was sent to search and plunder the village itself. A fearful massacre took place; surprised in their sleep, the men were murdered before they were aware of the presence of the enemy; only a few were spared, together with some women and children, by the less blood-thirsty of these midnight assassins. Before retiring to rest, Meshisha and Comfou, thinking that perhaps an attempt might be made to capture them, advised the chief to be on his guard, and proposed to sleep with him in a small broken-down hut at some distance from his house. Fortunately for them and the chief, they adopted that prudent course; awoke by the cries and shouts in the village, they bridled their ready-saddled steeds, and were off before even their presence had been suspected. Damash collected his men, and with his prisoners and plunder at once retraced his steps, glorying in his great deed and rejoicing in his success; it is true he had not caught the fugitives, but after all that was the Ras's business. He had planned the expedition, carried fire and sword into the Galla country; and without the loss of a single man was returning to the Amba with prisoners, horses, cows, mules, and other spoils of war. He knew how pleased Theodore would be, and he fancied himself already the fortunate successor of the disgraced Ras. He was within a few hundred yards of the short road he intended to take on his way back, leading from the Tanta plateau to the valley below Magdala, when he saw on the distant horizon a few horsemen riding towards him at full speed. The cattle and prisoners under charge of Goji and a few men were already engaged in the narrow road, and retreat was impossible. He placed his gunmen so as to face the horsemen, only a dozen, hoping to scare that handful off by the very sight of his large force; but he was mistaken. Brave Mahomed Hamza had the blood of his relations to avenge, and, though at the head of only twelve men, he bravely charged the 400 Amhara soldiers. A shot struck him in the forehead, and he fell dead from his horse. His companions, however, before the Amharas could reload, made a second brilliant charge, avenged their chief, and carried away the body all were anxious to mutilate. More horsemen came pouring in from all directions; the war-cry was echoed far and wide; men, women, and children assailed the Amharas with lances and stones. Mahomed's brothers, now supported by fifty lances, charged again and again the affrighted enemy, and drove them like sheep to the very brink of the precipice. Damash, however, had not come to fight but to slay; he was only brave when he had prisoners to bully, defenceless men to murder, and children to reduce to slavery: the cattle had reached the valley below and the road was clear, so throwing away his tiger's skin, his shield, his pistols, his gun, and abandoning his horses, he gave the example of the _sauve qui peut_, and rolled rather than ran down the steep descent. His example was followed by all the Amharas. A complete rout followed; the ground was strewed with matchlocks, spears, and shields; wounded and dead were alike abandoned on the battlefield. The Gallas did not follow them down the ravine as they could not charge on the broken ground below; they, however, killed several with sharp stones--a dreadful weapon in a Galla's hand--as their terrified foe hurried down the narrow pass and tumbled one over the other in their eagerness to reach the valley, where these cowards knew well that they would be safe. Almost all the wounded came to me; and for twelve hours I was busy bandaging and dressing their wounds. In several cases, where I knew that recovery was impossible, I informed the relations of the fact; as otherwise their death would have been laid to me, a rather serious matter in our critical position. Those thus warned always sought native advice, but they found out very soon that charms and amulets were of no avail, and that my prognostic had been but too true. I remember one case: a chief who had often been on guard at night over our prison had his left leg completely smashed by a stone; without entering into professional details, suffice it to say that I at once pronounced amputation as the only possible remedy; but to please the chiefs, who took a great interest in him, I agreed to dress his wound for a week, and after that time, should I be still of the same opinion to inform them of it. He had a small godjo built in our inclosure, and remained there until I gave for the second time as my opinion that nothing could save his life but immediate amputation. He was on that taken to his house and made over to a Shoa doctor, who promised not only to save his life but also the limb. The poor man was tortured by that ignorant quack for a week or ten days, until death put an end to his misery. Two days after, on a female spy reporting that in the ravine where the Amharas had been slaughtered, she had seen two wounded men hidden among the bushes, and still alive; an old chief, also a Galla renegade, with a few hundred men, was ordered to proceed to the spot, and endeavour to bring them back and bury the dead; they were on no account to engage in any action with the Gallas, but to retreat at once should he meet with resistance. He saw no enemy except his old comrade Comfou, who, from a rock above, fired at them with his rifle, without wounding or killing any one; they returned his fire, but to no purpose, and, having fulfilled their instructions, brought in the two wounded men: both, however, died shortly afterwards. One of them had his right arm and left leg broken; moreover, a spear had cut open the abdominal integuments, and the bowels protruded: he said that he had suffered greatly from thirst, but that his greatest trouble was, with his left hand, to keep off the vultures from tearing his intestines. The Ras, it is true, was now in a worse plight than before; but this time not alone. Damash had abandoned his men, run away, and lost the gun, pistols, and horse the Emperor had given, or rather lent, him. Many of the petty chiefs and soldiers had followed Damash's example, and some twenty-five matchlocks could not he accounted for, and of spears and shields the number missing was still greater. By-the-by, Damash pretended to be wounded, and for a long time we saw nothing of him, a circumstance at which we rejoiced extremely, but _his friends_ told us that he was only suffering from a few excoriations due to his rather too rapid retreat. If force had failed, perhaps negotiations might succeed. It was known that the two fugitives were still living in some of the villages belonging to the relations of Mahomed, awaiting the return of a messenger they had sent to the Galla Queen Mastiate, whose camp was a few days distant. The Magdala chiefs, therefore, proposed to the Gallas in their power that if they could induce their relations to give up the two fugitives, with the things they had taken away with them, they would set them all--men, women, and children--free, and restore the cattle that had been plundered. A woman, the wife of one of the principal men captured, volunteered to go. To the honour of the Gallas, they proudly and with scorn refused to give up their guests: they preferred to allow their relatives to linger in chains at Magdala, and abandon them to tortures and death, rather than obtain their release by a dishonourable action. The Magdala magnates had now to give up all hope of redeeming their conduct in the eyes of Theodore; the good understanding between them was much shaken: they taxed one another, when in their cups, with cowardice, sent messengers separately to the Emperor, accusing one another, and lived in as much dread of the arrival of an Imperial messenger as we did ourselves. But Theodore, surrounded by difficulties, almost cut off from his amba, was far too cunning to show his displeasure: his letter on the subject was perfect. What if two of his servants had run away? they were unfaithful, and he was only too glad that they had left his amba; as for the arms lost, what did it matter? he had more to give them; and when he came they should take their revenge. A few, not many, were taken in, but all pretended to be so, and several only awaited a favourable opportunity to follow the example of those they had endeavoured to capture. Every one suspected that Mastiate, the Galla Queen, would resent the foray made in her country, and avenge the death of her subjects so treacherously murdered. She would probably, they feared, destroy their crops at the foot of the Amba, stop the market, and starve out the place. She had, they knew, faithful allies in Comfou and Meshisha, and as the latter had been almost brought up on the mountain, and knew the many paths by which to lead; at night, the Galla host, much anxiety, therefore, prevailed, and great precautions were taken to protect the Amba against a sudden attack. I believe that it was indeed Mastiate's plan, and that she was on the point of executing it when a serious danger from, another side required her presence. Wakshum Gobazé, at the head of a powerful army, had invaded her dominions. Our days of calm repose were at an end; if it was not one rebel chief or the other that threatened the Amba, it was the good news from home that at last an expedition for our deliverance had been decided upon, or the less welcome information that the King was about to move in our direction; and one excitement had hardly subsided before we were again a prey to another--one day full of hope, the next, perhaps, desponding and cast down. Watshum Gobazé's career, had been full of adventure. As a young man he accompanied his father, Wakshum Gabra Medhin, the hereditary chief of Lasta, to the Imperial camp. On Theodore's first campaign in Shoa, which ended in the submission of that country, Gobazé's father fell under Theodore's displeasure, and was on the point of being executed when the Bishop interfered, and, as he was of great use to Theodore at the time, his request was granted. However, not long afterwards, Gobazé and his father seized their opportunity, deserted from Theodore's army, and retired into Lasta. They had not much difficulty in inducing the mountaineers to espouse their cause, and declare themselves independent. Theodore deputed to suppress that insurrection the rebel's own cousin, called Wakshum Teferi, a brave soldier and splendid horseman. He pursued his relative, totally defeated his army, and brought him a chained prisoner to the foot of the throne. Theodore was at the time in Wadela, a high plateau situate between Lasta and Begemder. He condemned the rebel chief to death; and as but few trees are to be found on that elevated plateau, he had him hung on the one near which his tent was pitched, so that the body of his enemy might be seen far and wide. Gobazé had managed to escape; and some time afterwards, Theodore, who was afraid of Wakshum Teferi, as he was beloved and admired by the soldiers, put him in chains,--forgetting that the man had served him so faithfully as even to bring to the scaffold his blood relation, --on the pretext that he had willingly allowed Gobazé to escape. Gobazé for a while remained hidden in the fastnesses of the high mountains of Lasta, but no sooner did he perceive that the Emperor's power was weakened and that the peasants were discontented with his tyrannical rule, than he came forth from his retreat, and having collected around him some of the former followers of his father, hoisted the standard of rebellion, and loudly proclaimed himself the avenger of his race. All Lasta soon acknowledged him. His rule was mild; and before long Gobazé found himself at the head of a considerable force. He advanced in the direction of Tigré, subdued the provinces of Enderta and Wajjerat, marched into Tigré proper, conquered Theodore's lieutenant, and left there his deputy, Dejatch Kassa. He himself returned to Lasta, having in view the extension of his power towards Yedjow and the Galla country, so as to protect Lasta from being invaded by these tribes during his proposed conquest of the Amhara country. Circumstances were greatly in his favour, and for a while he was the man to whom all Abyssinia looked to as their future ruler. On his return to Lasta he was at once acknowledged by Wadela, and at the same time some runaway chiefs of Yedjow having come to him, he availed himself of their assistance to make himself master of that province. He had some trouble, however, in settling it, as part of it was strongly in favour of an alliance with the Wallo Gallas: he deemed it the wisest course, therefore, to invade the Wallo country after the rainy season, and dictate his terms. He detached a small force, and sent with it one of his relations to receive the submission of Dalanta; and not long afterwards Dahonte was evacuated by the Gallas, and occupied by his troops. In the beginning of September he entered the Wallo Galla country by its north-eastern frontier, not far from Lake Haïk. On the intelligence reaching Queen Mastiate she hastened to oppose his march, and encamped a few miles in advance of his army, on a large plain, where her splendid cavalry would have all advantage. For at least a fortnight or three weeks the two armies remained in front of each other; Gobazé awaiting his enemy on the broken ground he had encamped upon, and where the Galla horse could not charge, but where his gunmen would be all-powerful; while the Queen, on her side, would not leave the ground she had chosen, and where she was almost certain of victory. Gobazé had been long before in communication with the Bishop and with Mr. Rassam. Before the rainy season of 1867, he had sent word to the Bishop that he was coming to Magdala, presented him a few hundred dollars, and asked him to afford all the assistance in his power should he advance towards the place. The Bishop said he would do his utmost, and that as soon as the Amba was invested he would leave no stone, unturned to facilitate his plans. Gobazé sent back word that if the Bishop would secure him the services of Damash, Goji, and the Ras (the three who had all the garrison under their joint command), that he would come at once. This request was simply absurd; if we had been able to gain over these men to our cause, we could have dispensed with the presence of Gobazé altogether. What the Bishop proposed was, that Gobazé should encamp at Islamgee; the moment he appeared below the mountain, the Bishop would supply us and some men upon whom he could depend with fire-arms and ammunition. We should in the meanwhile open our chains with the assistance of our servants, and arm all those amongst them who could be trusted; and on the Bishop being informed, that we were ready, he would come out in full canonicals, carrying the holy cross, and excommunicate Theodore and every one who adhered to him, placing under an irrevocable curse all who attempted to arrest him or us. Our party, including Portuguese, natives of Massowah, and messengers, would have amounted to at least twenty-five; the Bishop could bring fifty men, and surround himself with about 200 priests and defteras, so as to form a mixed sortie; all, however, ready to fight in case of need. Should persuasion or threats fail to force the way to the gate, they were to shoot down any one attempting to molest us in our advance. Arrived at the gate, the Bishop and the priests would stand before the inner door, whilst the armed party would seize upon the outer gate and hold it until the Wakshum and his men, ready at hand, would march in and take possession of the fort. The plan was a very good one, and no doubt would have succeeded. We knew well, that no pity would have been shown to us had we been recaptured, and we would have fallen one after the other, rather than allow ourselves to be made prisoners again. In presence of even a handful of men, determined to sell their lives dearly, few of the soldiers would have ventured on an open attack; the affair would have been sudden, and the garrison taken by surprise: moreover, we had to deal with bigoted people, and many who might have rushed upon us, would have been kept back by the presence of the Bishop, and would kiss the ground before his feet rather than encounter his dreaded excommunication. The Bishop informed Gobazé of this plan, and for days we lived in a fearful state of excitement, always hoping that the messenger would return with the grateful intelligence that Gobazé had accepted it. However, we were doomed to disappointment: Gobazé did not approve the suggestion; he sent word to the Bishop, "It is better for me to go to Begemder and attack there my blood enemy: only give me your blessing. On the fall of Theodore, the Amba belongs to me; it is far preferable that I should fight him instead of attacking Magdala, as you know well that we cannot take forts." The blessing was duly given; but Gobazé thought better of it: he did not venture to attack the murderer of his father, and a few days afterwards we heard that he had marched into Yedjow. Gobazé behaved always very well towards us; he assisted, as much as lay in his power, our messengers on their way to the coast, and was anxious to effect our deliverance; unfortunately he had not sufficient courage to fight when Theodore was his opponent. Gobazé and Mastiate after a time got tired of staring at one another. The latter was aware that before long she would have to deal with even a more serious enemy, in the person of her rival Workite, and she would willingly have come to terms. She sent a horse to Gobazé as a peace-offering, but he returned the present, accompanied with a parcel of cotton and a spindle, with a message to the effect that she had nothing to do with horses, and as her occupation was to spin cotton, he had sent her the necessary articles. Gobazé, however, shortly afterwards heard that in Tigré, Dejatch Kassa, who for some months had abandoned his cause, had made himself very powerful, and marched upon Adowa. Supplies also began to run short in his camp, whilst Mastiate being in her own country, could draw them with all facility; he therefore retraced his steps towards Yedjow. Mastiate followed him in the rear, only biding her time to fall upon him when a favourable opportunity presented itself. Gobazé found his position difficult, and made advances. Mastiate saw her advantage and made her own terms. She promised not to interfere in the affairs of Yedjow, on condition that he made over to her the provinces of Dahonte and Dalanta, which he had shortly before occupied. He agreed, and peace was made between the two parties; it was even reported that an offensive and defensive alliance had been concluded between them; but this could hardly have been the case, as soon afterwards, when Mastiate was hard pressed by Menilek, her new ally did not afford her any assistance. To us these constant changes of rulers was most annoying, more so as we had no money, and were constantly obliged to make presents to the new chiefs appointed by the conqueror of the day. We had hardly made "friends" with the shums (governors) Theodore had left in those provinces, than we had to open communications with the deputies of the Galla Queen, and again with those of Gobazé on the evacuation of those districts by the Gallas, and a fourth time on their reoccupation by the Gallas: we had to ensure their neutrality, at least,--for they had already plundered several of our messengers--by suitable offerings and promises of more, should they favour our cause. In one respect we were very fortunate: on our arrival we were saved from much discomfort, if not from something worse, by the money the Emperor gave to his workmen; who made it over to us. During the rainy season we were again saved from starvation by a few dollars I had kept in reserve; for the third time, everything appeared desperate, and we were so reduced that some sold and others were talking of selling their mules and anything available, when a messenger at last reached us with a few hundred dollars. Whilst Mastiate was negotiating with Gobaz, her son wrote to Mr. Rassam and to the Bishop. He asked Mr. Rassam to use his influence and give him the mountain, promising in return to treat us honourably if we liked to remain in his country, or enable us to reach the coast if we desired to return to our own native land. To the Bishop he promised all protection; he would allow him to take away his property, and would not injure what he called "his idols." So long as we could get out of the clutches of Theodore, it did not matter much into whose hands we fell: not that we ever expected,--such, at least, was the opinion of the majority amongst us,--that we should be allowed to leave the country: but, at all events, we should not be in daily fear of our lives, of tortures, and of starvation, as we were then. We should not have liked to fall into the hands of the peasants or of some petty chief: the first would have at once put us to death out of hatred to the white men; the second, most probably would have ill-treated us or have sold us to the highest bidder. The great rebels would have acted differently: we should have been, for a time, at least, comparatively free, and allowed to depart on a suitable ransom being given. Therefore, to Ali, to Gobaz, to Ahmed the son of Mastiate, or to Menilek the King of Shoa, Mr. Rassam's answer was always the same, "Come; invest this place, and then we will see what we can do for you." It amused us sometimes to watch all these different rivals of Theodore, each of them endeavouring to seize upon Magdala even before Theodore was quite out of the way. Gobazé and Menilek, had both in view to make themselves rulers of Abyssinia, by the possession of Magdala: (indeed the latter had also written before the rainy season, informing the Bishop of his coming to take possession of _his_ amba, and requesting the bishop to take care of _his_ property.) Apart from the great prestige it would confer upon them, they would obtain the three things they rightly judged would most likely insure the fulfilment of their ambitious views: viz., the throne, the Bishop, and the English prisoners. All wanted Mr. Bassam, not merely to help them, but to _give_ them the mountain: they were aware that the chiefs were on friendly terms with us, and supposed that we were in possession of fabulous sums of money, so that, by means of friendship and bribery, we might open the gates to the candidate we selected. Magdala could only become theirs by treachery: in their immense armies, they could not have found twenty men with sufficient courage to venture on an assault. Magdala had the reputation of being impregnable; and, indeed, against natives badly armed, it was very nearly so. Even Theodore only took possession of it because the Galla garrison, through fear, evacuated the place during the night. He had pitched his camp at the foot of the Amba, and attempted an assault; but soon retired from his hopeless task before the shower of missiles thrown from above. It was not until several days after the Gallas had retired, that one of the chiefs, suspecting the place to be empty, cautiously ventured to ascertain the fact, and returned to inform Theodore that he might quietly walk in as the enemy had disappeared. CHAPTER XV Death of Abouna Salama--Sketch of his Life and Career--Grievances of Theodore against him--His Imprisonment at Magdala--The Wallo Gallas--Their Habits and Customs--Menilek appears with an Army in the Galla Country--His Policy--Advice sent to him by Mr. Rassam--He invests Magdala and fires a _feu-de-joie_--The Queen's Behaviour --Steps taken by the Chiefs--Our Position not Improved--The Effects of Smoke on Menilek--Our Disappointment followed by Great Joy--We receive News of the Landing of British Troops. On the 25th of October, Abouna Salama (the Bishop of Abyssinia) died after a long and painful illness. Abouna Salama was in many respects a remarkable man. Two such characters as Theodore and himself are seldom met with at the same time in those distant lands. Both ambitious, both proud, both passionate, it was inevitable that sooner or later they must come into collision, and the stronger crush the weaker. Abyssinia had been for years without a bishop. Priests could no more be consecrated, nor new churches dedicated to Christian worship, as the ark could not contain the tabot blessed by the bishop of the land. Ras Ali, although outwardly a Christian and belonging to a converted family, had still too many connections amongst the Mussulman Gallas, his true friends and supporters, to care for more than an apparent profession of the State religion, and troubled himself very little about the inconvenience to which the priesthood was subjected by the long-continued vacancy of the bishopric. Dejatch Oubié was at that time the semi-independent ruler of Tigré. From the position of a simple governor he had gradually risen to power, and now at the head of a large army strove for the title of Ras. Though still on apparent terms of friendship with Ras Ali, even to a certain degree acknowledging him as his superior, he was all the while secretly exerting his influence to overthrow the Ras's power in order to reign in his stead. For these reasons he despatched some of his chiefs, with Monsignor de Jacobis, an Italian nobleman and Roman Catholic bishop at Massowah, to Egypt, to obtain a bishop for the Abyssinian see; [Footnote: According to the rules of the Abyssinian Church, the bishop must be a Coptic priest ordained at Cairo. The expenses required for the consecration of a bishop amount to about 10,000 dollars] and in order to secure for himself such a powerful weapon as the support of the priesthood, he incurred the heavy expense required for the consecration of an Abouna. De Jacobis made strenuous efforts to have a bishop anointed who would favour the Roman Catholics; but he failed, as the Patriarch chose for that dignity a young man who had received part of his education at an English school at Cairo, and whose views were more in favour of Protestantism than of the Copt's long-standing adversary, the Church of Rome. Andraos, this young priest, was only in his twentieth year. When informed that he must leave his monastery and the companionship of the monks his friends to proceed to the distant and semi-civilized land of Habesch, he firmly declined the honour proposed for him. He requested his superiors to fix their choice on a worthier man, declaring himself unfit for the dignity so suddenly thrust upon him. His objections were not admitted, and as he still persisted in his refusal, the superior of the convent put him in irons; wherein he should remain, he was told, until he agreed to obey the head of the Coptic Church. Andraos gave in; and having been duly anointed and consecrated Bishop of Abyssinia, under the title of Abouna Salama, with all the pomps and ceremonies proper to the occasion, started shortly afterwards in an English man-of-war, reaching Massowah in the beginning of 1841. Dejatch Oubié received him with great honours; added numerous villages and large districts to those the hereditary possession of the bishops, and made every endeavour to attach him to his cause. He succeeded even beyond his expectations. Abouna Salama, instead of needing the persuasions of Oubié to join him in the overthrow of Ras Ali, proposed the attempt. Through his influence Oubié concluded an alliance with Goscho Beru, the ruler of Godjam. The two chiefs agreed to march on Debra Tabor, attack Ras Ali, wrest from him the power he had usurped, and divide the government of Abyssinia, confirming the Bishop's alleged rights to a third of the revenue of the land. Oubié and Goscho Beru kept to their engagements, offered battle to Ras Ali near Debra Tabor, and utterly routed his army; Ras Ali with difficulty escaping from the field with a small body of well-mounted followers. It so happened, however, that Oubié celebrated his success in potations too many and deep. Some of the fugitive soldiers of Ras Ali accidentally entered Oubié's tent, found their master's conqueror in the condition known as dead drunk, and availed themselves of his helpless condition to make him their prisoner. This sudden contretemps changed the aspect of affairs. Certain well-mounted horsemen galloped after Ras Ali and succeeded in overtaking him towards evening. He would not at first believe in his good fortune; but others of his soldiers arriving and confirming the glad tidings, he returned to Debra Tabor, reunited his scattered followers, and was able to dictate terms to his captive conqueror. Oubié was pardoned and allowed to return to Tigré, the Bishop being answerable for his fidelity. Ras Ali treated the Bishop with all respect, fell at his feet and implored him not to listen to the calumnies of his enemies, assuring him that the Church had no more faithful son than himself, nor any more willing to comply with the holy father's wishes. The Bishop, now on friendly terms with all parties, and all but worshipped by them, soon made his authority felt; and had not Theodore risen from obscurity, Abouna Salama would, no doubt, have been the Hildebrand of Abyssinia. During the campaigns of Lij Kassa against the ruler of Godjam, and during that period of revolution ending in the overthrow of Ras Ali, Abouna Salama retired to his property in Tigré, residing there in peace under the protection of his friend Oubié. Ever since his arrival in Abyssinia Abouna Salama had shown the bitterest opposition to the Roman Catholics: an enmity not so much engendered by conviction, perhaps, as inflamed by the fact that some of his property had been seized at Jiddah at the instigation of some Roman Catholic priests, who had through his influence been plundered, ill-treated, and expelled from Abyssinia. When the intelligence reached the Abouna that Lij Kassa was marching against Tigré, he publicly excommunicated him, on the ground that Kassa was the friend of the Roman Catholics, protected their Bishop, De Jacobis, and wanted to subvert in favour of the creed of Rome the religion of the land. But Kassa was a match for the Abouna; he denied the charge, and at the same time stated "that if Abouna Salama could excommunicate, Abouna de Jacobis could remove it." The Bishop, alarmed at the influence his enemies might possibly obtain, offered to recall his anathema, on condition that Kassa would expel De Jacobis. These terms having been agreed upon, Abouna Salama shortly afterwards consented to place the crown of Abyssinia on the usurper's head, and did so in the very church Oubié had erected for his own coronation, under the name of Theodore II. Pleased with the Bishop's compliance, Theodore showed him the utmost respect. He carried his chair, or walked behind him with a lance and shield as if he was nothing but a follower of his, and on all fit occasions fell down to the ground in his presence and respectfully kissed his hand. Abouna Salama for a time believed that his influence over Theodore was unbounded, as it had been over Ras Ali and Oubié; mistook Theodore's show of humility for sincere admiration and devotion; and the more humble Theodore seemed disposed to be, the more arrogant did the Bishop, publicly show himself. But he had not quite understood the character of the Emperor he had anointed; and overrating his own importance, at last he made of Theodore an open and relentless enemy. The crisis came when Abouna Salama least expected it. One day Theodore went in state to pay him his respects. Arrived at the Abouna's tent, he informed him of his visit; the Bishop sent word that he would receive him when convenient, and meanwhile bade him wait without. Theodore complied; but as time passed and the Bishop made no appearance, Theodore walked away, the enemy of his prelate, and burning for revenge. For years afterwards they lived in open enmity, or enmity slightly masked: each worked hard at the destruction of the other. If Theodore's reign had been a peaceful one, the Abouna would have gained the day; but the Emperor, surrounded as he was by a large army of devoted followers, found ready listeners to his descriptions of the Bishop's character. Abouna Salama was never very popular; he was, without being a miser, far from liberal. Friendship in Abyssinia means presents: it is accepted as such by all; and every chief, every man of note, who courts popularity, lavishes with an unsparing hand. The Emperor naturally took advantage of this want of liberality in the Bishop's character, to contrast it with his own generosity. He insinuated that the Abouna was only a merchant at heart; that instead of selling the tribute he received in kind to the people of the country, as was formerly the custom, he sent it by caravans to Massowah, trafficked with the Turks, and hoarded all his money in Egypt. Little by little Theodore worked on the minds of his people, impressing them with the idea that, after all, the Bishop was only a man like themselves; and, at least in Theodore's camp, he had already lost much of his prestige when the Emperor spread the report that his honour had been assailed by the Bishop whom they all worshipped. Theodore, when detailing to us his grievances one day on our way to Agau Medar, introduced the subject of his quarrel with the Abouna. He then stated as the reason of his enmity against him that, one day when he was entertaining his officers at a public breakfast, the Bishop, taking advantage of his absence, and under pretence of confessing the Queen, went into her tent. When Theodore returned after the breakfast was over, he presented himself at the door of his wife's apartment, but on being informed that she was engaged in her religious duties with the Abouna he walked away. In the evening he returned again to his wife's tent. When he entered, she flew to him, and sobbing on his neck told him that she had been that day unwillingly unfaithful to him, having been unable to resist the violence of the Bishop. He forgave her, he said, because she was innocent; and as for the suborner of his honour he could not punish him: nothing but death could avenge such a crime, and how could he lay violent hands on a dignitary of the Church?--There is no doubt that the whole was an abominable invention; but Theodore had evidently told the same story over and over again until at last he had come to believe it himself. Abouna Salama lost reputation, though, perhaps, few people believed the Emperor's assertion. But on the principle that if you throw mud some will stick, the Abouna's character was amongst a certain class fairly gone; and henceforward his friends were only to be found amongst the King's enemies, while his foes were Theodore's bosom friends. In public Theodore still always treated him with respect, though not with such a great show of humility as before; but he evidently, for the sake of his people, made a distinction between the official character of the Abouna, respecting it on account of his Christian faith, and his private one, for which he expressed the greatest scorn. For a long while the question of the Church lands was a great deal discussed between them. Theodore could not tolerate any power in the State but his own. He had fought hard to be the supreme ruler of Abyssinia; he had done his utmost to bring the Abouna into contempt, and when he thought the occasion favourable to do away entirely with his power and influence, he confiscated all the Church lands and revenues--some of the Bishop's hereditary property by the same stroke--and placed himself virtually at the head of the Church. The Abouna's anger knew no bounds. Naturally of a violent temper, he grossly abused Theodore on every occasion. Some of their quarrels were most unbecoming; the intense hatred burning in the prelate's heart showing itself in expressions that ought never to have fallen from his lips. The Bishop of Abyssinia was never tolerant. I have mentioned that towards Roman Catholics he was most intolerant. He persecuted them at every opportunity, and even when himself a prisoner at Magdala he never sought to obtain the release of an unfortunate Abyssinian who had been years before cast into chains at his instigation, for the sole reason that the man had visited Rome and become a convert there. Towards Protestants he was better inclined; still, he would not hear of "conversions." Missionaries might instruct, but they had to stop there; and when, as it happened, some Jews were led by the teachings of the missionaries to accept Christianity, they had to be baptized and received as members of the Abyssinian Church. He showed himself on all occasions friendly towards Europeans, not Roman Catholics, and in time of trouble proved of good service to the European captives; even helping them with small sums of money at a time of great scarcity and want. But his friendship was dangerous. Theodore distrusted, nay, disliked any one who was on friendly terms with his great enemy; the horrid torture the Europeans suffered at Azzazoo was due entirely to that cause; and the quarrels or reconciliations between Church and State always influenced their and our fate. The Abouna left Azzazoo with the King's camp after the rainy season of 1864. A serious rebellion had broken out in Shoa, and Theodore, leaving his prisoners, wives and camp-followers at Magdala, made a quick march through the Wallo Galla country; but he found the rebels so strong that he could do nothing against them. He was greatly annoyed at the Bishop's refusal to accompany him. The Shoa people are of all Abyssinians the most bigoted, and have the greatest regard for their Abouna; with him in his camp many of the opposing chiefs would at once have laid down their arms and returned to their allegiance. But the Bishop, who had in view his fertile districts in Tigré, proposed accompanying Theodore first to that province; and after the rebellion had been put down in that part of the kingdom, to proceed with him to Shoa. Their interview on that occasion was very stormy; and Theodore must have had great command over himself to have refrained from extremities. Abouna Salama remained at Magdala, according to his desire; but a prisoner. He was never put in chains; though it is said that Theodore had several times resolve it should be done, and even had the fetters prepared; but he was always restrained by dread of the effect that such a measure might have on his people. The Bishop was allowed to go as far as the church, should he desire it; but at night a small guards always watched outside his house; sometimes even a few of the soldiers passed the night in the Abouna's apartment. Almost all his servants were spies of the King. He could trust no one, except a few of his slaves--young Gallas given to him in former days by Theodore--and a Copt, who, with some priests, had accompanied the Patriarch David on his visit to Abyssinia: some of them had accepted the King's service, whilst others, like the Copt servant I have mentioned, devoted themselves to their compatriot and bishop. During the former imprisonment of the captives at Magdala, the intercourse between the Bishop and them had been very limited. They never saw each other; but occasionally a young slave of the Bishop's would carry a verbal message, or a short Arabic note containing some piece of news, generally some exaggerated rumours of the rebels' doings (always believed by the too credulous Abouna), or simple inquiries about medicine, &c. The day of our arrival, and whilst the chiefs were reading Theodore's instructions concerning us, the young slave above mentioned came up to Mr. Rosenthal with kind compliments from the Abouna, to inform us that as far as his master then knew there was nothing bad for the present, but great fears for the future. The Bishop, we knew, had frequent communications with the great rebel chiefs (Theodore was also well aware of the fact, and hated him all the more for it); he had shown himself at all times well disposed towards us, and as he was as anxious as ourselves to escape from the power of Theodore, we deemed it of the highest importance to open communication with him. But the difficulties in the way were enormous. Nothing would have injured our prospects more than the betrayal of our intercourse with the Bishop to the Emperor. Samuel in that respect could not for a long time be trusted; as a deadly enmity existed between himself and the Bishop. It required all the persuasive powers of Mr. Rassam to bring on a good understanding between the two; he, however, managed the affair so skilfully that he not only succeeded, but after mutual explanations, they became affectionate friends. But, until this difficulty had been overcome, great precautions were necessary. The small slave was soon suspected by our vigilant guards. It would have been dangerous to confide to him anything of importance, for he might at any time be seized and searched. We therefore employed servant-girls, who were known to the Bishop, as they had resided on the mountain with the former captives. The Bishop accepted with eagerness our proposal to escape from the Amba, and, sanguine as he was hasty, at first gave us great hopes; but when we came to the details of his plot, as far as we were concerned, we found it was perfectly ridiculous. He wanted some nitrate of silver in order to blacken his face, so as to pass unperceived through the gates. Once free, he was to join either Menilek or the Wakshum, excommunicate and depose Theodore, and proclaim the rebel emperor in his place. He had evidently forgotten that the days of Oubié and Ras Ali were gone long ago, that the man who held Magdala cared but little for excommunication, and that, deposed or not, Theodore still would virtually be king. The Bishop might have succeeded, perhaps; but had he been caught, or had it ever been known that we were parties to his escape, no power in the world would have saved us from the rage of the infuriated monarch. After the Bishop's reconciliation with Samuel our relations with him were more frequent and intimate. He was at all times willing to help us to the best of his ability, lent as a few dollars when we were hard pressed for money, wrote to the rebels to protect our messengers, invited them to come to our release, promising to the successful one his support, and, I believe, would even have accepted a reconciliation with the man from whom he had received so many injuries, solely for our sake. Disappointed in his ambition, deprived of his property, insulted, degraded, without power, without liberty, Abouna Salama succumbed to the too common temptation of men who suffer much. Almost without society, leading a dull misanthropic life, he did not remember that sobriety in all respects was essential to his health and that over-indulgence at table was not consistent with his forced seclusion. Constant annoyances, added to intemperate habits, could but bring on sickness. During our first winter I attended him, through Alaka Zenab, our friend and his, and under my care he recovered. Unfortunately, he only listened to my advice and obeyed my injunctions for a short time; soon missing the stimulants he had for years been accustomed to, he gradually felt the want of their cheering influence, and again resorted to them. During the rainy season of 1867 he had a more serious attack. This time Samuel, being able to visit him at night, was our medium, and being a very intelligent man could give us a correct account of his condition. For a while his health improved; but he was even more unreasonable than formerly: hardly was he convalescent than several times a day he sent to inquire if he could drink some arrack, take a little opium, or indulge in some of his more favourite dishes. It is not astonishing that relapse quickly followed: though I showed him the danger of the course he was pursuing, he persisted in it. In the beginning of October the Bishop's condition became so critical that he applied to the Ras and chiefs to allow me to visit him. They met in consultation, and in a body repaired to Mr. Rassam, when I was called and asked if I would attend him. I replied that as far as I was concerned I was perfectly willing. The chiefs then retired to consider the matter; and on one of them insinuating that Theodore would not be sorry if his enemy the Abouna died, and that he would be angry if he knew that the Bishop had been brought in contact with the Europeans, they decided on refusing his request; though they consented to the attendance of the _cow-doctor_. With the Abouna we lost a staunch ally, a good friend; nay, the only one we had in the country. Had a rebel succeeded in making himself master of the Amba his protection would have been invaluable: not that I believe his influence would have been sufficient to ensure our release; but still, with him, we should have met at the hands of any of the great rebel chiefs nothing but good treatment and courteous demeanour. The messenger sent to convey the tidings of the Abouna's death to the Emperor, was rather puzzled how to express himself, not knowing in what light his Majesty would receive the news. He adopted a middle course as the safest, and tried to appear neither sorry nor rejoiced. Theodore listened to his tale and exclaimed, "Thank God, my enemy is dead!" Then, addressing the messenger, he added, "You fool! why did you not on reaching me shout out 'Miserach' (good tidings)? I would have given you my best mule." With the death of the Bishop, our hopes, though always of the faintest kind, when natives were expected to be the deliverers, seemed for ever crushed. Wakshum Gobazé had, for a time at least, by his treaty with Mastiate, given up his pretensions to the possession of Magdala; and Menilek, even if he kept to his word and attempted the siege of our amba, would, no doubt, fall back on Shoa as soon as he should be apprised of the death of his friend whom he was so anxious to release. We had no precise information as to the steps that were taken at home for our rescue; and, until certain that troops had landed, we felt very anxious lest some _contretemps_ should, at the last instant, occur, and the expedition be abandoned, or some more or less chimerical plan adopted in its stead. We had received a little money of late, but as everything was scarce and dear, we had to be very careful, and refuse many a "friend's" request--rather a dangerous proceeding in those days. We believed--but events proved we were wrong--that if any great rebel, any rising man of influence, should present himself before the Amba, the discontented, half-starved wretches would be only too glad to open the gates and receive him as a saviour. The garrison, we knew, would not on any account surrender to the Gallas. For years they had been at enmity, and the marauding expeditions which the soldiers of the mountain had lately made into their territory, had increased that bad feeling, and quite destroyed any hope of reconciliation. This was the more vexatious, as now that Mastiate had, by her treaty with Gobazé, obtained possession and garrisoned all the districts around Magdala, it was but natural to expect that she would make some efforts at least to seize upon a fortress that lay within her dominions. Not many days after the departure of Gobazé for Yedjow, she issued orders to the people of the neighbourhood to cease supplying the Amba, and forbade any of her subjects from attending the weekly market; she even fixed a day for the troops she had detached to Dalanta and Dahonte to rendezvous at a short distance from Magdala, as she intended to destroy the whole of the country for miles around, and reduce the garrison by famine. The Wallo Gallas are a fine race, far superior to the Abyssinian in elegance, manliness, and courage. Originally from the interior of Africa, they made their first appearance in Abyssinia towards the middle of the sixteenth century. These hordes invaded the fairest provinces in such numbers, they excelled so greatly the Amharas in horsemanship and in courage, that not only did they overrun the land, but lived for years on the resources of the country in imprudent security. After a while they settled down on the beautiful plateau extending from the river Bechelo to the highlands of Shoa, and from the Nile to the lowland inhabited by the Adails. Though retaining most of the characteristics of their race, they adopted many of the customs of the people they conquered. They lost in great measure their predatory and pastoral habits, tilled the soil, built permanent dwellings, and to a certain, extent adopted in their dress, food, and mode of life the usages of the former inhabitants. In appearance the Galla is tall, well made, rather slender, but wiry; the hair of both men and women is long, thick, waving, rather than curly, and is altogether more like coarse European hair than the semi-woolly texture that covers Abyssinian skulls. Their dress is in many respects identical; both wear trousers, only those of the Gallas are shorter and tighter, somewhat resembling those worn by the people of Tigré. They both wear a large cotton cloth, a robe by day and a covering by night; the only difference being that the Galla seldom weaves in the side the broad red stripe, the pride of the Amhara. The food of both races is nearly the same; both enjoy the raw meat of the cow, the shiro or hot spiced dish of peas, the wât, and the teps (toasted meat); they only differ in the grain they use for bread, the Amhara delighting in pancakes made of the small seed of the tef, whilst the Galla's bread is more loaf-like, and is prepared with the flour of wheat or barley, the only grain that prospers on their elevated land. The Galla women are generally fair; and when not exposed to the sun, their large, black, brilliant, shining eyes, their rosy lips, their long, black, and neatly-braided hair, their little feet and hands, their graceful and well-rounded forms, make them comparable to the fairest daughters of Spain or Italy. The long shirt falling from the neck to the ankle, and fastened round the waist by the ample folds of a white cotton belt; the silver anklets, from which hang tiny bells, the long necklace of beads and silver, the white and black rings covering the taper fingers, are all very much the same articles as those that are thought necessary for the toilette of the Galla amazon and the more sedentary Amhara lady. The most apparent difference is in their religion. At the time of their first appearance, the Wallo Gallas, like many of the divisions of the same family who, having settled further inland and having less intercourse with foreigners, are still plunged in the grossest idolatry, worshipped trees and stones; or rather under these natural objects rendered adoration to a being called the Unknown, who was to be propitiated by human sacrifices. It is impossible to obtain any correct information as to the exact date of their conversion to Islamism; but it has been accepted by the Wallo tribe almost universally. None at the present day are given to heathen practices, and only a few families belong to the Christian faith. If we compare the races still further, and examine the morality and social habits of the two, at a first glance it would seem that both are licentious, both dissolute. But, on closer inspection, the degradation of the one is seen to be so thorough, that the other may claim, by contrast, something like primitive simplicity. The Amhara's life is one round of sensual debauchery; his conversation seldom deviates to pure or innocent subjects: no title is so envied by the men as that of libertine, and the women, also, are all ambitious of a like distinction: an "unfortunate" is not regarded as unfortunate there. The richest, the noblest, the highest in the land are profligates in love, or mercenary: more frequently both. Nothing is so disagreeable to an Abyssinian lady's ear as an insinuation that she is virtuous; for that would be taken to mean that she is either ill-looking or for some other reason is not favoured with many lovers. In some parts of the Galla country the family exists in the old patriarchal form. The father is in his humble hut as absolute as the chief is over the tribe. If a man marries and is afterwards obliged to leave his village on a distant foray, his wife is immediately taken under the close protection of his brother, who is her husband until the elder's return. This custom was for many years very prevalent; now it is more limited: it is most common in the plateau arising from the Bechelo to Dalanta or Dahonte, where Galla families, almost isolated from the general tribe, have preserved many of the institutions of their forefathers. The stranger invited under the roof of a Galla chief will find in the same large smoky hut individuals of several generations. The heavy straw roof rests on some ten or twelve wooden pillars, having in the centre an open space, where the matrons, sitting near the fire, prepare the evening meal, while a swarm of children play around them. Opposite the rude door of small twigs, held together by nothing but a few branches cut from the nearest tree, stands the simple alga of the "lord of the manor." Near his bed neighs his favourite horse, the pet of young and old. In other partitioned places are his stores of barley or wheat. When the evening meal is over, and the children sleep where they last fell in their romping games, the chief first sees that the companion of his forays is well littered; he then conducts his guest to the spot where some sweet-smelling straw has been spread under a dried cow-hide. Nor is that the end of his hospitality, which at this point becomes rather embarrassing to the married traveller. But the strange way in which the guest is honoured must not be set down to licentiousness; it really is simplicity. Every Galla is a horseman, every horseman a soldier; and thus is formed a perfect militia, an always ready army, where no discipline is required, no drill but to follow the chief. As soon as the war-cry is heard, or the signal fire is seen on the summit of the distant peak, the ever-ready steed is saddled, the young son jumps up behind his father to hold his second lance, and from every hamlet, from every apparently peaceful homestead, brave soldiers rush to the rendezvous. When Theodore himself, at the head of his thousands, invaded their land, then farewell to their homes. His revengeful hand burnt forms and villages far and wide wherever he was opposed, and the defenceless peasants fled in order to save their lives, knowing well how futile were their hopes of safety, should they fall into his power. The Wallos are divided into seven tribes. Presenting no differences amongst themselves, they were simply separated by civil wars. Could these brave horsemen only understand the motto "Union is strength," they could make as easy a conquest of the whole of Abyssinia as their fathers did of the plains they now dwell upon. When united, they have always carried their arms successfully into an enemy's country. Children of their race, the Gooksas, the Mariés, the Alis, have held the Emperor in their sway, and governed the land for years. Unfortunately during the days of our captivity, as had been but too frequently the case before, petty jealousies, unworthy rivalries, weakened to such an extent their power that, far from being able to impose their laws on others, they in turn became but tools in the hands of the Christian kings and rulers. With Abusheer died the last vestige of union. If not at actual war, one party was always working against another; and no distant campaign could be thought of when their enemies in their own country dwelt. Abusheer, the last Imam of the Wallo Gallas, left two sons by different wives, Workite [Footnote: Fine gold.] and Mastiate. [Footnote: Looking-glass.] The son of the former, as we mentioned in a previous chapter, was killed by Theodore on the escape of Menilek to Shoa, and Workite had no option left but to seek the hospitality of the young king for whom she had sacrificed so much. Thus for more than two years Mastiate was left in undisturbed possession of the supremacy vested in her by the unanimous consent of the chiefs, a regent for her son until he attained his majority. Menilek, after his escape, had no easy task before him: the chief who had headed the rebellion in the name of his king, after the gallant repulse and the check he inflicted upon Theodore, declared himself independent--became the Cromwell instead of the Monk of Abyssinia. Menilek was, however, well received by a small party of faithful adherents; Workite had also been accompanied by a small force of trusty followers; and on a large number of the chiefs abandoning the usurper and joining the standard of Menilek, he marched against the powerful rebel, who still held the capital and many strong places, utterly defeated his army and made him a prisoner. This victory was shortly afterwards followed by the complete submission of Shoa to his rule; chief after chief made their obedience, and all acknowledged as their king the grandson of Sahela Selassi. Once his rights admitted by his people, he led his army against the numerous Galla tribes who inhabit the beautiful country extending from the south-eastern frontier of Shoa to the picturesque lake of Guaragu. But, instead of plundering these agricultural races, as his father had done, he promised them honourable treatment, a kind of mild vassalage, on the payment of a small annual tribute. The Gallas, surprised at his unexpected generosity and clemency, willingly accepted his terms, and, from former foes, enrolled themselves as his followers, and accompanied him on his expeditions. Theodore had left a strong garrison on an almost impregnable amba, situated at the northern frontier of Shoa, commanding the entrance into the pass leading from the Galla country to the highlands of Shoa. Menilek, before his campaign in the Galla country, had invested that last stronghold of Theodore in his own dominions, and, after a six months' siege, the garrison, who had repeatedly applied to their master for relief, at last gave in and opened their gates to the young king. Menilek treated them exceedingly well, many were honoured with appointments in his household, others received titles and commands, or were placed in positions of trust and confidence. Menilek owed much to Workite; without her timely protection he would have been pursued, and as Shoa had shut its gates upon him, his position would have become one of great difficulty and danger. He could not forget, either, that to save his life she had sacrificed her only son and lost her kingdom: his debt of gratitude towards her was immense, and nothing he could do could adequately repay her for her devotion. But if he could not give her back her murdered son, he would, at all events, march against her rival, and restore by force of arms the disgraced queen to the throne she had lost on his account. At the end of October, 1867, Menilek, at the head of a considerable army, computed at 40,000 to 50,000 men, composed of 30,000 cavalry, some 2,000 or 3,000 musketeers, and the rest spearmen, entered the Wallo Galla plain: he proclaimed that he came not as an enemy, but as a friend; not to destroy nor to plunder, but to re-establish in her rule the deposed and lawful queen Workite. She was accompanied by a young lad who, she asserted, was her grandson, the child of the prince who had been killed more than two years before at Magdala. She stated that he had been born in the Wallo country, before her departure for Shoa, the result of one of those frequent casual unions so common in the country, and that she had taken him away when she sought refuge in the land of the man whom she had saved. To avoid any attempt being made by her rival to secure the person of her grandchild, she had until then kept the matter secret. However, her story was but little credited: I know on the Amba the soldiers laughed at it; still it offered an excuse to many of her former adherents for again joining her cause, and if they did not credit her tale they pretended at least to do go. The Galla chiefs for some time remained undecided. Menilek kept to his word; he neither plundered nor molested any one, and, before long, he reaped the reward of his wise policy. Five of the tribes sent in their adhesion, and recognized Workite as regent for her grandson. Mastiate, in presence of such defection, adopted the most prudent course of retiring with her reduced army before the overwhelming forces of her adversaries; they followed her for some days, but without overtaking her. Menilek, believing that they had nothing more to fear on that side, settled as he best could the claims of Workite, and, accompanied by a large force of his new allies, marched against Magdala. Menilek had evidently placed much confidence in the well-known disaffection of the garrison, and he expected that, through the influence of the Bishop (of whose death he was not aware), of his uncle Aito Dargie, and of Mr. Kassam, he would find on his arrival a party in his favour, who would materially assist him, if not make over the Amba to him at once. No doubt, had the Bishop been still alive he would either have succeeded by promises, threats, or force in opening the gates to his beloved friend. Aito Dargie, I believe, contrived to secure a promise of assistance from a few chiefs; but they were not powerful enough, and at the last moment lacked courage. As for Mr. Rassam, he adopted the most prudent course of suiting his policy to the movements of Menilek; too much caution could not be used, as there was much reason to fear that the great deeds about to be achieved would end in empty boasting. To Menilek he gave great encouragement, offered him the friendship of England, and even went so far as assuring him that he would be acknowledged by our Government as king, should we be indebted to him for our deliverance; he requested him to encamp at Selassié, fire his two guns against the gate, and should the garrison not give in, to encamp between Arogié and the Bechelo, and keep Theodore from reaching the Amba until the arrival of our troops. We had been greatly disappointed by Wakshum Gobazé: for six weeks he was always coming, but never came. Next we had Mastiate as our great excitement: she, we thought, would strive to gain possession of her amba; but she also never made her appearance; and now for nearly a month we were in daily expectation of the arrival of Menilek. We had already given him up when, to our great surprise, on the morning of the 30th of November, we perceived a large camp pitched on the northern slope of Tanta; and on the top of a small eminence commanding the plateau, and opposite to Magdala, stood the red, white, and black tents of the King of Shoa, the ambitious young prince who styled himself already "King of kings." Our astonishment was complete when, towards noon, we heard the report of a steady musketry-fire mingled with the occasional discharge of small cannon. We at once gave credit to Menilek for greater pluck than we ever believed him capable of; expecting that under cover of his fire the elite of his troops would assault the place; and aware of the little resistance he would meet with, we already rejoiced at the prospect of liberty, or at least of an advantageous change of masters. We had not finished our mutual congratulations when the firing ceased: as everything was calm and quiet on the Amba, we could not make out what was going on, until some of our guards came into our huts and asked us if we had heard Menilek's "faker." Alas, it was indeed nothing but a mere boast: he had fired from the verge of the Galla plateau, far out of range, to terrify into submission the wavering garrison; then, satisfied with his day's work, he and his men had retired to their tents, awaiting the result of their warlike demonstration. The fact of Menilek being encamped on the Galla plain was full of peril for ourselves without being of any avail to him. The next morning he sent a message to us through Aito Dargie, asking what he should do. We again strongly urged upon him the necessity of his attacking the Amba by the Islamgee side; and in case he deemed it impossible to assault the place, to stop all communication between the fortress and the Imperial camp. Our great fear was that Theodore, on hearing that Menilek was besieging his amba, would send orders for the immediate execution of all prisoners of note, ourselves included. No doubt great disaffection existed on the Amba, and if Menilek had gone the proper way to work, before many days the place would have been his. But he never did anything; he remained encamped on the spot he had first chosen, and made no other attempt to rescue us. Waizero Terunish, Theodore's queen, acted well on that occasion: she gave an adderash (public breakfast), presided over by her son Alamayou, to all the chiefs of the mountain. It being a fast-day, the feast was limited to tef bread, and a peppery sauce; and as the supply of tej in the royal cellars was scanty, the enthusiasm was not very considerable. Still it had the desired effect--chiefs and soldiers had publicly to proclaim their loyalty to Theodore; as with the party, still strong, that would give ear to no treachery, she was prepared to seize the malcontents individually, before they had time to declare themselves in open rebellion as the adherents of Menilek. Every one who thought that he was in any way suspected, and many who had no doubt made promises to Menilek and accepted his bribes, felt very nervous. Samuel was sent for; he did not like the prospect at all, and we were very much afraid for him ourselves, and glad when we saw him come back. On its being perceived that some of the chiefs had not made their appearance, inquiries were made as to the cause of their absence; they, seeing that there was very little hope of securing a strong party in favour of Menilek, gave explanations that were accepted, conditionally that on the following day they would repair to the King's inclosure, and there, in presence of the assembled garrison, proclaim their loyalty. They went as they had been ordered, and were the loudest in their praise of Theodore, in their expressions of devotion to his cause, and in their abuse of the "fat boy" who had ventured near a fortress entrusted to their care. The Queen had done her duty well and honourably. The Ras and chiefs consulted together, and considered it advisable, in order to show their affection and devotion for their master, to do something themselves also. But what should be done? They had already placed extra guards at night on the gates, and protected every weak point on the Amba; nothing remained but to bully the prisoners. The second evening after the arrival of Menilek before the mountain, Samuel received orders from the chiefs to make us all sleep at night in one hut; the only exception being made in favour of the king's friend, Mr. Rassam. But poor Samuel, though sick, went to the Ras and insisted on having the order cancelled: I believe his influence was backed on that occasion by a douceur he quietly slipped into the Ras's hand. The chiefs in their wisdom had also decreed, and the next morning enforced the order that all the servants, Mr. Rassam's excepted; should be sent down from the mountain. The messengers and other public servants employed by Mr. Rassam were also obliged to leave. To Prideaux and myself they allowed, apart from our Portuguese, a water-girl and a small boy each. I had no house down at Islamgee; Samuel could not think of allowing me to pitch a tent, so the poor fellows would have been very badly off if Captain Cameron had not very kindly allowed them to share his servants' quarters. We were put to great inconvenience by this absurd and vexatious order, and I had some trouble, when everything was again quiet, in getting the servants up again; it required all the influence of Samuel and a douceur to the Ras, out of my pocket, to gain my object. As may well be expected, the Abyssinian prisoners were not spared; all their servants were counted, and sent down the mountain, one only being allowed to three or four during the daytime to carry wood, water, and prepare their food. They were not suffered to leave the night-houses, but had to remain day and night in those filthy places. Every one on the mountain was exceedingly anxious that Menilek should decide on something, and put an end to that painful state of anxiety. Early on the morning of the 3rd of December we were apprised by our servants that Menilek had struck his camp and was on the move. Where he was going to no one knew; but, as we were to some extent in his confidence, we flattered ourselves that he had accepted our advice, and would before long be seen on Selassié, or on the plateau of Islamgee. We spent a very anxious morning; the chiefs seemed perplexed, evidently expecting an assault from that direction, and we were confidentially informed that we should be called upon to man the guns should the Amba be attacked. However, our suspense was shortly at an end. The smoke rising in the distance, and in the direction of the road to Shoa, showed us but too clearly that the would-be conqueror had, without striking a blow, returned to his own country, and, with great gallantry, was burning a few miserable villages, whose chiefs were adherents of Mastiate. The excuse Menilek gave for his hasty retreat was, that his supplies had run short, and that, having no camp-followers with him he could not have flour prepared; that his troops being hungry and dissatisfied, he had decided on returning at once to Shoa, collect his camp-followers, and advance again better provisioned, and remain in the neighbourhood of Magdala until it fell. The truth was, that to his great disappointment he had heard from his camp the muskets fired during the "fakering;" he knew that, as far as treachery was concerned, his chance was gone for a while, and that he must await the effects of want and privation induced by a long siege. Supplies he might have obtained in abundance, as he was the ally of Workite and in a friendly country. Should he even have required more, the undefended districts of Worahaimanoo, Dalanta, etc., would have been quite willing to send abundant provisions into his camp on the assurance that they would not be molested. But if this "fakering" somewhat deranged his plans, something he saw on the evening of the second day, a mere speck of smoke, made him fairly run away. That smoke was kindled by the terrible Theodore. He was, it is true, still far away; but who could say? His father-in-law, Menilek knew well, was a man of long marches and sudden attacks. How his large army would be scattered like chaff before the wind at the cry, "Theodore is coming," he was well aware, and he came to the conclusion that the sooner he was off the better. Our disappointment was something beyond description. Our rage, our indignation and scorn for such cowardice, I cannot express. The "fat boy," as we also now called him, we hated and despised. Had we been imprudent enough openly to take his part, what would have become of us? Menilek, doubtless, meant well, and probably would have succeeded had the Bishop lived a few weeks longer. As it is, he did us a great deal of harm. Had he and Workite never left Shoa, Mastiate would have laid siege to the mountain. Sooner or later it must have surrendered, and neither Theodore nor his messengers would ever have ventured south of the Bechelo if Mastiate had been there with her 20,000 horsemen. With Menilek's departure, I, for one, made up my mind never again to credit any of the promises of the native chiefs, which always ended in mere moon-shine. Since then, I heard with the utmost indifference that so-and-so was marching in such a direction, that he or she would attack Theodore, or invest the Amba and stop all communication between the rascals on the top and "our friend" Theodore. We had been a long time without messengers, and the last had not brought us the intelligence so anxiously looked for. Our impatience was greater since we knew that we could expect nothing from the natives, and believed the expedition from England to be on its way: we felt that something was going on and we longed for the certainty. How well I remember the 13th of December, a glorious day for us! No lover ever read, with more joy and happiness the long-expected note from the beloved one, than I did that day the kind and cheering letter of our gallant friend, General Merewether. Troops had landed! Since the 6th of October, our countrymen were in the same land that saw us captives. Roads, piers, were being made; regiment after regiment were leaving the shores of India, some already marching across the Abyssinian Alps to rescue or avenge. It seemed too delightful to be true: we could hardly credit it. Ere long all must be over! Liberty or death! Anything was better than continued slavery. Theodore was coming--_qu'importe_? Was not Merewether there? the brave leader of many a hard fight; the gallant officer and accomplished politician. With such men as a Napier, a Staveley at the head of British troops, who could feel but contempt for petty vexations? We were prepared even for a worse fate, if it was to be our lot. At least, England's prestige would be restored, her children's blood not left unrevenged. It was one of those exciting moments in a man's life that few can realize who have not passed through months of mental agony, and then been suddenly overcome with joy. We laughed more than ever at the idea of giving even a thought to such poltroons as Gobaz and Menilek. The hope of meeting our brave countrymen cheered us. In the mind's eye we beheld them, and in our hearts we thanked them for the toils and privations they would have to undergo before they could set _the captives free_. For the second time, Christmas and New Year's Day found us in fetters at Magdala; but we were happy: they would be the last, at all events, and, full of trust in our deliverance, we now looked forward to spending the next _at home_. CHAPTER XVI. Theodore's Proceedings during our Stay at Magdala--His Treatment of Begemder--A Rebellion breaks out--Forced March on Gondar--The Churches are Plundered and Burnt--Theodore's Cruelties--The Insurgents increase in Strength--The Designs of the Emperor on Kourata Frustrated--Mr. Bardel Betrays the New Workmen--Theodore's Ingratitude towards the "Gaffat People"--His Raid on Foggara Unsuccessful. Theodore remained at Aibankab for only a few days after our departure, and returned to Debra Tabor. He had told us once, "You will see what great things I will achieve during the rainy season," and we expected that he would march into Lasta or Tigré before the roads were closed by the rains, to subdue the rebellion that for years he had allowed to pass unnoticed. It is very probable that if he had adopted that course he would have regained his prestige, and easily reduced to obedience those provinces. No one was so much Theodore's enemy as himself; he seems to have been possessed with an evil spirit urging him to his own destruction. Many a time he would have regained the ground he had lost, and put down to a certain extent rebellion; but all his actions, from the day we left him until he arrived at Islamgee, were only calculated to accelerate his fall. Begemder is a large, powerful, fertile province, the "land of sheep" (as its name indicates), a fine plateau, some 7,000 or 8,000 feet above the sea, well watered, well cultivated, and thickly populated. The inhabitants are warlike, brave for Abyssinians, and often have repulsed the rebels venturing to invade their province, so firm in its allegiance to Theodore. Not many months before Tesemma Engeddah, a young man, hereditary chief Of Gahinte, a district of Begemder near its eastern frostier, with the aid of the peasants, attacked a force sent into Begemder by Gobazé, utterly routed it and put every man to death; except a few chiefs who were kept for the Emperor to deal with as he thought fit. Begemder paid an annual tribute of 300,000 dols., and supplied at all times the Queen's camp with grain, cows, &c., and during the stay of the Emperor in the province liberally provided his camp. Moreover, it furnished 10,000 men to the army, all good spearmen, but bad shots. Theodore, therefore, preferred for his musketeers the men of Dembea, who showed more skill in the use of fire-arms. Begemder, the proverb says, "is the maker and destroyer of kings;" certainly it was so in the case of Theodore. After the flight of Ras Ali, Begemder at once acknowledged him, and caused him to be looked upon as the future ruler of the land. Theodore was well aware of the difficult game he had to play, but believed his precautions were such that he would inevitably succeed. At first he was all smiles; chiefs were rewarded, peasants flattered; his stay would be short; every day he expected he would leave. The annual tribute was paid; Theodore gave handsome presents to the chiefs, honoured many with silk shirts, and swore that as soon as the cannons his Europeans were casting should be completed, he would start for Godjam, and with his new mortars destroy the nest of the arch-rebel Tadla Gwalu. He invited, all the chiefs to reside in his camp during his stay, to rejoice his heart. They were his friends, when so many rose against him. Would they advance him a year's tribute? could they not provide more liberally for the wants of his army? He was going away for a long time, and would not for years trouble them for tribute or supplies. The chiefs did their best; every available dollar, all the corn and cattle the peasants could spare, found its way into Theodore's treasury and camp. But the peasants at last got tired, and would not listen any longer to the entreaties of their chiefs. Good words Theodore perceived would be of no avail any more, so he adopted an imperious, menacing tone. One after the other, on some _good_ ground, he imprisoned the chiefs; but it was only to test their fidelity: they would, he knew get for him what he wanted, and then he would not only release them, but treat them with the greatest honour. The poor men did their best, and the peasants, in order to obtain the deliverance of their chiefs, brought all they had as a ransom. At last, both chiefs and peasants found that all their efforts failed to satisfy their insatiable master. This state of things lasted for more than eight months, and during that period, first by plausible and honeyed words, afterwards by intimidation, he kept himself and army without difficulty and without trouble. He made no expeditions during that time, except one against Gondar. He hated Gondar--a city of merchants and priests, always ready to receive with open arms any rebel: any robber chief might sit undisturbed in the halls of the old Abyssinian kings and receive the homage and tribute of its peaceful inhabitants. Several times before Theodore had vented his rage on the unfortunate city; he had already more than once sent his soldiers to plunder it, and the rich Mussulman merchants had only saved their houses from destruction by the payment of a large sum. It was no more the famous city of Fasiladas, nor the rich commercial town that former travellers had described; confidence could no longer dwell under the repeated extortions of king and rebel, nor could the metropolis of Abyssinia afford to answer the repeated calls made upon its wealth. But still the forty-four churches stood intact, surrounded by the noble trees that gave to the capital such a picturesque appearance; no one had dared extend a sacrilegious hand to those sanctuaries, and until then Theodore himself had shrunk from such a deed. But now he had made up his mind: the gold of Kooskuam, the silver of Bata, the treasures of Selassié should refill his empty coffers; her churches should perish with the doomed city: nothing would he leave standing as a record of the past, not a dwelling to shelter the people he despised. On the afternoon of the 1st of December, Theodore started on his merciless errand, taking with him only the elite of his army, the best mounted and the best walkers amongst his men. He never halted until he came, the next morning, to the foot of the hill on which Gondar is built--a march of more than eighty miles in less than sixteen hours. But though he suddenly pounced upon his enemy, it was too late; the news of his approach had spread faster. The joyous _elelta_ resounded from house to house; the anxious and terrified inhabitants desired to appear happy in presence of the dire calamity such a visit presaged. The rebel's deputy had left the palace in time, and accompanied by a few hundred horsemen, awaited, at some distance from the town, the result of Theodore's coming. He had not long to wait. The invaders searched every house, plundered every building, from the churches to the poorest hut, and drove away before them like cattle the 10,000 remaining inhabitants of that large city. Then, the work of destruction began: fire spread from house to house, the churches and palace, the only remarkable buildings the country possessed, became a heap of blackened ruins. But the priests looked sullen; some entreated, others murmured, a few were bold enough to curse; at an order given by Theodore, hundreds of aged priests were hurled into the flames. But his insatiate fury demanded fresh victims. Where were the young girls who had welcomed his entrance. Was it not their joyous shouts that had scared away the rebel? "Let them be brought!" cried the fiend, and these young girls were thrown alive into the fire! The expedition had been successful; Gondar was utterly destroyed. Four inferior churches only had escaped destruction. Gold, silks, dollars were now abundant in the royal camp. Theodore was received on his return to Debra Tabor with all the triumphal honours bestowed on a victor; the Gaffat people went to meet him with lighted torches; and compared him to the pious Hozekiah. If Theodore's star had been dim before this wanton barbarity, it disappeared altogether from that day: all went against him--success never attended him more. The burning of Gondar increased immensely the power of the rebels. They advanced steadily and cautiously, seizing district after district, until whole provinces acknowledged their sway, and all joined in anathematizing the sacrilegious monarch who had not hesitated to destroy churches that even the Mussulman Gallas had respected. As long as the soldiers had money the peasants willingly sold them their goods; but this could not last long: soon scarcity prevailed in the camp. Theodore applied to the chiefs; they must use their influence and force the "bad peasant" to bring in more supplies. The peasants would listen no longer; they told the chiefs, "Let the king set you free and then we will do anything you tell us, but now we know that you are only acting under compulsion." Theodore ordered the chiefs to be tortured: "If they cannot bring grain they must give money." Some who had a few savings sent them--for torture was worse than poverty; but this did not improve their condition. Theodore believed that they had more, and as they had nothing to give, many died under the daily repetition of the tortures Theodore now inflicted on his prisoners; amongst whom were his bravest soldiers, his staunchest supporters, nay, his bosom friends. Desertions were now more frequent than ever; chiefs left in the open day with their followers; the gunman threw away his weapon, and joined his oppressed brother the peasant; great numbers of the Begemder soldiery daily abandoned his cause and returned to their villages. Theodore, in this plight, resorted to a former practice of his. He must plunder, and feed his army by plunder. But the Begemder men would not plunder their own countrymen, and he did not place much confidence in the bravery of his Dembea men: therefore he pitted the man of Gahinte against the peasant of Ifag, the sons of Mahdera Mariam against those of Esté--all districts of the same province, but far distant from one another, and with long feuds existing between some of them. At first he succeeded, and returned from his expeditions with ample supplies; but his fearful cruelties at last aroused the peasants. Joined by the deserters they fought in their own way, cut off stragglers, sent their families to distant provinces, and for miles around Debra Tabor ceased cultivating the soil. In March, 1867, Theodore started for Kourata, the third town in importance in Abyssinia, and the greatest commercial centre after Gondar and Adowa. But this time he failed completely; ever since his expedition to Gondar, the peasants of all the surrounding districts were always on the alert: beacon-fires were ready, the people telegraphed to each other in their rude way, and the victims evaded the tyrant. At Kourata he found no one, and hardly any plunder; the rich merchants, priests, every one had embarked with all their goods in the small native boats, and, out of range of Theodore's rifles, quietly awaited his departure to return to their homes. Theodore was greatly disappointed; he expected to reap a rich harvest and found nothing. He must revenge himself; but here, again, he was frustrated. The soldiers deserted _en masse_; few, very few would remain with him, he was told, if he destroyed Kourata. The sacred town, houses, streets, trees, had all been dedicated to God's service; such a sacrilege was beyond the rascality of even the Abyssinian soldier. Theodore had to return to Debra Tabor. Sometimes once or twice a week he would go forth and plunder; but with little success: each time his difficulties increased; the peasants had lost their first great dread of him; they fought well at places, and defied the gaily-dressed chiefs: none as yet stood before him, but the day was not far off when his prestige had fallen so low that a man was found who challenged his anointed king. The position of the Europeans near Theodore was, indeed, most painful. Always to please a ferocious, mad, enraged tiger, would have been trifling compared to what they had to undergo during the last year they served him. Theodore was quite changed; no one who had known him in former days would have now recognized the elegant and chivalrous young prince, or the proud, but just Emperor, in the homicidal monomaniac of Debra Tabor. A few days before we left for Magdala (after the political trial), Messrs. Staiger, Brandeis, and the two hunters, foreseeing that captivity, and probably chains, would be our lot before long, availed themselves of a former permission they had obtained to remain near Mrs. Flad during her husband's absence, in order to keep clear of the coming storm. McKelvie (a former captive, and servant of Capt. Cameron,) pretended sickness, also remained behind, and shortly afterwards took service with his Majesty. Mackerer (also a former captive, and servant of Capt. Cameron,) had previously been in Theodore's service, and preferred to return to him rather than go through a second captivity at Magdala. Little were they aware at the time how much they would have to go through themselves. Mrs. Rosenthal, on account of her health, could not accompany us then; afterwards she several times applied for leave to join her husband, but until a couple of months before our release, was always refused on some specious reason or the other. Mrs. Flad and children belonged to the same party, having been left by her husband on his departure, under the protection of the "Gaffat people." Altogether the number of Europeans with his Majesty during the time of our captivity at Magdala, including Mr. Bardel, was fifteen, exclusive of the two ladies and several half-castes. Theodore had no sooner returned to Debra Tabor, after sending us to Magdala, than he set to work, with the assistance of the Europeans, casting cannons of various shapes and sizes, and mortars of immense weight and calibre. Gaffat, where the foundry had been erected, was only a few miles from Debra Tabor, and every day Theodore was in the habit of riding down with a small escort and superintending the works. On these occasions, the four who had remained behind (Mr. Staiger and his party) usually came to present their respects, but did not work. Mackerer and McKelvie had been apprenticed to some of the Gaffat people, and did their utmost to please the Emperor, and he, to encourage them, presented them with a silk shirt and 100 dollars each. One morning when the four had come as usual to look on, Theodore, in an angry voice, asked them why they did not work with the others. They perceived by his tone and manner that it was imprudent to refuse; and accordingly bowed in acquiescence and set to work. Theodore, to mark his pleasure, ordered them to be invested with robes of honour, and sent them also 100 dollars each. For some time they worked at the foundry, but were afterwards sent with Mr. Bardel to make roads for the artillery; Theodore, with his usual caution, having two constructed at the same time, one in the direction of Magdala, the other leading towards Godjam, so as to leave every one, his people and the rebels, in doubt as to his movements. At this time Mr. Brandeis and Mr. Bardel happened to meet at some hot springs not far from Debra Tabor, whither they had gone with his Majesty's permission for the benefit of their health. Though Bardel was not a favourite; being justly distrusted by all, it seems that a kind of intimacy sprung up between the two, and in an hour of confidence Mr. Brandeis revealed to Bardel a plot they had made to run away, proposing to him to join their party. Bardel accepted. A short time afterwards they returned to Debra Tabor, or rather to a short distance from it, where they were making the roads. They at once set to work to complete their arrangements, and at last, everything being ready for the route, they fixed upon the night of the 25th of February for their departure. Towards ten in the evening Bardel looked into the tent where all were assembled, and seeing at a glance that everything was ready, pretended to have forgotten something in his tent, and begged them to wait a few minutes for him. They agreed, and mounting his horse, Bardel started at full gallop to fetch Theodore. That man, so unprincipled that even Abyssinians looked upon him with contempt, had basely betrayed, out of mere love of mischief, those poor men who had trusted in him. Theodore was quite taken aback when Bardel told him that the four he had taken into his service, and Mackerer, were on the point of deserting. "But were you not also one of the party?" Theodore inquired. Bardel said that it was true; but if he had entered into the plot, it was only to be able to prove his attachment to his master by revealing it to him, when he could with his own eyes assure him of the correctness of the assertion. Theodore accompanied him to the tent where the others were anxiously expecting their companion's return. Fancy their dismay and astonishment when they saw the Emperor quietly walking in followed by their betrayer! Theodore was calm, asked them why they were so ungrateful, and why they wanted to run away? They replied that they longed to see their country. They were given in charge to the soldiers who had accompanied Theodore, chained hand and foot, each of them to one of their servants; all their followers were stripped naked, tied with ropes, and several of them killed. Their condition ever since was most dreadful: they were confined at first with hundreds of starving and naked Abyssinians, witnessed the execution of thousands, many of whom had been their bed companions, and expected at any instant to be called upon to pay with their lives the penalty of their rash attempt. However, Theodore after a while made a difference between them and his people, he set apart a small tent for them, did not deprive them of all their clothes, and allowed them some servants to prepare their food. The rebellion had by this time, April, 1867, become so universal, that apart from a few provinces in the neighbourhood of Magdala, that fortress and another one, Zer Amba, near Tschelga, he could only call his own the few acres on which his tents were pitched. His European workmen had cast some guns for him, and afraid that at Gaffat these might be seized by some rebel, he determined upon removing them to his camp. He took advantage of the receipt of a letter from Mr. Flad, to appear displeased at the news he had received, and thereby cover his ingratitude towards those faithful servants by a plausible excuse. On the 17th of April Theodore went to Gaffat, stopped at the foot of the hillock on which it is built, sent for the Europeans, and told them that he had received a letter from Mr. Flad, containing serious matters, and that, as he could not trust them far from him, they must go to Debra Tabor until Mr. Flad's return, when all would be explained; he added that he had also heard that preparations for the reception of troops were being made at Kedaref, and that "if he was to be killed, they would die first." One of the Europeans, Moritz Hall, remonstrated against the unfair treatment he was subjected to, after long and faithful services: "Kill us at once," he exclaimed, "but do not degrade us in this way; if in the letter you have received, there is anything you can charge against us, then have it read out before your people. Death is better than unjust suspicion." Theodore, in angry tone, ordered him to be silent, and sent them all under escort to Debra Tabor; their wives and families followed; all their property was seized, but afterwards partly returned, and on the tools and instruments being given back to them, they were told to work. The Europeans and guns safe in his camp, Theodore left Debra Tabor on a plundering expedition; but in Begemder he met with such constant resistance from the peasantry, that his soldiers at last objected. To please them, he led them towards Foggara, a fertile plain to the north-west of Begemder; but he found hardly anything there. All the grain had been buried, and the cattle removed to distant parts of the country. One of our messengers sent to him by Mr. Rassam found him there, and on his return, gave us the most dreadful description of the Emperor's temper: floggings, beatings, and executions were going on all day, and he was so badly off for money, that he had imprisoned several of his own personal attendants, fixing their release at 100 dollars each. During his absence, the Gaffat people had consulted amongst themselves as to the best means of regaining the Emperor's favour, and decided on proposing to cast an immense mortar for him. Theodore was delighted. A foundry was erected, and the "Great Sebastopol," which was destined to be the crushing blow for him, and the means of our salvation, was begun. CHAPTER XVII. Arrival of Mr. Flad from England--Delivers a Letter and Message from the Queen--The Episode of the Telescope--Our Property taken care of--Theodore will not yield except to force--He Recruits his Army--Ras Adilou and Zallallou desert him--He is repulsed at Belessa by Lij Abitou and the Peasants--The Expedition against Metraha--His Cruelties there--The "Great Sebastopol" is Cast--Famine and Pestilence compel the Emperor to raise his Camp--The Difficulties of his March to Magdala--His Arrival in Dalanta. Soon after the Gaffat people had been sent to Debra Tabor, Mr. Flad arrived from England, and met Theodore in Dembea on the 26th of April. Their first meeting was not very friendly. Mr. Flad handed to his Majesty the Queen's letter, with others from General Merewether, Dr. Beke, and from the relations of the former captives. On presenting General Merewether's letter to Theodore, Flad informed him that he had brought as a present to him from that gentleman, an excellent telescope. Theodore asked to see it. The telescope was rather difficult to arrange so as to suit Theodore's sight, and as it took some time before Flad could put it in order, Theodore got impatient and said, "Take it to the tent, we will try it to-morrow; but I know it is not a good telescope: I know it is not sent to me for good." Theodore then ordered every one to retire, and having told Flad to sit down, asked him, "Have you seen the Queen?" Flad replied in the affirmative, adding that he had been very graciously received, and that he had a verbal message to deliver to him from her Majesty. "What is it?" Theodore immediately asked. Had replied, "The Queen of England has told me to inform your Majesty, that if you do not at once send out of your country all those you have detained so long against their will, you have no right to expect any further friendship from her." Theodore listened attentively, and even had the message repeated to him several times. After a pause, he said to Flad, "I have asked from them a sign of friendship, but it is refused to me. If they wish to come and fight, let them come, and call me a woman if I do not beat them." The following day Mr. Flad presented him with the several gifts he had brought with him from Government, Dr. Beke, and others; the supplies he had brought for as he put aside, but everything was sent to the royal tent, and 1,000 dollars he had also conveyed for us, Theodore took, saying the roads were dangerous, and that he would send an order for it to Mr. Rassam at Magdala. On the 29th Theodore sent again for the telescope: one of his officers had examined it, and found it excellent, but Theodore pretended not to be able to see anything with it. "It is not sent for good," he said; "it is the same story as some years ago when Basha Falaka (Captain Speedy) sent me a carpet by Kerans; but by the power of God I chained the bearer of that carpet. The man who sends me the telescope only wants to annoy me; he wishes to tell me, 'Though you are a king and I send you an excellent telescope, you will not be able to see through it.'" Flad did his best to disabuse his Majesty of this impression, and convince him of the fact that the telescope was sent to him as a token of friendship; but as Theodore only got more violent, Flad thought it prudent to be silent. On Monday, the 30th, Theodore sent for Flad again and told him that he was going to send him to rejoin his family at Debra Tabor. Flad took advantage of this occasion to give a full account of the dealings of the rebels with France, and their desire to be acknowledged by us; he assured Theodore that if he did not comply with our Queen's request he would certainly involve himself in a disastrous war, etc. Theodore listened with great coolness and indifference, and when Flad ceased talking, quietly said: "Do not be afraid: the victory comes from God. I trust in the Lord and he will help me; I do not trust in my power. I trust in God who says, If you have faith like a mustard seed, you can remove mountains." He said that even if he had not chained Mr. Rassam it would have been all the same; they would not have sent him the workmen. He knew already, at the time of Bell and Plowden, that the English were not his friends, and he only treated these two well out of personal regard for them. He concluded by saying, "I leave it to the Lord: he will decide it when we fight on the battle-field." Theodore had vented his rage about the telescope to hide his disappointment; he had said to one of his workmen at the time he wrote to Flad to come up with the artisans, "You do not know me yet; but call me a fool, if by my cunning I do not get them." Instead of artisans, white men to be held as hostages, he received a firm message, holding out no hope of friendship unless he set at liberty all those he had so long unlawfully detained. His answers, so full of meekness, he knew would please his followers; they were superstitious and ignorant, and placed a certain credence in his hopeful words. Desertions had considerably reduced his army. He well knew the influence of numbers in a country like Abyssinia, and to increase his scanty host, after plundering for the fourth or fifth time Dembea and Taccosa, he issued a proclamation to the peasants in the following terms:--"You have no more homes, grain, or cattle. I have not done it: God did it. Come with me, and I will take you where you will find plenty to eat, cattle in abundance, and punish those who are the cause of God's anger upon you." He did the name for the districts of Begemder he had lately destroyed; and many of these poor starving, homeless creatures, not knowing where to go or how to live, were only too glad to accept his offer. Theodore's position was not an enviable one. In May, Ras Adilou, together with all the Yedjow men, the only cavalry left to him, departed from the camp in open daylight, taking with them their wives, children, and followers. Theodore was afraid of pursuing the deserters, lest the greater part of his remaining force should seize the opportunity thus offered to them and join the discontented, instead of fighting to capture them. Not long before, a young chief of Gahinte, named Zallallou, at the head of two hundred horse, had fled to his native province, and through his influence all the peasants of that warlike district had aimed and prepared themselves to defend their country against Theodore and his famished host. Zallallou, the very day he left the Imperial camp, fell upon some of our servants _en route_ to Debra Tabor, where they were going to purchase supplies; all were plundered of everything they had, stripped, and several detained as prisoners for a few days. Dahonte and Dalanta not long afterwards, declared themselves for the Gallas, turned out of their provinces the governors Theodore had appointed over them, and seized upon the cattle, mules, and horses belonging to the Magdala garrison, which had been sent there, as was the custom before the rainy season, on account of the scarcity of water on the Amba itself. If Theodore, only a few months before, had but a very insecure portion of his former vast empire that he could call his own, at that date, June, 1867, he was a king without a kingdom, and a general without an army. Magdala and Zer Amba were still garrisoned by his troops; but apart from these forts, he had nothing left: even his camp was only full of mutinous men, and desertions went on at such a rate that he could then only muster from 6,000 to 7,000 men, the majority of whom were peasants, who had followed him to avoid starvation. For miles around Debra Tabor the country was a perfect desert, and Theodore saw with dread the rainy season coming on, for he had no supplies in camp, and a large number of followers, the people of Gondar, and an endless host of useless individuals to support. [Illustration: SUMMIT OF ZER AMBA FORTRESS NEAR TECHELGA.] In Begemder plundering was out of the: question; the peasants were always on the watch, and on the slightest sign of a move were everywhere on the alert, killing the stragglers and plunderers, and keeping out of the way of the gunmen who stood around the Emperor. Theodore remembered a rich district not as yet plundered, Belessa, at the north-east of Begemder. In order to surprise the inhabitants completely, he proclaimed some days before that he was going on an expedition in quite a different direction, and to make his army appear as formidable as possible, he had given orders that every one who possessed a horse or a mule, or a servant, must send them, under penalty of death, to accompany the expedition. The Belessa people, far from being surprised, had been informed of his intention by their spies, and Theodore, to his disappointment, saw from a distance their villages on fire; the peasants themselves having preferred destroying their homes to leaving them a prey to the invader. Under the conduct of a gallant chief, Lij Abitou, a young man of good family, and a runaway officer, from the Imperial household, the peasants, well armed, took up a position on a small plateau, separated by a narrow ravine from the route Theodore would take. To his surprise, instead of running away at the mere sight of his charger, they not only stood their ground, but several well-mounted chiefs rode out in front and bid defiance to Theodore himself. Astrologers must have told him that the day was not favourable, as after several of his chiefs who had answered the cartel had been laid dead on the field, he still refused to lead his men in person, and before this unexpected resistance gave way and ordered a retreat. Belessa was saved: the hungry, famished robbers that Theodore called soldiers passed a dreadful night; tired, hungry, and cold, they could not sleep, for the peasants might surprise and attack them, in their turn. The cruelties Theodore perpetrated after his return to Debra Tabor were fearful; too horrible to be related. At last, tired of taking his revenge on the innocent, he turned his thoughts to the place he might most easily plunder, and fixed upon the island of Metraha. That island, situate in the Tana Sea, about twenty miles north of Kourata, is only a few hundred yards from the mainland. It was considered in the light of an asylum, and protected by its sacred character, priests and monks resided there in peace; while merchants and rich landowners sent their goods and stores there for safe custody. Theodore had no scruples about violating the sanctity of the island: the asylum afforded by the churches to all before his time he had long ago violated, and, certain of a large booty, did not hesitate to add another sacrilege to his numerous crimes. On his arrival before Metraha, he at once ordered his people to make rafts. Whilst Theodore was occupied in their construction, a priest came in a boat, and approaching within speaking distance, inquired of the Emperor what it was that he desired. Theodore told him the grain that they had in store. The priest replied that they would send it to him; but Theodore, not satisfied with the grain alone, told the priest not to be afraid, but to send their boats. He took a solemn oath that he would not injure them, nor remove anything but the grain he required. The priest, on his return to the island, informed the people of his conversation with the Emperor, and the majority being in favour of complying with his requests, it was agreed that all the available boats should be taken to the mainland. A few who had no trust in Theodore's word entered their canoes, and paddled away in an opposite direction. Theodore ordered the Europeans to fire upon them with the small cannons they had brought. They complied; but, to Theodore's great disappointment, failed to hit any of the fugitives. No sooner had Theodore and a select party been admitted on the island than he caused all the remaining inhabitants to be shut up in a few of the larger houses; and after all the grain, silver, gold, and merchandise had been removed, he set the place on fire, and burnt to death priests, merchants, women and children! For a while, abundance reigned in Theodore's camp. The work of casting the big cannon had been going on for some time: the day of its completion at last arrived, and Emperor and workmen anxiously awaited the result of their labours. The Europeans, to their great dismay, saw that they had failed; but Theodore, not in the least put out, told them not to be afraid, but to try again: perhaps they would succeed another time. Theodore examined carefully everything, connected with the smelting, in order to find out the cause of the failure, and he soon perceived that it was due to the presence of some water around the mould. He at once set to work, and had a large, deep, broad trench constructed from beneath the mould to some distance outside. This drain dried up the place, and on a second attempt being made the success was complete. Theodore was delighted; he made handsome presents to the workmen, and prepared everything requisite to carry away with him his immense piece of ordnance. During that rainy season (1867) Theodore's difficulties were very great: indeed, the punishment of his evil deeds was falling heavily upon him, and to his proud nature it must have been a daily and constant agony. The rebels were now so little afraid of Theodore that every night they made attacks on his camp, and were always on the watch to seize stragglers, or camp-followers. They had at last become such a terror to the soldiers that, to protect them, and at the same time check, to a certain extent, desertion, Theodore had a large stockade built around the foot of the hill on which his camp was pitched. A war of extermination on both sides now took place; Theodore showing no pity to the peasants whom he succeeded in capturing, and they, on their side, torturing and murdering any one who belonged to the Emperor's camp. A detailed account of the atrocities committed by Theodore during the last month of his stay in Begemder would be too horrible to narrate: suffice it to say that he burnt alive, or sentenced to some cruel death, in that short space of time, more than 3,000 persons! His rage at times was so blind that, unable to satisfy his revenge by punishing those who daily insulted and scorned him, he vented his anger on the few remaining faithful companions who shared his fate: chiefs who had fought by his side for years, friends whom he knew from his childhood, old respectable men who had protected him in former days, all had to suffer more or less for their faithfulness, and fell innocent victims to his mad fits of violence. Many succumbed to a lingering death, or chains and torture, for no reason whatever except that they loved him! Desertions were still frequent, but the difficulty of escape was greater than before; the peasants often put to death the fugitives; and always stripped and plundered them of everything they had. The gates of the fence were guarded night and day by faithful men, and it required often a good deal of ability and cunning to be able to pass through them. I was told an anecdote which exemplifies the expedients the soldiers resorted to in order to get out of the dreaded camp. One evening, about half an hour before sunset, a woman presented herself at the gate, carrying on her head one of the large flat baskets used for keeping bread; she said, with tears in her eyes; that her brother was lying down some short distance from the fence so dangerously wounded that he could not walk; she had brought him a little bread and water, etc. The guards allowed her to pass. A few minutes afterwards a soldier presented himself at the gate, and asked if they had seen a woman go through, giving the description of the one that had just gone out. The guards said that they had; the soldier appeared to be in a fearful passion, and said that she was his wife, who had made an assignation to run away with her lover; and he threatened to report them to the Emperor. The guards told him that she could not be far off, and that he had better go quickly and overtake her; off he went: as might be expected, neither appeared again. To the annoyances and difficulties caused by the presence of large bodies of armed peasants, day and night hanging about the outskirts of the camp, were soon added the evils of famine: a small Abyssinian loaf cost a dollar; a salt and a half, a dollar; butter could not by any means be obtained; and hundreds died daily of want and starvation. When the grain plundered at Metraha was consumed, no more could be found; plundering was now quite impossible, and as long as Theodore did not move his camp there was no hope of supplies of any kind being obtained. Almost all the mules, horses, and the few remaining sheep had died from want of food; they could not graze any more in close vicinity to the camp, that pasture being completely eaten up; and as to driving them to some green fields at a distance, that was impossible. The poor animals dropped one after the other, and infected the place by the stench that arose from their dead bodies. The cows had all been killed long before by order of Theodore. One day, when, after one of his first razzias, he had brought back with him to Debra Tabor more than 80,000 cows; at night the peasants came, and from a distance implored him to have pity upon them, and restore them their cattle, without which they were unable to cultivate the soil. Theodore was on the point of acceding to their request, when some of the rascals around him said, "Does not your Majesty know that there is a prophecy in the country, that a king will seize a large amount of cattle, and that the peasants will come and beg him to return them; the king will comply, but soon afterwards die." Theodore replied, "Well, the prophecy will not apply to me." He immediately gave orders for all the cows in camp, those he had lately brought, and all others, to be killed at once; the order was obeyed, and nearly, it is said, 100,000 were killed and left to rot in the plain at a short distance from the camp. The next day, Theodore, seated outside his hut, perceived a man driving a cow into the fields; he sent for him, and asked him if he had not heard the order. The man replied in the affirmative, but said that he had not killed his cow because his wife having died the day before on giving birth to a child, he had kept that one for the sake of her milk. Theodore told him, "Why did not you know that I would be a father to your child? Kill the man," he said to those around him, "and take care of his child for me." The waggons being at last ready, Theodore decided upon marching towards Magdala. Pestilence, engendered by famine and the noxious effluvia arising from the heap of unburied dead bodies, now increased the already dismal condition of the Emperor's army; and in a few weeks more he and his whole host must have perished from sickness and want. On the 10th of October, his Majesty set fire to his houses at Debra Tabor, and destroyed the whole place; leaving only, as a record of his stay, a church he had built as an expiation for his sacrilege at Gondar. His march was, indeed, the most wonderful feat he ever accomplished; none but he would have ventured on such an undertaking; and no other man could have succeeded in accomplishing the arduous journey that lay before him: it required all his energy, perseverance, and iron will to carry out his purpose under such immense difficulties. He had not more than 5,000 men with him, all more or less in bad condition, weakened by famine, discontented, and only awaiting a favourable opportunity to run away. The camp-followers, on the contrary; numbered between forty and fifty thousand helpless and useless beings whom he had to protect and feed. He had, moreover, several hundred prisoners to guard, an immense amount of baggage to carry, fourteen gun-carriages, with cannon or mortars--one of them the famous "Sebastopol," weighing between fifteen and sixteen thousand pounds--and ten waggons, the whole to be dragged by men across a country without roads. Theodore did not let himself be influenced by all these unfavourable circumstances; he seemed, for a time, to have regained much of his former self, and behaved with more consideration towards his followers. His daily marches were very short, not more than a mile and a half to two miles a day. A portion of his camp marched early every morning, carrying the heavy luggage, dragging the waggons, and protecting the followers from the attacks of the rebels, who were always hovering in the distance, watching a favourable opportunity to avenge themselves on the Emperor's people for all the miseries they had suffered at his hand; another portion remained behind to guard what could not be carried; off, and, on the return of the first batch, all started for the spot fixed upon for that day's halt, conveying what had been left behind in the morning. Even then the day's work wast not over; the corn was as yet not quite ripe, and stood in the fields by the side of the road; Theodore would set the example, pluck a few unripe ears of barley, rub them between his hands, and, satisfied with this frugal meal, repair to the nearest brook to quench thirst. From Debra Tabor to Checheo, such was the daily routine of the reduced host of Theodore,--harnessed to waggons, in place of the horses and mules now so scarce in the camp; constantly on the alert, as the country was all up in arms against them; with no supplies available, only the unripe barley plucked by the wayside; no peace by day nor rest at night: in a word, a march unequalled in the annals of history. The prisoners were very badly off: many--even the Europeans--were in hand and foot chains; to walk a few steps in such a condition is fatiguing in the extreme, but to have to go over a mile or two of broken ground with such fetters equals the cruellest torture. Mrs. Flad and Mrs. Rosenthal every day, as soon as they arrived at the stage, sent back their mules for the Europeans to ride; and some time afterwards, on Mr. Staiger making a gala dress for his Majesty, the hand-chains of all five were taken away. On the native prisoners requesting to be allowed to ride, his Majesty sent them word that, as he knew they had money, he would grant permission to those who would send him a _dollar_. Theodore must have been hard up, indeed, to be satisfied with such a trifle. Several complied with his demand, and, by giving small presents to those chiefs who had mules, they got an occasional lift. At Aibankab Theodore halted a few days to rest his men; near it two heaps of stones arise, giving to the place the name of Kimr Dengea. [Footnote: "Kimr Dengea," heap of stones.] The story the people of the country narrate with reference to these heaps of stones is that on one occasion a Queen, at the head of her army, went on an expedition against the Gallas; before starting she ordered every one of her soldiers as he passed along to put a stone on a certain spot, and on her return again ordered them to place a stone at a short distance from the former heap. The first is a large mass, the second very much smaller; the Queen knew by that how great her loss had been, and never since then ventured against the Gallas. At Kimr Dengea Theodore fell in with a caravan of salt-merchants on their route to Godjam. He asked them why they went to the rebels instead of coming to him. The chief of the caravan honestly replied that they had heard from merchants that his Majesty was in the habit of burning people alive, and consequently they were afraid to come near him. Theodore said, "It is true I am a bad man, but if you had trusted and come to me, I would have treated you well; but as you prefer the rebels, I will take care that in future you do not go to them." He then seized the salt and mules, sent all the merchants into an empty house, had it surrounded with dry wood, put guards at the door, and set fire to it. The peasants of Gahinte, to whom Theodore offered an amnesty, declined to accept it; on three occasions he issued a proclamation offering them a free pardon should they return to him. At last, however, they sent him some priests to see what terms he would make; he received the priests well, and told them that he would not enter Gahinte: he only required a few supplies; but to prove to him their sincerity they must send from each village a person of influence to reside in his camp until he left Begemder. Luckily for them, the peasants declined to comply with his demands; Theodore was too prudent to venture into their valleys, and contented himself by plundering at a short distance from his camp; burning alive, before he left, a few poor wretches who had been simple enough to rely on the faith of his proclamation. Theodore arrived at the foot of the steep ascent that leads from Begemder to Checheo on the 22nd of November. Up to that spot the road was not bad; but now an almost perpendicular height stood before him, and he was obliged to blast enormous rocks, cut a road through basalt, to enable him to bring his waggons, guns, and mortars on the Zébite plains above. About that time he must have received the first intelligence of the landing of British troops at Zulla; for one afternoon he said to the Europeans, "Do not be afraid if I send for you at night. You must be on the watch, as I hear some donkeys intend stealing my slaves." The Europeans could not make out his meaning, and retired as usual to their tents. In the middle of the night, all of them, with the exception of an old man called Zander, and McKelvie, who had for a long time been suffering from dysentery, were awoke by soldiers coming into their quarters and ordering them to go at once to the Emperor. They were all ushered into a small tent, and many frivolous charges made against them. They were not allowed to leave that night; even a large bundle of chains was brought in; but on some of the chiefs representing to his Majesty that without their labour it would be exceedingly difficult to make roads and guide the waggons, and that he could always put them in chains when he reached Magdala, Theodore relented. He allowed them to go to their own tents in the daytime, when not on duty; but at night for their own safety, and, as he said, on account of the badness of his people, he made them all sleep in one tent, a few yards from his own: with the exception of a few days, they remained prisoners at night and slaves during the day, until the beginning of April. From early dawn to late at night Theodore was himself hard at work; with his own hands he removed stones, levelled the ground, or helped to fill up small ravines. No one could leave so long as he was there himself; no one could think of eating, drinking, or of rest, whilst the Emperor showed the example and shared the hardships. When he could capture a few peasants or some of the rebels that crowned all the heights around him, and day and night insulted or laughed at him, he killed them in some cruel way or the other; but towards the soldiers, ever since leaving Debra Tabor, he behaved better, and left off beating or imprisoning them, as had been of late his wont. On one or two occasions only he called them all around him, and, standing on an elevated rock, addressed them in these terms: "I know that you all hate me; you all want to run away. Why do you not kill me? Here I am alone, and you are thousands." He would pause for a few seconds, and add, "Well, if you will not kill me, I will kill you all, one after the other." On the 15th of December, the road being completed, he brought up his waggons on the plain of Zébite, and encamped there for a few days. The peasants of that district, believing that Theodore would never be able to ascend to their plateau, with all the incumbrances he had with him--though they were themselves ready to fly at the shortest notice--had not removed their cattle and grain; thus Theodore, for the first time for many months, was able to provide food for his small army, and make even some provision for the future. From Zébite to Wadela the road is naturally good, so that, as far as that district, the task before him was easy. He reached that plateau on the 25th of the same month, and encamped at Bet Hor. But the work now before him would have driven any other man to despair; though not fifty miles from his Amba Magdala, he had, before he could rest there, to make roads down two precipitous descents, cross two rivers, and surmount again two steep perpendicular ascents. He went, however, steadily to work. Little by little he made a road, creditable even to a European engineer, bringing with him his mortars, cannons, &c.; he plundered at the same time, and kept away by his name alone Watshum Gobazé and his uncle Meshisha, who were both watching his movements: not that they intended to attack him, but who were anxious to be able to decamp at the first sign of his marching in the direction of the provinces they "protected." On the 10th of January he began his descent, reached the valley of the Jiddah on the 28th of the same month, ascended the opposite precipice, and encamped on the Dalanta plain on the 20th of February, 1868. CHAPTER XVIII. Theodore in the vicinity of Magdala--Our Feelings at the Time--An Amnesty granted to Dalanta--The Garrison of Magdala join the Emperor--Mrs. Rosenthal and other Europeans are sent to the Fortress--Theodore's Conversations with Flad and Waldmeier on the coming of the Troops--Sir Robert Napier's Letter to Theodore reaches us--Theodore plunders Dalanta--He abuses Mr. Waldmeier--Reaches the Bechelo--Correspondence between Mr. Rassam and Theodore--Mr. Rassam is Released from his Fetters--Theodore arrives at Islamgee--His Quarrel with the Priests--His first Visit to the Amba--Trial of the Two Chiefs--He places a New Commandant over the Garrison. We have now followed the Emperor's career from the day of our departure from Debra Tabor to his arrival in our neighbourhood. During that time, apart from the letters he addressed to Mr. Rassam relative to the one from the Queen, and about Mr. Flad and the artisans, we had but little intercourse with him. For a long time messengers passed with the greatest difficulty, and, afraid lest his written communications with the chiefs on the Amba might fall into the hands of the rebels, he had of late sent only verbal messages. Every messenger usually brought us compliments, and when any were sent from the Amba they always came to us by order of the chief before they left, so that Mr. Rassam might return a civil message in answer to the one he had received. The ordinary staff of messengers were too well known on the road to be able to pass through the districts in rebellion; and for a long time we rejoiced at the idea that all communications were for ever interrupted between the camp and the fort, when one day a young Galla, servant of one of the political prisoners, reached the Amba, bringing a letter from his Majesty. The lad went forwards and backwards many times; but, apart from the presents be received from us, I do not believe he ever even got a salt for so constantly exposing his life; a few more men, who had friends and acquaintances on the road, managed also to pass through. All of them were very useful to us, as they also carried the correspondence between us and Mr. Flad, and, beings well rewarded, could be trusted with the most dangerous letters. We thought it even good fun to make the King's messenger our medium of communication between our friends in his camp and ourselves, often on treasonable matters. Soon after reaching Bet Hor, Theodore issued a proclamation to the rebel districts of Dahonte and Dalanta, offering full amnesty for the past, and pledging himself, "by the death of Christ," that he would neither plunder nor ill-use them, should they return to their allegiance. For some days both districts refused, as Gobazé had promised to come and defend them; but the people of Dalanta, on seeing that, far from giving them any help, Gobazé was himself getting out of the way of Theodore, thought that, after all, it was perhaps better to accept the latter's offer, and, as they could not help themselves, trust to his pledged word. Dahonte, however, remained in its rebellion, and proposed to resist by force of arms any attempt on the part of Theodore to plunder the province. As the Emperor had spoken in very friendly terms to his workmen and others about Mr. Rassam, that gentleman was advised by the chiefs to write to the King, congratulating him on his safe arrival. This he repeated on several similar occasions; and the messengers he sent with these letters were very cordially treated by his Majesty. Theodore also wrote to Mr. Rassam on one or two occasions; and we had a ludicrous repetition of the courteous and edifying correspondence that had passed formerly between the two in the sunny days of Kourata. January, 1868, ushered in a period of great mental excitement for us, which lasted until the very end; increasing in intensity as we approached the last days, as we well knew that then our fate would be decided. But there is something in the constant repetition of stimulants, be they moral or physical, which blunts the feelings, hardens the heart, and at last allows the person long submitted to their influence to look upon everything with indifference and impassiveness. We had had so many "shocks" during the last three months--so many times we expected to be tortured or killed--that when the day arrived that we were in reality placed almost beyond hope, the crisis did not affect us much, and once passed, we never thought of the matter again. Having become "reconciled" with his children of Dalanta, Theodore's task was much easier. Several thousand peasants helped him in his road-making, others carried part of his property to Magdala, and now that the brave garrison of the Amba could cross the Dalanta plateau without fear, he sent for them, leaving only a few old men on the mountain beyond the ordinary number of prisoners' guards. On the 8th of January Bitwaddad Damash, in command, with the "brave" Goji as his lieutenant, and accompanied by seven or eight hundred men, started for Wadela. Many left with beating hearts, trembling at the prospect of meeting the Emperor. He was worshipped at a distance, but dreaded on his approach. His Majesty, however, received them very well; but was not over civil to all. Damash he treated rather coolly; but as he wanted them a little time longer, he did not say much, nor give them any cause to believe that he was greatly displeased with them. A few days after Theodore had reached Dalanta he sent back the Magdala garrison to the Amba, to accompany thither the prisoners he had brought, with him,--the Europeans included,--and forwarded by them some powder, shot, and the instruments belonging to his workmen. Mrs. Rosenthal was also allowed to accompany the party, and all arrived on the Amba on the afternoon of the 26th of January. The five Europeans were sent to us; and on the interpreter's hut being given to Mr. and Mrs. Rosenthal, the larger one that gentleman had previously occupied was made over to the other five. We were well pleased to be all together. The new comers had much to tell us, and we in return gave them an account of our doings. We were, above all things, rejoiced at the arrival of Mrs. Rosenthal; our morbid idea having been for months, almost up to the end, that some flying column would be detached from the main body of our army to cut off Theodore from the mountain; and our anxiety had been great on account of Mrs. Rosenthal and her child, as Theodore, according to his system of hostages, had kept her near him as a security to prevent the Magdala prisoners from running away. Messengers now went backwards and forwards daily, sometimes twice in the same day, between the camp and the amba. At first, we saw with anxiety the near approach of Theodore and the renewed facility of his communications with us; but as it was an evil we were powerless to contend against, we consoled ourselves as best we could, and though fearing the worst, hoped for the best. One advantage we gained was the facility of corresponding with Mr. Flad, who always, with great courage, had, ever since his return from England, on all possible occasions, kept us informed of Theodore's doings, and of anything he might have said with reference to the existing difficulties. He wrote to us in the beginning of February to inform us that, from some, conversation he had had with officers of the Imperial household, it was his opinion that his Majesty was aware of the landing of our troops, and had purposely sent to him a chief to find out what the intentions of our Government were concerning himself, and if there was still any hope of the matter being peaceably settled. There is no doubt that for several mouths past, his Majesty had been advised by his spies that English troops had landed in his country; but under the difficulties he was placed in at the time, he considered it advisable to keep silent on the subject. Since he had reached the vicinity of the Amba, however, he frequently, in his conversation with his people, gave strong hints that he expected before long to have to contend with the soldiers of Europe. On the 8th of February Theodore told Mr. Waldmeier, the head of the workmen--a very intelligent and well-educated man, for whom Theodore had a great regard, though of late he had somewhat roughly used him--that he had received news from the coast informing him that the English had disembarked at Zulla. The following day he sent for Mr. Flad, and calling him aside, told him, "The people from whom you brought me a letter, and who you said would come, have arrived and landed at Zulla. They are coming up by the Salt Plain. Why did they not take a better road? The one by the Salt Plain is very unhealthy." Flad explained to him that for troops arriving from India, that road was the best, as they would in three or four days reach the highlands of Agam. Theodore said, "We are making roads with great difficulty; for them it will only be play to make roads everywhere. It seems to me that it is the will of God that they should come. If He who is above does not kill me, none will kill me, and if He says, 'You must die,' none can save me: remember the history of Hezekiah and Sennacherib." Theodore appeared very calm and composed during that conversation. Two days afterwards he said to some of his workmen, "I long for the day I shall have the pleasure of seeing a disciplined European army. I am like Simeon; he was old, but before he died he rejoiced his heart by holding the Saviour in his arms. I am old, too; but I hope God will spare me to see them before I die. My soldiers are nothing compared to a disciplined army, where thousands obey the command of one man." Evidently he still entertained some vague hope that the coming event might turn to his advantage, as on another occasion he said to Mr. Waldmeier, "We have a prophecy in our country that a European king will meet an Abyssinian one, and that afterwards a king will reign in Abyssinia greater than any before him. That prophecy is going to be fulfilled at the present time; but I do not know whether I am the king alluded to, or if it is some one else." We were delighted at the receipt of this intelligence; for a long time we believed that Theodore knew of the landing of our troops, but as he had never made any mention of the fact we still had our doubts on the subject, and were somewhat in dread of his first burst of passion on the intelligence reaching him. On the 15th of February a letter from the Commander-in-Chief addressed to Theodore was brought to us by the messenger to whom it had been entrusted, as he was afraid of handing it over to his Majesty himself. This placed us in a difficult position; though as regarded the Amharic translation, it was perhaps as well that it had not reached Theodore, as that version, on some important points, gave a totally different meaning from that of the letter itself. I was quite delighted at listening to the Commander-in-Chief's manly and straightforward language. The letter was as firm as it was courteous, and I felt happy and proud, even in my captivity, that at last an English general had torn asunder the veil of false humility which for so long a time had concealed the bold and haughty spirit of England. We felt strengthened by the conviction that the hour was come when right and might would prevail, and the merciless despot who had acted towards us with such unheard-of treachery would meet his fate. According to the latest news we had received from the Imperial camp, Theodore did not seem inclined to vent upon us his disappointment and anger at seeing all his plans frustrated by the landing of an English army; it was therefore decided to keep for the present the important and valuable document that had so accidentally fallen into our hands, as a powerful weapon to use, should a change take place in the line of conduct Theodore had adopted since he was made conversant of the fact that force was at last resorted to to effect our deliverance: for we had our fears, knowing his changeable and fickle disposition. Nor did Theodore's peaceful mood last much longer. The Dalanta people, relying on his promises, and anxious to get rid of his presence, gave him every assistance in their power, carrying his baggage to the Amba, or working at the roads under his direction. The honourable way in which he had kept his word with the people of Dalanta induced the neighbouring district to send him deputations begging for pardon, and offering to pay him tribute and send supplies into his camp, if he would proclaim in their favour the same amnesty he had granted to the Dalanta people. Had Theodore been wise, even then he had a good opportunity of regaining part of his lost kingdom; and had he continued to keep to his word, province after province, disgusted with the cowardice of the rebels, would have returned to him. But he was too fond of plundering: the peasants did not, according to his ideas, send sufficient supplies; and as he knew that the district was exceedingly rich in grain and cattle, regardless of his oath, on the 17th of February, he gave orders for his soldiers to plunder the peasants' houses. Taken quite by surprise, very little resistance was offered. Theodore succeeded beyond his expectations; corn and cattle were now in abundance, and in order to economize his supplies, he allowed; all the Gondar people who were still with him, and many of the women and children of runaway soldiers and chiefs, to leave the camp and go wherever they liked. Since Ohecheo he had formed the strongest and hardiest of the women of his camp into a plundering band; he was always much pleased with their bravery, and one of them having killed a petty chief, and brought to him the sword of her adversary, he was so delighted that he gave her a title of rank and presented her with one of his own pistols. We knew enough of the Emperor's character to fear that, when once he again took to plundering and killing, he would lose much of the amenity and gentleness he had of late displayed, and look upon the arrival of an armed force from England in a very different light; we were not, therefore, much astonished to hear that he had again quarrelled with the Europeans around him. It is also not improbable that a copy of the proclamation the Commander-in-Chief had sent to the different chiefs may have fallen into his hands about this time, as one was found after his death amongst his papers. Whatever may have been the cause of his sudden change, he, without any apparent reason, all at once regarded his workmen with suspicion, and though he ordered them to be in constant attendance upon his person, he would not for many days allow them to work. Mr. Waldmeier one evening, on returning to his tent to take his evening meal, entered into conversation with a spy of the Emperor's on the subject of the advance of the English army. Waldmeier, amongst other things, told the man that it would be a very unwise act of his Majesty if he did not at once make friends with the English, as he had not a single friend in the country. On the officer reporting that conversation, Theodore in a fearful passion sent for all the Europeans; for a while his rage was such that he could not speak, but kept walking up and down, looking fiercely at them, and holding his spear in a threatening attitudes. At last, stopping before Mr. Waldmeier, he abused him in no measured terms: "Who are you, you dog, but a donkey, a poor man who came from a far country to be my slave, and whom I have paid and fed for years? What does a beggar like you know about my affairs? Are you to dictate to me what I am to do? A King is coming to treat with a King! What do you know about such matters?" Theodore then threw himself on the ground and said, "Take my spear and kill me; but do not revile me." Waldmeier prostrated himself before him and begged for pardon; the Emperor rose, but refused to grant his request, and ordered him to rise and follow him. On the 18th of February Theodore pitched his camp near the ridge of the Dalanta plateau, and the following day the chiefs of the Amba, with their telescopes, could perceive several working parties engaged in making the road down to the Bechelo. Theodore had made about a thousand prisoners when he had plundered Dalanta, and all of them, under strong escorts, were set to work for him; but when the road was finished half way, he allowed them to return to Dalanta. For a while the communications between the Amba and the camp were again suspended. The few chiefs and soldiers that had remained at Magdala viewed with great despondency this last breach of faith of their master, as it foreboded anything but gratitude towards them for the many privations they had submitted to in fulfilment of the trust vested in them. With great difficulty we succeeded in getting a messenger to pass through the valley of the Bechelo, on account of the disturbed condition of the country since Dalanta had been plundered. The news he brought was a little more favourable. His Majesty had reconciled himself with Mr. Waldmeier, and now treated all his artisans with consideration and kindness. He did not, however, allow them to work, and they all slept in a tent near his Majesty: a precaution he had for a short time ceased to take. Often he spoke to his soldiers, or to the Europeans, about the coming of our troops; sometimes avowing his intention to fight with them, at other times expressing himself in a more conciliatory tone. He had hardly mentioned our names of late; he spoke about Mr. Stern, but, contrary to his habit, not in anger. He referred several times to a certain letter of Mrs. Flad's, which had given him great offence some years before. That lady alluded in it to the possible invasion of the county by the English and French, giving as her opinion that he would not be afraid. Theodore frequently said that Mrs. Flad was right: "They are coming, and I do not fear." On the 14th of March his Majesty, with all his waggons, cannons, and mortars, reached the valley of the Bechelo. From a letter we received from Mr. Flad it appears that his Majesty was in a great hurry to reach Magdala. The Europeans were still treated courteously, but, day and night, were strictly watched. He evidently received good information of what was going on in the British camp. To Mr. Waldmeier, who was more than any other in his confidence, he said, "With love and friendship they will overcome me; but if they come with other intentions I know they will not spare me, and I will make a great blood-bath, and afterwards die." On the 16th he despatched a messenger to the Amba to rejoice his people with the good news of his approach, and sent us a courteous message. Mr. Rassam at once wrote to him, complimenting him on his success. Mr. Rassam is certainly deserving of praise for endeavouring, by every means in his power, to impress upon his Majesty the fervent friendship he felt for him, and the sincere admiration and deep devotion which time had only strengthened, and that even captivity and chains could not destroy. Mr. Rassam's official position gave him great advantages over the other captives; he was able to make "friends" of all the royal messengers, of all the personal attendants, of his Majesty, and of every one on the Amba or in the camp, who could say a good word for him. Ignorant of the source of Mr. Rassam's liberality, the chief courtiers, and even his Majesty himself, came to the conclusion that Mr. Prideaux and myself were very inferior beings--harmless individuals, whom it would be perfectly absurd to place on a footing of equality with the open-handed, sweet-talking gentleman, who alone, and out of mere regard, again congratulated his Majesty. Theodore was so pleased with Mr. Rassam's letter that early on the 18th he sent Mr. Flad, his secretary and several officers, with a friendly letter to that gentleman, and instructed the chief of the Amba to remove at once _his friend's_ fetters. Theodore, in his letter to Mr. Rassam, forgetting that he himself had on several occasions made mention of his fetters, said that he had no quarrel with him, and that when he had sent him to Magdala he had only told his people to watch him, but out of precaution they put him in chains. He sent him also 2,000 dollars for the money and things Flad had brought with him, and said that, on account of the rebellious condition of the country, he had not been able to forward them, and hoped he would, at the same time, accept a present of a hundred sheep and fifty cows. No one else was included in the order; and I confess that we were foolish enough to feel this disappointment bitterly. Probably twenty months of captivity weakens the mind as well as the body, as at other times we should not have given even a thought to the matter. Even as it was we soon forgot all about it, wisely remembering that freedom and liberty would be ours when the British flag should float over our former gaol. It appears that our displeasure had been remarked, and a spy started at once for the camp to inform his Majesty that we were angry at our chains not being opened. Mr. Flad returned that evening to the Imperial camp, already pitched on the northern banks of the Bechelo; and the following morning the Emperor sent for him and asked him if he had seen us all, and if we were looking well. He inquired especially about Mr. Prideaux and myself; Flad told his Majesty that we were in good health, but sorry that he had made a difference between us and Mr. Rassam. At this the Emperor, smiling all the while, said:--"Yes, I have heard of it: when they were put in chains by my people Mr. Rassam did not say a word, but both of them looked angrily at the chains. I have no anger against them, nor have they done me any wrong; as soon as I shall meet Mr. Rassam I will take off their chains also." Mr. Flad explained to his Majesty that we had felt disappointed, as some one, on Mr. Rassam's chains being ordered to be opened, had come to the conclusion that the Consul, Dr. Blanc, and Mr. Prideaux would be included in the same order, and had run on ahead to bring us the _miserach_ (good news); that Mr. Rassam was also very sorry his two companions were separated from him, and had asked him the reason why it was so, but as he did not know his Majesty's motives he could not answer him, &c. Theodore, still smiling, said to Mr. Flad, "If there is only friendship, everything will be right." On the evening of the 25th of March, his Majesty pitched his camp on the small plateau of Islamgee; he had brought his cannons and even the monster mortar as far as the foot of the ascent, and was hard at work making the road required for them to be dragged up. Early on the morning of the 26th, the priests of the Amba, in full canonicals, carrying crosses and gaily-tinselled umbrellas, went to Islamgee to congratulate the Emperor on his safe arrival. Theodore received them with great courtesy, and shortly afterwards dismissed them, saying, "Go back, my fathers, be of good cheer; if I have money I will share it with you. My clothes will be yours, and with my corn I will feed you." They were on the point of starting when an old bigoted priest, who had always shown himself badly disposed towards us, turned round and addressed his Majesty in the following terms:--"Oh, my King, do not abandon your religion!" Theodore, quite surprised, inquired of him what he meant. The priest, rather excited, exclaimed, in a loud voice, "You do not fast, you observe no more the feasts of the saints! I fear that you will soon follow entirely the religion of the Franks." Theodore turned towards some of the Europeans that stood near him and said, "Did I ever inquire of you about your religion? Did I ever show any desire to follow your creed?" They all replied, "Certainly not." Theodore then addressed the priests, who were listening with dismay to this conversation, and told them, "Judge this man." The priests did not consult long, and with one accord gave as their decision, that "the man who insults his king is worthy of death." On that, the soldiers fell upon the old priest, tore off his clothes, and would have, killed him on the spot had not Theodore mitigated the punishment. He ordered him to be put in chains, sent to the Amba, and for seven days not to be allowed either bread or water. Another priest, who had also on a former occasion grossly insulted his Majesty, was sent up to the prison at the same time. That priest had said to some of the Emperor's spies that their master wore three matabs: [Footnote: _Matab_: a string made of blue silk, and worn round the neck as the sign of Christianity in Abyssinia.] one, because he was a Mussulman, having burnt the churches; the second because he was a Frank, never observing the fast days; the third, to make the people believe he was a Christian. The following morning we were awoke by the merry _elelta_--the shrill cry of joy uttered by the Abyssinian _beau sexe_ on great and happy events. On this occasion a peculiar mixture of joyous and plaintive strains slightly modified its usual character, and it was a sharp but also tremulous sound that greeted the arrival of the Emperor Theodore on the Amba. Carpets were at once spread on the open space in front of his house, the throne was brought out and decked with gorgeous silks, and the state umbrella unfolded to protect the reclining Emperor from the hot rays of the sun. We expected, on seeing all these preparations made and the large number of courtiers and officers assembled in front, that before long we would be called for, and that something similar to the trial and reconciliation of Zagé was going to be acted over again. We were, however, mistaken: it was on account of some private affairs that the Emperor, abandoning for a day his work, had called a court of justice. For a long time various charges had been whispered against two of the chiefs of the Amba, Ras Bisawar and Bitwaddad Damash. His Majesty now desired to investigate them; he listened quietly to the accusers, and having heard the defence, he asked the opinion of the chiefs around him. They advised him to forgive them on account of their former good services, but that they should not be trusted any more. Had not a chief, they said, deserted a few nights before--a feat he could not have accomplished had not several of the garrison helped him in his escape?--and moreover, should an enemy present himself before the Amba during one of the Emperor's absences, they would most probably quarrel amongst themselves instead of defending the place. The Emperor accepted their decision and said that he would send a new garrison, that the former one should proceed that very day to his camp, and that as their store of grain would only be a burden to them, they should leave it behind; he would give orders to the writers to make out a correct account of all they had, and, _to oblige them_, he would keep the grain himself and pay them the value in money. He afterwards sent for the two priests he had imprisoned the day before, released them from their fetters, and told them that he forgave them, but that they must leave his country at once. On going away, he sent word by Samuel to Mr. Rassam that he had intended to come and see him but that he felt too tired; he added, "Your people are near; they are coming to deliver you." The soldiers of the garrison were greatly annoyed at having to leave, and were much pleased early the next morning to learn that Theodore had rescinded his order. He had, he said, pardoned them on account of their long and faithful services. The Ras was put on "half-pay," and a new commandant, Bitwaddad Hassanié, sent to take over the charge, while the garrison was reinforced by some 400 musketeers. It is probable that Theodore wanted simply to know what amount of corn the garrison possessed, as he might perhaps require it himself before long, and possibly also the clemency shown by him was due to his being pleased at the soldiers having complied with his orders and purchased grain, as he had directed them, with the money he had a short time before given them. CHAPTER XIX. We are counted by the new Ras, and condemned to sleep in One Hut--Theodore's Second Visit to the Amba--Sends for Mr. Rassam and gives orders that Prideaux and myself should have our Chains taken off--The Operation described--Our Reception by the Emperor--We are sent for to see "Sebastopol" landed on Islamgee--Conversation with his Majesty--The remaining Prisoners are freed from their Fetters--Theodore is unable to Plunder his own property. On the 28th of March, all of us, with the exception of Mr. Rassam, were called out and made to stand in a line to be _counted_ by the new Ras; then at about ten at night, as we were undressing, Samuel came to inform us that he had received orders to put us all, with the exception of Mr. Rassam, in one hut for that night, but that as none of our huts was large enough, he had obtained leave that we should be distributed into two. Cameron, Mr. Rosenthal, and Mr. Kerans were made to join us company, and four villanous-looking rascals, with lighted candles burning all night, were posted inside the door to prevent our going out. Samuel and two chiefs slept in Mr. Rassam's room, and I strongly suspect that Samuel was on that occasion more in the position of a prisoner than a guardian. We slept but little, expecting that the morning would bring some change for the worse. To our day guards some ten or fifteen of the greatest scoundrels of the camp had been recently added, and we felt rather anxious when we learnt early the next morning that Theodore had sent word he would come up in the course of the day to muster the garrison. At about three in the afternoon some of our servants came rushing into our hut to tell us that Theodore had arrived on the Amba, and that he appeared to be a _little_ drunk. Shortly afterwards Mr. Flad came with a message to Mr. Rassam from the Emperor, to the effect that if his Majesty had time he would send for him after his return from the church. A red-flannel tent, the sign of royalty, was, in the meanwhile, pitched in the plain, and all around carpets were spread. When Theodore issued from the church he was in a great passion, seized a priest by the beard, and said to him, "You say that I want to change my religion; before any one could force me to do so I would cut my throat." He then thrust his spear with violence into the ground, "fakered," cursed the Bishop,--in a word, acted in all respects as if drunk or mad. He called Mr. Meyer, who was standing at a short distance from him, and told him to go to Mr. Rassam with the message, "Your people are coming. I put you in chains for that purpose. I have not obtained what I wanted. Come to me, and in the same dress you used to wear before." We all felt very nervous about the interview, as Theodore seemed in a bad disposition; however, all went on well. As soon as Mr. Rassam approached the tent, Theodore advanced a few steps to meet him, shook hands with him, and asked him to sit down. He then said, "I cannot say that I could not bring my throne today, as you are aware that it is at Magdala; but out of respect for my friend the Queen, whom you represent here, I desire to sit on the same carpet as yourself." After a while, he said to Mr. Rassam, "Those two persons who came with you are neither my friends nor my enemies, but if you consent to become their security, I will have their chains opened." On that Mr. Rassam rose, and said, "Not only will I become their security, but should they do anything displeasing to your Majesty, do not say it is Blanc or Prideaux, but that Rassam did it." Theodore then asked Mr. Rassam to send two persons to have our chains taken off, and as his Majesty insisted upon it, Mr. Rassam mentioned Mr. Flad and Samuel. The servants had heard the good news and rushed in before Flad came to us with the welcome intelligence. On the arrival of Flad and Samuel, we were taken to Mr. Rassam's house, where Mr. Flad delivered to us from his Majesty the following message:--"You are neither my friends nor my enemies. I do not know who you are. I chained you because I chained Mr. Rassam: now I open your chains because he promised to be your security. If you run away it will be a shame for you and for me." On that we were told to sit down; an iron wedge was first hammered in where the ring was joined, and when the intervening space was considered sufficient, three or four loops of strong leather rope were passed inside the irons, and we were told to put one leg on a large stone brought in for the purpose. On each side a long pole was then fixed in the leather loops, and five or six men pulled on them with all their strength, using the stone as a "point d'appui" for the lever. As the leather thongs acted on the iron ring, little by little it gave way and stretched out, until at last it was wide enough to pass over the foot: the operation was then performed on the other leg. It took at least half an hour to take mine off, and even more to open Prideaux's. Though we were delighted at the prospect of having again the free use of our limbs, we did not enjoy the rude operation at all; and although (as we were in favour) the soldiers did their best not to hurt us, still the pain was at times quite unbearable, as the "point d'appui" now and then slipped from the stone to the chain itself, and pressing on the shin it seemed to us as if the leg would be crushed to pieces. At first we could hardly walk. Our legs seemed to us as light as feathers; we could not guide them, and we staggered very much like drunken men: if we met with a small stone in our way, we involuntarily lifted up the foot to a ridiculous height. For days the limb was painful, and the slightest exertion was followed by great fatigue. Theodore having expressed his desire that we should present ourselves before him in uniform, we dressed ourselves immediately the chains were taken off. As I was the first to get rid of my twenty-one months' friends, I was ready when Prideaux came in; but no sooner had he begun taking off his prison garb to dress himself, than messenger after messenger rushed in, sent from Theodore to hurry us on. Well knowing the fickle disposition of their master, all the chiefs present, Samuel, the guards, every one kept continually shouting out to Prideaux, "Make haste, make haste!" Flurried, and unaccustomed since so many months to the civilized way of putting on his clothes, and unable to guide his feet properly, in his hurry he tore his uniform trousers almost in two. But no one _would hear of waiting any longer: off we must go. Luckily a few pins were at hand, and what with his cap as a screen, the accident, if not repaired, was hidden. On reaching the Imperial tent, his Majesty, after greeting us cordially, said, "I chained you because your people believed that I was not a strong king; now that your masters are coming I release you to show them that I am not afraid. Fear not; Christ is my witness, and God knows, that I have nothing in my heart against you three. You came to this country knowing what the Consul had done. Do not fear, nothing will happen to you. Sit down." Once seated he ordered some tej to be given to us, and conversed with Mr. Rassam; amongst other things he said, "I am like a woman in the family way, and know not if it will be an abortion, a girl or a boy; I hope it will be a boy. Some men die when they are young, some at middle age, some when they are old; some are prematurely cut off, but what my end will be, God only knows." He then introduced his son to Mr. Rassam. He inquired if we had carpets, and if our houses were comfortable; and on Mr. Rassam telling him that by his favour we had everything we required, and that his Majesty would be pleased if he saw the nice home he had, Theodore looking up to heaven said, "My friend, believe me, my heart loves you; ask me for whatever you like, even for my own flesh, and I will give it to you." His Majesty, during the whole of the interview, was most courteous and appeared much pleased with Mr. Rassam's answers, and laughed heartily more than once. When he dismissed us, he sent his son and the Europeans to accompany us to our huts. I heard, both from Mr. Rassam and from the Europeans that were present all along, that before as well as during the time we were present, Theodore had shown himself most friendly and kind. The Europeans told me that whilst our chains were being opened he talked on many subjects with Mr. Rassam. Amongst other things, he said to him, "Mr. Stern has wounded me in the arm, but if anything bad is to happen, before that I will wound him also." He also said, "I will fight; you may see my dead body, and say there is a bad man, who has injured me and mine; and perhaps you will not bury me." After we left he mustered his troops and spoke to them about us. "Whatever happens, I will not kill these three--they are messengers; but amongst those that are coming, and here also, I have enemies; those I will kill if they want to injure me." As he was passing the gate on his way back to his camp, he called the Ras and told him, "Mr. Rassam and his companions are not prisoners, they may play and run; watch them with the eye only." That night we had no guards inside our room; they slept outside as before. We, however, did not venture to avail ourselves of the order and walk about the Amba, but remained quietly in our inclosure. On reaching his camp, Theodore assembled his people and said to them:--"You hear of white men coming to fight me; it is no rumour, but quite true." A soldier shouted out, "Never mind, my king, we will fight them." Theodore looked at the man, and said, "You fool! you do not know what you say. These people have long cannons, elephants, guns, and muskets without number. We cannot fight against them. You believe that our muskets are good: if they were so they would not sell them to us. I might kill Mr. Rassam, as he brings these soldiers against me. I did him no harm: it is true I put him in chains; but it is your fault, you people of Magdala, you should have advised me better. I might kill him, but he is only one; and then those who are coming would take away my children, my women, my treasures, and kill me and you." The following morning, the 30th, a message was sent to the five who had lately joined us, asking them to work again for him, as he wanted more stone shots. On accepting his offer, their foot chains were taken off, hand chains put by pairs, and they were conducted to the camp. A tent was pitched for them, and on their arrival they received a present of tej, meat and bread, from his Majesty. None of us were over sanguine at the recent good treatment we had received at the hands of Theodore; we knew how suddenly he changed, and that often,--as formerly in our case,--he pretended great friendship, when he intended all the while to ill-use, or even kill his dupes. We were, however, in good spirits and kept up our courage, knowing that the end was near: we left the result in God's hands, and hoped for the best. On the 1st of April we learnt that the evening before, Theodore, being very drunk, had "fakered" a great deal. At about ten in the forenoon a large number of soldiers came rushing in from the camp below (we always disliked very much those abrupt movements of the soldiers), but instead of coming towards our fence, as at first we feared, they went in the direction of the magazines, and shortly afterwards we saw them again passing along on their way back, carrying the cannons Theodore had on the mountain, powder, cannon-balls, &c. We supposed that Theodore had either decided on defending Selassié, or had sent for his guns, as he intended, such was the general opinion, to have a great "faker." Early on the morning of the 2nd, some of the chiefs were sent by the Emperor to inform us that his Majesty required us immediately to proceed to Islamgee. From our former experience of Theodore's fickle disposition we knew not what would be our fate, whether a polite reception, imprisonment or something worse; but as there was no help for it, we dressed, and, accompanied by the chiefs, left our huts, (perhaps never to see them again,) and walked down to the camp below the mountain. It was the first time, with the exception of the short distance we had gone on the day our chains had been opened, that we had left our inclosure. We had but a very indifferent idea of the Amba, and were astonished to find it much larger than we expected, the road between the gates longer and steeper, and the paths along the side of the Amba more abrupt and more lengthy than we had supposed from our recollections of twenty-one months before. We found Theodore seated on a heap of stones about twenty yards below Islamgee, on the side of the road just completed, and through which the cannons, mortars, and waggons were going to be dragged. From the spot he had chosen he could see all the road down to the foot of Islamgee, where all his people were busily engaged fixing long leather ropes to the waggons, and, under the supervision of the Europeans, making everything ready, for the ascent. The Emperor was dressed very simply: the only difference in his attire from the chief in attendance standing some ten yards on his side, was in the silk border of his shama: he held a spear in his hand, and two long pistols were fixed in his belt. He greeted us cordially and made us sit down _behind him_: a proof of confidence, he would certainly not have accorded to his dearest Abyssinian friend, as we had only to give him a sudden push, and he would have rolled down the precipice below. The road he had made on the side of Islamgee was broad but very steep on the average at a gradient of one in three; half way an almost straight angle intersected it, and we feared that there might be some difficulty in turning the heavy waggons without upsetting them. He did not speak much at first, being intent on examining the waggons below; but as soon as the big mortar came in sight he pointed it out to us, and asked Mr. Rassam his opinion about it. We all admired the huge piece, and Mr. Rassam, having complimented his Majesty on his great work, added, that before long he hoped that our people would have the same pleasure of admiring it as we did. Samuel, who translated on that occasion, turned quite pale, but as the Emperor understood a little Arabic he was obliged to render the sentence, though he evidently did not like it. Theodore laughed, and sent Samuel to tell Mr. Waldmeier what Mr. Rassam had just said. A few minutes afterwards his Majesty got up; we rose also, and Mr. Rassam told him, through Samuel, that to gladden his heart still more he begged him to be gracious enough to release from their fetters our companions still in chains on the Amba. This time Samuel not only turned pale, but shook his head, declining to open such a subject; but on Mr. Rassam repeating his request, this time in a higher tone of voice, Theodore looked round, and Samuel, having no option left, complied. His Majesty looked sullen and a little annoyed, but after a short pause gave orders to some of his attendants and to Samuel to proceed at once to the Amba and have the chains of the five remaining captives opened at once. The Emperor then walked down to the spot where the road made a sharp angle, and directed the laborious task of having such heavy masses dragged up the precipitous incline. He sent us to the other side of the road, where we might witness the whole scene well, and appointed several of his high officers to attend upon us. None but Theodore, I believe, could have directed that difficult operation; the leather ropes, from long use, were always breaking, and we were very much afraid that some accident might happen, and that, at the very last stage, the ponderous mortar "Sebastopol" would tumble over the precipice. We fancied the rage his Majesty would be in; and our close proximity to him made us earnestly pray that nothing of the kind would occur. The sight was well worth witnessing: Theodore standing on a projecting rock, leaning on his spear, sent his aide-de-camp at every moment with instructions to those who directed the five or six hundred men harnessed to the ropes. At times when the noise was too great, or when he wanted to give some general instructions, he had but to lift up his hand and not a sound would arise from the thousands engaged in the work, and the clear voice of Theodore would alone be heard in the deep silence that his simple gesture had produced. At last the big mortar was safely landed on Islamgee. We climbed up as fast as we could, and complimented his Majesty on the achievement of his great undertaking; he sent us word to examine the mortar. We all three jumped on the gun-carriage, greatly admired it, and loudly expressed our astonishment and delight to the bystanders. His Majesty was evidently well pleased with the praises we had bestowed upon his great favourite, and made us sit down near him on the verge of the Islamgee plateau whilst the remaining cannons and waggons were being drawn up. The wonderful work of dragging up the 16,000 pounds weight of "Sebastopol" once over--though some of the cannons were also of a considerable size,--the rest of the operation was only child's play, and his Majesty, though present, never interfered. We must have remained with him for at least several hours in quiet and friendly talk. As the sun was getting hot, his Majesty insisted on our putting on our caps, and, on Mr. Rassam a short time afterwards asking his permission to open an umbrella, he not only granted it, but, seeing that I had none, kindly sent one of his pages for his own, opened it, and gave it to me. He told us of all the difficulties he had undergone, and how the peasants refused every assistance. He said, "I was obliged to make roads during the day and drag my waggons, and to plunder at night, as my people had nothing to eat." All the country, he said, had been against him, and when they could seize any of his followers they immediately put them to death; in return, when he made any of them prisoners, to avenge his friends, he burnt them alive: this he told us in the quietest way possible, just as if he had done the right thing. He then asked about our troops, the elephants, the rifles, &c. Mr. Rassam told him everything we knew; that about 12,000 troops had landed, but that not more than 5,000 or 6,000 would advance on Magdala--adding, "It will only be friendship." Theodore said, "God only knows; before, when the French came into my country, at the time of that robber 'Agau Negussi,' I made a quick march to seize them, but they had run away. Do you believe that I would not have gone to meet your people, and asked them what they came into my country for? but how can I? You have seen to-day my army, and"--pointing to the Amba above--"there is all my country. But I will wait for them here, and then let God's will be done." He next spoke about the Crimean war, of the late contest between Austria and Prussia, of the needle-gun, and asked us if the Prussians had made the Emperor of Austria a prisoner, or seized his country. Mr. Rassam told him that the needle-guns, by their rapid fire, had gained the victory for the Prussians; that on peace being made the Emperor of Austria was obliged to pay a large sum of money; that a part of his territory had been annexed by the conqueror, and all his allies had lost their kingdoms. His Majesty listened with great composure, only when he was told that only 5,000 men were coming, the proud curl of his lip expressed how much he felt his fallen condition when so few men were considered sufficient to conquer him. He afterwards spoke to us about his old grievances against Cameron, Stern, and Rosenthal. About us he said, "You have never done me any wrong. I know that you are great men in your country, and I feel very sorry to have ill-treated you without cause." After the last waggon had been drawn up, he rose and told us to follow; we walked a few yards behind him, and when Samuel, who had gone to give orders for a tent to be pitched for us, returned, he asked us, through him, several questions about shells, the charge required for his big mortar, &c., to all of which Mr. Rassam replied, that being a civilian he knew nothing about it. He then told him to ask me, but Mr. Rassam replied that I was only acquainted with medicines. On that he ceased his inquiries and conducted ne to the tent prepared for us; then bidding us good afternoon, retired to his apartment. An Abyssinian breakfast, tej, and a few European dishes and cakes that Mrs. Waldmeier had prepared; according to his instructions, were then sent for us to partake of. A short time afterwards he sent for Mr. Waldmeier and Samuel. It seems that Theodore had already been drinking, as he talked to them in a very excited manner, inquiring why he had not received any intimation of the landing of our troops and if it was not customary for a king to inform another that he was invading his country &c. Mr. Waldmeier and Samuel, when they returned, appeared rather alarmed, as it was no unfrequent case with Theodore to be very friendly in the morning, and, when in his cups, to change his demeanour and ill-treat those he had petted a little while before. Samuel and Waldmeier were a second time sent for. Theodore then abused Samuel a great deal, told him that he had many charges to bring against him, but that he left it for another day; he then ordered him to take us back to the fort, gave instructions for three mules to be brought, and for the commandant of the mountain, together with the former one, to escort us. To Mr. Waldmeier he said, "Tell Mr. Rassam that a small fire, the size of a pea, if not put out in time, may cause a great conflagration: it is left to Mr. Rassam to extinguish it before it spreads." We were glad to return safe and sound to our old prison, and rejoiced on seeing our companions freed from their fetters and looking happy and hopeful. On the following morning Mr. Rassam sent word to the Emperor, requesting his permission to be allowed to inform the Commander-in-Chief of the British army of his Majesty's good-will towards the Europeans in his power; but Theodore answered that he did not desire him to write, as he had opened the chains of the captives not out of fear, but simply on account of his personal friendship for Mr. Rassam. As Theodore had on several occasions expressed his astonishment at not receiving any communication from the Commander-in-Chief, we thought it advisable to request Sir Robert Napier, through our friends, to be kind enough to send a short courteous letter to the Emperor, informing him of the object of the expedition; as the letter he had addressed to him before landing had been detained by Mr. Rassam, and the ultimatum sent by Lord Stanley previous to the intervention of an armed force, having also fallen into Mr. Rassam's hands, instead of reaching the Emperor, had been destroyed by that gentleman. The five (Mr. Staiger and his party) were making stone balls for his Majesty's cannons, but as none of the Europeans in his service would stand security for them, every evening the hand chains were hammered on after their day's work was over. On the evening of the 3rd Theodore sent to Mr. Rassam, asking him to become their guarantee; but he refused, as he could not, he said, hold himself responsible for them so long as they were working for his Majesty and resided at a distance from him. However, Mr. Flad and one of the other Europeans consenting to become security, the torture of having the chains daily fastened on was discontinued, and the captives were simply guarded at night in their tent. Provisions were running short, and for some days a foraging expedition was much talked about, Dahonte being considered as the place selected. But Theodore, unwilling to expose his small force to a repulse, did not venture so far, but on the morning of the 4th of April plundered his own people, the few small villages situate at the foot of the Amba; and he unsuccessfully attempted to sack the village of Watat, where his _own cattle_ were kept. Theodore met with much more resistance than he expected from the Galla peasants; many of the soldiers were killed, and the booty brought back was very small. The soldiers on the mountain were more despondent than ever: little aware of the great change that before long was to take place, they viewed with great concern and anxiety this last raid, as, were the Emperor to go away, they would be left to starve on their rock. From Mr. Munzinger we frequently received short notes, which reached us sewn in the worn-out trousers of some peasant or messenger; thus we knew that our deliverers were now near, and we longed for the day, not far distant, when our fate would be decided: for we suffered more from constant anxiety and doubt--as to what every minute might bring, than from the certainty of death: even the few hopeful thoughts we now and then indulged in were nothing compared to regained liberty. CHAPTER XX. All the Prisoners leave the Amba for Islamgee--Our Reception by Theodore--He harangues his Troops, and releases some of the Prisoners--He informs us of the Advance of the English-- The Massacre--We are sent back to Magdala--Effects of the Battle of Fahla--Messrs. Prideaux and Flad sent to negotiate --Release of the Captives, and their Narrow Escape--Their Arrival in the British Camp. On the evening of the 7th of April we heard indirectly that the next morning all the prisoners, ourselves included, would be called before his Majesty, who was at the time encamped at the foot of Selassié, and that in all probability we should not return to the Amba. At day-dawn a messenger came from Theodore ordering us to go down, and take with, us our tents and anything else we might require. As was our wont on such occasions, we put on our uniforms, and proceeded to the Emperor's camp accompanied by the former captives. On approaching Selassié we perceived his Majesty, surrounded by many of his chiefs and soldiers, standing near his guns in conversation with some of his European workmen. He saluted us courteously, and told, us to advance and stand near him. Cameron was staggering from the effects of the sun, and could with difficulty keep himself from falling to the ground. On perceiving his condition his Majesty asked us what was the matter with him. We answered that Cameron was unwell, and begged permission for him to sit down, a request that was immediately granted. Theodore then greeted the other prisoners, asked them how they were, and on perceiving the Rev. Mr. Stern he said, smiling all the while, "O Kokab (Star), why have you plaited your hair?" [Footnote: Only soldiers plait the hair; peasants and priests shave the head about once a month.] Before he could answer Samuel told the Emperor, "Your Majesty, it is not plaited; it falls naturally on his shoulders." Theodore then retired a little way from the crowd, and told us three and Cameron to follow him. Seating himself on a large stone, and telling us also to sit down, he said, "I have sent for you, as I desire to look after your safety. When your people come and fire upon me I will put you in a safe place; and should you even there be in danger I will remove you to somewhere else." He asked us if our tents had arrived, and on being informed that they had not, he ordered one of his own, of red flannel, to be pitched in the meanwhile. He remained with us about half an hour conversing on different topics; he narrated the anecdote of Damocles, asked us about our laws, quoted Scripture--in a word, jumped from one subject to the other, discoursing on topics quite foreign to his thoughts. He did his best to appear calm and amiable, but we soon detected that he was labouring under great excitement. When, in January, 1866, he received us at Zagé, we were struck by the simplicity of his dress, in every respect the same as that of his common soldiers; of late, however, he had adopted a more gaudy attire, but nothing compared to the harlequin coat he wore that day. After he had dismissed us, he ascended the hill under which our tent was pitched, and for two hours, at about fifty yards from us, surrounded by his army, he "fakered" (bragged) to his heart's content. He discoursed first on his former deeds, or what he intended to do when he should encounter the white men, speaking all the while in contemptuous terms of his advancing foe. Addressing the soldiers whom he was sending as an advanced post to Arogié, he told them, on the approach of the white men, to wait until they had fired, and before the enemy had time to reload, to fall upon them with their spears; and showing the gaudy dress he had put on for the occasion, he added: "Your valour will meet with its reward, and you will enrich yourselves with spoils, compared to which the rich dress I am wearing is but a mere trifle." When he had concluded his harangue he dismissed his troops, and sent for Mr. Rassam. He told him not to notice what had taken place, as it meant nothing; but that he was obliged to speak publicly in that manner to encourage his soldiers. He then mounted his mule and ascended to the top of Selassié to examine the road from Dalanta to the Bechelo, and ascertain the movements of the English army. The next day, the 8th, we only saw his Majesty at a distance, seated on a stone in front of his tents, and talking quietly to those around him. In the afternoon he ascended to the top of Selassié, and on his return sent us word that he had seen nothing; but that our people could not be far off, as a woman had come to inform him that, the evening before, horses and mules had been taken down to the Bechelo to be watered. As we came down from the Amba the day before, we had met on the road all the prisoners crawling along, many of them in hand and foot chains, having in that condition been obliged to walk down the irregular and steep descent. Their appearance was enough to inspire pity in the most callous heart; many had no other covering than a small piece of rag round the loins, and were living skeletons, covered with some loathsome skin disease. Chiefs, soldiers or beggars, all wore an anxious expression: they had but too much reason to fear that they had not been dragged out of the prison where they had spent years of misery for any good purpose. However, on that morning Theodore gave orders for about seventy-five to be released, all either former servants of his, or chiefs whom he had imprisoned, without cause, during his fits of madness, so frequent of late. Soon after his return from Selassié, his merciful mood being over, Theodore sent orders to have seven prisoners executed; amongst them the wife and child of Comfou (the storekeeper who had run away in September)--poor innocent beings on whom the despot vented his rage for the desertion of the husband: they were shot by the "brave Amharas," and their bodies hurled over the nearest precipice. Theodore sent me word to go and visit Bardel, who was lying dangerously ill in a tent close by. Having seen him and prescribed, I afterwards visited some of the Europeans and their families; I found them all exceedingly anxious and none could arrive at any conclusion as to the probable course Theodore would adopt. Early on the morning of the 9th some of the European workmen informed us that Theodore was making roads to drag part of his artillery to Fahla, where it overlooks the Bechelo; they also told us that before parting he had given orders for the release of about one hundred prisoners, most of them women or poor people. Towards 2 P.M. the Emperor returned, and sent us word by Samuel that he had seen a quantity of baggage coming down from Dalanta to the Bechelo--four elephants, but very few men. He had also remarked, he said, some small white animals, with black heads, but he could not make out what they were. Did we know? We made a rough guess, and answered that they were probably Berbera sheep. He sent a last message, saying, "I am tired from looking out so long; I am going to rest awhile. Why are your people so slow?" A severe storm then broke out; and it had hardly subsided when we saw soldiers rushing from all directions towards the side of the precipice--a couple of hundred yards from our tent. We soon heard that his Majesty, in a fearful passion, had left his tent, and had gone to Mr. Rassam's servants' houses, where the Magdala prisoners had been shut up since they had been taken down to Islamgee. As I have said, that morning Theodore had released a large number of his prisoners. Those who remained, believing that they might avail themselves of the Emperor's good disposition, clamoured for bread and water, as for two days they had been deprived of both, all their servants having decamped and kept away since they had been removed from Magdala. At the cries of "abiet, abiet," [Footnote: "Abiet," master, lord. The usual expression used by beggars when asking alms.] Theodore, who was reposing after indulging in deep potations, asked his attendant, "What is it?" He was told that the prisoners begged for water and bread. Theodore, seizing his sword, and telling the man to follow him, exclaimed, "I will teach them to ask for food when my faithful soldiers are starving." Arrived at the place where the prisoners were confined, blind with rage and drink, he ordered the guards to bring them out. The two first he hacked to pieces with his own sword; the third was a young child; though it arrested his hand, it did not save the poor creature's life, and he was hurled alive over the precipice by Theodore's order. He seems to have been somewhat calmer after the two first murders, and something like order prevailed during the remainder of the executions. As every prisoner was brought out he inquired his name, his country, and _his crime_. The greater part were found guilty, hurled over the precipice, and shot below by musketeers sent there to despatch any one who still showed signs of animation, as many had escaped with life from the awful fall. Some 307 were put to death, and 91 reserved for another day. These last, strange to say, were all chiefs of note; many of whom had fought against the Emperor, and all, he knew, were his deadly enemies. What our feelings were all this time can easily be surmised: we could see the deep line of soldiers standing behind the Emperor, and counted up to two hundred discharges of fire-arms, when we left off the agonizing calculation of how many victims were being slaughtered. A friendly chief came to us, and implored us to remain very quiet in our tents, as it would be very dangerous if Theodore remembered us in his present mood. At dusk he returned, followed by an admiring crowd. He, however, took no notice of us; and, after a while, seeing all quiet, we felt pretty confident that we were safe for _that day_ at least. There is no doubt that when Theodore sent for us and all the prisoners, he had made up his mind to kill every one. His apparent clemency was merely used as a blind to mask his intent and inspire hopes of freedom in the hearts of those whose death he had already determined upon. Early on the morning of the 10th his Majesty sent us word to get ready to return to Magdala. Shortly afterwards one of his servants brought us the following message:--"Who is that woman who sends her soldiers to fight against a king? Send no more messengers to your people: if a single servant of yours is missing, the covenant of friendship between you and myself is broken." A few minutes afterwards a boy whom I had some days previously sent to General Merewether, with a request that a letter should be sent to Theodore, who had on several occasions manifested great astonishment at not receiving any communication from the army, returned with a letter from his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief for the Emperor. The letter was perfect; just what we had wished for--firm, courteous; it contained no threats, no promises, except that Theodore would be honourably treated if he delivered the prisoners uninjured into his hands. We at once sent Samuel to inform the Emperor that a letter from Sir R. Napier had arrived for him. His Majesty declined to receive it. "It is of no use," he said; "I know what I have to do." However, shortly afterwards he sent for Samuel privately, and asked him its contents, and as Samuel had translated it, he informed him of the principal points. His Majesty listened attentively, but made no remarks. A mule from the Imperial stables was sent for Mr. Rassam's use to ride; Lieutenant Prideaux, Captain Cameron, and myself were told that we might ride our own mules; but this favour was denied to the other captives. On our return to Magdala we were hailed by our servants, and the few friends we had on the mountain, as men who had returned from the grave. We sent for our tents, bedding, &c., and awaited with anxiety the next move of the fickle despot. About noon the whole of the garrison of the Amba were told to arm and proceed to the King's camp; a few old men only and the ordinary prisoners' guard remaining on the mountain. Between 3 and 4 P.M. a violent thunder-storm burst over the Amba. We thought now and then that we could distinguish amidst the peals of thunder distant guns, and some close at hand. At other times we were almost certain that the sound we had just heard was a volley; but we only laughed at the idea, and wondered how the echoes of the almost constant thunder could to our excited imagination bear such close resemblance to the welcome music of an attack by the army of rescue. Shortly after 4 P.M. the storm subsided, and then no mistake was possible; the deep, dull sound of guns, and the sharp reports of small arms, now reached us plainly and distinctly. But what was it? No one would or could say. Twice during the next hour the joyous _elelta_ resounded from Islamgee to the Amba above, where it was responded to by the soldiers' families. Then all doubts vanished: evidently the King was only "fakering;" no fight could have taken place, as no _elelta_ would be heard if Theodore had ventured to encounter the British troops. We were fast asleep, quite unaware of the glorious battle that had taken place a few miles from our prison, when we were aroused by a servant, who told us to dress quickly, and come over to Mr. Rassam's house, as messengers had just arrived from his Majesty. We found on entering Mr. Rassam's room Messrs. Waldmeier and Flad, and several of the Emperor's chiefs, who had come up to deliver the Imperial message. Then for the first time we heard of the battle of Fahla; heard, indeed, that we were now safe; that the humbled despot had acknowledged the greatness of the power he had for years despised. The Imperial message was as follows:--"I thought that the people that are now coming were women; I now find that they are men. I have been conquered by the advance guard alone. All my musketeers are dead. Reconcile me with your people." Mr. Rassam sent him back word that he had come to his country to make peace, and now, as well as formerly, he only wished to see that happy result obtained; he proposed, he said, sending Lieutenant Prideaux for himself, and that his Majesty should send Mr. Flad, or any other European whom he trusted, together with one of his noblemen, to the British camp to make terms; but that unless he was willing to deliver over to the Commander-in-Chief all the prisoners, the proposed steps would be quite useless. The two Europeans and the other messenger remained some time with us to rest and refresh themselves: they told us that his Majesty had mistaken a battery of artillery for Baggage, and seeing only a few men at Arogié, he had given in to the importunities of his chiefs, and allowed them to have their own way. On a cannon being fired, the Abyssinians, excited by the prospect of a large booty, rushed down the hill. His Majesty commanded the artillery, which was served by Abyssinian workmen, under the direction of a Copt, the former servant of the Bishop, and of Lij Engeddah Wark, the son of a converted Bengal Jew. At the first discharge the largest piece of ordnance, "Theodoros," burst, the Abyssinians by mistake having rammed in two cannon balls. Towards dusk he had sent to recall his troops, but messenger after messenger was despatched to no purpose: at last the broken-down remnants of his army were seen slowly climbing the steep ascent, and he heard for the first time the dismal tale of their disaster. Fitaurari [Footnote: _Fitaurari_, the commander of the advanced guard.] Gabrié, his long-attached friend, the bravest of the brave, lay dead on the battle-field; he inquired for others, but the answer was Dead, dead, dead!! Cast down, conquered at last, Theodore, without saying a word, walked back to his tent with no other thought but an appeal to the friendship of his captives and to the generosity of his foe. Returning to the Emperor's tent Messrs. Flad and Waldmeier informed him of their arrival by one of the eunuchs who had accompanied them for that purpose. It appears that in the meanwhile Theodore had been drinking hard; he came out of his tent very much excited, and asked the Europeans, "What do you want?" They told him that as he had commanded them, they had spoken on his behalf to Mr. Rassam, and that that gentleman had proposed sending Mr. Prideaux, &c. &c. The Emperor interrupted them, and in an angry tone exclaimed, "Mind your own business: go to your tents!" The two Europeans stood still, in the hope that his Majesty might change his mind; but seeing that they did not depart, he got into a rage, and in a high tone of voice ordered them to retire at once. At about 4 A.M. a messenger was sent by his Majesty to call Messrs. Flad and Waldmeier before him. As soon as they arrived he asked, "Do you hear this wailing? There is not a soldier who has not lost a friend or a brother. What will it be when the whole English army comes? What shall I do? counsel me." Mr. Waldmeier told him: "Your Majesty, peace is the best." "And you, Flad, what do you say?" "Your Majesty," replied Mr. Flad, "ought to accept Mr. Rassam's proposal." Theodore remained a few minutes silent, his head between his hands, apparently in deep thought, and then said, "Well, go back to Magdala, and tell Mr. Rassam that I trust in his friendship to reconcile me with his people. I will do what he thinks best." Mr. Flad brought us this message, Mr. Waldmeier remaining with the Emperor. On Lieutenant Prideaux and Mr. Flad reaching Islamgee they were conducted to the Emperor, whom they found sitting outside on a stone and dressed in his ordinary manner. He received them very graciously, and immediately ordered one of his best mules to be saddled for Prideaux's use. Noticing that he was rather exhausted from the rapid walk, he gave him a horn of tej to refresh himself with on the road. He then dismissed them with the following message:--"I had thought before this that I was a strong man, but I have now discovered that they are stronger; now reconcile me." They then left, and accompanied by Dejatch Alamé, the Emperor's son-in-law, proceeded to the British camp at Arogié, where they arrived after a two hours' ride, and were warmly cheered and greeted by all. After a short stay in the camp, they returned to his Majesty bearing a letter from Sir Robert Napier, couched in firm but conciliatory terms, and assuring Theodore that, provided he submitted to the Queen of England and brought all the prisoners and other Europeans to the British camp, honourable treatment would be accorded to himself and his family. Sir Robert Napier received Dejatch Alamé with great courtesy (a fact that was immediately reported to Theodore by a special messenger), invited him into his tent, and spoke plainly to him. He told him that not only all the Europeans must at once be sent to the camp, but the Emperor himself must come in also and submit to the Queen of England. He told him that if he complied he would be honourably treated, but that if any one of the Europeans in his hands were injured, he could expect no pity; and that had he (Sir Robert Napier) to remain for five years in the country, he would not leave until the last murderer was punished, had he even to buy him from his mother. He then showed Alamé some of the "toys" he had brought with him, and explained to him their effects. On the return of Prideaux and his companions to Theodore's camp, they found him sitting on the brow of Selassié, overlooking the British camp, and in anything but a pleasant humour. They had been joined on their arrival by Mr. Waldmeier, and together they presented themselves before him, and delivered the letter into his hands. It was twice translated, and at the conclusion of the second reading he asked, in a deliberate manner, "What does honourable treatment mean? Does it mean that the English will help me to subdue my enemies, or does, it mean honourable treatment as a prisoner?" Prideaux replied, that on the first point the Commander-in-Chief had said nothing; that all his wishes were contained in his letter; and that the English army had simply come into the country to rescue their fellow-countrymen, and that object effected they would then return. This answer did not please him at all. Evidently his worst passions were aroused; but, controlling himself, he motioned them to stand a little distance from him, while he dictated a letter to his secretary,--a letter begun before the arrival of Prideaux, an incoherent epistle, not sealed, stating, amongst other things, that he had hitherto surrendered to no man, and was not prepared to do so now. He inclosed with his letter the one he had just received from Sir Robert Napier, handed it over to Prideaux, and bade them be off at once; not allowing Prideaux even to wait for a glass of water, telling him that there was no time to lose. Another couple of hours' ride brought Prideaux and Flad again to the British camp. Sir Robert Napier, however reluctant he must have felt, after allowing them time to rest, despatched them back to Theodore. It was, indeed, the proper way to deal with him: firmness alone could save our lives; as we had but too ample proofs that the kind of adoration for so long bestowed upon him resulted in nothing but a nonsensical correspondence, and no real advantage had ever been gained. No answer could possibly be given to the mad production Theodore had sent; a verbal message to the same purport as the first communication from the Commander-in-Chief was all that was required. We were still in the power of Theodore; had not, as yet, tasted liberty; whatever, before long, would be our fate, we were passive, and ready to submit with as much good grace as possible to the sentence we every minute expected. Mr. Flad had left his wife and children on Islamgee, and could not well decline to go back; but for Prideaux the case was quite different: he returned, like a brave, gallant man, ready to sacrifice his own life in endeavouring to save ours, and going willingly to almost certain death in obedience to his duty. None of the brave soldiers who gallantly wear the Victoria Cross ever did a nobler deed. Fortunately, however, as they were nearing Selassié, they met Mr. Meyer, one of the European workmen, who communicated to them the welcome intelligence that we were all liberated and on our way to the camp. They gladly turned round the heads of their tired mules, and, together with Mr. Meyer, brought back the good news to our anxious countrymen. But we must return to ourselves, still shut up in Magdala. We remained all day in great suspense, not knowing at any moment what course Theodore would adopt. I dressed several of the wounded and saw many of the soldiers who had taken part in the fight of the previous day. All were much cast down, and declared that they would not fight again. "Of what use is it," they said, "fighting against your people? When we fight with our countrymen each side has its turn; with you it is always your turn. See how many dead and wounded we have! We did not see any of your men fall: and then you never run away." The rockets terrified them greatly, and if their description of the shells is correct they must indeed be terrible weapons. Shortly after receiving an answer from Sir Robert Napier, and despatching Prideaux and Flad for the second time, Theodore called his principal chiefs and some of his European workmen before him and held a kind of council; but he soon became so excited, so mad, that it was with difficulty he was restrained from committing suicide. The chiefs reproved him for his weakness, and proposed that we should all be killed, or kept in a hut in the camp and burnt alive on the approach of our soldiers. His Majesty took no notice of these suggestions, dismissed his chiefs, and told Messrs. Meyer and Saalmüller, two of his European workmen, to get ready to accompany us to the English camp. At the same time he sent two of his high officers, Bitwaddad Hassanié and Ras Bissawur, to us with the following message:--"Go at once to your people: you will send for your property to-morrow." We did not like that message at all. The two chiefs were sullen and downcast, and Samuel was so excited that he would give us no explanation of this sudden decision. We called our servants to pack up a few things, and many of them bade us good-by with tears in their eyes. The best disposed of the guards looked sad and sorrowful: no doubt the general impression was the same as ours, that we were sent for, not to go to the English camp, but to certain death. There was no use in remonstrating or in complaining, so we dressed; glad that at all events the end of our captivity had arrived, whatever it might be; we bade good-by to our servants, and under a strong escort left the Amba. Whilst we had been dressing, Samuel had consulted with the two chiefs; they told him that Theodore was quite mad, and that anything which might delay our meeting should not be neglected, as time to allow him to cool down a little was of the utmost importance. They decided on sending a soldier in advance with a supposed message from us, to ask from his Majesty the favour of a last interview, as we could not depart without first bidding him good-by. Arrived at the foot of the Amba, we found that the Emperor had sent no mules, as was his custom, and we had to have ours saddled, or borrow some from the European workmen. The place seemed almost deserted, and on our way to the Imperial tent we met only a few soldiers; but as we advanced we perceived that the heights of Selassié and Fahla were crowded with the remnants of the Imperial host. At about a hundred yards from the King's tent we met the messenger whom Samuel and the chiefs had sent to request a last interview, coming back towards us. He said that the King was not in his tent, but between Fahla and Selassié, and that he would only see his beloved friend Rassam. Orders were then given by the chiefs who escorted us to conduct Mr. Rassam by one road, and the remainder of the captives by another. We had to follow a small pathway on the side of Selassié, and Mr. Rassam was conducted by a road some fifty yards above. We advanced in that manner for a couple of hundred yards, when we were ordered to stop. The soldiers told us that the Emperor was coming towards Mr. Rassam, and that we must wait until their interview was over. After a while we were told to advance, as Mr. Rassam had left the King and was moving on. I was walking in front of our party, and great was my surprise, after a few steps, on arriving at a sudden turn in the road, to find myself face to face with Theodore. I at once perceived that he was in a fearful passion. Behind him stood about twenty men in a line, all armed with muskets. The spot on which he was standing is a small platform, so narrow that I would have almost to touch him on my way onwards. Below the platform the precipice was abrupt and deep; above, the rocks rose like a huge wall: evidently he could not have chosen a better place if he had any evil intentions against us. He could not have seen me at first, as his face was half turned; he whispered something to the soldier nearest to him, and stretched out his hand to take the man's musket. I was quite prepared for the worst, and, at the moment, had no doubt in my mind that our last hour had come. Theodore, his hand still on his musket, turned round; he then perceived me, looked at me for a second or two, dropped his hand, and in a low sad voice asked me how I was, and bade me good-by. The chief on the following day told me that, at the time, Theodore was undecided as to whether he would kill us all or not; only allowing Mr. Rassam to go on account of his personal friendship for him, and that we owed our lives to the mere accident that his eye first fell upon me, against whom he had no animosity; but that the result would have been quite different had his anger been roused by the sight of those he hated. A few minutes later we rejoined Mr. Rassam, and moved on as fast as our mules could amble. Mr. Rassam told me that Theodore had said to him, "It is getting dark; it is perhaps better if you remained here until to-morrow." Mr. Rassam said, "Just as your Majesty likes." Theodore then said, "Never mind; go." He shook hands with Mr. Rassam, both crying at the idea of parting, and Mr. Rassam promising to return early the next morning. We had nearly reached the outposts of the Imperial camp when some soldiers shouted for us to stop. Had Theodore again changed his mind? So near liberty, were we again doomed to captivity or death? Such thoughts immediately crossed our minds; but our suspense was short, as we perceived running towards us one of the Emperor's servants, carrying Prideaux's sword, as well as my own, which his Majesty had seized at Debra Tabor some twenty-one months before. We sent back our thanks to his Majesty by the servant, and resumed our march. Little did we know at the time the narrow escape we had just had. It appears that, after our departure, Theodore sat down on a stone, and, putting his head between his hands, began to cry. Ras Engeddah said to him, "Are you a woman, to cry? Let us bring back these white men, kill them, and run away; or fight and die." Theodore rebuked him in these words:--"You donkey! have I not killed enough these two last days? Do you want me to kill these white men, and cover Abyssinia with blood?" Though now fairly out of the Imperial camp, and in sight almost of our pickets, we could hardly credit that we were not the victims of some delusion. Involuntarily, we would look back, fearful that, regretting his clemency, Theodore might follow and overtake us before we reached our camp. But God, who had almost by a miracle delivered us that day, still protected us; and shortly afterwards, with grateful and joyful hearts, we entered the British lines; and heard the gladdening sound of English voices, the hearty cheers of our countrymen, and shook hands with the dear friends who had laboured so zealously for our release. CONCLUSION. On the morning of the 12th, the day following our deliverance, Theodore sent a letter of apology, expressing his regret for having written the impertinent missive of the day before. He at the same time requested the Commander-in-Chief to accept a present of 1,000 cows; this, according to Abyssinian custom, implying a peace-offering, which once accepted, removed all apprehension of hostilities. The five captives who had joined us in January, 1868 (Mr. Staiger and his party), Mrs. Flad and her children, several of the Europeans, and the families of all of them, were still in Theodore's power. The Europeans who had accompanied us the evening before, and who had spent the night at the camp, were early that morning sent back to Theodore; and Samuel, who was one of the party, was instructed to demand that the whole of the Europeans and their families should be allowed to depart at once. A dhoolee and bearers were also sent at the same time for Mrs. Flad, whose state of health did not allow her to ride. Before starting, Samuel was told by Mr. Rassam that the Commander-in-Chief had accepted the cows: an unfortunate mistake, as it misled and deceived Theodore, but so far opportune, that it probably saved the lives of the Europeans still in his power. When the Europeans who had returned to Selassi to bring down their families, and Samuel, approached the Emperor, his first question was, "Have the cows been accepted?" Samuel, bowing respectfully before him, said: "The English Ras says to you, 'I have accepted your present: may God give it back to you.'" On that Theodore drew a long breath, as if relieved of a deep anxiety, and told the Europeans, "Take your families and go." To Mr. Waldmeier he said, "You also want to leave me; well, go: now that I have friendship with the English, if I want ten Waldmeiers I have only to ask for them." In the afternoon the European workmen and their families, Mr. Staiger and his party, Mrs. Flad and children, Samuel, and our servants, all came into the British camp. They had been allowed to take away their property, and on their departure Theodore, in good spirits, bade them good-by. On Saturday, the 11th, Sir Robert Napier had clearly pointed out to Dejatch Alamé, the course he had adopted, and that not only the captives, but Theodore also, must come into the British camp before twenty-four hours, otherwise hostilities would begin anew; but at the urgent request of Dejatch Alamé, who knew how difficult it would be for Theodore to comply with that part of the order which referred to himself, he promised to extend to forty-eight hours the term he had fixed upon for his ultimatum to be acceded to. On the morning of the 18th, the Emperor having not as yet made his submission, it became necessary to compel him to obey, and steps were being taken to complete the work so ably begun, when several of the greatest chiefs of Theodore's army made their appearance, stating that they came in their own name and in that of the soldiers of the garrison, to lay down their arms and surrender the fortress; they added that, Theodore, accompanied by about fifty followers, had made his escape during the night. It appears that the evening before, Theodore, on hearing that the cows had not been accepted, but were still outside the English pickets, believed that he had been deceived, and that, if he fell into the hands of the English, he would either be doomed to chains or to a cruel death. All night he walked about Selassié anxious and cast down, and towards early morn called upon his people to follow him. But instead of obeying they retired to another part of the plain. Theodore shot the two nearest to him; but this daring act did not quell the mutinous disposition of the soldiery: on the contrary, they only retreated further back. With the few men who followed him, he passed through the Kafir Ber, but had not gone far before he saw the Gallas advancing from all sides in order to surround him and his party. He then said to his few faithful followers, "Leave me: I will die alone." They refused; on that he said to them, "You are right; but let us return to the mountain: it is better to die by the hands of Christians." The surrender of the army, the storming of Magdala, the self-inflicted death of Theodore, are too well-known facts for me to enlarge upon them I entered the place shortly after it had been occupied by our troops. One of the first objects that attracted my attention was the dead body of Theodore. There was a smile on his lip--that happy smile he so seldom wore of late: it gave an air of calm grandeur to the features of one whose career had been so remarkable, whose cruelties are almost unparalleled in history; but who at the last hour seemed to have recalled the days of his youth, fought like a brave man, and killed himself rather than surrender. I remained that night in Magdala. It seemed passing strange to spend a night as a free man in the same hut where I had been so long confined a prisoner. English soldiers now guarded our former gaolers, the queen was our guest, the dead body of Theodore lay in one of our huts: in the short span of forty-eight hours our position had so completely changed that it was difficult to realize it: at times I was apprehensive of being the victim of a delusion. I was too excited to sleep. General Wilby, his aide-de-camp Captain Cappel, and his brigade-major Major Hicks, shared my hut; hungry and tired they enjoyed quite as much as I did, the simple Abyssinian dish of teps, the peppery sauce, and some tej, which we ourselves went to fetch from the cellars in the royal buildings. The next day we returned to Arogié, and during my stay there I received the kind hospitality of General Merewether. On the 16th, some of the released captives and myself started for Dalanta, where we waited a few days until all had joined; and on the 21st, after Sir Robert Napier had presented us to our deliverers, we proceeded on our way to the coast, and reached Zulla on the 28th of May. Looking back now, a free man in a free country, the past appears to me like a horrible dream, a kind of missing link in my life; and when I remember that our deliverance was followed so shortly afterwards by the self-destruction of the passionate despot who held us in his power, I can find no truer solution to this difficult problem, than the words inscribed by the warm-hearted countrymen of Kerans, on the banner that floated at Ahascragh to welcome his return, "God is good, who set you free." ERRATUM. Page 33, line 13,--_For_ "Samuel, the Georgis balderaba" _Read_ "Samuel Georgis, the balderaba" 
39615	----	THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF BRUCE, THE AFRICAN TRAVELLER. BY MAJOR SIR FRANCIS B. HEAD. Magna est veritas, ot prævalebit: FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET. 1840 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. [Illustration: JAMES BRUCE.] New York, Harper & Brothers. ADVERTISEMENT. The following work is one of no ordinary interest. It presents such an example of heroic fortitude, constancy, and perseverance under trials and difficulties, as cannot fail to excite in us the highest admiration. Few individuals have been placed in circumstances of greater peril and suffering than Bruce the traveller; and none, perhaps, ever more strikingly displayed that rare combination of tact and courage, which enables their possessor to triumph over every obstacle. Much practical wisdom, therefore, may be gathered from reading this volume. The country, too, visited by Bruce, and his account of its people, their history, government, laws, customs, traditions, &c., have peculiar claims on our attention. Abyssinia, remote and barbarous as it is, has, from the earliest period, steadily retained a form of Christianity. This is certainly a very remarkable phenomenon, cut off almost entirely, as that country has been, from communication with other Christian states, and surrounded on every side by Pagan and Mohammedan nations. Hence the most lively curiosity has been manifested to know more of a people who have thus marvellously preserved their ancient faith in the midst of barbarism, idolatry, and the fierce fanaticism of the followers of the Prophet. Of the few travellers who have succeeded in penetrating this secluded and dangerous country, none have had anything like the ample opportunities possessed by Bruce to obtain minute and accurate information, and no one could more faithfully improve the advantages thus fortunately offered him. The groundless and ungenerous distrust with which his statements were received for years after his return (and which is very properly noticed and rebuked by his biographer) has passed away, and his travels may now be read as containing not only the fullest, but the most authentic and credible account of Abyssinia, and the singular people by which it is inhabited. This volume will be found written in a familiar, lively, and agreeable style, and to contain whatever is most interesting in the larger work of Bruce. It is published from the last English edition, carefully revised and corrected by the American editor, with the omission of a few passages of minor interest, not essential to the completeness of the narrative. H. & B. New-York, August, 1840. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Bruce's Birth--Education--Marriage.--Travels in Europe Page 9 CHAPTER II. Bruce's Residence at Algiers as British Consul 25 CHAPTER III. Bruce Travels through the Kingdoms of Tunis and Tripoli--Is Wrecked--Beaten by the Arabs--Sails to Crete, Rhodes, Asia Minor, and Syria--Visits Palmyra and Baalbec--Is Detained at Cyprus--Sails for Egypt 39 CHAPTER IV. Bruce arrives at Cairo--Has very singular Interviews with the Bey--Sails up the Nile--Gains a promise of Protection from the Arabs Ababdé--Visits the Sepulchres of Thebes--Reaches the Cataract of Syene--Descends the Nile to Keffe 53 CHAPTER V. Bruce crosses the Desert to the Red Sea--Meets with the Arabs Ababdé at Cosseir--His Adventures in the Red Sea--Arrives at Massuah, the ancient Harbour of Abyssinia 74 CHAPTER VI. 95 CHAPTER VII. A short Description of Abyssinia 101 CHAPTER VIII. A Sketch of the History of the Kingdom of Abyssinia 114 CHAPTER IX. Bruce's Arrival and dangerous Detention in Masuah 140 CHAPTER X. Journey from Arkeeko, over the Mountain of Tarenta to Gondar, the Capital of Abyssinia 153 CHAPTER XI. Bruce resides at Gondar, and gradually raises himself to distinction 199 CHAPTER XII. Bruce accompanies the King's Army, and returns with it to Gondar 222 CHAPTER XIII. Bruce again attempts to reach the Fountains of the Nile, and succeeds 239 CHAPTER XIV. Bruce returns to Gondar.--His Residence there.--Accompanies the King in the Battles of Serbraxos.--Revolution at Gondar.--Defeat and Overthrow of Ras Michael.--Bruce returns to Gondar, and succeeds in obtaining Permission to leave Abyssinia 271 CHAPTER XV. Bruce leaves Gondar and travels to Sennaar, the Capital of Nubia 297 CHAPTER XVI. Bruce leaves Sennaar.--Crosses the great Desert of Nubia.--His Distress.--Reaches Syene, on the Nile 326 CHAPTER XVII. Kind Reception at Assouan.--Arrival at Cairo.--Transactions with the Bey there.--Lands at Marseilles 354 CHAPTER XVIII. Bruce returns to Europe.--Visits Paris--Italy.--Returns to England.--Quarrels with the Writers of the Day.--Retires to Scotland.--Marries.--At last publishes his Travels.--The Incredulity of the Credulous.--Bruce's Disappointment--Sorrow--Death 364 LIFE OF BRUCE, THE AFRICAN TRAVELLER. CHAPTER I. Bruce's Birth--Education--Marriage.--Travels in Europe. James Bruce was born at the family residence of Kinnaird, in the county of Stirling, in Scotland, on the 14th day of December, 1730. His father was the eldest son of Helen Bruce of Kinnaird,[1] and David Hay of Woodcockdale, descended from an old and respectable branch of the Hays of Enroll, distinguished in ancient Scottish history by their bravery, and who received from Robert I. the hereditary office of high-constable of Scotland. Bruce's mother was the daughter of James Graham, Esq., of Airth, dean of the faculty of advocates, and judge of the high court of admiralty in Scotland: a man distinguished by his abilities, and respected for his public and private virtues. On the 23d of November, 1733, Bruce lost his mother. She died of a lingering disorder, which had long undermined her constitution; and, scarcely, three years old, he thus unconsciously suffered the greatest misfortune that can befall a child, and which nothing in this world can compensate. A few years afterward, his father married the daughter of James Glen, of Longcroft, in the shire of Linlithgow, by whom he had two daughters and six sons, one of whom, while fighting as a volunteer in the forlorn hope, was mortally wounded in the breach of a fortress at the Havannah; another, in the service of the East India Company, proposed the attack, and led on the party which, on the 3d of August, 1780, took from the Mahrattas the fortress of Gualior. Though well formed, Bruce did not, as a child, appear to possess the athletic constitution and unusual stature which he attained in manhood. The relentless disorder which had hurried his mother to an early grave, seemed to have recoiled upon him: he was subject to frequent pains in the breast; and his temper, contrary to the impetuous and daring character which it afterward assumed, was mild, quiet, and gentle. At eight years of age, his father, resolving to give to his apparent heir the advantages of a liberal education, sent him to London to the friendly care of his uncle, Counsellor Hamilton, under whose superintendence he remained until the year 1742, when, being twelve years old, he was removed to Harrow school, then conducted by Dr. Cox. Young Bruce prosecuted his studies with unusual steadiness and assiduity; and, on the 14th of July, 1744, Dr. Glen wrote to Bruce's father, his brother-in-law, as follows: "What I wrote to you about James is all true, with this difference only, that you may say, as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon, the one half has not been told you, for I never saw so fine a lad of his years in my life; but, lest I should have been deceived in my own opinion of him, I waited purposely on Dr. Cox to get information how he was profiting, whose answer to me on that occasion was this: 'When you write to Mr. Bruce's father about his son, you cannot say too much; for he is as promising a young man as ever I had under my care, and, for his years, I never saw his fellow.'" Bruce remained at Harrow till the 8th of May, 1746; and, in the four years he was at school, he not only acquired a competent share of classical knowledge, but won the esteem of many individuals, whose valuable friendship he retained through life. He was now nearly sixteen years of age; but his health, which had always been delicate, was by no means confirmed. He was much too tall for his age; his breast was weak: his general appearance indicated that he had grown faster than his strength; and his relations were alarmed lest he should become consumptive: however, it was now necessary to consider what profession he was to follow, and Mr. Hamilton was accordingly requested by the elder Bruce to speak to him upon this important subject. Mr. Hamilton was much pleased with young Bruce's replies; and on the 28th of July, 1746, he addressed his father as follows: "He is a mighty good youth, a very good scholar, and extremely good tempered; has good solid sense, and a good understanding. I have talked to him about what profession he would most incline to: he very modestly says he will apply himself to whatever profession you shall direct, but he, in his own inclination, would study divinity and be a parson. The study of the law, and also that of divinity, are, indeed, both of them attended with uncertainty of success; but as he inclines to the profession of a clergyman, for which he has a well-fitted gravity, I must leave it to you to give your own directions; though I think, in general, it is most advisable to comply with a young man's inclination, especially as the profession which he proposes is in every respect fit for a gentleman." This curious picture of young Bruce's early character may appear extraordinary when compared with the performances of his after life; yet a few moments' reflection will reconcile the seeming contradiction. Many men possess talents--many possess application--the very few who possess both become what we justly term great men: there is, however, one other ingredient, namely, health, which, in proportion to its amount, induces men to seek occupations more or less active and sedentary; and it may be observed, that this ingredient, like the down which conveys many vegetable seeds to a distant soil, transports men to the remotest regions; thus scattering over the surface of the earth talents and application which, without a superabundance of health, would have been all confined at home, and directed to nearly the same pursuits: and hence it was that Bruce, when a sickly lad, as much surprised his friends by his grave, sedentary disposition, as he afterward astonished them by his wild, wandering propensities and daring researches. After leaving Harrow, Bruce went, for about a year, to an academy, where, besides the classics, he studied French, arithmetic, and geometry. In compliance with his father's wishes, he cheerfully abandoned his inclination to enter the church, and agreed to prosecute his future studies with the view of becoming an advocate at the Scottish bar. He accordingly took leave of his English friends--one of whom, Mr. Hamilton, wrote to Mr. D. Bruce in the following terms: "As to my giving him advice with respect to his conduct and behaviour on his journey, I apprehend that to be entirely unnecessary, because it is with pleasure I think that God Almighty has given him an understanding superior to what is common at his age, and sufficient, I hope, to conduct him through all the various stages of life." With this well-earned character, young Bruce returned to his native country in the month of May, 1747. He arrived in better health than his father had been led to expect, and spent the whole of the autumn in the enjoyment of the sports of the field, for which he suddenly acquired a partiality that he retained to the last hour of his life. Considerably strengthened by this manly and healthy recreation, at the end of the year he commenced his studies at the University of Edinburgh, by attending the lectures of the professors of civil law, Scotch law, and universal history; but he now found how much easier it is for a young man to promise than to perform, and how painfully the mind proceeds on the journey which it has not willingly undertaken. The intricate and tedious details of the Roman and Scottish codes were subjects for which Bruce's eager mind had no affinity: they were grave companions with whom he soon felt that he could never associate. In vain he studied distinctions which he did not remember, and puzzled himself with points of which he could not comprehend the importance. An ardent admirer of truth and simplicity, he very rashly conceived that in the studies which his father had proposed for him he could worship neither; but while, in filial obedience, he hung his bewildered head over his law-books, his youthful heart was apparently devoted to lovelier and more congenial objects; for on the leaves of "Elementa Juris Civilis Heineccii," on which stands the name of "James Bruce, 1749," we find written, in the midst of some very grave maxims, "Bella ingrata, io morirò!" with other equally loving sentiments from Metastasio and Ariosto. However, Bruce's bodily sickness soon closed the serious volume of the law: his health became impaired, and his physicians, wisely prescribing for his mind rather than for his body, ordered him to return to the country to enjoy fresh air and exercise. This simple medicine soon restored him to health; but it was now acknowledged that his prospect of succeeding at the bar was very limited, and to his great joy it was at last determined that he should abandon that learned profession for ever. He was, in fact, incompetent to perform its labours; and yet it is not unworthy of remark, that the boy who was thus lost in the labyrinths of Scottish law lived to be the man who afterward reached the long-hidden fountains of the Nile! Bruce remained for several years without a profession. He at last fixed on India as a field, the distance, vastness, and novelty of which were best suited to the ardent disposition of his mind; but, being now considerably above the age for receiving a writership from the East India Company, he resolved to petition the Court of Directors for permission to settle under its patronage as a free trader. In July, 1753, in the twenty-second year of his age, he left Scotland with the view of prosecuting this design. On arriving in London, his English friends and former acquaintances received him with the greatest kindness; and, during the time he spent in soliciting permission from the directors, he lived among them in the interesting character of one who was soon to leave them for a very considerable period of his life. By one of those friends whose kindness he was thus enjoying, he was introduced to Adriana Allan, whose mind accorded with the beauty of her person. She was the daughter of Mrs. Allan, the widow of an eminent wine-merchant, who had raised himself to opulence by diligence and integrity. This young person was elegant in her manners and appearance, and as remarkable for a gentle, unassuming temper, as for a warm, affectionate disposition. Bruce fell in love with this interesting young lady, and accordingly addressed himself to Mrs. Allan, who listened with approbation to the proposal of marriage which he had already made to her daughter; and she herself suggested that, having no profession, he should take a share in the wine-trade; and, although Bruce knew nothing of that business, as it was to be the link which was to connect him with the object of his affections, he eagerly assented to the proposal. The marriage took place on the 3d of February, 1754, and Bruce took an active part in the management of the concern. The dealings of the company were extensive, and he appeared now to be on a road which was to lead him to wealth and happiness; but this flattering prospect became suddenly overcast. His young wife had inherited from her family the seeds of a fatal disease, which, in a few months after her marriage, made it necessary for her to leave the foggy atmosphere of London. She resided at Bristol for a few months, for the benefit of the waters, though with little advantage: her complaint was alleviated, but not removed. Her last journey was to try the mild climate of the south of France. Exhausted, however, by travelling, she was obliged to stop at Paris, where she apparently rallied for a few days; but consumption was only insidiously gaining strength to overpower her, and a week after her arrival she again relapsed, the hectic flush vanished, and she expired! While Bruce was attending her during her last moments, he was driven almost to distraction by the disgraceful bigotry of the French priests, who, in the garb of Christian ministers, crowded around his door to persecute the last moments of one whom they termed a dying heretic; and, even when the pale object of their unmanly persecution had ceased to exist, their intolerant fury sought to deny her Christian burial. At the hour of midnight, when the savage passions of his enemies were lulled in sleep, Bruce attended the corpse of his young wife to her untimely grave; and a month afterward, on the 12th of November, 1754, he thus addressed his father: "My mind is so shocked, and the impression of that dreadful scene at Paris so strongly fixed, that I have it every minute before my eyes as distinctly as it was then happening. Myself a stranger in the country; my servants unacquainted with the language and country, my presence so necessary among them, and indispensably so with my dear wife; my poor girl dying before my eyes, full of that affection and tenderness which marriage produces when people feel the happiness, but not the cares of it; many of the Roman Catholic clergy hovering about the doors, myself unable to find any expedient to keep them from disturbing her in her last moments.... But I will write no more. I cannot, however, omit telling you an instance of Lord Albemarle's very great humanity. The morning before my wife died he sent his chaplain down to offer his services in our distress. After hearing the service for the sick read, and receiving the sacrament together, he told me, in case I received any trouble from the priests, my lord desired I would tell them I belonged to the English ambassador. When my wife died, the chaplain came again to me, desired me to go home with him, and assured me that my lord had given him orders to see my wife buried in the ambassador's burying-ground, which was accordingly done; and, had it not been for this piece of humanity, she must have been buried in the common yard where the wood is piled that serves the town for firing. Having ordered the mournful solemnity, with as much decency as is allowed in that country to heretics, at midnight, between the 10th and 11th ult., accompanied only by the chaplain, a brother of my Lord Foley's, and our own servants, we carried her body to the burying-ground at the Porte St. Martin, where I saw all my comfort and happiness laid with her in the grave. From thence, almost frantic, against the advice of everybody, I got on horseback, having ordered the servant to have post-horses ready, and set out, in the most tempestuous night I ever saw, for Boulogne, where I arrived next day without stopping. There the riding in the night-time, in the rain, want of food, which for a long time I had not tasted, want of rest, fatigue, and excessive concern, threw me into a fever; but, after repeated bleedings, and the great care taken of me by Mr. Hay, I recovered well enough to set out for London on the Wednesday. I arrived at home on the Thursday, when my fever again returned, and a violent pain in my breast. Thus ended my unfortunate journey, and with it my present prospects of happiness in this life." After this melancholy event Bruce returned to his business in London; but he soon found that the tie which had connected him with the wine-trade was completely broken. He therefore at once gave up the chief burden of its management to his brother; and, resolving to embrace the first opportunity to resign his share altogether, he applied himself to studies calculated to divert his mind from painful thoughts and recollections. For about two years he occupied himself with the Spanish and Portuguese languages, which he learned to pronounce with great accuracy. He also laboured hard in practising several different styles of drawing. Fortunately for his views, the trade in which he was engaged required a regular and constant intercourse with France, Portugal, and Spain. The plan which he had secretly formed of visiting the Continent happily coincided, therefore, with his business; and he looked forward to the time when he should travel over the south of Europe with the taste and judgment of a scholar. After having made a short visit to the islands of Guernsey and Alderney, he sailed in the month of July for the Continent, and spent the remainder of the year in Portugal and Spain. His professed object was to be present at the vintage of that season, while his real intention was to view the state of society and of science in those kingdoms. He landed at Corunna, in Gallicia, on the 5th of July, and proceeded to Ferrol, where he remained a few days. From Ferrol he travelled to Oporto, and thence to Lisbon. In Portugal he was much diverted with the novelty of manners and customs so different from those of his own country; and his journals during this period are filled with satirical observations on the apparent pride and stiffness of the nobility, and the ignorance of the clergy. The following may be given as a specimen of one of his first impressions as a young traveller: "There are many particular customs in Portugal, all of which may be known by this rule--that, whatever is done in the rest of the world in one way, is in Portugal done by the contrary, even to the rocking of the cradle, which, I believe, in all the rest of the world is from side to side, but in Portugal is from head to foot; I fancy it is from this early contrariety that their brains work in so different a manner all their lives after. A Portuguese boatman always rows standing, not with his face, but his back to the stern of the boat, and pushes his oar from him. When he lands you, he turns the stern of the boat to the shore, and not the head; if a man and woman ride on the same mule, the woman sits before the man, with her face the contrary way to what they do in England; when you take leave of any person to whom you have been paying a visit, the master of the house always goes out of the room, down stairs, and out of the house before you," &c. After travelling about Portugal for nearly four months, Bruce entered Spain; but, instead of going at once to Madrid, he turned to the right, passed through Toledo, and made an excursion over the mountains into the province of New Castile. Having advanced beyond the Sierra Morena, he traversed the districts of Cordova and Seville, on the river Guadalquivir, and about the middle of November reached Madrid. In this rapid journey he seems to have considerably improved his knowledge of the Spanish language, and to have made several attentive and judicious observations. His character, which had hitherto been concealed by various untoward circumstances, now began to appear in its real colours. The traces of Oriental manners visible in the south of Spain, the ruined palaces of the Caliphs, and the tales of romantic chivalry interwoven with the Moorish wars, suggested to him the idea that an inquiry into the history of Spain during the eight centuries in which it was possessed by the Arabs would elucidate many of the obscure causes which had obstructed the prosperity of that country.[2] Two large and unexplored collections of Arabic manuscripts belonging to the Spanish crown were lying buried in the monastery of St. Lawrence and in the Library of the Escurial; and, though Bruce was as yet but little acquainted with the Arabic language, he felt a strong ambition to trace, through this tedious labyrinth, the Moorish history of the country. On reaching Madrid, he procured an introduction to Don Ricardo Wall, minister to his Catholic majesty, a gentleman of British extraction, and of superior abilities; and from him he earnestly solicited assistance in the researches which he desired to make in Arabic literature. Mr. Wall frankly told Bruce, that the jealousy with which the Spaniards concealed their historical records from every intelligent foreigner obstructed all access to the Library of the Escurial; but the minister, pleased with the adventurous spirit and the intelligence which he evinced, used every endeavour to persuade him to enter his master's service. Bruce, however, had already many roaming projects in his head: he was therefore unwilling to settle; and, like the swallow, about to take its departure it knows not where, he kept constantly on the wing, flying apparently everywhere rather than be at rest. After having made many observations on the several places which he visited in Spain, on Christmas day, 1757, he arrived at Pampeluna, the capital of Navarre, on his way to France. Crossing the Pyrenees, he went to Bordeaux, where, delighted with the cheerful vivacity of French society, he remained several months among friends and some relations who were residing there. From Bordeaux he travelled through France to Strasburg; then, following the course of the Rhine to its confluence with the Maine, he visited Frankfort. Returning to the romantic valley of the Rhine, he visited Cologne, from whence he proceeded to Brussels, the capital of the Austrian Netherlands, which country he had long been extremely desirous to examine. On the second day after his arrival, he happened to be in the company of a young man, a perfect stranger to him, who was rudely insulted. Bruce foolishly remonstrated with the aggressor, who sent him a challenge, which he accepted. They met; and Bruce, having wounded his antagonist, left Brussels immediately for Holland; whence, proceeding towards Hanover, he arrived in time to see the battle of Crevelt. This was the first military operation which he had ever witnessed. He had often boasted, and still more often dreamed, of what he was always delighted to call the _exploits_ of his ancestors, but hitherto he had only read or heard of war. The moment he became acquainted with its reality, it appeared to his excited mind to be a brilliant game, teeming with prizes and blanks; a legal gambling of life, which, by comparison, made every other employment appear trifling and insipid; and, impressed with these feelings, he resolved to forsake the peaceful life he had hitherto led, and seek adventures more congenial, as he conceived, to the spirit of his ancestors. On his way to England he received a letter at Rotterdam informing him of the death of his father. The inestimable affection of a mother Bruce had never known; and, by the demise of his father, a man of excellent character and sound abilities, he was now deprived of all that he had ever known of parental love. He immediately proceeded to England, where he arrived in the end of July, 1758. In consequence of his father's death, Bruce succeeded to the family estate of Kinnaird, a respectable inheritance, but inadequate to the wants of his growing ambition. He did not immediately visit Scotland, being partly occupied with his concern in the wine-trade: but he gradually retired from this occupation, and in 1761, three years after his return, the partnership was legally dissolved. During this period he had been diligently employed in acquiring the Eastern languages; and, in the course of studying the Arabic (a branch of learning at that time little connected with European knowledge), he was induced to examine, in the works of Ludolf, the Ethiopic or Geez tongue, which first directed his attention to the mountains of Abyssinia. While he was thus employed, the establishment of the Carron Company in Scotland made a very considerable addition to his fortune: his property partly consisting of coal-mines, which were required by that company for the smelting of their iron. A circumstance now happened which forms the leading feature in the singular history of Bruce's life. During the few days which he had spent at Ferrol, in Gallicia, a report was circulated that the court of Spain was about to engage in war with Great Britain. On considering the means of defence which the place possessed, it appeared to Bruce that an attack on it by a British squadron could not fail of being successful, and that, in case of a war with Spain, it was the point at which that country ought to be invaded. On his return to England, although perfectly unknown to the public, our travelling partner in the wine-trade boldly resolved to submit his project to Mr. Pitt. He accordingly fully explained to his friend Mr. Wood, then under secretary of state, the facts on which he had formed his opinion; and, unwilling to appear as one of those who valorously invent expeditions of danger which they most prudently call upon others to carry into execution, he concluded by saying, that, in case a war with Spain should be resolved on by the ministry, if the king would intrust him in a single boat with a pair of colours, he would plant them with his own hand on the beach at Ferrol. Bruce was now sent for by Mr. Pitt, with whom he had the honour of conversing on the subject; and, at the minister's suggestion, he drew up a memorandum of his project. He was shortly after informed by Mr. Wood that Mr. Pitt intended to employ him on a particular service; that he might, however, go down for a few weeks to his own country to settle his affairs, but that he must not fail to be ready upon a call. "Nothing could be more flattering," says Bruce, "than such an offer; to be thought worthy, when so young, of any employment by Mr. Pitt, was doubly a preferment." No time was lost; but, just after Bruce had received orders to return to London, Mr. Pitt went to Bath and resigned his office. This disappointment was the more sensibly felt, as it was the first Bruce had met with in public life. However, shortly after Mr. Pitt's resignation, he was informed by Mr. Wood that the memorandum he had addressed to Mr. Pitt had been laid before the king, and had been strongly recommended by Lord Halifax. The Earl of Egremont and Mr. Grenville had now several meetings with Bruce, to concert an expedition against Ferrol, the execution of which was to be intrusted to Lord Howe; but, at the earnest request of the Portuguese ambassador, the project was abandoned, and, on the death of Lord Egremont, Bruce's expectations again vanished. Disappointed in his offer of public service, he retired to his estate in Scotland; but he was shortly again called to London by Lord Halifax, who, appreciating Bruce's character, nobly observed to him, that, being in the vigour of life, at the height of his reading, health, and activity, it would be ignoble were he to turn peasant, and bury himself in obscurity and idleness, while the coast of Barbary, which might be said to be just at our door, had been but partially explored by Dr. Shaw, who had not pretended to give to the public any details of the magnificent remains of ruined architecture which he, as well as Sanson, had vouched to have seen in great abundance over the whole of that country. Lord Halifax therefore expressed a wish that Bruce should be the first, in the reign just now commencing, to set an example of making large additions to the royal collection; he pledged himself to be his supporter and patron, and to make good to him the promises which he had received from former ministers. The discovery of the source of the Nile was also a subject of their conversation; and although it was mentioned as a thing to be accomplished only by a more experienced traveller, yet Bruce always declared it was at that instant of his life that his heart suggested to him "that this great discovery should either," as he says, "be achieved by me, or remain, as it had done for the last two thousand years, a defiance to all travellers, and an opprobrium to geography." Fortune seemed to favour his scheme. Mr. Aspinall, having been very cruelly and ignominiously treated by the Dey of Algiers, had resigned his consulship, and Mr. Ford, a merchant, the dey's acquaintance, had been appointed in his stead: but, he dying a few days afterward, the consulship again became vacant, and Lord Halifax pressed Bruce to accept it, as being convenient for aiding him in the proposed expedition. "This favourable event," says Bruce, "finally determined me. I had all my life applied unweariedly, perhaps with more love than talent, to drawing, the practice of mathematics, and especially that part necessary to astronomy. The transit of Venus was at hand. It was certainly known that it would be visible once at Algiers, and there was great reason to expect that it might be twice. I had furnished myself with a large apparatus of instruments, the completest of their kind, for the observation. In the choice of these I had been assisted by my friend Admiral Campbell, and Mr. Russell, secretary to the Turkish Company. Every other necessary had been provided in proportion. It was a pleasure now to know that it was not from a rock or a wood, but from my own house at Algiers, I could deliberately take measures to place myself in the list of men of science of all nations who were then preparing for the same scientific attempt." On his appointment to be consul at Algiers, Bruce had the honour of being presented to his majesty George III., who graciously requested him to make accurate drawings of the ruins of ancient architecture which he should discover in the course of his travels; and to give Bruce a liberal opportunity of improving his taste, and to qualify him for collecting with greater ability the remains of antiquity in Africa (the southern region of the Roman empire), it was arranged that he should travel through France into Italy, and remain there for some months, under the pretext of waiting for despatches which were to be there forwarded to him. Delighted with prospects so congenial to his disposition, being now thirty-two years of age, he sailed from England in June, 1762; and, though some objections had been made as to particular passports solicited by the British government from the French secretary of state, M. de Choiseul waived such exceptions with regard to Bruce, and politely assured him, in a letter accompanying his passport, that those difficulties did not in any shape regard him, but that he was perfectly at liberty to pass through, or to remain in France, with those who might accompany him, without limiting their number, as short or as long a time as should be agreeable to him. Having arrived at Rome (August, 1762), Bruce proceeded to Naples, and there, for some months, awaited his majesty's farther commands. He afterward went to Florence, where he remained most studiously occupied for a considerable time. It would be tedious to enter into a detail of the antiquities, paintings, and other curiosities which Bruce observed in the course of his journey, as they have been visited by thousands of Englishmen, and have been minutely described by travellers of every possible description. It is only necessary to state that Bruce made very minute memoranda respecting every remarkable place or object which he visited;[3] that his catalogue of paintings is very extensive; and that his notes indicate the variety of his knowledge, the correctness of his judgment, and the exalted feelings with which he visited those faded scenes of Roman glory, which, like Byron's "Greece," may be justly compared to a corpse from which a noble spirit has departed. While at Naples, he received from slaves, redeemed from the province of Constantia, descriptions of magnificent ruins which they had seen while traversing that country in the camp of their master, the bey; and as it was Bruce's intention not only to take accurate drawings of these, but also to endeavour to make a map of the country, with observations on its natural history, and on the manners and language of its inhabitants, he justly concluded that the packing and repacking, mounting and rectifying the instruments alone would wholly occupy one man; and he therefore wrote to several of his correspondents, requesting them to procure him an assistant. For a long time no one appeared willing to share the fatigues of such journeys; but at last a young man was engaged who was then studying architecture at Rome. He was a native of Bologna, named Luigi Balugani. Besides the assistance of this person, Bruce provided himself in England with two camera obscuras, the largest of which was made of separate pieces, folding compactly on hinges: its body was a hexagon of six feet diameter, with a conical top; in this instrument, as in a summer-house, the draughtsman sat unseen, and in executing views of ruined architecture, could do more work in an hour than the readiest artist, without such assistance, in seven. After having passed eight months at Naples, Rome, Bologna, and Florence,[4] during which time he most attentively visited the antiquities, paintings, cabinets, &c., availing himself of every opportunity to improve his skill in drawing, he at last received his despatches from England. Proceeding immediately to Leghorn, Bruce embarked on board the Montreal man-of-war, and arrived at Algiers on the 15th of March, 1763. FOOTNOTES: [1] The Bruces of Kinnaird trace their pedigree to that Norman house which once occupied the throne of Scotland. [2] See M. Florian's History of the Moors of Spain, published by Harper & Brothers, 1840. [3] It appears, from sketches found among his papers, that he intended to write a dissertation on the ancient and modern state of Rome. [4] The papers which are preserved relating to this journey are: "A Narrative of the Route from Turin to Bologna--Inscriptions--Account of Trajan's Tables--of Bologna--of the Paintings there--Route from Bologna to Rome--Description of the Paintings in St. Peter's--the Vatican--the Capitol--Belvidere--Albano--Barbarini Palace--in the Palaces Spado--Little Farnese--Corsini--Borghese, &c.--Route from Rome to Naples--Dissertation on Ancient and Modern Rome, Florence, &c., &c." CHAPTER II. Bruce's Residence at Algiers as British Consul. We have already stated that Bruce had been appointed to the consulship of Algiers, to succeed Mr. Aspinall, who had been recalled. This gentleman had, with great firmness and integrity, opposed many unjust demands made on him by the dey, who, in consequence, sent a letter to England requesting that he might be dismissed, and Mr. Ford, a British merchant, appointed in his stead. This official document, addressed "to the English vizier, Mr. Pitt," is a curious specimen of barbarous diplomacy: "My high friend: For some time past, John Ford was a merchant at Algiers, whom we desire you to appoint consul, and send him a day the sooner to us, because your consul in Algiers is an obstinate person, and like an animal!" This Mr. Ford died in England; and Bruce, on his arrival at Algiers, presented to the old dey credentials from his Britannic majesty, graciously appointing as consul "our trusty and well-beloved James Bruce, Esq., whom, by his birth and education, as well as by his knowledge and experience, we have judged to be every way qualified for this trust." Ali Pasha, the dey of Algiers, was one of those savage characters who, on the coast of Barbary, are very appropriately distinguished by the appellation of great men. In the history of mankind, it is curious to observe how, in the various conditions of society, different descriptions of men rise to the surface, where they remain until a moral revolution, altering their specific gravity, obliges them to sink into oblivion. In a highly-civilized community, a man rises to distinction by the estimable qualities of his nature: in an uncivilized country he climbs above his comrades by violence and cruelty. The Dey of Algiers was, therefore, well-suited to the manners of the country in which he lived. Although a very old man, Bruce found him preparing most vigorously for the siege of Oran: his tent and camp equipage were ready; and he declared it to be his intention to command in person, that, by dying at the siege of Oran, he might merit Paradise.[5] On the 1st of May, 1763, Bruce wrote to Lord Egremont to announce his arrival; and the concluding sentence of even this, his first official communication, to use a vulgar expression, "smells strongly of the shop," or, rather, of the shambles, which he was doomed to inhabit: "I have nothing farther to trouble your lordship with," says the new consul, "at present, only that the late aga was strangled a very few days ago by order of the dey, and that Amor Rais, late ambassador in England, has been deprived of his employment here as captain of the port, and is gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca." Shortly afterward the prime minister, who had been expected to succeed the dey, was arrested in his presence, and instantly strangled; and all his relations, and even his friends, were privately put to death, in order to stifle any inclination they might feel, to complain of the murder of this personage. Not long after, the French Consul hesitating to comply with some orders received from the dey, he immediately loaded him with chains, and threatened to have him harnessed to the stone-carts! On the appointment of every new consul at Algiers, it had always been customary that he should bring with him a present, which is generally supposed in England to be delivered to the dey himself: but this is not the case. It is distributed among all the public officers, who consider it as their due rather than as a gift which they are fortunate enough to receive. Bruce's present consisted principally of blue cloth, his distribution of which furnished an odd picture of rank at Algiers, which seems to be what we should term "High Life below Stairs"--for the dey's "chief cook" shared equally with the "dey's brother," his "chamberlain," his "ambassador to the Ottoman Porte," and his "two principal secretaries"--each of whom received eleven yards of cloth: the dey's "second cook," the "admiral," the "first commander of the navy," the "captain of the port," and the "master carpenter," each received eight yards; while the "captain of marine," the "secretary for prizes," the "comptroller of the dey's house," and his highness's "barber," claimed four yards. In consequence of a late increase in the number of officers, Bruce's present was not sufficient to satisfy them all: he therefore himself purchased articles to a considerable amount, respecting which he thus wrote to his friend Mr. Wood, the under-secretary of state: "For my own part, though I hope his majesty and the secretary of state will consider the circumstances of this expense of mine, so that I may not lose this £213; yet, if they should not do it, I shall myself never repent having advanced the money, and lost it, rather than, in my time, his majesty should lose the affection of this people." About the year 1757, a vessel bound to Algiers was seized by the Spaniards in Oran, and the dey had ever since importuned the British government for indemnification for the cargo. Bruce had firmly resisted this claim (which the government at home also refused to admit), but it placed him in a very difficult situation, and on the 8th of March, 1764, he thus wrote to Lord Halifax: "I am much importuned for your lordship's answer to the demand of compensation for the cargo belonging to the Algerines, seized on board a British bilander[6] in the port of Oran. They imagine it is owing to my not having wrote, or to my having received the money and not inclining to pay it, that as yet they have obtained no satisfaction. Twenty or thirty of them are concerned in this cargo, and it is all that many of them have in the world. Upon this account I have already been exposed to very great personal danger from the license of the soldiers, which I should in no way regret were the occasion honourable, or did it conduce to his majesty's service." On the 3d of June Bruce again addressed Lord Halifax, to inform him of the situation of affairs, and frankly to explain to him the fatal error that had been committed by the British government in recalling the late consul, Mr. Aspinall. "The demand of the Moors still continues. I cannot conceal from your lordship that I have been very lately, with little decency, forced to appear before a Turkish judge, to answer whether I would or would not oblige myself personally for the payment of this debt; and it is with very much concern that I acquaint your lordship that the recall of Mr. Aspinall has had the very worst effect upon British in particular, and Christian affairs in general: the king has declared that he will change consuls every two years; for which he assigns no reason, though it is in order to receive presents more frequently; and he is now assuming the nomination of consuls himself, having, as he says, begun with the English. He has lately appointed a slave consul for Venice, and has refused the consul the republic sent. He has made a Jew consul of Ragusa; and, I am told, is soon to change the Dutch likewise. The king is now turned old, and his memory nearly gone: he is altogether guided by one Maltese and one Spanish renegado, who lead him into these measures." Bruce proceeds to unfold the horrid private character of the dey, which we must beg to leave in total darkness. He then proceeds to remind his lordship, that his object in accepting the consulship of Algiers was to have an opportunity of making drawings of the principal antiquities in that part of Africa; and he accordingly requests three months' leave of absence in order to visit the interior, with his majesty's permission, on his return, to resign his situation: he concludes his letter by nobly recommending that Mr. Aspinall should be restored to the consulship of Algiers. During the whole period of Bruce's residence, every leisure moment had been employed in improving his knowledge of the Arabic and Moorish languages. Secluded in his study, he occupied himself in translating some Arabic manuscripts, which, with great trouble, he had collected, and his only recreation when abroad was in conversing with the natives. "My immediate prospect," he says, "of setting out on my journey to the inland parts of Africa had made me double my diligence; night and day there was no relaxation from these studies." In about a month after his last letter, Bruce informed Lord Halifax that he had been to the dey to remonstrate with him about an English sailor who was then treated as a slave. "The only answer I could get," says Bruce, "was, '_that when the king paid for his redemption, his majesty should have him; till when he should continue a slave, though it was till his death_.' This is the tone with which the king now speaks, ever since his successful endeavour in procuring Mr. Aspinall's return, and his putting the French consul in the stone-carts and chains without consequences; and we have now neither personal nor national privileges, but are treated at discretion. Denmark has agreed to pay constantly, in stores, near £10,000 per annum; Sweden and Holland do the same; and to give me the preference over the others, not less than £2000 yearly is distributed by the other consuls in jewels and watches, as private presents to the regency; Venice has spent about £20,000 to make peace, and pays £4000 yearly; France, to rescue its trade, which amounts to a monopoly of every valuable production of the coast, is always giving and always ill-treated; England, only once in the eight or nine years, upon the change of consuls, gives a scanty present: so that our whole weight must consist in the countenance showed us from home, which they now believe they can prevent by any application from hence; and with this I am constantly threatened if I but speak of grievances ever so gently." Bruce then repeats his request for permission to quit this troubled scene, and to commence his long-wished-for inquiries. But, determined that it should not be thought his object was to shrink from danger, he concludes by saying, "Though, if there is any remonstrance his majesty directs to be made to this regency that may interfere with this journey, I willingly waive it for the sake of his majesty's service." This letter was scarcely despatched, when he again addressed Lord Halifax as follows: "Since I had the honour of writing last to your lordship, that I had been called before a Turkish judge about the demand of Oran, things have come to what I hope is the extremity, though it is difficult to say what is the utmost length these people may go, after their recent behaviour to the French consul. Two days ago, an English ship was sent out of this port by order of the dey, without any passport endorsed, or without any bill of health or other paper of expedition from the British consulate; a slave of the king's acting as his majesty's consul in clearing her out of the port. As his majesty's commission is thus superseded, it remains with your lordship to consider what remedy is to be applied. I have avoided any explanation farther with the king, that no opportunity might be given to say, as in the case of the French consul, that I did not behave with proper respect; and though my first intention, upon receiving this affront, was to leave Algiers and to return to Mahon, to avoid either ignominy or danger, yet, not having his majesty's leave, and uncertain what turn these people may take concerning our trading-vessels, I have resolved to await your lordship's answer in Algiers rather than desert his majesty's service. Your lordship is so much better a judge of what is necessary in this case, that it is presumption in me to mention it; only, if it be allowed for me to guess by what I have lately seen, all negotiation is but lost time unless _force_ be before their eyes." A few days afterward, the English sailor who had been imprisoned by the dey appeared before Bruce, hacked, mangled, and covered with bruises. He was sent to Bruce by the express order of the dey, to show, as he said, "that he cared neither for the King of England nor his consul!" Nor were other subjects of complaint wanting, as will appear from the following letter which Bruce addressed to Lord Halifax: "On the 18th war was declared against the emperor; and some Tuscan sailors and passengers arriving unfortunately on board a French vessel, they were dragged from under the French colours, against the law and practice of all nations, and made slaves; the French consul being too much intimidated, by being put lately in irons, to venture to remonstrate against this affront to their flag. My lord, in this country of murder, chains, and torture, your lordship will not expect me to be more explicit than I am _as to measures_. I am not certain but that the doctor[7] will be stopped, and my letters seized to-morrow.... I was just finishing my letter to your lordship, when word is brought to me that, this morning early, the master and supercargo of the above-mentioned vessel were carried before the dey, and were bastinadoed over the feet and loins in such a manner that the blood gushed out, and then loaded with heavy chains, the lightest of which weighs a hundred weight. The captain, it is thought, will not live. They are not allowed meat, drink, or clothing, or room to lie in, and subsist wholly on an allowance from me.... The same day it was proposed to give my vice-consul, Mr. Forbes, a thousand bastinadoes, to extort from him a confession of the contents of my papers. He has fled to my house for protection, where he continues in great fear; for, being _much affected with the gout_, a very small proportion of the thousand bastinadoes would kill him; nor could he satisfy them in a single syllable, as I have never, in writing or copying letters to your lordship, used any hand but my own; and it being now, I fear, the time in which some restraint may be put on my liberty, I can no longer venture to preserve even copies, so beg your lordship will pardon the variations of such letters as are intended as duplicates, as the difference will never be very material." It is surely impossible for any one to read the above letter without being filled with feelings of astonishment that this country, which, like all others, has so often waged war for trifles, or to repel imaginary insults, should ever have submitted to such repeated insults from so petty and barbarous a government as that of Algiers.[8] Soon after Bruce's last letter, full of indignation, he again wrote to Lord Halifax, recommending, in the strongest terms, force, as the only way of maintaining the national dignity at Algiers; and fearing lest his advice on so important a measure should be questioned, he refers Lord Halifax to several individuals in England who knew him, "and who," he says, "will, I hope, fully satisfy your lordship that I am incapable of representing anything in a false or aggravated light." After thus boldly recommending forcible measures, which would have been so highly dangerous to his own personal security, he adds: "I myself have received from a friend some private intimations to consult my own safety and escape. The advice is impracticable, nor would I take it were it not so. Your lordship may depend upon it, that, till I have the king's orders, or find that I can be of no farther service here, nothing will make me leave Algiers but force. One brother has already, this war, had the honour to lose his life in the service of his country. Two others, besides myself, are still in it; and if any accident should happen to me, as is most probable, from these _lawless butchers_, all I beg of his majesty is, that he will graciously please to extend his favour to the survivers, if deserving, and that he will make this city an example to others how they violate public faith and the law of nations." In order fairly to appreciate the disinterested firmness of the above letter, it should be remembered that Bruce was remaining at Algiers against his will, and that he had long ago repeatedly applied for his majesty's permission to resign the consulship. A violent dispute now took place between Bruce and the dey about passports. On the taking of Minorca by the French, a number of English passports fell into the hands of the enemy; and the French governor, naturally wishing to embroil England in disputes with the Barbary States, filled up the blanks of these passports, and then sold them to Spaniards, Neapolitans, and other enemies of the Barbary regencies. As soon as this fraud was detected, the British governors of Gibraltar and Mahon furnished the ships of their nation with written certificates, which they imprudently termed _Passavans_: but these pirates not being able to read them, and observing that they differed in shape and form from the old printed passports, inveighed against the supposed duplicity of the English, and importuned their master the dey to order every ship to be seized which carried a passavant. Bruce opposed this counsel with steady resolution; but the old dey, holding several passavans in his hand, answered him, with great emotion, in these very memorable terms: "The British government knows that we can neither read nor write; no, not even our own language. We are ignorant soldiers and sailors--robbers, if you will--though we do not wish to rob you. War is our trade, and we live by that only. Tell me how my cruisers are to know all these different writings and seals?" Bruce, neither intimidated nor convinced by the savage eloquence of the dey, again remonstrated; upon which he was disowned as consul, his dragoman was taken from him, and he was ordered to quit the country in three days. "In reply," says Bruce, "I begged the dey to excuse me if I considered myself still as British consul, and if I denied it to be in the power of any foreign prince to annul my commission." An English ship happening to arrive about this time with a passavant, was broken in pieces, and the crew hurried into slavery. Bruce now prepared to embark, but the storm suddenly subsided. The unruly passions of the dey, though deaf to reason, had listened to the subtle admonitions of his officers, who explained to him the ruinous consequences of a war with England. Regular printed passports arrived, and "thus ended," says Bruce, "an affair the least pleasing, the least profitable, and one of the most dangerous in which I was ever engaged." In communicating intelligence of his own dismissal, and of the above proceedings of the dey to Lord Halifax, Bruce again recommended that the remedy of force, that actual cautery, should be applied; and always ready to share in every service of danger which he conceived it his duty to propose, he offered to return with any expedition against the place. "I shall always esteem it," he says, "an honour to venture my life in his majesty's service, without rank or reward, in the station he shall be pleased to employ me." Considerable time elapsed before Bruce received from England any reply to his communications from Algiers; and but little notice was taken of the request which he had so repeatedly made for leave of absence to visit Tunis and the interior. In the months of November and December, 1764, he thus addressed Lord Halifax: November 3.--"I take the liberty, my lord, to offer your lordship my most humble thanks for having laid my request of leave to resign this consulship before the king. Very disagreeable and dangerous as my situation is, if his majesty or your lordship think that it is more for the advantage of the service that I should remain till these disputes are settled, rather than that they should be taken up by my successor, I am entirely at his majesty's disposal, only I hope that some resolution may be speedily taken for the safety of commerce and of the king's servants. I beg leave to remind your lordship of my request, that before my resignation I might have permission to visit Tunis and some other places in the inland country. My absence will not exceed three months, and his majesty's affairs here will be perfectly safe, and well conducted during that time by Mr. Forbes, my vice-consul." Again, on the 14th of December, he thus acknowledges the receipt of an order to await the arrival of a consul who had been at last appointed to succeed him. "I should have been much obliged to your lordship if it had been thought proper to have procured me permission to have made the proposed journey to Tunis, as I requested in several letters; but, as I have not had any return, and as it would be impossible, without the protection of the king's commission, to make it with any effect, I submit. My lord, in disputes with these regencies, it has almost uniformly been the practice to join his majesty's consul in the commission for adjusting these differences. Excuse me, my lord, if I, with all possible humility, observe, that the contrary now, and the immediate arrival of a successor, has in my case every appearance of disgrace, which I cannot but feel sensibly, after having in so disagreeable and dangerous a conjuncture done everything possible to protect his majesty's commerce, and maintain the character of my commission." In justice to the memory of Lord Halifax, it is proper to give his sensible reply to the latter part of Bruce's letter. "With regard to the appearance of disgrace which you are apprehensive the arrival of a successor at such a juncture may carry, you have the satisfaction to know that your conduct has been honoured with his majesty's approbation, and that it was in consequence of your repeated desires to resign and return home that another consul has been appointed in your stead." Previous to the arrival of Bruce's successor, the dey caused a letter to be written to his Britannic majesty, to complain that a party of Algerine soldiers had been captured off Gibraltar by the Spaniards, in consequence of secret intelligence of their approach having been given to the Spanish commander by the British garrison. The above statement is necessary in order to explain the following translation of this most curious letter. "MUSTAPHA HAN. ALLY, Son of Mohammed, God protect him. "The help of the helpers and guard of kings, mighty king, the most merciful, with the help of God at Mecca--commander of the whole Mohammedans under God! God preserve the king! "King of land and sea--king, son of king, the king of mercy, Mustapha Han, may God maintain his glory and his kingdom for ever--Sovereign lord of my country, also of the west! Ally Bacha, God fulfil his desires, to his most sacred majesty King George the third--God grant him long life and _our love_. "King, defender of Christian faith, king of England, France, and Ireland, our beloved, great, and noble friend whom God prosper, may God direct you to do good to me, and may you enjoy your crown for ever, and our friendship for ever, amen. "The love and friendship, I continue: now what I beg from your majesty in the name of God the most mighty, always in mutual friendship, and pray God to continue our friendship till death, which that's certain. "Now, I beg your majesty will listen to what I am going to say without fail. My great beloved friend, the foundation of this letter is Athebeck, from my dominions with a parcel of soldiers when they came below Gibraltar the people in the garrison gave notice to the Spaniards, and they took 'em, and this treachery cannot subsist between us. Now, I beg your majesty will do us justice, and pray God preserve your majesty, and may our friendship continue for ever. Amen. "Allgier, Ally Basha, the 22d of month Ramazan, in the year 1178, Dettusura." (Which corresponds with the 16th of March, 1765.) As soon as it was known that a consul was coming from England to succeed Bruce, the effect was produced which he had apprehended; for every one pretended to consider that it was in consequence of the King of England's disapprobation of his conduct. Bruce was therefore treated with great indignity. The cruelties, indeed, of the dey seemed to increase with his age. In a single morning, seventeen Turks were seized and strangled in his presence; he even condemned to death his own brother; and for every trifling complaint brought before him, he prescribed King Richard's remedy of "Off with his head!" At last the new British consul arrived, accompanied by Captain Cleveland of the navy. This consul was, however, shortly afterward recalled; and, in less than two years, two others succeeded to the same dangerous post. One of these gentlemen, on sailing from England, was recommended by the government to do everything in his power to accommodate the troublesome affairs of Algiers. His obsequious, courtier-like conduct forms a striking contrast with Bruce's firm, manly behaviour; and he was very shortly recalled for overacting his part of conciliation, by allowing the dey to impose a tax on English vessels which he had no right whatever to demand. In the following letter this gentleman thus informs Lord Halifax of the death of the dey: "I have now the mortification to acquaint you of the death of his excellency _the good old dey_, Alli Bashaw, who was seized with a violent cold and pleuritic complaint the 24th past. He continued in a declining way till Sunday the 2d inst., when he expired between one and two o'clock in the morning, aged seventy, after having reigned eleven years and forty days. The divan was immediately assembled, and about seven the hamagee or treasurer was chosen to succeed him. The colours were then hoisted at the palace, the garrison, and harbour, as also at the several forts, with a discharge of cannon. At eight I paid my respects to the new dey, Mohammed Bashaw, and was well received. About nine the old dey was carried out to be interred, and all was quiet." In this whining requiem, which one of Bruce's successors, a British consul, sings over the carcass of that old sanguinary tyrant Alli Bashaw, the dey of Algiers, the reader will probably start at the appellation of the "good old dey:" yet the consul's letter is unfortunately but a specimen of those diplomatic reports which, from distant countries, are too often made to coincide with the supposed views and fancies of the minister at home. The long intervals which elapsed between the letters that Bruce had addressed to Lord Halifax, he regularly devoted to study, in making himself familiar with everything that could be necessary for his intended journey. A Greek priest, a native of Cyprus, had attached himself to Bruce on his first arrival in Algiers. From this venerable man he acquired a knowledge of the modern Greek, which was of the greatest assistance to him in Abyssinia; and the reader will soon learn what essential service this priest rendered to Bruce when he afterward met with him in Egypt. From Mr. Ball, the king's surgeon at Algiers, he also acquired professional information of the most valuable description, and which afterward became his passport in all the countries which he visited. In this manner did Bruce pass his time at Algiers, deliberately preparing himself for the great discovery which was the ultimate object of his ambition. His paltry disputes with the dey, and the neglect which attended his repeated applications to England for permission to commence his journey, would have engrossed the whole attention of most people, and distracted with petty distress the minds of many: but neither these, nor the enervating effects of the African climate, could shake his unalterable determination; and after having been detained at Algiers for two years and a quarter, he was no sooner relieved by Captain Cleveland than he immediately prepared for his departure. Accordingly, on the 25th of August, 1765, he sailed from Algiers, his mind filled with the most agreeable ideas, and rejoicing to run his arduous course. FOOTNOTES: [5] Bruce's official letters from Algiers (preserved in the Colonial Office) give so correct and extraordinary a picture of that barbarous government, and of the singular situation in which he was placed there, that we have great pleasure in being permitted to lay some of them, in an authentic shape, before the public. [6] A small flat-bottomed vessel of seventy or eighty tons burden, of the description used for the transportation of goods on the canals in Holland.--_Am. Ed._ [7] Dr. Ball, the bearer of despatches from Bruce for England. [8] About the time of writing the above (in the year 1830), Algiers was attacked and captured by the French. Whether they will retain the acquisition then made, or, in renouncing it, take measures, in concert with other nations, to prevent its again becoming a resort for pirates, remains to be seen.--_Ed._[9] [9] There can be no doubt that it is the intention of the French government to keep permanent possession of that country, as they are now (in 1840) operating with an army of not less than 50,000 men to complete its subjugation.--_Am. Ed._ CHAPTER III. Bruce Travels through the Kingdoms of Tunis and Tripoli--Is Wrecked--Beaten by the Arabs--Sails to Crete, Rhodes, Asia Minor, and Syria--Visits Palmyra and Baalbec--Is Detained at Cyprus--Sails for Egypt. The dey, secretly admiring the firmness and integrity of Bruce's character, had furnished him with recommendatory letters to the beys of Tunis and Tripoli--states independent of the Dey of Algiers, but over which the circumstances of the times had given him considerable influence. Sailing along the African coast, Bruce landed at Bona, the ancient Aphrodisium, and, anchoring at Biserta, he paid a visit to Utica, as he says, "out of respect to the memory of Cato." He then landed at Tunis, and, delivering his letters to the bey, he obtained permission to visit the country in whatever direction he pleased. From the French and English consuls he received great attention and assistance; and about the middle of September, while the weather was still dreadfully hot, he set out for the interior of the kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, accompanied by his draughtsman Luigi Balugani, a French renegado named Osman, and ten spahis or foot-soldiers, "who," says Bruce, "were well armed with firelocks and pistols, excellent horsemen, and, as far as I could ever discern, as eminent for cowardice, at least, as they were for horsemanship." On reaching Tucca, he found a Corinthian pillar of Parian marble and the ruins of a temple, among which he remained fifteen days, making various most valuable drawings, which, we are sorry to say, still remain unpublished. After visiting several other places, he came to Hydra, the Thunodrunum of the ancients, on the frontier of the two kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, and inhabited by a tribe of Arabs called Welled Sidi Boogannim. These Arabs were immensely rich, paying no tribute to Algiers or Tunis--the pretence for this exemption being a very singular one. By the institution of their founder, they are obliged to live upon lion's flesh; and, in consequence of thus eating up the enemies of the state, they are not taxed like the other Arabs. Seated among these wild people, Bruce openly partook of their fare, and, having done so, he acknowledged it in words which are highly characteristic of himself: "Before Dr. Shaw's travels first acquired the celebrity they have maintained ever since, there was a circumstance that very nearly ruined their credit. He had ventured to say in conversation that these Welled Sidi Boogannim were eaters of lions; and this was considered at Oxford, the university where he had studied, as a traveller's license on the part of the doctor. They thought it a subversion of the natural order of things that a man should eat a lion, when it had long passed as almost the peculiar province of the lion to eat man. The doctor flinched under the sagacity and severity of this criticism: he could not deny that the Welled Sidi Boogannim did eat lions, as he had repeatedly said; but he had not yet published his travels, and therefore left it out of his narrative, and only hinted at it in his appendix. "With all submission to that learned university, I will not dispute the lion's title to eating men; but since it is not founded upon patent, no consideration will make me stifle the merit of the Welled Sidi Boogannim, who have turned the chase upon the enemy. It is an historical fact, and I will not suffer the public to be misled by a misrepresentation of it: on the contrary, I do aver, in the face of these fantastic prejudices, that I have eat the flesh of lions--that is, part of three lions, in the tents of the Welled Sidi Boogannim." If the spirit of these noble animals had entered Bruce's heart, as their flesh did his stomach, he could not have expressed himself in bolder terms! From Hydra he went to the ancient Tipasa, where he found a most extensive scene of ruins; and then entering the eastern province of Algiers, he reached Medrashem, a superb pile of architecture. Passing Gibel Aurex and Cassareen, the ancient Colonia Scillitana, he at last reached Spaitla, in the kingdom of Tunis. The Welled Omran, a lawless, plundering tribe, disturbed Bruce very much during the eight days which he occupied in minutely measuring and drawing the extensive and magnificent ruins of Spaitla. "It was a fair match," he says, "between coward and coward. With my company I was enclosed in a square, in which the three temples stood, where there yet remained a precinct of high walls. These plunderers would have come in to me, but were afraid of my firearms; and I would have run away from them had I not been afraid of meeting their horse in the plain. I was almost starved to death, when I was relieved by the arrival of Welled Hassan and a friendly tribe of Dreeda that came to my assistance, and brought me at once both safety and provision." From Spaitla he proceeded to Muchtar and Musti, and then returning to Tugga, he went down the Bagrada to Tunis. From Tunis he again went to Spaitla, where he remained five days more, correcting and revising the drawings and memoranda which he had already made there. Passing Feriani, he came to a large lake, the Palus Tritonidis, now called the Lake of Marks, because there is in it a row of large trunks of palm-trees set up to guide travellers across it. "This was," says Bruce, "the most barren and unpleasant part of my journey in Africa: barren, not only from the nature of the soil, but by its having no remains of antiquity in the whole course of it." This desert scene was at last most agreeably and suddenly changed by the small river Triton, the water of which caused the adjacent country to be covered with all kinds of flowers and verdure. Bruce had now reached the Lesser Syrtis. He here turned to visit El Gemme, where there had been a large and perfect amphitheatre, until Mohammed Bey blew up a part of it to prevent its being occupied as a fortress by the Arabs. Continuing along the coast to Susa, Bruce once more arrived at Tunis, possessing drawings of what he considered "to be all the antiquities worth notice in the territories of Tunis and Algiers." Notwithstanding the great heat to which he had been subjected, his health was good, and he had hitherto met with no accident whatever: but he had now a very serious undertaking to perform, which was to cross the desert to Tripoli; and the Bey of Tunis being at enmity with the Basha of Tripoli, could give him no letters of introduction. He accordingly took leave of the bey and proceeded to Gerba, the island of the Lotophagi, where the Bey of Tunis, with his usual munificence, had prepared for him a house, with every sort of refreshment. On this coast there is no sort of fruit whatever: neither bush, nor tree, nor verdure of any kind, excepting the short grass that separates this country from the moving sands of the desert. About four days' journey from Tripoli, Bruce met the Emir Hadji, conducting a caravan of pilgrims from Fez in Morocco, across the whole of Africa, to Mecca--that is, from the Atlantic Ocean to the western banks of the Red Sea. The caravan consisted of about three thousand men, with an immense number of camels laden with merchandise, water, flour, and food, for the hadjis or pilgrims; and such a crowd of uncivilized beings, wildly traversing such a vast inhospitable desert, yet urged forward and supported by a principle of religion, formed a very extraordinary spectacle. They had scarcely passed when Bruce and his little party were assailed by a number of Arab horsemen, whom they repulsed with considerable difficulty, and with a loss of four men. On arriving at Tripoli, Bruce was received by his countryman, the British consul (the Hon. Mr. Fraser of Lovat), with that kindness and attention which he much needed after so rude a journey, made with such diligence that two of his horses had died from fatigue; but as the basha was unfortunately at variance with Mr. Fraser, Bruce was much disappointed at learning that it would be absolutely necessary for him to return by the coast of the Lesser Syrtis to Tunis, to reside there until Mr. Harrison, who was appointed by government to settle the differences with the Barbary States, should solicit permission for him to travel through the dominions of Tripoli. To Tunis, therefore, Bruce returned, and remained there till August, 1766, when this permission reaching him, he again crossed the desert, by Sfax and Gerba, to Tripoli, where he was hospitably received by the French, Venetian, and British consuls. From Tripoli he despatched an English servant to Smyrna with his books, drawings, and supernumerary instruments, having torn from his books those pages which he conceived might be of service in the Pentapolis or other parts of the Cyrenaicum, and by these precautions most fortunately saved the greater part of his labours in Africa. He then crossed the Gulf of Sidra, formerly known by the name of Syrtis Major, and arrived at Bengazi, the ancient Berenice, built by Ptolemy Philadelphus. The brother of the Bey of Tripoli commanded here, a young man, weak in understanding and in health. For more than a year Bengazi had been suffering from severe famine; many people died from starvation every day, and some of the living were actually hovering round the corpses of the dead for food which human nature shudders to think of. Bruce at once fled from this dreadful scene. Travelling over a great part of the Pentapolis, he visited the ruins of Arsinoë and Ras Sem, and then approaching the seacoast, came to Ptolemeta, the ancient Ptolemais, the walls and gates of which he found still entire. Here he was informed that the Welled Ali-Arabs had plundered the Morocco caravan, which he had met in the desert; that the pilgrims had been left to perish for want of water; that there was a famine at Derna, the neighbouring town to which he had intended to proceed; that the plague had also appeared, and that the town was engaged in a civil war. This torrent of bad news was irresistible; and Bruce at once resolved to fly from this inhospitable coast, and save for the public that knowledge and information which he had already so resolutely and painfully acquired. Accordingly, with his little party, he embarked on board a small Greek vessel bound for Lampedoza, but the destination of which the master had agreed to change to Crete. The vessel was badly appointed; and, when it was too late, Bruce found that, although she had plenty of sail, she carried not an ounce of ballast. A number of half-famished men, women, and children, anxious to fly from the dreadful fate which awaited them, crowded on board; but the passage was short, the vessel light, and the master, as Bruce supposed, well-accustomed to these seas. At daybreak the next day they sailed; and it was then discovered that the captain was entirely ignorant of his duty, and wholly unable to manage his ship.[10] A violent storm overtook them, and the vessel, falling to leeward, struck on a rock near the entrance of the harbour of Bengazi: fortunately, however, the wind suddenly lulled, and Roger M'Cormack, Bruce's Irish servant (who had been once a sailor in the British service), lowered the largest boat, into which he, Bruce, and a multitude of people instantly jumped. Fearing they would be swamped, they pushed off from the ship, and with two oars endeavoured to row the boat ashore. Bruce had thrown off all his clothes except a short under-waistcoat and his linen drawers; a silk sash or girdle was wrapped round him; a pencil, pocket-book, and watch were in the breast-pocket of his waistcoat; two Moorish and two of his English servants accompanied him; and the rest of his party remained on board. They had scarcely got a boat's length from the ship, when a wave nearly swamped them, and a shriek of despair announced their helpless situation. The next wave was approaching evidently to overwhelm them; and Bruce, fearing that some woman, child, or helpless man would cling hold upon him, entangle him, and thus ignominiously drag him down, resolved at least to make an effort to save himself, and, exclaiming to his servants, both in Arabic and English, "We are lost! If you can swim, follow me!" he jumped overboard. In moments of real danger, there is nothing which more distinguishes a man than the simple fact of doing _something_; for the general effect of fear is to paralyze the mind as well as the body, and men under this base feeling do _nothing_. Bruce at first allowed himself to go to leeward, in order to get clear of the boat. A strong, practised swimmer, in the vigour of life, full of health, and accustomed to exertion and fatigue of every description, he got on very well as long as he was in deep water; but, as soon as he came to the surf, he received a blow on his breast from the eddy wave which threw him upon his back, made him swallow a quantity of water, and nearly suffocated him. The next wave left him almost breathless and exhausted. At last, finding his hands and knees on the sand, he fixed his nails into it, and desperately maintaining his hold until the sea for a moment retired, he managed to crawl forward a few feet: perfectly exhausted, he then fainted away, and remained for a considerable time insensible to the waves which, one after another, were eagerly rolling towards the shore, as if greedy to regain their prey. At this critical moment, the Arabs, who were but two short miles from the shore, came down in crowds to plunder the vessel, all the people from which were now taken on shore, those only being lost who had perished in the boat. Bruce was first awakened from his trance by a blow with the butt end of a lance on the back of his neck; but it was merely accident that it had not been the point, for his short waistcoat, which had been purchased at Algiers, and his sash and drawers cut in the Turkish fashion, made the Arabs believe he was a Turk; and, after many hard blows, kicks, and curses, they stripped their defenceless and exhausted victim, leaving him as naked as their barren shore. After treating the rest of the passengers and crew in the same manner, they sought to plunder the bodies of those who had been drowned. In the mean while, Bruce walked, or rather crawled, to some white sandy hillocks, where he sat down and concealed himself as well as he could, for he knew that if he approached the tents where the women were while he was naked, he would receive bastinadoes considerably heavier than the last. Smarting from the discipline he had already undergone, it suddenly occurred to him that, by the gibberish in imitation of Turkish which the Arabs had uttered to him while they were beating and stripping him, they had taken him for a Turk, and had treated him accordingly. At this moment an old Arab, attended by several young men, came up to him. He offered them the salute of "Salum Alicum," with which at first they were offended, asking him what, as a Turk, he had to do there? Bruce very readily replied that he was no Turk, but a poor Christian physician, a dervish, that went about the world seeking to do good for God's sake; that when he was wrecked he was flying from famine, and was going to Greece to get bread. A ragged, dirty baracan was immediately thrown over him, and he was conducted to a tent, through the end of which appeared a long spear, which is the mark of sovereignty. The sheikh of the tribe being at peace with the Bey of Bengazi, asked Bruce many questions, and at last ordered him a plentiful supper, at which he had the happiness of meeting his attendants. Camels were then brought, and the whole party proceeded to Bengazi, from whence Bruce wrote to the sheikh, entreating him to endeavour to fish up his cases, for which he offered a handsome reward: this, however, was not effected, and he lost a sextant, telescope, timepiece, a small camera obscura, some guns, pistols, several drawings, and many of his notes and observations. At Bengazi he fortunately met with a small French sloop, the master of which so gratefully remembered that Bruce had rendered him a trifling service at Algiers, that he generously offered even to lend him money. After having been detained at Bengazi about two months, during which time he and his party had little to subsist on but fish, which they themselves caught, they sailed in the French sloop from the bay; and, bidding farewell to the coast of Africa, they landed at Canea, a small fortress at the west end of the island of Crete. The beating which Bruce had received at Bengazi left marks, which, after a considerable time, totally disappeared; but the relentless ague, which, in consequence of his exertions in the Sea of Ptolemeta, fixed itself on his constitution, persecuted him through all his travels, suddenly appearing and oppressing him in moments of his severest difficulties. He was first seized with this disorder at Crete, where he remained for some days dangerously ill. From Canea he sailed to Rhodes, where, with very great pleasure, he found his books. He then proceeded to Castelrosso, on the coast of Caramania, in Asia Minor, where he had been credibly informed there were very magnificent ruins; but his fever increasing, he found it impossible to prosecute this undertaking: he was therefore reluctantly obliged to abandon it, and, proceeding again to sea, he landed on the continent of Asia, at Beiroot, near Sidon, on the coast of Phoenicia, in June, 1767. Bruce was now in a very weak state of health; he possessed drawings and notes which would have offered to most men alluring and tranquil occupation; he had undergone fatigues which faithfully and frankly warned him to give rest to his constitution; a new quarter of the world was now before him--new in its dangers, its history, and its inhabitants; but the enterprising spirit of Bruce remained unaltered; and, careless of his shattered frame, he now resolved that, previously to entering on his daring attempt to reach the source of the Nile, he would endeavour, as he said, "to add the ruins of Palmyra to those of Africa!" There are two tribes, almost equally powerful, who inhabit the deserts around Palmyra: the one the Anneci, remarkable for the breed of their horses; the other the Mowulli, who are excellent soldiers. These two tribes were not actually at war, nor were they at peace; they were merely upon what is termed ill terms with each other--a very dangerous time for strangers to have any dealings with either. Bruce would have gone at once from Sidon to Baalbec, but it was then besieged by the Druses of Mount Libanus. He therefore went to Tripoli in Syria, and from thence set out for Aleppo; but, suddenly sinking under his Bengazi ague, he was just able to reach the house of M. Belville, a French merchant, to whom he was addressed for credit; and Bruce always declared, "that, had it not been for his friendly attention, and the skill and anxiety of Dr. Russel, physician to the British factory, it is probable his travels would have ended at Aleppo." As soon as he was restored to health, his first object was his journey to Palmyra. Stopping at two miserable huts inhabited by a base set called Turcomans, he asked the master of one of them to show him a ford, which the man, apparently very kindly, undertook to do, although the river, the Orontes, was so violent that he felt more than once an inclination to turn back. However, suspecting nothing, he proceeded according to the directions of his guide, when, all of a sudden, he and his horse fell into such deep water, that each swam separately ashore; and when Bruce went to dry himself at a caphar or turnpike, the man who was there told him that the place at which he had attempted to cross was an old bridge, one arch of which had long ago been carried away; that he had consequently fallen into the deepest part of the river; and that the people who had misguided him were an infamous banditti. From Hassia Bruce and his party went to Cariateen, where, to their great surprise, they found about two thousand of the Anneci encamped: they were treated with civility, and passed the desert between Cariateen and Palmyra in a day and two nights, proceeding all the while without sleeping. Weary and exhausted, they ascended a hill of white gritty stone, hemmed in by a narrow winding road; but when they reached the summit, "there opened before us," says Bruce, "the most astonishing, stupendous sight that perhaps ever appeared to mortal eyes. The whole plain below, which was very extensive, was covered so thick with magnificent buildings, that one seemed to touch the other--all of fine proportions, all of agreeable forms, all composed of white stones, which at that distance appeared like marble. At the end of it stood the palace of the sun, a building worthy to close so magnificent a scene." Between the human mind and the body there is that sympathetic union, that the one readily shares its prosperity with the other; and Bruce, both enraptured and refreshed with the scene before him, only thought how he could copy it to the greatest advantage. He therefore, assisted by Balugani, divided Palmyra into six angular views, bringing into the foreground of each some edifice or group of columns particularly worthy of delineation. These views were drawn on very wide paper, and on so large a scale, that the columns in some of them were a foot long, and several of the figures in the foreground of the temple of the sun nearly four inches in height. Having finished thirteen of these drawings, he and his party quitted Palmyra, and travelled about one hundred and thirty miles to Baalbec, the interior of the great temple of which surpassed, in Bruce's opinion, anything he had seen even at Palmyra. Having taken a number of views, he proceeded by Tyre; and, as he says, "much fatigued, and satisfied beyond measure with what I had seen, I arrived in perfect health, and in the gayest humour possible, at the hospitable mansion of M. Clerambaut, at Sidon." He there found letters from Europe in reply to those which he had written, announcing the loss of his instruments at Bengazi. From his friend Dr. Russel, at London, he learned that a reflecting telescope, as also an achromatic one by Dollond, had been forwarded to him; from Paris he received a timepiece and a stopwatch; and from Louis XV., who had heard from the Count de Buffon of Bruce's misfortune at Bengazi, he had the honour of receiving a quadrant which had belonged to the Military Academy at Marseilles. Flattered at the support thus extended to him, and delighted with the acquisition of these instruments, he resolved no longer to delay his voyage to Egypt, particularly as three years had already elapsed since he quitted Algiers: accordingly, on the 15th of June, 1768, he sailed from Sidon for Alexandria. The vessel touched at Cyprus; but, occupied with his great undertaking, Bruce naturally says of this island, "I had no curiosity to see it. My mind was intent upon more uncommon, more distant, and more painful voyages. But the master of the vessel had business of his own which led him thither: with this I the more readily complied, as we had not yet got certain advice that the plague had ceased in Egypt; and it still wanted some days to the festival of St. John, which is supposed to put an end to that cruel distemper."[11] While thus detained at Cyprus, Bruce's thoughts and dreams were enthusiastically filled with the distant object of his ambition; and, as Mohammed is said to have once walked to the mountain because it declined to visit him, so did Bruce indulge himself with the opposite idea, that he saw the waters of the Nile flying towards him in the heavens of Cyprus. "We observed," says he, "a number of thin, white clouds moving with great rapidity from south to north, in direct opposition to the course of the Etesian winds; these were immensely high. It was evident they came from the mountains of Abyssinia, where, having discharged their weight of rain, and being pressed by the lower current of heavier air from the northward, they had mounted to possess the vacuum, and returned to restore the equilibrium to the northward, whence they were to come back, loaded with vapour from Mount Taurus, to occasion the overflowing of the Nile, by breaking against the high and rugged mountains of the south. Nothing could be more agreeable to me than that sight, and the reasoning upon it. I already, with pleasure, anticipated the time in which I should be a spectator first, afterward an historian of this phenomenon, hitherto a mystery through all ages: I exulted in the measures I had taken!" But Bruce has already sailed from Cyprus; and, previous to his first introduction to the waters of the Nile, it may not be improper for one moment calmly and dispassionately to consider how far he was qualified for the attempt which he was about to undertake. Being thirty-eight years of age, he was at that period of life in which both the mind and body of man are capable of their utmost possible exertions. During his travels and residence in Europe, Africa, and Asia, he had become practically acquainted with the religion, manners, and prejudices of many countries differing from his own; and he had learned to speak the French, Italian, Spanish, modern Greek, Moorish, and Arabic languages. Full of enterprise, enthusiastically devoted to the object he had in view, accustomed to hardship, inured to climate as well as to fatigue, he was a man of undoubted courage. In stature he was six feet four inches, and with this imposing appearance possessed great personal strength; and, lastly, in every proper sense of the word, he was a gentleman; and no man about to travel can give to his country a better pledge for veracity than when, like Bruce, his mind is ever retrospectively viewing the noble conduct of his ancestors; thus showing that he considers he has a stake in society which, by the meanness of falsehood or exaggeration, he would be unable to transmit unsullied to his posterity. FOOTNOTES: [10] Some years ago, the writer of this volume, having been sent to make a trigonometrical survey of the uninhabited island of Lampedoza, embarked for Tripoli on board a small Greek vessel exactly similar to the one described by Bruce. The master, as is usual in the Mediterranean, had no instrument for determining his situation but a board, a piece of string, and three small pins, which were to be placed in particular situations, that no one on board understood but himself; however, his hand and head shook so violently from the effects of liquor, that for more than a day the vessel was beating about completely lost. In the middle of the second night, a horse, which was standing on deck, smelling the island of Malta, began to neigh most violently; and accordingly, the land, thus announced by this animal to his fellow-passengers, appeared in sight at daybreak. [11] During the plague at Malta, the writer of this volume often heard the Maltese predict, many months before the festival of St. John, that the disorder would cease by that day, and so, in fact, it did. The Maltese priests, of course, declared that St. John had killed it: but the English doctors, with greater reason, attributed its departure to excessive heat, which, no less than excess of cold, has been observed generally to arrest the contagion. CHAPTER IV. Bruce arrives at Cairo--Has very singular Interviews with the Bey--Sails up the Nile--Gains a promise of Protection from the Arabs Ababdé--Visits the Sepulchres of Thebes--Reaches the Cataract of Syene--Descends the Nile to Keffe. It was in the beginning of July, in the year 1768, that Bruce arrived at Cairo, recommended to the very hospitable house of Julian and Bertram, to whom he imparted his resolution of pursuing his journey into Abyssinia. The wildness of the intention seemed to strike them greatly, and they did all in their power to dissuade him from it; but, seeing that he was resolved, they kindly offered him every possible assistance. As the government of Cairo had always been jealous of the enterprise which Bruce had undertaken, and a formal prohibition of it had often been made by the Porte, Bruce pretended that his destination was India. He appeared in public as seldom as possible, unless disguised, and was soon considered as a fakir or dervish moderately skilled in magic, and who cared for nothing but books and study; a reputation which enabled him privately to purchase many Arabic manuscripts, which his knowledge of the language assisted him to select. Of the French residents Bruce speaks in very high terms; but as to the government, he says, "a more brutal, unjust, tyrannical, oppressive, avaricious set of miscreants there is not on earth than are the members of the government of Cairo!" This government had consisted of twenty-four beys; but there were only seven when Bruce was at Cairo, one of whom commanded the whole. This bey, the celebrated Ali, with all his good sense and understanding, was still a Mameluke, and had the principles of a slave. Three men, of different religions, possessed his confidence and governed his councils all at one time. The first was a Greek, the second a Jew, and the third an Egyptian Copt, his secretary. "It would have required," says Bruce, "a great deal of discernment and penetration to have determined which of these was the most worthless or most likely to betray him. "The secretary, whose name was Risk, had the address to supplant the other two at the time they thought themselves at the pinnacle of their glory, overawing every Turk, and robbing every Christian. The Greek was banished from Egypt, and the Jew bastinadoed to death. Such is the tenure of Egyptian ministers! Risk professed astrology, and the bey, like all other Turks, believed in it implicitly. To this folly he sacrificed his own good understanding; and Risk, probably in pay to Constantinople, led him from one wild scheme to another, till he undid him--by the stars!" When Bruce's cases of instruments were opened at the custom-house of Alexandria, they naturally prepossessed Risk in favour of their owner's superior knowledge in astrology. The Jew, who was master of the custom-house, was ordered not to take them out of their places, nor even touch them, and they were forwarded to Bruce without duty or fees. The next day Risk waited upon him; and when the British traveller offered him a small present for himself, and a very handsome one for his master, he was most agreeably surprised to find it returned with a message "that he was under the immediate protection of the bey." This mysterious politeness was more than Bruce could comprehend. He had not even seen the bey, and it could not have arisen from any prepossession in his favour. He was an entire stranger in the land, and therefore resolved to ask the advice of one of his friends, who instantly cautioned him against either offending or trusting Risk, as he was a merciless man, capable of the blackest designs. In a short time this Copt came to Bruce's landlord to inquire about his knowledge of the stars. The landlord, seeing the drift of the inquiry, spoke highly of the stranger's superior science, which he described as being sufficient to foretel the destinies of the bey. Accordingly, in a few days, Bruce received a letter from Risk, desiring him to go to the convent of St. George (about three miles from Cairo), where the Greek patriarch would receive him, and where he would be furnished with the bey's farther orders. On reaching the convent, he was accosted by the venerable patriarch, Father Christopher, the identical person who had lived under his roof at Algiers, and by whom he had been taught to speak the modern Greek. From this worthy man he learned that there were many Greeks then in Abyssinia, all of them in high power, and some holding the first places in the empire; that they corresponded with the patriarch whenever an opportunity offered; that at all times they held him in great respect; that his will, when signified to them, was of the greatest authority, and that obedience was paid to it as to holy writ. Father Christopher offered, with the greatest kindness, to address letters in favour of Bruce, and three copies were accordingly sent by different ways, accompanied by an admonitory epistle-general to the whole of the Greeks in Abyssinia, which, in form of a bull, was drawn up by Bruce himself, assisted by his excellent and venerable friend. By this the patriarch desired that, instead of pretending to put themselves on a footing with the traveller, who was about to arrive at the court of Abyssinia, they should unite in doing everything in their power to serve him; that _he_ was the free citizen of a powerful nation; while _they_ were slaves, who were only fit to be his servants; and that, in fact, one of their countrymen was actually living in that capacity with Bruce. These sour observations were artfully mixed up with a very savoury pardon for all their past sins, to be granted to them for the attentions they were to pay the stranger. One night, about nine o'clock, Risk sent to Bruce desiring him to come to the bey; and he accordingly entered his presence. He was presented to a young man, sitting upon a large sofa covered with crimson and cloth of gold; his turban, his girdle, and the head of his dagger sparkling with diamonds, one of which was of extraordinary size. He entered abruptly into discourse about the war between Russia and the Turks, and asked Bruce if he had calculated what would be the consequences of that war. With becoming gravity, our astrologer replied, "That the Turks would be beaten by sea and land wherever they presented themselves." Again the bey asked, "Whether Constantinople would be burned or taken?" "Neither," replied Bruce, with great dignity; "but, after much bloodshed, peace will be made with little advantage to either party." The bey struck his hands together, swore an oath in Turkish, and, turning aside to Risk, he said, with much emphasis, "That will be sad indeed! ... but truth is truth, and God is merciful!" He then offered Bruce coffee, sweetmeats, and protection; and, after desiring him to inform Risk if any one should dare wrong him, dismissed him from his presence. A few nights afterward the bey again sent for Bruce. At the door he met the janisary aga, who had absolute power of life and death, without appeal, all over Cairo and its neighbourhood. Having learned that Bruce was the "Hakim Englese" (the English physician), he politely asked him to prescribe for him, as he was not very well. Bruce replied to him in Arabic that he could not then stay, as the bey was waiting. "No! no! go! for God's sake, go!" exclaimed the aga; "any time will do for me!" The bey was sitting completely by himself, leaning forward with a wax taper in one hand, and holding in the other a small slip of paper close to his eyes, which were apparently weak. He did not perceive Bruce until he was close to him, and started when he heard the word "Salam!" At first he seemed hardly to know why he had sent for Bruce; but at length, in a melancholy tone, complained that he had been sick immediately after dinner, and was afraid something had been given to do him mischief. Bruce felt his pulse, and, having inquired whether his meat had been dressed in copper properly tinned, he ordered the bey to drink warm tea and water until it should cause him to vomit. The great man looked astonished, and asked Bruce if he knew that he was a Mussulman. "Sir," replied Bruce, "I am none; I tell you what is good for your body, and I have nothing to do with your religion or your soul;" and with these words he took his leave, the bey muttering to himself, "He speaks like a man!" Next morning Risk came from the convent to say that the bey was far from well, upon which Bruce interrupted him by inquiring how the warm tea and water had operated. Risk replied that the bey had not yet taken it, and then confessed that, by desire of his master, he was come to see how it was to be made. Bruce soon showed him this, by infusing a very little green tea in a large quantity of warm water, on which Risk insinuated that it would be farther necessary for Bruce to drink it, in order to show what effect it would produce upon the bey. Bruce, with considerable dignity, declined being patient and physician at the same time, but very politely offered to make Risk sick, which, he said, would answer the purpose of instruction equally well; this suggestion, however, was not very readily assented to, and yet Risk was evidently at a loss how to proceed. The poor old Greek priest, Father Christopher, happening unluckily to intrude at this very moment, it was instantly agreed to vomit the patriarch, who, finding himself in danger, and that the odds were two to one against him, instantly sent for a caloyer, or young monk, who was obliged to submit to the experiment before them. Bruce now became anxious to quit his solitary mansion at the convent: from Risk he procured peremptory letters of recommendation to Sheikh Haman, to the Governor of Syene, Ibrim, and Upper Egypt; also letters from Ali Bey to the Bey of Suez, to the Sherriffe of Mecca, to the Naybe or Governor of Masuah (the port of Abyssinia), and to the King of Sennaar. Anxious to reduce his baggage as much as possible, he tore from his books those pages only which were likely to be of service to him, and, having taken leave of the bey, and bidding adieu to his friends, he embarked with his little party on the 12th of December, to proceed up the Nile, which, partly flowing from the distant mountains of Abyssinia, meanders through the lifeless desert of Nubia, and down the narrow valley or ravine of Egypt, separated from sandy or rocky deserts by two chains of mountains, which enclose this inconsiderable strip of irrigated land. Bruce's boat or canja, which was to carry him to Furshoot, the residence of Haman, sheikh of Upper Egypt, was about one hundred feet in length, with two masts, each bearing an enormous lateen sail, the mainsail yard being one hundred and twenty feet in length. The cabin or dining-room was about twenty feet square, with close latticed windows made to admit the freshness of the air, and yet so as to be a defence against a set of robbers on the Nile, who are in the habit of swimming under water, or in the dark on goatskins, to pilfer from vessels everything they can lay their hands on. Previous to sailing, Bruce had taken the precaution of applying to his useful friend, Mr. Secretary Risk, concerning the captain of the canja, Haji Hassan Abou Cuffi, who was obliged to deliver up his son Mohammed as security for his own good behaviour. The wind being contrary, the canja was towed against the stream by a rope, and in this way it advanced but a few miles to two convents of Copts, called Deireteen. Here Bruce passed the night, having had a fine view of the pyramids of Geeza and Saccara, and being still in sight of a prodigious number of other pyramids, which, like beings of another world, seemed everywhere to be haunting the desert. On the opposite bank of the Nile, an animated and picturesque scene was displayed in the encampment of a large party of the Howadat Arabs. On the morning of the 13th the canja unfurled her enormous sails, and slowly passed a considerable village called Turra, on the east side of the river; and Sheikh Atman, a small village of about thirty houses, on the west. The Nile is here about a quarter of a mile broad, the distance between the foot of the mountain and the Libyan shore being about half a mile; and Bruce agrees with Herodotus in thinking this the narrowest part of the valley termed Egypt. In order to search for the ancient city of Memphis, Bruce left his boat at Sheikh Atman, and, entering an extensive and thick wood of palm-trees, continued this course until he came to several large villages called Metrahenni, all built among date-trees, so as scarcely to be seen from the shore. The people in these villages were of a yellow, sickly colour, with dejected, inanimate countenances. Towards the south, in the desert, as far as the eye can reach, there are vast numbers of pyramids, some appearing, like vessels at sea, just above the horizon. "A man's heart," says Bruce, "fails him in looking to the south and southwest of Metrahenni; he is lost in the immense expanse of desert which he sees full of pyramids before him. Struck with terror from the unusual scene of vastness opened all at once upon leaving the palm-trees, he becomes dispirited from the effect of the sultry climate. From habits of idleness contracted at Cairo; from the stories he has heard of the bad government and ferocity of the people; from want of language and want of plan, he shrinks from attempting any discovery in the moving sands of Saccara, and embraces in safety and in quiet the reports of others, who, he thinks, have been more inquisitive and more adventurous than himself." Various and conflicting are the opinions quoted by Bruce as to the situation of Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt. Dr. Pococke looked for Memphis at Metrahenni and Mohannen, because Pliny[12] says the pyramids were between Memphis and the Delta; and Mr. Niebuhr, the Danish traveller, agreed with Dr. Pococke. Dr. Shaw quoted a contrary sentiment from Pliny;[13] he cited also Diodorus Siculus,[14] who describes Memphis as being at the point of the Delta; Pliny,[15] again, who says it was fifteen miles from the Delta; and Herodotus,[16] who declares that Memphis lay under the sandy mountains of Libya. Dr. Shaw, therefore, warmly contended that Memphis was at Geeza. In this literary controversy, Bruce, with his usual warmth of character, vehemently opposes Dr. Shaw, and insists on placing Memphis at Metrahenni. He denies that the point of the Delta itself is a fixed and unalterable boundary; quotes Diodorus, who says that Memphis was placed in the straits, or narrowest part of Egypt; and to prove that the ruins of this city were not altogether destroyed in the time of the Ptolemies, he cites Strabo, who says, that when he was in Egypt Memphis was still called the capital[17] of that country; that there was entire a temple of Osiris; that the apis or sacred ox was worshipped and kept there; and that there was likewise "an apartment for the mother of that ox!" After the particulars mentioned in the above argument, it is scarcely necessary to remind the general reader that no vestige of Memphis exists! Among the super-scientific, its ancient situation still remains a subject of dispute; but considering how many real objects, points, and situations there are in the world of which we are totally ignorant, it might surely be said of Memphis, that "de non existantibus et de non apparentibus eadem est ratio."[18] It was about four o'clock, the sun was on the horizon, and the whole country was waiting for that moment of placid enjoyment which, in a hot climate, suddenly succeeds the painful heat of the day, when Bruce returned from Metrahenni to the canja; and on the following morning with a fair wind, and in high spirits, he continued for some days to stem the strong current of the Nile. He passed Regnagie, Zaragara, and a series of picturesque villages, which studded the highly cultivated and verdant country that, both on the right and left, lay between the river and the mountains. At Woodan the Nile was about a quarter of a mile wide; the cultivated ground being about four miles in breadth on the east side of the river, and about twice that distance to the foot of the opposite or west side. The villages which gave life and animation to this "happy valley" were mostly surrounded by palm-trees; and as Bruce, from the deck of the canja, gazed on them with feelings of curiosity and delight, he constantly inquired their names of his rais or captain; but the man at last honestly told him that he did not know what they were called; adding, that the boatmen on the Nile being in the habit of passing these villages very rapidly, and being only anxious to get to the end of their voyage, seldom troubled themselves to learn their names; and that, when tiresome questions were put to them by inquisitive European travellers, instead of confessing their ignorance, they were in the habit of answering with any word that came uppermost; which, though sometimes of a ridiculous meaning, and very often highly indecent, have nevertheless gravely made their appearance in some of our books of travels. After passing with great velocity Nizelet, Embarcak, Cubabac, Nizelet Omar, Racca Kibeer, and Racco Sequier, they came in sight of Alfia, a large village at some distance from the Nile, in the vicinity of which they passed the night. "All the valley here," says Bruce, "is green, the palm grows beautiful, and the Nile is deep: still it is not a prospect that pleases, for the whole ground that is sown to the sandy ascent of the mountains is but a narrow strip of three quarters of a mile broad; and the mountains themselves, which here begin to have a moderate degree of elevation, and which bound this narrow valley, are white, gritty, sandy, and uneven, and perfectly destitute of all manner of verdure." After having been detained a short time by foggy weather, the canja sailed by a convent of Copts. The strip of green wheat which had hitherto bounded both shores of the Nile, ceased for about half a mile each side of this convent; for the poor wretches who inhabited it, accustomed to the merciless violence of the Arabs, declined to sow, knowing that they would not be permitted to reap. At the village of Nizelet begin large plantations of sugarcanes, the first they had seen, and the people were then loading boats with them for Cairo. Proceeding onward, they came to large plantations of dates, and beyond them the people were seen occupied in cutting the sugarcanes. The houses here had on their roofs receptacles for pigeons, from which was derived a considerable profit. The wind had now become so strong that the canja could scarcely carry her sails; the current was rapid, and the velocity with which she dashed against the water was terrifying. "We came," says Bruce, "to a village called Rhoda, where we saw the magnificent ruins of the ancient city of Antinous, built by Adrian. Unluckily, I knew nothing of these ruins when I left Cairo, and had taken no pains to provide myself with letters of recommendation, as I could easily have done. I asked the rais what sort of people they were. He said that the town was composed of very bad Turks, very bad Moors, and very bad Christians; that several devils had been seen among them lately, who had been discovered by being better and quieter than any of the rest. After the character we had of the inhabitants, all our firearms were brought to the door of the cabin. In the mean time, partly with my naked eye and partly with my glass, I observed the ruins so attentively as to be perfectly in love with them." While Bruce was thus gazing at these ruins, the people or "devils" on shore attacked some of the canja's boatmen: three shots were even fired at the vessel, which Bruce returned by firing his blunderbuss. The crew were very desirous to go on shore to attack the people; but Bruce, an old traveller, with a very proper _esprit de corps_, says, "Besides that I had no inclination of that kind, I was very loth to frustrate the attempts of some future traveller, who may add this to the great remains of architecture we have preserved already." He therefore continued his course; and while his mind was secretly exulting in the reflection that every hour was bringing him towards the ultimate object of his ambition, his attention was most agreeably diverted by the various objects which passed in succession before him. Village after village came in sight; at times the shore was covered with date-trees, and occasionally with the acacia, that solitary inhabitant of all deserts, from the most northern part of Arabia to the extremity of Ethiopia. A considerable part of the west shore was cultivated and sown from the very foot of the mountains to the water's edge, the grain having been merely thrown upon the mud as soon as the water had left it: the wheat was at this time about four inches high, and the acacia-trees on the opposite side in full flower. Every object, whether trifling or serious, seemed to claim Bruce's attention, and to afford him some moral. "I was very well pleased," he says, "to see here, for the first time, two shepherd-dogs lapping up the water from the stream, then lying down in it with great seeming leisure and satisfaction. It refuted the old fable that the dogs living on the banks of the Nile run as they drink, for fear of the crocodile." At Achnim there is a hospice or convent of Franciscans. "They received us," says Bruce, "civilly, and that was just all. I think I never knew a number of priests met together who differed so little in capacity and knowledge, having barely a routine of scholastic disputation; on every other subject inconceivably ignorant." These priests lived in ease and safety, being protected by the Arab chieftain Haman; and their acting as physicians reconciled them to the people. Sailing from Achnim, Bruce passed Girge, the largest town he had seen since he left Cairo. The Nile makes a turn or bend here. The next morning Bruce and Balugani, impatient to visit the most extensive and magnificent scene of ruins that are in Upper Egypt, set out for Beliani; and at about ten o'clock in the morning they arrived at Dendera, with letters from the Bey of Cairo to the two principal men there, commanding them most peremptorily to take care of Bruce; and also a letter of very strong recommendation to Sheikh Haman at Furshoot, in whose territory they were. Bruce pitched his tent by the river side; and from the persons to whom he was thus addressed he soon received a horse and three asses to convey him to the ruins. "Dendera," says Bruce, "is a considerable town at this day, all covered with thick groves of palm-trees, the same that Juvenal describes it to have been in his time.... This place is governed by a cashief, appointed by Sheikh Haman. A mile south of the town are the ruins of two temples, one of which is so much buried under ground that little of it is to be seen; but the other, which is by far the most magnificent, is entire, and accessible on every side. It is also covered with hieroglyphics, both within and without, all in relief, and of every figure, simple and compound, that ever has been published or called a hieroglyphic. Great part of the colouring yet remains upon the stones; red in all its shades, especially that dark, dusky colour called Tyrian purple; yellow very fresh; sky-blue (that is, near the blue of an Eastern sky, several shades lighter than ours); green of different shades: these are all the colours preserved. It was no part of my plan or inclination to enter into the detail of this extraordinary architecture; quantity and solidity are two principal requisites, that are seen here with a vengeance! It strikes and imposes on you at first sight; but the impressions are like those made by the size of mountains, which the mind does not retain for any considerable time after seeing them. I think a very ready hand might spend six months, from morning to night, before he could copy the hieroglyphics in the inside of the temple." The next day the canja reached the convent of Italian friars at Furshoot, who received Bruce much more kindly than the monks of Achnim. Furshoot is situated in a large cultivated plain, and the population of the town is very considerable. Bruce had only hired the canja to proceed to this place; but, being on good terms with the rais or captain, he prevailed upon him to take him on to Syene and bring him back to Furshoot for four pounds, with a trifling premium if he behaved well. "And if you behave ill," said Bruce, "what do you think you will deserve?" "To be hanged!" replied the rais. On the 7th of January, 1769, Bruce left Furshoot; and, sailing by How, he came to El Gourni, which he thinks might have been part of ancient Thebes. "About half a mile north of El Gourni," says Bruce, "are the magnificent, stupendous sepulchres of Thebes: a hundred of these, it is said, are excavated into sepulchral and a variety of other apartments. I went through seven of them with a great deal of fatigue. It is a solitary place; and my guides, either from a natural impatience and distaste that these people have at such employments, or their fears of the banditti that live in the caverns of the mountains were real, importuned me to return to the boat even before I had begun my search, or got into the mountain where are the many large apartments of which I was in quest." In one of these sepulchres Bruce and Balugani found three harps painted in fresco upon the panels. "As the first harp," says Bruce, "seemed to be the most perfect and least spoiled, I immediately attached myself to this, and desired my clerk to take upon him the charge of the second. My first drawing was that of a man playing upon a harp." We must here observe, that when Bruce, on his return to England, published his drawings of these sketches, his enemies declared very positively that he had come by them unfairly. By much sophistry they endeavoured to prove that Bruce had never been in the sepulchres at all; and even Brown, who visited Thebes, has insinuated that Bruce must have drawn them in England from memory. Now, in contradiction to this illiberal accusation, it must be stated, that pencilled sketches of the two harps are still preserved among Bruce's papers, and that one of them, at least, is evidently the work of Luigi Balugani, who did not live to return to Europe. Still Bruce was disbelieved; and it was positively maintained that he had never been at the sepulchre at all; but, sooner or later, truth always prevails. The following is an extract (page 148) from "Travels in Egypt and Nubia, &c., by the Hon. Charles Leonard Irby and James Mangles, Commanders in the Royal Navy; printed for private distribution. London, 1823." "We (captains Irby and Mangles, attended by Belzoni) now explored the other tombs (at Thebes), but found nothing new to add to our former observations. In the small chamber where Bruce copied the harp he gave to Mr. Burney for his history of music, _we saw that traveller's name scratched over the very harp_, which we think strong presumptive evidence that he drew it himself, though he has been accused of drawing it afterward from memory. He is erroneous in the number of strings which he has given to it: the instrument itself is not unlike the original, though the musician is very indifferently copied." After roughly copying these ancient harps, which Bruce little thought would ever be made to vibrate to the dishonour of his character, he made preparations for proceeding farther in his researches; but his conductors now lost all subordination. They were afraid that his intention was to sit in this cave all night (and it really was), and to visit the rest the next morning. With great clamour and marks of discontent they dashed their torches against the largest harp, and, scrambling out of the cave, left Bruce and Balugani in the dark. With some difficulty they groped their way out of these ancient, gloomy receptacles of the dead; and, as soon as they came to the sunshine and freshness of the living world, they abandoned all farther researches and rode to the boat. At midnight, a gentle breeze springing up, the canja was wafted up to Luxor, where Bruce was well received by the governor, who gave him a quantity of provisions: among these were some lemons and sugar, with which he made for himself and his party a regular bowl of punch, which they drank in "remembrance of Old England." "Luxor," says Bruce, "and Carnac, a mile and a quarter below it, are by far the largest and most magnificent scenes of ruins in Egypt, much more extensive and stupendous than those of Thebes and Dendera put together." Two days after the canja had sailed from Luxor, it reached Sheikh Amner, the encampment of the Arabs Ababdé; and as this tribe extends from Cosseir on the Red Sea far into the desert which Bruce was to cross, he thought it politic and highly important to cultivate their friendship. Sheikh Amner is a collection of villages, composed of miserable huts, which contained, in Bruce's estimation, about a thousand effective men, who possessed few horses, being principally mounted on camels. They form the barrier or bulwark against the prodigious number of Arabs, principally the Bishareen, who are nominally the subjects of the kingdom of Sennaar. Ibrahim, the son of the sheikh, who had known Bruce at Furshoot, and had received from him medicines for his father, recognised him the moment he arrived; and, after acquainting his father, he came, with about a dozen naked attendants, armed with lances, to escort Bruce, who had no sooner arrived at the tent of the sheikh than a bountiful dinner was placed before him. Bruce and his party were then introduced to the old sheikh, who was very ill, and lying in the corner of the tent on a carpet, his head resting on a cushion. This veteran chief of the Ababdé, named Nimmer, which means "the Tiger," was a man of about sixty years of age, suffering dreadfully from a most painful disorder, which, though very common among those who drink water from the draw-wells of the desert, is seldom met with on the banks of the Nile. Bruce had sent to this man from Badjoura a number of soap pills, which had afforded him very great relief; and he now gave him lime-water, promising that on his return he would teach his people how to make it. After a long conversation with this "Royal Tiger," whose savage disposition seemed to have been softened by feelings of pain and gratitude, Bruce asked him to tell him truly, on the faith of an Arab (which he knew these wild people nobly prided themselves in maintaining inviolate), whether his tribe, if they met him in the desert, would forget that he had on that day eaten and drank with their chieftain. "The old man Nimmer," says Bruce, "on this rose from his carpet and sat upright--a more ghastly and more horrid figure I never saw. 'No!' said he, 'sheikh, cursed be those men of my people, or others, that ever shall lift up their hand against you, either in the desert or the tell.[19] As long as you are in this country, or between this and Cosseir, my son shall serve you with heart and hand; ... one night of pain that your medicines freed me from, would not be repaid if I were to follow you on foot to Messir.'"[20] Bruce now thought it a proper moment to declare, for the first time, that his real object was to get into Abyssinia. The sheikh kindly and calmly discussed the subject, and concluded by advising him to retrace his steps to Kenné, or Cuft, on the Nile, from thence to cross the desert to Cosseir, a port on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea; thence to go over to Jidda, which is on the opposite side of the gulf, near Mecca, and from that port to sail for Abyssinia; and he added that he himself was sending a cargo of wheat to Cosseir, to be again shipped for Jidda. "But," said Bruce (who thought it prudent once more to touch a string, the very sound of which was most important to his safety), "all that is right, sheikh; yet suppose your people meet me in the desert, in going to Cosseir or otherwise, how should we fare in that case? Should we fight?" "I have told you, sheikh, already," replied the Tiger, "cursed be the man who lifts his hand against you!" Encouraged by the repetition of this uncouth benediction, Bruce frankly told the Nimmer that he would proceed to Cosseir--that he was Yagoube--seeking to do good, and bound by a vow to wander through deserts. The old man, after some thought, muttered something to his sons in a dialect which Bruce did not understand; and while, pretending to take no notice, he was occupied in mixing some lime-water, the whole hut was suddenly filled with priests, monks, and the heads of families. After joining hands, and solemnly mumbling, for about two minutes, a kind of wild prayer, in various attitudes, they declared themselves and their children accursed if ever they lifted their hands against Yagoube in the tell, in the desert, or on the river; and then, muttering curses between their teeth on the name of Turk, the unearthly-looking crew vanished. "Medicines and advice," says Bruce, "being given on my part, faith and protection pledged on theirs, two bushels of wheat and seven sheep were carried down to the boat; nor could we decline their kindness, as refusing a present in that country, however it is understood in ours, is just as great an affront as coming into the presence of a superior without any present at all." The tact with which Bruce makes his way through the various difficulties that oppose him--softening the most rigid prejudices, and often managing to convert a barbarous enmity into disinterested friendship, will appear through the whole of his travels; and we cannot now refrain from remarking how ill-advised poor Denham surely was, to attempt to penetrate Africa by taking an opposite course, dressing himself in the mean, detested garments of a European. Denham says, "We were the first English travellers in Africa who had resisted the persuasion that a disguise was necessary, and who had determined to travel in our real character as Britons and Christians, and to wear on all occasions our English dresses;" and what was the result? "'What do you do here?' said some women who accosted him; 'you are a Kaffir, khaleel! It is you Christians, with the blue eyes like the hyæna, that eat the blacks whenever you can get them far enough away from their own country!' 'God deliver me from his evil eye!' said a young girl. 'He is,' cried another, 'an uncircumcised Kaffir; neither washes nor prays! eats pork! and will go to hell.' 'Turn him out!' said the kadi; 'God forbid that any one who has eaten with Christians should give evidence in the laws of Mohammed!' 'Oh! oh! the Lord preserve us from the infernal devil!' they all exclaimed; and screaming 'Y-hy-yo, y-hy-yo!' they all ran off in the greatest alarm." (Denham, vol. ii., p. 40.) Some years ago, the Bey of Tripoli, who gave permission to Captain Smyth, R.N., and Mr. Warrington, to excavate, explore, and carry away the ruins of ancient Leptis, made the following replies to Captain Smyth and the British consul, who officially waited on him to ask his advice as to the best mode of getting into the interior of Africa. Q. Does your highness imagine it difficult for a party to reach the Nile (Niger) through the dominions of your friend the King of Bornou? A. Not in the least: the road to Bornou is as beaten as that to Bengazi. Q. Will your highness grant protection to a party wishing to proceed that way? A. Any person wishing to go in that direction (it was the very same route which Denham took), I will send an embassy to Bornou to escort him thither, and from thence the king will protect him to the Nile. _But I must first clothe him as a Turk._ Q. Will he not be subject to much troublesome inquiry on that head? A. No; _but he must not say he is a Christian_: people in the interior are very ignorant. It is with painful reluctance that we have paused for a moment in Bruce's history to make the above observations; but the advice which was given to poor Denham and his gallant companions may be again given to others; and as the proper mode of penetrating Africa is a most important problem, in which the lives of future travellers are involved, we only beg the reader henceforward to observe the effect which Bruce's plan of getting along produces, and then to judge for himself whether the traveller who wishes to penetrate Africa should publicly proclaim himself "a Briton and a Christian," or not. That he should inwardly be both, no one, we hope, will deny; yet religion, like loyalty, need not be vauntingly displayed; and as we know that the African abhors and despises both our religion and our dress, why should we irritate his prejudices by wilfully unfurling these flags of defiance? Most particularly as regards the useless fashion of our dress, which is so very badly adapted to the climate, it may at least be maintained that English breeches, stockings, and "coats cut to the quick," are far better relished by the phlebotomizing moschetoes of Africa than by its human inhabitants. Within the tropics, even the sheep wears hair instead of wool. Why, then, should "a Briton" insist on carrying his fleecy hosiery to the Line? Bruce being within a day of the cataracts of Syene, called by the Arabs Assuan, sailed on the 20th for that town, and had scarcely arrived when an unarmed janisary, dressed in long Turkish clothes, and holding in his hand a white wand, came to tell him that Syene was a garrison town, and that the aga was at the castle ready to give him an audience, having received a most particular letter from the Bey of Cairo. "I found the aga," says Bruce, "sitting in a small kiosk or closet, upon a stone bench with carpets. As I was in no fear of him, I was resolved to walk according to my privileges. I sat down upon a cushion below him, after laying my hand on my breast, and saying, in an audible voice, 'Salam alicum!' (Peace be between us); to which he answered, without any of the usual difficulty, 'Alicum salum!' (There _is_ peace between us). After sitting down about two minutes, I again got up, and stood in the middle of the room before him, saying, 'I am bearer of a hatésheriffe, or royal mandate to you, Mohammed Aga!' and took the firman out of my bosom and presented it to him. Upon this he stood upright, and all the rest of the people, before sitting with him, likewise; he bowed his head upon the carpet, then put the firman to his forehead, opened it, and pretended to read it: but he knew well the contents, and, I believe, besides, he could neither read nor write any language. I then gave him the other letters from Cairo, which he ordered his secretary to read in his ear. "All this ceremony being finished, he called for a pipe and coffee. I refused the first, as never using it, but I drank a dish of coffee, and told him that I was bearer of a confidential message from Ali Bey of Cairo, and wished to deliver it to him without witnesses, whenever he pleased. The room was accordingly cleared without delay, excepting his secretary, who was also going away, when I pulled him back by the clothes, saying, 'Stay, if you please, we shall need you to write the answer.' We were no sooner left alone, than I told the aga that, being a stranger, and not knowing the disposition of his people, or what footing they were on together, and being desired to address myself only to him by the bey and our mutual friends at Cairo, I wished to put it in his power (as he pleased or not) to have witnesses of delivering the small present I had brought him from Cairo. The aga seemed very sensible of this delicacy; and particularly desired me to take no notice to my landlord, the schourbatchie, of anything I had brought him. "All this being over, and a confidence established with government, I sent his present by his own servant that night, under the pretence of desiring horses to go to the cataract next day. The message was returned, that the horses were to be ready by six o'clock next morning. On the 21st, the aga sent me his own horse, with mules and asses for my servants, to go to the cataract." Having thus judiciously cleared the way before him, Bruce proceeded to the small villages of the cataract, which are about six miles from Assuan; and on arriving at what is called the cataract, he was much surprised to find that vessels could sail up it, the river being there not half a mile broad, but divided into a number of small channels. During the whole of the 22d, 23d, and 24th of January, he was occupied with his instruments, besides which he made many other observations and memoranda; and on the 25th of January, 1769, he prepared to descend the river. Fain would he have continued to stem the torrent, and it was with secret pain and silent reluctance that Bruce turned his back upon the sources of the Nile. Yet the advice he had received, and the course which had been recommended to him, he had firmly resolved to pursue; and accordingly, on the 26th of January, he embarked at Syene, from the very spot where he again took boat more than three years afterward. To his bold, enterprising mind, there was now a melancholy change in the picture. The canja was no longer to be seen proudly striding over the opposing element; but, with her prodigious mainsail lowered, and even her masts unshipped, she was carried broadside down the stream in helpless captivity. From her deck no longer resounded those exclamations of eager delight and sudden surprise which had ushered each new object into view: the scene had lost its freshness and its bloom--the magic charm of novelty! In passing Sheikh Amner, Bruce called upon his patient Nimmer (the Tiger), Sheikh of the Ababdé, who was better, and as thankful as ever. Bruce renewed his prescriptions, and he his offers of service. On the 2d of February he again took up his quarters at Badjoura, in the house which had formerly been assigned to him. "As I was now," says Bruce, "about to enter on that part of my expedition in which I was to have no farther intercourse with Europe, I set myself to work to examine all my observations, and put my journal in such forwardness by explanations where needful, that the labour and pains I had hitherto been at might not be totally lost to the public if I should perish in the journey I had undertaken, which, from all information I could procure, every day appeared to be more and more desperate. Having finished these, at least so far as to make them intelligible to others, I conveyed them to my friends Messrs. Julian and Rosa, at Cairo, to remain in their custody till I should return, or news came that I was otherwise disposed of." FOOTNOTES: [12] Plin., lib. v., cap. 9. [13] Plin., lib. xxxvi., cap. 12. [14] Diod. Sic., p. 45, § 50. [15] Shaw's Travels, chap. 4, p. 298. [16] Lib. ii., p. 141, 168, 105, 103. [17] Strabo, lib. vii., p. 944. [18] _Things not existing and those not appearing to exist we may account the same._ [19] The part of Egypt which is cultivated. [20] Cairo. CHAPTER V. Bruce crosses the Desert to the Red Sea.--Meets with the Arabs Ababdé at Cosseir.--His Adventures in the Red Sea.--Arrives at Massuah, the ancient Harbour of Abyssinia. It was on Thursday, the 16th of February,[21] 1769, that Bruce joined the caravan which was setting out from Kenné, the _Coene Emporium_ of antiquity. They passed through a few dirty villages of the Azaizy, a poor, inconsiderable tribe of Arabs, who live by furnishing cattle for the caravans, and by attending on them. The huts of these poor people, which are made of clay in one piece, in the shape of a beehive, are seldom above ten feet high and six feet in diameter. After travelling nearly the whole day, Bruce pitched his tent at Gabba, about a mile from the borders of the desert, and here he passed the night. On the 17th, at eight o'clock in the morning, he ordered his servants to mount their horses, in order to take charge of their camels, for there was an indescribable confusion in the caravan, which was to be guarded by two hundred lawless, cowardly fellows, armed with firelocks, and on horseback. When all was ready, the whole party, at a funereal pace, slowly advanced into the gloomy region of the desert. There was nothing in the prospect to excite the mind or arouse the feelings. Men, camels, and horses, drooping as they went, seemed to be alike aware that the courage they had now to exert was wholly of a passive character; that all that was required of them was--to suffer! Anger, hatred, and the other vengeful passions, which, like intoxicating draughts, often make men thoughtless and insensible to danger, afforded no excitement here. They had not the savage pleasure even of contending with human enemies; and the burning sand and burning sun it was out of their power to injure. "Our road," says Bruce, "was all the way in an open plain, bounded by hillocks of sand and fine gravel, perfectly hard, and not perceptibly above the level of the plain country of Egypt. About twelve miles distant there is a ridge of mountains, of no considerable height, perhaps the most barren in the world. Between these our road lay through plains never three miles broad, but without trees, shrubs, or herbs. There are not even the traces of any living creature; neither serpent nor lizard, antelope nor ostrich, the usual inhabitants of the most dreary deserts. There is no sort of water on the surface, brackish or sweet. Even the birds seem to avoid the place as pestilential, not having seen one of any kind so much as flying over. The sun was burning hot, and, upon rubbing two sticks together, in half a minute they both took fire and flamed; a mark how near the country was reduced to a general conflagration." In the evening the caravan was joined by twenty Turks from Caramania, in Asia Minor. They were mounted on camels, and armed with swords, a short gun, and a brace of pistols in their girdles. Having been informed that the large tent belonged to an Englishman, they came to it without ceremony. They told Bruce that they were pilgrims going to Mecca; that they had been very badly treated in travelling from Alexandria; that one of the swimming thieves of the Nile had boarded their vessel, and carried off a portmanteau containing about two hundred sequins in gold; that the Bey of Girge had given them no redress; and, therefore, hearing that an Englishman was in the caravan, they had come to him to propose they should join in defending each other against all common enemies. "I cannot conceal," says Bruce, "the secret pleasure I had in finding the character of my country so firmly established among nations so distant, enemies to our religion, and strangers to our government. Turks from Mount Taurus, and Arabs from the desert of Libya, thought themselves unsafe among their own countrymen, but trusted their lives and their little fortunes implicitly to the direction and word of an Englishman whom they had never before seen!" The caravan was detained at Legeta the whole of the 18th by the arrival of these Turks; but early in the morning of the 19th they proceeded along a narrow plain, hemmed in by barren hills, of a brown, calcined colour, like the cinders on the sides of Vesuvius. Passing some mountains of green and red marble, they came into a plain called Hamra, where they first observed the red sand; and on the morning of the 20th, after having mounted some hills of porphyry, they began to descend. At noon they came to a few single acacia-trees, which, after rain, form a station for the Atouni Arabs, and at night they encamped on a small barren plain. On the 21st, in passing some defiles, they were alarmed by a false report that the Arabs were approaching. At noon they encamped at Mesag el Terfowey, where they obtained the first fresh water which they had tasted since they left the Nile. Next morning, before daybreak, the caravan was again in motion, having learned that, only two days before, three hundred of the Atouni had watered at Terfowey. "It has been a wonder," says Bruce, "among all travellers, and with myself among the rest, where the ancients procured that prodigious quantity of fine marble with which all their buildings abound. That wonder, however, among many others, now ceases, after having passed, in four days, more granite, porphyry, marble, and jasper than would build Rome, Athens, Corinth, Syracuse, Memphis, Alexandria, and half a dozen more such cities. About ten o'clock, descending very rapidly, with green marble and jasper on each side of us, but no other green thing whatever, we had the first prospect of the Red Sea." To the eye which has for a length of time viewed nothing but fertile land, the sight of the sea is always delightful: it roams with pleasure over the wide expanse of moving waters, revelling in the freedom and freshness of a new element. But to the parched, thirsting, and weary traveller, who has journeyed over the scorched, arid, lifeless desert of Africa, in whose imagination water is wealth, the sudden view of the great ocean creates ecstatic feelings which it is utterly impossible to describe. Cosseir is a small mud-walled village, built on the shore of the Red Sea. It is defended by a square fort, containing a few pieces of cannon, just sufficient to terrify the Arabs from plundering the town, which is often filled with corn going to Mecca. Bruce had an order from Sheikh Haman to lodge in the castle; but, a few hours before he arrived, Hussein Bey, landing from Mecca and Jidda, had taken possession of the apartments. This bey, however, hearing that the English traveller had the firman of the grand seignior, with letters from the Bey of Cairo, and that he had, moreover, furnished the stranger Turks with water in the desert, of his own accord made himself acquainted with Bruce, treating him with attention and respect; and no sooner was this observed by his fellow-travellers, the Turks, than they complained to Hussein Bey that one of the Arabs had attempted to rob them in the desert. "What is the reason," said this great man, very gravely, to Bruce, "that, when you English people know so well what good government is, you did not order his head to be struck off when you had him in your hands, before the door of the tent?" "Sir," replied Bruce, with the real feelings of a "Briton and a Christian," "I know well what good government is, but, being a stranger and a Christian, I have no sort of title to exercise the power of life and death in this country: only in this one case, when a man attempts my life, then I think I am warranted to defend myself, whatever may be the consequence to him. My men took him in the fact, and they had my orders, in such cases, to beat the offenders, so that they should not steal these two months again. They did so: that was punishment enough in cold blood." "But my blood," interrupted the bey, "never cools with regard to such rascals as these. Go! (he called one of his attendants) tell Hassan, the head of the caravan, from me, that, unless he hangs that Arab before sunrise to-morrow, I will carry him in irons to Furshoot." While Bruce was at Cosseir, the caravan from Syene arrived, escorted by four hundred Ababdé, armed with javelins, and mounted on camels, two on each, sitting back to back: they conducted a thousand camels laden with wheat. The whole town was in terror at the influx of so many barbarians; and even Bruce sent all his instruments, money, books, and baggage to a chamber in the castle. The following morning, as he was loitering in dishabille on the shore, looking for seashells, one of his servants came to him in great alarm, to say that the Ababdé had been told that Bruce's Arab, Abd-el-gin, was an Atouni, their enemy, and that they had therefore dragged him away to cut his throat. Bruce, dressed as he was, with a common red turban on his head, vaulted on his servant's horse, and galloping through the townspeople, who fancied, with alarm, that the Ababdé were pursuing him, reached the sands, and proceeding as hard as he could go for nearly two miles, he saw a crowd of Arabs before him. Desirous to save the life of the poor wretch his servant, he had totally forgotten his own safety. "Upon my coming near them," says Bruce, "six or eight of them surrounded me on horseback, and began to gabble in their own language. I was not very fond of my situation. It would have cost them nothing to thrust a lance through my back and taken the horse away; and, after stripping me, to have buried me in a hillock of sand, if they were so kind as to give themselves that last trouble. However, I pricked up courage, and, putting on the best appearance I could, said to them steadily, without trepidation, 'What men are these before?' The answer, after some pause, was, 'They are men;' and they looked very queerly, as if they meant to ask each other 'What sort of spark is this?' 'Are those before us Ababdé?' said I; 'are they from Sheikh Amner?' One of them nodded, and grunted sullenly rather than said, 'Ay, Ababdé, from Sheikh Amner.' 'Then, salum alicum!' said I, 'we are brethren. How does the Nimmer? Who commands you here? Where is Ibrahim?' At the mention of the Nimmer (the Tiger) and Ibrahim, their countenance changed, not to anything sweeter or gentler than before, but to a look of great surprise. They had not returned my salutation, 'Peace be between us;' but one of them asked me who I was. 'Tell me first,' said I, 'who is that you have before?' 'It is an Arab, our enemy,' says he, 'guilty of our blood.' 'It is not so,' replied I; 'he is my servant, a Howadat Arab; his tribe lives in peace at the gates of Cairo, in the same manner yours of Sheikh Amner does at those of Assouan. I ask you, where is Ibrahim, your sheikh's son?' 'Ibrahim,' says he, 'is at our head; he commands us here. But who are you?' 'Come with me, and show me Ibrahim,' said I, 'and I will show you who I am.' "I passed by these and by another party of them. They had thrown a hair rope about the neck of Abd-el-gin, who was almost strangled already, and cried out most miserably to me not to leave him. I went directly to the black tent, which I saw had a long spear thrust up in the end of it, and met at the door Ibrahim and his brother, and seven or eight Ababdé. He did not recollect me, but I dismounted close to the tent door, and had scarcely taken hold of the pillar of the tent, and said 'Fiarduc!' when Ibrahim and his brother both knew me. 'What!' said they, 'are you Yagoube, our physician and our friend? 'Let me ask you,' replied I, 'if you are the Ababdé of Sheikh Amner, that cursed yourselves and your children if you ever lifted a hand against me or mine, in the desert or in the ploughed field? If you have repented of that oath, or sworn falsely on purpose to deceive me, here I am come to you in the desert.' 'What is the matter?' said Ibrahim; 'we are the Ababdé of Sheikh Amner--there are no other; and we still say, Cursed be he, whether our father or child, that lifts his hand against you in the desert or in the ploughed field.' 'Then,' said I, 'you are all accursed in the desert and in the field, for a number of your people are going to murder my servant. They took him, indeed, from my house in the town; perhaps that is not included in your curse, as it is neither in the desert nor the ploughed field.' I was very angry. 'Whew!' said Ibrahim, with a kind of whistle, 'that is downright nonsense. Who are those of my people that have authority to murder and take prisoners while I am here? Here, one of you, get upon Yagoube's horse and bring that man to me.' Then turning to me, he desired I would go into the tent and sit down. 'For God renounce me and mine,' says he, 'if it is as you say, and one of them hath touched the hair of his head, if ever he drinks of the Nile again!' A number of people, who had seen me at Sheikh Amner, now came all around me; some with complaints of sickness, some with compliments, more with impertinent questions that had no relation to either. At last came in the culprit Abd-el-gin, with forty or fifty of the Ababdé who had gathered round him, but no rope about his neck." Upon inquiring why the Ababdé wished to murder Abd-el-gin, Bruce was informed that the captain of his caravan, Hassan, had insidiously persuaded them to kill this man, against whom he had long entertained a great enmity. "I cannot help here," continues Bruce, "accusing myself of what, doubtless, may be well reputed a very great sin, the more so that I cannot say I have yet heartily repented of it. I was so enraged at the traitorous part which Hassan had acted, that, at parting, I could not help saying to Ibrahim, 'Now, sheikh, I have done everything you have desired, without ever expecting fee or reward; the only thing I now ask you, and it is probably the last, is, that you revenge me upon this Hassan, who is every day in your power.' Upon this he gave me his hand, saying, 'He shall not die in his bed, or I shall never see old age.'" The above anecdote clearly proves (what, indeed, requires no demonstration) that Bruce was by no means a faultless man; and for this act he has been very severely and justly condemned. While Bruce was thus engaged on the sands with the Ababdé Arabs, a vessel was seen in distress, and all the boats went to tow her in. Nothing can be more dangerous than the corn-trade as it is carried on in the Red Sea: the vessels have no decks, are filled full of wheat, and are continually lost; but scarcely have they sunk out of sight when their fate is equally out of mind. The people are deaf alike to experience, reason, and advice, and crying Ullah Kerim! (God is great and merciful!) they launch and despatch other vessels, trusting that by some miracle they shall be saved. Bruce having determined to attempt making a survey of the Red Sea down to the Straits of Babelmandel (which means the gate of affliction), took passages for himself and his party in a vessel that was shortly to be ready to receive him. The rais or captain was thought to be a saint; and he gravely assured Bruce, that any rock which stood in the way of his vessel would either jump aside, or else turn quite soft like a sponge. Previous to sailing with this man, Bruce embarked in a small boat, the planks of which, instead of being nailed, were sewn together; and, with the assistance of a sort of straw mattress as a sail, he departed on the 14th of March from the harbour of Cosseir, with an Arab guide, to go to Gibel Zurmud, the emerald mines described by Pliny and other writers. On the 16th he landed on a desert point, and at last came to the foot of these mountains. Inquiring of his guide the name of the spot, the fellow told him it was called "Saiel." "They are never," says Bruce, "at a loss for a name; and those who do not understand the language always believe them. He knew not the name of the place, and perhaps it had no name; but he called it Saiel, which signifies a male acacia-tree, merely because he saw one growing there." Near the foot of the mountain Bruce found five small pits or shafts, from which the ancients are supposed to have drawn emeralds; and then, without having seen a living creature of any sort, he returned to his boat, and proceeded to the islands of Gibel Macowar, to one of which he gave his own name. He was anxious to have sailed still farther towards the south; but signs of an approaching storm obliged him to turn and make for Cosseir. A most violent tempest of wind and rain overtook them; and the rais being completely overcome by fear, Bruce, unable to lower the yard, proposed to cut the straw mainsail to pieces. The rais, terrified at the storm, instantly turned towards Bruce with clasped hands and uplifted eyes, and began muttering to him something about the mercy and merits of Sidi Ali el Genowi. "Confound Sidi Ali el Genowi," said Bruce, "you beast, cannot you give me a rational answer?" and, getting the mainsail in his arms, with a large knife he cut it into shreds. On the 19th of March, a little before sunset, they reached the harbour of Cosseir, where they learned that three vessels had perished in the night, with all their hands. Having determined the latitude and longitude of Cosseir, and also completed a long series of other observations, Bruce embarked on the 5th of April to continue his survey of the Red Sea, concerning the climate of which Captain Tuckey, of the royal navy, who, with most of his officers and men, perished in 1810 in attempting to trace the course of the Niger, thus wrote from Bombay: "It may surprise you to hear me complain of heat after six years broiling between the tropics; but the hottest day I ever felt, either in the East or West Indies, was winter to the coolest one we had in the Red Sea; the whole coast of 'Araby the Blessed,' from Babelmandel to Suez, for forty miles inland, is an arid sand, producing not a single blade of grass, nor affording one drop of fresh water." Crossing the gulf, Bruce arrived in four days at Tor, a small straggling village at the foot of Mount Sinai. On the 11th of April he again sailed, coasting along the eastern shore, and landing for a short time at Yamboo; and then continuing his course towards the south, he arrived on the 1st of May at the extensive port of Jidda, which is in Arabia Deserta, and about half way between the Isthmus of Suez and the Straits of Babelmandel. From Yambo to Jidda Bruce slept but little; having been constantly occupied with memoranda which he was desirous to complete. He was, besides, suffering and shaking from his Bengazi ague; and, burned and weatherbeaten, he was in his neglected garb so like a galiongy or Turkish seaman, that the captain of the port was astonished at hearing his servants, as they were conducting his baggage to the custom-house, say that the traveller was an Englishman. The reader, having proceeded thus far in the history of Bruce's life, will have remarked with what unconquerable resolution he has hitherto proceeded on his journey, fearless of danger, shrinking from no fatigue, exposing himself to the scorching sun, and complaining neither of hunger nor thirst, but his spirit, like the water of a great river, seeming to acquire strength and boldness in its course as he daily approaches his distant goal. But how has it fared with the body, that frail companion of the mind, during this weary journey? On the subject of his health Bruce himself says but little; and it is only casually, in the following remarkable anecdote, that we are presented with a picture of his frame. After having been insulted as an impostor by one of his countrymen, "I was conducted," says Bruce, "into a large room, where Captain Thornhill was sitting, in a white calico waistcoat, a very high pointed white cotton nightcap, with a large tumbler of water before him, seemingly very deep in thought. The Emir Bahar's servant brought me forward by the hand a little within the door; but I was not desirous of advancing much farther, for fear of the salutation of being thrown down stairs again. He looked very steadily, but not sternly at me, and desired the servant to shut the door. 'Sir,' says he, 'are you an Englishman?' I bowed. 'You surely are sick, you should be in your bed; have you been long sick?' I said, 'Long, sir,' and bowed. 'Are you wanting a passage to India?' I again bowed. 'Well,' says he, 'you look to be a man in distress; if you have a secret, I shall respect it till you please to tell it me; but if you want a passage to India, apply to no one but Thornhill of the Bengal Merchant. Perhaps you are afraid of somebody; if so, ask for Mr. Greig, my lieutenant; he will carry you on board my ship directly, where you will be safe.' 'Sir,' said I, 'I hope you will find me an honest man; I have no enemy that I know, either in Jidda or elsewhere, nor do I owe any man anything.' 'I am sure,' says he, 'I am doing wrong in keeping a poor man standing who ought to be in his bed. Here! Philip! Philip!' (Philip appeared.) 'Boy,' says he, in Portuguese, which, as I imagine, he supposed I did not understand, 'here is a poor Englishman, who should be either in his bed or in his grave; carry him to the cook; tell him to give him as much broth and mutton as he can eat; the fellow seems to have been starved; but I would rather have the feeding of ten to India, than the burying of one at Jidda.' I made as awkward a bow as I could to Captain Thornhill, and said, 'God will return this to your honour some day.' Philip carried me into a courtyard where they used to expose their samples of India goods in large bales. It had a portico along the left-hand side of it, which seemed designed for a stable. To this place I was introduced, and thither the cook brought me my dinner. I fell fast asleep upon the mat while Philip was ordering me another apartment." Let this sketch of Bruce's jaded appearance be deeply engraven upon the memory of the reader; and, while the impression is fresh, he cannot but acknowledge what steady perseverance and what manly energy Bruce must have possessed, to have determined, in such a state of health, on continuing to explore the Red Sea, in addition to the arduous Abyssinian task which remained still to be performed. But, while he is sleeping on his mat, it is absolutely necessary that we should no longer delay noticing the observations which have been made on his voyage in the Red Sea, etc. In the year 1805, thirty-four years after Bruce had left Abyssinia, eleven years after his death, and while his travels were still looked upon as romances, Lord Valentia, accompanied by his secretary, Mr. Salt, came from India into the Red Sea, and landed at Masuah, the island which forms the port or harbour of Abyssinia, no traveller having penetrated that country since the days of Bruce. His lordship's object in making this voyage will be best explained in his own words: "During my stay at Calcutta, I had the honour of freely conversing with the Marquis Wellesley on the subject of the Red Sea, and of stating to him my ideas and feelings, in which I had the happiness of finding that he fully concurred. At length I proposed to his excellency that he should order one of the Bombay cruisers to be prepared for a voyage to the Red Sea; and I offered my gratuitous services to endeavour to remove our disgraceful ignorance, by embarking in her, for the purpose of investigating the eastern shore of Africa, and making the necessary inquiries into the present state of Abyssinia and the neighbouring countries." With these enterprising, enthusiastic, and noble feelings, Lord Valentia, like Bruce, proceeded to the Island of Masuah; but, on his arrival there, not liking to venture into the interior of so dangerous and uncivilized a country, and yet being desirous to publish "Travels to Abyssinia," etc., he desired Mr. Salt to go forward. Salt accordingly entered the country; but, not being able to reach the capital, he returned to Lord Valentia, leaving behind him one Nathaniel Pierce, an English sailor, who had deserted from his majesty's brig the Antelope, having previously, while a boy, ran away from his own friends. On his return to England, as is well known, Lord Valentia published, in three quarto volumes, his "Travels to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt;" and in 1810, at his lordship's suggestion, Mr. Canning sent Salt again to Abyssinia with presents, which consisted of "arms ornamented with gold and jewels, satins, cut glass, painted glass, jewellery, a picture of the Virgin Mary, fine British muslins, two pieces of curricle artillery, with the harness complete, one hundred and fifty rounds of ball, and a quantity of powder." With these magnificent presents (which amounted in value to upward of £1400), Mr. Salt again attempted to reach the capital; but, not succeeding, instead of bringing them back, he left them at Chelicut, which is about half way between the Red Sea and Gondar, the capital, to be forwarded to the king. However, Mr. Salt assures us "that an appropriate prayer was recited by the high-priest, in which the English name was frequently introduced, and, on leaving the church, an order was given by the ras that a prayer should be offered up weekly for the health of his majesty, the King of Great Britain. It is scarcely possible to convey," continues Salt, "an adequate idea of the admiration which the ras and his principal chiefs expressed on beholding these splendid presents. The former would often sit for minutes absorbed in silent reflection, and then break out with the exclamation 'Etzub! etzub!' (Wonderful! wonderful!) like a man bewildered with the fresh ideas that were rushing upon his mind, from having witnessed circumstances to which he could have given no previous credit."[22] Salt, having thus got rid of fourteen hundred pounds' worth of presents (concerning which other reflecting people besides Abyssinians might very justly say Etzub! etzub!), returned to Downing-street, leaving behind him Pierce the sailor, and Coffin, a remarkably handsome English boy, who had come to Abyssinia as Lord Valentia's valet. In October, 1814, Pierce the sailor, then in Abyssinia, wrote a "Small but True Account of the Ways and Manners of the Abyssinians," which was published in 1820, in the second vol. of "Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay." Pierce remained in Abyssinia thirteen years. He never succeeded in reaching the capital or the fountains of the Nile; but, having turned Mohammedan, he quarrelled with the ras, took to drinking, lost his nose and part of his face; and in 1818, having re-embraced Christianity, he came with one of his wives to Cairo, where he died in great distress, a miserable example of a man who had deserted his parents, his religion, and the colours of his country. His life is, we understand, at this moment about to be published. Coffin, a very intelligent, pleasing, active lad, but of course illiterate, remained in Abyssinia until the year 1827, when he surprised his brother, who is now valet to Lord ----, and who had long supposed him to be dead, by suddenly calling upon him in London. From a conversation which we have just had with Coffin, we understand that he is about to return to Abyssinia; the present government having refused to give him anything for the king of that country beyond a trifling complimentary present. As, excepting Lord Valentia, Salt, Pierce, and Coffin, no European travellers have visited Abyssinia since the days of Bruce, we have conceived it to be absolutely necessary, in order that the reader may be enabled to form a correct judgment, to explain the connexion which exists between Lord Valentia, his secretary, his valet, and Nathaniel Pierce the English sailor, who, after deserting from his majesty's brig the Antelope, was patronised by Lord Valentia: for, as the two former, men of education and distinction, have already most violently attacked Bruce, and as the two latter are, we believe, about to follow (naturally enough) the opinions of their masters (we even understand that Pierce's life has been actually prepared for publication by one or more of Mr. Salt's friends), we feel it to be a duty which we owe to science, to truth, and to Bruce's memory, to show that these four individuals, without any improper intention, support rather than corroborate each other; and, having made this explanation, we no less unwillingly proceed to notice a few of the observations which have been made against Bruce by Lord Valentia and Mr. Salt. "On the 5th," says Lord Valentia, the commander-in-chief of Bruce's enemies, "I had a most severe attack of fever, which went off at night. I took James's powder, which I thought relieved it. On the 7th I was unwell in the morning, but the James's powder prevented a regular fit. I took _two grains_ of calomel night and morning, which gradually recovered me."--Vol. ii., p. 218. His lordship, alluding to Bruce, farther says: "When a person attempts to give geographical information to the public, it is necessary that his information should be accurate, and that he should not give as certain a single circumstance of which he has not positively informed himself." Yet Lord Valentia not only published "Travels to Abyssinia" (having only landed at Masuah, a harbour which did not at that time even belong to the King of Abyssinia), but also thus ventures, merely from hearsay, to contradict Bruce, who had been an eyewitness of facts which he related. "Although," says his lordship, "I was not so fortunate as to reach Macowar, yet I was sufficiently near it to convince myself that the _accounts I had received_ at Massowah and Suakim of its actual position were perfectly true; and that Mr. Bruce's adventures at and near it were complete romances. I confess that I always had some doubts in my mind respecting this voyage from Cosseir, from the absurdity of the account he gives of his taking a prodigious mat-sail, distended by the wind, then blowing a gale, in his arms, and yet having one hand at liberty to cut it in pieces with a knife. Nor could I more easily credit his finding at Gibel Zumrud or Sibergeit, the pits still remaining, five in number, none of them four feet in diameter, from which the ancients were said to have drawn the emeralds," &c., &c. Now Belzoni, who in 1816 visited this identical spot, says (p. 325), "The plain which extends from the mountain to the sea was covered in many places with woods of sycamore and ciell (the male acacia) tree, which confirms the account of Bruce. I do not see any reason why Mr. Bruce's assertion of having visited these mountains should be doubted." Lord Valentia proceeds to say, "I think it clear, from the above observations, that Mr. Bruce represented himself in the first place as visiting an island called Gibel Zumrud, in lat. 25° 3' N., though, in fact, that island lies in 23° 48'; and afterward as reaching another island, Macowar, in 24° 2' N., which, in fact, lies in 20° 38'. I think it appears equally clear that it was impossible for him to have made a voyage from Cosseir to the real Macowar, a distance of nearly four hundred miles, in the period he allows himself, from the 14th of March to the 17th;[23] and, consequently, that he never did see that place, _although his description of it, and also his assertion that the Arabs there quit the coast of Africa to strike off for Jidda, are both correct_. I think it impossible to account for these errors in any other way than by considering _the whole voyage as an episodical fiction_." Yet Captain Keys, who commanded his majesty's ship which Lord Valentia was actually on board, says, "Mr. Bruce is a very accurate observer, and I shall take his latitude and longitude." We have thought it but fair to give to the reader Lord Valentia's testimony, that Bruce's adventures and voyage in the Red Sea are "complete romances" and "episodical fictions." Neither our limits nor our inclination will permit us to offend Lord Valentia by making any very long reply; but we cannot refrain from observing, that if his lordship had but weighed his words with the scrupulous accuracy with which he appears to have weighed his medicine, he would have paused before he spoke thus disrespectfully of the character of an honest man, whose undertaking was altogether on too vast a scale to be described with the same minute accuracy with which his lordship thus describes the interesting occupations of his own family group: "With the bait of a cockroach," says Lord Valentia, "my servant caught a small fish of the genus Diodon; Mr. Salt drew it, and I stuffed its skin!" But we must now for a moment return to poor Bruce, who, the reader will recollect, was left asleep on the mat. While he was thus at rest, his baggage was taken to the custom-house; and the keys being in his own pocket, the vizier, who was exceedingly curious to witness the contents of so many large boxes, ordered them to be opened at the hinges. The first thing which chanced to present itself to the vizier's eyes was the firman of the Grand Seignior, wrapped up in green taffeta, magnificently written and titled, and the inscription powdered with gold-dust. Next appeared a white satin bag, addressed to the Khan of Tartary! Then a green and gold silk bag, with letters directed to the Sherriffe of Mecca! Then a crimson satin bag, containing letters for Metical Aga, his chief minister, sword-bearer, and favourite! At last appeared a letter from Ali Bey, of Cairo, to the vizier himself, written with all the superiority of a prince to a slave, and concluding by saying, that if any accident happened to Bruce through his neglect, he would punish the affront at the very gates of Mecca!! At the sight of these letters the vizier's curiosity was very suddenly converted into the most painful alarm; he ordered the mighty stranger's boxes to be nailed up immediately, and, upbraiding the servants for not telling him to whom they belonged, he mounted his horse, and instantly rode down to the English factory. Great inquiry was everywhere made for the English nobleman, whom nobody had seen; and Bruce was still sitting yawning on his mat, when the vizier entered the courtyard, which was instantly filled with a crowd of people. "In heaven!" replied Bruce, calmly and fearlessly, to a dapper custom-house clerk, who asked him if he could tell him where his master was. But the question being repeated, Bruce said that the baggage belonged to him; and he immediately rose up and introduced himself to the vizier and to several of his countrymen that were present; who, when they became better acquainted, united in making arrangements for getting him the strongest recommendations possible to the Naybe or governor of Masuah (the island in front of the port of Abyssinia), to the King of Abyssinia, and to the King of Sennaar. The English gentlemen at Jidda, and more particularly that excellent and honourable man, Captain Thomas Price, of the Lion, of Bombay, used all their influence with Metical Aga to procure Bruce a good reception in Abyssinia; and it was moreover agreed among them that an Abyssinian, named Mohammed Gibberti, should be appointed to go with him, to be an eyewitness of the treatment which he should receive. But, as Gibberti required a few weeks to prepare himself for the expedition, Bruce, having already been some time at Jidda, determined to continue his survey of the Red Sea. Accordingly, on the 8th of July, 1769, attended by all his countrymen to the water's edge, he sailed, under a salute from the harbour of Jidda; and, having landed at the harbour of Gonfodah, on the 31st he reached Gibel Raban, an island in the Straits of Babelmandel. After having determined the latitude and longitude of the straits, and of various other places on both coasts, he sailed to the northward; and on the 8th of August, (nearly a month from the time he had left Jidda) he reached Loheia, which is on the coast of Arabia Felix, immediately opposite to the island of Masuah and the port of Abyssinia. Here he remained until the 1st of September, when Mohammed Gibberti arrived, bringing with him the firman for the Naybe or governor of Masuah, and letters for Ras Michael, governor of the great province of Tigré in Abyssinia; a most singular personage, with whose character the reader will very shortly be made better acquainted. On the 3d of September they all sailed from Masuah, and on the 10th they passed the island of Gibel Teir, which is about half way between the two shores. It is a volcano, was then smoking, and was covered with sulphur and pumice-stones. Bruce was suffering very severely from fever and from the heat of the sun, which had almost brought on a _coup de soleil_, when, on the 11th, at noon, the vessel struck upon a reef of coral rocks, and for some hours they were totally unable to move her. They at last succeeded, however, and Bruce remarks: "We saw the advantage of a vessel being sewed rather than nailed together, as she was not only unhurt, but made very little water." During the confusion, and while the greater part of the Mohammedan crew were flying to prayers instead of trying to save the vessel, the courage and exertions of Yasine, a Moor, were much observed and admired by Bruce, who says: "From that day he grew into consideration with me, which continued ever after till my departure from Abyssinia." On the 14th they reached Dahalac, the largest island in the Red Sea, being thirty-seven miles in length and eighteen in breadth, but low, and so barren that several women and girls swam off to the vessel before it came to an anchor, begging for handfuls of rice, dora, or wheat. These miserable people are sometimes a whole year without tasting bread. Yet they are so strongly attached to their parched, barren, desolate home, that it is impossible to prevail on them to leave it. "This preference," says Bruce, "we must not call strange, for it is universal; from Lapland to the line you find it written precisely in the same character." On the 19th of September, 1769, a very important day in Bruce's life, his vessel came to anchor in the harbour of Masuah, the ancient port of Abyssinia. He was seventeen days in crossing the gulf, which is often done in three days; but much time had been spent in surveying the islands. Bruce's notes and observations during his voyages in the Red Sea, which we have passed over as being dry and uninteresting to the general reader, contain, nevertheless, facts and information of a very valuable description. Besides endeavouring to determine the currents, the bearings of the different islands, and the latitude and longitude of the principal points, Bruce surveyed a number of the harbours, and has given minute directions for ships to enter them; as also to navigate the gulf or channel. His collections of marine productions, and his observations on the natural history of the Red Sea, were also very extensive. "I suppose," he says, "I have drawings and subjects of this kind equal in bulk to the journal of the whole voyage itself." Not confining himself to useful, practical subjects, he directed his attention to questions of a more speculative nature: as to whether, for instance, the Red Sea is not higher, by some feet and inches, than the Mediterranean; where it was that the children of Israel passed the Red Sea; what is the origin of polygamy among Eastern nations; what causes the currents in the different parts of the gulf, &c., &c. He landed but at a few places, for the Abyssinian shore was quite desert, and the Arabian side extremely dangerous, being inhabited by a most barbarous people. On the one shore he could get nothing, while on the other he knew that he would be robbed of what little he had. His observations were therefore mostly nautical; and if his description of the charts and pilots he met with be correct, his labours were at least well intended. The pilots of the Red Sea, he says, "are creatures without any sort of science, who decide upon a manoeuvre in a moment;" and of the charts he thus speaks: "God forgive those who have taken upon them very lately to ingraft a number of new soundings upon that miserable bundle of errors, that chart of the upper part of the gulf from Jidda to Mocha, which has been tossed about the Red Sea these twenty years and upward! I would beg leave to be understood, that there is not in the world a man more averse than I am to give offence, even to a child. It is not in the spirit of criticism I speak this; but where the lives and properties of so many men are at stake yearly, it is a species of treason to conceal one's sentiments, if the publishing them can any way contribute to safety, whatever offence it may give to unreasonable individuals." Lord Valentia has thought proper to declare that Bruce "never was below Loheia;" "that his voyage from Loheia to Babelmandel is evidently a fiction;" "that his book partakes more of romance than reality;" "that he has so mixed truth with _falsehood_," &c., &.c, &c. In a polite and civilized country, this style of language (most particularly from one fellow-traveller to another) deserves no reply; it is a poison which must carry with it its own antidote. Lord Valentia himself admits that several of Bruce's latitudes and longitudes are correct; but he also asserts that others are incorrect, and that some are even copied from Niebuhr. All men are prone to error; and it may or may not be true that Bruce sometimes, without acknowledgment, availed himself of the experience of those who had preceded him; nevertheless, the observations which Lord Valentia has thought it proper to make upon our traveller are certainly not supported by the following extract from the journal even of his lordship's own secretary, Mr. Salt. "During Captain Court's absence, I endeavoured to get as much information as possible concerning the place; and for this purpose, one of the elder inhabitants, who had spent his life in piloting vessels to and fro, was brought to me by the nayib's man. He confirmed to me the names of all the islands we had seen in the morning, which agreed most perfectly with what Bruce has called them. He recognised every island, excepting two, mentioned by Bruce, as I named them from the book." It is likewise due to Bruce to repeat here the remark of Captain Keys of the royal navy, in whose vessel Lord Valentia and Mr. Salt first visited the Red Sea. "Mr. Bruce," says Captain Keys, "is a very accurate observer, and I shall take _his_ latitude and longitude." Dr. Clark, in his travels to Egypt, &c., says, "The officers of General Baird's army spoke highly of the accuracy of Bruce's observations; and the general himself assured us, that he considered Great Britain as indebted to Bruce's valuable chart of the Red Sea for the safety of the transports employed in carrying the British forces." Many people still agree with Lord Valentia in maintaining very positively that Bruce never was below Loheia, and consequently that he never went to the Straits of Babelmandel: because, say they, this part of his voyage is not mentioned in the private journal either of Bruce or his draughtsman Balugani. But how often has an eager traveller like Bruce, baffling all sober calculation, suddenly neglected everything else to visit a barren spot, for the empty satisfaction of being able to say, or only to feel, that he has been there; and surely no man was more likely to do this than Bruce, whose life was so much of it spent in attempting to gain such trophies. Bruce declares that he left Cosseir with a determination to make a survey of the Red Sea; and, steering direct north to Tor, his track shows the plan upon which he had embarked. On his arrival at Loheia he had sailed over nearly three quarters of the gulf; and, this being the case, is it not consistent with Bruce's general character to suppose that he should have felt a very strong inclination to conclude his survey, and especially to reach a point of so much geographical importance as the Straits of Babelmandel, which were, comparatively speaking, close to him? And if it _is_ likely that he should have entertained this feeling, there was nothing to prevent him from gratifying it. He had time, wind, water, a vessel, and provisions, and what could he have asked for more? FOOTNOTES: [21] By a letter which Bruce addressed from London to his friend Mr. Wood, it appears that it was on the 16th of March he left Kenné for Cosseir, but the 16th of February is the day stated in his "Travels." [22] Salt's Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 267. [23] Four hundred miles in four days is not five miles an hour. CHAPTER VI. Previous to Bruce's landing at Masuah, the ancient port of Abyssinia, it would seem proper to lay before the reader some account of this country, and of the continent to which it belongs. Of Africa in general it may be justly said, that ninety-nine parts of it are unknown; and that, at several points, a man might travel from the Mediterranean very nearly to the Cape of Good Hope, and from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, over ground which has never been trodden or seen by any European traveller. We have surveyed its coasts; we are acquainted with part of the Nile; and, in a very few directions, we have attempted to penetrate into the interior of the country; but it must be confessed that Africa is an immense blank in geography which remains yet to be filled up. Instead, therefore, of presuming to offer a map of this continent, we propose to attempt nothing more than a short verbal description of its general features, with a few observations thereon; and as Bruce's memoranda on the topography and history of Abyssinia are, with little attention to arrangement, scattered over the seven volumes of his travels, and would alone fill three or four times as many pages as the whole of this little book contains, we shall merely add to our sketch of Africa a slight descriptive outline of the kingdom of Abyssinia, and an abstract of its history up to the time when Bruce landed in that country. We are but indifferently prepared to do justice to these subjects; but we feel that it is impossible for the general reader, going merely step by step, like a man walking in the dark with a lantern, to judge of Bruce's life in Abyssinia, unless he previously takes into consideration the general character and history of that country, and the character of the continent of which it forms a part. SKETCH OF THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA. That vast portion of the globe which we call Africa is in length about five thousand miles, which is about the distance from the line to Iceland, or from Calcutta to the North Pole: in short, it is about one thousand miles more than the distance from the earth's centre to its circumference. The greatest breadth of Africa is very nearly equal to its length. This immense expanse of country is situated in exactly the hottest region of the globe; for, from the equator, it is two thousand five hundred miles to its northern boundary, the Mediterranean Sea, and about the same distance to its southern extremity, the Cape of Good Hope. The burning heat of both the torrid zones forms, therefore, the scorching climate of the middle portion of this continent; and the northern and southern extremities, its coldest regions, are, as we all know, nearer to the line than the most southern or hottest parts of Europe. To describe the climate, it may therefore, in general terms, not unjustly be observed, that what is marked by Nature upon our European scale of climate as excess of heat, is all that the African knows of the luxury of cold, excepting that which is produced by elevation or evaporation. Although Africa is thus perpetually exposed to a scorching sun, yet, if it were well watered, it would be highly productive, and not unlike a luxuriant garden. But, although heat and water give this exuberant fertility to any soil, we also know that, without water (the blood of the vegetable world), the richest land remains a _caput mortuum_--_rudis indigestaque moles_--an inert, lifeless mass. Water being, therefore, an element of such vital importance in the production of vegetation, it becomes necessary to take a very short practical view of the tropical rains which deluge the centre of Africa. During the half-yearly visits which the sun pays in succession to the torrid regions on the north and south of the line, the air, heated by his presence, becomes rarefied, and flies upward: its place is immediately filled; and thus a constant rush of air, or, as we call it, a trade-wind, is produced, which, being also influenced by the diurnal motion of the sun, is constantly flowing towards the equator. The air, thus rushing towards the sun, is by heat made capable of absorbing a greater quantity of water than it could contain in a colder state; and therefore, as soon as this air and vapour united rise into high and consequently colder regions, a divorce between the two elements suddenly takes place; the air now loses its power of retaining the vapour, which, being immediately condensed, becomes water; and its companion, the dry air, thus deserted by it, falls to the earth in what we term tropical rains, which, accompanying the sun from one torrid zone to another, are, by a most wonderful provision of Nature, perpetually assuaging the thirst which this immense heating mass tends to create. The rains are always most violent where the sun is in the zenith; and, as a remarkable instance of the effect which they produce, it may be stated, that Bruce observed, when the sun was immediately over Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, that the thermometer was invariably about twelve degrees lower than when he was in the southern tropic, thirty-six degrees from the zenith of Gondar: so happily does the approach of rain compensate for the heat of a burning sun! But, while the centre of Africa, or, to speak more correctly, a belt of about eleven hundred miles on each side of the line, is thus periodically deluged with water, yet, in the vast remainder of the continent, it may be said, with very few exceptions, that it never rains at all. The burning heat and the unequal distribution of water in Africa being understood, the following picture of the country is the natural consequence. Within the limits of the tropical rains, the soil, rank from excessive heat and moisture, in some places is found covered with trees of most enormous size, encircled by kossom and other twining shrubs, which form bowers of a most beautiful description, enlivened by the notes of thousands of gaudy birds, and perfumed with fragrant aromatic breezes. These trees are often the acacia vera, or Egyptian thorn. They seldom grow above fifteen or sixteen feet high, then flatten; and, spreading wide at the top, touch each other, while the trunks are far asunder: and thus, under a vertical sun, for many miles together, there is a free space, in which both men and beasts may walk in a cool, delicious shade. Other parts of this region produce coarse grass, high enough to cover a man on horseback, or a jungle, composed of tall underwood and briers, which would be almost impervious to human beings were it not for the elephant and other large animals, which, crushing everything in their progress, form paths in various directions. In many places the land is highly cultivated, divided into plantations, fenced in as in England, possessing towns of more than thirty thousand inhabitants, and swarming with an immense population. Strangely contrasted with this picture of the wet portion of Africa are its dry, lifeless deserts, composed either of mountains and plains of hot stones, or of vast masses of loose, burning sand, which, sometimes formed into moving pillars by the whirlwind, and sometimes driven forward, like a mist, by the gale, threaten the traveller with death and burial, or, rather, with burial and then death; a fate which befell the army of Cambyses. In some places, however, the sand is found, like a layer of mortar, firmly cemented on the surface by an incrustation of salt; and it is in these scorching regions of salt and sand that the traveller experiences what he has emphatically termed "the thirst of the desert;" and yet, with all its horrors, the desert parts of Africa are more healthy, and afford a residence which is often more desirable than the rank, luxuriant regions; for the excessive rains bring into existence vast numbers of flies, moschetoes, and ants, which not only torment the body, but even devour the garments. Denham says (vol. ii., p. 91), "After a night of intolerable misery to us all, from flies and moschetoes, so bad as to knock up two of our blacks, we mounted, &c.... Another night was passed in a state of suffering and distress which defies description: the buzz from the insects was like the singing of birds; the men and horses groaned with anguish. I do not think our animals could have borne another such night." Besides producing these flies, the rains cover the country with extensive lakes, and, as far as the eye can reach, with immense miry swamps, which at first drive the wild beasts among the human race, and then putrify and corrupt the air; converting a verdant, smiling country into what may be termed a painted sepulchre. In the desert, on the other hand, there are no flies; the air is comparatively healthy; and, as the heat penetrates only a few inches into the ground, a cool bed can always be obtained after sunset by clearing away the hot sand from the surface. The moral outline of Africa is far more gloomy than the physical face of the country. The whole of the interior (as far as Europeans have been able to judge, or, rather, to conjecture, from their slight acquaintance with it) may be said to be one scene of incessant civil war. Of all the various tribes, nations, colours, and races of men who inhabit this immense country, there is not one which has not its enemy; and the universal creed of Africa seems to be, that the freedom and happiness of one tribe rest upon the slavery and misery of another. The Sultan of Mandara, on the marriage of his daughter, lately made an incursion into the Kerdy country: three thousand unfortunate wretches were thus dragged from their homes, and doomed to perpetual bondage. Across scorching deserts, in which not a living animal, or even an insect, exists, in various directions are seen one tribe of human beings driving another to slavery. The unfortunate captives, starting from their native seats in health, and, strange to say, even in spirits, gradually decline in both: their bodies become emaciated, their legs swell, and, as Denham says, "on approaching the wells, they run forward several miles like things distracted, their mouths open, and eyes starting from their heads." The water they seek is sometimes brackish, or the well itself is found to be dry; and around its exhausted source stand grouped this crowd of disappointed beings, surrounded by the countless skeletons of those whose captivity and troubles have alike ended on the same spot; who have perished from thirst and fatigue; and whose bones the hungry camels of the Cafila are oftentimes seen to chew. From the northern coast of Africa, where the Christian captive has so often ended his days in silent misery and anguish, down to the country of the Hottentots and Caffres, a space of about five thousand miles, and from the eastern mountains of Abyssinia to the waters of the great Western Ocean, a distance of nearly four thousand miles, we have every reason to believe that, throughout the whole of this immense region, the system of slavery more or less prevails. CHAPTER VII. A Short Description of Abyssinia. The kingdom of Habbesh, Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, the oldest monarchy in Africa, is a small, highly-elevated, mountainous district, lying in the middle of the north torrid zone, within the limits of the tropical rains, enclosed by forests of enormous extent, a small part of the Red Sea, and unknown, trackless regions. This secluded spot, cut off from communication with the civilized world by poisonous winds, burning deserts of moving sand, and by the character of its people, far more dangerous to the traveller than either their climate or country, is nevertheless connected with Europe by two circumstances that distinguish it from the rest of Africa. The two ties which thus connect the Christian world with Abyssinia are its river and its church; and it is surely pleasing to reflect, that Egypt--the granary of the East, a field annually enriched by a triple harvest, a smiling, luxuriant garden, in a remote corner of the blank, lifeless desert of Africa--owes its fertility to a river which, rising in a Christian country, may not unjustly be considered as a type of that religion which, calmly proceeding on its course, is ever offering to the vast moral deserts through which it flows, the blessings of peace, civilization, and abundance here, and everlasting happiness hereafter. Abyssinia, surrounded by enemies, expands or contracts its boundaries with every victory or defeat; but, in general terms, it may be said that it is about equal in extent to Great Britain. It is bounded on the north by Sennaar and the great woods of the Shangalla; on the south it is hemmed in by various tribes of the Galla nations, which also approach its borders on the west and partly on the east, while the rest of its eastern frontier is formed by the Red Sea. Abyssinia has therefore been compared to a bow, of which the Shangalla tribes on the north form the string, and the various nations of the Galla the arch. It is, generally speaking, mountainous; or, to describe it more minutely, it is composed of groups and ranges of very high mountains, overlooking the plains and deep valleys which surround them. Before it is possible to give a clear idea of the climate of this country, there are certain phenomena which it is necessary to describe. It is well known that, from Suez to Masuah, the ancient harbour of Abyssinia, and from thence to the Straits of Babelmandel, a chain of mountains runs nearly parallel to the western coast of the Red Sea. These mountains, to the north of Abyssinia, pass through the country of the Shepherds, and there separate vast districts, which, though exactly in the same latitude, have nevertheless a most remarkable difference in the period of their rains. Both countries are deluged with rain for six months in the year; but the wet seasons on the two sides of these mountains are diametrically opposite to each other. On the east side, or in the country which lies between the mountains and the Red Sea, it rains during the six months which constitute our winter in Europe; while on the opposite side it rains during the whole of our summer months. From the violence of these rains, and on account of the fly that accompanies them, either region becomes, for six months of the year, almost unfit for the habitation of man; while the country on the opposite side of the mountains is teeming with luxuriance, and basking under the rays of a prolific sun. The shepherds, or inhabitants of these adjoining territories, availing themselves of this singular dispensation of Providence, annually migrate from one side of the mountains to the other; so that, although one or the other country is always suffering from the rain and fly, the natives of both manage to enjoy a perpetual summer; and while their cattle are feeding, in the cool of the morning, on the most luxuriant pasture, and, during the burning sunshine of the day, are browsing on exuberant foliage, a mere geographical line divides them from a land deluged with a pouring rain, deserted by almost every living creature, and condemned to gloomy and cheerless solitude. It may easily be conceived that this wandering life of the shepherd creates predatory, pilfering habits; and the old Abyssinian proverb, "beware of the man who drinks two waters," agrees with our own experience, how badly men of roaming, unsettled dispositions are suited to the enjoyment of stationary, civilized life. These periodical rains, which in themselves constitute one of the wonders of nature, produce another which is almost equally extraordinary; for, as soon as the fat, black earth of the mountains of Abyssinia becomes saturated with water, immense swarms of flies burst into existence; and, with the rains, assist in driving almost every living creature from them. This insect, called by the Abyssinians tsaltsalya, although it is scarcely larger than a common bee, becomes formidable from its immense numbers; and the buzzing sound announcing its arrival is no sooner heard, than the cattle forsake their food and run wildly about the plain, till they actually die from fear, pain, and fatigue. The camel, whose patience under every other affliction is proverbially unalterable, becomes ungovernable from the violent punctures of these flies; his body is soon covered with lumps, which break and putrify, and the wretched creature sinks and dies. Even the rhinoceros and elephant, whose hides are considered almost impenetrable to a musket-ball, are severely persecuted by these insects; but they instinctively fortify themselves against their attack by wallowing in the mud, which, when dried by the sun, forms a coating that is impenetrable to their stings. All the inhabitants of Melinda, down to Cape Gardfui, Saba, and the south coast of the Red Sea; and all those of the countries from the mountains of Abyssinia to the confluence of the Nile and the Astaboras, are obliged annually to quit the region of black earth, and, driving their cattle before them, to seek refuge in the cheerless sands of the desert; and so many human beings and huge animals thus flying before an army of little flies, certainly forms a very remarkable and surprising feature in the great picture of Nature. Of all the writers on these countries, Isaiah is, we believe, the only one, before Bruce, who has given an account of this insect. "And it shall come to pass," says the prophet, "in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys." For one moment we must stop to observe, that Bruce's account of the number and the effect produced by these flies is a part of his narrative which was long pointed at and ridiculed as being particularly unworthy of belief; yet the description already quoted from Denham (page 100) strongly corroborates Bruce's statement, which has also been confirmed by the testimony of the Abyssinian, Dean, who was publicly examined at Cairo by Dr. Clarke. No author has ever yet been able to impart to his reader an adequate idea of the clouds of locusts which, in some parts of the world, suddenly convert, for a hundred miles together, a green country into a brown one, by the total destruction of vegetable life. Bruce's account, therefore, of the havoc which the tsaltsalya, zimb, or fly of Abyssinia produces among living creatures, however strange it may sound in this country, does not, in the natural history of the world, stand unsupported. Why a portion of the animal and vegetable creation should be annoyed by such scourges as the zimb and the locust; why parts of the world should be disordered by hurricanes and earthquakes; and why the whole of mankind should occasionally suffer from pestilential disorders, &c., are problems which Bruce need not be called on to solve. He has merely added one to a number of facts, concerning which all we know is, that they form parts of a wise and beneficent system which it is entirely beyond our power to comprehend. Abyssinia being mountainous, lying in the middle of the torrid zone, and being subject also to the heavy periodical rains just described, the effect naturally produced by these three causes is, that the climates of the high and low country are totally different. The mountainous or high land of Abyssinia, which, it may be observed, is covered with long grass and destitute of wood, is at all times dry, cool, temperate, and healthy, and often even extremely cold; while the low, woody country, hazy, close, and insufferably hot, suffers severely from the sickness invariably produced by the excessive rains. Part of this low country, however, is not covered with wood; and, though equally hot, from being better ventilated, it is, generally speaking, healthy, while it is as productive as Egypt, and covered with the finest cattle of all descriptions. But where the waters of the rainy season, for want of descent, stagnate on the plains, these hot, swampy marshes produce no pasture, and are exceedingly unhealthy. The little kingdom of Abyssinia, thus possessing within itself districts of such various climates, is inhabited by people of races and complexions as different as the soil and altitudes which they respectively occupy. In Abyssinia, royalty sits perched on the tops of the highest mountains; the great bulk of the community enjoy themselves on the sides of the hills, or in the wide, healthy plains; and in the hot, feverish, putrid atmosphere of the low woods, we meet that wretched, unfortunate being, the black, woolly-headed negro, who there, as in other regions of the world, finds his fellow-creature, pagan as well as Christian, a more cruel, cunning, relentless enemy than the savage beasts of the field. THE SHANGALLA. The Shangalla of Abyssinia, the ancient Cushites or Ethiopians, occupy a low, flat, sultry country, with a dark, rich soil, on an average about forty miles broad. They are pagans, black, naked, and inveterate enemies of the Abyssinian government. During the first half of the year, the Shangalla live under the friendly shade of their own trees, the lower branches of which they bend downward and fix into the ground, thus forming a verdant tent, which they cover on the outside with the skins of animals. For food and amusement they hunt the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and those other large animals which either inhabit their woody territory, or are found wallowing in the sultry pools which it encloses; and hence it follows, that where the forest is the broadest, the jungle the thickest, and the stagnant ponds the largest, there the tribes of the Shangalla are the most numerous and formidable. In those parts of the country where the large animals do not abound, the Shangalla subsists on buffaloes, deer, boars, lions, and even serpents: in places where there is little wood, whole tribes of them eat the crocodile, fish, locusts, lizards, and ostriches; and thus they are still the rhizophagi, elephantophagi, acridophagi, struthiophagi, agriophagi, &c., which Ptolemy, in his account of the Ethiopians, has so accurately described. During the summer, the Shangalla tribes subsist on the animals which they catch; but, in order to provide for the rainy season, they prepare their food in a very singular manner. Venison and other flesh is cut into strips or thongs about as broad as a man's thumb. These are dried in the sun until they resemble tough leather; even locusts are dried and packed in baskets for the winter's consumption. Before the rainy season commences, they strike, or, rather, uncover their tents, leaving the boughs still pinioned to the earth; and thus bidding adieu to the skeleton of their deserted village, they seek refuge in caves which are rudely excavated in gritty, sandy rocks, so soft that they are often made to contain several apartments. Soon after the rains subside, the high grass becomes dry, brown, and parched; and, being inconvenient to the Shangalla, they set fire to it. The flames rapidly extend over the country, and run down the ravines and gullies, in which, but a few weeks before, another element was seen rushing on its course! The Shangalla have but one language, which has a highly guttural sound. They worship trees, serpents, the moon, planets, and stars in certain positions. They have, of course, many superstitions: for instance, a star passing near the horns of the moon denotes, they conceive, the approach of an enemy. They have priests, but only to defend them from evil spirits: to their good, benevolent spirits they fancy they may appeal without human assistance. They are all archers from their infancy. Their bows, which are made of wild fennel, are usually long and thick, and so elastic that the same weapon is used in childish sports which afterward defends them when they grow up--the only difference being that whereas, when boys, they are obliged, from its length, to hold the bow horizontally, the being able to bend it vertically is, among the Shangalla, the admitted sign of manhood. As a sort of religious, or, rather, superstitious, offering, they place on their bow a ring or strip of every animal they kill; and when the bow, covered with these rude trophies, becomes too heavy to be used, they carefully preserve it. The old Shangalla has always, therefore, a number of these weapons in his possession. From them he selects a favourite one to be buried with him, in order that, when he rises again, he may not be at a loss to defend himself from his enemies; for these poor people, as we shall soon learn, are so accustomed to enemies in this world, that they cannot conceive that even a future existence can be without them; and yet, rude and mistaken as their notions are, we must all admit that there is no one idea more deserving of respect--which more directly tends to civilize the human mind, making all men act towards each other as brothers, than a belief, however vague, in a state of future existence. It would be difficult to point out a more striking contrast than what is presented in the sedentary life of the negro or Cushite of Abyssinia, compared with the wandering habits of his neighbour the shepherd. The former, whether he lives in a tent or in a cave, moves only to avoid the zimb or the rain; the latter is constantly migrating from one side of the mountain to the other, or else driving camels laden with merchandise across the burning deserts of Africa. Although the Shangalla live in separate tribes, yet they are in the habit of joining together, and of forming alliances offensive and defensive, but principally to assist each other in repelling the barbarous attacks which are made upon them by the Abyssinians and Arabs. Mothers, who stand most in need of protection, naturally look for it to their own offspring; and it is a habit among these women, as among the Galla tribes, to entreat their husbands to maintain a plurality of wives, that, by the number of children in the family, the means of safety may be proportionally increased. Their moral character is, nevertheless, defended by Bruce with so much good feeling, that we must give it to the reader in his own words: "I will not fear to aver, as far as concerns these Shangalla, or negroes of Abyssinia (and, I believe, most others of the same complexion, though of different nations), that the various accounts we have of them are very unfairly stated. To describe them justly, we should see them in their native purity of manners, among their native woods, living on the produce of their own daily labours, without other liquor than that of their own pools and springs, the drinking of which is followed by no intoxication, or other pleasure than that of assuaging thirst. After having been torn from their own country and connexions, reduced to the condition of brutes, to labour for a being they never before knew; after lying, stealing, and all the long lists of European crimes have been made, as it were, necessary to them; and the delusion occasioned by drinking spirits is found, however short, to be the only remedy that relieves them from reflecting on their present wretched situation, to which, for that reason, they most naturally attach themselves; then, after we have made them monsters, we describe them as such! forgetful that they are now not as their Maker created them, but such as, by teaching them our vices, we have transformed them into, for ends which, I fear, one day will not be found a sufficient excuse for the enormities they have occasioned." It would be well for the character of human nature if we could here close the history of the Shangalla; but, as yet, nothing has been offered but a sketch of their _lives_: the account of their _death_, or, what is even worse, of their _slavery_, remains still to be told. On the accession of every new king to the throne of Abyssinia, and on many other occasions, it has been the custom to amuse the country by a great hunting match, which lasts several days; and in this pastime rewards are given, according to a fixed scale, for each of the wild beasts that are killed. As soon as the hunting of the animals is concluded, license is granted for a general hunt after the Shangalla; and exactly the same reward is offered for the murder of one of them as for slaying an elephant, a rhinoceros, or any other of the larger species of beasts. The moment usually preferred for the persecution of these ill-fated people is just before the rains, while they are yet living in their vegetating tents, and before the soil of their country, by dissolving into mire, obliges them to seek refuge in their winter-quarters. In order to hunt these people, the Abyssinians, in overpowering numbers, and armed with every sort of weapon they can collect, enter the forest, and then, like hounds, they regularly draw the covers which contain their game. The men of the Shangalla being extremely active, intelligent, and accustomed to the intricacies of their native woods, could easily evade their pursuers; but each man, tethered by his affections to his own little family, can only retreat at the rate of the weakest, and they are consequently very soon overtaken by the Abyssinians. In the hot, gloomy, unhealthy recesses of the forest, far beyond the regions of civilization, out of the hearing of mercy, out of the sight of every people that would rush forward to prevent such enormities, the sport or slaughter begins. The grown-up men are all killed and then mutilated, parts of their bodies being carried away as trophies: several of the old mothers are also killed, while others, frantic with fear and despair, kill themselves. The boys and girls of a more tender age are then carried off in brutal triumph; the former are afterward to be found as servants in all the great houses in Abyssinia; while the latter, the weaker sex, are dragged into more remote and distant countries, to be sold as attendants to the Turks, who profess to admire the Ethiopians in summer, because, as they say, like toads, they have a cold skin. Any one who has ever had the misfortune to witness an African slave-market, and for a moment to stand surrounded by its wretched, emaciated victims, must, after his first feelings have subsided, have found himself filled with astonishment that human nature could ever be induced deliberately to continue so guilty a traffic! To account for it, or, rather, to excuse it, it has often been urged that negroes are a race of inferior beings, whose minds are not susceptible of those painful sensations which we should suffer were we to be placed in their unfortunate condition. In short, to explain the problem, we paint the map of the world in our own way, and then gravely say, "the inhabitants of these (our countries) have acute feelings, and those who dwell in that have none!"[24] But this strange assertion is most curiously contradicted by the history of the negroes or Shangalla of Abyssinia; for they and their enemies, the persecuted and the persecutors, absolutely live under the same sun, in the same country, and separated only by a few hundred feet of elevation. No one can therefore rationally maintain that these children of one family can be divided by feelings of such different degrees of susceptibility; for the Shangalla must surely enjoy freedom and independence in the valley, as much as the Abyssinians can enjoy them on the higher ground. But the real truth is, that the sun is hotter in the lower stratum than it is in the upper. The human body, exhausted by its heat, becomes weaker; and it is because the Shangalla are less powerful than the Abyssinians, and for no other reason, that the former are murdered and persecuted by the latter. The African slave-trade rests precisely on the same foundation. THE GALLA. The Galla are a very numerous race of shepherds living to the south and west of Abyssinia, and also in parts of the interior of that country. As their land is high, and the rains screen it for a considerable time from the sun, the general complexion of these people is brown; though some who inhabit the valley of the lower country are perfectly black, with long hair of the same colour. They are divided into tribes, for every seven of which a king or chief is elected. There exists, also, a sort of rude nobility among them, whose ancestors have been raised to this dignity by valorous feats in war; and it is from these families alone that the chieftain can be chosen. No one of these superiors can be elected until time has conferred on him forty years of experience. However, in their savage calculation, the killing of an enemy is considered as equivalent to a year's experience; and, therefore, any noble becomes eligible for supreme command whenever, between years of age and enemies slain, he shall have made up the number of forty. The Galla are almost all mounted on horses, which, from constant practice, they of course manage with great dexterity. In passing rivers they dismount, and grasp the tails of their horses, which in this way tow them across. The amount of assistance they thus receive does not exceed a few ounces; whereas, by remaining mounted, they would subject animals badly adapted for swimming, and scarcely able to support themselves, to the extra burden of the whole of that part of their body which is above the water. Their arms consist of a shield made of bull's hide, and a long lance sharpened at the end, and then hardened by fire. The attack of these wild people is very much dreaded by the Abyssinians; for, besides their cruelty, they utter, in charging, such a shrill, barbarous, frantic howl, that the Abyssinian horses are said to tremble with fear, in which their riders very readily participate. When they march into the country of an enemy, they carry with them small balls about as big as pigeon's eggs, composed of a particular sort of bean, pulverized and mixed with butter; and it is affirmed that, by eating one of these boluses, a Galla soldier can, in health and spirits, endure a whole day's fatigue. Both sexes are rather below the middle size, but they are remarkably light and agile. The women are generally very prolific; and the sun which shines on the infant's birth seldom sets before the mother has resumed her occupations: such is the healthy state of savage life! The dress, or, rather, undress of some of the tribes of the Galla, present a costume which, although curious, has not yet reached our fashionable world. Round their persons they wind as ornaments the entrails of oxen, which also hang in festoons or necklaces from their throats. Their bodies are anointed with grease, poured so copiously on their heads that it melts, and, like our pomatum, is continually dropping on their shoulders, over which is thrown a piece of goatskin. Like the Abyssinians, they eat raw meat; but Pierce, the English sailor, describes a Galla who drank blood warm from the neck of the cow, and still, from an odd refinement, refused to eat the flesh of the animal until it had been broiled. The Galla of the south are principally Mohammedans, but those of the east and west are Pagans. The religion of the latter is very little understood; and it has, therefore, as usual, been said that they have none at all. It appears, however, that the Wansey-tree, under which their rude kings are crowned, is worshipped as a god by every tribe; there are also particular stones which they have been observed to venerate. They worship the moon and some of the stars: they have no idea of future punishment, but believe that, after death, they will live again and for ever. Their form of marriage is as follows: The bridegroom comes to the parents of the bride with some food for a cow in his right hand, and he then very seriously and solemnly says, "May it never enter the cow or leave her if I do not perform my promise;" which is, that he will give to this young wife meat and drink while she lives, and bury her tidily when she dies. As in the Abyssinian climate, girls marry at eleven, ten, and even nine years of age; and there being no difficulty in supporting children, it is, by a Galla, reckoned creditable to be encircled by a numerous family; and, therefore, if his wife presents him with only a few children, she herself endeavours to persuade her husband, for her sake, to take another to assist her in surrounding him with his most natural protectors. To any objections he may urge, she replies by naming and describing to him all the most interesting girls of her acquaintance; and, as soon as he relents, her next step is to proceed to the house of the person selected, whom she asks of her parents to be her husband's wife, that their united families may be strong enough in the day of battle not to fall into the hands of the enemy. After this second marriage is concluded, the old wife still retains her precedence, treating her companion, not as a rival, but more like a grown-up daughter. When the father, from old age, has become useless and unfit for war, he is obliged to surrender the whole of his effects to his eldest son, who is bound to support him; and in case this son dies, leaving a widow, the youngest brother of all is expected, out of respect to his memory, to marry her. Bruce's description of the Gallas, from which the above sketch has been principally taken, was one of the many parts of his narrative which were very generally disbelieved; and yet no one acquainted with savage life but must recognise in Bruce's description all those general lines which form its characteristic features. Bruce described the Galla tribes as being intelligent and active, but, at the same time, dirty, ignorant, and having the most absurd religious notions; and this general description being strictly correct, his details should in justice never have been doubted. But he unfortunately experienced that a man may suffer from prejudices and narrow-minded incredulity long after he has bid adieu to savage society. The uncivilized tribes which surround, as well as inhabit Abyssinia, having been now described, the character of the Abyssinians themselves will appear in the following short abstract of their history. FOOTNOTE: [24] The Chinese have a map which consists of a very large country, and a little speck; the former, they say, is "China;" the latter, "the rest of the world." CHAPTER VIII. A Sketch of the History of the Kingdom of Abyssinia. It is a tradition among the Abyssinians, which they say they have had from time immemorial, and which is equally received by the Jews and Christians of that country, that, almost immediately after the flood, Cush, grandson of Noah, with his family, passing through Atbara, then without inhabitants, came to the chains of mountains which separate the flat country of Atbara from the elevated part of Abyssinia. The tradition farther says, that they built the city of Axum early in the days of Abraham; and that they spread from thence until they became (as Josephus says) the Meröetes, or inhabitants of the islands of Meröe. While population was thus extending towards the north, it is supposed that the mountains parallel to the Red Sea, which in all times have been called Saba or Azaba (which means south), became peopled with the Agaazi, or Shepherds, who first possessed the high country of Abyssinia, called Tigré, several tribes afterward occupying the other countries, many of which still retain particular languages of their own.[25] In the most ancient of these languages, tribes or assemblies of people are called Habesh, which appellation was therefore supposed to have been given to the whole country now known to us by the name of Abyssinia. The inhabitants of Saba, Azab, or Azaba, all of which mean south, were a separate and distinct people from the Ethiopians or Arabs; and it was a custom among these Sabeans to have women for their sovereigns in preference to men. One of these queens, called Balkis by the Arabs and Maqueda by the Abyssinians, having heard not only of the wisdom of Solomon, but of the immense riches which he had accumulated in the north, determined to witness for herself the reality of scenes, to the description of which she had listened with so much delight; and, accordingly, this Queen of Saba (Sheba), Azaba, or the South, suddenly appeared before Solomon. Pagan, Arab, Moor, Abyssinian, and, indeed, the inhabitants of all the countries around, vouch for this expedition very nearly in the language of Scripture, which states, "And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions;" and again, "The Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here." It is said by the Abyssinians that this Queen of Sheba or Saba left her country a Pagan; but that, having received Solomon's answers to the hard questions which she put to him, she returned converted to Judaism, bringing with her a young child called Menilek, whose paternity was ascribed to Solomon; and it may here be observed, that both the Jews and Christians of Abyssinia still believe that the fourteenth Psalm is a prophecy, not only of their queen's journey to Jerusalem, but that there she should have a son, who was to be king over a nation of Gentiles. The Abyssinians declare that Menilek, after residing some years with his mother, was sent by her to his father, Solomon, to be instructed; that he then took the name of David, and was anointed and crowned, in the Temple of Jerusalem, as King of Ethiopia. After this ceremony he is said to have returned to Azab, or Saba, accompanied by a colony of Jews, and by a high-priest, Azazias, who brought with him a Hebrew transcript of the Law. The moment had now arrived for the Queen of Saba to carry her great and hitherto secret objects into execution. Abyssinia was converted to the religion of Jerusalem; and, by the last act of the queen's reign, she settled a new mode of succession to the crown, which has existed very nearly to the present day. She enacted, first, that the throne should be hereditary in the family of Solomon for ever; secondly, that, on her demise, no woman should be capable of wearing the crown, which should thenceforward descend to heirs-male, however distant; and, lastly, that the heirs-male of the royal house should be kept imprisoned on a high mountain, there to remain until their death, or until they should be called to the throne. The queen having decreed that these laws should be irrevocable, died, after a long reign of forty years, in the year 986 before Christ. She was succeeded by her son Menilek, whose posterity, according to the annals of Abyssinia, and according to the belief of all the neighbouring nations, have reigned ever since; their device being a lion passant, with this motto: "Mo ansaba am Nizilet Solomon am Negade Juda;" which signifies, "The Lion of the race of Solomon and tribe of Judah hath overcome." Separated from the present day by a period of nearly three thousand years, the history of the Queen of Saba is unavoidably involved in great obscurity; yet this faint outline of her character denotes a mind possessed of superior abilities. Secluded in the remote country where she reigned, it required no inconsiderable enterprise and determination to have undertaken the great journey which Scripture records that she performed; and this desire to introduce herself into the society of her superior, and to become acquainted with a country in a higher state of civilization than her own, shows a liberality which, in every situation of life, has always been considered highly creditable. Her wish that her sex should surrender to man, its natural guardian and protector, the dignity of command and the power of dominion, is also a remarkable trait in her character; and, whoever may have been the father of her son Menilek, in establishing a succession of heirs-male, it was certainly not impolitic to confer upon him dignity, in the real or imaginary claim of being descended from the wisest as well as one of the most powerful of kings. With respect to her precaution of imprisoning all the heirs-male, in order the more surely to maintain a succession to the crown, this involves explanations respecting the habits and manners of the Abyssinians which will better appear in another place: it may, however, be here observed, that time is the best test of the fitness of any law for the particular tribe or people for whom it is designed; and therefore that, if this law has existed, as we are informed, for nearly three thousand years, and during that immense period has practically effected its object, the Queen of Sheba may very fairly be considered as a person of wisdom, equal at least to many less ancient legislators, whose laws and families are alike extinct. We must now leave the Queen of Sheba, and speak of scenes which, being nearer, are for that reason more worthy of our attention. About one thousand three hundred years after the death of the queen, and more than three hundred years after the birth of our Saviour, Meropius, a Greek philosopher, accompanied by Frumentius and Ædesius, two young men whom he had educated, embarked on board a vessel in the Red Sea for India. As they were proceeding on their voyage, the vessel was wrecked on the coast of Abyssinia, and they were instantly attacked by the natives, who seemed more merciless than the rocks on which they had been stranded. Meropius was killed, and the two youths were taken as prisoners to Axum, which had been made the capital of Abyssinia by Menilek, who removed his court from its ancient residence at Saba to a place near Axum, which is called "Adega Daid" (the house of David) to this day. Frumentius and Ædesius, having received a good education, in a short time learned the language of the country; and, as soon as their talents and acquirements became known, they rose rapidly to distinction. Ædesius was appointed to be keeper of the king's household, while the young prince was intrusted to the care of Frumentius, who, after gradually gaining possession of the affection as well as the mind of his pupil, at length succeeded in imparting to him a love and veneration for the Christian religion; and, as soon as this good feeling was confirmed, Frumentius sought and obtained leave of absence, and hastened to St. Athanasius at Alexandria, to whom he declared his belief that the Abyssinians might easily be converted to Christianity if proper ministers were sent to instruct them. Athanasius listened to the statement with the earnest attention which it deserved, and in a very short time Frumentius returned to Abyssinia as bishop of that country. He found the young king firmly cherishing the religious hopes which he had been taught to entertain, and, encouraged by Frumentius, he now formally embraced Christianity. His example was rapidly followed throughout the greater part of the kingdom; and never did the seed of the Christian religion find a more genial soil than when it first fell among the rugged mountains of Abyssinia. There was no war to introduce it, no fanatic priesthood to oppose it, no bloodshed to disgrace it; its only argument was its truth, its only ornament its simplicity; and around our religion, thus shining in its native lustre, men flocked in peaceful humility, and, hand in hand, joined cheerfully in doctrines which gave glory to God in the highest, and announced on earth peace, good will towards men. Arianism, however, breaking out under the Emperor Constantius, he was applied to by Athanasius to recall Frumentius; but, although the lightning of heaven had illumined Abyssinia, the thunder of the Roman Church was but faintly heard in so remote a region. About one hundred and eighty years after the establishment of Christianity, a religious war is said to have taken place between the converted and unconverted Abyssinians (the Christians and the Jews). After this event there is nothing of importance in the uncertain annals of Abyssinia for upward of four hundred and forty years. Nine hundred and sixty years after Christ, a strong party was formed among the Jews, who, ever since the conversion of the race of Solomon to Christianity, had preserved on the mountain of Samem, on a pinnacle which was named the Jews' Rock, a separate royal family of their own. Supported by their king and by his daughter Judith, a woman of great beauty and possessing uncommon talents for intrigue, the Jews resolved to attempt the subversion of the Christian religion, and the destruction of the race of Solomon. They accordingly surprised the Mountain of Damo, the residence of the Christian princes, the whole of whom, about four hundred in number, were massacred, with the single exception of an infant, Del Naad, who escaped into the powerful and loyal province of Shoa. A solitary descendant of the blood of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was thus preserved to represent the royal line. Thus the Jews, by means of their sanguinary victory, succeeded in interrupting the succession; and, contrary to the long-respected law of Abyssinia, Judith took possession of the throne, and not only enjoyed it herself for forty years, but transmitted it to five of her posterity, whose names are said to have been Totadem, Jan-Shum, Garcina-Shum, Harbai, and Maravi. On the death of Maravi the crown descended to one of his relations, a Christian, and it is said to have remained in his family (who, although Christians, were not of the line of Solomon) for five generations: however, about three hundred years after the murder of the princes, Tecla Haimanout, a monk and native of Abyssinia, who had founded the famous monastery of Debra Libanos, and been ordained abuna, or chief priest of Abyssinia, persuaded the reigning king nobly to restore the crown to the line of Solomon, which, as before stated, had been preserved in the province of Shoa. A treaty was accordingly drawn up by Tecla Haimanout, by which it was agreed that the kingdom of Abyssinia should be resigned to one of the royal princes; that a portion of land should be given to the retiring sovereign; that one third of the kingdom should be ceded to the abuna (Tecla Haimanout himself), for the maintenance of the Christian Church of Abyssinia; and, lastly, that no native Abyssinian should thereafter be chosen abuna, but that that great dignitary should always be ordained and sent from Cairo; by which arrangement Tecla Haimanout wisely intended to secure to his church the incalculable advantage of always having at its head a man independent of the narrow prejudices and interests which would probably govern any native of Abyssinia, and who would also bring into their secluded country the books, knowledge, and improvements of the more civilized part of the world. This treaty having been concluded, a prince of the race of Solomon was peacefully restored to the throne of his ancestors, and the title which he assumed, "Icon Amlac," which means, "Let him be made our sovereign," was expressive of the general approbation which attended the measure. The place of confinement for the princes of the blood of Solomon was now established on the summit of the mountain of Geshen, in the province of Amhara, instead of being, as it had been for the space of two hundred years before the massacre of the princes, on the rock of Damo, in Tigré. We need not linger over the petty wars and provincial troubles which make up the Abyssinian history for several succeeding generations. About the year 1418, Prince Henry of Portugal, who was half an Englishman, being the youngest son of John I. of Portugal, by Philippina, sister of Henry IV. of England, having long turned his attention to astronomy and the higher branches of mathematics, prevailed upon his father to attempt a passage to India by sailing round the Continent of Africa; and while this expedition was, by slow degrees and repeated voyages, groping its way over the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, Prince Henry suggested that, to avoid all disappointment, it would be well to attempt also to reach India by land; for it had long been reported by Christians from Jerusalem, that monks occasionally resorted to the holy city who declared themselves to be the subjects of a Christian prince, whose dominions were in the heart of Africa. The King of Portugal, therefore, determined to send ambassadors in search of this country, which was supposed to be governed by Prester John; and accordingly, Peter Covillan and Alphonso de Paiva sailed for Alexandria, carrying with them a rude map which had been constructed under the direction of Prince Henry. Embarking on the Red Sea, they sailed beyond the Straits of Babelmandel. Alphonso de Paiva died; but Covillan, after a series of adventures, reached Shoa, where the court of Abyssinia then resided; and here he was greeted by the fatal intelligence, that an ancient law of the country forbade him ever to revisit his native clime; that no stranger was ever permitted to depart; that Abyssinia was but too truly the bourne from which no traveller returns; and Covillan, in fact, never did return to Europe. He was, however, very well treated by the king and his people, and permitted to send to Portugal descriptions and plans of all his discoveries, which he most earnestly recommended should be followed up by other expeditions from his country. But the foundation on which he was building all his hopes suddenly gave way. Cape Tormentoso (the Cape of Good Hope) was doubled; the barrier to India was thus broken down; and the journey by land, as well as the importance of Abyssinia, were alike neglected and forgotten. During two reigns Covillan remained quietly at Shoa; but the Abyssinians then becoming embroiled in a war with the Turks of Arabia, entreated Covillan to obtain for them the assistance of Portugal, the King of Abyssinia promising that, as soon as his throne should be re-established in security, he would submit himself to the pope, and resign one third of his dominions to the Portuguese. A letter was accordingly despatched by an Armenian merchant named Mateo, who, after encountering for many years difficulties which often appeared to be insurmountable, at last succeeded in reaching Portugal, where he was received with every mark of attention and respect. A very numerous embassy was accordingly sent out from Portugal; and, landing at the north of Abyssinia, on the 16th of April, 1520, Don Roderigo, the ambassador, his numerous retinue, and Mateo the Armenian (all equally ignorant of the country), rashly resolved to proceed by land to the king, who was in one of the southern districts of his dominions. They crossed the whole extent of the empire, passing through unknown woods and mountains, "full of savage beasts, with men more savage than the beasts themselves," and intersected by large rivers, which were daily swelling with the tropical rains. They had occasionally to pass over deserts in which no sustenance was to be found either for man or beast. At last they were placed in a situation which, by their description, appears to have been still more dreadful; for, in their journey to the convent of St. Michael, the wood or jungle became so thick that it was almost impossible to penetrate it: thorns and briers impeded their progress; unlooked-for ravines suddenly yawned beneath them; while mountains upon mountains were towering above them, their black and bare tops appearing, as it were, calcined by the rays of a burning sun, and by the lightning which was incessantly flashing around them. As the little band proceeded, terrified at the thunder which was resounding in their ears, tigers and other wild beasts at times presented themselves, their voracity seeming for the moment to be appeased by astonishment; while immense baboons hurried by, clambering up the trees, as if eager to view creatures so strangely resembling themselves. At last the woods grew thinner, and some fields appeared; but Mateo and Don Roderigo's servant, worn out by fear, fatigue, and fever, became unable to proceed, and died. After incredible difficulties the embassy reached the king at Shoa, on the 16th of October, 1520; but, bringing no presents (it was with no small difficulty that they had been able to bring themselves), they were very coolly received. After they had explained the object of their mission, the king was anxious to send back an answer to Portugal; and, contrary to the custom of Abyssinia, he at last allowed Don Roderigo to return, though he forcibly detained several of his attendants. Roderigo reached Lisbon in safety with Zaga Zaab, ambassador from the court of Abyssinia. About twelve years afterward, the abuna or patriarch of Abyssinia, an imbecile old man, being at the point of death, the king, for political as well as religious reasons, prevailed on him to nominate as his successor John Bermudez, one of the Portuguese who had been detained in the country ever since Roderigo's arrival. Bermudez, anxious to revisit Europe, consented to accept the office, provided he received the approbation of the pope; and the king, being hard pressed in his wars, and fully aware of the value of European troops, proposed that Bermudez should go first to the pope, and then to his own court, to solicit for Abyssinia the assistance of Portugal. After some difficulty, Bermudez set out for Rome, and, arriving there without accident, was confirmed by Paul III. as patriarch not only of Abyssinia, but of Alexandria likewise; nay, gratified at receiving a mission from a Christian state so remote that he had hardly been aware of its existence, the pope lavished on Bermudez the additional and incomprehensible title of "Patriarch of the Sea." With these distinctions Bermudez proceeded as ambassador from the King of Abyssinia to Lisbon, where, on his arrival, his titles were all acknowledged, and he himself treated with corresponding attention. His first act was to give the Portuguese a specimen of Abyssinian discipline, by putting Zaga Zaab in irons for having wasted so much time without effecting the objects of his embassy. Bermudez then addressed the King of Portugal; and he drew such a picture of the wealth and power of Abyssinia, and of the advantages which would be derived from an alliance with so remote and magnificent a country, that the king promised to furnish him with four hundred troops; and many more than that number eventually landed at Masuah, and advanced into Abyssinia under the command of Don Christopher de Gama. After marching for eight days to meet the king, Don Christopher received a message from the Moorish general full of opprobrious expressions, to which he returned a contemptuous answer; and on the 25th of March, 1542, these rival commanders came in sight of each other at Airial, a small village in the country of the Baharnagash. The Moorish army was composed of a thousand horsemen, five thousand foot, fifty Turkish musketeers, and a few pieces of small artillery. Don Christopher's forces consisted of three hundred and fifty Portuguese infantry, and about twelve thousand Abyssinians, with a few horsemen badly mounted, commanded by the Baharnagash, and Rohel, governor of Tigré. A slight action ensued, which terminated in favour of Don Christopher; and on the 30th of August he again offered battle to the Moorish general. The Portuguese had, early in the morning, strewed loose gunpowder in front of their line; and on the first approach of the enemy they set fire to it, which burned and frightened them very severely. The Abyssinians, however, shortly afterward giving way, the little band of Portuguese was instantly surrounded. Gallantly they resisted the fierce attack that was made on them; and, Don Christopher having been wounded, they cut their way through the enemy and retreated. During the night, the Portuguese commander crawled into a wood alone, where he was discovered by some Moorish horsemen, who, delighted at their prize, immediately carried him before their general. This worthy no sooner saw his prisoner than he began to load him with reproaches. Don Christopher, who was as impetuous as he was brave, replied in terms full of indignation and contempt; and this so enraged the Moor, that he flew upon his defenceless captive, and with his own hand cut off his head. The body of this brave man was severed into pieces, which were forwarded to different parts of Arabia, and the scull was packed off for Constantinople--the tribute of a barbarian to his superior in barbarism. The victorious Moors then surrounded and attempted to seize a number of women belonging to their enemy; but a noble Abyssinian lady, who was married to a Portuguese officer, aware of the brutal character of the Moors, set fire to some barrels of gunpowder that were in the tent, when a terrific explosion took place, and the fears of the one sex, and the savage passions of the other, were instantly hushed for ever! The king expressed his unfeigned sorrow at the tragical fate of Don Christopher, and sent three thousand ounces of gold to be divided among the surviving Portuguese, who flocked around his throne, earnestly entreating him to lead them to revenge the death of their commander. This they had shortly afterward an opportunity of doing, in a battle in which the Moors were defeated with great slaughter. But, while the Portuguese troops were thus fighting for the Abyssinian cause, their religion, from the conduct of Bermudez, was becoming unpopular. For a long time the distinction between the Roman Catholic and the Abyssinian, Greek, or Coptic system, was too trifling to be observed. The Portuguese and the Abyssinians not only intermarried, but their children were christened sometimes by the ministers of one church and sometimes by those of the other: but Bermudez, in his intemperate zeal, soon gave another aspect to affairs. His bigoted policy continued for some time to disturb the country, but it at last reacted on himself: the king in public firmly resisted his arguments, and the flame which he had kindled only promoted his own downfall. Deserting society, sullen, forlorn, and neglected, for some time he attempted to occupy his mind by saying daily mass to some ten miserable individuals. He then repaired to the port of Masuah, where, in squalid insignificance, this "Patriarch of the Sea" embarked upon his fickle element, and quitted Abyssinia for ever. About this time, St. Ignatius, the founder of the order of Jesuits, was at Rome. To his active and grasping mind the conversion of Abyssinia to the Romish church seemed of so much importance, that it is said he proposed himself to go and be the apostle of that kingdom. The pope, however, who had need of Loyola's talents for higher purposes, refused this offer; but one of the same fraternity, Nunez Baretto, was fixed upon as patriarch. On his arrival at Goa, however, the king's continued aversion to the Catholic church being communicated to him, he resolved not to hazard his own patriarchal dignity, but to send Andreas Oviedo, bishop of Hieropolis, and Melchior Carneyro, bishop of Nice, with several other priests, as ambassadors to the court of Abyssinia. These ecclesiastical emissaries arrived at the port of Masuah in 1558. The king, fancying that they were Portuguese troops who had come to fight for him, received them with marks of great delight; but when, on opening their credentials, he found that they were priests instead of soldiers, his countenance fell, and he became much troubled; "wondering," he said, "that the King of Portugal should meddle with his affairs:" and adding, "that he and his ancestors had paid obedience only to the chair of St. Mark, and acknowledged no other patriarch than him of Alexandria." The king and Oviedo had a violent discussion in public, which, of course, ended in the defeat of the latter, who, for a considerable time, lived in great obscurity. On the death of the king, however, his successor accepted the congratulations of Oviedo; but, hearing that he continued to preach, and to cause divisions among the people, he called him into his presence, and ordered him to desist. Oviedo refused; and the king, losing his temper, very improperly beat him with great violence, and then banished him to a desert mountain. After the departure of Bermudez, the Catholic religion had no longer any support: the fathers who had remained in Abyssinia being dead, and the gate of the kingdom closed by the violent animosities of the Turks, and the cruelties they exercised on the missionaries who fell into their hands, the few Catholics remaining in these regions were only lingering out a wretched and hopeless existence. Affairs were in this state, when, in the year 1600, Peter Paez, the most enterprising, enlightened, and successful missionary that ever entered Ethiopia, landed at Masuah. He had been taken by the Turks in the Red Sea, and had just escaped from a seven years' imprisonment: adversity had thus given him a severer lesson and a clearer knowledge of the world than generally falls to the lot of members of his fraternity. On landing at Masuah, instead of rushing forward with hasty, intemperate zeal, in the hope of converting all at once a country, the language, habits, and prejudices of which he had as yet no knowledge of except from books, he calmly and deliberately set himself to work to learn the Geez, or written language. He next set up a school, which gave him privately, and without danger, a thorough insight into the Abyssinian character; and, after he had thus cautiously practised on the minds of his pupils, he at length felt himself prepared to encounter, by argument and persuasion, the passions and prejudices of the Abyssinian court. In April, 1604, therefore, Peter presented himself before the king, who received him with the same honours that he bestowed on his own people of rank: a distinction which the monks of the Abyssinian church viewed with great jealousy, foreseeing that the exaltation of Paez would eventually be the cause of their own humiliation. Mass was now said according to the ritual of the Romish church; and a sermon followed, which was almost the first ever preached in Abyssinia. Such was the eloquence of Paez, and so convincing did his arguments appear, that the king resolved to embrace the Catholic religion; and, guided by the persuasive missionary, he afterward went so far as to write to Pope Clement VIII. and to Philip III. of Spain, to ask for Jesuits to instruct his people. Many of the courtiers soon followed the royal example. Latin prayers were now repeated; mass was said; the incense smoked; and the host was elevated in triumph. A party, however, was suddenly raised against Paez: the abuna not only declared him excommunicated, but pronounced a curse on all those who had supported, or who might support him or his cause. A battle was in consequence fought; and the King of Abyssinia, the first who had publicly avowed the Romish religion, died in the field. After a series of sanguinary changes and contests, in the course of which another sovereign had fallen, Socinios succeeded to the throne, and began his reign with professions of moderation and neutrality. He, however, very soon privately made profession of the Catholic faith; and Paez, thus encouraged, asked the king for the territory of Dembea. This province, lying around the great lake Tzana, is the most fertile and cultivated country in Abyssinia. It is entirely flat, and seems to have been formed by the subsidence of the water of the lake, which, from visible marks, appears to have once covered four times its present surface. Dembea, although fruitful, has, however, one inconvenience, to which all level countries in this climate are subject: a mortal fever rages in the whole extent of it from March to November. On the north side of this lake, the country rises towards a rocky promontory, which forms a peninsula running into the lake. Nothing can be more beautiful than this small territory, moderately elevated above the water which surrounds it on every side except the north. Its climate is delightful, and no fevers or other diseases rage within it. The prospect of the lake and distant mountains is magnificent beyond European conception, and nature seems to have pointed out this lovely spot for pleasure, health, and retirement. As soon as Paez had obtained possession of his territory, he began to build a convent. He had previously not only made tools of the European shape, but taught several of the natives how to use them; and accustomed to very rude habitations of but one story, the Abyssinians, to their utter astonishment, now beheld the rapid erection of a stately fabric of stone and lime. Paez was soon requested by the king to build him a palace, which he readily undertook; and, as story was mounted upon story, the fame of the builder rose with the edifice. This feeling Paez artfully exerted all his abilities to turn to the advantage of the see of Rome: his attempt, however, caused most violent dissensions; and the mild principles of Christianity were disregarded and disgraced on both sides. The chief point of controversy between the Coptic and the Romish priests was the number of natures in Christ. The abuna declared that no one could be saved who believed in more than one; the Catholics, that those who did not believe in two were reprobate, and condemned to everlasting punishment. This latter opinion was soon expressed otherwise than by words. In a short time the bleeding head of the abuna, or Patriarch of Abyssinia, was sent, as a religious offering, to Socinios, who, hearing a monk deny the two natures of Christ, put a sudden stop to his heresies by cutting out his tongue; while, on the other side, La Selasse, a priest of Selado, refusing to deny the two natures of the Saviour, was instantly stabbed with lances, and died exclaiming, "God and Man! God and Man! God and Man!" A rival king now stood up to oppose Socinios, and the whole country was filled with rebellion and bloodshed. Socinios resolving publicly to renounce the Alexandrian faith and to profess the Catholic, Paez most willingly came forward, and with great pomp received his confession. Delighted that his great object was at last attained, Paez, during the heat of the day, returned to his house with his head uncovered, triumphantly saying the "Nunc dimittis!" "Lord! now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation!" and from being thus exposed to the burning sun, aided perhaps by the highly excited state of his feelings, he was taken violently ill, and died of a raging fever on the 3d of May, 1624. After the death of Paez, Alphonso Mendez, a Jesuit doctor of divinity, and a man of great learning, having been ordained at Lisbon on the 25th of May, 1625, reached Abyssinia the following year. Accompanied by several missionaries, they experienced very great difficulties and dangers in crossing the country to join King Socinios. When they at length presented themselves before the king, he ordered Mendez to be placed on his right hand; and at that very audience (on the 11th of February, 1626) it was settled that Socinios should take an oath of religious submission to the See of Rome. This ceremony was celebrated with all the pageantry of a heathen festival. The palace was adorned with great pomp, and Mendez there preached a sermon to the king and his people, in Portuguese and Latin, not a word of either of which languages could they understand. In return, a sermon was preached to Mendez, and the missionaries who attended him, in the Amharic, which was equally unintelligible to them. When this prelude was over, Mendez advanced, holding in his hand the New Testament, and upon that sacred volume Socinios, the degraded king of Abyssinia, was made to take the following oath, the Jesuit Mendez standing by his side: "We, Sultan Sequed, emperor of Ethiopia, do believe and confess that St. Peter, prince of the apostles, was constituted by Christ our Lord head of the whole Christian Church; and that he gave him the principality and dominion over the whole world, by saying to him, 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church; and I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven;' and again, when he said, 'Feed my sheep.' Also we believe and confess, that the pope at Rome, lawfully elected, is the true successor of St. Peter the apostle in government; that he holdeth the same power, dignity, and primacy in the whole Christian Church; and to the holy father, Urban VIII. of that name, by the mercy of God, pope, and our lord, and to his successor in the government of the church, we do promise, offer, and swear true obedience, and subject with humility at his feet our person and empire: so help us God, and these holy gospels." What an abject picture is here presented to us! and how melancholy the change in the aspect of the Christian faith, since we saw it first established among the simple inhabitants of Abyssinia! As soon as the oath was concluded, one of the king's governors drew his sword, and swore that he would punish with that weapon any one who should fall from his religious vows; and that he would even be the greatest enemy of his prince if he should desert the Catholic faith. These declarations were repeated by many of the officers of state. A solemn excommunication was then pronounced against all who did not keep the oath, and a proclamation was immediately issued, requiring all persons intending to become priests to embrace the Catholic religion under pain of death; and that all persons should follow the forms of the Church of Rome in the celebration of Easter and Lent, under the same dreadful penalty. Mendez vigorously followed up his success. The Abyssinian clergy were reordained; the churches were reconsecrated; grown men as well as children were again baptized; the feasts and festivals of the Church of Rome were established; and the forms and tenets of the Alexandrian faith were formally abrogated. Mendez, however, had overacted his part: unlike Paez, he had neglected to make himself competent first to lead the people whom he so hastily desired to drive; and, in a short time, a violent reaction naturally took place. The Abyssinians, still simple in their habits, and long accustomed to the placid enjoyment of unaffected devotion, soon felt that there was no real satisfaction to be derived from repeating prayers in words which they could not comprehend. The king, meanwhile, finding that his own power was gradually diminishing, and that he was losing the affections as well as the obedience of his subjects, patiently listened to their complaints: impressed by the native eloquence with which they insisted on their right of addressing the Almighty in their own language, he at length yielded to their request; and, though he himself continued to follow the tenets of the Church of Rome, declared that, by his people, prayers need no longer be uttered in a foreign tongue. This concession, apparently simple and unobjectionable, was fatal to the views of Mendez. As long, therefore, as he was able, he obstinately resisted; but the voice of the people so resounded in his ears, that he was very shortly obliged to pretend to submit, although in secret he still did everything in his power to uphold his system. Thus Abyssinia again became, as might naturally be expected, a scene of war; and Tellez, the Portuguese historian, has published a long list of the names of those who died in that country, martyrs to the Catholic faith. Many battles were fought; and, for a considerable period, Socinios, who still strenuously supported the religion of Rome, met with continued defeats; until adversity, that stern but useful monitor, at last made him sensible of the error he had committed. "These men whom you see slaughtered," said one of his nobles rudely to him on a field of battle, "were neither Pagans nor Mohammedans: they were Christians, once your subjects and your friends. In killing these you drive the sword into your own vitals." Still, however, the Jesuit Mendez hovered around him, and for some time succeeded in keeping him in arms; but the spell was at last broken, and Socinios, seeing that his subjects were all deserting him, issued, on the 14th of June, 1632, the following singular proclamation: "Hear us! hear us! hear us! First of all, we gave you the Roman Catholic faith, as thinking it a good one; but many people have died fighting against it, and lastly these rude peasants of Lasta. Now, therefore, we restore to you the faith of your ancestors; let your own priests say their mass in their own churches; let the people have their own altars for the sacrament, and their own liturgy, and be happy! As for myself, I am now old, and worn out with war and infirmities, and no longer capable of governing: I name my son, Facilidas, to reign in my stead." Thus in one day fell the whole fabric of the Roman Catholic faith and hierarchy in Abyssinia. Socinios lingered for two or three months after this, and died firmly professing himself a Catholic to the last. As soon as the new king had buried his father, he began to compose those disorders which had so long distracted the country from difference of religion. Accordingly, he at once wrote to Mendez to inform him that the Alexandrian faith being now restored, his leaving the country had become indispensable. He therefore commanded him and the Catholic priests to retire to Fremona, there to await his farther pleasure. Mendez, by subtle arguments, persuasions, and, lastly, by entreaties, endeavoured to evade, or, at least, to defer the execution of this mandate; but his words were now powerless, and he was peremptorily told that if he did not depart, the time might arrive when it would be too late for him to do so. He and his companions were accordingly conducted by a party of soldiers. On the road they were robbed and ill-treated, their guards conniving at the attack; and at the end of April, 1633, they reached Fremona. Among the Jesuits who accompanied Mendez was Jerome Lobo, one of the most bigoted of the Portuguese, yet a man of enterprise and talent, who had travelled over the greatest part of Abyssinia. For a short time it was determined by these banished monks to send Lobo to India or Spain, to solicit troops for the country. The king, however, perfectly aware of all that passed, ordered the Jesuits at once to set out for Masuah. On receiving this command, they managed, at the suggestion of Lobo, to escape to the protection of a man of considerable power who favoured them. The king wrote to this person, and desired him to give them up, which he declined to do; but, by an odd sort of compromise, agreed, instead of it, to sell them to the Turks. The whole were accordingly, for a certain sum, delivered to the Basha of Masuah. As soon as the intelligence reached Europe of the loss of Abyssinia to the See of Rome, it became a subject of most violent discussion. Many of the Catholic clergy insisted that the failure had proceeded from the pride, obstinacy, and violence of the Jesuits; and it was therefore determined at Rome to send to that country six French capuchins of the reformed order of St. Francis. Two of these attempted to enter Abyssinia by the Indian Ocean; but, shortly after their landing, they were massacred. Two succeeded in making their way into the country, and they suffered martyrdom by being most barbarously stoned to death. The remaining two gave up the attempt, and returned to Europe to report the sad fate of their companions. Three other capuchins, deaf to the stern admonition which their church had thus received from Abyssinia, volunteered their services to make a new endeavour for the conversion, as it was termed, of that country. They accordingly set out on their journey; and, after encountering very considerable difficulties and hardships, at last succeeded in reaching Suakem. The bashaw of this place had been previously written to by the King of Abyssinia, who, after acquainting him with the expected arrival of these three priests, concluded by earnestly requesting him to "treat them," as he said, "according to their merits." As soon, therefore, as they landed, their heads were cut off, and the skins of their sculls and faces were stripped, stuffed, and sent off to the King of Abyssinia at Gondar, "to satisfy him," as it was declared, "that these people had met with the attention which they deserved." There was no mistaking the meaning of this most unjust and barbarous act; and when intelligence of it reached the Vatican, all hopes of converting Abyssinia vanished. In the year 1698, the reigning King of Abyssinia, being exceedingly indisposed, sent to Cairo for a physician. Charles Poncet, a Frenchman at Cairo, who had been bred up as a chymist and apothecary, set out accordingly for Abyssinia, privately supported by Louis XIV., and taking with him, disguised as a servant, Father Brevedent, a French Jesuit. They travelled up the Nile, remained for some time at Sennaar, and at length arrived in Abyssinia, where Brevedent, worn out by the climate and the fatigue of his journey, died. In the year 1700 Poncet left Gondar, having repaired the constitution of the King of Abyssinia at the expense of his own, which was completely exhausted by the hardships to which it had been subjected. He proceeded to Masuah, embarked on the Red Sea, and reached Cairo, whence he proceeded to Paris, and published an account of his travels. Four years afterward, the King of Abyssinia having favourably received several French letters which had been addressed to him, M. du Roulé, vice-consul at Damietta, was selected by Louis XIV. to proceed as his ambassador to Abyssinia; and in July, 1704, he left Cairo for that purpose; but a quarrel had now broken out among two parties of Capuchins and Franciscans, between whom a most violent jealousy existed respecting the conversion of Abyssinia. It has been supposed that this jealousy was the secret cause of M. du Roulé's death. As this traveller was quitting Sennaar on his journey towards Abyssinia, he was surrounded in the large square which is before the king's house. Four blacks murdered him with their sabres; Gentil, his French servant, fell next, and his three other companions were then inhumanly butchered. When the King of Abyssinia heard of Du Roulé's murder, he was much disappointed and displeased, for he had really been desirous of receiving this French ambassador, as well as the valuable presents which he supposed he would bring with him. Unable to detect the sinister conspiracy which had caused his death, he conceived that it had taken place at the instigation of the Pasha of Cairo; and he accordingly addressed to him and to his divan the following very singular communication: _Translation of an Arabic Letter from the King of Abyssinia to the Pasha and Divan of Cairo._ "To the Pasha and Lords of the Militia of Cairo: "On the part of the King of Abyssinia, the King Tecla Haimanout, son of the King of the Church of Abyssinia. "On the part of the august king, the powerful arbiter of nations, shadow of God upon earth, the guide of kings who profess the religion of the Messiah, the most powerful of all Christian kings, maintainer of order between Mohammedans and Christians, protector of the confines of Alexandria, observer of the commandments of the Gospel, heir from father to son of a most powerful kingdom, descended of the family of David and Solomon--may the blessing of Israel be upon our prophet, and upon them; may his happiness be durable, and his greatness lasting; and may his powerful army be always feared! To the most powerful lord, elevated by his dignity, venerable by his merits, distinguished by his strength and riches among all Mohammedans, the refuge of all those that reverence him, who by his prudence governs and directs the armies of the noble empire, and commands his confines; victorious viceroy of Egypt, the four corners of which shall always be respected and defended--So be it! And to all the distinguished princes, judges, men of learning, and other officers, whose business it is to maintain order and good government, and to all commanders in general--may God preserve them all in their dignities, in the nobleness of their health! You are to know, that our ancestors never bore any envy to other kings, nor did they ever occasion them any trouble, or show them any mark of hatred. On the contrary, they have, upon all occasions, given them proofs of their friendship, assisting them generously, relieving them in their necessities, as well in what concerns the caravan and pilgrims of Mecca in Arabia Felix, as in the Indies, in Persia, and other distant and out-of-the-way places; also, by protecting distinguished persons in every urgent necessity. "Nevertheless, when the King of France, our brother, who professes our religion and our law, having been induced thereto by some advances of friendship on our part such as are proper, sent an ambassador to us; I understand that you caused to arrest him at Sennaar; and also another, by name Murat, the Syrian, whom likewise you did put in prison, though he was sent to that ambassador on our part; and, by thus doing, you have violated the law of nations; as ambassadors of kings ought to be at liberty to go wherever they will; and it is a general obligation to treat them with honour, and not to molest or detain them; nor should they be subject to pay customs, or any sort of presents. We could very soon repay you in kind, if we were inclined to revenge the insult you have offered to the man Murat, sent on our part. _The Nile would be sufficient to punish you, since God hath put into our power his fountain, his outlet, and his increase, and that we can dispose of the same to do you harm_: for the present, we demand of and exhort you to desist from any future vexations towards our envoys, and not disturb us by detaining those who shall be sent towards you; but you shall let them pass, and continue their route without delay, coming and going wherever they will, freely for their own advantage, whether they are our subjects or Frenchmen; and whatever you shall do to or for them, we shall regard as done to or for ourselves!" The address is, "To the basha, princes, and lords governing the town of great Cairo, may God favour them with his goodness." The king, who had invited M. du Roulé into his country, was shortly afterward assassinated while he was hunting; and the reign of his successor was a series of petty wars and commotions. Several years afterward the Abyssinians resolved to invade Sennaar; but their army, which is said to have amounted to eighteen thousand men, either perished by the sword or by thirst, or were made prisoners. All the sacred reliques, which the Abyssinian troops carry with them to ensure victory, were conveyed in triumph to Sennaar, and with great difficulty the king escaped to his palace at Gondar. About the year 1735, some misfortune having happened to the Christians at Smyrna, they flocked to Cairo: finding themselves very badly received there, several sailed up the Red Sea on their way to India, and, missing the monsoon, and being destitute of money and necessaries, a few of them ventured to land at Masuah. They were silversmiths; and as the King of Abyssinia happened at the moment of their landing to be much in want of European workmen to assist him in adorning his palace, these men were ordered to come to Gondar, where they remained for some time in the king's service, and afterward gained a moderate livelihood by ornamenting saddles, &c. Great jealousies now began to be entertained in Abyssinia on account of the favour shown to some of the Galla chieftains, who were brought to court and received with distinction. Violent dissensions took place: two kings successively met with a violent death; one being assassinated, and the other poisoned by Ras Michael, the governor of the province of Tigré, a most singular personage, with whom the reader will very shortly be made acquainted. King Tecla Haimanout succeeded to the throne; and the same year, 1769, James Bruce, the enterprising hero of these pages, landed at Masuah. Since the death of M. du Roulé, which took place seventy years before Bruce's arrival, Abyssinia had been so much forgotten in Europe that it seemed almost to have been blotted from the map of the world. The immense distance, the climate in which it was situated, the deserts which nearly surrounded it, and the barbarous character of the nations on its borders, were of themselves quite sufficient to deter any ordinary traveller; and the dangers of the route, great as they really were, had been much exaggerated by the disappointed and expelled Romanists. The great link which had so long connected Abyssinia with Europe, namely, the attempt to convert it to the See of Rome, had been violently broken, and the chasm which now separated them no one seemed desirous to pass. Having thus given a short sketch of so much of the history of Abyssinia as seemed absolutely necessary to interest the reader in the following narrative, it remains only to be observed, that Bruce has furnished a minute account (which occupies about a thousand pages of his volumes) of the reigns of the several kings of Abyssinia, with descriptions of their persons, their petty feuds and dissensions, their wars with the Moors, the Galla, and the Falasha (or Jews), the burning of their churches, their savage treatment of the Shangalla tribes, &c. The general reader will, however, feel probably but little curiosity to spend his time over the records of so remote a country; and more particularly as, after all, they are not implicitly to be relied on. FOOTNOTE: [25] With very great difficulty, Bruce succeeded in getting the whole book of Canticles translated into each of these languages. CHAPTER IX. Bruce's Arrival and dangerous Detention in Masuah. Masuah is a small island on the Abyssinian shore, standing in front of the town of Arkeeko, and forming an excellent harbour: it is three quarters of a mile in length, by about half that distance in breadth. One third of it is occupied by houses, one third by cisterns to receive rain-water, and the remainder is reserved as a place of burial. Masuah was once a place of great commerce, possessing a share of the Indian trade; but its importance declined from the time when, with several other towns of the western coast of the Red Sea, it fell under the dominion of Selim, emperor of Constantinople. When the Turks first came in possession of this island, a governor was sent to it from Constantinople; but its commerce having been ruined, it was soon found not to be worth the expense attending the establishment of a pashalic. The pasha was accordingly withdrawn; and the Turks, having been assisted in their conquest of the place by a chieftain of the mountains of Habab, he was created Naybe or Governor of Masuah, holding his title by a firman from the Ottoman Porte, to which he agreed to pay an annual tribute. The janisaries who had formed the Turkish garrison were left in the island, and, intermarrying with its inhabitants, they soon introduced into the country the lawless, predatory, despotic notions of their race. The naybe, who thus became, in fact, the sovereign of the island, observing the great distance which separated him from the Turks in Arabia, whose garrisons were daily decaying; finding also that he was completely dependant upon Abyssinia for provisions, and even for water, soon perceived that he had better make advances to a country from which he could obtain both sustenance and protection. It was accordingly agreed between the King of Abyssinia and the naybe, that the former should receive one half of the customs of the port of Masuah, for which the latter should be permitted to enjoy his government unmolested, and purchase from Abyssinia whatever provisions, &c., he might require. The friendship of Abyssinia being thus secured, and the power of the Turks constantly declining in Arabia, the naybe began gradually to withdraw himself from paying tribute to the Pasha of Jidda, to whose government he had been annexed by the Porte. He, in short, annually received his firman as a matter of form, offering in return trifling presents, but giving nothing in the way of tribute. It has already been stated, that, a short time before Bruce arrived at Masuah, Abyssinia, under the influence of its minister, Ras Michael, had been plunged into a war, and the great province of Tigré (bordering on the little dominion of Masuah) being thus drained of its troops, the naybe fraudulently availed himself of the opportunity to decline paying any longer his share of the customs to the crown of Abyssinia. This daring step he was induced to take from the peculiar situation in which Abyssinia seemed to be placed. Michael, the ras or governor of Tigré, having lately caused King Joas to be assassinated, sent to the Mountain of Wechne, upon which the royal princes were confined, for Hatze Hamnes, an imbecile, superstitious old man. On its being observed to him that Hamnes had only one hand, and that, by a most ancient custom, he was on this account ineligible for the throne, Michael angrily exclaimed, "What have kings to do with hands?" and no one daring to answer him, Hamnes was declared King of Abyssinia. Hatze Hamnes, whom Ras Michael had thus placed upon the throne, was more than seventy years of age, and Michael himself was not only nearly eighty, but lame, and scarcely able to stand. The naybe of Masuah, who was in the vigour of life, fancied, therefore, that he might safely despise a government which appeared to him to be in its dotage; but in this he was greatly mistaken. No sooner had he declared his intention of retaining the whole of the customs of Masuah, than the old ras informed him "that in the next campaign he would lay waste Arkeeko and Masuah, until they should be as desert as the wilds of Samhar!" and as the ras, during the whole of his eventful life, had always very faithfully performed all promises of this nature, many of the foreign merchants at Masuah fled from the approaching storm to Arabia. Still, however, the naybe showed no signs of fear, nor would he give the smallest portion of his revenues either to the King of Abyssinia or to the Pasha of Jidda. Masuah was in this disturbed state, when information was received there from Jidda that a prince, a very near relation of the King of England, a person who was no trader, but, strange to say, was travelling only to visit different countries and people, was about to arrive at Masuah in his way to Abyssinia. When this intelligence arrived, the naybe and his councillors assembled to determine what was to be done with the English prince. Several proposed that he should at once be put to death, and his property divided among themselves. This expeditious and customary mode of receiving a stranger at Masuah was opposed by others, who more prudently recommended that they should first see what letters the stranger might bring with him, lest, by murdering him, they should add fuel to the fire with which Ras Michael and the Pasha of Jidda had already threatened to consume them. But Achmet, the naybe's nephew, nobly maintained that, whether the stranger had letters or not, his rank ought to protect him; that to murder him would be to act like banditti; that a sufficient quantity of the blood of strangers had been already shed; and that, in his opinion, it had brought the curse of poverty upon the place. He observed, also, that he had heard of a salute which had been fired at Jidda in compliment to this stranger, and he remarked that half that number of ships and guns would lay Masuah and Arkeeko as desolate as Ras Michael had already threatened to leave them. Achmet therefore proposed that the Englishman should be received and treated with marks of consideration, until, on inspecting his letters and conversing with him, they might be able to judge what sort of a person he was, and on what errand he came; and that, if it should turn out that he was one of those foreign disturbers of the country who had heretofore occasioned so much trouble, then, indeed, they might treat him with as much severity as they pleased. There was both eloquence and prudence in Achmet's speech; besides which, he was the heir-apparent of his uncle the naybe. His opinion and arguments were therefore approved of by all, and it was agreed that the fate of the English prince should be left at his disposal. Bruce was always of opinion that the salute with which he had been honoured in the port of Jidda was the means of saving his life on his landing in Abyssinia; and, if so, it may fairly be said that his own good conduct, which had obtained for him this mark of the approbation of his countrymen, was, under Providence, the cause of his escaping alive from Masuah, that slaughter-house of strangers. On the 19th of September, 1769, Bruce and his party, little aware of the debate which had been held respecting them, arrived at Masuah, tired of the sea, and eagerly desirous to land. The Pasha of Jidda, determined to obtain the tribute which was due to him from the naybe of Masuah, had prevailed upon the Sherriffe of Mecca to send over with Bruce Mohammed Gibberti, who was ordered peremptorily to demand payment from the naybe, and also privately to request Ras Michael to lend his aid in compelling him to fulfil his engagement. Mohammed Gibberti, a sincere friend to Bruce's interests, landed therefore immediately; and being an Abyssinian, and having also connexions at Masuah, he managed to despatch that same night to Adowa, the capital of Tigré, letters, by which Ras Michael and the court of Abyssinia were informed that Bruce had arrived at Masuah, bearing letters from the Sherriffe of Mecca, from the Greek Patriarch of Cairo, &c., &c.; but that, being afraid of the naybe, he begged some one might be immediately sent to protect him. These letters were addressed to the care of Janni, a Greek, who was then residing at Adowa, in Tigré. He was a man of excellent character, had served two kings of Abyssinia, and had been lately appointed by Ras Michael to the custom-house of Adowa, to superintend the affairs of the revenue during the time that the ras was occupied at Gondar. As soon as these despatches had left Masuah, Mohammed Gibberti waited upon Achmet and the naybe, and adroitly confirmed in their minds the impression they had already received of Bruce's importance. He told them of the firman which he carried with him from the Grand Seignior, of his acquaintance with the Sherriffe of Mecca, of the honours he had received from his countrymen, and of the surprising power and wealth of his nation. Gibberti having thus made every exertion possible to ensure the safety of his English friends, Bruce landed at Masuah on the 20th of September, 1769. The naybe himself was at Arkeeko; but Achmet, his nephew, came down to receive the duties on Bruce's merchandise. Two elbow-chairs were placed in the middle of the market-place. On one of them Achmet was seated, surrounded by several of the officers who were to open Bruce's bales and packages, which were before him; while the other chair, on his left, remained unoccupied. Achmet was dressed in a long white muslin Banian habit, which reached to his ankles; and, when Bruce arrived within arm's length of him, he arose. They touched each other's hands, carried their fingers to their lips, and then crossed their hands upon their breasts. "Salum Alicum!--peace be between us!" (the salutation of the inferior), said Bruce, firmly. "Alicum Salum--there is peace between us!" replied Achmet, who then pointed to the chair, which Bruce at first declined; but Achmet insisting that he should occupy it, they both with great dignity sat down. Achmet then made a sign for coffee, which Bruce knew to be the token of the country that the life of the guest was not in danger. "We have expected you here for some time," said Achmet, "but thought you had changed your mind and gone to India. Are you not afraid, so thinly attended, to venture upon these long and dangerous voyages?" "Since sailing from Jidda," replied Bruce, "I have been in Arabia Felix, in the Gulf of Mocha, and crossed last from Loheia. The countries in which I have been are either subject to the Emperor of Constantinople, whose firman I have now the honour to present to you, or to the Regency of Cairo and port of Janisaries (he presented also their letters), or to the Sherriffe of Mecca. To you, sir, I present the sherriffe's letters, and, besides, one from him to yourself; depending on your character, he assured me this alone would be sufficient to preserve me from ill usage so long as I did no wrong." Achmet returned the letters to Bruce, saying, "You will give these to the naybe to-morrow. I will keep my own letter, and will read it at home." He accordingly put it in his bosom, and the coffee being removed, Bruce rose to take leave; but he was scarcely on his feet before he was wetted to the skin with deluges of rose-water, showered upon him on every side from silver bottles. One of the best houses in town had been provided for him; and, when he entered it, a large dinner followed him from Achmet, with a profusion of lemons, and good fresh water, one of the scarcest commodities at Masuah. Very shortly afterward the baggage arrived unopened, which gave him much pleasure, as he had been greatly afraid that his clock, telescope, quadrant, and other instruments would have suffered from the violent curiosity of the naybe's officers. Late at night Bruce received a private visit from Achmet, who was then in his undress. His body was naked, excepting a barracan, which was thrown carelessly about him: he wore a pair of loose cotton drawers, and a white cap was on his head. Bruce rose to meet him, and thanked him for his civility in sending his baggage. After expressing great surprise that Bruce, a Christian, had managed to get letters from Mohammedans; and inquiring whether he really was a prince, if he had been banished from his own country, and for what possible object he could voluntarily expose himself to so many difficulties and dangers, in order merely to visit that country; he earnestly endeavoured, as the sole object of his visit, to persuade Bruce to remain at Masuah, and not to proceed into Abyssinia. Instead of making a long reply to these questions, and to a request to which he knew he could give no satisfactory answer, Bruce soon put an end to Achmet's speech by presenting him with a very handsome pair of pistols. "Let the pistols remain with you," said Achmet, "and show them to nobody till I send you a man to whom you may say anything; for there are in the place a number of devils, not men; but Ullah Kerim! God is Great! The person that brings you dry dates in an Indian handkerchief, and an earthen bottle to drink your water out of, give him the pistols. In the mean time, sleep sound and fear no evil; but never be persuaded to trust yourself to the cafrs of Habbesh at Masuah." With this caution Achmet departed, and a female slave very shortly arriving with dates, &c., for Bruce, he committed the brace of pistols to her charge. On the morning of the 21st the naybe came from Arkeeko. He was attended by three or four servants, and about forty naked savages on foot, armed with short lances and crooked knives. He was preceded by a drum, made out of one of those earthen jars in which butter is sent over to Arabia; it was covered with skin, and looked more like a jar of pickles than an instrument of music. The whole of the procession was in the same style. The naybe was dressed in an old, shabby Turkish habit, much too short for him, and on his head he wore a Turkish cowke or cap. In the afternoon Bruce went to pay his respects to him, and found him sitting in a large elbow-chair, from which two files of naked savages formed an avenue that reached to the door. The naybe was a tall, thin, black man, with a large mouth and nose; he had no beard, save a scanty tuft of gray hairs on the point of his chin: his eyes were large and heavy; and a malicious, contemptuous smile sat on his countenance. His character perfectly corresponded with his appearance; for he was a man of no abilities, cruel to excess, brutal, avaricious, and, moreover, a great drunkard. It was to this creature that Bruce presented a firman, which the greatest pasha in the Turkish empire would have kissed and carried to his forehead. The naybe took it, as well as the various letters which accompanied it, in both his hands, and, laying them unopened by his side, "You should have brought a moullah (an interpreter) with you," he said to Bruce. "Do you think I shall read all these letters? why, it would take me a month!" "Just as you please!" replied Bruce. A dead silence followed this laconic remark: at last Bruce offered his presents, and then took his leave, little pleased with his reception, and heartily rejoicing that the despatches which had been sent to Janni were now far beyond the power of the naybe. The inhabitants of Masuah, which, like the whole of the lower coast of the Red Sea, is at all times a most unhealthy spot, were sinking under the smallpox in such numbers that the living were scarcely able to bury the dead; and the whole island, night and day, resounded with shrieks and lamentations. Bruce on this account had suppressed his character of physician, fearing lest he should be detained by the multitude of the sick. On the 15th of October the naybe despatched the vessel which had brought Bruce to Masuah; and this evidence or spy upon his own conduct was no sooner out of the way, than that very night he sent a message to Bruce, desiring that he would prepare for him a handsome present; he even gave a list of the articles, which he requested might be made up in three parcels, to be delivered to him on three separate days. The first parcel was to be given to him as Naybe of Arkeeko, the second as the representative of the Grand Seignior, and the third for having passed the baggage, particularly the quadrant, gratis and unopened. It is always worse than useless to yield to the impositions of a savage; for, in his presence, he who bends must also break. Under these circumstances, firmness can hardly be called courage: it is rather a desperate means of preserving life and property. Bruce replied, that, having the firman of the Grand Seignior, and letters from the Sherriffe of Mecca, it was mere generosity which had induced him to give any present at all; that he was not a trafficker who bought and sold; that he had brought no merchandise with him; and that, therefore, he had no customs to pay. Upon this the naybe sent for Bruce to his house, where he found him in a most violent passion; many words passed on both sides; at last the naybe peremptorily declared, that unless Bruce paid him three hundred ounces of gold, "he would confine him in a dungeon, without light, air, or meat, until his bones came through his skin." "Since you have broken your faith," replied Bruce, undauntedly, "with the Grand Seignior, the government of Cairo, the Pasha of Jidda, and the Sherriffe of Mecca, you will, no doubt, do as you please with me; but you may expect to see the English man-of-war, the Lion, before Arkeeko some morning before daybreak!" "I should be glad," exclaimed the naybe, holding out his hand, "to see that man at Arkeeko or Masuah that would carry as much writing from you to Jidda as would lie upon my thumb-nail. I would strip his shirt off first, then his skin, and then hang him before your door, to teach you more wisdom." "But my wisdom," replied Bruce, "has already taught me 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 see what will arrive. In the mean time, I here announce it to you, that I have letters from the Sherriffe of Mecca to Ras Michael, governor of Tigré, and to the King of Abyssinia; let me, therefore, continue my journey!" "What, Michael too!" muttered the naybe, writhing under the conviction that Bruce had overreached him; "then go your journey," he maliciously added, "and think of the ill that is before you!" On the 29th of October the naybe again came from Arkeeko to Masuah, and sent for Bruce, who found him in a large room, like a barn, with about sixty of his janisaries and officers of state, all naked. The first question which the naybe asked Bruce was, "What the comet meant, and why it had appeared?" He added, "The first time it was visible it brought the smallpox, which killed about one thousand people in Masuah and Arkeeko. It is known you conversed with it every night at Loheia. It has now followed you here, to finish the few that remain; and then they say you are to carry it with you into Abyssinia. What have you to do with the comet?" To this strange, barbarous speech our traveller was about to reply, when some one present said he had been informed that Bruce was going to Ras Michael, to teach the Abyssinians to make cannon and gunpowder, in order to attack Masuah. Five or six others spoke loudly in the same strain; and, surrounded by such a crowd of naked savages--savages in every sense of the word--Bruce would most probably at this moment have ended his travels and his life, had it not been for the precautions he had taken in bringing proper letters to Masuah and in sending others from it, which placed the naybe between two batteries, the fire of which he trembled to incur. "Dog of a Christian!" exclaimed one of the company, putting his hand to his knife, "if the naybe wished to murder you, could he not do it here this minute?" "No!" exclaimed another voice from the crowd, "he could not! I would not suffer it. Achmet is the stranger's friend, and has to-day recommended me to see that no injury be done him. Achmet is ill, or he would have been here himself!" Bruce now turned upon his heel, and, without form or ceremony, walked out of the barn. He had scarcely dined, when a servant came with a letter from Achmet (who was at Arkeeko), telling him how ill he had been, and how much surprise he had felt at his refusal to see him; and concluded by desiring that the bearer should be allowed to take charge of Bruce's gate until he could himself come to Masuah. Bruce now discovered the falsehood and treachery of the naybe, and resolved to follow Achmet's advice. At midnight his gate was attacked; but, on his threatening to fire, the assassins retired. On the 4th of November Bruce went to Arkeeko, and found Achmet in his own house, ill of an intermittent fever, which had the very worst symptoms: he therefore remained with his patient and prescribed for him until he was free from the disorder. On the 6th, in the morning, while at breakfast, he was rejoiced to hear that three servants had arrived from Tigré. One was from Janni, the Greek officer of the customs at Adowa; the other two were evidently servants of Ras Michael, or, rather, of the king, both wearing the red, short cloak, lined and turned up with mazarine blue, which is the badge of the royal retinue. Ras Michael's letters to the naybe were very short. He said the king's health was bad, and that he wondered why a physician sent to him from Arabia, of whose arrival at Masuah he had long ago heard, was not at once allowed to proceed to Gondar. He concluded by ordering the naybe to furnish the stranger with necessaries, and then to forward him without loss of time. In the evening Bruce returned to the island of Masuah, to the great joy of his servants, who were afraid of some stratagem of the naybe. Without farther interruption, he got everything in readiness, and, having concluded his observations upon this inhospitable island, infamous for the quantity of Christian blood which had been shed there under various pretences, he left Masuah on the 10th of November, after a detention of nearly two months. On arriving at Arkeeko, he found Achmet considerably better; but, as he still appeared to be greatly afraid of dying, Bruce remained with him until he was convalescent, for which he testified the warmest gratitude. The naybe again endeavoured, by intimidation, to prevail upon Bruce to pay him a thousand patakas; and his friends, seeing his obstinacy, and aware of the cruelty of his disposition, strongly recommended Bruce to give up all thoughts of proceeding to Abyssinia, as in passing through Samhar, among the many barbarous people whom the naybe commanded there, he would most surely be cut off. Bruce, however, peremptorily replied that he was determined to go forward; and accordingly, early in the morning of the 15th, he ordered his tents to be struck and his baggage made ready, to show that he was resolved to stay no longer. At eight o'clock he went to the naybe, who was almost alone, and who began, with no small fluency of speech, to enumerate the difficulties of the journey, the rivers, precipices, mountains, woods, wild beasts, savage, lawless people, &c., which were to be encountered, in order still to induce Bruce to remain at Masuah. In the midst of their conversation, a servant entered the room covered with dust, and apparently fatigued with a rapid journey from some distant place. The naybe, with much pretended uneasiness and surprise, read the letters which this man delivered to him, and then gravely told Bruce, that the three tribes who occupied Samhar, the common passage from Masuah to Tigré, had revolted, driven away his servants, and declared themselves independent. With apparent devotion, he then hypocritically lifted up his eyes, and said he thanked God that Bruce was not on his journey, as his death would have been unjustly imputed to him! Bruce only laughed at this barefaced imposition, on which the naybe told him he might proceed if he thought proper, but that he had considered it his duty to warn him of his danger. "We have plenty of firearms," replied Bruce, "and your servants have often seen at Masuah that we are not ignorant of the use of them. It is true we may lose our lives--that is in the hands of the Almighty--but we shall not fail to leave enough on the spot to give sufficient indication to the king and Ras Michael who were our assassins!" "What I mentioned about the Shiho," replied the naybe, whose treacherous countenance now assumed a look of complacency, "was only to try you; all is peace! I only wanted to keep you here, if possible, to cure my nephew Achmet; but, since you are resolved to go, be not afraid; the roads are safe enough; I will give you a person to conduct you safely." After bidding adieu to this wretch, Bruce had a short interview with Achmet, who privately told him it was yet far from the naybe's intentions he should ever reach Gondar; but that he would take his final deliverance upon himself, and concluded by advising him to set out immediately. The short account which we have here given of the Naybe of Masuah may appear exaggerated to those who have never had the fortune to treat with human beings of this description. But, in fact, no human beings can be worse than the people of Masuah; who, as we have already observed, are a mongrel race between the savages of the western coast of the Red Sea, and those super-savages, the Turkish janisaries. Salt visited this place in 1810, forty-one years after Bruce had left it. Notwithstanding the handsome presents he made to the governor, he was unable to resist the impositions of the naybe, his brothers, and his sons; "and among this tribe of locusts," says Salt, "I was compelled to distribute nearly five hundred dollars before I could get clear of the place. With a pleasure somewhat similar to that expressed by Gil Blas, when he escaped from the robbers' cave, we quitted Arkeeko. Among all the descriptions of men I have ever met with, the character of the half-civilized savages found at Arkeeko is the most detestable, as they have ingeniously contrived to lose all the virtues of the rude tribes to which they belonged, without having acquired anything but the vices of their more civilized neighbours. The only description I recollect that would particularly suit them, may be found in Mr. Bruce's very energetic account of the inhabitants of Sennaar." It is very singular that Salt, who thus invariably corroborates Bruce in all the principal features of his history, should have been, as we shall shortly see, so completely carried away by the party spirit which existed against him. "Adversity," it has been justly remarked, "makes men friends;" but, though Bruce and Salt suffered at Masuah and Arkeeko under the same rod, yet the latter even there takes every opportunity of supporting Lord Valentia in his petty attempt to convict Bruce of "falsehood" and "exaggeration." The tide of public opinion was still strong against Bruce, and on its faithless waters Lord Valentia and his secretary were enabled to float in triumph. CHAPTER X. Journey from Arkeeko, over the Mountain of Tarenta to Gondar, the Capital of Abyssinia. On the 15th of November Bruce left Arkeeko, and, after crossing a small plain, pitched his tent near a shallow pit of rain-water. Before him were the mountains of Abyssinia, in three distinct ridges. The first broken into gullies, and thinly covered with shrubs; the second higher, steeper, more rugged and bare; and the third a range of sharp-pointed mountains, which would be considered high in any part of Europe. Far above them all towered that stupendous mass, the Mountain of Tarenta, the apex of which is sometimes buried in the clouds; while at other times, enveloped in mist and darkness, it becomes the seat of lightning, thunder, and storm. Tarenta is the highest pinnacle of that long, steep chain of mountains which, running parallel to the Red Sea, forms the boundary of the seasons. On its east side, or towards the Red Sea, the rainy season is from October to April; while on the western or Abyssinian side, cloudy, cold, and rainy weather reigns from May till October. While Bruce was in his tent he was visited by his grateful friend and patient, Achmet, who told him not to go to Dobarwa, for, although it was a good road, the safest was always the best. "You will be apt to curse me," he added, "when you are toiling and sweating in ascending Tarenta, the highest mountain in Abyssinia; but you may then consider if the fatigue of your body is not overpaid by the absolute safety you will find yourselves in. Dobarwa belongs to the naybe, and I cannot answer for the orders he may have given to his own servants; but Dixan is mine, although the people are much worse than those of Dobarwa. I have written to my officers there; and as you are strong and robust, the best I can do for you is to send you by a rugged road and a safe one." Achmet, Bruce, and his party then rose with solemnity, and repeating the fedtah, or prayer of peace, they parted never to meet again. "Thus finished," says Bruce, in the narrative of his travels, "a series of trouble and vexation, not to say danger, superior to anything I ever before had experienced, and of which the bare recital (though perhaps a too minute one) will give but an imperfect idea. These wretches possess talents for tormenting and alarming far beyond the power of belief; and, by laying a true sketch of them before a traveller, an author does him the most real service." "In this country," Bruce most justly adds, "the more truly we draw the portrait of man, the more we seem to fall into caricature." Although the dangers and difficulties which had attended Bruce's residence at Masuah and Arkeeko, and which still threatened, though in a different shape, to oppose his journey into Abyssinia, would have been sufficient to deter any ordinary traveller, yet on the 16th he cheerfully left Laherhey, and for two days travelled along a dry, gravelly plain, thickly covered with acacia-trees, which were in blossom, bearing a round yellow flower. Entering a narrow opening in the mountains, which seemed to have been formed by the violent torrents of the rainy season, they travelled up a sandy bed, the verdant banks of which, shaded from the sun by the impending mountains, were covered with rack-trees, capers, and tamarinds. Following the course of this ravine, they proceeded among mountains of no great height, but bare, stony, and full of terrible precipices, until, oppressed and overpowered by the sun, they halted under the shade of the trees before mentioned. Great numbers of Shiho, with their wives and families, were descending from the tops of the high mountains of Habbesh (Abyssinia), and passed, driving their flocks to the pasture, which, in the months of October and November, is found on the plains near the sea. The Shiho were once very numerous, but, like all the nations which communicate with Masuah, they have been much diminished by the smallpox. They have neither tents nor cottages, but live in caves in the mountains, or under small huts built of reeds or thick grass. The men are generally naked above the waist; the women are covered with a sort of gown, loose in the sleeves and body, and held together by a leather girdle. The children of both sexes are completely naked. The party of these people which passed Bruce consisted of about fifty men and about thirty women; each of the former held a lance in his hand, while a knife was peeping from his girdle. Although they were on higher ground, they appeared uneasy at the sight of strangers. Bruce saluted the chief, asking him if he would sell a goat out of their large flock; but the man seemed to think it prudent to decline entering into conversation, and the whole tribe passed in silence onward. In the evening Bruce resumed his journey, and at night pitched his tent at Hamhammou, on the side of a small green hill, some hundred feet from the bed of the torrent. The weather had been perfectly good since he left Masuah; but this afternoon the mountains were quite hid, and heavy clouds were sweeping along the sides of the lower range of hills; the lightning was frequent, in broad flakes, and deeply tinged with blue, and long, rumbling peals of thunder were heard at a distance. As Bruce's description of this storm is one of the parts of his narrative which have been marked as exaggerated, we give it in his own words: "The river," he says, "scarcely ran at our passing it, when, all on a sudden, we heard a noise on the mountains above louder than the loudest thunder. Our guides, upon this, flew to the baggage, and removed it to the top of the green hill; which was no sooner done, than we saw the river coming down in a stream about the height of a man, and the breadth of the whole bed it used to occupy. The water was thickly tinged with red earth, and ran in the form of a deep river, and swelled a little above its banks, but did not reach our station on the hill." Salt says: "Bruce passed a night on the same spot (Hamhammou), and it was his fortune, as well as ours, to encounter here a terrible storm, which, as usual, he describes with some exaggeration." In Sicily and in Greece we have known people to be carried away by the violent "fiumaras," which are even there produced by the sudden rains; and Bruce's description of a storm _within the tropics_ does not appear at all exaggerated. But it seems that Mr. Salt's storm was not quite equal to the one described by poor Bruce, and he therefore makes up the difference by raising a little tempest of his own against a fellow-traveller: still, in a very few pages after, he says, "We heard that the dead bodies of three men had been found washed down by the torrent on this side of Tarenta." "Dead men," it has been said, "tell no tales!" yet in this instance they certainly do very strongly corroborate Bruce's account of the storm he witnessed: but Lord Valentia and his secretary seem to have fancied that they were to find everything in Abyssinia, elements and all, precisely as Bruce left them forty years before. Leaving Hamhammou, Bruce first saw "the dung of elephants, which was full of thick pieces of undigested branches." He also observed the paths where these enormous animals had passed; trees were torn up by the roots, some were even broken in the middle, and branches, half eaten, were lying on the ground. Hamhammou is a desert mountain of black stones, apparently almost calcined by the heat of the sun: it forms the boundary of a district that belongs to the Hazorta. This tribe, who, from inhabiting a higher country, have a much lighter complexion than their neighbours the Shihos, are exceedingly active; they inhabit caves, or else cabanes, like cages, which, covered with hides, are just large enough to hold two persons. They live in constant defiance of the Naybe of Masuah, against whom their attacks have generally proved successful. As their nights are here cold even in summer, the Hazorta, as well as their children, are clothed. Bruce now proceeded through a plain which, he says, "was set so thick with acacia-trees that our hands and faces were all torn and bloody with the strokes of their thorny branches." They suddenly came to the mouth of a narrow valley, through which a stream of beautiful water ran very swiftly over a bed of pebbles. It was the first clear water which Bruce had seen since he left Syria; and it naturally gave him that indescribable pleasure which sweet water always affords to a tired, thirsty traveller. The shade of the tamarind-tree and the coolness of the air invited them to rest on this delightful spot. "The caper-tree," says Bruce, "here grows as high as the tallest English elm; its flower is white, and its fruit, though not ripe, was fully as large as an apricot. I went at some distance to a small pool of water to bathe, and took my firelock with me; but none of the savages stirred from their huts, nor seemed to regard me more than if I had lived among them all their lives, though surely I was the most extraordinary sight they had ever seen; whence I conclude that they are a people of small talents or genius, having no curiosity." Proceeding along the side of the river, among large timber-trees, Bruce pitched his tent by the side of another stream, as clear, as shallow, and as beautiful as the first; yet in every direction he was surrounded by bleak, black, desolate mountains, covered with loose stones, and, besides these, there was nothing to be seen but the heavens. Their road for some time wound between mountains, the banks of the torrent being still covered with rack and sycamore trees, which, being under a burning sun, and well watered, were naturally of an enormous size. In the evening they reached Tubbo; and as Salt says "Bruce has well described this place," we shall give the picture in his own words: "At half past eight o'clock," says Bruce, "we encamped at a place called Tubbo, where the mountains are very steep, and broken very abruptly into cliffs and precipices. Tubbo was by much the most agreeable station we had seen; the trees were thick, full of leaves, and gave us abundance of very dark shade. There was a number of many different kinds, so closely planted that they seemed to be intended for natural arbours. Every tree was full of birds, variegated with an infinity of colours, but destitute of song; others, of a more homely and more European appearance, diverted us with a variety of wild notes, in a style of music still distinct and peculiar to Africa; as different in the composition from our linnet and goldfinch as our English language is to that of Abyssinia. Yet, from very attentive and frequent observation, I found that the skylark at Masuah sang the same notes as in England. It was observable, that the greatest part of the beautiful painted birds were of the jay or magpie kind. Nature seemed, by the fineness of their dress, to have marked them for children of noise and impertinence, but never to have intended them for pleasure or meditation." Leaving Tubbo, they proceeded on their journey and at night encamped by the side of a rivulet, in a narrow valley full of trees and brushwood: a number of antelopes were running about in all directions; but as the Hazorta tribes were supposed to be in the neighbourhood, Bruce was advised not to fire until he reached the mountain of Tarenta, at the foot of which he arrived on the following morning. In the cool of the evening they began to ascend the mountain by a path of great steepness, and full of holes and gullies made by the torrents. With extreme difficulty Bruce and his party crawled along, each man carrying his knapsack and arms; but it seemed quite impossible to carry the baggage and the instruments. The quadrant had hitherto been carried by eight men, four of whom relieved the others; but they now gave up the undertaking after proceeding a few hundred yards. Various expedients, such as dragging it along the ground, etc., were then proposed. "At last," says Bruce, "as I was incomparably the strongest of the company, as well as the most interested, I and the Moor Yasine (the man who had behaved so gallantly when Bruce's vessel was aground in the Red Sea) carried the head of it for about four hundred yards, over the more difficult and steepest part of the mountain, which before had been considered as impracticable by all. We carried it steadily up the steep, eased the case gently over the big stones on which, from time to time, we rested it, and, to the wonder of them all, placed the head of the three-foot quadrant, with its double case, in safety, far above the stony parts of the mountain. At Yasine's request, we then undertook the next difficult task, which was to carry the iron foot of the quadrant." Bruce and Yasine suffered much in this exertion; "their hands and feet were cut and mangled with sliding down and clambering over the sharp points of the rocks, and their clothes were torn to pieces." However, at last, after infinite toil, and with as much pleasure, they succeeded in placing all their instruments and baggage about half way up this terrible mountain of Tarenta. There were five asses, which were quite as difficult to get up the mountain as the baggage. The greater part of their burdens had been carried by the party up to the instruments; and it was then proposed, as a thing very easy to be done, to make the unladen beasts follow the baggage; but they no sooner found themselves at liberty, and that it was required of them to ascend a steep mountain, than they began to kick and bite each other violently; and finally, with one consent, away they ran, braying down the hill, until at length they stopped to eat some bushes. The hyænas, which were lurking about, had probably been seen or smelt by these animals, as they all collected in a body; and in this defensive position they were found by their masters, who proceeded again to drive them up the mountain. The hyænas, however, followed them step by step, until the men began to be quite as much afraid for themselves as for the asses. At last the wild beasts became so bold that one of them seized a donkey and pulled him down. A general engagement would probably have ensued, had not Yasine's man fired his gun, the report of which made the enemy retire, leaving the asses and the ass-drivers to pursue their way; but it was nearly midnight before these jaded long and short eared stragglers joined their masters. Bruce having encouraged his people by good words, increase of wages, and promises of reward, early the next morning they started to encounter the other half of the mountain. The baggage now moved on briskly. The upper part of the mountain was steeper, more craggy, rugged, and slippery than the lower, but not as much embarrassed by large stones and holes. "Our knees and hands," says Bruce, "were cut to pieces by frequent falls, and our faces torn by the multitude of thorny bushes. I twenty times now thought of what Achmet had told me at parting, that I should curse him for the bad road shown to me over Tarenta." However, with great difficulty they at last reached the summit, upon which they found a small village, chiefly inhabited by very poor people, who tend the flocks belonging to the town of Dixan. Salt sneers, as usual, at Bruce's description of the difficulties he encountered in ascending Tarenta. He says, "We did not meet with a single hyæna or troglodytical cave, and, luckily, 'had not _our hands and knees cut by frequent falls, or our faces torn by thorny bushes_,' which last, indeed, appears scarcely possible in so open and frequented a path." Now Bruce never said that the hyænas of Tarenta would find Mr. Salt, or that Mr. Salt would find the caves which Bruce says he went out of his path to see: yet, if Mr. Salt had ever read the following extract from the account of a journey made into Ethiopia (by Father Remedio of Bohemia, Martino of Bohemia, and Antonio of Aleppo, of the order of Reformed Minorites of St. Francis, missionaries for the propagation of the Christian faith), he would, perhaps, have hesitated before he ventured to accuse Bruce of exaggeration, more especially in regard to "the thorns and briers of Tarenta." "Our way" (from Masuah), says one of those fathers, "lay over high mountains, deep valleys, and through impenetrable woods, in passing which we encountered many dangers and grievous hardships. More than once we were obliged to climb the tops of the mountains on our hands and feet, which were sorely rent and torn with _brambles and thorny bushes_. No house nor inn being found here, everybody is obliged to lay in the open air, exposed to the depredations of robbers, and liable every moment to become the prey of wolves, lions, tigers, and beasts of a similar description, which are almost continually met with, of all which I shall cease to speak, from the horror and dread with which the very thought of them still afflicts me." It has already been stated that Lord Valentia published "Voyages and Travels to Abyssinia," etc., although he had merely landed at the port of Masuah, which does not belong to Abyssinia; his evidence, therefore, cannot carry with it much weight, and still with his own secretary he may be allowed to dispute. "The night," says his lordship, "was cooler, and I was not so restless; in the morning I had no fever, and at dinner some appetite. I viewed from my window the island of Valentia, distant about five leagues; Ras Gidden, and the chain of mountains that lines the coast of the Red Sea from this place to the plains of Egypt. Behind these the summit of Tarenta peeps out, and gives credit, by its height, to Mr. Bruce's account of the difficulty he had in ascending it." But Mr. Salt absolutely forgets himself; for in vol. iii., p. 12, speaking of "a semicircular ridge of mountains, over which there is but one pass by which it is possible to ascend," he says, "in steepness and ruggedness this hill may be compared to Tarenta, though its height is considerably inferior." And in his "Travels to Abyssinia," page 201, he again says, "on the 10th the party ascended Senafé, which is said to be full as high, _though not so difficult to pass, as Tarenta_." The trifling, cavilling remarks made against Bruce's character by Lord Valentia and Mr. Salt, admitting his history of Abyssinia, as they do, and his general descriptions, to be correct, remind one of Shakspeare's description of the sun: "When envious clouds seem bent to dim his glory, And check his bright course to the occident." The plain on the summit of the mountain of Tarenta was in many places sown with wheat, which was just ready to be cut. The grain appeared to be clean and of a good colour, but inferior in size to that of Egypt. It did not, however, grow thick, nor was its stalk above fourteen inches high. The water here was very bad, being only what remained of the rain that had been collected in hollows of the rocks, or in pits artificially prepared for it. Being greatly fatigued, Bruce and his party pitched their tents on the top of the mountain. The night felt dreadfully cold to them, accustomed as they had been to the heat of the low country of Masuah: the dew fell heavily, yet the sky was so clear that the smallest stars were discernible. The people who live on the mountain of Tarenta are of a dark, sallow complexion. Their heads are wholly uncovered, a goat's skin is thrown over their shoulders, they wear a piece of cotton cloth about their waist, and sandals on their feet. Their hair is cut short, and curled artificially, to look like the wool of a negro. The men usually carry two lances, a shield made of bull's hide, and a very long, broad knife stuck in their girdles. All sorts of cattle are here in great plenty. The cows are generally white, with large dewlaps hanging down to their knees, hair like silk, and wide horns. The sheep are of good size and black: they have large heads, which they carry very erect, and small ears, and are covered with hair instead of wool. Early on the morning of the 22d, Bruce and his party eagerly descended the mountain. The cedar-trees, which had been so tall and beautiful on the top and on the east side of Tarenta, degenerated on the west into small shrubs and scraggy bushes. Lower down the people were busy with their harvest, and cows and bullocks were seen treading out the corn, the straw being burned or left to rot upon the ground. In the evening they reached the town of Dixan. Salt says, "We passed over the highest part of the irregular hill on which Dixan is built, and which Bruce has very accurately described when he compared it to a sugar-loaf." Dixan, like most frontier towns, is a rendezvous for the bad people of the two contiguous countries. "The town," says Bruce, "consists of Moors and Christians, and is very well peopled; yet the only trade of either is a very extraordinary one, that of selling children. The Christians bring such as they have stolen in Abyssinia to Dixan, and the Moors, receiving them there, carry them to a sure market to Masuah, whence they are sent to Arabia or India." Rather a curious instance of this barbarous traffic occurred between two priests, who were slaves in the naybe's house, while Bruce was at Masuah. These two men had formerly dwelt at Tigré as most intimate friends--the youngest living with a woman by whom he had two sons. One day the old priest came to the young one to say that, as he had no children of his own, he would provide for one of the boys, who was accordingly most gratefully committed to his care. The old wretch, however, took him to Dixan, and, after selling him there as a slave, returned to his friend with a fine account of his son's reception, treatment, and brilliant future prospects. The other child, who was about eight years old, hearing of the wonderful good fortune of his elder brother, entreated to be permitted to pay him a visit. The old man said that he did not altogether disapprove of his design, but at the same time observed that he felt a sort of scruple--a kind of repugnance--in short, that he was unwilling to be responsible for the safety of so very young a boy, unless his mother would accompany him; and as mothers yearn for their children in Abyssinia as elsewhere, the woman most readily consented to attend her son, under the protection of the old priest, who kindly took them to Dixan and--sold them both! Returning to his friend the young priest, he told him that his wife expected he would come and fetch her on a particular day. Accordingly, when the time arrived, the two priests set out together, and, on reaching Dixan, the young one found out that his aged friend had not only sold the woman and the two boys, but that he, the father, was sold also! The whole family were thus, by treachery, doomed to finish their days in bondage. However, the slave-merchants persuaded the old priest to accompany the party to a place near Dixan, where he was assured that he should receive all that was due to him. On reaching this spot they fell upon him and bound him too as their slave, the woman and the young priest begging for permission, meanwhile, to pluck out his beard; and as that ceremony, besides its well-merited pain, would add to the old gentleman's value by making him look younger, leave was readily granted. On reaching Masuah, the woman and the boys were instantly sold and carried into Arabia; but the two priests were still slaves at Masuah when Bruce left there. "The priests of Axum," says Bruce, "and those of the monastery of Abba Garima, are equally infamous with those of Damo for this practice, which is winked at by Ras Michael as contributing to his greatness, by furnishing firearms to his provinces of Tigré, which gives him superiority over all Abyssinia. As a return for these firearms, about five hundred of these unfortunate people are annually exported from Masuah to Arabia, of which three hundred are pagans from the market at Gondar, the other two hundred are Christian children kidnapped. The naybe receives six patakas of duty for each one exported." On the 25th of November Bruce and his party left Dixan, and, descending the very steep hill on which the town is situated, they reached an immense daroo-tree, seven and a half feet in diameter, with a head spreading in proportion. This tree, and the rivulet on which it stands, mark the boundary of that part of Tigré which the Naybe of Masuah farms or rents of the governors of Abyssinia. One of Bruce's servants delighted (as they all were) to get out of the dominions of Masuah, no sooner reached this tree, than he made a mark on the ground with his knife, and swore thereupon that if any one belonging to the naybe dared to cross it, he would bind him hand and foot, and leave him to the lions and the hyænas. The naybe's people, on this hint, at once retired. Their presence had been a source of constant alarm to Bruce, who always felt that he owed his life to the advice and assistance he had received from Achmet. "We remained," says Bruce, "under this tree the night of the 25th. It will be to me a station ever memorable, as the first where I recovered a portion of that tranquillity of mind to which I had been a stranger ever since my arrival at Masuah." The next day the party, having been joined by several Moors, proceeded; and Bruce, while on his journey, was visited by a person of some distinction in the country, from whom he purchased a black horse. "I was exceedingly pleased," he says, "with this first acquisition. The horse was then lean, and he stood about sixteen and a half hands high, of the breed of Dongola. Yasine, a good horseman, recommended to me one of his servants or companions to take care of him. He was an Arab, from the neighbourhood of Medina, a superior horseman himself, and well versed in everything that concerned the animal. I took him immediately into my service. We called the horse Mirza, a name of good fortune. Indeed, I might say, I acquired that day a companion that contributed always to my pleasure, and more than once to my safety; and was no slender means of acquiring me the first attention of the king. I had brought my Arab stirrups, saddle, and bridle with me, so that I was now as well equipped as a horseman could be." Bruce being now entirely the guide and guardian of his own party, carefully examined the state of their firearms, which he ordered to be cleaned and charged anew. After passing a very pleasant wood of acacia-trees, which were then in flower, they came to a plain "so overgrown with wild oats that it covered the men and their horses." The soil was excellent; yet this fine country was found almost in a state of nature, on account of some disputes, which raged so fiercely among the neighbouring villages that the people were in the habit of going with weapons in their hands to sow the small portion of land which they cultivated, and to reap the harvest. Bruce now reached a river, where he learned that caravans were very frequently robbed. He therefore, for the first time, mounted his black charger Mirza, and, to the great delight and astonishment of his party, and of those who had joined them, galloped and paraded the animal in every direction, firing from his back in the Arab fashion, all of which tended to impress the minds of his rude attendants with a notion of his superiority that induced them to obey, and to place confidence in, the orders of one who appeared so well fitted to command. Having now entered a rocky, uneven country, covered with brushwood, wild oats, and high grass, they found lying on the ground a very fine animal of the goat species, which had been just attacked by a lion. It was scarcely dead; and as the blood was still running, every one, Moor and Christian, cut out a portion of the flesh. The general aversion of the Abyssinians to anything that has not been regularly killed with a knife is so great, that they will not even lift a bird that has been shot, except by the point or extreme feather of its wing; but to this rule, as it now appeared, they make a very singular exception in favour of any animal which has been killed by a lion. They now crossed the clear and rapid river Bazelat, which falls into the Mareb or ancient Astusaspe. This was the first running water which they had seen since they passed Tarenta, this part of Abyssinia being very badly watered. They were here requested to pay a duty or custom, which, in many parts of Abyssinia, is levied on all passengers. These places are called ber, or passes, and there are five of them between Masuah and Adowa. But Bruce, having been sent for by the king, and being on his road to Ras Michael, told the people at the pass that they might keep his baggage, and that he would proceed without it; in consequence of which threat only a very slight duty was exacted from him. Proceeding onward, they passed a high rock, resembling the Acropolis of Athens, or the rock upon which stands Edinburgh Castle. This pinnacle was called Damo, and it was here that the heirs male of the royal family of Abyssinia were imprisoned until the massacre of the princes by Judith. The houses now began to appear with conical roofs, a sure sign that the rains of the country were very violent. The village of Kaibara they found to be entirely inhabited by Mohammedan Gibbertis, or native Abyssinians of that religion. They were here stopped again by a ber, where they were detained three whole days, from the extravagant demands which were made upon them, and which nothing that Bruce or his party could say would induce the people to diminish. "They had reasons," says Bruce, "for our reasons, menaces for our menaces, but no civilities to answer ours." Bruce found it so impossible to satisfy them, that, with great artifice and difficulty, he managed to send a letter by one of the natives to Janni, the head of the custom-house at Adowa, to inform him of his detention. On the morning of the fourth day an officer from Janni arrived with a violent mandate in the name of Ras Michael, which produced an immediate effect, and on the 4th of December Bruce was again enabled to proceed. He now passed a river called Angueah, the largest he had seen in Abyssinia. This river receives its name from a beautiful tree which covers its banks. A variety of flowers, particularly yellow, white, and party-coloured jasmine, fill the plain which lies between the mountains and this stream. The air was fresh, fragrant, and agreeable. "We now first began to see," says Bruce, "the high mountains of Adowa, nothing resembling in shape those of Europe, nor, indeed, any other country. Their sides were all perpendicular rocks, high, like steeples or obelisks, and broken into a thousand different forms." However, after travelling on a very pleasant road, over easy hills, and through hedgerows of jasmine, honeysuckle, and many other kinds of flowering shrubs, they arrived on the 6th of December at Adowa, the town in which Ras Michael had used to reside. Adowa is situated at the foot of a hill, on the west side of a small plain, watered by three streams, and surrounded on all sides by mountains. It is the pass through which every one must go in travelling from Gondar to the Red Sea, and, indeed, its name signifies "pass or passage." The town consisted of about three hundred houses, each dwelling being enclosed by hedges and trees. Adowa was not formerly the capital of Tigré, but at the time of Bruce's arrival it was considered as such, because the property of Ras Michael surrounded it. His house was on the top of a small hill, and was not remarkable for its size. It was inhabited during the ras's absence by his deputy, and resembled a prison rather than a palace; for in and about it more than three hundred persons were confined in irons, the object of their imprisonment being to extort money from them. Many of these unhappy individuals had been there twenty years; they were kept in cages, and in every way treated like wild beasts. Bruce had scarcely arrived at Adowa before Janni, the Greek officer of the customs to whom he had written on his arrival at Masuah, waited upon him. "He had," says Bruce, "sent servants to conduct us from the passage of the river, and met us himself at the outer door of his house. I do not remember to have seen a more respectable figure. He had his own short white hair, covered with a thin muslin turban, and a thick, well-shaped beard, as white as snow, down to his waist. He was clothed in the Abyssinian dress, all of white cotton, only he had a red silk sash, embroidered with gold, about his waist, and sandals on his feet: his upper garment reached down to his ankles. He had a number of servants and slaves about him of both sexes; and, when I approached him, seemed disposed to receive me with marks of humility and inferiority, which mortified me much, considering the obligations I was under to him, the trouble I had given, and was unavoidably still to give him. I embraced him with great acknowledgments of kindness and gratitude, calling him father: a title I always used in speaking either to him or of him afterward, when I was in higher fortune, which he constantly remembered with great pleasure. "He conducted us through a courtyard planted with jasmine, to a very neat, and, at the same time, large room, furnished with a silk sofa: the floor was covered with Persian carpets and cushions. All round, flowers and green leaves were strewed upon the outer yard: and the windows and sides of the room stuck full of evergreens, in commemoration of the Christmas festival that was at hand. I stopped at the entrance of this room: my feet were both dirty and bloody; and it is not good breeding to show or speak of your feet in Abyssinia, especially if anything ails them, and at all times they are covered. He immediately perceived the wounds that were upon mine. Both our clothes and flesh had been torn to pieces at Tarenta and several other places; but he thought we had come on mules furnished us by the naybe; for the young man I had sent to him from Kella, following the genius of his countrymen, though telling truth was just as profitable to him as lying, had chosen the latter, and, seeing the horse I had got from the Baharnagash, had figured in his own imagination a multitude of others, he told Janni that there were with me horses, asses, and mules in great plenty; so that, when Janni saw us passing the water, he took me for a servant, and expected for several minutes to see the splendid company arrive, well-mounted upon horses and mules caparisoned. "He was so shocked at my saying that I had performed this terrible journey on foot, that he burst into tears, uttering a thousand reproaches against the naybe for his hard-heartedness and ingratitude, as he had twice, as he said, hindered Michael from going in person, and sweeping the naybe from the face of the earth. Water was immediately procured to wash our feet; and here began another contention. Janni insisted upon doing this himself, which made me run out into the yard, and declare I would not suffer it. After this, the like dispute took place among the servants. It was always a ceremony in Abyssinia to wash the feet of those that came from Cairo, and who are understood to have been pilgrims to Jerusalem. "This was no sooner finished than a great dinner was brought, exceedingly well dressed. But no consideration or entreaty could prevail upon my kind landlord to sit down and partake with me: he would stand all the time with a clean towel in his hand, though he had plenty of servants, and afterward dined with some visiters, who had come, out of curiosity, to see a man arrived from so far. Among these were a number of priests, a part of the company which I liked least, but who did not show any hostile appearance. It was long before I cured my kind landlord of these respectful observances, which troubled me very much; nor could he ever wholly get rid of them: his own kindness and good heart, as well as the pointed and particular orders of the Greek patriarch, Mark, constantly suggesting the same attention." In the afternoon Bruce had a visit from the Governor of Adowa, a tall, fine-looking man of about sixty years of age. He had just returned from an expedition against the inhabitants of some villages, having slain about a hundred and twenty men, and driven off a quantity of cattle. He told Bruce he much doubted whether he would be able to proceed, unless some favourable news came from Ras Michael, as the inhabitants of Woggora were plundering all descriptions of people going to Gondar, in order to distress the king and the troops of Ras Michael. The houses of Adowa are of rough stone, cemented with mud instead of mortar. The roofs, which are in the form of cones, are thatched with a sort of reedy grass, rather thicker than wheat straw. In the surrounding country there are three harvests annually. The first seedtime is in July and August, in the middle of the rains, at which time they sow wheat, tocusso, teff, and barley. About the 20th of November they begin to reap, first the barley, then the wheat, and lastly the teff. Without any manure, they then sow barley alone, which they reap in February; and, lastly, they sow teff or vetches, which are cut down before the first rains in April. The country is sometimes completely overrun with rats and field-mice; and, to destroy these creatures, they set fire to the straw, the only use to which they apply it. This is generally done just before the rains, and astonishing verdure immediately follows. "The province of Tigré," says Bruce, "is all mountainous; and it has been said, without any foundation in truth, that the Pyrenees, Alps, and Apennines are but molehills compared to them. I believe, however, that one of the Pyrenees, above St. John Pied de Port, is much higher than Lamalmon; and that the Mountain of St. Bernard, one of the Alps, is full as high as Taranta, or rather higher. It is not the extreme height of the mountains in Abyssinia that occasions surprise, but the number of them, and the extraordinary forms they present to the eye. Some of them are flat, thin, and square, in shape of a hearthstone or slab, that scarce would seem to have been sufficient to resist the winds. Some are like pyramids, others like obelisks or prisms; and some, the most extraordinary of all the rest, pyramids pitched upon their points, with their base uppermost, which, if it were possible, as it is not, that they could have been so formed in the beginning, would be strong objections to our received ideas of gravity." Salt quotes the above description, which he takes great trouble to show is "extravagant;" yet at page 240 he himself describes the mountains of this province as follows: "A THOUSAND different-shaped hills were presented to the view, which bore the appearance of having been dropped on an irregular plain;" and the strange formation which Bruce and Salt dwell on with so much wonder, is now fully understood to proceed from the violent action of rain, through a long series of ages, upon a surface like that described by these travellers. After having remained above a month at Adowa, Bruce, on the 10th of January, visited the remains of the famous convent of the Jesuits at Fremoga, which is on the opposite side of the plain to Adowa. This convent, which is about a mile in circumference, is substantially built of stone with mortar. The walls, about twenty-five feet in height, are flanked by towers loopholed for musketry. In short, it resembles a castle rather than a convent. Bruce was now anxious, if possible, to proceed to Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, and the political events of the day seemed to offer him an opportunity; for a sort of calm, like that which precedes a storm, had for the moment spread over the whole country. Ras Michael, having found that the old King Hatre Hamnes did not suit him as he had expected, his imbecility being of too sluggish a description, ordered his breakfast to be poisoned; and, having thus got rid of him, he had just placed young Tecla Haimanout on the throne of his father. The Abyssinians had been wearied by a series of events, none of which had been foreseen, and which had ended in a manner which no one could have expected. Nobody liked Ras Michael, yet no man deemed it prudent either to speak or act against him. People therefore waited till he should either conquer or be conquered by his opponent and enemy, the rebel Fasil. Of this calm Bruce determined to avail himself; and he accordingly prepared to take leave of his friend Janni, "whose kindness, hospitality, and fatherly care had," says Bruce, "never ceased for a moment." This friend had most favourably recommended Bruce to the iteghe, or queen-mother, whose daughter, the beautiful Ozoro Esther, was married to old Ras Michael. He also wrote in Bruce's favour to the ras, with whom his influence was very great; and, indeed, to all his acquaintances, Greeks, Abyssinians, and Mohammedans. On the 17th of January, 1770, Bruce and his party quitted Adowa to proceed to Gondar, and the following day they reached a plain in which stood Axum, which is supposed to have been the ancient capital of Abyssinia. "The ruins of Axum," says Bruce, "are very extensive, but, like the cities of ancient times, consist altogether of public buildings. In one square, which I apprehend to have been the centre of the town, there are forty obelisks, none of which have any hieroglyphics upon them. There is one larger than the rest still standing, but there are two still larger than this fallen. They are all of one piece of granite, and on the top of that which is standing there is a patera exceedingly well carved in the Greek taste." "After passing the convent of Abba Pantaleon, called in Abyssinia 'Mantilles,' and the small obelisk situated on a rock above, we proceeded south by a road cut in a mountain of red marble, having on the left a parapet wall above five feet high, solid, and of the same materials. At equal distances there are hewn in this wall solid pedestals, upon the tops of which we saw the marks where stood the colossal statues of Sirius, the Latrator Anubis or Dog Star. One hundred and thirty-three of these pedestals, with the marks of statues just mentioned, are still in their places; but only two figures of the dog remained, much mutilated, but of a taste easily distinguished to be Egyptian. They were composed of granite, but some of them appear to have been of metal. "There are likewise pedestals whereon the figures of the Sphinx have been placed. Two magnificent flights of steps, several hundred feet long, all of granite, exceedingly well fashioned, and still in their places, are the only remains of a magnificent temple. In the angle of this platform, where that temple stood, is the present small church of Axum, in the place of a former one destroyed by Mohammed Gragne, in the reign of King David III.; and which was probably the remains of a temple built by Ptolemy Euergetes, if not the work of times more remote. "The church is a mean, small building, very ill kept, and full of pigeons' dung. In it are supposed to be preserved the ark of the covenant and copy of the law, which Menilek, son of Solomon, is said, in their fabulous legends, to have stolen from his father Solomon on his return to Ethiopia; and these were reckoned, as it were, the palladia of this country. "There was another relic of great importance. It is a picture of Christ's head crowned with thorns, said to be painted by St. Luke, which, upon occasions of the utmost importance, is brought out and carried with the army, especially in a war with Mohammedans and pagans. "Within the outer gate of the church, below the steps, are three small square enclosures, all of granite, with small octagon pillars in the angles, apparently Egyptian; on the top of which formerly were small images of the dog-star, probably of metal. Upon a stone in the middle of one of these the king sits and is crowned, and always has been since the days of paganism; and below it, where he naturally places his feet, is a long oblong slab like a hearth, which is not of granite, but of freestone. The inscription, though much defaced, may be safely restored. [Greek: PTOLEMAIOU EUERGETOU BASILEÔS]." Bruce made a sketch of the principal obelisk at Axum. Salt, who also visited Axum, says: "I went to take a drawing of the obelisk still erect. I found it to be extremely different from the representation of it given by Bruce; the ornaments which he is pleased to call triglyphs and metopes, and guttæ, being most regularly, instead of irregularly, disposed, as will be seen in my representation of it. I am now perfectly satisfied that all Bruce's pretended knowledge of drawing is not to be depended on, the present instance affording a striking example of his want of veracity and uncommon assurance." Again, Salt says: "From my account of Axum, it will appear that Bruce's description of 'the mountain of red marble' of the 'wall, cut out of the same five feet high,' with its 'one hundred and thirty-three pedestals, on which stood colossal statues of the dog-star, two of which only were remaining,' and of the road cut between the wall and the mountain, are statements contrary to the existing fact, or, at least, so extremely exaggerated as to cast strong doubts upon his authority." Again, Salt says, "I made a drawing of the Ozoro (a lady of rank), which I can assure the reader gives an accurate delineation of the costume of a lady of her rank, although it has no resemblance to the fancy figures given in the last edition of Bruce as Abyssinian princesses." "It is extremely vexatious," says Lord Valentia at Masuah, "that Mr. Bruce's assertion of blue cloth being preferred by the Bedouee should have prevented our bringing any white, which would have ensured us a ready supply of all we wished." Nothing can more evidently show the narrow and prejudiced feelings with which Salt travelled than the above observations. Neglecting the great book of nature which lay open before him, he seemed to have been only occupied with a paltry desire minutely to criticise Bruce's volumes, as he carried them along in his hand. With respect to the ruins of Axum, travellers have always been permitted to form their own conjectures on subjects of this kind, without being accused of "falsehood," or even of "exaggeration;" and every person who has attempted to copy inscriptions in hieroglyphics, the meaning of which he cannot penetrate, will admit that parts and figures, which to him appear highly important, might very excusably be passed over by another as unworthy of attention. Again, with respect to the costume of the Abyssinian ladies, more than one third of a century had elapsed between Bruce's departure from Abyssinia and Salt's arrival in that country, and why should Mr. Salt have taken it for granted that this costume must necessarily have continued invariably the same? But, what is still more to the point, the Ozoros, of whose costumes Bruce has given drawings, were ladies of another province--the province of Gondar! Bruce never asserted that the fashions of Abyssinia were unalterable, nor that the Bedouee would always prefer blue cloth to white. It is not a little surprising that Salt and Lord Valentia should have indulged in these censures against Bruce, while the former admits that his general history and observations are invariably correct. Even at Axum, Salt says, "In the evening I wrote down the best account I could get from the books of Axum of Ras Michael, and his rebellion in Tigré against the Emperor Yasous; his standing a siege on the mountain of Samargat; and his subsequent concession and pardon, to which the emperor with difficulty acceded; _all which confirms the historical account of the same transactions as related by Bruce_." "The revolutions," he continues, "have been still more frequent since the departure of Mr. Bruce, _whose history is in general accurate_."... Again, page 227, he says, "We also derived some benefit from the information, relative to the history of Abyssinia, which we had acquired from Bruce and Poncet, and _which was to the natives a source of perpetual astonishment_. Bruce's drawings of Gondar and its vicinity, which we showed to the Baharnagash, _tended to raise us in his opinion almost beyond the level of mortality_." If, then, Bruce's historical account of Abyssinia, as is admitted, be correct, ought he to have been accused of "falsehood," "exaggeration," and "want of veracity" by men of rank and education, because, after a lapse of thirty-five years, certain antiquities which he described had disappeared, and the dresses of the ladies were found to be different from his account of them? Salt gives a translation of one of the inscriptions at Axum, which shows, he says, that the Abyssinian monarchs have no claim to a descent from Solomon, but that they considered themselves descended from Mars! The inscription runs thus: "We Aeizanus, sovereign of the Axomites" (&c., &c., &c.), "king of kings, son of God the invincible Mars." Lord Valentia, of course, supports Mr. Salt's interpretation: he says, "The account of the descent from Solomon is now proved to be false by the inscription of Axum." Still this inscription says nothing against the descent from King Solomon. Aeizanus certainly calls himself "son of the invincible Mars;" but this, within the tropics, may, after all, have been only an hyperbole, meaning that he considered himself a hero, a vanity by no means uncommon among men in every climate. Bruce, however, nowhere says that the kings of Abyssinia were descended from Solomon; he merely states that this tradition is still believed by the Abyssinians and all the surrounding nations; and this, it is not denied, is perfectly true. On the 20th Bruce left the ruins of Axum. For several miles the air was perfumed from the profusion of flowering shrubs growing by the way, chiefly different species of jasmine. The country around had the most beautiful appearance; "and the weather," says Bruce, "was neither too hot nor too cold." He now witnessed a scene, which must be given in his own words: "Not long after our losing sight of the ruins of this ancient capital of Abyssinia, we overtook three travellers driving a cow before them; they had black goatskins upon their shoulders, and lances and shields in their hands; in other respects they were but thinly clothed; they appeared to be soldiers. The cow did not seem to be fatted for killing, and it occurred to us all that it had been stolen. This, however, was not our business, nor was such an occurrence at all remarkable in a country so long engaged in war. We saw that our attendants attached themselves in a particular manner to the three soldiers that were driving the cow, and held a short conversation with them. Soon after, we arrived at the hithermost bank of the river, where I thought we were to pitch our tent. The drivers suddenly tripped up the cow, and gave the poor animal a very rude fall upon the ground, which was but the beginning of her sufferings. One of them sat across her neck, holding down her head by the horns; the other twisted the halter about her forefeet; while the third, who had a knife in his hand, to my very great surprise, in place of taking her by the throat, sat astride her just before her hind legs, and gave her a very deep wound in the upper part of her haunch. "From the time I had seen them throw the beast upon the ground, I had rejoiced, thinking that, when three people were killing a cow, they must have agreed to sell part of her to us; and I was much disappointed upon hearing the Abyssinians say that we were to pass the river to the other side, and not encamp where I intended. Upon my proposing they should bargain for part of the cow, my men answered, what they had already learned in conversation, that they were not then to kill her; that she was not wholly theirs, and they could not sell her. This awakened my curiosity. I let my people go forward, and stayed myself behind, till I saw, with the utmost astonishment, two pieces, thicker and longer than our ordinary beefsteaks, cut out of the higher part of the haunch of the beast. How it was done I cannot positively say; because, judging the cow was to be killed from the moment I saw the knife drawn, I was not anxious to view the catastrophe, which was by no means an object of curiosity: whatever way it was done, it surely was adroitly; and the two pieces were spread upon the outside of one of their shields. "One of them still continued holding the head, while the other two were busied in curing the wound. This, too, was done not in the ordinary manner: the skin which had covered the flesh that was taken away was left entire, and flapped over the wound, and was fastened to the corresponding part by two or more small skewers or pins. Whether they put anything under the skin between that and the wounded flesh, I know not; but at the river-side where they were, they had prepared a cataplasm of clay, with which they covered the wound; they then forced the animal to rise, and drove it on before them, to furnish them with a fuller meal when they should meet their companions in the evening." It was upon this fact that Bruce's reputation split, and sunk like a vessel which had suddenly struck upon a rock. His best English friends had warned him of the danger, and earnestly begged him to suppress the publication of a story which, in his conversation, had been universally disbelieved; but, sorely as he felt the insult, even when privately received, it was against his nature to shrink from any unjust degradation which the public might attempt to inflict upon him. A man like Bruce, who had fearlessly looked real danger in the face, was not to be stopped in an honest course by threats of imaginary danger. He therefore unhesitatingly, or, as his friends termed it, "most obstinately," published the fact; and the following observations, with which he accompanied it, plainly show his wounded feelings and his undaunted integrity; his contempt of the world, or, rather, of the narrow-minded faction which opposed him; and his manly confidence that, sooner or later, truth would prevail. "When first," says Bruce, "I mentioned this in England as one of the singularities which prevailed in this barbarous country, I was told by my friends it was not believed. I asked the reason of this disbelief, and was answered that people who had never been out of their own country, and others well acquainted with the manners of the world (for they had travelled as far as France), had agreed the thing was impossible, and therefore it was so. My friends counselled me farther, that, as these men were infallible, and had each the leading of a circle, I should by all means obliterate this from my journal, and not attempt to inculcate in the minds of my readers the belief of a thing that men who had travelled pronounced to be impossible. They suggested to me, in the most friendly manner, how rudely a very learned and worthy traveller had been treated for daring to maintain that he had ate part of a lion, a story I have already taken notice of in my introduction. They said that, being convinced by these connoisseurs that his having ate part of a lion was impossible, he had abandoned this assertion altogether, and afterward only mentioned it in an appendix; and this was the farthest I could possibly venture. Far from being a convert to such prudential reasons, I must for ever profess openly that I think them unworthy of me. To represent as truth a thing I know to be a falsehood, and not to avow a truth I ought to declare--the one is fraud, the other cowardice: I hope I am equally distant from them both; and I pledge myself never to retract the fact here advanced, that the Abyssinians do feed in common upon live flesh, and that I myself have, for several years, been partaker of that disagreeable and beastly diet. On the contrary, I have no doubt, when time shall be given to read this history to an end, there will be very few, if they have candour enough to own it, that will not be ashamed of ever having doubted." Bruce, trusting to the justness of this appeal, gave more credit to his readers than they deserved, for they all broke down under the weight of this unusual fact; and all ranks of people, from Dr. Johnson the moralist down to Peter Pindar and the author of Baron Munchausen, disbelieved and ridiculed Bruce's statement, which, indeed, generally speaking, is not credited even at the present day. That to eat raw beef, cut out of a living cow, is not an English custom, is most true; but it is equally true that there is nothing in this statement which an acquaintance with human nature, as developed in various well-known parts of the world, does not strongly and fully corroborate. Its improbability can only be maintained by two arguments; first, the nauseousness of the food; and, secondly, the cruelty of the means of obtaining it. With respect to raw beef being nauseous, it may, in the first place, be observed, that "de gustibus non est disputandum,"[26] and, consequently, we can only say it would be nauseous _to us_. In fact, even Salt, who was by no means an unprejudiced man, after having eaten raw beef in Abyssinia, says, "I am satisfied it is merely prejudice which deters us from this food." But, admitting it to be nauseous, that forms no proof that it is not likely to be the food of man, for it is well known that there are few animals that feed more grossly than he sometimes does. Captain Parry, for instance, thus describes the appetites of the human beings it became his fortune to visit: "It is impossible to describe the horribly disgusting manner in which they sat down, as soon as they felt hungry, to eat their raw blubber, and to suck the oil remaining on the skins we had just emptied. I found that Pootooalook had been successful in bringing in a seal, over which two elderly women were standing, armed with large knives, their hands and faces besmeared with blood, and delight and exultation depicted on their countenances. All the loose scraps were put into the pot for immediate use, except such as the two butchers now and then crammed into their mouths, or distributed to the numerous and eager by-standers for still more immediate consumption. Of these morsels the children came in for no small share, every little urchin that could find its way to the slaughter-house running eagerly in, and between the legs of the men and women presenting its mouth for a large lump of raw flesh, just as an English child of the same age might do for a piece of sugar-candy."... "As soon as this dirty operation was at an end, during which the numerous by-standers amused themselves in chewing the intestines of the seal," ... "they dropped their canoes astern to the whale's tail, from which they cut off enormous lumps of flesh, and ravenously devoured it."[27] A hundred other examples might be given of the nauseous food upon which men in different countries have been found to subsist; but the above extracts are sufficient to refute the first argument against Bruce's statement, while they also afford a very remarkable exemplification of the effect which the criticism of the day may have on the credulity or incredulity of the public: for it is surely more difficult to believe that human beings should eat raw fish-blubber than that they should eat raw beef, the former being so much more nauseous than the latter; and yet the first statement has never for a moment been doubted, while the other is scarcely yet credited; the fact being that the ruling critics of Bruce's time were opposed to his African discoveries, whereas those of the present day have eagerly supported the Northern discoveries, and whatever relates to them. Parry and Bruce, therefore, although equally honourable men, and equally anxious to contribute to our knowledge of the earth, met with very different fates. The one was justly rewarded, the other most unjustly neglected and condemned. In reply to the second argument against Bruce's account, namely, its cruelty, we may refer, first of all, to the slave-trade, which exists over such a vast portion of the globe, and which indisputably proves that man is cruel even to his fellow-creatures, and, consequently, that it is only to be expected he should be cruel to the beasts of the field; and that it is so, is sufficiently shown by the bullfights of Spain, where animals are subjected to the most horrid torture, merely for the amusement of men, women, and children. In one of Johnson's beautiful allegories, an old eagle is represented as exhorting her brood, whenever they see men assembling together, and fire flashing along the ground, to hurry to the spot, because "the food of eagles is at hand." One of the eaglets, exclaiming against the cruelty of men thus fighting against each other, observes, "I could never kill what I could not eat." But man is less merciful than the young eagle; he will both torture and kill animals merely for amusement; why not suppose him capable, then, of inflicting pain on an animal, by taking a portion of its flesh, when alive, to satisfy his hunger? Having made these general remarks, we now offer the testimony of different individuals to substantiate the truth of Bruce's account. It is well known that the celebrated traveller, Dr. Clarke, publicly examined at Cairo an Abyssinian dean respecting such of Bruce's statements as were at that time disbelieved. Dr. Clarke says, vol. iii., p. 61, "Our next inquiry related to the long-disputed fact of a practice among the Abyssinians of cutting from a live animal slices of its flesh as an article of food, without putting it to death. This Bruce affirms that he witnessed in his journey from Masuah to Axum. The Abyssinian, answering, informed us that the soldiers of the country, during their marauding incursions, sometimes maim cows after this manner, taking slices from their bodies, as a favourite article of food, without putting them to death at the time; and that, during the banquets of the Abyssinians, raw meat, esteemed delicious through the country, is frequently taken from an ox or a cow in such a state that the fibres are in motion, and that the attendants continue to cut slices till the animal dies. This answer exactly corresponds with Bruce's narrative: he expressly states that the persons whom he saw were soldiers, and the animal a cow." "Jerome Lobo, who visited Abyssinia a hundred and fifty years before Bruce, page 51, says, 'When they feast a friend, they kill an ox, and set immediately a quarter of him raw upon the table.' Raw beef is their nicest dish, and is eaten by them with the same appetite and pleasure that we eat the best partridges." Captain Rudland, of the royal navy, who accompanied Salt, says: "The skin was only partly taken off, and a favourite slice of the flesh was brought immediately to table, the muscles of which continued to quiver till the whole was devoured." Salt himself, in the journal which, in 1810, he writes for Pearce, the English sailor, says, page 295, "A soldier attached to the party proposed cutting out the _shulade_ from one of the cows they were driving before them, to satisfy the cravings of their hunger. This term Mr. Pearce did not at first understand, but he was not long left in doubt upon the subject; for the others having assented, they laid hold of the animal by the horns, threw it down, and proceeded, without farther ceremony, to the operation. This consisted of cutting out two pieces of flesh from the haunch, near the tail, which together, Mr. Pearce supposed, might weigh about a pound. As soon as they had taken these away, they sewed up the wounds, plastered them over with cow-dung, and drove the animal forward, while they divided among their party the still reeking steaks." (It is very singular that, in 1810, Salt could write these words without offering any apology for having, in his travels with Lord Valentia in 1805, deliberately stated that "his (Bruce's) account of the flesh cut out of living animals was repeatedly inquired into by our party; _and all to whom we spoke denied its ever being done_.") Mr. Coffin, Lord Valentia's valet, who was left by him in Abyssinia, and who is now in England, has declared to us that he has not only seen the operation which Bruce described performed, but that he has even performed it himself; and that he did so at Cairo, in presence of an English nobleman of high character, whose name he referred to.[28] Denham, in his Travels in Central Africa, vol. ii., page 36, says: "The best information I had ever procured of the road eastward was from an old hadgi, named El Rashid, a native of the city of Medina; he had been at Waday and at Sennaar at different periods of his life, and, among other things, described to me a people east of Waday, whose greatest luxury was feeding on raw meat cut from the animal while warm." "Now do not be surprised," writes Sir Stamford Raffles to the Duchess of Somerset, "at what I shall tell you regarding the Battas, for I tell the truth, and nothing but the truth." "The evidence adduced by Mr. Marsden must have removed all doubt from every unprejudiced mind, that, notwithstanding all this in their favour, the Battas are strictly cannibals; but he has not gone half far enough. He tells us that, not satisfied with cutting off pieces and eating them raw, instances have been known where some of the people present have run up to the victim, and actually torn the flesh from the bones with their teeth." This disgusting subject is now concluded. That it will have shocked the sensibility of the reader is but too certain; but it is equally true that the vindication we have offered is only common justice to Bruce's memory; and that the English public, who have been so cruelly regardless of Bruce's feelings, have no right to complain of those facts which, before the world, repel the charges that have been unjustly brought against the character of an honest man. On the 21st, Bruce and his party reached the plain of Lelech-lecha, which Poncet compares "to the most beautiful part of Provence." Fine trees of all sizes were everywhere interspersed, and small black grapes and honeysuckles hung in festoons from tree to tree, as if they had been artificially twined, and were intended for arbours. While Bruce was loitering in this cheerful spot, he heard his servants cry Robbers! robbers! His party had been taken for Mohammedans, and the inhabitants had therefore resolved to attack them; however, Bruce made himself known, and, after being slightly bruised by a pumpkin which was thrown at him, succeeded in restoring peace. Proceeding on his journey, he arrived, late at night on the 22d, at Siré, the largest town in the province of that name; but, although Siré is situated in one of the finest countries in the world, yet putrid fevers of the worst description continually rage there; and as the inhabitants were not very civil to Bruce, he felt no inclination to expose himself to the infection for their sakes. He therefore at once left both them and their fever behind him. Bruce now learned that on the 10th Ras Michael had come up, at Fagitta, with the rebel Fasil (a man of low birth, who had been made governor of Damot and of the Agows), and had entirely dispersed his army, after killing ten thousand of his men. Bruce continued his course for some days until he came to the principal ford of the Tacazzé, a river about two hundred yards broad and about three feet deep, which forms the boundary of the province of Siré. In the middle of this stream he met a deserter from Ras Michael's army, with a firelock on his shoulder, driving before him two unhappy girls, about ten years old, stark naked, and apparently almost starved to death--his horrid share in the plunder of Maitsha. "He had not," says Bruce, "in my eyes, the air of a conqueror, but rather of a coward, that had sneaked away and stolen these two miserable wretches he had with him." The banks of the Tacazzé were covered to the water's edge with tamarisks. "Beautiful and pleasant, however, as the river is," says Bruce, "like everything created, it has its disadvantages. From the falling of the first rains in March till November, it is death to sleep in the country adjoining to it, both within and without its banks; the whole inhabitants retire and live in villages on the tops of the neighbouring mountains; and these are all robbers and assassins, who descend from their habitations on the heights to lie in wait for and plunder the travellers that pass. Notwithstanding great pains have been taken by Michael, his son, and grandson, governors of Tigré and Siré, this passage had never been so far cleared but that every month people are cut off. "The plenty of fish in this river occasions more than an ordinary number of crocodiles to resort hither. When the river swells, so as to be passable only by people upon rafts or skins blown up with wind, they are frequently carried off by these voracious and vigilant animals. There are also many hippopotami, which in this country are called gomari. I never saw any of these in the Tacazzé; but at night we heard them snort or groan in many parts of the river near us. There are also vast multitudes of lions and hyænas in all these thickets. We were very much disturbed by them all night. The smell of our mules and horses had drawn them in numbers about our tent; but they did us no farther harm, except obliging us to watch." After travelling for several days through ruined villages, the monuments of Ras Michael's cruelty, they reached the river of Mai Lumi. "The hyænas this night devoured one of the best of our mules. They are here in great plenty, and so are lions; the roaring and grumbling of the latter in the part of the wood nearest our tent greatly disturbed our beasts, and prevented them from eating their provender. I lengthened the strings of my tent, and placed the beasts between them. The white ropes and the tremulous motion made by the impression of the wind frightened the lions from coming near us. I had procured from Janni two small brass bells, such as the mules carry. I had tied these to the storm-strings of the tent, where their noise, no doubt, greatly contributed to our beasts' safety from these ravenous yet cautious animals, so that we never saw them; but the noise they made, and perhaps their smell, so terrified the mules, that in the morning they were drenched in sweat, as if they had been a long journey. "The brutish hyæna was not so to be deterred. I shot one of them dead on the night of the 31st of January, and on the 2d of February I fired at another, so near that I was confident of killing him. Whether the balls had fallen out, or that I had really missed him with the first barrel, I know not, but he gave a snarl and a kind of bark upon the first shot, advancing upon me as if unhurt. The second shot, however, took effect, and laid him without motion on the ground. Yasine and his men killed another with a pike; and such was their determined coolness, that they stalked round about us with the familiarity of a dog, or any other domestic animal brought up with man." But they were still more incommoded by a smaller enemy, a black ant about an inch long, which demolished the carpets, cutting them into shreds, also part of the lining of the tent, and every bag or sack they could find. Their bite causes considerable inflammation, and the pain is greater than that which arises from the bite of a scorpion: they are called _gundan_. On the 1st of February the shum of the place sent his people to value Brace's merchandise, that he might pay custom. "I humoured them," says Bruce, "so far as to open the cases where were the telescopes and quadrant, or, indeed, rather showed them open, as they were not shut, from the observation I had been making. They could only wonder at things they had never before seen. "On the 2d of February the shum came himself, and a violent altercation ensued. He insisted upon Michael's defeat. I told him the contrary news were true, and begged him to beware lest it should be told to the ras upon his return that he had propagated such a falsehood. I told him also that we had advice that the ras's servants were now waiting for us at Lamalmon, and insisted upon his suffering us to depart." "He said that I was mad, and held a consultation with his people for about half an hour, after which he came in again, seemingly quite another man, and said he would despatch us on the morrow, which was the 3d, and would send us that evening some provisions. And, indeed, we now began to be in need, having only flour barely sufficient to make bread for one meal next day. The miserable village on the cliff had nothing to barter with us; and none from the five villages about the shum had come near us, probably by his order. As he had softened his tone, so did I mine. I gave him a small present, and he went away repeating his promises. But all that evening passed without provision, and all next day without his coming, so we got everything ready for our departure. Our supper did not prevent our sleeping, as all our provisions was gone, and we had tasted nothing all that day since our breakfast." The country of the Shangalla lies forty miles to the northwest. All this district from the Tacazzé is called Salent in the language of Tigré, and Talent in Amharic. On the 4th of February, at half past nine in the morning, they left Addergey; "hunger pressing upon us," says Bruce, "we were prepared to do it earlier, and for this we had been up since five in the morning; but our loss of a mule obliged us, when we packed up our tent, to arrange our baggage differently. While employed in making ready for our departure, which was just at the dawn of day, a hyæna, unseen by any of us, fastened upon one of Yasine's asses, and had almost pulled his tail away. I was busied at gathering the tent-pins into a sack, and had placed my musket and bayonet ready against a tree, as it is at that hour and the close of the evening you are always to be on guard against banditti. A boy, who was servant to Yasine, saw the hyæna first, and flew to my musket. Yasine was disjoining the poles of the tent, and, having one half of the largest in his hand, he ran to the assistance of his ass, and in that moment the musket went off, luckily charged with only one ball, which gave Yasine a flesh wound between the thumb and fore-finger of his left hand. The boy instantly threw down the musket, which had terrified the hyæna, and made him let go the ass; but he stood ready to fight Yasine, who, not amusing himself with a choice of weapons, gave him so rude a blow with the tent-pole upon his head, that it felled him to the ground; others, with pikes, put an end to his life. "We were then obliged to turn our cares towards the wounded. Yasine's wound was soon seen to be a trifle; besides, he was a man not easily alarmed on such occasions. But the poor ass was not so easily comforted. The stump remained, the tail hanging by a piece of it, which we were obliged to cut off. The next operation was actual cautery; but, as we had made no bread for breakfast, our fire had been early out. We therefore were obliged to tie the stump round with whip-cord till we could get fire enough to heat an iron. "What sufficiently marked the voracity of these beasts, the hyænas, was, that the bodies of their dead companions, which we hauled a long way from us, and left there, were almost entirely eaten by the survivers the next morning; and I then observed, for the first time, that the hyæna of this country was a different species from those I had seen in Europe, which had been brought from Asia or America." Bruce did not leave Addergey till near ten o'clock in the morning of the 4th of February. On reaching the river he saw the shum coming from the right, with nine horsemen and fourteen or fifteen beggarly footmen. The shum, preceded by a well-dressed young man carrying his gun, had only a whip in his own hand; the rest had lances, but none of the horsemen had shields. Bruce and his party had no doubt that these people were coming against him, and that there were others ahead ready to join them, for it was clear that nine horses would not venture to do anything. "Our people," says Bruce, "were now all on foot, and the Moors drove the beasts before them. I got immediately upon horseback, when they were then about five hundred yards below, or scarcely so much. As soon as they observed us drive our beasts into the river, one of their horsemen came galloping up, while the others continued at a smart walk. When the horseman was within twenty yards' distance of me, I called upon him to stop, and, as he valued his life, not to approach nearer. On this he made no difficulty to obey, but seemed rather inclined to turn back. As I saw the baggage all laid on the ground, at the foot of a small round hill, upon the gentle ascent of which my servants all stood armed, I turned about my horse, and with Yasine, who was by my side, began to cross the river. The horseman upon this again advanced; again I cried to him to stop. He then pointed behind him and said, 'The Shum!' I desired him peremptorily to stop, or I would fire upon which he turned round, and the others joining him, they held a minute's counsel together, and came all forward to the river, where they paused a moment, as if counting our number, and then began to enter the stream. Yasine now cried to them in Amharic, as I had done before in Tigré, desiring them, as they valued their lives, to come no nearer. They stopped, a sign of no great resolution; and, after some altercation, it was agreed that the shum, and his son with the gun, should pass the river. "The shum complained violently that we had left Addergey without his leave, and now we were attacking him in his own government upon the high road. 'A pretty situation,' said I, 'was ours at Addergey, where the shum left the king's stranger no other alternative but dying with hunger or being eaten by the hyæna. Now, pray, shum, tell me what is your business with me; and why have you followed me beyond your government, which is bounded by that river?' He said 'that I had stolen away privately without paying custom.' 'I am no merchant,' replied I; 'I am the king's guest, and pay no custom; but, as far as a piece of red Surat cloth will content you, I will give it you, and we shall part friends.' "I now gave orders to my people to load the mules. At hearing this, the shum made a signal for his company to cross; but Yasine, who was opposite to them, again ordered them to stop. 'Shum,' said I, 'you intend to follow us, apparently with a design to do us some harm. There is a piece of ordnance,' continued I, showing him a large blunderbuss, 'a cannon that will sweep fifty such fellows as you to eternity in a moment.' "The conversation lasted about five minutes; and our baggage was now on the way, when the shum said he would make a proposal: since I had no merchandise, and was going to Ras Michael, he would accept of the red cloth, provided we swore to make no complaint of him at Gondar, nor speak of what had happened at Debra Toon; while he likewise would swear, after having joined his servants, that he would not again pass that river. Peace was concluded upon these terms. I gave him a piece of red Surat cotton cloth, and added some cohol, incense, and beads for his wives." The mountain-range of Hauza was about eight miles distant, and had a very romantic appearance. At one o'clock Bruce alighted about half way between the mountain called Debra Toon and the village of that name. Still farther to the northwest is a desert, hilly district, called Adebarea, the country of the slaves, as being in the neighbourhood of the Shangalla--the whole waste and uninhabited. The mountains of Waldubba, resembling those of Adebarea, were about four or five miles northward of Waldubba, which signifies the valley of the monks, who, for the sake of penance and mortification, had retired to this unwholesome, hot, and dangerous country. It is also a retreat for great men in disgrace or in disgust. They shave their hair, put on a cowl like the monks, renounce the world, and take vows of solitude and celibacy; but, in process of time, these holy chrysalises return like butterflies to the world, leaving their outward skin, the cowl and sackcloth, in Waldubba. These monks are held in great veneration. Many believe that they have gifts of prophecy and of working miracles, and they are very active instruments in stirring up the people in times of trouble. Violent fevers perpetually reign there. The inhabitants are of the colour of a corpse; and their neighbours the Shangalla, by constant inroads, destroy many of them, though lately they have been stopped, as they say, by the prayers of the monks, or, rather, by the smallpox, which has greatly reduced their strength and number, and exterminated to a man whole tribes of them. The Abyssinians, like all secluded and illiterate people, are highly superstitious. Jerome Lobo says that the whole country so swarms with churches, "that you can hardly sing in one without being heard in another;" and Alvarez states that sub-deaconship and inferior orders in the church are conferred even on infants at the breast. There is scarcely a monk in the hot, unwholesome monastery of Waldubba, a hermit who passes his life shivering on the bleak, solitary mountains, or a priest who has lived sequestered from society, who does not pretend that he is enabled to see and foretel what is to happen in future, from his perfect ignorance of the present and the past. All women who choose to renounce the society of men are allowed to assume the priestly character: they then wear a scullcap like men; and these priests, male and female, all pretend to possess charms, of a nature both offensive and defensive, the efficacy of which is almost universally believed in. Even the hyænas, which every night flock around Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, attracted by the smell of carrion, are considered to be the human inhabitants of the neighbouring mountains, transformed by enchantment. The Abyssinians, almost to a man, are afraid of darkness, during which period they conceive that the world belongs to small vindictive genii. In the Synaxar, or history of their saints, one is said to have thrown the Evil One over a high mountain; and another to have had a holy longing for partridges, upon which a brace perched on his plate ready roasted! Salniel, the chief of their rebel angels, is supposed to be in stature "100,700 cubits, angelic measure;" his eyebrows are said to be three days' journey asunder; and it takes him just a week to turn his eyes! "All the Abyssinians," writes Pearce, the English sailor, after he had given up Mohammedanism, "have a father or confessor, and I myself am obliged to have, or pretend to have, one of these holy fathers, else it would not be allowed that I was a Christian, and perhaps create many enemies that would disturb my dwelling. It is a very unprofitable thing to fall out with these priests, as everything is in their hands; the whole country of Abyssinia is overrun with them. The very smallest church, that is not larger than a small sheep-pen that would not hold more than fifty sheep, built with mud and stone, and thatched over with canes and dry grass, has from fifteen to twenty of these impostors, who devour all the fruits of the poor labouring country people. The larger churches have from fifty to one hundred: Axum, Larlabeller (Lallabella), have some thousands. Waldubba is the most famous for them: where the wretches pretend that, being holy men, they ride upon lions which God has provided for them." In mentioning the superstitions of Abyssinia, it may here be observed, that there are various kinds of complaints in that country which are supposed to be caused by the Evil One. One of Pearce's wives was afflicted with a disorder of this kind, in describing which, Pearce, in his letter to the Bombay Literary Society, honestly acknowledges that he himself "thinks the devil _must_ have some hand in it;" and most certainly no earthly physician ever met with such a patient as Mrs. Pearce. "After the first five or six days," says the husband, "she began to be continually hungry, and would eat five or six times in the night--never sleep; and she, like all others troubled with this complaint, called a man 'she' and a woman 'he.'" Indeed, the poor creature was so severely afflicted with her unaccountable disorder, that, in the presence of her friends, she even addressed in the wrong gender Mr. Pearce, calling him "she," or, more probably, "it;" "for," says Pearce, "it vexed me so much that I declared she should not stop in the house." The remedy for this disorder is about as mysterious as its symptoms. The woman has an unaccountable inclination to run. "The fastest running young man," says Pearce, "that can be found is employed by her friends to run after her, with a matchlock well loaded, so as to make a good report: the moment she starts, he starts with her; but, before she has run the distance, where she drops as if she were dead, he is left half way behind. As soon as he comes up to her, he fires right over her body, and asks her name, which she then pronounces, although during the time of her complaint she denies her Christian name, and detests all priests and churches. Her friends afterward take her to the church, where she is washed with holy water, and is then cured." It is some comfort, however, to learn that the disorders of Abyssinia are not all of this unearthly, incomprehensible description. "The itch," says Pearce, "is common, from the king to the very lowest subject." Since passing the Tacazzé, Bruce and his party had been in a country wild by nature, and still wilder from having been the theatre of civil war. The whole was a wilderness without inhabitants. They at last reached a plain covered with flowering shrubs, roses, jasmines, &c., and animated by a number of people passing to and fro. Several of these were monks and nuns from Waldubba, two and two together. The women, who were both young and stout, were carrying large burdens of provisions on their shoulders, which showed that they did not entirely subsist upon the herbs of Waldubba. The monks had sallow faces, yellow cowls, and yellow gowns. After travelling some days Bruce reached Lamalmon, one of the bers or passes at which the customs and other duties are levied with great rigour and violence. An old man and his son had the right of levying these contributions: the former professed a violent hatred to all Mohammedans, a sentiment which seemed to promise nothing favourable to Yasine and his companions; but in the evening, the son, who appeared to be the active man, came to Bruce's tent, and brought a quantity of bread and bouza. He seemed to be much taken with the firearms, and was very inquisitive about them. "I gave him," says Bruce, "every sort of satisfaction, and, little by little, saw I might win his heart entirely, which I very much wished to do, that I might free our companions from bondage. "The young man, it seems, was a good soldier; and, having been in several actions under Ras Michael as a fusileer, he brought his gun, and insisted on shooting at marks. I humoured him in this; but, as I used a rifle, which he did not understand, he found himself overmatched, especially by the greatness of the range, for he shot straight enough. I then showed him the manner we shot flying, there being quails in abundance, and wild pigeons, of which I killed several on the wing, which left him in the utmost astonishment. Having got on horseback, I next went through the exercise of the Arabs with a long spear and a short javelin. This was more within his comprehension, as he had seen something like it; but he was wonderfully taken with the fierce and fiery appearance of my horse, and, at the same time, with his docility, the form of his saddle, bridle, and accoutrements. He threw at last the sandals off his feet, twisted his upper garment into his girdle, and set off at so furious a rate that I could not help doubting whether he was in his sober understanding. "It was not long till he came back, and with him a man-servant carrying a sheep and a goat, and a woman carrying a jar of honey-wine. I had not quitted the horse; and, when I saw what his intention was, I put Mirza to a gallop, and, with one of the barrels of the gun, shot a pigeon (a common feat among the Arabs), and immediately fired the other into the ground. There was nothing after this that could have surprised him, and it was repeated several times at his desire; after which he went into the tent, where he invited himself to my house at Gondar. There I was to teach him everything he had seen. We now swore perpetual friendship; and a horn or two of hydromel being emptied, I introduced the case of our fellow-travellers, and obtained a promise that we should have leave to set out together. He would, moreover, take no _awide_, and said he would be favourable in his report to Gondar. "Our friend likewise sent his own servant to Gondar with the billet to accompany the caravan. But the news brought by his servant was still better than all this. Ras Michael had actually beaten Fasil, and forced him to retire to the other side of the Nile, and was then at Maitsha, where it was thought he would remain with the army all the rainy season. This was just what I could have wished, as it brought me at once to the neighbourhood of the sources of the Nile, without the smallest shadow of fear or danger." Although Bruce speaks thus lightly and fearlessly of his difficulties, yet to the unprejudiced reader it must be evident how impossible it would have been for him to surmount them, without that general knowledge of mankind, and those various and unusual accomplishments which, for many years previous to commencing his undertaking, he had steadily, strenuously, and painfully exerted himself to acquire. As we accompany him on his toilsome, rugged course, we cannot but observe his intimate acquaintance with the passions and prejudices of the African character; and although he has been cruelly ridiculed for his occasional frivolity of conduct, contrasted with an abrupt dignity of demeanour, it is but too evident that it was with an aching heart that he assumed this front of haughtiness as his only weapon of defence. In a climate which produces but two characters, he was forced to be either the tyrant or the slave, and was obliged to govern that he might not serve. Yet with what tact and judgment has he already, in many instances, "changed his hand and checked his pride" the moment he found it was impolitic to persevere: though we see him at all times resolutely proceeding towards his goal, yet he is not unfrequently observed to retreat from positions which he had previously declared he would maintain, and to pay duties and make presents which he had for a while obstinately refused. But, besides his acquaintance with manners and languages, it is curious to observe how, to meet various difficulties, he draws upon his checkered fund of general information. Sometimes he is a physician, pretending to greater knowledge than he actually possesses; at other times he is seen protesting a total ignorance of the art. We have seen with what success he brought forward his knowledge of astrology at Cairo, and we have now just left him "winning the heart" of a young man by "putting Mirza to a gallop, and with one of the barrels of his gun shooting a pigeon in the air!" In the harsh judgment of those who gravely make it a rule to disapprove of, and even to ridicule, every thought or action which quiet English domestic life has not stamped as regular and customary, Bruce must be still considered as a mountebank and a juggler, sometimes living by his head, sometimes hanging by his heels; but those who liberally take into consideration the unusual difficulties which opposed his solitary progress, will see, in the many lines and features of his conduct, the noble picture of a brave man successfully struggling with adversity. On the 9th of February, at seven o'clock, Bruce and his party took leave of the friends whom they had so newly acquired at Lamalmon, all equally joyful and happy at the news. They began to ascend what still remained of the mountain; till, after much labour, they reached the lofty summit of Lamalmon, which is highly cultivated, and is inhabited by the most civilized people in Abyssinia. After travelling over this extensive and valuable country for some days, and having suffered, with infinite patience and perseverance, the hardships and dangers of this long journey, Bruce, on the 14th of February (ninety-five days having elapsed since he left Masuah), enjoyed the proud and indescribable delight of seeing before him, and within ten miles' distance, Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia. FOOTNOTES: [26] _About differences of taste there can be no dispute._ [27] See Polar Seas and Regions, p. 236, Harpers' Family Library. [28] We had a long conversation with Mr. Coffin on this subject. It ended by our offering him a luncheon, which he ate with great avidity, of _raw beefsteaks_. CHAPTER XI. Bruce resides at Gondar, and gradually raises himself to distinction. Gondar, the metropolis of Abyssinia, is situated upon the flat summit of a hill of considerable height, and was peopled, in the time of Bruce, by about ten thousand families. The houses are chiefly of clay, with conical roofs, the usual mode of construction within the region of the tropical rains. At the west end of the town stands the king's house, a square building flanked by towers. It was formerly four stories high, and had a magnificent view of the country southward to the great lake Tzana. A part of this palace had been burned, but the lower floors remained entire, the principal audience-chamber being more than a hundred and twenty feet in length. The palace, as well as the buildings which belonged to it, were surrounded by a stone wall thirty feet high, and broad enough for a parapet and path. The four sides of this wall were about a mile and a half in length. On the opposite side of the river Angrab stood a large town of Mohammedans, which contained about one thousand houses; and at the north of Gondar was situated Koscam, the palace of the iteghe, or queen-mother. Bruce was much surprised, on arriving at the river Angrab, that no person had come to him from Petros, Janni's brother; but Petros, frightened by the priests, who told him that a Frank was on his way to Gondar, had fled to the ras to receive his directions on the subject. There was, therefore, no one to whom Bruce could address himself; for, though he had letters both for the king and for Ras Michael, they, as well as the principal Greeks, were absent. Nothing, therefore, remained for him but to present a letter, which he had received from his friend Janni, to Negade Ras Mohammed, who was chief of the Moors at Gondar, and the principal merchant of Abyssinia. However, on inquiring for this person, he learned that he also was with the king and the army. In this dilemma, a Moor intimately acquainted with Negade Ras Mohammed conducted Bruce to a house in the Moorish town, where he promised that he should be screened from the priests until he could procure protection from the government, or from the great people of the country. He was to be supplied with flour, honey, and such food as Moors and Christians may eat together; but, although there was a great abundance of animal food, yet, as it had been killed by Mohammedans, Bruce did not dare to touch it. Ayto Aylo, the queen's chamberlain, was not only the constant patron of the Greeks in Abyssinia, but was privately a great enemy to the priests of his own country; and he had often declared that he would willingly abandon the title and estates which he held in Abyssinia, and go to Jerusalem, to finish the remainder of his days in the Convent of the Holy Sepulchre. Late in the evening of his arrival, Bruce's landlord was alarmed at seeing a number of armed men at his door; and his surprise was still greater at seeing Ayto Aylo, who had probably never before been in the Moorish town, descend from his mule, uncovering his head and shoulders as if he had been approaching a person of distinction. On his entering the house, a contention of civilities ensued. Bruce offered to stand until Aylo was covered, while he refused to sit until Bruce was seated. Their discourse commenced in Arabic, but it was soon carried on in Tigré, the language most used in Gondar. Aylo seemed astonished to hear Bruce speak this language so well; and, turning round to the by-standers, he observed, "Come, come, he'll do! if he can speak, there is no fear of him; he'll make his own way!" Aylo then told Bruce that Welled Hawaryat, the son of Ras Michael, had arrived from the camp ill of a fever, which was supposed to be the smallpox; and Janni having reported that Bruce had saved the lives of many young people at Adowa, the iteghe, or queen-mother, had sent to desire that he would come the next morning to her palace at Koscam. Accordingly, Bruce, dressed in a Moorish costume, and attended by his landlord and Yasine, went early the next day to Ayto Aylo, and thence, with their heads uncovered, the whole party rode in state to Koscam, where they alighted, and were shown into a low room in the palace. Ayto Aylo went by himself to his mistress the queen, with whom he remained more than two hours. On returning to Bruce, he said that Welled Hawaryat had received much benefit from a saint of Waldubba, who had administered some medicine, which consisted of certain characters written with common ink upon a tin plate, and then washed off and given him to drink. Aylo therefore dismissed Bruce, but appointed a meeting with him at his own house in the evening. When Bruce returned home, he found that Petros, Janni's brother, had arrived from the army, and was waiting for him. Alarmed by the priests, who had told him of Bruce's arrival at Gondar, Petros (as has been already stated), in great tribulation, had fled to consult Ras Michael. On approaching his tent, however, he suddenly recognised the stuffed skin of a very intimate friend swinging from a tree and drying in the wind. Terrified and horror-struck at the spectacle, he was scarcely able to communicate to a person who met him the intelligence of Bruce's arrival; and, as soon as he had done this, without seeing the ras, he returned, haunted by the ghost of his friend's skin, to Gondar, in still greater fear than he had left it; and even there continued to be so much alarmed, that Bruce found it necessary to give him some laudanum, and send him to bed. He had scarcely retired, when Ayto Aylo came to Bruce to say that Welled Hawaryat was so very ill, that his mother, Ozoro Esther, the beautiful wife of old Ras Michael, and the iteghe, or queen-mother, desired that Bruce, on the following day, would come to see him, and some others who were also sick. "Look!" said Bruce to Ayto Aylo, "the smallpox is a disease that will have its course; and, during the long time the patient is under it, if people feed them and treat them according to their own ignorant prejudices, my seeing him or advising him is in vain. This morning you said a man had cured him by writing upon a tin plate, and, to try if he was well, they have since crammed him with raw beef. I do not think the letters that he swallowed will do him any harm, neither will they do him any good; but I shall not be surprised if the raw beef kills him, and the sick daughter too, before I see them to-morrow." In the morning Petros was still ill and feverish from fatigue and fright. However, Bruce left him, and, accompanied by Aylo, again proceeded towards Koscam. They were just entering the palace door when they saw a numerous procession of monks and priests, carrying a large cross, also a picture in an old, dirty gilt frame; and they were informed that three great saints from Waldubba, one of whom declared that he had neither eaten nor drank for twenty years, had come to cure Welled Hawaryat by laying upon him a cross and a picture of the Virgin Mary; in consequence of which, Bruce was requested not to meddle with the patient. "I assure you, Ayto Aylo," replied Bruce, "I shall strictly obey you. If they can cure him by a miracle, I am sure it is the easiest kind of cure of any, and will not do his constitution the least harm afterward, which is more than I will promise for medicines in general; but remember what I say to you, it will be a miracle indeed if both the father and daughter are not dead before to-morrow night." After the procession, in great solemnity, had passed, Aylo again went to the iteghe. Bruce was then formally introduced, and, according to the custom of Abyssinia, he immediately prostrated himself on the ground, falling first on his knees, then on the palms of his hands, and lastly touching the earth with his forehead. Aylo then said, "This is our gracious mistress; you may safely say before her whatever is in your heart." "Our first discourse," says Bruce, "was about Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre, Calvary, the City of David, and the Mountain of Olives, with the situations of which she was perfectly well acquainted. She then asked me to tell her truly if I was not a Frank. 'Madam,' said I, 'if I was a Catholic, which you mean by Frank, there could be no greater folly than my concealing this from you in the beginning, after the assurance Ayto Aylo has just now given; and, in confirmation of the truth I am now telling (she had a large Bible lying on the table before her, upon which I laid my hand), I declare to you, by all those truths contained in this book, that my religion is more different from the Catholic than yours is; that there has been more blood shed between the Catholics and us, on account of the difference of religion, than ever was between you and the Catholics in this country: even at this day, when men are become wiser and cooler in many parts of the world, it would be full as safe for a Jesuit to preach in the market-place of Gondar, as for any priest of my religion to present himself as a teacher in the most civilized of Frank or Catholic countries.' 'How is it, then,' says she, 'that you do not believe in miracles?' "'I see, madam,' said I, 'Ayto Aylo has informed you of a few words that some time ago dropped from me. I do certainly believe the miracles of Christ and his apostles, otherwise I am no Christian; but I do not believe these miracles of latter times, wrought upon trifling occasions, like sports and jugglers' tricks.' 'And yet,' says she, 'our books are full of them.' 'I know they are,' said I; 'but I never can believe that a saint converted the devil, who lived, forty years after, a holy life as a monk; nor the story of another saint, who, being sick and hungry, caused a brace of partridges, ready roasted, to fly upon his plate that he might eat them.' 'He has been reading the Synaxar,' says Ayto Aylo. 'I believe so,' says she, smiling; 'but is there any harm in believing too much, and is not there great danger in believing too little?' 'Certainly,' continued I; 'but all I meant to say to Ayto Aylo was, that I did not believe laying a picture upon Welled Hawaryat would recover him when delirious in a fever.' She answered, 'There was nothing impossible with God.' I made a bow of assent, wishing heartily the conversation might end there." Bruce, leaving Aylo with the queen, now returned to the Moors' town. In the afternoon he heard that Welletta Selasse was dead; and at night, Welled Hawaryat died also. The contagion from Masuah and Adowa had spread itself all over Gondar. The daughter of Ozoro Altash was now sick, and a violent fever had fallen upon Koscam. The next morning Aylo came to Bruce, and told him that all faith in the saint, who had not eaten or drank for twenty years, was abandoned since Welled Hawaryat's death; and that it was the desire of the queen and Ozoro Esther that he should remove to Koscam, to the iteghe's palace, where all their children and grandchildren would be placed under his care. One cannot help here remarking the favourable effect produced by the strong manly sense which seems on this and every other occasion to have regulated Bruce's conduct. His sound religious sentiments he does not fear to avow; though a stranger in the land, he firmly declares to the iteghe that he has no faith in the miraculous remedy proposed for Welled Hawaryat; and yet, a short time before, we see him prostrating himself at the feet of the very person whose opinions he now opposed; for Bruce's mind rightly appreciated those distinctions which to so many are imperceptible. He had no paltry objections to conform to the ceremonial customs of Abyssinia, absurd as they might be; no foolish pride to present himself before the iteghe with a salutation which she could not comprehend, by offering an English bow, when an African obeisance, such as she had been accustomed to, was required: obstinacy on this point would have at once ruined all his hopes. Had he, again, through fear or any other weakness, concealed his religious opinions, or hesitated to avow his incredulity in the remedy administered to Welled Hawaryat, not only would he have been guilty of duplicity, but would have lost the favourable occasion now presented for raising himself in the opinion of the iteghe. It was Bruce's good sense as well as his unconquerable resolution--his head as well as his heart, which enabled him to penetrate the regions of Abyssinia. Bruce at first declined attending the iteghe, as Petros had desired him to stay in the Moors' town till the ras should arrive; but Aylo again came to him to say that he must come immediately. "I told him," says Bruce, "that new and clean clothes in the Gondar fashion had been procured for me by Petros, and that I wished they might be sent to his house, where I would put them on, and then go to Koscam, with a certainty that I carried no infection with me; for I had attended a number of Moorish children while at Hagi Saleh's house, most of whom, happily, were doing well, but that there was no doubt there would be infection in my clothes. He praised me up to the skies for this precaution, and the whole was executed in the manner proposed. My hair was cut round, curled, and perfumed in the Amharic fashion, and I was thenceforward, in all outward appearance, a perfect Abyssinian." Bruce's first advice after he arrived at Koscam was, that the young and beautiful Ozoro Esther, her son by Mariam Barea, and a son by Ras Michael, should remove from the palace, in order to give the part of the family that were yet well a chance of escaping the infection. Her young son by Mariam Barea, however, complaining, the iteghe would not suffer him to be removed, and they resolved to abide the issue all in the palace together. Before entering upon his charge, Bruce desired Petros, who had now recovered from his fright, Aylo, and several others, to assemble together. He then frankly stated to them the difficulty of the task imposed on him, a stranger, without acquaintance, protection, power, or control. He declared his intention of doing his utmost, but insisted that one condition should be granted him, namely, that no directions as to regimen and management, even of the most trifling kind, should be given without his permission and superintendence. They all assented to this; and a priest who was present not only pronounced those excommunicate who should break this promise, but offered to Bruce the assistance of his prayers and those of the monks, morning and evening: Aylo whispered in his ear, "You need have no objection to this saint; I assure you he eats and drinks very heartily, as I shall show you when once these troubles are over." Bruce now set to work. He opened all the doors and windows, washed them with warm water and vinegar, and adhered strictly to the rules which his worthy and skilful friend, Dr. Russell, had given him at Aleppo. A treatment of the disorder so different from the suffocating system which had hitherto been adopted in Abyssinia, had very successful results; and Bruce mentions a number of cures which he effected, among which was that of the infant child of Ras Michael, adding, "I tell these actions to satisfy the reader about the reason of the remarkable attention and favour showed to me afterward, upon so short an acquaintance." The fear and anxiety of Ozoro Esther, whose son, a most promising boy, was infected, were excessive; many promises of Michael's favour, of riches, greatness, and protection, followed every instance of Bruce's care and attention towards his patient. Confu, the favourite of all the queen's relations, and the hope of their family, had convulsions which every one feared would be fatal. The attention Bruce showed to this young man was increased by a prepossession in his favour, which he had taken up at first sight of him. "Policy," says Bruce, "as well as charity, alike influenced me in the care of my other patients; but an attachment, which Providence seemed to have inspired me with for my own preservation, had the greatest share in my care for Ayto Confu." Bruce's patients being at last all likely to do well, were removed to a large house, which stood, however, within the boundaries of Koscam, while the rooms underwent another cleansing and fumigation, after which the patients returned; and Bruce, for his fee, was presented with a house which had a separate entry, without going through the palace; but, as he had now received most positive orders from Ras Michael not to leave the iteghe's palace until farther orders, he thought it best to obey this mandate to the letter, and not to stir out of Koscam, not even to his landlord's or to Ayto Aylo's, though they both frequently endeavoured to persuade him that the order had not so strict a meaning. This leisure time Bruce employed in mounting his instruments, his barometer, thermometer, telescopes, and quadrant. Of course, all was now wonder, and he lost a good deal of time in satisfying the curiosity of the inmates of the palace. One day, as he was leaving the presence of the queen, in came Abba Salama, who was the first religious officer in the palace. He had a very large revenue and a still greater influence. He was a man of a pleasing countenance, short, and of a very fair complexion, and, being exceedingly eloquent and bold, had been a great favourite of the iteghe, or queen-mother. At first he did not know Bruce, from his change of dress; but, soon recollecting him, he called him back, and, after some words, he asked him, in a pert tone of voice, if he would answer him a question to which it was by no means Bruce's policy to reply, namely, "How many natures are there in Christ?" "I thought," answered Bruce to Salama, who, during the whole period of his residence in Abyssinia, was always his enemy, "the question to be put was something relating to my country, travels, or profession, in which I possibly could instruct Abba Salama; and not belonging to his, in which he should instruct me. I am a physician in the town, a horseman and soldier in the field. Physic is my study in the one, and managing my horse and arms in the other. This I was bred to; as for disputes and matters of religion, they are the province of priests and schoolmen. I profess myself much more ignorant in these than I ought to be; therefore, when I have doubts, I propose them to some holy man like you, Abba Salama (he bowed for the first time), whose profession these things are. He gives me a rule, and I implicitly follow it." "Truth! truth!" says he; "by St. Michael, that is right; it is answered well; by St. George, he is a clever fellow. They told me he was a Jesuit. Will you come to see me? You need not be afraid when you come to _me_." "I trust," said Bruce, bowing, "I shall do no ill; in that case I shall have no reason to fear." Upon this Bruce withdrew. It was on the 8th or 9th of March that Bruce met Ras Michael at Azazo. This man, feared by almost every one in Abyssinia, was dressed in a coarse, dirty cloth, wrapped about him like a blanket, with a sort of table-cloth folded about his head: he was lean, old, had sore eyes, was apparently much fatigued, and sat stooping upon a favourite mule, that carried him speedily without shaking him. As Bruce saw the place where the ras was to alight, which was marked by four cross lances, having a cloth thrown over them like a temporary tent, he did not speak to him; but a Greek priest told the ras who Bruce was, and that he had come on purpose to meet him. The soldiers then made way, and Bruce, advancing, kissed his hand; after which Michael pointed to a place where he was to sit down. "A thousand complaints," says Bruce, "and a thousand orders, came immediately before him from a thousand mouths, and we were nearly smothered; but he took no notice of me, nor did he ask for any of his family." A few minutes after the young king came, passing at some distance: Michael was then led out of his tent to the door, where he was supported standing. As the king passed by he pulled off the towel that was upon his head, and then returned to his seat in the tent. "All the town was in a hurry and confusion; thirty thousand men were encamped upon the Kahha; and the first horrid scene Michael exhibited there was causing the eyes of twelve of the chiefs of the Galla, whom he had taken prisoners, to be pulled out, and the unfortunate sufferers turned out to the fields, to be devoured at night by the hyænas." Two of these poor creatures Bruce took under his care; they both recovered, and from them he learned many particulars of their wild country and rude manners. The next day, which was the 10th, the army marched into the town in triumph, and the ras placed himself at the head of the troops of Tigré. He was bareheaded, with long hair as white as snow; over his shoulders and down his back hung a cloak of black velvet with a silver fringe. A boy at his right stirrup held a silver wand about five feet and a half long. Behind him, all the soldiers who had killed an enemy and taken his spoils had their lances and firelocks ornamented with their horrid trophies, and also with small shreds of scarlet cloth, one piece for every man he had slain. "Remarkable among all this savage multitude was the doorkeeper of the ras. This man, always well-armed and well-mounted, had followed the wars of his master from his infancy, and had been so fortunate in this kind of single combat, that his whole lance and javelin, horse and person, were covered over with the shreds of scarlet cloth. At the last battle of Fagitta, this inhuman being is said to have slain eleven men with his own hand: most of them probably being wretched, weary, naked fugitives, mounted upon tired horses, or else flying on foot." Behind came Gusho, governor of Amhara, and Powussen, lately made governor of Begemder for his behaviour at the battle of Fagitta; and, as a farther reward, the ras had given him his grand-daughter, who, under Bruce's care, had just recovered from the smallpox. "One thing most remarkable in this cavalcade was the headdress of the governors of provinces. A large broad fillet was bound upon their forehead and tied behind their head. In the middle of this was a horn, or a conical piece of silver, gilt, about four inches long, much in the shape of our common candle-extinguishers. It is called _kirn_ or horn, and is only worn in reviews or parades after victory." This is probably taken from the Hebrews, and explains the several allusions which are made to it in Scripture. "And the horn of the righteous shall be exalted." (Psalms, &c., &c.) Next to these governors came the king, with a fillet of white muslin, about three inches broad, binding his forehead, tied with a large double knot behind, and hanging down about two feet on his back. Around him were his officers of state, the young nobility who were without command, and after these the household troops. Then followed the Kanitz Kitzera, or executioner of the camp, and his attendants; and last of all came a man bearing upon a pole the stuffed skin of Petros's unfortunate friend, which he hung before the king's palace upon a branch of the tree appropriated for public executions. The 13th of March arrived without Bruce's having heard from Ozoro Esther or the ras, though removed to a house in Gondar near to Petros. He had every day visited the children at Koscam, and been received with the greatest cordiality by the iteghe, who had given orders for his free admission upon all occasions like an officer of her household. But he had been completely neglected except by the Moors, who were very grateful for his successful treatment of their children. In the evening, however, Negade Ras Mohammed, who was the chief of the Moors at Gondar, came to Bruce's house, and told him that Ayto Aylo had spoken several times to the ras about him; and that it had been agreed between them that Bruce should be appointed palambaras, which he translates "Master of the king's horse:" a very great office both for rank and revenue. "I told Mohammed," says Bruce, "that, far from being any kindness to me, this would make me the most unhappy of all creatures; that my extreme desire was to see the country and its different natural productions; to converse with the people as a stranger, but to be nobody's master or servant; to see their books; and, above all, to visit the sources of the Nile; to live as privately in my own house, and have as much time to myself as possible; and what I was most anxious about at present was to know when it would be convenient to admit me to see the ras, and deliver my letters as a stranger." Mohammed went away and returned, bringing Mohammed Gibberti, who told Bruce that, besides the letter which Metical Aga, his master, had given Bruce for Ras Michael, he had himself been charged with one, out of the ordinary form, dictated by the English at Jidda, who all, particularly Bruce's friends Captain Thornhill and Captain Thomas Price of the Lion, had agreed with Metical Aga, who was devoted to them for his own interest, that his utmost exertions should be employed to induce Ras Michael to provide for Bruce's safety. This letter from Metical Aga informed Michael of the power and riches of the English nation; that they were absolute masters of the trade of the Red Sea, and strictly connected with the Sherriffe of Mecca; that any accident happening to Bruce would be an infamy and disgrace to him, and worse than death itself, because, knowing Michael's power, and relying on his friendship, he had become security for Bruce's safety; that he was a man of consideration in his own country, a servant to the king of it; that his only desire was to examine springs, rivers, trees, flowers, and the stars in the heavens, from which he drew knowledge very useful to preserve man's health and life; that he was no merchant, had no dealings whatever in any sort of traffic, and stood in no need of any man's money, as Mohammed Gibberti was to provide whatever sum he might require. Upon reading this letter Michael exclaimed, "Metical Aga does not know the situation of this country. Safety! where is that to be found? I am obliged to fight for my own life every day. Will Metical call this safety? Who knows, at this moment, if the king is in safety, or how long I shall be so? All I can do is to keep him with me. If I lose my own life and the king's, Metical Aga can never think it was in my power to preserve that of his stranger." "No, no," said Ayto Aylo, who was then present, "but you don't know the man; he is an astonishing fellow on horseback; he rides better and shoots better than any man that ever came into Abyssinia; lose no time; put him about the king, and there is no fear of him." It was agreed, therefore, that the letters the Greeks had received should be read to the king, and that Bruce should be immediately introduced to his majesty and to the ras. The reader will remember that, when Bruce was at Cairo, he obtained letters from the Greek patriarch to the Greeks at Gondar; and particularly one in the form of a bull, addressed to all the Greeks in Abyssinia. In this, after a great deal of pastoral admonition, the patriarch said that, knowing their propensity to lying and vanity, and not being at hand to impose proper penances upon them for these sins, he ordered them in a body to go to the king in the manner and time they might judge best, and inform him that Bruce was not to be confounded with the rest of white men, such as Greeks, who were all subject to the Turks, and slaves; but that he was a free man of a free nation; and that the best among them should deem himself happy in being his servant, as one of their brethren then actually was. This was rather a bitter pill, for the Greeks were high in office, all except Petros, who had declined employment after the murder of King Joas, whose chamberlain he had been. The order of the patriarch, however, was punctually and fully obeyed; Petros was their spokesman, and, although a great coward, on the present occasion he was forward enough. It was about the 14th that these letters were to be all publicly read: five in the evening was the hour appointed, and notice was sent to Koscam. A little before the time Bruce came, and met Ayto Aylo at the door, who squeezed him by the hand and said, "Refuse nothing; it can be all altered afterward; but it is very necessary, on account of the priests and the populace, that you should have a place of some authority, otherwise you will be robbed and murdered the first time you go half a mile from home: fifty people have told me you have chests filled with gold, and that you can make gold, or bring what quantity you please from the Indies; and the reason of all this is, because you refused the queen and Ozoro Esther's offer of gold at Koscam, which you must never do again." On entering, the old ras was sitting upon a sofa, his white hair hanging loose in many short curls. He appeared to be thoughtful, but not displeased; his countenance was highly intelligent, his face thin, his eyes quick and vivid, but still a little sore from exposure to the weather; and he seemed to be about six feet high. Bruce, as was customary, kissed the ground before him; of this he seemed to take little notice, but on his rising he shook hands with him. Bruce was then about to offer his present, when the ras, with an air of natural dignity, thus calmly addressed him: "Yagoube, I think that is your name, hear what I have to say to you, and mark what I recommend to you. You are a man, I am told, who make it your business to wander in solitary places to search for trees and grass, and to sit up all night alone looking at the stars of heaven. Other countries are not like this, though this was never so bad as it is now. These wretches here are enemies to strangers; if they saw you alone in your own parlour, their first thought would be how to murder you; though they knew they were to get nothing by it, they would murder you for mere mischief." ("The devil is strong in them," exclaimed a distant voice, which appeared to be that of a priest.) "Therefore," continued the ras, "after a long conversation with your friend Aylo, I have thought that situation best which, leaving you at liberty to follow your own designs, will put your person in such safety, that you will not be troubled with monks about their religious matters, or in danger from these rascals that may seek to murder you for money." "What are the monks?" muttered the voice from the same corner of the room; "the monks will never meddle with such a man as this." "Therefore the king," continued the ras, without taking any notice of the interruption, "has appointed you Baalomaal, and commander of the Koccob horse. Go, then, to the king, and kiss the ground upon your appointment: I see you have already learned this ceremony of ours; Aylo and Heikel are very proper persons to go with you." After taking leave of the ras, Bruce had a short private interview with the beautiful Ozoro Esther, whose young heart was overflowing with gratitude to the man who had saved her child. He then proceeded towards the king's palace, and met Aylo at the door of the presence-chamber. Tecla Mariam, the king's secretary, walked before them to the foot of the throne, and, after Bruce had advanced and prostrated himself upon the ground, he said, facetiously, "I have brought you a servant from so distant a country, that, if you ever let him escape, we shall never be able to follow him, or know where to seek him." The king was sitting in an alcove; his mouth, according to the custom of Abyssinia, was covered; he evinced no alteration of countenance, and made no reply. The old questions were then put to Bruce about Jerusalem and the holy places: where his country was--(they knew the situation of no country but their own)--why he came so far; whether the moon and the stars were the same in his country as in theirs, &c., &c. To escape from these interrogatories, Bruce had several times offered to take his present from the man who held it, that he might offer it to his majesty and go away; but the king as often made a sign that he should not be in haste. At last, after having kept Bruce standing so long that he was almost fainting from fatigue, the king proposed that, instead of returning with the Greeks, he should remain and perform one of the duties of his employment, which was to take charge of the door of his bedchamber that night. However, Ayto Heikel, taking courage, came forward to the king, pretending to have a message from the queen; and, whispering something in his ear, he laughed and dismissed them all. They accordingly all hurried to supper, in no very good humour at having been so long detained. They brought with them from the palace three of Bruce's brother Baalomaals, and one who had stood to make up the number, though he was not in office: his name was Guebra Mascal; he was a sister's son of the ras, and commanded one third of the troops of Tigré which carried firearms, that is, about two thousand men. He was reputed one of the best officers the ras had; and was about thirty years of age, short, square, and well made, but with a very unpromising countenance. He was also very conceited, and had the most exalted opinion of his skill in the use of firearms, to which he did not scruple to say Ras Michael owed all his victories.[29] During supper, Guebra Mascal, as was his custom, vaunted incessantly about his skill in firearms. Petros said to him, laughing, "Now Yagoube (meaning Bruce) is come, he will teach you something worth talking about." They had all drunk rather freely: Guebra Mascal, full of wine and pride, uttered words in contempt of Bruce, who quickly replied by saying that the end of a tallow candle in his gun would do more execution than an iron ball in Guebra Mascal's! Guebra immediately rose up and gave Bruce a kick with his foot, calling him a Frank and a liar; on which Bruce, blind with passion, seized him by the throat and threw him to the ground. Guebra Mascal drew his knife as he was falling, and gave Bruce a trifling wound on the crown of his head. Bruce wrested the knife from him, and struck him violently on his face; the combatants were then separated. The lifting of a hand in the precincts of the palace is punished in Abyssinia by death; Guebra Mascal therefore fled to the dwelling of Kefla Yasous, his relation, but in a few hours he was in irons at the ras's house. The next morning Bruce proceeded there by the advice of his friends, and, having told his story, he at last succeeded in prevailing on the ras to overlook the occurrence, and to forgive Guebra Mascal: in short, although the king had been made acquainted with it, the whole affair was made up. Bruce attended in his place, and received very great marks of royal favour; but he was so much annoyed at his situation, and the many difficulties which seemed to render hopeless his ultimate, and, indeed, his only object in visiting Abyssinia, that he almost resolved to abandon his place, and ask permission to return by Tigré; "and to this resolution," says Bruce, "I was more inclined by the death of Balugani, a young man who accompanied me through Barbary, and who assisted me in drawings of architecture: a dysentery, which had attacked him in Arabia Felix, put an end to his life at Gondar." From the effects of his despondency, Bruce's health became much impaired: his melancholy, however, was in some degree diverted by a scene of general festivity in Gondar. Ozoro Esther's sister, the iteghe's youngest daughter, and, consequently, the grand-daughter of Michael, was married to Powussen, the governor of Begemder.[30] The king gave her extensive districts of land in that province, and Ras Michael a large portion, consisting of gold, muskets, cattle, and horses. Every one that wished to be well looked upon by either party brought something considerable as a present. The ras, Ozoro Esther, and Ozoro Altash, entertained all Gondar. A vast number of cattle were slaughtered every day, and the whole town was one great market; the common people in every street appearing laden with pieces of raw beef, while drink circulated in the same profusion. The ras insisted upon Bruce's dining with him every day. After dinner they slipped away to parties of ladies, where anarchy prevailed as completely as at the house of the ras. All the married women ate, drank, and smoked like the men; in short, it is impossible to convey, in terms of proper decency, any idea of this bacchanalian scene. Although the king's favour, the protection of the ras, and Bruce's obliging, unassuming behaviour to everybody, had made him as popular as he could wish at Gondar and among the Tigrans, yet it was easy to perceive that that "untoward" occurrence, his quarrel with Guebra Mascal, was not forgotten. "One day," says Bruce, "when I was standing by the king in the palace, he asked, in discourse, 'Whether I too was not drunk in the quarrel with Guebra Mascal before we came to blows?' and upon my saying that I was perfectly sober, he asked, with a degree of keenness, 'Did you, then, soberly say to Guebra Mascal, that an end of a tallow candle in a gun in your hand would do more execution than an iron bullet in his?' 'Certainly, sir,' replied Bruce, 'I did so.' 'And why did you say this?' said the king; 'you will not persuade me that with a tallow candle you can kill a man or a horse?' 'Pardon me, sir,' said Bruce, bowing very respectfully, 'I will attempt to persuade you of nothing but what you please to be convinced of. When will you see this tried?' 'Why now,' says the king; 'there is _nobody here_.' 'The sooner the better,' said Bruce; 'I would not wish to remain for a moment longer under so disagreeable an imputation as that of lying; an infamous one in _my_ country, whatever it may be in this. Let me send for my gun; the king will look out at the window.' "The king appeared to be very anxious, and, I saw plainly, incredulous. The gun was brought; Engedan's shield was produced, which was of a strong buffalo's hide. I said to him, 'This is a weak one; give me one stronger.' He shook his head and said, 'Ah, Yagoube, you will find it strong enough; Engedan's shield is known to be no toy.' Tecla Mariam had also brought such a shield, and the Billetana Gueta Tecla another, both of which were most excellent of their kind. I loaded the gun before them, first with powder, then upon it slid down one half of what we call a farthing candle; and, having beat off the handles of three shields, I put them close in contact with each other, and set them all three against a post. "'Now, Engedan,' said I, 'when you please, say--Fire! but mind, you have taken leave of your good shield for ever.' The word was given, and the gun fired. It struck the three shields, neither in the most difficult nor the easiest part for perforation, something less than half way between the rim and the boss. The candle went through the three shields with such violence that it dashed itself to a thousand pieces against a stone wall behind it. I turned to Engedan, saying very lowly, gravely, and without exultation or triumph, on the contrary, with absolute indifference, 'Did I not tell you your shield was naught?' A great shout of applause followed from about a thousand people that were gathered together. The three shields were carried to the king, who exclaimed in great transport, 'I did not believe it before I saw it, and can scarce believe it now I have seen it.'" Bruce then repeated this common schoolboy's experiment by firing the other half of the candle through a table of sycamore. Some priests who were present, unable to comprehend the matter, declared it was done by "mucktoub" (magic), and so the wonder with them ceased. But it was not so with the king: "it made," says Bruce, "the most favourable and lasting impression upon his mind; nor did I ever after see in his countenance any marks either of doubt or diffidence, but always, on the contrary, the most decisive proofs of friendship, confidence, and attention, and the most implicit belief of everything I advanced upon any subject from my own knowledge." One half of a farthing candle in Bruce's hands thus became a step in that ladder by which he managed, with such admirable ability, to raise himself to notice; and this anecdote, trifling as it may appear, affords a lesson worthy to be remembered by every one who attempts to penetrate a new country. The possibility of this occurrence, however, many of Bruce's enemies have obstinately refused to believe. The experiment of firing a candle through a door is one which has very often been performed; and, even if its practicability had never been shown, it would be evident to any one who reflected on the subject for a moment, that such a result must unavoidably take place. The momentum, or force of a shot, is not separately the effect either of its weight or of its velocity, but the joint product of both. A light or soft body, therefore, propelled with great velocity, may have an effect equal to that of a heavy or hard body propelled with less: air, for instance, rapidly displaced by the passing of a cannon-shot, is known to produce very unexpected results; and all sailors know how heavily water strikes when it falls with any velocity. But, though a deal table and tallow candle must have been at the disposal of the meanest of Bruce's critics, it cost them less, and was, at the same time, more gratifying to them to accuse the traveller of falsehood, than to put his experiment to the proof or to reason on the truth of his statements. Salt himself, however, corroborates the story forty years afterward. "In the course of the same day," he says, "these two Greeks paid me a visit; and I have seldom been acquainted with more venerable or respectable-looking men. The elder was exceedingly infirm, and appeared to be nearly blind; so that it was with some difficulty that he could be brought up, on a mule, into the room in which we were sitting. On being seated, he expressed great anxiety to examine my features, and repeatedly inquired whether I was any relation of Yagoube (Mr. Bruce). "He afterward conversed with me for some time respecting that traveller, and in almost every particular confirmed the account I have already quoted upon the authority of Dofter Esther. He related in addition, that the Emperor Tecla Haimanout never paid much attention to Mr. Bruce till after '_his shooting through_ a table with a candle'--a fact which I had never before heard mentioned in the country--when he became a great favourite, and was called Baalomaal; he added that, on a particular occasion, the emperor took a fancy to Mr. Bruce's watch, and asked him for it; but that that gentleman refused, and said abruptly, 'Is it the custom in this kingdom for a king to beg?' which answer made a great noise throughout the court." Bruce now experienced an instance of kindness in Ayto Confu, the son of Ozoro Esther, which gave him great pleasure. On the west of Abyssinia, adjoining the frontiers of Sennaar, there is a hot, unwholesome strip of low country, inhabited only by Mohammedans, and divided into several small districts, which are known by the general name of Mazuga. Ayto Confu possessed several of these districts; one of which, Ras el Feel, having been always commanded by a Mohammedan, as Bruce says, "had no rank among the great governments of the state." To this command Bruce was now unexpectedly appointed, and was, in consequence, created by the king governor of Ras el Feel, with permission to appoint his Moorish friend Yasine as his deputy. Bruce considered that he would be enabled, by Yasine's friendship, to secure to his interests the Arabs and sheikhs of Atbara; for he had already resolved to return to England by Sennaar, "and," as he says, "never to trust myself again in the hands of that bloody assassin, the Naybe of Masuah." Salt has taken great pains to endeavour to prove that Bruce never was governor of Ras el Feel. He says (forty years after Bruce had quitted the country) that people, several of whom must have been children when Bruce was in Abyssinia, told him they had "_never heard_" that Bruce was governor of Ras el Feel. Bruce, however, never pretended that he acted as governor of this district; he merely says that he was appointed governor, with permission for his friend Yasine to act as his deputy, his sole object being to form an acquaintance with that barbarous country; and considering that, in Abyssinia, appointments are not gazetted, Salt should have felt that Bruce's statement might be perfectly correct, even though the people he met with had "never heard" of it. "I now," says Bruce, "for the first time since my arrival at Abyssinia, abandoned myself to joy;" but his constitution was too much weakened to bear this excitement, and accordingly, the following day, when he went home to Emfras, he was attacked by his old and relentless enemy the Bengazi ague. For some time he was unable to leave the house, and was even confined to his bed: his journal barely mentions this illness, but his handwriting during this period shows very affectingly the weak and exhausted state of his frame. The rebel Fasil had no sooner heard of Ras Michael's return to Gondar than he marched against the Agows. A bloody battle was fought at one of their principal settlements, in which Fasil proved victorious. A council was forthwith held, in which Ras Michael declared that, although the rainy season was at hand, the king's forces should immediately take the field. Gusho and Powussen having sworn to Michael that they would never return without Fasil's head, decamped next morning, but with the secret determination to arrange a conspiracy against the ras. While preparations for the war were making, the iteghe, or queen-mother, seeing the declining state of Bruce's health, endeavoured to dissuade him from the undertaking which was apparently always uppermost in his thoughts. "See! see!" said the royal moralist, "how every day of our life furnishes us with proofs of the perverseness and contradiction of human nature: you are come from Jerusalem, through vile Turkish governments, and hot, unwholesome climates, to see a river and a bog, no part of which you can carry away, were it ever so valuable--of which you have in your own country a thousand larger, better, and cleaner; and you even take it ill when I discourage you from the pursuit of this fancy, in which you are likely to perish, without your friends at home ever hearing when or where the accident happened. While I, on the other hand, the mother of kings, who have sat upon the throne of this country more than thirty years, have for _my_ only wish, night and day, that, after giving up everything in the world, I could be conveyed to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and beg alms for my subsistence all my life after, if I could only be buried at last in the street within sight of the gate of that temple where our blessed Saviour once lay!" It may here be observed, that this feeling still exists very generally and strongly throughout Abyssinia. The greatest happiness which, in the opinion of the Abyssinians, can be found in this life, is to reach Jerusalem. Burning with this desire, great numbers of men and women continually bid adieu to their homes with the view of performing this holy pilgrimage. The fate that awaits them is a sad return for the mistaken goodness and piety of their intentions; for in crossing the Red Sea they are almost always taken prisoners by the Turks, and, far from happiness, Jerusalem, or their own country, they thus end their days in misery and bondage. FOOTNOTES: [29] We are told in Mr. Salt's Journal, in vol. iii. of Lord Valentia's Travels, that Guebra Mascal, this very person, was made Governor of Tigré by Tecla Georgis in 1788, and, though deposed, died much regretted in 1805. [30] Powussen was a powerful chief of the Galla tribes; and the object of Ras Michael in this alliance was to conciliate these formidable barbarians.--_Am. Ed._ CHAPTER XII. Bruce accompanies the King's Army, and returns with it to Gondar. By the queen's permission, Bruce for a short time took up his abode at Emfras, situated on the east side of Tzana, the greatest lake in Abyssinia, being about fifty miles long, thirty-five broad, and containing several islands. On the 13th of May, 1770, the king's army approached the town of Emfras, which in a few hours was completely deserted; for, although Ras Michael was strict, and even just, in time of peace, yet it was known that, the moment he took the field, like the tiger roused from his lair, he became licentious and cruel. The Mohammedan town near the water was plundered in a moment, and some of the straggling troops came even to Bruce's residence to demand meat and drink. He therefore thought it prudent at once to repair to the king, and accordingly, the next morning at daybreak he mounted his horse, and in a few hours reached the tents of his majesty and Ras Michael, which were placed about five hundred yards asunder--no one daring to stand, or even pass between them. Although Bruce's appointment gave him a right of access at all times to the king, he did not choose at that moment to enter the royal presence, but preferred going to the tent of his kind and lovely friend, Ozoro Esther, where he was sure, at least, of getting a good breakfast and meeting with a warm reception. As soon as Ozoro Esther saw Bruce, she exclaimed, "There is Yagoube! there is the man I wanted!" The tent was cleared of all but her women, and she began to tell Bruce of several complaints which she seemed to think would, before the end of the campaign, carry her to her grave. "It was easy to see," says Bruce, "that they were of the slightest kind, though it would not have been agreeable to have told her so, for she loved to be thought ill, to be attended, condoled with, and flattered!" After giving to his interesting patient both advice and prescriptions, the doors of the tent were thrown open, and an abundant breakfast was displayed in wooden platters on the carpet. The Abyssinian gourmands say "that you should plant first and then water," which means that nobody should drink till he has finished eating. Stewed fowls, highly seasoned with Cayenne pepper, roasted Guinea-hens, and the never-failing _brind_ or raw beef, were eaten, therefore, in great quantities; after which wine, a beer called bouza, and hydromel, were drunk in equal proportion. Ozoro Esther, leaning forward from her sofa, kindly reminded her guests that their time was short, and that the drum would soon give the signal for striking the tents. From this scene Bruce escaped to the king, where he learned that Fasil was preparing to repass the Nile into the country of the Galla. The next morning the king marched, and then remained for two days encamped on the banks of the Nile, where the following circumstance occurred. Old Ras Michael had long endeavoured to get possession of Welleta Israel, a sister of his own wife, Ozoro Esther. She now again refused his unnatural addresses, on which he was heard to say that he would order her eyes to be put out. Welleta Israel was at this time in the camp with her sister Ozoro Esther. In the evening a small tent suddenly appeared on the opposite side of the Nile, which was not only both broad and deep, but, with its prodigious mass of water, a number of large, slippery stones were rolling along at the bottom of the river. In the dead of the night Welleta Israel escaped, and in the morning she and the tent had equally disappeared. To the astonishment of every one, it was found that she had actually crossed the river, having fled from the vengeance of the ras with an intrepid conductor, her own nephew. The next morning the king crossed the Nile at a pass, and encamped on the other side, near a small village called Tsoomwa, where his fit-auraris had taken post early in the morning. The fit-auraris (which means, literally, front of the army) is an officer in the Abyssinian service, dependant only on the commander of the forces. He is always selected from the bravest, most robust, and most experienced men in the army. His duty is to mark out by a lance the position most proper for the king's tent: he is expected also to know the depth of the rivers, the state of the fords, the extent and thickness of the woods, and, in short, to be acquainted generally with the geography and state of the country. The governor of every province has an officer of this description. The fit-auraris, therefore, may be compared to an officer of the quarter-master-general's department in an European army. From Tsoomwa the king marched to Derdera, and being now in the territory of his enemy, the whole country was set on fire. Those who could not escape were slain, and all sorts of wanton barbarities were perpetrated. The king's passage of the Nile was the signal agreed upon for Bruce to set out from Emfras to join him. Accompanied by Strates, a Greek, and other attendants, he travelled for several days, encountering many hardships and dangers: at last he met with his friend Negade Ras Mohammed (the chief of the Moors of Gondar), to whom he expressed his ardent desire to be enabled to visit the neighbouring cataract of the Nile. "Unless you had told me you was resolved," said Mohammed, with a grave, thoughtful air, though full of openness and candour, "I would, in the first place, have advised you not to think of such an undertaking. Again, if anything was to befall you, what should I answer to the king and the iteghe? It would be said the Turk has betrayed him!" "Mohammed," said Bruce, "you need not dwell on these professions; I have lived twelve years with people of your religion, my life always in their power, and I am now in your house, in preference to being in a tent out of doors with Netcho and his Christians. I do not ask you whether I am to go or not, for that is resolved on; and, though you are a Mohammedan and I a Christian, no religion teaches a man to do evil. We both agree in this, that God, who has protected me thus far, is capable to protect me likewise at the cataract, and farther, if he has not determined otherwise for my good. I only ask you, as a man who knows the country, to give me your best advice how I may satisfy my curiosity in this point with as little danger and as much expedition as possible, leaving the rest to Heaven." Mohammed accordingly promised to send his son and four of his servants to protect Bruce; he then took leave of him, saying with much feeling, "Do not stay! return immediately, and--Ullah Kerim (God is merciful)!" Early next morning Bruce mounted his horse, and, accompanied by four active, resolute young men, proceeded very rapidly. In a few hours they came in sight of a considerable village; and, as they were proceeding to call upon the chief or shum, they were surrounded by several of his servants, who seemed desirous to pay them every possible respect. Bruce happened to be on a very steep part of the hill, full of bushes; and one of the shum's servants, dressed in the Arabian fashion, in a bornoose, and turban striped white and green, led his horse, to prevent his slipping, till he got into the path leading to the shum's door; when, all of a sudden, the fellow exclaimed in Arabic, "Good Lord! to see you here! Good Lord! to see you here!" Bruce asked him to whom he was speaking, and what reason he had to wonder to see him there. The man then told him that he was on board the Lion when Bruce's little vessel, all covered with sail, passed with such briskness among the English ships, which all fired their cannon; "and," added he, "everybody said, there is a poor man making a great haste to be assassinated among those wild people in Habbesh; and so we all thought." He concluded with saying, "Drink! no force! Englishman very good! drink no good!" As soon as the horses were fed, Bruce would stay no longer, but mounted to proceed to the cataract. They first came to the bridge, which consists of a single arch of about twenty-five feet broad, the extremities of which were let into and strongly fastened to the solid rock on both sides. The Nile here is confined between two rocks, and runs in a deep ravine with great velocity, and a deep, roaring sound. They were obliged to remount the stream above half a mile before they came to the cataract, through trees and bushes of most beautiful appearance. "The cataract itself," says Bruce, "was the most magnificent sight that ever I beheld. The height has been rather exaggerated. The missionaries say the fall is about sixteen ells, or fifty feet. The measuring is indeed very difficult; but, by the position of long sticks and poles of different lengths, at different heights of the rock, from the water's edge, I may venture to say, that it is nearer forty feet than any other measure. The river had been considerably increased by rains, and fell in one sheet of water, without any interval, above half an English mile in breadth, with a force and noise that was truly terrible, and which stunned, and made me, for a time, perfectly dizzy. A thick fume or haze covered the fall all round, and hung over the course of the stream both above and below, marking its track, though the water was not seen. The river, though swelled with rain, preserved its natural clearness, and fell, as far as I could discern, into a deep pool or basin in the solid rock. It was a magnificent sight, that ages, added to the greatest length of human life, would not efface or eradicate from my memory; it struck me with a kind of stupor, and a total oblivion of where I was, and of every other sublunary concern. It was one of the most magnificent, stupendous sights in the creation. "I measured the fall, and believe, within a few feet, it was the height I have mentioned; but I confess I could at no time in my life less promise upon precision; my reflection was suspended or subdued; and, while in sight of the fall, I think I was under a temporary alienation of mind; it seemed to me as if one element had broke loose from, and become superior to, all laws of subordination; that the fountains of the great deep were again extraordinarily opened, and the destruction of a world was once more begun by the agency of water." From the cataract Bruce returned to the house of his Moorish friend Negade Ras Mohammed, and on the 22d of May he resumed his journey to join the king. After passing a number of hills covered with trees and shrubs of indescribable beauty and extraordinary fragrance, he descended towards the passage of the Nile. Here he experienced the use of Mohammed's servants, three of whom, each with a lance in one hand, holding that of his companion in the other, waded across the violent stream, sounding with the end of their lances every step they took. "From the passage to Tsoomwa," says Bruce, "all the country was forsaken, the grass trodden down, and the fields without cattle. Everything that had life and strength fled before that terrible leader (Ras Michael) and his no less terrible army: a profound silence was in the fields around us, but no marks yet of desolation." After travelling two days under a very hot sun, they came to a flat country, which, from the constant rains that now fell, began to stand in large pools, threatening to turn it all into a lake. "We had hitherto," says Bruce, "lost none of the beasts of carriage, but now were so impeded by streams, brooks, and quagmires, that we despaired of ever bringing one of them to join the camp. The horses and beasts of burden that carried the baggage of the army, and which had passed before us, had spoiled every ford, and we saw to-day a number of dead mules lying about the fields, the houses all reduced to ruins, and smoking like so many kilns: even the grass or wild oats, which were grown very high, were burned in large plots of a hundred acres together; everything bore the marks that Ras Michael was gone before, while not a living creature appeared in those extensive, fruitful, and once well-inhabited plains. An awful silence reigned everywhere around, interrupted only at times by thunder, now become daily, and the rolling of torrents, produced by local showers in the hills, which ceased with the rain, and were but the children of an hour. Amid this universal silence that prevailed all over this scene of extensive desolation, I could not help remembering how finely Mr. Gray paints the passage of such an army under a leader like Ras Michael: 'Confusion in his van with Flight combined, And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.'" As they advanced, they passed a great number of dead mules and horses; "and the hyænas," says Bruce, "were so bold as only to leave the carcass for a moment and snarl, as if they regretted to see any of us pass alive." "Since passing the Nile," continues Bruce, "I found myself more than ordinarily depressed; my spirits were sunk almost to a degree of despondency, and yet nothing had happened since that period more than what was expected before. This disagreeable situation of mind continued at night while I was in bed. The rashness and imprudence with which I had engaged myself in so many dangers, without any necessity for so doing; the little prospect of my being ever able to extricate myself out of them, or even, if I lost my life, of the account being conveyed to my friends at home; the great and unreasonable presumption which had led me to think that, after every one that had attempted this voyage had miscarried in it, I was the only person that was to succeed; all these reflections upon my mind, when relaxed, dozing, and half oppressed with sleep, filled my imagination with what I have heard other people call the _horrors_, the most disagreeable sensation I ever was conscious of, and which I then felt for the first time. Impatient of suffering any longer, I leaped out of bed and went to the door of the tent, where the outward air perfectly awakened me, and restored my strength and courage. All was still; and at a distance I saw several bright fires, but lower down, and more to the right than I expected, which made me think I was mistaken in the situation of Karcagna. It was then near four in the morning of the 25th. I called up my companions, happily buried in deep sleep, as I was desirous, if possible, to join the king that day." If the reader will but recall to mind the picture of Bruce's personal appearance on his arrival at Jidda on the Red Sea--how much he was shaken by the fatigue he had even at that period undergone, and will then reflect on the wear and tear of constitution which he had since suffered, he will comprehend, better than Bruce himself seems to have done, why his spirits now began to fail him, and why, like an exhausted taper, life burned dimly in the socket. Bruce and his party were three or four miles from Derdera when the sun rose: there had been little rain that night, and they found very few torrents in their way; but it was slippery and troublesome walking, the rich soil being trodden into mire. About seven o'clock they entered the broad plain of Maitsha, leaving the lake behind them. Here great part of the country was in tillage, and had been apparently covered with plentiful crops; but all had been cut down by the army for their horses, or, out of recklessness or vengeance, trodden under foot, so that a green blade could scarcely be seen. They met a number of persons this day, chiefly straggling soldiers, who, in parties of three and four, were seeking, in all the bushes and concealed parts of the river, for the miserable natives who had hidden themselves therein; and in this dreadful occupation many had been successful. Some of them had three, some four women, boys, and girls, whom, though Christians like themselves, they were hurrying along, to sell to the Turks for a very small price. A little before nine Bruce heard the report of a gun, which gave his party great joy, as they supposed the army not to be far off; a few minutes after they heard several single shots, and in less than a quarter of an hour a general firing began from right to left, which ceased for an instant, and then was heard again as smart as ever. Thinking that the army was beaten and retreating, Bruce and his party mounted their horses to join it. Still it appeared to them scarcely possible that Fasil should defeat Ras Michael so easily, and with so short a resistance. They had not gone far in the plain before, to their great surprise and delight, they had a sight of the enemy. A multitude of deer, buffaloes, boars, and various other wild beasts, alarmed by the noise of the army as it advanced, had been gradually driven before it. The whole country was overgrown with wild oats, many of the villages having been burned the year before; and in this shelter the wild animals had taken up their abode in very great numbers. As the army turned to the left towards Karcagna, the silence and solitude on the opposite side induced these animals to turn to the right, where the Nile makes a very large semicircle, the Jemma being behind them, and much overflowed. When the army, therefore, instead of marching southeasterly towards Samseen, directed its course northwest, they fell in with these immense herds of deer and other beasts, who, confined between the Nile, the Jemma, and the lake, had no way to return but by the one they had come. Finding themselves encountered by men in every direction, they became desperate; and, not knowing what course to take, they at length fell an easy prey. The soldiers, happy at the opportunity of procuring animal food, fired upon the beasts wherever they appeared; and this continued for nearly an hour. A numerous herd of the largest deer, called bohur, met Bruce and his party at full speed, apparently intending to run them down; some forced their way through, while others escaped across the plain. The king and Ras Michael were in the most violent agitation of mind; for, though the cause of the firing was before their eyes, it was at this moment reported that Woodage Asahel had attacked the army; and this occasioned a general panic, every one being convinced that he was not far off. The firing, however, continued; the balls flew in every direction; some few were killed, and many soldiers and horses were wounded: still they continued to fire, while Ras Michael stood at the door of his tent, crying, threatening, and tearing his gray locks at finding that the army was not under his command. The king, however, now ordered his tent to be pitched, his standard to be set up, his drums to beat (the signal for encamping), and then the firing immediately ceased. But it was a long while before all the army could be made to believe that Woodage Asahel had not been engaged with some part of it that day. Fortunately, he was not in a situation to avail himself of this favourable opportunity; for if he had then attacked Michael on the Samseen side with five hundred horse, the whole army would probably have fled without resistance, and been entirely dispersed. Bruce was making his way towards the king's tent when he was met by a confidential servant of Kefla Yasous, who had that day commanded the rear in the retreat; an experienced officer, brave even to a fault, but full of mildness and humanity, and one of the most sensible and affable men in the army. He sent to desire that Bruce would come to him alone. This he promised to do; but he first wished to seek for Strates and Sebastos, who were disabled on the road. Bruce soon came up with them, and was exceedingly surprised to see them both lying extended on the ground; Strates bleeding at a large wound in his forehead, moaning in Greek to himself, and exclaiming that he had broken his leg, which he pressed with both his hands below the knee, apparently regardless of the gash in his head, which seemed to be a very serious one; while Sebastos scarcely said anything, but sighed piteously. Bruce asked him whether his arm was broke; he answered feebly that he was dying, and that his legs, arms, and ribs were broken. The by-standers, meanwhile, were bursting into fits of laughter. Ali, Mohammed's servant, the only person who appeared concerned, said that it was all owing to Prince George, who had frightened their mules. This prince was fond of horsemanship; he rode with saddle, bridle, and stirrups, like an Arab; and, though young, had become an excellent horseman, superior to any in Abyssinia. The manner in which two Arabs salute one another when they meet is this: the person inferior in rank or age presents his gun at the other when at about five hundred yards' distance, charged with powder only; he then, keeping his gun still presented, gallops up to him, levels the muzzle, and fires just under his friend's stirrups or the horse's belly. This the Arabs do, sometimes twenty at a time; and one would think it impossible that they should escape being bruised or burned. The prince had learned this exercise from Bruce, and was highly delighted as he became perfect in it. Bruce had procured him a short gun, with a lock and flint instead of a match, and he shot not only true, but gracefully, on horseback. He had been hunting deer all the morning; and hearing that his friend Bruce had arrived, and seeing the two Greeks riding on their mules, he came galloping furiously with his gun presented, and, not seeing Bruce, fired a shot under the belly of Strates's mule, and then, turning like lightning to the left, he was out of sight in a moment. Never was compliment less relished or understood. Strates had a couple of panniers upon his mule, containing two great earthen jars of hydromel; Sebastos, the king's cook, had also sundry jars and pots, besides three or four dozen drinking glasses; a carpet almost covered the animals and the panniers; and upon the pack-saddles, between these panniers, Strates and Sebastos rode. The mules, as well as their burden, belonged to the king, and the men were permitted to ride only because they were a little unwell. Strates went first, and, to save trouble, the halter of Sebastos's mule was tied to his companion's saddle, and thus the mules were fastened to, and followed one another. As soon as the explosion took place, Strates's mule, not accustomed to such noisy compliments, started, turned about, and threw his rider to the ground; when, trampling upon him, the animal began to run off, and, winding the halter around Sebastos, who was behind, dragged him to the ground among some stones. Both the mules began kicking at each other, or, rather, at each other's panniers and pack-saddles, until they broke everything that was in them. Nor did the mischief end here; for, in running away, they came like a bar-shot across the mule of Azage Tecla Haimanout, one of the king's criminal judges, a very feeble old man, who found himself suddenly thrown upon the ground and his ankle broke, so that he could not walk alone for several months afterward. As soon as a tent was pitched for the wounded, and Bruce had dressed Tecla Haimanout's foot, he went to the tent of Kefla Yasous, who instantly rose up and embraced him. He then told Bruce that Ras Michael had resolved to cross the Nile immediately, and march back to Gondar; and that they were just commencing this retrograde movement when they were interrupted by the firing. On the 26th of May, 1770, Bruce marched with the army towards the Nile. About four o'clock they reached the banks of the river. "From the time we had decamped from Congo," says Bruce, "it poured incessantly the most violent rain we had ever seen, violent claps of thunder followed close one upon another, almost without interval, accompanied with sheets of lightning, which ran on the ground like water; the day was more than commonly dark, as in an eclipse, and every hollow or footpath collected a quantity of rain, which ran into the Nile in torrents." The Abyssinian armies pass the Nile at all seasons, though the appearance of the river is often terrific; but the Greeks crowded about Bruce in despair, lamenting that they had ever entered the country. The first person who crossed was a young officer, a relation of the king; he walked in with great caution, marking a track for the king to pass; but his horse, plunging into deep water, swam to the opposite side. The king followed next; then came the old ras on his mule, with several of his friends, swimming both with and without their horses, on each side of him, in a manner that appeared quite wonderful. Bruce and the king's troops now followed. The confusion which ensued it is impossible to describe; mules, horses, and men stuck for some time in the muddy landing-place, the latter screaming for help, when they were at length all hurried away by the stream. Rafts were made for some of the women; but the old ras sullenly insisted that Ozoro Esther, though she had actually fainted several times, should cross in the same manner that he had himself, and those who admired and pitied her swam by her side. It was said that the old ras had even been heard to declare, that if she could not pass, he had resolved to murder her, lest she should fall into the hands of his enemy, Fasil. Two days after the passage of the river, the ras, who, although he was one of the most aged and infirm men in the army, seemed to require neither sleep nor rest, engaged and defeated Fasil in the battle of Limjour; in consequence of which, Fasil, the following day, sent to inform Michael of the manner in which the king had been betrayed by Gusho and Powussen; and, offering his submission, he added, "that he never again intended to appear in arms against the king; that he would hold his government under him, and pay his contributions regularly." Fasil, after this submission, was appointed governor of Damot and Maitsah. "Late in the evening," says Bruce, "Ozoro Esther came to the king's tent. She had been ill and alarmed, as she well might, at the passage of the Nile, which had given her a more delicate look than ordinary; she was dressed all in white, and I thought I seldom had seen so handsome a woman. The king had sent ten oxen to old Ras Michael, but he had given twenty to Ozoro Esther; and it was to thank him for this extraordinary mark of favour that she had come to visit him in his tent. I had for some time past, indeed, thought they were not insensible to the merit of each other. Upon her thanking the young king for the distinction he had shown her, 'Madam,' said he, 'your husband, Ras Michael, is intent upon employing, in the best way possible for my service, those of the army that are strong and vigorous; you, I am told, bestow your care on the sick and disabled, and by your attention they are restored to their former health and activity. The strong, active soldier eats the cows that I have sent to the ras; the enfeebled and sick recover upon yours, for which reason I sent you a double portion, that you may have it in your power to do double good.'" Bruce had now violent threatenings of the ague, and retired to bed full of reflections on the extraordinary events that in a few hours had crowded upon one another. On the 30th of May he reached Gondar, and on the 3d of June the army was encamped on the river below the town. "From the time we left Dingleber," says Bruce, "some one or other of the ras's confidential friends had arrived every day. Several of the great officers of state reached us at the Kemona; many others met us at Abba Samuel. I did not perceive that the news they brought increased the spirits either of the king or the ras: the soldiers, however, were all contented, because they were at home; but the officers, who saw farther, wore very different countenances, especially those that were of Amhara. I, in particular, had very little reason to be pleased; for, after having undergone a constant series of fatigues, dangers, and expenses, I was returned to Gondar, disappointed of my views in arriving at the source of the Nile, without any other acquisition than a violent ague. The place where that river rises remained still as great a secret as it had been ever since the catastrophe of Phaëton: "Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem, Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet." OVID, _Metam._, lib. ii. "The frighted Nile ran off, and under ground Concealed his head, nor can it yet be found." ADDISON--_Trans._ The king had heard that Gusho and Powussen, and all the troops of Belessen and Lasta, were ready to fall upon him in Gondar as soon as the rains should have so swelled the Tacazzé that the army could not retire into Tigré; and it was now thought that the king's proclamation in favour of Fasil, especially in giving him Gojam, would hasten the movements of the rebels. "As I had never despaired," says Bruce, "some way or other, of arriving at the fountains of the Nile, from which we were not fifty miles distant when we turned back at Karcagna, so I never neglected to improve every means that held out to me the least probability of accomplishing this end. I had been very attentive and serviceable to Fasil's servants while in the camp. I spoke greatly of their master; and, when they went away, gave each of them a small present for himself, and a trifle also for Fasil. They had, on the other hand, been very importunate with me, as a physician, to prescribe something for a cancer on the lip, as I understood it to be, with which Welleta Yasous, Fasil's principal general, was afflicted. "I had been advised by some of my medical friends to carry along with me a preparation of hemlock or cicuta, recommended by Dr. Stork, a physician at Vienna. A considerable quantity had been sent me from France by commission, with directions how to use it. To keep on the safe side, I prescribed small doses to Welleta Yasous; being much more anxious to preserve myself from reproach, than warmly solicitous about the cure of my unknown patient. I gave him positive advice to avoid eating raw meat, to keep to a milk diet, and drink plentifully of whey when he used this medicine. They were overjoyed at having succeeded so well in their commission, and declared before the king 'that Fasil, their master, would be more pleased with receiving a medicine that would restore Welleta Yasous to health, than with the magnificent appointments the king's goodness had bestowed upon him.' 'If it is so,' said I, 'in this day of grace I will ask two favours.' 'And that's a rarity,' says the king; 'come, out with them. I don't believe anybody is desirous you should be refused; I certainly am not; only I bar one of them--you are not to relapse into your usual despondency, and talk of going home.' 'Well, sir,' said I, 'I obey; and that is not one of them. They are these: You shall give me, and oblige Fasil to ratify it, the village Geesh, and the source where the Nile rises, that I may be from thence furnished with money for myself and servants; it shall stand me instead of Tangouri, near Emfras, and in value it is not worth so much. The second is, that when I shall see that it is in his power to carry me to Geesh, and show me those sources, Fasil shall do it upon my request, without fee or reward, and without excuse or evasion.' "They all laughed at the easiness of the request; all declared that this was nothing, and wished to do ten times as much. The king said, 'Tell Fasil I do give the village of Geesh, and those fountains he is so fond of, to Yagoube and his posterity for ever, never to appear under another name in the deftar, and never to be taken from him or exchanged, either in peace or war. Do you swear this to him in the name of your master.' Upon which they took the two forefingers of my right hand, and one after the other laid the two forefingers of their right hand across them, then kissed them--a form of swearing used there, at least among those that call themselves Christians. And as Azage Kyrillos, the king's secretary and historian, was then present, the king ordered him to enter the gift in the deftar or revenue-book, where the taxes and revenue of the king's lands are registered. 'I will write it,' says the old man, 'in letters of gold; and, poor as I am, will give him a village four times better than either Geesh or Tangouri, if he will take a wife and stay among us, at least till my eyes are closed.' It will be easily guessed this rendered the conversation a cheerful one. Fasil's servants retired, to set out the next day, gratified to their utmost wish; and, as soon as the king was in bed, I went to my apartment likewise." Bruce was now legally wedded to the "coy fountains" of the Nile; but, like the young Eastern prince, he was yet doomed to linger, till relentless Time should permit him to view the object of his warmest affection, the sole subject of his dreams and thoughts. Very different notions, however, were occupying Michael and his officers. They were afraid to trust Fasil, and, besides, he could do them no service; the rain had set in, and he was gone home; the western part of the kingdom was ready to rise against the ras; Woggora also, to the north, immediately in Fasil's way, was in arms, and impatient to revenge the severities they had suffered when Michael first marched to Gondar; and the next morning the whole army was in motion. Bruce had a short interview with the king. He frankly told him that he was weak in health, and quite unprepared to attend him to Tigré; that his heart was bent on accomplishing the only object which had brought him into Abyssinia; and that, should he be disappointed in effecting that object, he could only return to his country in disgrace. The young king appeared affected by Bruce's statement, and, with great kindness, desired him to remain for the present with the iteghe at Koscam. Ras Michael having in vain urged certain brutal measures of violence on the king, now retired in disgust into his own province of Tigré. On the 10th of June, Gusho and Powussen entered Gondar; and for several months, the capital, as well as the country of Abyssinia, was convulsed with a series of petty disturbances. CHAPTER XIII. Bruce again attempts to reach the Fountains of the Nile, and succeeds. Although the iteghe showed great aversion to Bruce's design of exploring the source of the Nile in times of such trouble and commotion, she did not positively forbid the attempt; and therefore, on the 28th of October, 1770, he and his party commenced the undertaking. Bruce's quadrant required four men, relieving each other, to carry it, and his timekeeper and telescopes employed two more. His difficulties, however, were now all in his own cause; he had no longer to expose himself to danger amid the quarrels and jarring interests of others; his _own_ great object was now before him--an object which he had long determined to attain, or to perish in the attempt. After passing a number of torrents, which were all rushing through the flat country of Dembea towards the great lake Tzana, they came to Gorgora, an elevated peninsula, running into the lake for several miles. This is one of the pleasantest situations in Abyssinia. The eye passes rapidly over the expansive lake, through which run the waters of the Nile; it then views with pleasure the flat, rich countries of Dembea, Gojam, and Maitsha; and the high hills of Begemder and Woggora terminate the prospect. It was this healthy, beautiful situation which was chosen by Peter Paez for the site of a most magnificent church and monastery. On reaching the borders of the lake on the 30th, neither the fear of crocodiles nor of hippopotami could deter Bruce from swimming in it for several minutes: although the sun was exceedingly hot, he found the water intensely cold, owing to the streams which ran into it from the mountains. Proceeding on their journey, they now met multitudes of peasants flying before Fasil's army, which, for some unknown purpose, he had suddenly put in motion. Fasil was at Bamba, a collection of small villages situated in a valley; and as Bruce knew it was in this chieftain's power to forward him in his object, he anxiously repaired to him. The following day he received a message to wait upon him, and his interview with this great rebel he thus describes: "After announcing myself, I waited about a quarter of an hour before I was admitted. Fasil was sitting upon a cushion, with a lion's skin upon it, and another, stretched like a carpet, before his feet. He had a cotton cloth, something like a dirty towel, wrapped about his head; his upper cloak or garment was drawn tight about him over his neck and shoulders, so as to cover his hands. I bowed, and went forward to kiss one of them, but it was so entangled in the cloth that I was obliged to kiss the cloth instead of the hand. This was done, either as not expecting I should pay him that compliment (as I certainly should not have done, being one of the king's servants, if the king had been at Gondar), or else it was intended for a mark of disrespect, which was very much of a piece with the rest of his behaviour afterward. "There was no carpet or cushions in the tent, and only a little straw, as if accidentally, thrown thinly about it. I sat down upon the ground, thinking him sick, not knowing what all this meant. He looked steadfastly at me, saying, half under his breath, 'Endet nawi? bogo nawi?' which, in Amharic, is, 'How do you do? are you very well?' I made the usual answer, 'Well, thank God.' He again stopped, as for me to speak. There was only one old man present, who was sitting on the floor mending a mule's bridle. I took him at first for an attendant; but, observing that a servant, uncovered, held a candle to him, I thought he was one of his Galla; but then I saw a blue silk thread which he had about his neck, which is a badge of Christianity all over Abyssinia, and which a Galla would not wear. What he was I could not make out: he seemed, however, to be a very bad cobbler, and took no notice of us. "'I am come,' said I, 'by your invitation and the king's leave, to pay my respects to you in your own government, begging that you would favour my curiosity so far as to allow me to see the country of the Agows and the source of the Abay (or Nile), part of which I have seen in Egypt.' 'The source of the Abay!' exclaimed he, with a pretended surprise; 'do you know what you are saying? Why, it is God knows where, in the country of the Galla, wild, terrible people. The source of the Abay! are you raving?' repeats he again: 'are you to get there, do you think, in a twelvemonth, or more, or when?' 'Sir,' said I, 'the king told me it was near Sacala, and still nearer Geesh; both villages of the Agows, and both in your government.' 'And so you know Sacala and Geesh?' says he, whistling and half angry. 'I can repeat the names that I hear,' said I; 'all Abyssinia knows the head of the Nile.' 'Ay,' says he, imitating my voice and manner, 'but all Abyssinia won't carry you there, that I promise you.' 'If you are resolved to the contrary,' said I, 'they will not: I wish you had told the king so in time, then I should not have attempted it; it was relying upon you alone I came so far--confident, if all the rest of Abyssinia could not protect me there, that your word singly could do it.' "He now put on a look of more complacency. 'Look you, Yagoube,' says he, 'it is true I can do it; and, for the king's sake, who recommended it to me, I would do it; but the chief priest, Abba Salama, has sent to me to desire me not to let you pass farther; he says it is against the law of the land to permit Franks like you to go about the country, and that he has dreamed something ill will befall me if you go into Maitsha.' I was as much irritated as I thought it possible for me to be. 'So, so,' said I, 'the time of priests, prophets, and dreamers is coming on again.' 'I understand you,' says he, laughing for the first time; 'I care as little for priests as Michael does, and for prophets too; but I would have you consider the men of this country are not like yours; a boy of these Galla would think nothing of killing a man of your country. You white people are all effeminate; you are like so many women; you are not fit for going into a province where all is war, and inhabited by men, warriors from their cradle.' "I saw he intended to provoke me; and he had succeeded so effectually, that I should have died, I believe, if I had not, imprudent as it was, told him my mind in reply. 'Sir,' said I, 'I have passed through many of the most barbarous nations in the world; all of them, excepting this clan of yours, have some great men among them above using a defenceless stranger ill. But the worst and lowest individual among the most uncivilized people never treated me as you have done to-day under your own roof, where I have come so far for protection.' He asked, 'How?' 'You have, in the first place,' said I, 'publicly called me Frank, the most odious name in this country, and sufficient to occasion me to be stoned to death, without farther ceremony, by any set of men, wherever I may present myself. By Frank you mean one of the Romish religion, to which my nation is as adverse as yours; and again, without having ever seen any of my countrymen but myself, you have discovered, from that specimen, that we are all cowards and effeminate people, like, or inferior to, your boys or women. Look you, sir, you never heard that I gave myself out as more than an ordinary man in my own country, far less to be a pattern of what is excellent in it. I am no soldier, though I know enough of war to see yours are poor proficients in that trade. But there are soldiers, friends and countrymen of mine, who would not think it an action to vaunt of, that, with five hundred men, they had trampled all your naked savages into dust.' On this Fasil made a feigned laugh, and seemed rather to take my freedom amiss. It was, doubtless, a passionate and rash speech. 'As to myself,' continued I, 'unskilled in war as I am, could it be now without farther consequence, let me but be armed in my own country-fashion, on horseback as I was yesterday, I should, without thinking myself overmatched, fight the two best horsemen you shall choose from this your army of famous men, who are warriors from their cradle; and if, when the king arrives, you are not returned to your duty, and we meet again as we did at Limjour, I will pledge myself, with his permission, to put you in mind of this promise, and leave the choice of these men in your option.' This did not make things better. "He repeated the word _duty_ after me, and would have replied, but my nose burst out in a stream of blood, and that instant a servant took hold of me by the shoulder to hurry me out of the tent. Fasil seemed to be a good deal concerned, for the blood streamed out upon my clothes. I returned, then, to my tent, and the blood was soon stanched by washing my face with cold water. I sat down to recollect myself, and the more I calmed, the more I was dissatisfied at being put off my guard; but it is impossible to conceive the provocation without having proved it. I have felt but too often how much the love of our native soil increases by our absence from it; and how jealous we are of comparisons made to the disadvantage of our countrymen by people who, all proper allowances being made, are generally not their equals, when they would boast themselves their superiors. I will confess farther, in gratification to my critics, that I was, from my infancy, of a sanguine, passionate disposition; very sensible of injuries that I had neither provoked nor deserved; but much reflection from very early life, continual habits of suffering in long and dangerous travels, where nothing but patience would do, had, I flattered myself abundantly, subdued my natural proneness to feel offences which common sense might teach me I could only revenge upon myself. "However, upon farther consulting my own breast, I found there was another cause that had co-operated strongly with the former in making me lose my temper at this time, which, upon much greater provocation, I had never done before. I found now, as I thought, that it was decreed decisively my hopes of arriving at the source of the Nile were for ever ended; all my trouble, all my expenses, all my time, and all my sufferings for so many years were thrown away, from no greater obstacle than the whimsies of one barbarian, whose good inclinations I thought I had long before sufficiently secured; and, what was worse, I was now got within less than forty miles of the place I so much wished to see; and my hopes were shipwrecked upon the last, as well as the most unexpected, difficulty I had to encounter." Shortly after Bruce had retired to his tent, Fasil sent to him two lean sheep, and a guard of men to protect him during the night. In the morning, twelve horses, saddled and bridled, were brought to him by Fasil's servant, who asked him which he would ride. Bruce left the man to select for him a quiet horse, and forthwith mounted the one which was offered to him. "For the first two minutes after I mounted," says Bruce, "I do not know whether I was most in the earth or in the air; he kicked behind, reared before, leaped like a deer, all four off the ground, and it was some time before I recollected myself; he then attempted to gallop, taking the bridle in his teeth, but got a check which staggered him; he however continued to gallop, and, finding I slackened the bridle on his neck, and that he was at ease, he set off and ran away as hard as he could, flinging out behind every ten feet; the ground was very favourable, smooth, soft, and up-hill. I then, between two hills, half up the one and half up the other, wrought him so that he had no longer either breath or strength, and I began to think he would scarce carry me to the camp. "The poor beast made a sad figure, cut in the sides to pieces, and bleeding at the jaws; and the seis, the rascal that put me upon him, being there when I dismounted, held up his hands upon seeing the horse so mangled, and began to testify great surprise upon the supposed harm I had done. I took no notice of this, and only said, 'Carry that horse to your master; he may venture to ride him now, which is more than either he or you dared to have done in the morning.'" Bruce then mounted his own horse, and took with him his double-barrelled gun. The Galla were encamped close to him, and, anxious to raise himself in the estimation of these wild people by those sort of feats which they most admire, he galloped about, twisting and turning his horse in every direction. A vast number of kites were following the camp, living upon the carrion; and choosing two which were gliding near him, he shot first one on the right, then one on the left, when a great shout immediately followed from the spectators, to which Bruce seemingly paid no attention, pretending the most complete indifference, as if nothing extraordinary had been done. Fasil was at the door of the tent, and, having beheld the shots and horsemanship, ordered the kites immediately to be brought to him: his servants had laboured in vain to find the hole where the ball with which Bruce must needs have killed the birds had entered; for none of them had ever seen small shot, and he took care not to undeceive them. Bruce had no sooner entered his tent than he asked him, with great earnestness, to show him where the ball had passed through. Before this difficulty, however, could be solved, Fasil, perceiving the quantity of blood upon Bruce's trousers, held up his hands with a show of horror and concern which plainly was not counterfeited: he protested, by every oath he could devise, that he knew nothing about the matter, and was asleep at the time; that he had no horses with him worth Bruce's acceptance except the one he himself rode; but that any horse known to be his, driven before the traveller, would be a passport, and procure him respect among all the wild people whom he might meet, and for that reason only he had thought of offering him a horse. He repeated his protestations that he was innocent, and heartily sorry for the accident, which, indeed, he appeared to be: adding that the groom was in irons, and that, before many hours passed, he would put him to death. "Sir," said Bruce, "as this man has attempted my life, according to the laws of the country, it is I that should name the punishment." "It is very true," replied Fasil; "take him, Yagoube, and cut him in a thousand pieces if you please, and give his body to the kites." "Are you really sincere in what you say," said I, "and will you have no after excuses?" He swore solemnly he would not. "Then," said I, "I am a Christian: the way my religion teaches me to punish my enemies is by doing good for evil; and therefore I keep you to the oath you have sworn, and desire you to set the man at liberty, and put him in the place he held before, for he has not been undutiful to you." Every one present seemed pleased with these sentiments; one of the attendants could not contain himself, but, turning to Fasil, said, "Did not I tell you what my brother thought about this man? He was just the same all through Tigré." Fasil, in a low voice, very justly replied, "A man that behaves as he does may go through any country!" In an interview which Bruce afterward had with Fasil, he made him some handsome presents, for which he appeared to be exceedingly grateful. "I have nothing to return you for the present you have given me," said Fasil, "for I did not expect to meet a man like you here in the fields; but you will quickly be back; we shall meet on better terms at Gondar; the head of the Nile is near at hand; a horseman, express, will arrive there in a day. I have given you a good man, well known in this country to be my servant; he will go to Geesh with you, and return you to a friend of Ayto Aylo's and mine, Shalaka Welled Amlac; he has the dangerous part of the country wholly in his hands, and will carry you safe to Gondar; my wife is at present in his house: fear nothing, I shall answer for your safety. When will you set out? to-morrow?" Bruce replied, with many thanks for his kindness, "that he wished to proceed immediately, and that his servants were already far on the way." "You are very much in the right," says Fasil; "it was only in the idea that you were hurt with that accursed horse that I would have wished you to stay till to-morrow; but throw off these bloody clothes; they are not decent; I must give you new ones; you are my vassal. The king has granted you Geesh, where you are going, and I must invest you." A number of his servants hurried Bruce out, and he was brought back in a few minutes to Fasil's tent with a fine, loose muslin under-garment or cloth round him which reached to his feet. Fasil now took off the one that he had put on himself new in the morning, and placed it on Bruce's shoulders with his own hand (his servants throwing another immediately over him), saying at the same time to the people, "Bear witness, I give to you, Yagoube, the Agow Geesh, as fully and freely as the king has given it me." Bruce bowed and kissed his hand, as is customary for feudatories, and he then pointed to him to sit down. "Hear what I say to you," continued Fasil; "I think it right for you to make the best of your way now, for you will be the sooner back at Gondar. You need not be alarmed at the wild people you speak of who are going after you, though it is better to meet them coming this way than when they are going to their homes; they are commanded by Welleta Yasous, who is your friend, and is very grateful for the medicines you sent him from Gondar: he has not been able to see you, being so much busied with those wild people; but he loves you, and will take care of you, and you must give me more of that physic when we meet at Gondar." Bruce again bowed, and he continued: "Hear me what I say: you see those seven people (I never saw, says Bruce, more thief-like fellows in my life); these are all leaders and chiefs of the Galla--savages, if you please; they are all our brethren." Bruce dutifully bowed. Fasil then jabbered something to them in Galla. They all answered by a wild scream or howl, then struck themselves upon the breast as a mark of assent, and attempted to kiss Bruce's hand. "Now," continued Fasil, "before all these men, ask me anything you have at heart, and, be it what it may, they know I cannot deny it you." Bruce, of course, asked to be conducted immediately to the head of the Nile. Fasil then turned again to his seven chiefs, who rose up: they all stood round in a circle, and raised the palm of their hands, while he and his Galla together repeated, with great apparent devotion, a prayer about a minute long. "Now," says Fasil, "go in peace, you are a Galla; this is a curse upon them and their children, their corn, grass, and cattle, if ever they lift their hand against you or yours, or do not defend you to the utmost if attacked by others, or endeavour to defeat any design they may hear is intended against you." Upon this Bruce offered to kiss his hand, and they all went to the door of the tent, where there stood a very handsome gray horse, saddled and bridled. "Take this horse," says Fasil, "as a present from me; but do not mount it yourself; drive it before you, saddled and bridled as it is; no man of Maitsha will touch you when he sees that horse." Bruce then took leave of Fasil, and having, according to the custom of the country towards superiors, asked permission to mount on horseback before him, was speedily out of sight. On the 31st of October Bruce and his little party once more set out in search of the source of the Nile; Fasil's horse being driven before them--a magician to lead them towards their object--an Ægis to shield them on their way. After travelling till one o'clock in the morning, they reached a small village near that dangerous ford on the Nile which, with the king's army, Bruce had before passed with so much difficulty. They there found some of the Galla, commanded by a robber called the Jumper. Bruce next morning waited upon this personage, who was quite naked, except a towel about his loins. When Bruce entered this hero was at his toilet: in other words, he was rubbing melted tallow on his arms and body, and twining in his hair the entrails of an ox, some of which hung like a necklace round his throat. Bruce paid his respects; but, overcome with the perfume of blood and carrion, escaped as soon as possible from his presence. At the village of Maitsha Bruce was informed that such was the dread these people entertained of the smallpox, if it made its appearance in a village the custom was at once to surround the house, set fire to it, and burn both it and its inhabitants. After passing the Assar river they entered the province of Goutto, where they found the people richer and better lodged than in the province of Maitsha. The whole country is full of large and beautiful cattle of all colours, and is finely shaded with the acacia vera, or Egyptian thorn, the tree which, in the sultry parts of Africa, produces the gum-arabic. Beneath these trees were growing wild oats, of such a prodigious height and size that they are capable of concealing both a horse and his rider: some of the stalks were little less than an inch in circumference, and they have, when ripe, the appearance of small canes. The soil is a fine, black garden mould; and Bruce supposes that the oat is here in its original state, and that it is degenerated with us. With these magnificent oats before him, Bruce could not resist cooking some oat-cakes, after the fashion of Scotland; but his companions, regarding these dainties with all the disdain of a Dr. Johnson, declared that they were "bitter; that they burned their stomachs, and made them thirsty." Though the Galla guides paid but little attention to Bruce, it was curious to observe the respect they all showed to Fasil's horse. Some gave him handfuls of barley, while others, with more refined knowledge of the world, courted his favour "by respectfully addressing him." After passing several streams, they came to the cataract or cascade of the Assar, which runs into the Nile. This river is about eighty yards broad, and the fall is about twenty feet. The stream entirely covers the rock over which it is precipitated, and in solemn magnificence rushes down with irresistible violence and force. "The strength of vegetation," says Bruce, "which the moisture of this river produces, supported by the action of a very warm sun, is such as one might naturally expect from theory, though we cannot help being surprised at the effects when we see them before us; trees and shrubs covered with flowers of every colour, all new and extraordinary in their shapes, crowded with birds of many uncouth forms, all of them richly adorned with variety of plumage, and seeming to fix their residence upon the banks of this river, without a desire of wandering to any distance in the neighbouring fields. But as there is nothing, though ever so beautiful, that has not some defect or imperfection, among all these feathered beauties there is not one songster; and, unless of the rose or jasmine kind, none of their flowers have any smell; we hear, indeed, many squalling, noisy birds of the jay kind, and we find two varieties of wild roses, white and yellow, to which I may add jasmine (called Leham), which becomes a large tree; but all the rest may be considered as liable to the general observation that the flowers are destitute of odour and the birds of song." After passing the Assar, and several villages belonging to Goutto, Bruce, on the 2d of November, 1770, for the first time obtained a distinct view of the mountain of Geesh, the long-wished-for object of his most dangerous and troublesome journey; and now, in sight of his goal, he bent firmly forward, and proceeded with redoubled strength and determination. The Nile was before him, and he joyfully descended to its banks, which were ornamented on the west with high trees of the salix or willow tribe, while on the east appeared "black, dark, and thick groves, with craggy, pointed rocks, and overshaded with old, tall timber-trees, going to decay with age: a very rude and awful face of nature; a cover from which fancy suggested that a lion might issue, or some animal or monster yet more savage and ferocious." Having reached the passage, the ancient inhabitants, in whose hearts a veneration for their river seemed to be more firmly rooted than the more recent doctrines of Christianity, crowded to the ford, and protested against any man's riding across the stream either on a horse or mule. They insisted that Bruce and his party should take off their shoes, and they even signified that they would stone those who attempted to wash the dirt from their clothes. The servants naturally returned rudeness for rudeness; "but," says Bruce, "I sat by, exceedingly happy at having so unexpectedly found the remnants of veneration for that ancient deity still subsisting in such vigour." The people now asked Woldo, Bruce's guide from Fasil, to pay them for carrying over the baggage and instruments. In a most violent passion, the man threw away his pipe, and, seizing a stick, exclaimed, "Who am I, then? a girl, a woman, a pagan dog, like yourselves? And who is Waragna Fasil? are you not his slaves? But you want payment, do you?" upon which he fell upon them and beat them. Not contented with this, he pretended that they had robbed him of some money, which they consented to pay to him, fearing lest some fine or heavy chastisement should fall upon their village. As Bruce proceeded, he had some little difficulty in obtaining meat or provisions of any sort; for, although these poor people, with the utmost curiosity, would have flocked around him had they known that he was a stranger from Gondar, the sight of Fasil's horse drove them away; for they fancied that some contribution was to be levied upon them. Bruce being now within the sound of a cataract which he was desirous to visit, took the liberty of mounting Fasil's horse, and, with a single guide, he galloped about four or five miles to see it; but he was disappointed in its appearance, the river being only about sixty yards broad, and the fall only sixteen feet. On his return he found that a cow was about to be killed for his party. Woldo had managed to discover one by bellowing through his hands in a manner which induced the unfortunate animal to reply, and the hiding-place in which she had been concealed by her owner was thus detected. Bruce now thought proper to inform Woldo that the king had granted to him the small territory of Geesh, and that it was his intention to forgive to its poor inhabitants the taxes which they had been in the habit of paying: a noble act, but one which appeared to Woldo to savour much more of the ridiculous; for he not only most conscientiously approved of taxes, but appeared to agree in opinion with the Englishman, whose little pamphlet in favour of the same commenced with, "It is in the nature of taxes, as it is in the nature of lead, to be heavy!" Bruce, however, insisting that the burden should be removed, Woldo reluctantly yielded to his mandate. The next day, the 3d of November, they proceeded through a plain covered with acacias. Several of the tops of these trees had been cut off for the purpose of making baskets for bees, which were hung outside the houses like bird-cages: numerous hives were at work, and although they took no notice of the inhabitants, yet they waged war against Bruce and his party, and stung them very severely. After passing some hills, they descended into a large plain full of marshes. "In this plain," says Bruce, "the Nile winds more in the space of four miles than, I believe, any river in the world: it makes above a hundred turns in that distance, one of which advances so abruptly into the plain, that we concluded we must pass it, and were preparing accordingly, when we saw it make as sharp a turn to the right, and run far on in a contrary direction, as if we were never to have met it again." The Nile here is not above twenty feet broad nor more than a foot deep. In crossing the plain of Goutto the sun had been intensely hot, and here it became so dreadfully oppressive that it quite overcame them all. Even Woldo declared himself to be ill, and talked of going no farther: however, by Bruce's persuasions, they pushed towards three ranges of mountains, among which were situated the small village of Geesh, and the long-expected fountains of the Nile. Bruce says, "This triple ridge of mountains, disposed one range behind the other, nearly in form of portions of three concentric circles, seems to suggest an idea that they are the Mountains of the Moon, or the _Montes Lunæ_ of antiquity, at the foot of which the Nile was said to rise; in fact, there are no others. Amid-amid may perhaps exceed half a mile in height; they certainly do not arrive at three quarters, and are greatly short of that fabulous height given them by Kircher. These mountains are all of them excellent soil, and everywhere covered with fine pasture; but, as this unfortunate country had been for ages the seat of war, the inhabitants have only ploughed and sown the top of them, out of the reach of enemies or marching armies. On the middle of the mountain are villages built of a white sort of grass, which makes them conspicuous at a great distance; the bottom is all grass, where their cattle feed continually under their eye; these, upon any alarm, they drive up to the top of the mountains out of danger. The hail lies often upon the top of Amid-amid for hours, but snow was never seen in this country, nor have they a word in their language for it. It is also remarkable, though we had often violent hail at Gondar, and when the sun was vertical, it never came but with the wind blowing directly from Amid-amid." As they proceeded the people continued to fly from their little villages, scared by the appearance of Fasil's horse. In one village they found only one earthen pot containing food, which Bruce took possession of, leaving in its place a wedge of salt, which, strange to say, is still used as small money in Gondar, and all over Abyssinia. The following day they continued their journey, and, although they saw no inhabitants, they often heard voices whispering among the trees and canes. Bruce made many endeavours to catch some of these people, in order to apprize them of the real object of his visit, but "equo ne credite Teucri!" it was quite impossible, for they fled much faster than he could follow. He therefore determined to conceal Fasil's horse, that scarecrow which created such universal alarm; but as it is considered treason at Gondar to sit on the king's chair or on his saddle, Woldo was for some time very anxious to maintain inviolate the dignity of his master. Bruce compromised the matter, however, by proposing to ride upon his own saddle, and with this proviso mounted Fasil's horse. After proceeding for some little time along the side of a valley, they began to ascend a mountain; and, reaching its summit about noon, came in sight of Sacala which joins the village of Geesh. Shortly afterward they passed the Googueri, a stream of about sixty feet broad and about eighteen inches deep, very clear and rapid, and running over a rugged, uneven bottom of black rock. At a quarter past twelve they halted on a small eminence, where the market of Sacala is held every Saturday. Horned cattle, many of the highest possible beauty, with which all this country abounds, large asses, honey, butter, ensete for food, and a manufacture of the leaf of that plant, painted with different colours like mosaic-work, for mats, were here exposed for sale in great plenty. At a quarter after one o'clock they passed the river Gometti, the boundary of the plain: they were now ascending a very steep and rugged mountain, the worst pass they had met on the whole journey. They had no other path but one made by the sheep or goats, and which had no appearance of having been frequented by men; for it was broken, full of holes, and in some places obstructed with large stones, that seemed to have been there from the creation. Besides this, the whole was covered with thick wood, which often occupied the very edge of the precipices on which they stood, and they were everywhere stopped and entangled by that execrable thorn the kantuffa, and several other thorns and brambles nearly as inconvenient. Bruce ascended, however, with great alacrity, as he conceived he was surmounting the last difficulty of the many thousands he had been doomed to struggle with. At three quarters after one they arrived at the top of the mountain, from whence they had a distinct view of all the remaining territory of Sacala, the Mountain of Geesh, and the Church of St. Michael Geesh. "Immediately below us," says Bruce, "appeared the Nile itself, strangely diminished in size, and now only a brook that had scarcely water to turn a mill. I could not satiate myself with the sight, revolving in my mind all those classical prophecies that had given the Nile up to perpetual obscurity and concealment." Bruce was roused from this revery by an alarm that Woldo the guide was missing. The servants could not agree when they saw him last. Strates the Greek, with another of the party, was in the wood shooting; but they soon appeared without Woldo. They said that they had seen some enormous shaggy apes or baboons without tails, several of which were walking upright, and they therefore concluded either that these creatures had torn Woldo to pieces, or that he was lagging behind for some purpose of treachery; however, while they were thus talking, Woldo was seen approaching, pretending to be very ill, and declaring that he could go no farther. Bruce was at this moment occupied in sketching a yellow rose-tree, several of which species were hanging over the river. "The Nile," he says, "here is not four yards over, and not above four inches deep where we crossed; it was indeed become a very trifling brook, but ran swiftly over a bottom of small stones, with hard black rock appearing among them: it is at this place very easy to pass and very limpid, but a little lower, full of inconsiderable falls; the ground rises gently from the river to the southward, full of small hills and eminences, which you ascend and descend almost imperceptibly. The day had been very hot for some hours, and my party were sitting in the shade of a grove of magnificent cedars, intermixed with some very large and beautiful cusso-trees, all in flower; the men were lying on the grass, and the beasts fed with their burdens on their backs in most luxuriant herbage." Above was a small ford, where the Nile was so narrow that Bruce had stepped across it more than fifty times: it had now dwindled to the size of a common mill-stream. When Woldo came to Bruce, he declared that he was too ill to proceed; but this imposition being detected, he then confessed that he was afraid to enter Geesh, having once killed several of its inhabitants; Bruce, however, gave him a very handsome sash, which he took, making many apologies. "Come, come," said Bruce, "we understand each other: no more words; it is now late; lose no more time, but carry me to Geesh and the head of the Nile directly, without preamble, and show me the hill that separates me from it. He then carried me round to the south side of the church, out of the grove of trees that surrounded it.... 'This is the hill,' says he, looking archly, 'that, when you were on the other side of it, was between you and the fountains of the Nile; there is no other. Look at that hillock of green sod in the middle of that watery spot; IT IS IN THAT THE TWO FOUNTAINS OF THE NILE ARE TO BE FOUND! Geesh is on the face of the rock where yon green trees are. If you go to the length of the fountains, pull off your shoes, as you did the other day, for these people are all pagans, worse than those who were at the ford; and they believe in nothing that you believe, but only in this river, to which they pray every day as if it were God; but this perhaps you may do likewise.' "Half undressed as I was by loss of my sash, and throwing my shoes off, I ran down the hill towards the little island of green sods, which was about two hundred yards distant; the whole side of the hill was thick grown with flowers, the large bulbous roots of which appearing above the surface of the ground, and their skins coming off on treading upon them, occasioned me two very severe falls before I reached the brink of the marsh. I after this came to the altar of green turf, which was in form of an altar, apparently the work of art, and I stood in rapture over the principal fountain, which rises in the middle of it. "It is easier to guess than to describe the situation of my mind at that moment--standing in that spot which had baffled the genius, industry, and inquiry of both ancients and moderns for the course of near three thousand years! Kings had attempted this discovery at the head of armies, and each expedition was distinguished from the last only by the difference of the numbers which had perished, and agreed alone in the disappointment which had uniformly and without exception followed them all. Fame, riches, and honour had been held out for a series of ages to every individual of those myriads these princes commanded, without having produced one man capable of gratifying the curiosity of his sovereign, or wiping off this stain upon the enterprise and abilities of mankind, or adding this desideratum for the encouragement of geography. Though a mere private Briton, I triumphed here, in my own mind, over kings and their armies! and every comparison was leading nearer and nearer to presumption, when the place itself where I stood, the object of my vainglory, suggested what depressed my short-lived triumph. I was but a few minutes arrived at the sources of the Nile, through numberless dangers and sufferings, the least of which would have overwhelmed me but for the continual goodness and protection of Providence. I was, however, but then half through my journey, and all those dangers which I had already passed awaited me again on my return: I found a despondency gaining ground fast upon me, and blasting the crown of laurels I had too rashly woven for myself." There is nothing which stamps authenticity more strongly upon Bruce's narrative than the artless simplicity with which he writes; and it is only justice to infer, that he, who so honestly expresses what he feels, must be equally faithful in relating what he sees; for how many more inducements have we to conceal the truth in the one case than in the other! To describe what we see is an easy and no unpleasing task; but to unbosom our feelings is almost always to expose our weakness! But Bruce has no concealments; and his thoughts and sentiments, whatever they are, are always frankly thrown before his reader. How very natural are his feelings on reaching the fountains of the Nile, and what a serious moral do they offer! For a few moments he riots in the extravagance of his triumph, exulting that a Briton had done what kings and armies had been unable to accomplish; and yet he suddenly finds himself overpowered with a melancholy which, at such a moment, might first appear even more singular than any of the very extraordinary scenes which he had previously described; still, as the artless child of nature, how much real cause had he for such feelings! It may appear strange that Bruce should dread, on his return, dangers which, in advancing, he had so carelessly and daringly encountered; but he had then his object to gain: the inestimable prize was before him, to his ardent imagination decked with ten thousand charms, and beckoning to him to advance: when, however, he had reached the goal, he suddenly awoke as from a dream--the vision now vanishes--nothing remains before him but "a hillock of green sod;" and then, with Byron, he is ready to exclaim, "The lovely toy, so keenly sought, Has lost its charms by being caught." The Nile was no more an object of anxious curiosity. Bruce had no longer to fly towards its source on the light wings of expectation; but, like the bee laden with its honey, he must now carry his burden to his distant hive; and, thus freighted, his shattered frame worn by fatigue, exhausted by a burning sun, and no longer supported by the excitement of his mind, he naturally trembled at the dangers which threatened to intercept him. The texture of the human mind is so delicately fine, that it is often affected by causes which to the judgment are imperceptible; and, although Bruce does not declare it, yet it is not improbable that his melancholy sprang mainly from the thought, how little, after all, his discovery was worth the trouble it had cost him. It had, it was true, "baffled the genius, industry, and inquiry of both ancients and moderns for near three thousand years," and it was equally true that "a mere private Briton had triumphed over kings and their armies;" but, after all, did the source of the Nile, in the great scheme of creation, rank as an object worthy of so much attention? What proportion did a puny rill, that might flow through a pipe of two inches in diameter, bear to that vast rolling mass of waters which gave fertility to Egypt? And again, Was the "hillock of green sod before him" actually the source of that immense river, or did it only nourish one of the innumerable streams which fed the "father of waters?" In short, had not human curiosity been pushed too far, and had it made any other discovery than of its own weakness? Bruce, drooping, bending in despondency over the fountains of the Nile, forms a striking picture, strongly exemplifying the practical difference between moral and religious exertions; for although, among men, he had gained his prize, it may justly be asked, What was it worth? The course of a river is like the history of a man's life, and all of it that is useful is worth knowing; but the source of the one is as the birth of the other, and "the hillock of green sod" is the "infant mewling and puking in its nurse's arms." Bruce, however, soon recovered from his despondency, though he could not reason it away; and he says, "I resolved, therefore, to divert it till I could, on more solid reflection, overcome its progress. I saw Strates expecting me on the side of the hill. 'Strates,' said I, 'faithful squire! come and triumph with your Don Quixote at that island of Barataria to which we have most wisely and fortunately brought ourselves! Come and triumph with me over all the kings of the earth, all their armies, all their philosophers, and all their heroes!' 'Sir,' says Strates, 'I do not understand a word of what you say, and as little what you mean: you very well know I am no scholar. But you had much better leave that bog: come into the house, and look after Woldo; I fear he has something farther to seek than your sash, for he has been talking with the old devil-worshipper ever since we arrived.' 'Come,' said I, 'take a draught of this excellent water, and drink with me a health to his majesty King George III., and a long line of princes.' I had in my hand a large cup, made of a cocoanut shell, which I procured in Arabia, and which was brimful.[31] He drank to the king speedily and cheerfully, with the addition of 'confusion to his enemies,' and tossed up his cap with a loud huzza. 'Now, friend,' said I, 'here is to a more humble, but still a sacred name; here is to--Maria!'[32]. He asked if that was the Virgin Mary. I answered, 'In faith, I believe so, Strates.' He did not speak, but only gave a humph of disapprobation. 'Come, come,' said I, 'don't be peevish; I have but one toast more to drink.' 'Peevish or not peevish,' replied Strates, 'a drop of it shall never again cross my throat: there is no humour in this--no joke. Show us something pleasant, as you used to do; but there is no jest in meddling with devil-worshippers, witchcraft, and enchantments, to bring some disease upon one's self here, so far from home, in the fields. No, no; as many toasts in wine as you please, or better in brandy, but no more water for Strates.'" A number of the Agows had appeared upon the hill just before the valley, in silent astonishment at what Strates and Bruce could possibly be doing at the altar. Two or three, who came down to the edge of the swamp, had seen the grimaces and action of Strates; on which they asked Woldo, as he entered into the village, what was the meaning of all this? Woldo told them that the man was only out of his senses, having been bitten by a mad dog; with which they were perfectly satisfied, observing that he would be infallibly cured by the Nile, but that the proper mode of effecting the cure was to drink the water in the morning, fasting. "I was very well pleased," says Bruce, "both with this turn Woldo gave the action, and the remedy we stumbled upon by mere accident, which discovered a connexion, believed to subsist at this day, between this river and its ancient governor, the dog-star." After this scene of affected cheerfulness, Bruce retired to his tent, where he was again haunted by the reflections which he had in vain endeavoured to shake off. He says, "Relaxed, not refreshed, by unquiet and imperfect sleep, I started from my bed in the utmost agony. I went to the door of my tent; everything was still; the Nile, at whose head I stood, was not capable either to promote or to interrupt my slumbers; but the coolness and serenity of the night braced my nerves, and chased away those phantoms that, while in bed, had oppressed and tormented me." Bruce remained at Geesh four days, during which time he was constantly occupied in making various surveys and astronomical observations. "The hillock of green sod" is in the middle of a small marsh of about twelve feet in diameter, surrounded by a wall of sod, at the foot of which there is a narrow trench which collects the water. In the centre of this hillock there is a hole, filled with water, which has no ebullition or perceptible motion of any kind on its surface: this hole is about three feet in diameter and about six feet deep. At the distance of ten feet from the hillock there is a second small fountain, about eleven inches in diameter and eight feet deep; and at twenty feet there is another hole, some two feet broad and six feet deep. These holes or altars are surrounded by walls of sod, like the former. The water from all these unites; and the quantity, Bruce says, "would have filled a pipe of about two inches in diameter." The result of about forty observations places these fountains in north latitude 10° 59' 25", and 36° 55' 30" east longitude. The mercury in the barometer stood at twenty-two inches, which indicates an altitude above the level of the sea of more than two miles. The thermometer, on the 6th of November, in the morning, was 44°, at noon 96°, and at sunset 46°. Having now given the result of Bruce's observations, it is necessary to make a few general remarks upon the subject. There is, perhaps, no geographical problem which has occupied the attention of so many ages as the discovery of the sources of the Nile. Had this river flowed through a rich and populous country, the information sought after would, like its waters, have descended rapidly from its source to its mouth; but in the great sandy desert of Nubia the problem of its origin was absorbed; and, thus flowing in mysterious solitude and silence, it reached Egypt, leaving its history behind it. The curiosity, therefore, not only of the Egyptians, but of strangers of all countries, was constantly excited. The fruitless attempt of Cambyses to penetrate Ethiopia, the eager inquiries which Alexander is said to have made on his first arrival at the temple of Jupiter Ammon, and the expedition of Ptolemy Philadelphus, are the most ancient evidences of this curiosity. If a river, like a canal, were as broad and valuable at one end as at the other, its source would be a point of as much importance as its mouth; but we have just seen what the source of a river is, and which may be defined as that point from which the most remote particle of its waters proceed. In a populous country like England, where nearly every field has been the subject of a lawsuit, and where every one has been surveyed with the most scrupulous accuracy, the source of the Thames is of course no mystery; yet not one person out of a hundred thousand knows where it is, and for the reason that there is no practical use in the inquiry: all that one cares to know is how far the Thames is navigable; at what point, in short, it ceases to be useful to the community. But if this be the case in a highly civilized country, how wild a project must it appear to search for the source of a river through sands and deserts, and savage and barbarous nations, merely to determine from what particular spot its most distant drop of water proceeds! We might as well inquire, in an army of soldiers, which is the individual whose father or grandfather was born farthest from the capital: a question which some might call exceedingly curious, but which would certainly be very idle, and lead to endless and equally senseless discussion. He who embarks in a useless enterprise is subject to disappointments which no rational being can lament; and, although we have hitherto supported Bruce in all his facts and feelings, in truth and justice we must now admit, that, of the above remark, this enterprising traveller is himself a most striking example; for, after all his trouble and perseverance, there can be no doubt, 1st, that the fountains of Geesh are not the real source of the Nile; and, 2dly, that Bruce was not the first European who visited even them. A glance at any common map will show that, at about sixteen degrees, or eleven hundred miles, from the line, at the boundary of the tropical rains, the river Nile divides into two branches--the White river and the Blue river. The White river runs very nearly north and south; the Blue river, bending towards the east, comes from Ethiopia, or, as we term it, Abyssinia. Now a question naturally arises, Which of these two rivers is the principal stream? The Ethiopians have, of course, always claimed that distinction for the Blue river; and Cambyses, Alexander, Ptolemy, and almost every one down to Bruce, looked to Ethiopia for the sources of the Nile; but it is indisputably settled that the White river is the main branch or artery of the Nile. Nay, much to Bruce's honour, he himself admits this; and states not only that the White river is by far the larger and deeper of the two, but that it evidently proceeds from a more remote source; since, instead of periodically rising and falling as the Blue river does (which shows that the latter depends on the tropical rains), the waters of the White river are unceasingly flowing; which, as Bruce justly remarks, denotes that this river is fed by those distant rains which are known to be always falling in the neighbourhood of the equator. Our candid traveller adds, that if it were not for the constant supply of the White river, the waters of the Blue or Abyssinian river (which is formed by the union of three great streams, the Mareb, the Bowiha, and the Tacazzé) would be absorbed in the sands of the desert of Nubia, and that the Nile would consequently never reach Egypt. The real source of the Nile, therefore, still remains unknown, or, rather, it hangs in the equatorial clouds from which the rains that feed it descend. Bruce, who had hazarded everything to solve the Quixotical problem of his day, naturally clings to the fact that the Blue river was in Abyssinia, and even in Sennaar considered as the true Nile. His statement has lately been corroborated by Burckhardt, who, in his Travels to Nubia in 1816, says, "It is usual with the native Arabs to call the branch of the river on which Sennaar lies, and which rises in Abyssinia, by the name Nil, as well as that of Bahr el Azrek (Blue river). Thus every one says that Sennaar is situated on the Nile; so far, therefore, Bruce is justified in styling himself the discoverer of the Nile; but I have often heard the Sennaar merchants declare, that the Bahr el Abyad (White river), which is the name invariably given to the more western branch, is considerably larger than the Nile." But the Blue river was not only looked upon as the Nile in Nubia and Abyssinia; it had also been always so considered in Europe; and Bruce accordingly did reach the goal which human curiosity had so long been striving to attain. In regard, however, to his having been the discoverer of the source of the Blue river, or Abyssinian Nile, it must also be admitted that Bruce was not the first European who visited it. Peter Paez, the intelligent Jesuit, whose career has been already noticed in our slight sketch of the history of Abyssinia, certainly visited, one hundred and fifty years before Bruce, these fountains, which he describes with very tolerable exactness; and although Bruce, eager and jealous, very naturally endeavours to detect small inaccuracies, yet it is perfectly evident that Paez's description is that of an eyewitness. Paez, it is true, says that the fountains "are about a league or a cannon-shot distant from Geesh;" whereas, on measuring this distance, Bruce found it to be only a third of a mile; but, in a strange country and atmosphere, conjectures as to distance are almost always erroneous; and a Jesuit's calculation of the range of a cannon-shot would not, probably, be anywhere very correct. But, although Paez first saw and described the fountains of Geesh, it may fairly be said that Bruce was the first to impart the intelligence to the European public; for Paez's description, which was originally written in Portuguese, was published in Latin, after his death, by Athanasius Kircher, a brother Jesuit, well known for his extensive learning and his voluminous writings; and appearing in this form, and containing also a number of improbable statements, it made no progress beyond the little circle or society to which it was originally addressed. It is undoubtedly true, that, in Bruce's time, the discovery of the source of the Abyssinian river was still the idle problem of the day; and therefore, although Paez had gone thither before him, and though Kircher had actually published Paez's account of these fountains, the intelligence had never reached the public ear, the fact having been unnoticed from the absurdities with which it was combined. In short, it is evident that to Bruce the public is practically indebted for the description (whatever it may be worth) of the "hillock of green sod," the source of the Bahr el Azergue, one of the great branches of the Nile.[33] It must farther be admitted, that Bruce manfully performed his task; and his solid reputation can well afford, if necessary, to throw aside altogether the bawble for which, as a young man, he so eagerly and enthusiastically contended: the reader has only to glance his eye over the immense country he has delineated to perceive the justice of this remark. But to return to the narrative. When Bruce first reached the fountains of Geesh, the miserable Agows eagerly assembled around Woldo, to inquire how long the party was to remain among them. Fasil's horse was quite sufficient to explain from whence the strangers had arrived; and it was consequently expected that they were to be maintained as long as they might think proper to stop. Woldo, however, soon dissipated all their fears. He told them of the king's grant of the village of Geesh to Bruce; and added, that he was come to live happily among them, to pay them for everything, and, moreover, that no military service would be required from them, either by the king or the governor of Damot. This joyful intelligence was quickly circulated among these simple people; and, when Bruce returned from the fountain, he met with a very hearty welcome at the village. The shum, the priest of the river, gave up his own house to our traveller, and his attendants were lodged in four or five others. "Our hearts," says Bruce, "were now perfectly at ease, and we passed a very merry evening. Strates, above all, endeavoured, with many a bumper of the good hydromel of Buré, to subdue the evil spirit which he had swallowed in the enchanted water." Woldo was also perfectly happy. Out of sight of everything belonging to Fasil except his horse, he displayed Bruce's articles for barter to the shum, to whom he explained that oxen and sheep would be paid for in gold. The poor shum, overpowered at the sight of so much wealth and generosity, told Woldo that he must insist that Bruce and his attendants should take his daughters as their housekeepers. "The proposal was," says Bruce, "a most reasonable one, and readily accepted. He accordingly sent for three in an instant, and we delivered them their charge. The eldest, called Irepone, took it upon her readily; she was about sixteen years of age, of a stature above the middle size, but she was remarkably genteel, and, colour apart, her features would have made her a beauty in any country in Europe: she was, besides, very sprightly; we understood not one word of her language, though she comprehended very easily the signs that we made." The next day a white cow was killed, and every one was invited to partake of her. The shum should have been of the party, but he declined sitting or eating with the strangers, though his sons were not so scrupulous. He accordingly was left to pray to the Spirit of the River, which these poor, deluded people call "The Everlasting God, Light of the World, Eye of the World, God of Peace, Saviour, and Father of the Universe!" Bruce asked the old shum if ever he had seen the Spirit; he answered, without hesitation, "Yes, very frequently!" The shum, whose title was Kefla Abay, or "Servant of the River," was a man of about seventy. The honourable charge which he possessed had been in his family, he conceived, from the beginning of the world; and, as he was the father of eighty-four children, it would appear that his race was likely to flow as long as the Nile itself. He had a long white beard; and round his body was wrapped a skin, which was fastened by a broad belt. Over this he wore a cloak, the hood of which covered his head: his legs were bare, but he wore sandals, which he threw off as soon as he approached the bog from which the Nile rises; a mark of respect which Bruce and his attendants were also required to show. The Agows, in whose country the Nile or Blue river rises, are, in point of number, one of the most considerable nations in Abyssinia, although they have been much weakened by their battles with the Galla tribes. They supply Gondar with cattle, honey, wheat, hides, wax, butter, &c. To prevent their butter from melting on the road, they mix with it the yellow root of an herb called mot-moco. This country, although within ten degrees of the line, is, from its elevation, healthy and temperate; the sun is, of course, scorching, but the shade is cool and agreeable. The Agows are said not to be long livers, but their precise age it is very difficult to ascertain. "We saw," says Bruce, "a number of women, wrinkled and sunburned, so as scarce to appear human, wandering about under a burning sun, with one, and sometimes two children upon their back, gathering the seeds of bent grass to make a kind of bread." [Illustration: _Kefla Abay, or "Servant of the River."_] By the 9th of November Bruce had finished all his observations relating to these remarkable places: he traced again, on foot, the whole course of the Nile, from its source to the plain of Goutto. "Our business," says he, "being now done, nothing remained but to depart. We had passed our time in perfect harmony; the address of Woldo, and the great attachment of our friend Irepone, had kept our house in a cheerful abundance. We had lived, it is true, too magnificently for philosophers, but neither idly nor riotously; and, I believe, never will any sovereign of Geesh be again so popular, or reign over his subjects with greater mildness. I had practised medicine gratis, and killed, for three days successively, a cow each day for the poor and the neighbours. I had clothed the high-priest of the Nile from head to foot, as also his two sons; and had decorated two of his daughters with beads of all the colours of the rainbow, adding every other little present they seemed fond of, or that we thought would be agreeable. As for our amiable Irepone, we had reserved for her the choicest of our presents, the most valuable of every article we had with us, and a large proportion of every one of them; we gave her, besides, some gold: but she, more generous and noble in her sentiments than we, seemed to pay little attention to these, which announced to her the separation from her friends; she tore her fine hair, which she had every day before braided in a newer and more graceful manner; she threw herself upon the ground in the house, and refused to see us mount on horseback or take our leave, and came not to the door till we were already set out; then followed us with her good wishes and her eyes as far as she could see or be heard. "I took my leave of Kefla Abay, the venerable priest of the most famous river in the world, who recommended me, with great earnestness, to the care of his god, which, as Strates humorously enough observed, meant nothing else than that he hoped the devil would take me. All the young men in the village, with lances and shields, attended us to Saint Michael Sacala, that is, to the borders of their country and end of my little sovereignty." FOOTNOTES: [31] This shell was brought home by Bruce, and is still preserved. [32] A lady in England to whom Bruce was very deeply attached. [33] Still doubts have been expressed whether the fountains discovered by Bruce are the most distant source of the Bahr el Azrek or Blue river, Mr. English, an American, who was in the service of Ishmael Pasha, in his narrative of an expedition to Dongola and Sennaar, expresses an opinion that "the Nile of Bruce has not its principal fountain in Abyssinia, but rather in the lofty range assigned for its origin by the people of Sennaar. On viewing the mass of water downward while he was in the kingdom now mentioned, even before the flood had attained two thirds of the usual magnitude it acquires during the rainy season, he thought it very improbable that the main source of such a river was not distant more than three hundred miles."--See _History, &c., of Nubia and Abyssinia_, Harpers' Family Library.--_Am. Ed._ CHAPTER XIV. Bruce returns to Gondar.--His Residence there.--Accompanies the King in the Battles of Serbraxos.--Revolution at Gondar.--Defeat and Overthrow of Ras Michael.--Bruce returns to Gondar, and succeeds in obtaining Permission to leave Abyssinia. On the 10th of November, 1770, Bruce left Geesh to return to Gondar, and on the evening of the 11th he reached the house of Shakala Welled Amlac, to whom he had been addressed by Fasil. This singular character was from home; but his wife, mother, and sisters received Bruce kindly, knowing him by report; and, without waiting for Amlac, a cow was instantly slaughtered. The venerable mistress of this worthy family, Welled Amlac's mother, was a very stout, cheerful woman, and bore no signs of infirmity or old age: "but his wife," says Bruce, "was, on the contrary, as arrant a hag as ever acted the part on the stage; very active, however, and civil, and speaking very tolerable Amharic." His two sisters, about sixteen or seventeen, were really handsome; but Fasil's wife, who was there, was the most beautiful and graceful of them all: she seemed to be scarcely eighteen, tall, thin, and of a very agreeable carriage and manners. At first sight, a cast of melancholy seemed to hang upon her countenance, but this soon vanished, and she became very courteous, cheerful, and conversible. "Fasil's two sisters," says Bruce, "had been out, helping my servants in disposing the baggage; but when they had pitched my tent, and were about to lay the mattress for sleeping on, the eldest of these interrupted them, and, not being able to make herself understood by the Greeks, she took it up and threw it out of the tent door, while no abuse or opprobrious names were spared by my servants; one of whom came to tell me her impudence, and that they believed we were got into a house of thieves and murderers. To this I answered by a sharp reproof, desiring them to conform to everything the family ordered them. "Immediately after this Welled Amlac arrived, and brought the disagreeable news that it was impossible to proceed to the ford of the Abay, as two of the neighbouring shums were at variance about their respective districts, and in a day or two would decide their dispute by blows." Satisfied that Bruce understood him, Amlac put on the most cheerful countenance. Another cow was killed, great plenty of hydromel produced, and he prepared to regale his guests as sumptuously as possible, after the manner of the country. "We were there," says Bruce, "as often before, obliged to overcome our repugnance to eating raw flesh. Shakala Welled Amlac set us the example, entertained us with the stories of his hunting elephants, and feats in the last wars, mostly roguish ones. The room where we were (which was indeed large, and contained himself, mother, wife, sisters, his horses, mules, and servants, night and day) was all hung round with the trunks of these elephants, which he had brought from the neighbouring Kolla, near Guesgue, and killed with his own hands; for he was one of the boldest and best horsemen in Abyssinia, and perfectly master of his arms. "This Polyphemus feast being finished, the horn of hydromel went briskly about. Welled Amlac's eldest sister, whose name was Melectanea, took a particular charge of me, and I began to find the necessity of retiring and going to bed while I was able." The next day Bruce observed that Fasil's wife still appeared in low spirits; he therefore conversed with her. She said her husband was at Gondar; that it was the custom of the country that the conqueror should marry the wives of his enemies, and in grief she added, "Fasil will be married, therefore, to Michael's wife, Ozoro Esther." Bruce started at this declaration, remembering that he was losing his time, forgetful of a promise he had made that he would return as soon as possible to Gondar. He therefore resolved to depart at once. "In the afternoon," he says, "we distributed our presents among the ladies. Fasil's wife was not forgot; and his sister, the beautiful Melectanea, was covered with beads, handkerchiefs, and ribands of all colours. Fasil's wife, on my first request, gave me a lock of her fine hair from the root, which has ever since, and at this day does, suspend a plummet of an ounce and a half at the index of my three-feet quadrant." Accounts being thus settled, Bruce resumed his journey, crossed the Nile at Delakus, and proceeded till three quarters past seven, when he alighted at Googue, a considerable village, and, as he had already several times mistaken his way in the dark, he resolved to go no farther. "We found the people of Googue," says Bruce, "the most savage and inhospitable we had yet met with. Upon no account would they suffer us to enter their houses, and we were obliged to remain without the greatest part of the night. At last they carried us to a house of good appearance, but refused absolutely to give us meat for ourselves or horses; and, as we had not force, we were obliged to be content. It had rained violently in the evening, and we were all wet. We contented ourselves with lighting a large fire in the middle of the house, which we kept burning all night, as well for guard as for drying ourselves, though we little knew at the time that it was probably the only means of saving our lives; for, in the morning, we found the whole village sick of the fever, and two families had died out of the house where these people had put us." This fever prevails in Abyssinia in all low grounds and plains, in the neighbourhood of all rivers which run in valleys: it is not in all places equally dangerous; but on the banks and neighbourhood of the Tacazzé it is particularly fatal, the valley where that river runs being very low and sultry, and also being full of large trees. It does not prevail on the high grounds, or mountains, or in places much exposed to the air. On the 14th, at three quarters past seven in the morning, Bruce left the inhospitable village of Googue; and for four days, under a burning sun, continued his journey towards Gondar, where his servants arrived on the 17th of November. "Two things," he says, "chiefly occupied my mind, and prevented me from accompanying my servants and baggage into Gondar. The first was my desire of instantly knowing the state of Ozoro Esther's health: the second was to avoid Fasil till I knew a little more about Ras Michael and the king." Bruce proceeded, therefore, to Koscam, and went straight to the iteghe's apartment, but was not admitted, as she was at her devotions. In crossing one of the courts, however, he met a slave of Ozoro Esther, who, instead of answering the question he put to her, gave a loud shriek, and ran to inform her mistress. Bruce hastened to Ozoro Esther; he found her considerably recovered, her anxiety about Fasil having ceased. During Bruce's absence a great revolution had been effected at Gondar. The reader must be reminded, that just before Bruce landed at Masuah, Ras Michael had caused one king to be assassinated and his successor to be poisoned. From these facts, and from the whole tenour of his conduct, the ras was universally hated and feared; and King Tecla Haimanout suffering from the unpopularity of his minister, his throne, during Bruce's visit to Geesh, had been usurped by Socinios, who immediately appointed Fasil to be ras, giving him the command of every post of importance in the government of Abyssinia. Still the people loved King Tecla Haimanout as much as they secretly detested Socinios; and Fasil, sensible of this feeling, and dreading the displeasure of Ras Michael, at last declared his intention of restoring Tecla Haimanout to the throne; and, encamping within two miles of Gondar, he invited all who wished to escape the vengeance of Michael to join his standard. Socinios fled; but he was taken by some soldiers, who, after stripping him naked, gave him a good horse, and dismissed him, like Mazeppa, to seek his own fortune. As the servant of Ozoro Esther, Bruce proceeded to join the king's army; and, on arriving at Mariam Ohha, where it was encamped, he waited on Ras Michael, who admitted him as soon as he was announced. On presenting himself, Bruce kissed the ground, though Michael did everything in his power to prevent it; many compliments passed, and the ras recommended Bruce, before all his attendants, to go at once to the king. "I had been," says Bruce, "jostled and almost squeezed to death attempting to enter, but large room was made me for retiring. The reception I had met with was the infallible rule according to which the courtiers were to speak to me from that time forward. Man is the same creature everywhere, although different in colour; the court of London and that of Abyssinia are, in their principles, one." The king was surrounded by thousands of people; for the inhabitants of Gondar and all the neighbouring towns had assembled, fearing lest Ras Michael should consider their absence as a proof of adherence to the usurper Socinios. Bruce was very kindly received by his majesty, who had always expressed towards him feelings of esteem and regard. He kissed his hand, and, says Bruce, "as I took leave of him, I could not help reflecting as I went, that of the vast multitude then in my sight, I was perhaps the only one destitute of hope or fear." The hill before him was actually covered with people, and from the white cotton garments in which they were dressed, it appeared like snow. It was in the month of December, which, in Abyssinia, is the most agreeable time of the year. The sun and the rains were in the southern tropic, and the whole scene had the appearance of a party of pleasure assembled to convoy the king to his capital. The priests from all the neighbouring convents, dressed in yellow or white cotton, and holding crosses in their hands, gave variety to the picture. Ras Michael had brought with him about twenty thousand men from Tigré, the best soldiers in the empire; about six thousand were armed with muskets, about twelve thousand had lances and shields, and the rest were mounted on horses, and had been employed in scouring the country, to collect such unhappy people as were destined for public example. On the morning of the 23d of December, the ras ordered the signal to be given for striking the tents; when the whole army was instantly in motion, and at night it encamped on the banks of the river just below Gondar. In consequence of this movement, a report was spread that the king and Ras Michael had determined to burn the town, and put all the inhabitants to the sword, which occasioned the utmost consternation, and caused many to fly to Fasil. "As for me," says Bruce, "the king's behaviour showed me plainly all was not right, and an accident in the way confirmed it. He had desired me to ride before him, and show him the horse I had got from Fasil, which was then in great beauty and order, and which I had kept purposely for him. It happened that, crossing a deep bed of a brook, a plant of the kantuffa hung across it. I had upon my shoulders a white goat-skin, of which it did not take hold; but the king, who was dressed in the habit of peace, his long hair floating all around his face, wrapped up in his mantle or thin cotton cloak so that nothing but his eyes could be seen, was paying more attention to the horse than to the branch of kantuffa beside him; it took first hold of his hair, and the fold of the cloak that covered his head, then spread itself over his whole shoulder in such a manner that, notwithstanding all the help that could be given him, and that I had, at first seeing it, cut the principal bough asunder with my knife, no remedy remained but he must throw off the upper garment, and appear in the under one or waistcoat, with his head and face bare before all the spectators. "This is accounted great disgrace to a king, who always appears covered in public. However, he did not seem to be ruffled, nor was there anything particular in his countenance more than before; but with great composure, and in rather a low voice, he called twice, 'Who is the shum of this district?' Unhappily, he was not far off. A thin old man of sixty, and his son about thirty, came trotting, as their custom is, naked to their girdle, and stood before the king, who was by this time quite clothed again. What had struck the old man's fancy I know not, but he passed my horse laughing, and seemingly wonderfully content with himself. I could not help considering him as a type of mankind in general, never more confident and careless than when on the brink of destruction. The king asked if he was shum of that place. He answered in the affirmative, and added, which was not asked him, that the other was his son. "There is always near the king when he marches an officer called Kanitz Kitzera, the executioner of the camp; he has upon the tore of his saddle a quantity of thongs made of bull hide, rolled up very artificially; this is called the tarade. The king made a sign with his head and another with his hand, without speaking; and two loops of the tarade were instantly thrown round the shum and his son's neck, and they were both hoisted upon the same tree, the tarade cut, and the end made fast to a branch. They were both left hanging, but I thought so awkwardly that they would not die for some minutes, and might surely have been saved had any one dared to cut them down; but fear had fallen upon every person who had not attended the king to Tigré."[34] This was but an omen of the executions which were immediately to follow. In the evening of the 23d came Sanuda, the person who had made Socinios king, and who had been a ras under him: he was received with great marks of favour, in reward for the treacherous part he had acted. He brought with him, as prisoners, Guebra Denghel, the ras's son-in-law, one of the best and most amiable men in Abyssinia, but who had unfortunately embraced the wrong side of the question; and with him Sebaat Laab and Kefla Mariam, both men of great importance in Tigré. These were, one after the other, thrown violently on their faces before the king. About two hours later came Ayto Aylo, whom the king had named governor of Begemder: he brought with him Chremation, brother to Socinios, and Abba Salama, Bruce's constant enemy, and who had even thrice endeavoured to have him assassinated. While they were untying Abba Salama, Bruce went into the presence-chamber and stood behind the king's chair. Very soon afterward Aylo's men brought in their prisoners, and, as is usual, threw them down violently with their faces to the ground; and, their hands being bound behind them, they had a very rude fall. "Abba Salama rose in a violent passion; he struggled to loosen his hands, to perform the act of denouncing excommunication, which is by lifting the right hand and extending the forefinger; finding that impossible, he cried out, 'Unloose my hands, or you are all excommunicated.' It was with difficulty he could be prevailed upon to hear the king, who, with great courage and composure, or rather indifference, said to him, 'You are the first ecclesiastical officer in my household; you are the third in the whole kingdom; but I have not yet learned you ever had power to curse your sovereign or exhort his subjects to murder him. You are to be tried for this crime by the judges to-morrow; so prepare to show in your defence upon what precepts of Christ or his apostles, or upon what part of the general councils, you found your title to do this.' "'Let my hands be unloosed,' cried the churchman, violently; 'I am a priest, a servant of God; and they have power, said David, to put kings in chains and nobles in irons. And did not Samuel hew king Agag to pieces before the Lord! I excommunicate you, Tecla Haimanout!' He was proceeding in this wild strain, when Tecla Mariam, son of the king's secretary, a young man, striking him so violently on the face that his mouth gushed out with blood, said, 'What! this in the king's presence?' Upon which both Chremation and Abba Salama were hurried out of the tent without being able to say more; indeed, the blow seemed so much to have disconcerted the latter that it deprived him of the power of speaking. "In Abyssinia it is death at the time to strike, or lift the hand to strike, before the king; but in this case the provocation was considered so great, so sudden and unexpected, that a slight reproof was ordered to be given to young Tecla Mariam; but he lost no favour for what he had done either with the king, Michael, or the people. "When the two prisoners were carried before the ras, he refused to see them, but loaded them with irons, and committed them to close custody." On the 24th the drum beat, and the army was on its march by dawn of day; they halted a little after passing the rough ground, and then doubled their ranks, and formed into close order of battle, the king leading the centre; a few of his black horse were in two lines immediately before him, their spears pointed upward, his officers and nobility on each side, and behind him the rest of the cavalry distributed in two wings. Prince George and Ayto Confu, son of Ras Michael, commanded two small bodies, not exceeding a hundred, who scoured the country, sometimes in front and sometimes on the flank; they marched close and in great order, and every one trembled for the fate of Gondar. They passed the Mohammedan town and encamped upon the river Kahha, in front of the market-place. There were at Gondar a set of mummers, a mixture of buffoons and ballad-singers. Upon all public occasions, these people run about the streets; and while the poor wretches, men and women, to the number of thirty or upward, were now in a song celebrating Michael's return to Gondar, the Siré horse, on a signal made by the ras, turned short round, fell upon them, and cut them to pieces. In less than two minutes they were all laid dead upon the field, excepting one young man, who, though mortally wounded, had strength enough to reach within twenty yards of the king's horse, where he fell lifeless without speaking a word. It was about nine o'clock in the morning when Bruce entered Gondar, and every person he met in the street wore the countenance of a condemned malefactor. The ras went immediately to the palace with the king, who retired, as usual, to a kind of cage or lattice window, where he always sits unseen when in council. Bruce proceeded to the council chamber, where four of the judges were seated. Abba Salama was brought to the foot of the table without irons, at perfect liberty. The accuser for the king opened the charge against him with great force and eloquence. He stated, one by one, the crimes which he had committed at different periods; concluding the catalogue with an accusation of high treason, or cursing the king, and absolving his subjects from their allegiance, which he declared to be the greatest crime that human nature was capable of, involving in its consequences all other crimes. Abba Salama did not often interrupt him, but to every new charge he roughly pleaded not guilty, by exclaiming, "You lie." "It is a lie." "Being desired to answer in his own defence, he commenced with great dignity, and with an air of superiority very different from his behaviour in the king's tent the day before. He smiled, and made extremely light of the charges made against him respecting women, which he said he would neither confess nor deny; but would only observe, that these might be crimes among the Franks (looking at Bruce), but were not so among the Christians of that country, who lived under a double dispensation, the law of Moses and the law of Christ. He went roundly into the murder of King Joas, and of his two brothers, Adigo and Aylo, on the mountain of Wechne, and he openly charged Michael with that crime, as also with poisoning the late king, Hatze Hannes, father of the present king." The old ras pretended not to hear this, by sometimes speaking to people standing behind him, and sometimes by reading a paper; but he asked Bruce, who was standing immediately behind his chair, in a low voice, "What is the punishment in your country for such a crime?" Bruce replied, "High treason is punished with death in all the countries I have ever known." "This," says Bruce, "I owed to Abba Salama, and it was not long before I had my return." Abba Salama, pointing to Bruce, then accused the iteghe of living with Catholics; and he added, that it was against the law of the country that Bruce should be suffered to remain; that he was accursed, and ought to be stoned as an enemy to the Virgin Mary. Here the ras interrupted him, by saying "Confine yourself to your own defence; clear yourself first, and then accuse any one you please." When Abba Salama had concluded, the king's secretary sent up to the window the substance of his defence; the criminal, in the mean time, was carried at some distance to the other end of the room, and the judges deliberated while the king was reading. Very few words were said among the rest; the ras himself was all the time speaking to different people. After he had concluded his conversation with the by-standers, he called upon the youngest judge to give his opinion, which he did as follows: "He is guilty, and should die;" the same said all the officers, and after them the judges. The following sentence was therefore pronounced upon him by the king: "He is guilty, and _shall_ die _the death_. The hangman _shall_ hang him upon a tree _to-day_." The unfortunate Acab Saat was immediately hurried away by the guards to the place of execution, which is a large tree before the king's gate; where, uttering, to the very last moment, curses against Ras Michael, the king, and the abuna, he was hanged in the very robes in which he used to sit before the king, without one badge of his civil or sacerdotal pre-eminence having been taken off from him. In going to the tree, he recollected that he had four hundred cows, which he bequeathed to priests who were to say prayers for his soul; but the old ras ordered them to be brought to Gondar and distributed among the soldiers. Socinios's brother was next called; and, half dead with fear, he also was sentenced to be hanged. "I went home," says Bruce, "and my house being but a few yards from the palace, I passed the two unfortunate people hanging upon the same branch." The next morning came on the trials of Guebra Denghel, Sebaat Laab, and Kefla Mariam: the ras claimed his right of trying these three at his own house, as they were all subjects of his government of Tigré. Guebra Denghel behaved with great unconcern, declaring that his only reason for taking up arms against the king was, that he saw no other way of getting rid of Michael's tyranny, and his insatiable thirst of money and power. He wished the king to know that this was his sole motive for rebellion; and declared that, unless it had been to make this declaration, he would not have opened his mouth before so partial and unjust a judge as Michael. Welleta Selasse, his only daughter, hearing the danger her father was in, broke suddenly out of Ozoro Esther's apartment, which was contiguous, and rushing into the council-room at the instant he was condemned to die, she threw herself at the ras's feet in an attitude and with an expression of the utmost distress; but the old tyrant spurned her away with his foot, and then ordered her father to be instantly hanged. Welleta Selasse fell speechless to the ground. The father, forgetful of his own situation, flew to his daughter's assistance, and they were both dragged out at separate doors--the one to death, the other to after sufferings more dreadful than death itself; for, though not seventeen, the ras, who was her grandfather, after having deprived her of her parent, so alarmed her by his brutality, that, in despair and agony of mind, she swallowed poison! "I saw her," says Bruce, "in her last moments, but too late to give her any assistance; and she had told her women-servants and slaves that she had taken arsenic, having no other way of escaping from the persecution of the murderer of her father." The next to be tried were Kefla Mariam and Sebaat Laab, who were condemned by the ras to lose their eyes--a very common punishment in Abyssinia to this day. To avoid shocking the reader with any farther details of these horrid cruelties, it will only be observed, that blood continued to be spilt as water, day after day, till the Epiphany; priests, laymen, young men and old, noble and vile, daily found their end by the knife or the cord, while their bodies were hewn to pieces and scattered about the streets. "I was almost driven to despair," says Bruce, "at seeing my hunting dogs, twice let loose by the carelessness of my servants, bringing into the courtyard the heads and arms of slaughtered men, and which I could no way prevent but by the destruction of the dogs themselves; the quantity of carrion, and the stench of it, brought down the hyænas in hundreds from the neighbouring mountains; and, as few people in Gondar go out after it is dark, they enjoyed the streets by themselves, and seemed ready to dispute the possession of the city with the inhabitants. Often, when I went home late from the palace (and it was this time the king chose chiefly for conversation), though I had but to pass the corner of the market-place before the palace, had lanterns with me, and was surrounded with armed men, I heard them grunting by twos and threes, so near me as to be afraid they would take some opportunity of seizing me by the leg; a pistol would have frightened them, and made them speedily run, and I constantly carried two loaded at my girdle; but the discharging a pistol in the night would have alarmed every one that heard it in the town, and it was not now the time to add anything to people's fears. I at last scarcely ever went out, and nothing occupied my thoughts but how to escape from this bloody country by the way of Sennaar, and how I could best exert my power and influence over my faithful friend Yasine, at Ras el Feel, to pave my way, by assisting me to pass the desert into Atbara." The king, missing Bruce for some days at the palace, and hearing he had been at Ras Michael's, began to inquire who had been with him. Ayto Confu soon found Yasine, who informed him of the whole matter; upon which Bruce was sent for to the palace, where he found the king, with no one about him but menial servants. He immediately remarked to Bruce that he looked very ill, which was indeed the case, as he had scarcely ate or slept since the king saw him last, or even for some days before. The king asked him, in a condoling tone, "What ailed him?" observing that, "besides looking sick, he seemed as if something had ruffled him, and put him out of humour." Bruce replied, that what he observed was true: that, coming across the market-place, he had seen Za Mariam, the ras's doorkeeper, with three men bound, one of whom he hacked to pieces in his presence; that, as he was running across the place with his hand to his nose, Mariam called to him to stop till he should despatch the other two, as he wanted to speak to him; that the soldiers immediately fell upon the two men, whose cries, he said, were still remaining in his ears; that the hyænas at night would scarcely suffer him to pass in the streets as he returned from the palace; and that the dogs fled into his house to eat pieces of human flesh at leisure. "Although," says Bruce, "the king's intention was to look grave, I saw it was all he could do to stifle a laugh at grievances he thought very little of." "The men you saw with Za Mariam just now," says he, "are rebels, sent by Kefla Yasous for examples: he has forced a junction with Tecla and Welleta Michael in Samen, and a road is now open through Woggora, and plenty established in Gondar. The men you saw suffer were those that cut off the provisions from coming into the city; they have occasioned the death of many poor people: as for the hyæna, he never meddles with living people; he seeks carrion, and will soon clear the streets of these encumbrances that so much offend you. People say they are the Falasha of the mountains, who take that shape of the hyæna, and come down into the town to eat Christian flesh in the night." "If they depend upon Christian flesh, and eat no other," said Bruce, "perhaps the hyænas of Gondar will be the worst fed of any in the world!" "True," said the king, bursting out into loud laughter, "that may be; few of those that die by the knife anywhere are Christians, or have any religion at all; why then should you mind what they suffer?" "Sir," said Bruce, "that is not my sentiment; if you were to order a dog to be tortured to death before me every morning, I could not bear it. The carcasses of Abba, Salama, Guebra Denghel, and the rest, are still hanging where they were upon the tree; you smell the stench of them at the palace gate, and will soon, I apprehend, in the palace itself. This cannot be pleasant, and I do assure you it must be very pernicious to your health, if there was nothing else in it. At the battle of Fagitta, though you had no intention to retreat, yet you went half a day backward, to higher ground and purer air, to avoid the stench of the field; but here in the city you heap up carrion about your houses, where is your continual residence." "The ras has given orders," said the king, gravely, "to remove all the dead bodies before the Epiphany, when we go down to keep that festival, and wash away all this pollution in the clear-running water of the Kahha; but tell me, Yagoube, is it really possible that you can take such things as these so much to heart? You are a brave man: we all know you are, and have seen it: we have all blamed you, stranger as you are in this country, for the little care you take of yourself; and yet about these things you are as much affected as the most cowardly woman, girl, or child could be." "Sir," said Bruce, "I do not know if I am brave or not; but if to see men tortured or murdered, or to live among dead bodies without concern, be courage, I have it not, nor desire to have it." In the eager expression of these manly sentiments, which sparkle in the moral darkness amid which they appear, Bruce was interrupted by the arrival of a young nobleman, who, according to custom, threw himself on his face before the king. Ras Michael was now announced, and Bruce made haste to get away. In the antechamber he passed the ras, attended by a great many people, and endeavoured to slide by him in the crowd; but he noticed him, and called him before him. Bruce kissed his hands, and the ras kept hold of one of them, saying, "My son is ill; Ozoro Esther has just sent to me, and complains you visit her now no more. Go see the boy, and don't neglect Ozoro Esther; she is one of your best friends." Bruce inquired if she was at Gondar, and was answered, "No; she is at Koscam." He therefore went home to plan his route to Sennaar, and to prepare letters for Hagi Belal, a merchant there, to whom he was recommended from Arabia Felix. On the 31st of December, 1770, the last day of a year which, in the history of Bruce's life, had been so eventful, he went to Koscam. The next night, the 1st of January, 1771, Bruce was desired to wait on the king; and, after a very long discussion, he at last succeeded in obtaining permission to send letters to Sennaar, arranging his departure from Abyssinia, under a solemn engagement, that, as soon as he should recover his health in England, he would return with as many of his brethren and family as possible, with horses, muskets, and bayonets. "This permission," says Bruce, "greatly composed my mind at the time, as I now no longer considered myself as involved in that ancient and general rule of the country--_never to allow a stranger to quit Abyssinia_." While the king was keeping the festival of the Epiphany, he received a visit from the son of the governor of Shoa, who came to offer personal service, a present of five hundred ounces of gold, and one thousand horsemen, ready equipped. This person had heard from some priests in his country that there was a very strange white man in favour with the king at Gondar, who could do everything but raise the dead: he accordingly requested to be made acquainted with Bruce, who, by the king's orders, waited upon him every morning; and, availing himself of this favourable opportunity, Bruce managed to obtain from him the history of the Abyssinian kings who had reigned in Shoa, which curious document he afterward brought with him to Europe. The Moor Yasine now returned from Sennaar, and informed Bruce that, by the inquiries he had been able to make, it appeared that he would be probably well received if he could get to Sennaar; but that he would have very great difficulty in passing from Ras el Feel to the banks of the Dender. Bruce would most willingly have commenced his journey at once, being naturally most anxious to escape from the horrors of civil war: the time, however, had not yet arrived; for, having embarked on the political stream, he was against his will still carried along by it. For many months the rebels, in immense numbers, under the command of Gusho and Powussen, were committing every sort of violence, burning houses, barns, and villages. At last the cries of the people, who came flying to him for projection, determined Ras Michael to risk a battle. He accordingly marched out of Gondar, taking with him the king, the abuna, as head of the church, Ozoro Esther, and other principal people. The king's army was composed of about thirty-two thousand men, of whom about seven thousand five hundred were mounted. In this army were a number of excellent officers, who had spent their lives in war. The whole was commanded by Ras Michael in person, who, being now seventy-four years of age, had passed half a century in a succession of victories. The force of the enemy amounted to about thirty thousand. The king's army (if it may be so termed) was in a most undisciplined state. "All our officers," says Bruce, "had left their command, and were crowding about Ras Michael and the king; women bearing provisions, horns of liquor, and mills for grinding corn upon their backs; idle women of all sorts, half dead with fear, crying and roaring, mounted upon mules; and men driving mules loaded with baggage, mingled with the troops, and passing through in all directions, presented such a tumultuous appearance, that it surpassed all description. There were above ten thousand women accompanying the army: the ras had about fifty loaded with bouza, and the king, I suppose, near as many. "The sight threw me for a moment into low spirits. I know not if the king saw it. I was perfectly silent when he cried, 'Well, what do you say to us now, Yagoube?' I answered, 'Is this the order in which your majesty means to engage?' He laughed, and said, 'Ay, why not? you will see.' 'If that is so,' I replied, 'I only hope it is the enemy's custom, as well as your majesty's, to be in no better order.' A partial engagement ensued, which lasted about an hour: in it Confu, son of Ozoro Esther, was severely wounded. Ras Michael, notwithstanding the natural hardness of his heart, showed great sensibility, and came to see him. Ozoro Esther also, in the deepest concern, attended her son, and both she and the ras earnestly entreated Bruce to see him safe to Gondar. 'Go! go! for God's sake, go!' said the ras; 'Ozoro Esther has been here almost out of her senses!'" Bruce, therefore, consented to accompany both Confu and Ozoro Esther to Koscam; and, having done this, he then returned to the army. Ras Michael now ordered the tents to be struck, and his whole army proceeded towards Begemder. He had scarcely taken up his position on the hill of Serbraxos when he was attacked by Powussen; a severe battle ensued, distinguished on both sides by feats of wild, undisciplined valour; however, the king's troops prevailed, and Powussen retreated, having lost about nine hundred of his best men. Everybody seemed to agree that Ras Michael had shown the most astonishing intrepidity and military skill. The day after the battle, messengers arrived from Gusho and Powussen, offering allegiance to King Tecla Haimanout, on condition that Ras Michael should be sent, never to return, to his government of Tigré; but fear or gratitude induced the king to refuse their demands. On the 19th of May, intelligence was received that the whole rebel host was again in motion. The king's army instantly descended into the valley, and the troops were ready, with lighted matches in their hands, when a most violent storm of thunder, lightning, and rain ensued. The army, therefore, fell back, and, the storm subsiding, the evening was passed in pleasure and festivity. All the young nobility were, as usual, at Ozoro Esther's. "It was with infinite pity," says Bruce, "I heard them thoughtlessly praying for a warm and fair day to-morrow, the evening of which many of them were never to see." The next morning the troops returned to the plain and took up their old position. In about half an hour the enemy's army was in motion. The ras first perceived it, and immediately ordered the drums to be beat and the trumpets to be sounded. The army advanced, covered with dust from the excessive dryness of the ground. "In the middle of this great cloud," says Bruce, "we began to perceive, indistinctly, part of the horsemen, then a much greater number, and the figure of the horses more accurately defined, which came moving majestically upon us, sometimes partially seen, at other times concealed by being wrapped up in clouds and darkness; the whole made a most extraordinary, but truly picturesque appearance." The whole of Powussen's army now appeared; they advanced, riding forward and backward with great violence, and appeared to be diverting themselves rather than attacking their enemy. After a most desperate battle, the king's troops fell back under the hill of Serbraxos; but on the right the rebel forces were obliged to retire. Near three thousand men perished on the king's side, and among them nearly one hundred and eighty young men of the best families in the kingdom. The enemy's loss amounted to about nine thousand. The king now received the compliments of his troops, and a most barbarous ceremony, which is still customary in Abyssinia, ensued. Each man who had killed an enemy appeared with a certain part of the man he had slain hanging upon the wrist of his right hand, and, after making a speech, in which he extolled himself as the greatest of heroes, he threw down his barbarous trophy before his chief. The account which Bruce gave of this ceremony was disbelieved; the reason, as usual, being, that it was a savage custom which had not been described before; but Pearce, the English sailor, left in Abyssinia by Lord Valentia, confirms it. He says, in his letter published by the Literary Society of Bombay in 1817, "I saw and counted eighteen hundred and sixty-five of these inhuman trophies brought before the ras after not more than seven hours' fight." Mr. Coffin, Lord Valentia's valet, and who remained in Abyssinia from the time of Lord V.'s departure until the year 1827, has verbally informed us that he has himself seen upward of two thousand of these trophies heaped before the ras. "For my own part," says Bruce, "tired to death, low in spirits, and execrating the hour that brought me to such a country, I almost regretted that I had not died that day in the field of Serbraxos. I went to bed, refusing to go to Ozoro Esther, who had sent for me. I could not help lamenting how well my apprehensions had been verified, that some of our companions at last night's supper, so anxious for the appearance of morning, should never see its evening. Four of them, all young men and of great hopes, were then lying dead and mangled on the field; two others, besides Engedan, had been also wounded. I had, however, a sound and refreshing sleep. I think madness would have been the consequence if this necessary refreshment had failed me; such was the horror I had conceived of my present situation." About eleven o'clock next morning Bruce received an order from the ras to attend him, and he was introduced to the king, who put a large chain of massive gold round his neck; the secretary, at the same time, saying, "Yagoube, the king does you this honour, not as payment for past services, but as a pledge that he will reward them if you will put it in his power." The chain consisted of one hundred and eighty-four links, each of them weighing 3 and 1-12th dwts. of fine gold. "It was with the utmost reluctance," says Bruce, "that, being in want of everything, I sold great part of this honourable distinction at Sennaar, in my return home; the remaining part is still in my possession. It is hoped my successors will never have the same excuse I had for farther diminishing this honourable monument which I have left them." A third battle was fought at Serbraxos, which, though obstinately contested, was not attended on either side with much loss; and soon after secret intelligence reached Tecla Haimanout and Ras Michael, which made them instantly resolve to decamp by night and fall back upon Gondar. The confusion of this march in the dark was beyond all description; men, horses, and mules were rolling promiscuously over each other. Ras Michael's mule fell, and threw him on his face in a puddle of water; but he was instantly lifted up unhurt, and again mounted. Proceeding onward, the creature again fell, and threw the ras a second time into the dirt; on which a general murmur and groan was heard from his attendants, who superstitiously interpreted these repeated falls as an omen that his power and fortune were gone from him for ever. On reaching Gondar, the king went to the palace, and the ras to his own house. The palace was quite deserted; even the king's slaves, of both sexes, had hidden themselves with the monks and in the houses of private friends, so that the king was left with very few attendants. The following morning Gondar was completely invested by Gusho and the confederate army; and towards it were now flocking in every direction all those people of family and property who, from fear of Ras Michael, had fled to Fasil. The capital was soon filled with men and arms; and Gusho, who had been born and bred in Gondar, was looked up to as the father of his country; he raised all Waggora in arms against Michael, so that not a man could pass between Tigré and Gondar. These steps having been taken, a proclamation was now issued, "that all soldiers of the province of Tigré, or who had borne arms under Ras Michael, should, on the morrow, before midday, bring their arms, offensive and defensive, and deliver them up, on a spot fixed upon near the church of Ledata, to commissaries appointed for the purpose of receiving them;" with farther intimation to the inhabitants of Gondar, "that any arms found in any house in that town after noon of the day of proclamation, should subject the owner of such house and arms to death, and the house or houses to be razed to their foundation." Six thousand of the Tigré troops belonging to the ras's province at once laid down their arms; all the rest of the principal officers followed, and even the king's arms were surrendered. The ras, too brave to fear and too infirm to escape, resolutely continued in the house belonging to his office. He ate, drank, and slept as usual; rose, and, talking of the event with equanimity and apparent indifference, dressed himself as richly as possible in gold stuff; and then, with the utmost composure, awaited his death. Once only, when he heard that his disarmed troops had been treated with indignity by the populace, did he for a moment give vent to his feelings: he then burst into tears, exclaiming, "Before this, I could have died happy!" The king also behaved with no little firmness and composure: he had eaten nothing during the first day but some wheaten bread, which he divided with the few servants that remained about him. A body of lawless Galla troops, entering Gondar unobserved, rushed into the palace and into the presence of the king, before whom Bruce and two attendants were seated on the floor. The room, in the days of the luxury and splendour of the Abyssinian court, had been magnificently hung with mirrors, which had been brought at great expense from Venice. The largest of these was immediately smashed by the Galla; and they would probably have proceeded to murder the king and Bruce, had not two hundred young men of Gondar, hearing that these savages had got into the palace, rushed forward to defend their king, and obliged them to retire. On the 1st of June Gusho and Powussen came to the house of Ras Michael, to interrogate him as to his past conduct. They found him clothed in white serge, with a priest's cowl of the same material on his head; and the old ras, seeing that his power was gone, and that ferocity and high personal courage could no longer avail him, resolved to save himself by hypocrisy now that he could no longer do it by force: he therefore declared that "he had ended his political career," and should devote the remainder of his days to peace, penitence, meditation, and prayer. Gusho and Powussen listened to him in sullen silence, and then proceeded to the king's palace, where it was determined that Gusho should be ras. On the 4th of June Powussen marched into Gondar with a thousand horse, and, without farther ceremony, ordered Ras Michael to be placed on a mule, and to be led away to Begemder. Gusho now took possession of his house; the king's officers and servants returned to the palace, the troops decamped, and Gondar was once more quiet. Meanwhile, as Bruce's health had been daily declining, he had spent a considerable part of his time with the iteghe and Ozoro Esther at Koscam. Here he had received intelligence from Sennaar that the whole of that country was in arms; that for a white man to come hither from Ras el Feel would be almost impossible, since, besides the natural difficulties of the country, and the excessive heat of the climate, he would be in the utmost danger from the soldiery and slaves, who were in a complete state of insubordination. He was therefore conjured to abandon his intention, and either remain in Abyssinia, or return, as he came, through Tigré: "But," says Bruce, "besides that I was determined to attempt completing my journey through Sennaar and the desert, I by no means liked the risk of passing again through Masuah, to experience a second time the brutal manners of the naybe and garrison of that place. I therefore resolved to complete my journey to Syene, the frontier of Egypt, by Sennaar and Nubia, or perish in the attempt. "It is here," says Bruce, "a proper period to finish the History of Abyssinia, as I was no farther present at, or informed of, the public transactions which followed. My whole attention was now taken up in preparations for my return through the kingdom of Sennaar and the desert. Neither shall I take up the reader's time with a long narrative of leave-taking, or what passed between me and those illustrious personages with whom I had lived so long in the most perfect and cordial friendship. Men of little and envious minds would perhaps think I was composing a panegyric upon myself, from which, therefore, I most willingly refrain. But the several marks of goodness, friendship, and esteem which I received at parting, are confined within my own breast, where they never shall be effaced, but continue to furnish me with the most agreeable reflections, since they were the fruit alone of personal merit, and of honest, steady, and upright behaviour. All who had attempted the same journey hitherto had met with disappointment, disgrace, or death: for my part, although I underwent every sort of toil, danger, and all manner of hardship, yet these were not confined to myself. I suffered always honourably, and in common with the rest of the state; and when sunshiny days happened (for sunshiny days there were, and many brilliant ones too), of these I was permitted freely to partake; and the most distinguished characters, both at court and in the army, were always ready to contribute, as far as possible, to promote what they thought or saw was the object of my pursuits or entertainment." As Bruce's residence in Abyssinia is now rapidly drawing to a close, one may pause to observe of what honest materials his character seems to have been composed. Personal courage, that gem of the human breast, which, however roughly set, is brilliant even in the rude conduct of the savage, shines with unusual lustre in Bruce's life; while his gratitude to Captain Price, his friendship for those with whom he lived, his loyalty to his king, his attachment to Scotland, his native country, his respect for his ancestors, and other similar sentiments which we have seen constantly escape from him, prove him to have been eminently a sound-hearted man. Two days previous to his departure, our traveller called to take leave of the iteghe, and found there Tensa Christos, one of the chief priests of Gondar. Bruce replied with great dignity and firmness to several impertinent questions put to him concerning his religion by this man. "And now, holy father," he said, "I have one last favour to ask of you, which is your forgiveness, if I have at any time offended you; your blessing, now that I am immediately to depart, if I have it not; and your prayers while on my long and dangerous journey through countries of infidels and pagans." A hum of applause sounded throughout the room. Tensa Christos was apparently surprised at Bruce's humility, and cried out, with tears in his eyes, "Is it possible, Yagoube, that you believe my prayers can do you any good?" "I should not be a Christian, as I profess to be, father," replied Bruce, "if I had any doubt of the effect of good men's prayers." So saying, Bruce stooped to kiss the hand of Christos, who laid a small iron cross upon his head, and, to his great surprise, instead of a benediction, repeated the Lord's prayer. After which Bruce made his obeisance to the iteghe, and immediately withdrew, it not being the custom at a public audience to salute any one in the presence of the sovereign. "Twenty greasy monks," says Bruce, "however, had placed themselves in my way as I went out, that they might have the credit of giving me their blessing likewise after Tensa Christos. As I had very little faith in the prayers of these drones, so I had some reluctance to kiss their greasy hands and sleeves; however, in running this disagreeable gauntlet, I thus gave them my blessing in English: Lord send you all a halter, as he did to Abba Salama (meaning the Acab Saat). But they, thinking I was recommending them to the patriarch Abba Salama, pronounced at random, with great seeming devotion, 'Amen! so be it.'" This serio-comical valedictory malediction, which Bruce bequeaths to "twenty greasy monks of Koscam," abruptly closes his history of Abyssinia, and upon the distant sources of the Nile the curtain now drops! More than half a century has elapsed, and no one has raised the veil which Bruce lifted up; no one has penetrated the mist through which he found his way, or encountered the dangers which he overcame. Yet by far the most arduous and dangerous undertaking in the history of Bruce's life remains to be related; for, whatever may have been his difficulties in Abyssinia, however roughly he may have been treated there, he had warm and powerful friends, and was in a country professedly Christian; but his homeward journey is now to be undertaken, through the centre of some of the most savage, burning, steril regions in the world; and if the reader but reflects on the many distinguished individuals who, full of health and enthusiasm, have left Cairo to ascend the Nile, and have yet very early found it impossible to proceed, he will feel for poor Bruce, while with a broken and exhausted constitution he is about to enter on this painful and perilous journey. When Mr. Salt visited Abyssinia, nearly forty years after Bruce had left it, he was informed that Ras Michael, who was even then talked of as "the old lion," died in 1780, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. The beautiful Ozoro Esther, too, was dead; and, indeed, nearly all Bruce's friends had gone to their long home. "Yusuph," says Salt, "spoke of him (Bruce) with much regret. He, and every one with whom I have conversed, confirmed the character of Ras Michael as given by Bruce." "He left," said Dofter Esther, a learned Abyssinian, "a great name behind him." FOOTNOTE: [34] Some years ago, the Pasha of Tripolitza, in riding through the town, inquired who had thrown some rubbish into the street. A remarkably honest-looking man instantly popped his head out of his window to acknowledge that it was he. The pasha made a slight sign to the executioner who attended him, and the poor man's head never returned to his shop! Hassen Pasha, well known to the English army in Egypt by the nickname of Djezzar, or the "The Butcher," was a man of a much more merciful disposition. One day he went to inspect a small redoubt which had been thrown up by his particular desire: a part of it rather displeased him; but, instead of barbarously sending for the _head_ of his commanding engineer, he desired the executioner merely to bring him one of his _ears_. Some of Djezzar's best officers had slit noses, which proved that he possessed, by comparison, a very humane, considerate, and reflecting mind; for, after all, a one-eared man may enjoy in this world many little pleasures; whereas, when once his head is off, there is an end of him. CHAPTER XV. Bruce leaves Gondar and travels to Sennaar, the Capital of Nubia. On the 26th of December, 1771, at one o'clock in the afternoon, Bruce, after having resided in Abyssinia two years and three months, took leave of Gondar and proceeded to the palace at Koscam. The king, who had done everything to delay his departure, still continued to trouble him with advice, and to throw trifling difficulties in his way; but Bruce at last declared to him that his servants had already set out, that he was determined to follow them the next morning, and begged that he might be left to follow his own fortunes, whatever they might be. On the morning of his departure, an officer of rank and fifty mounted soldiers were sent by the king to attend him; but, being convinced that any distinction with which he might travel in Abyssinia would only increase his difficulties in passing through Sennaar, he declined the escort, and, starting on his perilous journey, he slowly ascended the mountain which overlooks the palace of Koscam. He was accompanied by three Greeks, one of whom had been his servant ever since he left Cairo; another, named Georgis, was infirm, and nearly blind; while the rest of the party consisted of an old Turkish janisary, who had come into Abyssinia in the escort of the abuna, a Copt, who left Bruce at Sennaar, and a few common muleteers. "All the disasters," says Bruce, "which I had been threatened with in the course of that journey which I had thus begun, now presented themselves to my mind, and made, for a moment, a strong impression upon my spirits. But it was too late to draw back; the die was cast, for life or for death; home was before me, however distant! and if, through the protection of Providence, I should be fortunate enough to arrive there, I promised myself both ease and the applause of my country, and of all unprejudiced men of sense and learning in Europe, for having, by my own private efforts alone, completed a discovery which had from early ages defied the address, industry, and courage of all the world." These expressions have been construed by Bruce's enemies into the language of arrogance and conceit; and it would certainly have been well for him if he had confined his thoughts to his own breast, and, treating his reader with greater reserve, had declined intrusting to him the secret feelings of his heart; but, right or wrong, prudent or imprudent, it was not in Bruce's nature to conceal his sentiments. On the evening of the 28th, as Bruce and his party were in the vicinity of a very thick wood, they were suddenly surrounded by a multitude of men armed with lances, shields, slings, and clubs. A volley of stones having been thrown by these people, Bruce ordered a couple of shots to be fired over their heads. This hint they seemed perfectly to understand, but, retreating to the top of a hill farther off, they continued whooping, shrieking, and making violent gesticulations; when Bruce sent a message to them by a woman, that, if they continued to show the smallest sign of aggression, he would burn their town, and put every one of them to the sword. This bravado had its effect, and a very submissive answer was returned. For five days Bruce steadily pursued his journey through a rugged country covered with thick woods. On the 2d of January, 1772, he approached the town of Tcherkin, and pitched his tent in the market-place, which appeared like a beautiful lawn, shaded with fine old trees of an enormous growth, and watered by a limpid brook, that ran over pebbles as white as snow. As soon as he reached the town, a man waited on him to say that he was the servant of Ayto Confu, and that he had orders to conduct Bruce into the presence of his master. He accordingly followed to a house built on the edge of a precipice, where he was startled, and most agreeably, by being introduced to Ozoro Esther, whom he found sitting on an ottoman or couch, with the beautiful Tecla Mariam at her feet. "Ozoro Esther!" exclaimed Bruce, "I cannot speak for surprise; what is the meaning of your having left Gondar to come into this wilderness?" "There is nothing so strange in it," she replied; "the troops of Begemder having taken away my husband, Ras Michael, God knows where, and, therefore, being now a single woman, I am resolved to go to Jerusalem to pray for my husband, to die there, and to be buried in the Holy Sepulchre. You would not stay with us, so we are going with you. Is there anything surprising in all this?" "But tell me truly," said Tecla Mariam, "you that know everything by peeping and poring through those long glasses, did not you learn by the stars that we were to meet you here?" "Madam," answered Bruce, "if there was one star in the firmament that had announced to me such agreeable news, I should have relapsed into the idolatry of this country, and worshipped that star for the rest of my life." Breakfast now appeared; the conversation took a natural and very lively turn. Bruce learned that the king, from gratitude to Ras Michael, had given some villages to Ozoro Esther, and that her son Ayto Confu, who happened to be going to Tcherkin to hunt, had offered to put her in possession of her new property. "We now," says Bruce, "wanted only the presence of Ayto Confu to make our happiness complete; he came about four, and with him a great company. There was nothing but rejoicing on all sides. Seven ladies, relations and companions of Ozoro Esther, came with Ayto Confu, and I confess this to have been one of the happiest moments of my life. I quite forgot the disastrous journey I had before me, and all the dangers that awaited me. I began even to regret being so far on my way to leave Abyssinia for ever." Confu having come to Tcherkin on purpose to hunt, Bruce was easily persuaded to join in the amusement, particularly as he learned that there was a great quantity of all sorts of game, elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, &c. On the 6th, an hour before daybreak, the party mounted their horses, attended by a number of people who made hunting the elephant their particular occupation. These men dwell constantly in the woods, and subsist principally on the flesh of the enormous animals which they slay. They are thin, slight, active people, of a swarthy complexion, but with European features, and are called Agageer, from the word Agar, which means "to hamstring." The manner in which they kill the elephant is as follows: two men, entirely naked, mount a single horse; one has nothing in his hand but a switch or a short stick, which he uses to manage the animal, while his comrade, armed with a broadsword, sits patiently behind him. As soon as the elephant is discovered feeding, the horsemen ride before him, as near his face as possible, and, crossing him in all directions, they each vauntingly exclaim, "I am such a man, and such a man; this is my horse, that has such a name; I killed your father in such a place, and your grandfather in such another place, and now I am come to kill you, who are but an ass in comparison to them!" This nonsense (which is used by the Abyssinians to almost every description of enemy) the man actually fancies is understood by the enormous beast, who, getting at last vexed and angry at being so pestered, rushes at the horse, following and turning after him, and endeavouring to seize him with his trunk, or, by a single blow with it, to level him with the dust. While the elephant is thus occupied, the horseman suddenly wheels about, and then, rapidly riding past him, the swordsman slips off and cuts his tendon just above the heel of the hind leg. The horseman now wheels again, and, returning at full gallop, his companion vaults up behind him. The mischief being done, and the poor victim, as it were, tethered to the ground, the horsemen leave him to look for another of the herd, while a party on foot attack him with lances, and at last put an end to his sufferings and his life. One of the greatest dangers in riding after the elephant proceeds from the stumps of the trees which he breaks in forcing his way among them, and also from the young trees which, bending without breaking, recoil with such violence that they often have been known to dash both horse and driver to the ground; whereupon the elephant generally turns, and, trampling on his puny enemy, luxuriously tears in pieces "the lord of the creation," limb by limb. Besides this, the soil, like that of all hot countries during the dry season, is cracked and split into such deep chasms, that riding is attended with very great danger. After hunting the elephant and the rhinoceros for some days, Bruce was anxious to proceed on his journey, but Ozoro Esther insisted on his remaining with her until she and her attendants returned to Gondar. At last, on the 15th of January, they separated. Bruce on that day bade adieu to his Abyssinian friends, and to the beautiful Ozoro Esther, for whom he had long entertained a feeling of esteem and affection. With a heavy heart he now left Tcherkin, and the road being bad and intricate, and the camels overladen, his party proceeded very slowly. During the whole day they travelled through woods which were almost impenetrable. The thermometer was often at 115°, there was little or no motion in the air, and the ground was rent in every direction by the excessive heat. Occasionally they crossed pools of impure muddy water, the resort of buffaloes and elephants, and, reaching the banks of the river Woldo, they passed the night there in no little alarm from human footmarks in the sand, which, by the length of the foot and the breadth of the heel, the guides pronounced to be Shangalla. Early next morning they were again on their journey, and in about five hours they reached Sancaha, the old frontier territory of Abyssinia, and which was subject to Bruce's government of Ras el Feel. The town consisted of about three hundred huts neatly built of canes, and curiously thatched with leaves of the same. The immense plain which surrounds it belongs to no one, and its wilds and woods are the haunts of beasts of various descriptions. As soon as Bruce had encamped, he sent to Gimbaro, the chief of the Sancaha, to demand provisions for his party and their camels. A very impertinent answer was returned; when Bruce immediately armed himself with a fusil and a pair of pistols, and took with him two of his servants, each carrying pistols and a ship's blunderbuss. After mounting a hill with so much difficulty that they were several times obliged to pull each other up by the hands, they reached the residence of the chief, and entered a large room of about fifty feet in length. The walls were all covered with elephants' heads and trunks, and with the skeleton heads of rhinoceroses, enormous hippopotami, and giraffes; lions' skins were on the floor, and at the end of the room, naked and upright, stood Gimbaro, "the largest man," says Bruce, "I ever remember to have seen, perfectly black, flat-nosed, thick-lipped, and woolly-headed, a picture of those cannibal giants which we read of as inhabiting enchanted castles in the fairy tales." Gimbaro scarcely noticed our traveller when first he entered the room; but, finding that no obeisance was offered to himself, he at last stepped awkwardly forward, bowed, and attempted to kiss his hand. "I apprehend, sir," said Bruce, with great firmness, and at the same time drawing away his hand, "you do not know me?" Gimbaro bowed, and said he did, but that he was not at first aware who it was that had encamped at the brook: he added, that the message he had sent was only in sport! "And was it sport, sir," said Bruce, "when you said you would send me the flesh of elephants to eat? Did you ever know a Christian eat any sort of flesh that a Mohammedan killed?" "No," replied Gimbaro; and, begging Bruce's pardon, he promised to send him bread, honey, camels, etc. Bruce, having thus gained his object, returned to his tent, and the next morning continued his march. The second day they were preceded on their journey by a lion, which generally kept about a gunshot before them; but, whenever it came to an open or bare spot, the creature crouched down and growled, as if it had made up its mind to dispute the way. "Our beasts," says Bruce, "trembled, and were all covered with sweat, and could scarcely be kept on the road. As there seemed to be but one remedy for this difficulty, I took a long Turkish rifle gun, and, crawling under a bank as near as possible, shot it in the body, so that it fell from the bank on the road before us quite dead, and even without muscular motion." Proceeding on their journey, they passed the corpse of a man who had evidently been murdered, for his throat was cut, and he was also hamstrung. The next day they suffered exceedingly; their clothes were torn to rags, and men and beasts were equally exhausted; the forests were swarming with game, particularly Guinea-fowls and paroquets; and when one of the party fired his gun, the first probably that had ever resounded in these woods, there was instantly such a wild scream of terror from birds on all sides, some flying to the place whence the noise came, and some flying from it, that the confusion of the moment was beyond all description. Two days afterward Bruce reached the Guangue, which abounds with hippopotami and crocodiles, and was the largest river, except the Nile and Tacazzé, that he had seen in Abyssinia. Shortly afterward he arrived at Yasine's village, Hor Cacamoot, which means, literally, the valley of the shadow of death; "A bad omen," says Bruce, "for weak and wandering travellers as we were, surrounded by a multitude of dangers, and so far from home." "This," says Bruce, "is, I suppose, one of the hottest countries in the known world. On the 1st day of March, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Fahrenheit's thermometer, in the shade, was 114°, which was at 61 at sunrise, and 82 at sunset. And yet this excessive heat did not make a proportional impression upon our feelings. The evenings, on the contrary, rather seemed cold, and we could hunt at midday; and this I constantly observed in this sultry country, that what was hot by the glass never appeared to carry with it anything proportionate in our sensations." Some time before Bruce left Gondar he had been threatened with an attack of dysentery. On his arrival at Hor Cacamoot it grew worse, and had assumed many unpromising symptoms, when he was cured by the advice and application of a common Shangalla. Bruce's faithful friend, Yasine, had made every exertion to secure him a good reception from Fidele, the sheikh of Atbara. The Sheikh of Beyla, by name Mohammed, was a man of high character for courage and probity; and Bruce had often corresponded with him upon the subject of horses for the king while he was at Gondar. He was greatly tormented with a most painful disorder, and, through Yasine, Bruce had several times sent to him soap-pills and lime, with directions how to make lime-water. Bruce therefore despatched a servant with a letter to the Sheikh of Beyla, mentioning his intention of coming to Sennaar by the way of Teawa and Beyla, and desiring him to forward his servant to Sennaar. But while he was making these vigorous exertions to advance, his exhausted body was gradually becoming more and more unable to follow. Trembling under the burning heat of the climate, and feeble from the effects of the most debilitating of disorders, "Yagoube, the white man," would probably have ended his career at his petty government of Ras el Feel, had it not been for the kind attention of Yasine, and the skilful treatment of the woolly-headed physician. But kindness, medicine, and time at last recruited his strength; and, after a delay of two months, he set out on the 17th of March from Hor Cacamoot to proceed to Teawa, the capital of Atbara. His path was through thick brushwood: his companions were eleven naked men, driving before them asses laden with salt. The second morning they reached Surf el Shekh, which is the boundary of Ras el Feel; and here Bruce took a painful and affectionate leave of his sincere friend Yasine, who showed at parting that love and steady attachment which he had maintained since their first acquaintance. The last tie which connected Bruce's heart with Abyssinia was now severed. He had said farewell to his last friend, and, with a burning desert under his feet, and a still more burning sun over his head, he had now, in danger, sickness, and solitude, to pursue his dreary way. At half past seven in the evening he came to Engaldi, a large basin or cavity, about thirty feet deep and several hundred yards in length, made for the Arabs who encamp there after the rains. The water was almost exhausted, and the little that remained had an intolerable stench. Thousands of Guinea-fowls, partridges, and other kinds of birds had crowded around it to drink; but it was a melancholy omen to see that they were reduced to absolute skeletons. At eight they came to Eradeeba, where is neither village nor water, but only a resting-place about half a mile square, which has been cleared from wood, that travellers who pass to and from Atbara might have an esplanade to guard themselves from being attacked unawares by the banditti which resort to these deserts. At a quarter past eleven Bruce arrived at Quaicha, the bed of a torrent where there was no water: the wood now seemed to be growing thicker, and to be full of wild beasts, especially lions and hyænas. These did not fly from them as those which they had hitherto seen, but came boldly up, especially the hyæna, with apparently a determination to attack them. On lighting a fire, however, they retired for a time, but towards morning they approached in greater numbers than before. A lion carried off one of the asses, and a hyæna attacked one of the men, tore his cloth from his middle, and wounded him in the back. "As we now expected," says Bruce, "to be instantly devoured, the present fear overcame the resolution we had made not to use our firearms unless in the utmost necessity. I fired two guns, and ordered my servants to fire two large ship-blunderbusses, which presently freed us from our troublesome guests. Two hyænas were killed; and a large lion, being mortally wounded, was despatched by our men in the morning. They came no more near us; but we heard numbers of them howling at a distance till daylight, either from hunger or the smarts of the wounds they had received--perhaps from both; for each ship-blunderbuss had fifty small bullets; and the wood towards which they were directed, at the distance of about twenty yards, seemed to be crowded with these animals." Though this first day's journey from Falatty and Ras el Feel to Quaicha occupied eleven hours, the distance travelled was not more than ten miles; for the beasts were heavily laden, and it was with the utmost difficulty that they could force their way through the thick woods, which scarcely admitted the rays of the sun. From this station, however, they enjoyed a most magnificent sight, the mountains, in almost every direction, being in a flame of fire. The Arabs feed all their flocks upon the branches of trees. When, therefore, the water is entirely dried up, and they can remain no longer, they set fire to the underwood, and to the dry grass below it. The flame runs under the trees, and scorches the leaves and the new wood, without consuming the body of the tree. After the tropical rains begin, vegetation immediately returns, the springs increase, the rivers run, and the pools are again filled with water. Verdure being now in the greatest luxuriance, the Arabs revisit their former stations. This conflagration is resorted to twice in the year--in October and March. After travelling two days Bruce came to Rashid, a sandy desert, where he was surprised to see the branches of the shrubs and bushes covered with a shell of that white and red species of univalve called turbines. Some of these were three or four inches long, and not to be distinguished from the sea shells of the same species which are brought in great quantities from the West Indian islands. Bruce had now a new enemy to contend with. "We were just two hours," he says, "in coming to Rashid, for we were flying for our lives; the simoom, or hot-wind, having struck us not long after we had set out from Imserrha, our little company, all but myself, fell mortally sick with the quantity of poisonous vapour that they had imbibed. I apprehend, from Rashid to Imserrha, it is about five miles; and, though it is one of the most dangerous halting-places between Ras el Feel and Sennaar, yet we were so enervated, our stomachs so weak, and our headaches so violent, that we could not pitch our tent, but, each wrapping himself in his cloak, resigned himself immediately to sleep under the cool shade of the large trees." While they were in this unconscious state, a Ganjar Arab, who drove an ass laden with salt, took the opportunity of stealing one of the mules, and got safely off with his booty. Having refreshed themselves with a little sleep, the girbas or water-skins were filled. On the 21st, the fifth day of their journey, they travelled about five hours; yet, from the weak state they were in, they had advanced but seven or eight miles, so dreadfully were the mules, camels, and horses affected by the simoom. They drank repeatedly and copiously, but water seemed to afford them no refreshment. Bruce's servants now called to him to come with all haste. A lion had killed a deer, had eaten a part of it, and had retired; but five or six hyænas had seized the carcass. Neither the dysentery nor the simoom had subdued Bruce's enterprising spirit. "I hastened," he says, "upon the summons, carrying with me a musket and bayonet, and a ship-blunderbuss with about forty small bullets in it. I crept, through the bushes and under banks, as near to them as possible, for fear of being seen; but the precaution seemed entirely superfluous; for, though they observed me approaching, they did not seem disposed to leave their prey, but in their turn looked at me, raising the bristles upon their backs, shaking themselves as a dog does when he comes out of the water, and giving a short but terrible grunt; after which they fell to their prey again, as if they meant to despatch their deer first, and then come and settle their affairs with me. I now began to repent having ventured alone so near; but knowing, with the short weapon I had, the execution depended a good deal upon the distance, I still crept a little nearer, till I got as favourable a position as I could wish behind the root of a large tree that had fallen into the lake. Having set my musket at my hand, near and ready, I levelled my blunderbuss at the middle of the group, which were feeding voraciously, like as many swine, with considerable noise, and in a civil war with each other. Two of them fell dead upon the spot; two more died about twenty yards' distance; but all the rest that could escape fled without looking back, or showing any kind of resentment." Here, as usual, Bruce was accused of "exaggeration." People would not take into account the circumstances of the case; they would not consider that the noses of these savage hyænas, devouring their prey, were all close together, like the herd of critics over Bruce's book; upon whom, had he fired a blunderbuss loaded with forty slugs, two at least would have given up the ghost, while many more would have howled out lame apologies for having accused him of exaggeration. This incident was most unjustly judged by the experience of a civilized country; and because people in England were not in the habit of killing four hyænas at a shot, Bruce's statement was declared, like his blunderbuss, to have been overcharged. Bruce was now much alarmed at finding some traps for birds, which, having been newly set, showed that the Arabs could not be very far off. The party, therefore, instantly proceeded. In the evening, having lost their way, they were obliged to halt in the wood. Here they were terrified at finding the water entirely gone from the girbas. These skins had still the appearance of being full, but their lightness too surely proved the contrary fact. The whole party were sick from the effect of the simoom, but the horror of being without water drove them to go on. "A general murmur of fear and discontent," says Bruce, "prevailed through our whole company." The next day (being the sixth from Ras el Feel) they set off in great despondency; but in a short time they providentially succeeded in regaining the road, and shortly afterward reached a well called Imgellalib, containing plenty of water, a leathern bucket, and a straw rope. Every one pressed forward to quench their thirst, and the fatal effects of this eager haste were soon seen; for two Abyssinian Moors died immediately after drinking. There was something truly appalling in thus seeing death, as it were, on either side; men perishing with thirst, and others from quenching it! The thick forests which, without interruption, had reached from Tcherkin, ended here. The country was perfectly flat, and contained very little water. To destroy the flies, the Arabs had burned the grass, and Bruce had no means of avoiding the rays of the scorching sun and the pestilential breath of the simoom, but by seeking shelter in the tent, which was insufferably close and hot. The next day they traversed an extensive plain, in which is situated Teawa, the capital, or principal village of Atbara. The thermometer slung under the camel, in the shade of the girba, was now from 111° to 119½°. At six in the evening they arrived at the village of Carigana, "whose inhabitants," says Bruce, "had all perished with hunger the year before; their wretched bones being unburied, and scattered upon the surface of the ground where the village formerly stood. We encamped among the bones of the dead; no space could be found free from them; and on the 23d, at six in the morning, full of horror at this miserable spectacle, we set out for Teawa." Late in the evening, when they had arrived within a quarter of a mile from this capital, they were met by a man on horseback, clothed in a large loose gown of red camlet, with a white muslin turban on his head, and attended by about twenty naked servants on foot, armed with lances, and preceded by a pipe and two small drums. The leader of this savage band was about seventy, with a very long beard, and a graceful appearance. It was with the utmost difficulty that he could be prevailed upon to mount his horse, as he declared it was his intention to walk by the side of Bruce's mule till he entered the town of Teawa; mounting, however, at last, he made a great display of his horsemanship, as a mark of humiliation or politeness. On entering the town they passed a very commodious house, which had been ordered by the sheikh for the residence of Bruce; and, after crossing the square, they came to the sheikh's house, or rather his collection of houses, which were one story high, and built of canes. They then entered a large hall, built of unburned bricks, and covered with straw mats. In the middle there was a chair to which obeisance was made, it being considered as the seat of the Grand Seignior. The sheikh was sitting on the ground, affecting great humility, and pretending to be devoutly occupied in reading the Koran. When Bruce entered he seemed to be surprised, and made an attempt as if to rise, but the traveller prevented it by holding him down by his hand, which he kissed. "I shall not fatigue the reader," says Bruce, "with the uninteresting conversation that passed at this first interview. He affected to admire my size and apparent strength, and to blame me for exposing myself to travel in such a country. In return, I complained of the extreme fatigue of the journey and heat, the beasts of prey, the thick woods without shade, the want of water, and, above all, the poisonous blasts of the simoom that had almost overcome me, the effects of which I was at that instant feeling. "He then blamed himself very politely, in a manner natural to the Arabs, for having suffered me to come to him before I had reposed myself, which he excused by his desire of seeing so _great_ a man as me. He said also that he would detain me no longer; bid me to repose a day or two in quiet and safety; and upon my rising to go away, he got up likewise, and, holding me by the hand, said, 'The greatest part of the dangers you have passed in the way are, I believe, as yet unknown to you. Your Moor Yasine, of Ras el Feel, is a thief worse than any in Habesh. Several times you escaped very narrowly, and by mere chance, from being cut off by Arabs whom Yasine had posted to murder you. But you have a clean heart and clean hands. God saw their designs, and protected you; and I may say, also, on my own part, I was not wanting.' Being then on my legs for retiring, I returned no answer but the usual one (Ullah Kerim), _i. e._, God is merciful!" Bruce and his party had scarcely taken possession of their lodging, and had but just thrown off their clothes to enjoy rest and ease, when several slaves of both sexes appeared with dishes of meat from the sheikh, who also sent flattering compliments and good wishes. But Bruce was very much astonished at one young man, who, putting his mouth to his ear, whispered these few words of comfort: "Seitan Fidele! el Sheikh el Atbara Seitan!" (Fidele is the devil, the Sheikh of Atbara is the devil himself!) Bruce, fearing from this hint that he was in danger, privately and prudently despatched a man to Ras el Feel, begging Yasine to send some person in the name of the King of Abyssinia, or of Ayto Confu, to remonstrate against his detention: until an answer could arrive, he had resolved to see as little of the sheikh as possible; but by-and-by, getting restless and anxious to depart, he waited on the sheikh with presents; and these being apparently very graciously received, he asked for camels. The sheikh replied that they were fifteen days off, in the sandy desert, to avoid the flies; adding that the road to Sennaar was in a very unsettled state, and making many other trifling excuses. At last his real object could no longer be concealed, and he openly insisted on having a part of the treasure which he declared that Bruce was carrying with him. Bruce resolutely refused to give him anything. And the wretch then endeavoured to have him assassinated by Soliman, to whom he offered half the plunder of his baggage; but Soliman saved his life by declaring that the stranger had no treasure, possessing only a few instruments and glass bottles, the use of which no one understood but himself. Bruce was again sent for by the sheikh. He was in the alcove of a spacious room, sitting on a sofa surrounded by curtains. After he had taken two whiffs of his pipe, and when the slave had left the room, "Are you prepared?" he said; "have you brought the money along with you?" Bruce replied, "My servants are at the outer door, and have the vomit you wanted." "Curse you and the vomit too," says he, with great passion: "I want money, and not poison. Where are your piastres?" "I am a bad person," replied Bruce, "Fidele, to furnish you with either. I have neither money nor poison; but I advise you to drink a little warm water to clear your stomach, cool your head, and then lie down and compose yourself; I will see you to-morrow morning." Bruce was going out, when the sheikh exclaimed, "Hakim, infidel, or devil, or whatever is your name, hearken to what I say. Consider where you are: this is the room where Mek Baady, a king, was slain by the hand of my father: look at his blood, where it has stained the floor, which never could be washed out. I am informed you have twenty thousand piastres in gold with you; either give me two thousand before you go out of this chamber, or you shall die; I will put you to death with my own hand." Upon this he took up his sword that was lying at the head of his sofa, and, drawing it with a bravado, threw the scabbard into the middle of the room; and, tucking the sleeve of his shirt above his elbow, like a butcher, he said, "I wait your answer." Bruce stepped one pace backward, and dropped the burnoose behind him, holding a small blunderbuss in his hand, without taking it off the belt. In a firm tone of voice he replied, "This is my answer: I am not a man, as I have told you before, to die like a beast by the hand of a drunkard; on your life, I charge you, stir not from your sofa." "I had no need," says Bruce, "to give this injunction; he heard the noise which the closing the joint in the stock of the blunderbuss made, and thought I had cocked it, and was instantly to fire. He let his sword drop, and threw himself on his back on the sofa, crying, 'For God's sake, Hakim, I was but jesting.'" In all climates and under all circumstances, the bully is always a coward. Bruce, however, was only acting on the defensive; it was neither his intention nor his wish to triumph over the sheikh, and he therefore most willingly accepted the explanation and retired, calmly wishing his enemy good-night. About a week afterward letters arrived from Yasine, declaring that, unless Bruce was instantly allowed to depart, he would burn every stalk of corn between Beyla and Teawa. This threat had the desired effect; and, after having been most vexatiously detained more than three weeks, Bruce received a message to say that the camels were all ready; that girbas for water, and provisions of all sorts, would be furnished, and that he might set out as soon as he pleased, provided he would promise to forgive the sheikh, and not to make any complaint against him at Sennaar or elsewhere. This having been assented to, Bruce was at last suffered to escape from Teawa. For the first seven hours his path was through a barren, sandy plain, without a vestige of any living creature, without water, and without grass; "a country," says Bruce, "that seemed under the immediate curse of Heaven." After travelling all night, they rested at Abou Jehaarat till the afternoon. The sun was intensely hot: but, fortunately, there were some shepherds' caves, into which they crept for shelter. On the 19th of April they again set out, and that evening arrived at Beyla. At the very entrance of the town they were met by Mohammed the sheikh, who declared that he looked upon them as beings who had risen from the dead, and that they must be good people to have escaped from the Sheikh of Atbara! Mohammed provided all sorts of refreshments; and the whole party were filled with joy except Bruce, who was suffering so severely from the Bengazi ague that he had the greatest repugnance even to the smell of meat. He had, besides, a violent headache; so, having drunk a quantity of warm water to serve as an emetic, he retired supperless to his bed--a buffalo's hide. There is no water at Beyla but what is got from deep wells. Large plantations of Indian corn were everywhere about the town. The inhabitants were in continual apprehension from the Arabs Daveina, at Sim-Sim, about forty miles distant; and from another powerful race called Wed abd el Gin--_Son of the slaves of the devil_--who live to the southwest, between the Dender and the Nile. Beyla is another frontier town of Sennaar, on the side of Sim-Sim; and between Teawa and this, on the Sennaar side, and Ras el Feel, Nara, and Tchelga, upon the Abyssinian side, all is desert and waste, the Arabs only suffering the water to remain there, without any villages near it, that they and their flocks may come at certain seasons until the grass grows, and the pools or springs fill elsewhere. On the 21st of April Bruce and his party left Beyla. After travelling four days they crossed the Dender river, and came to a large plain, in which were a number of villages, nearly of one size, and forming a semicircle. The plain was of a red, soapy earth, and the country is in perpetual cultivation. The villages were inhabited by soldiers of the Mek of Sennaar, who have small features, but are woolly-headed and flat-nosed, like negroes. Their masters at Sennaar pretend to be Mohammedans, but they have never attempted to convert these Nuba; on the contrary, they entertain in every village a number of pagan priests, who receive soldiers' pay. These people worship the moon, and appear delighted to see her shine. Coming out of their dark huts, they express great joy at her brightness, and they celebrate the birth of every new moon. They are immoderately fond of swine's flesh, and maintain great herds of these animals. There is no running stream in the immense plain which they inhabit, and their water is all procured from draw-wells. On the 25th Bruce set out from the villages of the Nuba, intending to reach Basboch, which is the ferry over the Nile; but he had scarcely advanced two miles into the plain when he and his party were enveloped by that sort of whirlwind which at sea forms the water-spout. "The plain," says Bruce, "was red earth, which had been plentifully moistened by a shower in the nighttime. The unfortunate camel that had been taken by the cohala seemed to be nearly in the centre of the vortex. The animal was lifted and thrown down at a considerable distance, and several of its ribs broken. Although, as far as I could guess, I was not near the centre, it whirled me off my feet and threw me down upon my face, so as to make my nose gush out with blood. Two of the servants, likewise, had the same fate. It plastered us all over with mud, almost as smoothly as could have been done with a trowel. It took away my sense of breathing for an instant, and my mouth and nose were full of mud when I recovered. I guess the sphere of its action to be about two hundred feet. It demolished one half of a small hut as if it had been cut through with a knife, and dispersed the materials all over the plain, leaving the other half standing. "As soon as we recovered ourselves we took refuge in a village, from fear only, for we saw no vestige of any other whirlwind. It involved a great quantity of rain, which the Nuba of the villages told us was very fortunate, and portended good luck to us, and a prosperous journey; for they said that, had dust and sand arisen with the whirlwind in the same proportion it would have done had not the earth been moistened, we should all infallibly have been suffocated; and they cautioned us by saying that tempests were very frequent in the beginning and end of the rainy season; and, whenever we should see one of them coming, to fall down upon our faces, keeping our lips close to the ground, and so let it pass; and thus it would neither have power to carry us off our feet nor suffocate us, which was the ordinary case. "Our kind landlords, the Nuba, gave us a hearty welcome, and helped us to wash our clothes first, and then to dry them. When I was stripped naked, they saw the blood running from my nose, and said they could not have thought that one so white as I could have been capable of bleeding." These people gave Bruce a piece of roasted hog, which he ate, very much to their satisfaction. In return, as the camel was lame, Bruce ordered it to be killed, and the flesh to be given to the Nuba of the village, who feasted upon it for several days. With these people Bruce spent a very cheerful evening, and then, having a clean hut, he retired to rest from the effects of the whirlwind. On the 26th he left the village, his way being still across an immense plain. After encountering several violent storms of thunder, lightning, and rain, he arrived at Basboch--a large collection of huts bearing the appearance of a town--where the governor, a venerable old man of about seventy, received him with no little dignity and urbanity. "Christian," said he, taking him by the hand, "what dost thou at such a time in such a country?" Basboch is on the eastern bank of the Nile or Blue river, not a quarter of a mile from the ford below. The river here runs north and south; near the banks it is shallow, but deep in the middle, and in this part is much infested with crocodiles. Sennaar is two miles and a half S.S.W. of it. "We heard," says Bruce, "the evening drum very distinctly, and not without anxiety, when we reflected to what a brutish people, according to all accounts, we were about to trust ourselves." After waiting at this place three days, Bruce and his party having at last received permission to enter Sennaar, the capital of Nubia,[35] they were conducted to a very spacious, good house, belonging to the sheikh himself, and about a quarter of a mile from the palace. The following morning a messenger came from the king, desiring Bruce to wait upon him. The palace, which covers a prodigious deal of ground, is one story high, built of clay, and the floors of earth. The king was in a small room, which was covered with a Persian carpet, and the walls were hung with tapestry. He was sitting upon a mattress, laid on the ground, which was likewise covered with a Persian rug, and round him were a number of cushions of Venetian cloth of gold. His dress, however, did not correspond with this magnificence; for it was nothing but a large common loose shirt of Surat blue cloth. His head was uncovered; he wore his own short, black hair, and was as white in complexion as an Arab. He seemed to be a man about thirty-four; his feet were bare, or only covered by his shirt. "He had," says Bruce, "a very plebeian countenance, on which was stamped no decided character; I should rather have guessed him to be a soft, timid, irresolute man. At my coming forward and kissing his hand, he looked at me for a minute as if undetermined what to say. He then asked for an Abyssinian interpreter, as there are many of these about the palace. I said to him in Arabic, 'That I apprehended I understood as much of that language as would enable me to answer any question he had to put to me.' Upon which he turned to the people that were with him. 'Downright Arabic, indeed! You did not learn that language in Habesh?' said he to me. I answered, 'No; I have been in Egypt, Turkey, and Arabia, where I learned it; but I have likewise often spoken it in Abyssinia, where Greek, Turkish, and several other languages were used.' He said, 'Impossible! he did not think they knew anything of languages, excepting their own, in Abyssinia.'" There were sitting by the side of the room, opposite to him, four men dressed in white cotton shirts, with a white shawl covering their heads and part of their face, by which it was known they were religious men, or men of learning, or of the law. Bruce presented first the Sherriffe of Mecca's letter, and then one from the King of Abyssinia. The king took them both and read them, and said, "You are a physician and a soldier." "Both, in time of need," replied Bruce. "But the sherriffe's letter," said the sheikh, "tells me, also, that you are a nobleman in the service of a great king that they call Englise-man, who is master of all the Indies, and who has Mohammedan as well as Christian subjects, and allows them all to be governed by their own laws." "Though I never said so to the sherriffe," replied Bruce, "yet it is true; I am as noble as any individual in my nation, and am also servant to the greatest king now reigning on earth, of whose dominions, it is likewise truly said, these Indies are but a small part." "How comes it," said the king, "you that are so noble and learned that you know all things, all languages, and so brave that you fear no danger, and pass, with two or three old men, into such countries as this and Habesh, where Baady, my father, perished with an army--how comes it that you do not stay at home and enjoy yourself, eat, drink, take pleasure, and rest, and not wander like a poor man, a prey to every danger?" "You, sir," replied Bruce, "may know some of this sort of men; certainly you do know them; for there are in your religion, as well as in mine, men of learning, and those, too, of great rank and nobility, who, on account of sins they have committed, or vows they have made, renounce the world, its riches, and pleasures: they lay down their nobility, and become humble and poor, so as often to be insulted by wicked and low men, not having the fear of God before their eyes." "True; these are dervis," said the three men of learning. "I am, then, one of these dervis," said Bruce, "content with the bread that is given me, and bound for some years to travel in hardships and danger, doing all the good I can to the poor and rich, serving every man and hurting none." "Tybe! that is well," said the king. "And how long have you been travelling about?" "Near twenty years," replied Bruce. "You must be very young," observed the king, "to have committed so many sins, and so early." "I did not say," replied Bruce, "that I was one of those who travelled on account of their sins, but that there were some dervises that did so on account of their vows, and some to learn wisdom." The king now made a sign, and a slave brought a cushion, which Bruce would have refused, but was forced to sit down upon it. A cadi who was present then asked Bruce when the Hagiuge Magiuge were to arrive. "Hagiuge Magiuge," said the cadi, "are little people, not so big as bees, or like the zimb, or fly of Sennaar, that come in great swarms out of the earth, ay, in multitudes that cannot be counted; two of their chiefs are to ride upon an ass, and every hair of that ass is to be a pipe, and every pipe is to play a different kind of music, and all that hear and follow them are carried to hell." "I know them not," says Bruce, "and in the name of the Lord, I fear them not, were they twice as little as you say they are, and twice as numerous. I trust in God I shall never be so fond of music as to follow to such a place an ass, for all the tunes that he or they can play." The king laughed violently. Bruce then went away, and found a number of people in the street, who all offered him some taunt or insult. "I passed," he says, "through the great square before the palace, and could not help shuddering, upon reflection, at what had happened in that spot to the unfortunate M. du Roulé and his companions, though under a protection which should have secured them from all danger, every part of which I was then unprovided with." The drum beat a little after six o'clock in the evening. Bruce then had a very comfortable dinner sent to him, which consisted of camel's flesh stewed with an herb, a slimy substance, called bammia. After having dined, and finished his journal of the day, he began to unpack his instruments, when a servant came from the palace, telling him to bring his present to the king. "I sorted," says Bruce, "the separate articles with all the speed I could, and we went directly to the palace. The king was then sitting in a large apartment; he was naked, but several cloths were lying upon his knee and about him, and a servant was rubbing him over with very stinking butter or grease, with which his hair was dropping, as if wet with water. Large as the room was, it could be smelled through the whole of it. The king asked me if ever I greased myself as he did. I said, 'Very seldom, but fancied it would be very expensive.' He then told me that it was elephant's grease, which made people strong, and preserved the skin very smooth." This simple toilet being finished, Bruce produced his present, which he said the King of Abyssinia had sent, hoping that, according to the faith and customs of nations, he would transmit him safely and speedily into Egypt. The king answered, "There was a time when he could have done all this, and more: but that times were changed. Sennaar was in ruins, and was not like what it once was." Several days having passed unsatisfactorily, Bruce was again summoned to the palace. "The king," he says, "told me that several of his wives were ill, and desired that I would give them my advice, which I promised to do without difficulty, as all acquaintance with the fair sex had hitherto been much to my advantage. I must confess, however, that calling these the fair sex is not preserving a precision in terms. I was admitted into a large square apartment, very ill-lighted, in which were about fifty women, all perfectly black, without any covering but a very narrow piece of cotton rag about their waists. While I was musing whether or not these all might be queens, or whether there was any queen among them, one of them took me by the hand, and led me rudely enough into another apartment. This was much better lighted than the first. Upon a large bench or sofa, covered with blue Surat cloth, sat three persons, clothed from the neck to the feet with blue cotton shirts. "One of these, who I found was the favourite, was about six feet high, and corpulent beyond all proportion. She seemed to me, next to the elephant and rhinoceros, the largest living creature I had ever met with. Her features were perfectly like those of a negro; a ring of gold passed through her under lip, and weighed it down, till, like a flap, it covered her chin, and left her teeth bare, which were very small and fine. The inside of her lip she had made black with antimony. Her ears reached down to her shoulders, and had the appearance of wings; she had in each of them a large ring of gold, somewhat smaller than a man's little finger, and about five inches in diameter. The weight of these had drawn down the hole where her ear was pierced so much, that three fingers might easily pass above the ring. She had a gold necklace, like what we used to call _esclavage_, of several rows, one below another, to which were hung rows of sequins pierced. She had on her ankles two manacles of gold, larger than any I had ever seen upon the feet of felons, with which I could not conceive it was possible for her to walk, but afterward I found they were hollow. The others were dressed pretty much in the same manner, only there was one that had chains, which came from her ears to the outside of each nostril, where they were fastened. There was also a ring put through the gristle of her nose, and which hung down to the opening of her mouth. I think she must have breathed with great difficulty. It had altogether something of the appearance of a horse's bridle. Upon my coming near them, the eldest put her hand to her mouth, and kissed it, saying, at the same time, in very vulgar Arabic, 'Kifhalek howaja?' (How do you do, merchant?) I never in my life was more pleased with distant salutations than at this time. I answered, 'Peace be among you! I am a physician, and not a merchant.' "I shall not entertain the reader with the multitude of their complaints; being a lady's physician, discretion and silence are my first duties. It is sufficient to say, that there was not one part of their whole bodies in which some of them had not ailments. The three queens insisted upon being blooded, which desire I complied with, as it was an operation that required short attendance; but, upon producing the lancets, their hearts failed them. They then all cried out for the tabange, which in Arabic means a pistol; but what they meant by this word was, the cupping instrument, which goes off with a spring like the snap of a pistol. I had two of these with me, but not at that time in my pocket. I sent my servant home, however, to bring one, and, the same evening, performed the operation upon the three queens with great success. The room was overflowed with an effusion of royal blood, and the whole ended with their insisting upon my giving them the instrument itself, which I was obliged to do, after cupping two of their slaves before them, who had no complaints, merely to show them how the operation was to be performed." When the "black spirits" of these queens had somewhat revived, the creatures naturally became a little playful, and were exceedingly curious to inspect Bruce's skin. "The only terms," he says, "I could possibly, and that with great difficulty, make for myself, were, that they should be contented to strip me no farther than the shoulders and breast. Upon seeing the whiteness of my skin, they gave all a loud cry in token of dislike, and shuddered, seeming to consider it rather the effects of disease than natural. I think in my life I never felt so disagreeably. I have been in more than one battle, but surely I would joyfully have taken any chance again in any of them to have been freed from that examination. I could not help likewise reflecting that, if the king had come in during this exhibition, the consequences would either have been impaling, or stripping off that skin whose colour they were so curious about; indeed, it was impossible to be more chagrined at, or more disgusted with, my present situation than I was; and the more so, that my delivery from it appeared to be very distant, and the circumstances were more and more unfavourable every day." During his tedious detention at Sennaar, Bruce occupied himself, as usual, in making celestial observations, and in inquiring into the history of the country, a great part of which he minutely relates. "Nothing," he says, "is more pleasant than the country around Sennaar in the end of August and beginning of September, I mean so far as the eye is concerned: instead of that barren, bare waste which it appeared on our arrival in May, the corn now sprung up, and, covering the ground, made the whole of this immense plain appear a level, green land, interspersed with great lakes of water, and ornamented at certain intervals with groups of villages, the conical tops of the houses presenting at a distance the appearance of small encampments. Through this immense plain winds the Nile, a delightful river there, above a mile broad, full to the very brim, but never overflowing. Everywhere on these banks are seen numerous herds of the most beautiful cattle of various kinds, the tribute recently extorted from the Arabs, who, freed from all their vexations, return home with the remainder of their flocks in peace, at as great a distance from the town, country, and their oppressors as they possibly can. "The banks of the Nile about Sennaar resemble the pleasantest parts of Holland in the summer season; but, soon after, when the rains cease, and the sun exerts his utmost influence, the dora begins to ripen, the leaves to turn yellow and to rot, the lakes to putrify, smell, and be full of vermin, all this beauty suddenly disappears; bare, scorched Nubia returns, and all its terrors of poisonous winds and moving sands, glowing and ventilated with sultry blasts, which are followed by a troop of terrible attendants, epilepsies, apoplexies, violent fevers, obstinate agues, and lingering, painful dysenteries, still more obstinate and mortal. "War and treason seem to be the only employment of this horrid people, whom Heaven has separated by almost impassable deserts from the rest of mankind." To any one who will consider that Sennaar is only thirteen degrees from the line, it is scarcely necessary to observe that its heat is excessive, though the natives bear it with astonishing ease; for on the 2d of August, while Bruce was lying perfectly enervated in a room deluged with water, at noon, the thermometer being at 116°, he saw several black labourers working without any appearance of being incommoded. His observations on heat are so practical, and so admirably expressed, that we give them in his own words: "Cold and hot are terms merely relative, not determined by the latitude, but elevation of the place; when, therefore, we say hot, some other explanation is necessary concerning the place where we are, in order to give an adequate idea of the sensations of that heat upon the body, and the effects of it upon the lungs. The degree of the thermometer conveys this very imperfectly; ninety degrees is excessively hot at Loheia in Arabia Felix, and yet the latitude of Loheia is but fifteen degrees, whereas ninety degrees at Sennaar is, as to sense, only warm, although Sennaar, as we have said, is in latitude thirteen degrees. "At Sennaar, then, I call it _cold_ when one, fully clothed and at rest, feels himself in want of fire. I call it _cool_ when one fully clothed and at rest feels he could bear more covering all over, or in part more than he has then on. I call it _temperate_ when a man, so clothed and at rest, feels no such want, and can take moderate exercise, such as walking about a room, without sweating. I call it _warm_ when a man, so clothed, does not sweat when at rest, but, upon moderate motion, sweats and again cools. I call it _hot_ when a man sweats at rest, and excessively on moderate motion. I call it _very hot_ when a man, with thin or little clothing, sweats much, though at rest. I call it _excessive hot_ when a man in his shirt, at rest, sweats excessively, when all motion is painful, and the knees feel feeble as if after a fever. I call it _extreme hot_ when the strength fails, a disposition to faint comes on, a straitness is found in the temples, as if a small cord was drawn tight around the head, the voice impaired, the skin dry, and the head seems more than ordinarily large and light." If Bruce's enemies could but have been subjected to this last degree of temperature, they would, perhaps, for once have agreed to admire the indefatigable exertions which, under such a climate, and in spite of ill health, he still continued to make. The history, ancient and modern, of the kingdom of Sennaar, its natural history, its trade, money, measures, diseases, etc., etc., were objects of his most eager inquiry; and it may truly be said, that his thirst for information seems actually to have increased with the difficulties which oppressed him. He made every exertion to leave Sennaar: in vain were represented to him the dangers which awaited him. "I persisted," says he, "in my resolution; I was tied to the stake. To fly was impossible; and I had often overcome such dangers by braving them;" but a new difficulty now arose. His funds were exhausted, and the person with whom he had credit refused to supply him. "This was a stroke," says Bruce, "that seemed to ensure our destruction, no other resource being now left. My servants began to murmur; some of them had known of my gold chain from the beginning, and these, in the common danger, imparted what they knew to the rest. In short, I resolved, though very unwillingly, not to sacrifice my own life and that of my servants, and the finishing my travels, now so far advanced, to childish vanity. I determined, therefore, to abandon my gold chain, the honourable recompense of a day full of fatigue and danger. "It was on the 5th of September," says Bruce, "that we were all prepared to leave this capital of Nubia, an inhospitable country from the beginning, and which, every day we continued in it, had engaged us in greater difficulties and dangers. We flattered ourselves that, once disengaged from this bad step, the greatest part of our sufferings was over; for we apprehended nothing but from men, and, with very great reason, thought we had seen the worst of them." FOOTNOTE: [35] Although this city is at the present day but little better than a heap of ruins, it bears the marks of former magnificence. See _Russell's Nubia and Abyssinia_, p. 59, Harpers' Family Library.--_Am. Ed._ CHAPTER XVI. Bruce leaves Sennaar.--Crosses the great Desert of Nubia.--His Distress.--Reaches Seyne, on the Nile. On the 8th of September the camels were at last laden, and sent forward to a small village three or four miles from Sennaar. Bruce then finally settled his accounts; "and I received back," he says, "six links, the miserable remains of one hundred and eighty-four, of which my noble chain once consisted." Thus robbed, even of this precious token of his hard-earned honour, Bruce, after having been detained four months at Sennaar, proceeded once again on his journey towards his native land: although he had been so long directing his course to the north, he had still to travel nearly seven hundred miles before he could escape from that burning region of the earth, the torrid zone. His way was long, his path beset with dangers; but the relentless persecution of a tropical sun is what no man can adequately describe: every animal pants beneath it, and the very atmosphere they breathe trembles and quivers like air at the mouth of a furnace; still Bruce resolutely proceeded onward; and, about ten o'clock at night, he and his little party joyfully reached Soliman. He now formally addressed his people; he recommended diligence, sobriety, and subordination; and assured them that, until the journey was terminated, they should share with him one common fare and fortune. Never was a discourse more gratefully received. "Sennaar," says Bruce, "sat heavy upon all their spirits," and beyond description did they rejoice at having escaped from it. Constantly advancing, on the 16th they arrived at Herbagi, a large, pleasant village; and Bruce immediately waited upon Wed Ageeb, an hereditary prince of the Arabs, subject to the government of Sennaar. He had never before seen a European, and testified great surprise at our traveller's complexion. After resting two days at Herbagi, Bruce proceeded along the river. "Nothing," he says, "could be more beautiful than the country we passed that day, partly covered with very pleasant woods and partly in lawns, with a few fine scattered trees." After travelling three days, they came, on the 21st, to the passage of the Nile, which river they crossed. The manner of passing the camels at this ferry is by fastening cords under their hind quarters, and then tying a halter to their heads. Two men hold on to these cords, and a third the halter, so that the animals, by swimming, carry the boat on shore. One is fastened on each side of the stem and stern. These useful beasts suffer greatly by such rude treatment, and many die in the passage, with all the care that can be taken; but they still oftener perish through the tricks of the boatmen, who privately put salt in the camel's ears, which makes him desperate and ungovernable, till, by fretting and plunging his head constantly in the water, he loses his breath, and is finally drowned; they have then gained their object, and feast upon the flesh. Having thus crossed the Nile, they proceeded to Halfaia, where the tropical rains terminate. A very important change was about to take place in the character of the country, and Bruce, in bidding adieu to the wet portion of Africa, was now entering on the confines of the deserts. Here there are palm-trees, but no dates. The people eat cats, the hippopotamus, and the crocodile. Having remained at Halfaia a week, they set out on the 29th, and soon reached the village of Wed Hojila, where the great Bahar el Abiad, or White river, falls into the Bahar el Azergue, or Blue river; and here, with great frankness, Bruce acknowledges that the Abiad "_is larger than the Nile_." "The Abiad," he says, "is a very deep river; it runs dead, and with little inclination, and preserves its stream always undiminished; because, rising in latitudes where there are continual rains, it therefore suffers not the decrease the Nile does by the six months' dry weather." This confession certainly reflects no little credit on Bruce's character, and it should put to silence those who have so unfairly insinuated that he always endeavoured to conceal the fact that the Bahar el Abiad was a much larger branch of the Nile than the Abyssinian river, the sources of which it had cost him so much to visit. "At Halfaia," says Bruce, "begins that noble race of horses justly celebrated all over the world. They are the breed that was introduced here at the Saracen conquest, and have been preserved unmixed to this day. They seem to be a distinct animal from the Arabian horse, such as I have seen in the plains of Arabia Deserta, south of Palmyra and Damascus, where I take the most excellent of the Arabian breed to be, in the tribes of Mowalli and Annecy, which is about lat. 36°; while Dongola and the dry country near it seem to be the centre of excellence for this nobler animal. "What figure the Nubian breed of horses would make in point of fleetness, is very doubtful, their make being so entirely different from that of the Arabian; but if beautiful and symmetrical parts, great size and strength, the most agile, nervous, and elastic movements, great endurance of fatigue, docility of temper, and seeming attachment to man beyond any other domestic animal, can promise anything, the Nubian stallion is, above all comparison, the most eligible in the world. Few men have seen more horses, or more of the different places where they are excellent, than I have, and no one ever more delighted in them, as far as the manly exercise went. What these may produce for the turf is what I cannot so much as guess; as there is not, I believe, in the world, one more indifferent to, or ignorant of, that amusement than I am. The experiment would be worth trying in any view, and the expense would not be great." All noble horses in Nubia are believed to be descended from one of the five upon which Mohammed and his four immediate successors fled from Mecca to Medina on the night of the Hegira. The horses of Halfaia and Gherri are rather smaller than those of Dongola, few of which are less than sixteen hands. After travelling along the Nile two days, Bruce reached Chendi or Chandi, a large village, the capital of its district, the government of which belonged to Sittina, which means "the mistress." She was the sister of Wed Ageeb, the principal of the Arabs in that part of Africa. On the 12th of October, about a week after his arrival, Bruce waited upon Sittina, who received him behind a screen, so that it was impossible he could see either her figure or face. She expressed herself with great politeness, and wondered exceedingly how a white man should venture so far in such an ill-governed country. "Allow me, madam," said Bruce, "to complain of a breach of hospitality in you, which no Arab has been yet guilty of towards me." "Me!" said Sittina; "that would be strange indeed, to a man that bears my brother's letter. How can that be?" "Why, you tell me, madam," said Bruce, "that I am a white man, by which I know that you see me, without giving me a like advantage. The queens of Sennaar did not use me so harshly; I had a full sight of them, without having used any importunity." Sittina burst into a fit of laughter, and desired Bruce to come to her the next day. "On the 13th," says Bruce, "it was so excessively hot that it was impossible to suffer the burning sun. The poisonous simoom blew as if it came from an oven. Our eyes were dim, our lips cracked, our knees tottering, our throats were perfectly dry, and no relief was found from drinking an immoderate quantity of water. The people advised me to dip a sponge in vinegar and water, and hold it before my mouth and nose, and this greatly relieved me. In the evening I went to Sittina. Upon entering the house, a black slave laid hold of me by the hand, and placed me in a passage, at the end of which were two opposite doors. I did not well know the meaning of this; but had stayed only a few minutes, when I heard one of the doors at the end of the passage open, and Sittina appeared magnificently dressed, with a kind of round cap of solid gold upon the crown of her head, all beat very thin, and hung round with sequins; with a variety of gold chains, solitaires, and necklaces of the same metal about her neck. Her hair was platted in ten or twelve small divisions, like tails, which hung down below her waist, and over her was thrown a common white cotton garment. She had a purple silk stole or scarf hung very gracefully on her back, brought again round her waist, without covering her shoulders or arms. "Allow me, madam," said Bruce, suddenly kissing her hand, "as a physician, to say one word." Sittina bowed her head, and received Bruce in a private room. "Are the women handsome in your country?" said Sittina. "The handsomest in the world, madam," replied Bruce; "but they are so good, and so excellent in all other respects, that nobody thinks at all of their beauty, nor do they value themselves upon it." "And do they allow you to kiss their hands?" said she. "I understand you, madam," replied Bruce, "though you have mistaken me. There is no familiarity in kissing hands; it is a mark of homage and distant respect paid in my country to our sovereigns, and to none earthly besides." "But do you know," said Sittina, "that no man ever kissed my hand but you?" "It is impossible I should know that," replied Bruce, "nor is it material. Of this I am confident, it was meant respectfully, cannot hurt you, and ought not to offend you." Some days afterward, as Bruce was sitting in his tent, musing upon the very unpromising aspect of his affairs, an Arab of very ordinary appearance, naked, with only a cotton cloth round his middle, came up to him, and offered to conduct him to Barbar, and thence to Egypt. He said his house was at Daroo, on the side of the Nile, about twenty miles beyond Syene or Assouan, nearer Cairo. Bruce asked him why he had not gone with Mohammed Towash, who had lately set off. He replied he did not like the company, and was very much mistaken if their journey would end well. On pressing him farther if this was the true reason, he confessed that he had contracted debt, had been obliged to pawn his clothes, and that his camel was detained for what still remained unpaid. After much conversation, Bruce found that Idris (for that was his name) was a man of some substance in his own country, and had a daughter married to the schourbatchie at Assouan. A bargain was accordingly made. Bruce redeemed the camel and cloak, and Idris agreed to show him the way to Egypt, where he was to be paid and rewarded according to his behaviour. Bruce having thus secured a guide, was now prepared to leave Shendi; but, previous to his departure, he waited upon Sittina to thank her for her favours; for she had sent for Idris, had given him very positive instructions, which she enforced by threats, and had also furnished Bruce with useful letters. He therefore begged he might be allowed to testify his gratitude by once again kissing her hand, to which she laughingly condescended, saying, "Well, you are an odd man! If Idris, my son, saw me just now, he would think me mad!" It is curious, instructive, and amusing to observe how admirably Bruce works his way, by invariably bending before the difficulties which assail him. He is bold and daring among the brave, resolute before tyrants, a physician to his friends, a magician before the rabble, and before the gentler sex (in these latitudes we should offend them were we to call them fair) he is on his knee, and respectfully kisses their hands, whether it be their custom or no. After passing the small island of Kurgos, where Bruce saw the first ruins he had met with since those of Axum in Abyssinia, he travelled for five days, when he reached the ferry on the great river Tacazzé, Atbara, or Astaboras, which was about a quarter of a mile broad, and exceedingly deep. It was as clear as Bruce had seen it in Abyssinia, but its banks had lost their beauty, as it here flowed through a parched, desert, barren country; still its waters came from Abyssinia, a country yet fresh and dear in Bruce's recollection. "I reflected," he says, "with much satisfaction, upon the many circumstances the sight of this river recalled to my mind; but still the greatest was, that the scenes of these were now far distant, and that I was by so much more advanced towards home." On the 26th, leaving the Nile about a mile on their left, they reached Goos, a very small village, which is, nevertheless, the capital of Barbar. Bruce and all his party here suffered from a disease in their eyes, caused by the simoom and the fine sand blowing across the desert. An unexpected misfortune now happened to Idris, who was arrested for debt and carried to prison: "however," says Bruce, "as we were upon the very edge of the desert, and to see no other inhabited place till we should reach Egypt, I was not displeased to have it in my power to lay him under one other obligation before we trusted our lives in his hands, which we were immediately to do. I therefore paid his debt, and reconciled him with his creditors." Bruce and his party having received all the assurances possible from Idris that he would live and die in their service, boldly committed themselves to the desert. The party consisted of Ismael the Turk, two Greek servants besides Georgis, who was almost blind and useless, two Barbarins, that took care of the camels, Idris, and a young man, a relation of his; in all nine persons, eight only of whom were effective. They were all well armed with blunderbusses, swords, pistols, and double-barrelled guns, except Idris and his lad, who had lances, the only arms they could use. Five or six naked wretches of the Tucorory joined the party at the watering-place, much against Bruce's will; for he knew that he should probably be reduced to the painful necessity of seeing them die of thirst before his eyes. On the 9th of November, at noon, they left Goos for the sakia or watering-place, which is near a little village called Hassa. At half past three in the afternoon they came to the Nile, to lay in a store of water. They here filled four skins, which might contain altogether about a hogshead and a half. Their food consisted of twenty-two large goats' skins stuffed with a powder of bread made at Goos, on purpose for such expeditions. It required a whole day to fill the skins, and soak them well in the water, in order to make an experiment, which was of the greatest consequence, whether they were water-tight. "While the camels were loading," says Bruce, "I bathed, with infinite pleasure, for a long half hour in the Nile, and thus took leave of my old acquaintance, very doubtful if we should ever meet again." They now left the river, and slowly entering what may not unjustly be termed the gate of the great desert of Nubia (that valley of the shadow of death), they came to a bare spot of cemented gravel, of a very disagreeable whitish colour, mixed with small pieces of white marble, and pebbles like alabaster. At half past eight they stopped on a sandy plain without trees: they now found that the camels were too heavily laden, but they comforted themselves with the reflection that this would be remedied by the daily consumption of the provisions. The next day, after travelling six hours with great diligence, their misfortunes began, from a trifling circumstance which had not been attended to. Their shoes, which had long required repair, had now become absolutely useless; their feet were much inflamed by the burning sand, and the skin rubbed off in different places. Close before them was Hambily, a small rock, which being, nevertheless, too large to be covered by the moving sands, is of the utmost importance to the caravans as a landmark. On the 14th, early in the morning, they continued their journey, and, after travelling about twenty-one miles, alighted among some acacia-trees, at a place called Waadi el Halbout. "We were here," says Bruce, "at once surprised and terrified by a sight, surely one of the most magnificent in the world. In that vast expanse of desert, from W. to N.W. of us, we saw a number of prodigious pillars of sand at different distances, at times moving with great celerity, at others stalking on with a majestic slowness; at intervals we thought they were coming in a very few minutes to overwhelm us; and small quantities of sand did actually, more than once, reach us. Again they would retreat so as to be almost out of sight, their tops reaching to the very clouds. There the tops often separated from their bodies; and these, once disjoined, dispersed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they were broken near the middle, as if struck with a large cannon-shot. About noon they began to advance with considerable swiftness upon us, the wind being very strong at north. Eleven of them ranged alongside of us about the distance of three miles. The greatest diameter of the largest appeared to me at that distance as if it would measure ten feet. They retired from us with a wind at S.E., leaving an impression upon my mind to which I can give no name, though surely one ingredient in it was fear, with a considerable deal of wonder and astonishment. It was in vain to think of flying; the swiftest horse or fastest sailing ship could be of no use to carry us out of this danger, and the full persuasion of this riveted me as if to the spot where I stood, and let the camels gain on me so much in my state of lameness, that it was with some difficulty I could overtake them. "This stupendous sight caused Idris to repeat his prayers, or rather incantations; for, except the names of God and Mohammed, all the rest of his words were mere gibberish and nonsense. Ismael, the Turk, violently abused him for not praying in the words of the Koran, maintaining, with great apparent wisdom, that nothing else could stop these moving sands." They this day proceeded very slowly, their feet being sore and greatly swelled. "The whole of our company," says Bruce, "were much disheartened (except Idris), and imagined that they were advancing into whirlwinds of moving sand, from which they should never be able to extricate themselves; but, before four o'clock in the afternoon, these phantoms of the plain had all of them fallen to the ground and disappeared." In the evening they came to Waadi Dimokea, where they passed the night much disheartened; and their fear was not diminished on awaking in the morning, by finding that one side was perfectly buried in the sand that the wind had blown over them in the night. From this day, subordination, though not entirely extinct, was rapidly declining; all was discontent, murmuring, and fear. The water had greatly diminished, and that terrible death by thirst began to stare them in the face, owing, in a great measure, to their own imprudence. Ismael, who had been left sentinel over the skins of water, had slept so soundly that a Tucorory had opened one of the skins that had not been touched, in order to serve himself out of it at his own discretion; hearing somebody stir, however, and fearing detection, he withdrew as speedily as possible, without tying up the mouth of the girba, which was found in the morning with scarce a quart of water in it. On the 15th, the same moving pillars of sand presented themselves, only they seemed to be more in number and less in size. They came several times in a direction close upon them. "They began," says Bruce, "immediately after sunrise, like a thick wood, and almost darkened the sun. His rays shining through them for near an hour, gave them an appearance of pillars of fire. Our people now became desperate; the Greeks shrieked out, and said it was the day of judgment. Ismael pronounced it to be hell; and the Tucorories, that the world was on fire. I asked Idris if ever he had before seen such a sight; he said he had often seen them as terrible, though never worse; but what he feared most was that extreme redness in the air, which was a sure presage of the coming of the simoom. I begged and entreated Idris that he would not say one word of that in the hearing of the people, for they had already felt it at Imhanzara, in their way from Ras el Feel to Teawa, and again at the Acaba of Gerri, before we came to Chendi, and they were already nearly distracted at the apprehension of finding it here." At half past four o'clock in the afternoon they left Waadi Dell Aned. The sands scarcely showed themselves this day, and only at a great distance in the horizon. This was, however, a comfort but of short duration. Bruce observed that Idris took no notice of it, but warned him and the servants that, upon the coming of the simoom, they should fall on their faces, with their mouths upon the earth, so as not to inhale the outward air as long as they could hold their breath. They alighted at six o'clock at a small rock called Ras el Seah, or El Mout, which signifies _death_. It is surrounded with sand, is without trees or herbage, and the poor camels fasted all that night. On the 16th, at half past ten in the forenoon, they left El Mout. "Our men," says Bruce, "if not gay, were, however, in better spirits than I had seen them since we left Goos. One of our Barbarins had even attempted a song; but Hagi Ismael very gravely reproved him, by telling him that singing in such a situation was a tempting of Providence. There is, indeed, nothing more different than active and passive courage. Hagi Ismael would fight, but he had not strength of mind to suffer. At eleven o'clock, while we contemplated with great pleasure the rugged top of Chiggre, to which we were fast approaching, and where we were to solace ourselves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out, with a loud voice, 'Fall upon your faces, for here is the simoom!' I saw from the southeast a haze come, in colour like the purple part of the rainbow, but not so compressed or thick. It did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of blush upon the air, and it moved very rapidly, for I scarce could turn to fall upon the ground, with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat on the ground, as if dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor or purple haze which I saw was indeed passed, but the light air that still blew was of a heat to threaten suffocation. For my part, I found distinctly in my breast that I had imbibed a part of it, nor was I free of an asthmatic sensation till I had been some months in Italy at the baths of Poretta, near two years afterward.[36] "A universal despondency had taken possession of our people. They ceased to speak to one another, and when they did it was in whispers, by which I easily guessed their discourse was not favourable to me, or else that they were increasing each other's fears by vain suggestions calculated to sink each other's spirits still farther, but from which no earthly good could possibly result. I called them together, and both reprimanded and exhorted them in the strongest manner I could. I bade them attend to me, who had nearly lost my voice by the simoom, and desired them to look at my face, so swelled as scarcely to permit me to see, my neck covered with blisters, my feet swelled and inflamed, and bleeding with many wounds. In answer to the lamentation that the water was exhausted, and that we were upon the point of dying with thirst, I ordered each man a gourd full of water more than he had the preceding day, and showed them, at no great distance, the bare, black, and sharp point of the rock Chiggre, wherein was the well at which we were again to fill our girbas, and thereby banish the fear of dying by thirst in the desert. I believe I never was at any time more eloquent, and never had eloquence a more sudden effect. They all protested and declared their concern chiefly arose from the situation they saw me in; that they feared not death or hardship, provided I would submit to their direction in taking proper care of myself. They entreated me to use one of the camels, and throw off the load that it carried, that it might ease me of the wounds in my feet, by riding at least part of the day. This I positively refused to do, but recommended to them to be strong of heart, and to spare the camels for the last resort, if any should be taken ill and unable to walk any longer. "This phenomenon of the simoom, unexpected by us, though foreseen by Idris, caused us all to relapse into our former despondency. It still continued to blow, so as to exhaust us entirely, though the blast was so weak as scarcely would have raised a leaf from the ground. At twenty minutes before five the simoom ceased, and a comfortable and cooling breeze came by starts from the north, blowing five or six minutes at a time, and then falling calm. We were now come to the Acaba, the ascent before we arrived at Chiggre, where we intended to have stopped that night; but we all moved on with tacit consent, nor did one person pretend to say how far he guessed we were to go." At thirteen minutes past eight they alighted in a sandy, barren plain, covered with loose stones. They were now only a quarter of a mile due north from the well, which is in the narrow gorge forming the southern outlet of this small plain. Though they had travelled thirteen hours and a quarter this day, it was but a slow pace, the wretched camels being famished as well as tired, and lamed by the sharp stones with which the ground in all places was covered. The country, for three days past, had been destitute of herbage of any kind, entirely desert, and abandoned to moving sands; which might be said to "sweep it with the besom of destruction." Chiggre is a small narrow valley, about half way across the great desert of Nubia, and surrounded with barren rocks. The wells are ten in number, and the narrow gorge by which they are approached is not ten yards broad. The springs, however, are very abundant. Wherever a pit is dug five or six feet deep, it is immediately filled with water. The principal pool is about forty yards square and five feet deep; but the best-tasted water was in the cleft of a rock, about thirty yards higher, on the west side of this narrow outlet. The eagerness with which Bruce and his party rushed to these wells can scarcely be imagined; for no one would believe the effect which the sight of water under such circumstances produces on the human frame, unless he had himself experienced the burning thirst of the desert. The springs were exceedingly foul, having been visited by animals of many descriptions. It was impossible to drink without putting a piece of a cotton girdle over the mouth, to keep out, by filtration, the filth of the putrid substances with which they were filled. Bruce saw a number of partridges on the face of the bare rock, but he did not dare shoot at them, for fear of being heard by wandering Arabs that might be in the neighbourhood; for Chiggre is a haunt of the Bishareen of the tribe of Abou Bertran, who, though they do not make it a station, because there is no pasture, nor can anything grow there, yet find it one of their most valuable places of refreshment, on account of the great quantity of water. Bruce's first attention was to the camels, to whom he gave that day a double feed of dora, that they might drink sufficient for the rest of their journey, should the wells in the way prove scanty of water. He then bathed in a large pool of very cold water, in a cave covered with rock, and inaccessible to the sun in any direction. All the party seemed to be greatly refreshed except the Tucorory, one of whom died about an hour after his arrival, and another early the next morning. With the corpses of his companions at his side, with dangers of every sort before him, lame and exhausted, Bruce, as usual, deliberately unpacked his instruments, to determine, notwithstanding the piercing glare of the sun and the weakness of his eyes, the longitude and latitude of Chiggre. Regularly, at noon, he had described, in a rough manner, his course through the day, carrying always a compass, with a needle of five inches radius, round his neck. His ink was fixed to his girdle, and his notes were written on very long, narrow strips of drawing paper, cut for the purpose. But subordination was now at an end, and Bruce had great difficulty in persuading his own servants to assist him in setting up his large quadrant, in order that he might determine the situation of the place. On the 17th they left Chiggre. Ismael and Georgis, the blind Greek, had complained of shivering all night, and Bruce began to be very apprehensive that some violent fever was to follow. Their perspiration had not returned since their coming out of the cold water. The day, however, was insufferably hot, and their complaints insensibly vanished. A little before eleven they were again terrified by an army of sand pillars, whose march was constantly south. At one time a number of these pillars faced to the east, and seemed to be coming directly upon them; but Bruce began now to be reconciled to this phenomenon, and the magnificence of its appearance seemed in some measure to indemnify them for the panic it had first occasioned: it was otherwise, however, with the simoom, for they all were firmly persuaded that another passage of that purple meteor would cause their deaths. At half past four they alighted in a vast plain, bounded on all sides by low sandy hills, which seemed to have been just produced. These hillocks were from seven to thirteen feet high, formed into perfect cones, with very sharp points and well-proportioned bases. The sand was of an inconceivable fineness, having been the sport of hot winds for thousands of years. "There could be no doubt," says Bruce, "that the day before, when it was calm, and we suffered so much by the simoom between El Mout and Chiggre, the wind had been raising pillars of sand in this place, called Umdoom; marks of the whirling motion of the pillars were distinctly seen in every heap, so that here again, while we were repining at the simoom, Providence was busied keeping us out of the way of another scene, where, if we had advanced a day, we had all of us been involved in inevitable destruction." On the 18th they left Umdoom at seven in the morning, their course being N., a little inclined to W. At nine o'clock Idris pointed to some sandy hillocks, where the ground seemed to be more elevated than the rest; and he told Bruce that one of the largest caravans which ever came out of Egypt was there buried with sand, to the number of some thousands of camels. At five o'clock in the evening they alighted at an Oasis called Terfowey, full of trees and grass. As soon as they had chosen a proper place where the camels could feed, they unloaded the baggage, and sent the men to clean the well and wait the filling of the skins. They then lighted a large fire, for the nights felt excessively cold, though the thermometer was at 53°; and that degree of cold occasioned Bruce inexpressible pain in his feet, which were now swelled to a monstrous size, inflamed, and excoriated. The camels were always fastened by the feet, and the chain secured by a padlock, lest they should wander in the night, or be stolen or carried off. While Bruce was occupied in deep thought, he heard the chain of the camels clink, as if somebody was unloosening them, and then, by the gleam of the fire, he distinctly saw a man pass swiftly by, stooping as he went along, his face almost close to the ground. A little time after this he heard another clink of the chain, as if from a sharp blow, and immediately after a movement among the camels. He instantly rose, and called out in a threatening tone in Arabic. Mohammed, Idris's nephew, hearing Bruce's voice, came running up from the well to see what was the matter. They went down together to the camels, and, upon examination, found that the links of one of the chains had been broken, but the opening was not large enough to let the whole link through. A hard blue stone was also driven through a link of one of the chains of another camel, and left sticking there, the chain not being entirely broken through; they saw, besides, the print of a man's feet on the sand; and they found that several articles belonging to the party had been stolen. This sufficiently showed the presence of hidden enemies. "Our situation," says Bruce, "was one of the most desperate that could be figured. We were in the middle of the most barren, inhospitable desert in the world, and it was with the utmost difficulty that, from day to day, we could carry wherewithal to assuage our thirst. We had with us the only bread it was possible to procure for some hundred miles; lances and swords were not necessary to destroy us; the bursting or tearing of a girba, the lameness or death of a camel, a thorn or sprain in the foot, which might disable us from walking, were as certain death to us as a shot from a cannon. There was no staying for one another; to lose time was to die, because, with the utmost exertion our camels could make, we scarce could carry along with us a scanty provision of bread and water sufficient to keep us alive." That desert, which did not afford inhabitants for the assistance or relief of travellers, contained, nevertheless, more than sufficient for destroying them; for large tribes of Arabs (two or three thousand encamped together) were cantoned wherever there was water enough to supply their numerous herds of cattle, and Bruce fully expected that in the morning he should be attacked by these merciless robbers. He therefore briefly addressed his people, who uttered a loud cry, "God is great! let them come!" but, when the day broke, no Arabs appeared; all was still: Bruce, however, took Ismael and two Barbarins along with him, to see who these neighbours could be. They soon traced in the sand the footsteps of the man who had been at their camels; and, following them behind the point of a rock which seemed calculated for concealing thieves, they saw two ragged, old, dirty tents, pitched with grass cords. The two Barbarins entered one of them, and found a naked woman there. "Ismael and I ran," says Bruce, "briskly into the largest, where we saw a man and a woman, both perfectly naked, frightful, emaciated figures, not like the inhabitants of this world. The man was partly sitting on his hams; a child, seemingly of the age to suck, was on a rag at the corner, and the woman looked as if she wished to hide herself. I sprang forward upon the man, and, taking him by the hair of the head, pulled him upon his back on the floor; setting my foot upon his breast, and pointing my knife to his throat, I said to him sternly, 'If you mean to pray, pray quickly, for you have but this moment to live.' The fellow was so frightened he scarce could beg us to spare his life; but the woman, as it afterward appeared, the mother of the sucking child, did not seem to copy the passive disposition of her husband; she ran to the corner of the tent, where was an old lance, with which, I doubt not, she would have sufficiently distinguished herself, but it happened to be entangled with the cloth of the tent, and Ismael felled her to the ground with the butt-end of his blunderbuss, and wrested the lance from her. A violent howl was set up by the remaining woman, like the cries of those in torment. 'Tie them,' said I, 'Ismael; keep them separate, and carry them to the baggage till I settle accounts with this camel-stealer, and then you shall strike their three heads off, where they intended to leave us miserably to perish with hunger; but keep them separate.' While the Barbarins were tying the woman, the one that was the nurse of the child turned to her husband and said, in a most mournful, despairing tone of voice, 'Did I not tell you you would never thrive if you hurt that good man? did I not tell you this would happen for murdering the aga?'" After a long discussion with these people, many of Bruce's party were exceedingly desirous to kill them: and Hagi Ismael was so enraged, that he begged he might have the preference in cutting off one of their heads; but Bruce, animated by Christian feelings, thus addressed his people: "It has appeared to me, that often, since we began this journey, we have been preserved by visible instances of God's protection, when we should have lost our lives if we had gone by the rules of our own judgment only. We are, it is true, of different religions, but we all worship the same God; and, therefore, my determination is to spare the life even of this man, and I will oppose his being put to death by every means in my power." "It was easy to see," continues Bruce, "that fear of their own lives only, and not cruelty, was the reason they sought that of the Arab. They answered me, two or three of them at once, 'that it was all very well; what should they do? should they give themselves up to the Bishareen, and be murdered? was there any other way of escaping?' 'I will tell you, then,' says Bruce, 'since you ask me, what you should do: you shall follow the duty of self-defence and self-preservation as far as you can do it without a crime. You shall leave the women and the child where they are, and with them the camels, to give them and their child milk; you shall chain the husband's right hand to the left of some of yours, and you shall each of you take him by turns till we shall carry him into Egypt. Perhaps he knows the desert and the wells better than Idris; and if he should not, still we have two hybeers instead of one; and who can foretell what may happen to Idris more than to any other of us? But as he knows the stations of his people, and their courses at particular seasons, that day we meet one Bishareen, the man that is chained with him and conducts him shall instantly stab him to the heart, so that he shall not see, much less triumph, in the success of his treachery. On the contrary, if he is faithful, and informs Idris where the danger is and where we are to avoid it, keeping us rather by scanty wells than abundant ones, on the day I arrive safely in Egypt I will clothe him anew, as also his women, give him a good camel for himself, and a load of dora for them all. As for the camels we leave here, they are she ones, and necessary to give the women food. They are not lame, it is said; but we shall lame them in earnest, so that they shall not be able to carry a messenger to the Bishareen before they die with thirst in the way, both they and their riders, if they should attempt it.'" Universal applause followed this speech; Idris, above all, expressed his warmest approbation. The man and the women were sent for, and had their sentence repeated to them. Having expected death, they all cheerfully subscribed to the conditions; and the woman declared she would as soon see her child die as be the cause of any harm befalling them; and that, if a thousand Bishareen should pass, she well knew how to mislead them all, and that none of them should follow till they were far out of danger. Bruce accordingly sent two Barbarins to lame the camels effectually, but not so as to injure them past recovery. After which, for the nurse and the child's sake, he took twelve handfuls of the bread which was their only food, and which, indeed, they could scarcely spare, and left it to this miserable family. With these precautions, on the 20th, at eleven o'clock, they left the well at Terfowey, after having warned the women that their chance of seeing their husband again depended wholly upon his and their faithful conduct. They then took their prisoner with them, his right hand being chained to the left hand of one of the Barbarins. They had scarcely got into the plain when they felt great symptoms of the simoom; and about a quarter before twelve, their prisoner first, and then Idris, cried out, "The simoom! the simoom!" "My curiosity," says Bruce, "would not suffer me to fall down without looking behind me. About due south, a little to the east, I saw the coloured haze as before. It seemed now to be rather less compressed, and to have with it a shade of blue. The edges of it were not defined as those of the former, but like a very thin smoke, with about a yard in the middle tinged with those colours. We all fell upon our faces, and the simoom passed with a gentle ruffling wind. It continued to blow in this manner till near three o'clock; so we were all taken ill that night, and scarcely strength was left us to load the camels and arrange the baggage. This day one of our camels died, partly famished, partly overcome with extreme fatigue; so that, incapable as we were of labour, we were obliged, for self-preservation's sake, to cut off thin slices of the fleshy part of the camel, and hang it in so many thongs upon the trees all night, and after upon the baggage, the sun drying it immediately, so as to prevent putrefaction." At half past eight in the evening they alighted at a brackish well called Naibey, in a bare, sandy plain, where there were a few straggling acacia-trees. They found near the well the corpse of a man and two camels; it was apparently long since that their deaths had taken place, for the camels were so dried up that their remains would weigh but a very few pounds; no vermin had touched them, for in this whole desert there is neither worm, fly, nor anything that has in it the breath of life. On the 21st, at six in the morning, having filled the girbas with water, they set out from Naibey. The first hour of the journey was among sharp-pointed rocks, which, it was easy to foresee, would very soon disable the camels. At about eight they had a view of the desert to the westward as before, and saw that the sands had already begun to rise in immense twisted pillars, which darkened the heavens. The rising of these so early in the morning was a sure sign of a hot day, of a calm about midday, and of its being followed by two hours of the poisonous wind, which Bruce and his suffering companions dreaded more than any affliction that could assail them. The moving columns were this day more magnificent than any they had yet seen, being thicker, and containing more sand; and, the sun shining through them, they appeared as if spotted with stars of gold. "The simoom," says Bruce, "with the wind at southeast, immediately follows the wind at north, and the usual despondency that always accompanies it. The blue meteor, with which it began, passed over us about twelve, and the ruffling wind that followed it continued till near two. Silence, and a desperate kind of indifference about life, were the immediate effect upon us; and I began now, seeing the condition of my camels, to fear we were all doomed to a sandy grave, and to contemplate it with some degree of resignation. At half past eight in the evening we alighted in a sandy flat, where there was great store of bent grass and trees, which had a considerable degree of verdure, a circumstance much in favour of our camels. We determined to stop here, to give them an opportunity of eating their fill where they could find it." On the 22d, at six o'clock, as they were crossing this sandy flat, one of the Tucorory was seized with phrensy or madness. He rolled upon the ground, moaned, and refused to continue his journey, or to rise from where he lay. It was death to stop with him; and as each man was barely able to support his own sufferings, and could not participate in those of others, the wretched maniac was left to die among the thirsting sands, under the scorching sun which had already deprived him of his reason. In the evening the party reached Umarack, where another of the camels died, completely worn out and exhausted. "I here began," says Bruce, "to provide for the worst. I saw the fate of our camels approaching, and that our men grew weak in proportion; our bread, too, began to fail us, although we had plenty of camel's flesh in its stead; our water, though in all appearance we were to find it more frequently than in the beginning of our journey, was nevertheless brackish, and scarcely served the purpose to quench our thirst; and, above all, the dreadful simoom had perfectly exhausted our strength, and brought upon us a degree of cowardice and languor that we struggled with in vain. I therefore, as the last effort, began to throw away everything weighty I could spare, or what was not absolutely necessary, such as all shells, fossils, minerals, and petrifactions that I could get at, the counter-cases of my quadrant, telescopes, and clock, and several such like things. "Our camels were now reduced to five, and it did not seem that these were capable of continuing their journey much longer. In that case, no remedy remained but that each man should carry his own water and provisions. Now, as no one man could carry the water he should use between well and well, and it was more than probable that that distance would be doubled by some of the wells being found dry; and, if that were not the case, yet, as it was impossible for a man to carry his provisions who could not walk without any burden at all, our situations seemed to be most desperate." The Bishareen alone, existing in his native element, seemed to keep up his strength, and was in excellent spirits. He had attached himself in a particular manner to Bruce, and, with a part of a very scanty rag which he had round his waist, he neatly made a wrapper to defend Bruce's feet during the day; but the pain occasioned by the cold in the night was scarcely bearable. Bruce offered to free his left hand, which was chained to some one of the company night and day, but the man constantly refused, saying, "Unchain my hands when you load and unload your camels; but keep me to the end of the journey as you began with me: then I cannot misbehave, and lose the reward which you say you are to give me." Proceeding on their journey, they saw large strata of fossil salt everywhere upon the surface of the ground; and this dismal scene was not much enlivened by passing the body of a man who had been murdered, stripped naked, and was lying on his face unburied. A wound in the hind sinew of his leg was apparent; and he was, besides, thrust through the back with a lance, and had two sword-wounds in the head. During the next day they saw many dead bodies of the Tucorory, who had been scattered by the Bishareen, and left to perish with thirst. In a small pool of water at which they now arrived, they found a small teal or widgeon. The Turk Ismael was preparing to shoot at it with his blunderbuss; but Bruce desired him to refrain, being desirous to ascertain, by its flight, something as to the probable distance of the Nile; he therefore obliged it to take wing. The bird flew straight west, rising as he flew (a melancholy proof that his journey was a long one), till at last, being very high, he vanished from their sight, without seeking to approach the earth: from which it was but too evident that the Nile was yet far removed from them. This night Georgis and the Turk Ismael were both so ill and so desponding that they had resolved to pursue their journey no farther, but submit to their destiny, as they called it, and stay behind to die. It was with the utmost difficulty Bruce could persuade them to lay aside this resolution; and the next morning he promised they should ride by turns upon one of the camels, a thing that no one had yet attempted. "After travelling for nearly three days," says Bruce, "we had an unexpected entertainment, which filled our hearts with a very short-lived joy. The whole plain before us seemed thick-covered with green grass and yellow daisies. We advanced to the place with as much speed as our lame condition would suffer us; but how terrible was our disappointment when we found the whole of that verdure to consist in senna and coloquintida, the most nauseous of plants, and the most incapable of being substituted as food for man or beast! We were now very near a crisis one way or the other. Our bread was consumed, so that we had not sufficient for one day more; and, though we had camel's flesh, yet, by living so long on bread and water, an invincible repugnance arose either to smell or taste it. As our camels were at their last gasp, we had taken so sparingly of water, that, when we came to divide it, we found it insufficient for our necessities, if Syene was even so near as we conceived it to be. "Georgis had lost one eye, and was nearly blind in the other. Ismael and he had both become so stiff by being carried that they could not bear to set their feet to the ground; and I may say for myself, that, though I had supported the wounds in my feet with a patience very uncommon, yet they were arrived at a height to be perfectly intolerable, and, as I apprehended, on the point of mortification. The bandage which the Bishareen had tied about the hollow of my foot was now almost hidden by the flesh swelling over it. Three large wounds on the right foot and two on the left continued open, whence a quantity of lymph oozed continually. It was also with the utmost difficulty we could get out the rag by cutting it to shreds with scissors. The tale is both unpleasant and irksome. Two soles which remained from our sandals, the upper leathers of which had gone to pieces in the sand near Goos, were tied with a cotton cloth very adroitly by the Bishareen. But it seemed impossible that I could walk farther even with his assistance, and therefore we determined to throw away the quadrant, telescope, and timekeeper, and save our lives by riding the camels alternately. But Providence had already decreed that we should not terminate this dangerous journey by our own ordinary foresight and contrivance, but owe it entirely to his visible support and interposition. "On the 27th, at half past five in the morning, we attempted to raise our camels at Saffieha by every method that we could devise, but all in vain; only one of them could get upon his legs, and that one did not stand two minutes till he kneeled down, and could never be raised afterward. This the Arabs all declared to be the effects of cold; and yet Fahrenheit's thermometer, an hour before day, stood at 42°. Every way we turned ourselves death now stared us in the face. We had neither time nor strength to waste, nor provisions to support us. We then took the small skins that had contained our water, and filled them as far as we thought a man could carry them with ease; but, after all these shifts, there was not enough to serve us three days, at which I had estimated our journey to Syene, which still, however, was uncertain. Finding, therefore, the camels would not rise, we killed two of them, and took as much flesh as might serve for the deficiency of bread, and from the stomach of each of the camels got about four gallons of water, which the Bishareen Arab managed with great dexterity." It is well known that the camel has within him reservoirs, in which he can preserve water for a very considerable time. In caravans making long journeys from the Niger across the desert of Selima, it has been said that each camel lays in a store of water sufficient to support him for forty days. This statement is probably exaggerated; but fourteen or sixteen days, it is well known, an ordinary camel will live, though he have no fresh supply of water; for when he eats, one constantly sees him throw from his repository mouthfuls of water to dilute his food; and nature has contrived this vessel with such properties, that the water within it never putrefies nor turns unwholesome. The spirits of Bruce's companions now began completely to fail them. The miserable stock of black bread on which they had hitherto subsisted was nearly exhausted, and though they had extracted water from the carcasses or stomachs of the camels, and, like vampires, were thus sucking a horrid nourishment from the bodies of the dead, yet the difficulties which opposed them seemed greater than their strength, and they began to abandon even the hope of ever getting out of the desert. "We were surrounded," says Bruce, "with those terrible and unusual phenomena of nature which Providence, in mercy to the weakness of his creatures, has concealed far from their sight, in deserts almost inaccessible to them. Nothing but death was before our eyes; and, in these dreadful moments of pain, suffering, and despair, honour, instead of relieving me, suggested still what was to be an augmentation to my misfortune; the feeling this produced fell directly upon me alone, and every other individual of the company was unconscious of it. "The drawings made at Palmyra and Baalbec for the king were, in many parts of them, not advanced farther than the outlines, which I had carried with me, that, if leisure or confinement should happen, I might finish them during my travels, in the case of failure of other employment, so far, at least, that, on my return to Italy, they might be in a state of receiving farther improvement, which might carry them to that perfection I have since been enabled to conduct them. These were all to be thrown away, with other not less valuable papers, and, with my quadrant, telescopes, and timekeeper, abandoned to the rude and ignorant hands of robbers, or to be buried in the sands. Every memorandum, every description, sketch, or observation since I departed from Badjoura and passed the desert to Cosseir, till I reached the present spot, were left in an undigested heap, with our carrion camels, at Saffieha, while there remained with me, in lieu of all my memoranda, but this mournful consideration, that I was now to maintain the reality of these my tedious perils with those who either did, or might affect, from malice and envy, to doubt my veracity upon my ipse dixit alone, or abandon the reputation of the travels which I had made with so much courage, labour, danger, and difficulty, and which had been considered as desperate and impracticable to accomplish for more than two thousand years." On the 28th, at half past seven in the morning, they left Waadi el Arab and entered a narrow defile, with rugged but not high mountains on each side. About twelve o'clock they came to a few trees in the bed of a torrent. Ill as Bruce was, after refreshing himself with his last bread and water, he set out in the afternoon to gain a rising ground, that he might see, if possible, what was to the westward; for the mountains seemed now rocky and high, like those of the Kennouss near Syene. He arrived, with great difficulty and pain, on the top of a moderate hill, but was exceedingly disappointed at not seeing the river to the west: the vicinity of the Nile, however, was very evident, from the high, uniform mountains that confine its torrent when it comes out of Nubia. The evening was still; and sitting down and covering his eyes with his hands, not to be diverted by external objects, he listened and heard distinctly the noise of waters, which he supposed to be the cataract, although it seemed to the southward, as if he had passed it. The party now proceeded, and continued their course for two days; when, on the 28th, Bruce saw a flock of birds, which he recognised as belonging to the Nile. Satisfied that they should soon arrive at or below Syene, he returned to his companions, to whom he communicated this important news, which was confirmed by Idris. A cry of joy followed this annunciation. Christians, Moors, and Turks all burst into floods of tears, kissing and embracing one another, and thanking God for his infinite mercy in this deliverance. On the 29th, at seven o'clock in the morning, they left Abou Seielat; at about nine they saw before them the palm-trees of Assouan, and very shortly afterward reached a grove of palm-trees on the north of that city. In justice to Bruce's character, it is our duty to state, that we have given but a very imperfect idea of the real fatigue of this journey to Assouan; for, however weary the reader may have been with the desert from which he has just returned, however he may rejoice to quit the deep, heavy sand, and once more behold the fresh-flowing waters of the Nile, yet, in a _short half hour_, he has travelled from Gondar, a distance which it took Bruce _eleven months_ to perform--twelve weeks of which were spent in coming from Sennaar to Syene. Not only is it impossible adequately to describe, from the report of others, real sufferings and dangers, but those who have actually undergone either soon find it impossible to bring back an unfaded picture of them to the mind; of which there can be no stronger proof than the everyday occurrence of people cheerfully returning to difficulties which, while actually felt, they had firmly resolved never again to encounter. FOOTNOTE: [36] The appearance and effects of this "wind of the desert" are more fully described in the following account. "The sky, at other times serene and cloudless, appears lurid and heavy; the sun loses his splendour, and appears of a violet colour. The air, saturated with particles of the finest sand, becomes thick, fiery, and unfit for respiration. The coldest substances change their natural qualities; marble, iron, and water are hot, and deceive the hand which touches them. Every kind of moisture is absorbed; the skin is parched and shrivelled; paper cracks as if it were in the mouth of an oven. When inhaled by men or animals, the simoom produces a painful feeling, as of suffocation. The lungs are too rarefied for breathing, and the body is consumed by an internal heat, which often terminates in convulsions and death. The carcasses of the dead exhibit symptoms of immediate putrefaction, similar to what is observed to take place in bodies deprived of life by thunder, or the effect of electricity," &c. See _Crichton's History of Arabia_, vol. i., p. 63, _et seq._, Harpers' Family Library.--_Am. Ed._ CHAPTER XVII. Kind Reception at Assouan.--Arrival at Cairo.--Transactions with the Bey there.--Lands at Marseilles Without stopping to congratulate each other on their escape and safe arrival, Bruce's companions, with one accord, ran eagerly to the Nile to drink, notwithstanding that, in the course of the journey, they had witnessed the dreadful consequences of such imprudence. Bruce himself sat down under the shade of some palm-trees. It was very hot, and he fell into a profound sleep. But Hagi Ismael, who, neither sleepy nor thirsty, was exceedingly hungry, had gone into the town in search of food. He had not proceeded far before his green turban and ragged appearance struck some brother janisaries who met him, one of whom asked him what he was doing and where he had come from. Ismael, in a violent passion and broken Arabic, exclaimed that he was a janisary of Cairo; had come last from Tophet, and had walked through a desert of fire and flames. The soldier, hearing him talk in this incoherent, raving tone, insisted that he should accompany him to the aga--the very thing that Ismael wanted. He only desired time to acquaint his companions. "Have you companions," says the soldier, "from such a country?" "Companions!" says Ismael; "what! do you imagine that I came this journey alone?" "Go," says Ismael, "to the palm-trees; and when you find the tallest man you ever saw in your life, more ragged and dirty than I am, call him Yagoube, and desire him to come along with you to the aga." The soldier obeyed, and accordingly found Bruce still reclining at the root of the palm-tree. "A dulness and insensibility," says Bruce, "a universal relaxation of spirits which I cannot describe, a kind of stupor or palsy of mind had overtaken me, almost to a deprivation of understanding. I found in myself a kind of stupidity, and want of power to reflect upon what had passed. I seemed to be as if awakened from a dream, when the senses are yet half asleep, and we only begin to doubt whether what has before passed in thought is real or not. The dangers that I was just now delivered from made no impression upon my mind; and, what more and more convinces me I was for a time not in my perfect senses, is, that I found in myself a hard-heartedness, without the least inclination to be thankful for that signal deliverance which I had just now experienced." From this stupor he was awakened by the arrival of the soldier, who cried out, at some distance, "You must come to the aga, to the castle, as fast as you can; the Turk is gone before you." "It will not be very fast, if we even should do that," said Bruce; "the Turk has ridden two days on a camel, and I have walked on foot, and do not know at present if I can walk at all." He then endeavoured to rise and stand upright, but it was with great pain and difficulty. The Turk and Greeks were clothed no better than Bruce; Ismael and Michael had in their hands two monstrous blunderbuses, and the whole town crowded after them while they walked to the castle. The aga was struck dumb on their entering the room, and observed to Bruce that he thought him full a foot taller than any man he had ever seen in his life. After a short conversation, the aga asked for his letters and firman. Bruce told him that he had left them with his baggage and dead camels at Saffieha, and he asked the favour of fresh camels that he might go and fetch his papers. "God forbid," said the aga, "I should ever suffer you to do so mad an action! You are come hither by a thousand miracles, and after this, will you tempt God and go back? We shall take it for granted what those papers contain. You will have no need of a firman between this and Cairo." "I am," replied Bruce, "a servant of the King of England, travelling by his order, and for my own and my countrymen's information; and I had rather risk my life twenty times than lose the papers I have left in the desert." "Go in peace," said the aga, "eat and sleep. Carry them," he said, speaking to his attendants, "to the house of the schourbatchie." They very shortly received from the aga about fifty loaves of fine wheat bread, and several large dishes of dressed meat; but the smell of these last no sooner reached Bruce than he fainted and fell upon the floor. He made several trials afterward, with no better success, the first two days; for his stomach was so weakened by excessive heat and fatigue, that he could not reconcile himself to any sort of food but toasted bread and coffee. After staying at Syene six days, Bruce obtained dromedaries, and, resolutely retracing his steps into the desert for forty miles, had at last the indescribable satisfaction to find his quadrant and the whole of his baggage. By them lay the bodies of the slaughtered camels, a small part of one of them having been torn by the haddaya or kite. Bruce now closed his travels through the desert by discharging the debts he had contracted in it. In order to recompense Idris Welled Hamran, the Hybeer, for his faithful services, he made him choose for himself a good camel, clothed him, and gave him dresses for his two wives, with a load of dora. The poor fellow, thus enriched, departed with tears in his eyes, offering to go back and deliver up what Bruce had given him to his family, and then return and follow him as a servant wherever he should go. Bruce, however, had no longer any occasion for his services; indeed, he could have well reached Syene without him; yet, had any accident happened in the desert to his other guide, his prudent precaution in securing this man would have been very evident. But it was his system always to provide against accidents; and by this means, and his intimate knowledge of human nature, he had been enabled to reach Syene in safety. To raise Bruce's character by undervaluing that of other travellers would be an unworthy jealousy, in which we should be very sorry to indulge; yet the proper mode of penetrating Africa is a problem of such vital importance to those who may hereafter attempt it, that we cannot refrain from observing what a very remarkable difference there is between the manner in which Bruce and Burckhardt travelled between Egypt and Nubia. The former possessed the magic art of commanding, at all times, respect; and the reader has seen what was his behaviour, and the treatment which he received during this perilous undertaking. Burckhardt's resolution was unconquerable, and his patience in the desert almost equal to that of the camel. Science had never a more faithful servant; but then he neglected to seek information by giving it, and the disguise under which he travelled concealed not only his person, but his mind. All civilized men, from the philosopher down to the mountebank, carry with them a fund either of instruction or amusement; and the old fable of the basket-maker explains how possible it is for any one to make himself, at least, useful to uncivilized tribes; but of this Burckhardt neglected to avail himself, and a few brief extracts from his travels will show the consequences. "I gave out," he says, "I was in search of a cousin." "The son of my old friend of Daraoa, to whom I had been most particularly recommended by his father, went so far as once to spit in my face in the public market-place." "Indeed, I never met any of these Egyptians in the streets without receiving some insulting language from them, of which, had I taken notice, they would, no doubt, have carried me before the mek." "One of the slaves of Edris, to whom I had already made some little presents, tore my shirt to pieces because I refused to give it to him." "Called me boy." "I cooked my own victuals." "Was pelted with stones." "I was often driven from the coolest and most comfortable berth into the burning sun, and generally passed the midday hour in great distress." "I was afraid to take any notes." "I hid myself to do it," &c., &c., &c.... On the 11th of December Bruce embarked at Syene, and without masts being shipped or any sails set, the vessel or canja floated down the Nile. There is no greater trial to the constitution than sudden change from an active to a sedentary life: the human frame seems made for hardship; and in the army it has been constantly remarked, that troops which have been long exposed to a bivouac become unhealthy as soon as they go into quarters. "On the 10th of January, 1773, we arrived," says Bruce, "at the Convent of St. George at Cairo; all of us, as I thought, worse in health and spirits than the day we came out of the desert. Nobody knew us at the convent, either by our face or our language, and it was by a kind of force that we entered. Ismael and the Copht went straight to the bey; and I, with great difficulty, had interest enough to send to the patriarch and my merchants at Cairo, by employing the only two piastres I had in my pocket. It was half by violence that we got admittance into the convent. But this difficulty was to be but of short duration: the morning was to end it and give us a sight of our friends, and in the mean time we were to sleep soundly." Bruce had scarcely enjoyed an hour's repose, when he was awakened by a number of strange voices, which called upon him to come immediately before the bey; he insisted, however, on being allowed a few moments to arrange his toilet. "I had no shirt on," he says, "nor had I been master of one for fourteen months past. I had a waistcoat of coarse brown woollen blanket, trousers of the same, and an upper blanket of the same wrapped about me, and in these I was lying. I had cut off my long beard at Furshoot, but still wore prodigious mustaches. I had a thin white muslin cloth round a red Turkish cap, which served me for a night-cap, a girdle of coarse woollen cloth, that wrapped round my waist eight or ten times, and swaddled me up from the middle to the pit of my stomach, but without either shoes or stockings. In the left of my girdle I had two English pistols mounted with silver, and on the right hand a common crooked Abyssinian knife, with a handle of rhinoceros horn. Thus equipped, I was ushered by the banditti, in a dark and very windy night, to the door of the convent." The sarach or commander of the party rode on a mule, and, as a mark of extreme consideration, he had brought an ass for Bruce, the only animal that a Christian was suffered to ride on in Cairo. As the beast had no saddle nor stirrups, Bruce's feet would have touched the ground had he not held them up, which he did with the utmost pain and difficulty, as they were inflamed and dreadfully sore from the march in the desert. "Nobody," says Bruce, "can ever know, from a more particular description, the hundredth part of the pain I suffered that night. I was happy that it was all external. I had hardened my heart; it was strong, vigorous, and whole, from the near prospect I had of leaving this most accursed country, and being again restored to the conversation of men." He was now introduced to Mohammed Bey. Two large sofas, furnished with cushions, took up a great part of a spacious saloon. These cushions were of the richest crimson and gold, excepting a small yellow and gold one like a pillow, upon which the bey was leaning, supporting his head with his left hand, and sitting in the corner of the two sofas. Though it was late, he was in full dress; his girdle, turban, and the handle of his dagger all shining with the finest brilliants, and a magnificent sprig of diamonds was in his turban. "The rooms," says Bruce, "were light as day with a number of wax torches or candles. I found myself humbled at the sight of so much greatness and affluence. My bare feet were so dirty, I had a scruple to set them upon the rich Persian carpets with which the whole floor was covered; and the pain that walking at all occasioned gave me altogether so crouching and cringing a look, that the bey, upon seeing me come in, cried out, 'What's that? Who is that? From whence is he come?' His secretary told him, and immediately upon that I said to him in Arabic, with a low bow, 'Mohammed Bey, I am Yagoube, an Englishman; very unfit to appear before you in the condition I am in, having been forced out of my bed by your soldiers in the middle of the only sound sleep I have had for many years.'" After a short conversation, Bruce showed the bey the dreadful state of his feet: the effect, he told him, of passing the desert. He immediately desired him to sit down on the cushion. "It is the coldness of the night and hanging upon the ass," said Bruce, "which occasions this; the pain will be over presently." Bruce soon left, and was accompanied by a slave, who presented to him a basket of oranges, which he said were given by order of the bey. "In that country," says Bruce, "it is not the value of the present, but the character and power of the person that sends it, that creates the value; twenty thousand men that slept in Cairo that night would have thought the day on which the bey gave them, at an audience, the worst orange in that basket, the happiest one in their life. It is a mark of friendship and protection, and the best of all assurances. Well accustomed to ceremonies of this kind, I took a single orange, bowing low to the man that gave it me, who whispered me, 'Put your hand to the bottom, the best fruit is there; the whole is for you: it is from the bey.' A purse was exceedingly visible. I lifted it out; there were a considerable number of sequins in it; I put it in my mouth, kissed it, and said to the young man, 'This is, indeed the best fruit--at least commonly thought so--but it is forbidden fruit for me. The bey's protection and favour are more agreeable to me than a thousand such purses would be.'" The servant showed prodigious surprise. Nothing appears more incredible to a Turk, whatever his rank may be, than that any man should refuse money! The slave therefore insisted that Bruce should return to the bey, who, having heard of his behaviour, observed that it was evident, from his dress and appearance, he was in want of money. "Sir," said Bruce (who had a very important object which he was desirous to gain), "may I beg leave to say two words to you? There is not a man to whom you ever gave money more grateful or more sensible of your generosity than I am at present. The reason of my waiting upon you in this dress was because it is only a few hours ago since I left the boat. I am not, however, a needy man, or one that is distressed for money: that being the case, and as you have already my prayers for your charity, I would not deprive you of those of the widow and the orphan, whom that money may very materially relieve. Julian and Rosa, the first house in Cairo, will furnish me with what money I require; besides, I am in the service of the greatest king in Europe, who would not fail to supply me abundantly if my necessities required it, as I am travelling for his service." "This being so," said the bey, with great looks of complacency, "what is it in my power to do for you? You are a stranger now where I command; you are my father's stranger likewise, and this is a double obligation upon me: what shall I do?" "There are," said I, "things that you could do, and you only, if it were not too great presumption for me to name them." "By no means; if I can, I will do it; if not, I will tell you so." Bruce saw, by the bey's manner of speaking, that he had risen considerably in character in his estimation since his refusal of the money. "I have, sir," said Bruce, "a number of countrymen, brave, rich, and honest, that trade in India, where my king has great dominions. Now there are many of these that come to Jidda. I left there eleven large ships belonging to them, who, according to treaty, pay high duties to the custom-house, and, from the dictates of their own generosity and munificence, give large presents to the prince and to his servants for protection; but the Sherriffe of Mecca has of late laid duty upon duty, and extortion upon extortion, till the English are at the point of giving up the trade altogether." Bruce had two other audiences with Mohammed Bey on this important subject; and, faithful to the interests of his country, he at last succeeded in concluding an agreement in favour of the English merchants, by which, instead of paying fourteen per cent. and an enormous present, the bey agreed to be satisfied with eight per cent. and no present at all; and, at his own expense, our traveller had the pleasure of sending the following firman to Mocha: _Translation of the Firman procured by Mr. Bruce from Mohammed Bey Aboudahab, for the East India Company. 1773._ "We give thanks to the God of the whole world, wishing a good end to those who have good conduct, and the contrary to the unjust. God shall salute the most famous among his creatures and his followers. Next, let this order be obeyed with the assistance of God in all parts, which is written from the Divan of Cairo the fortified, and which contains an agreement with the esteemed Captains and Christian merchants, who are famed for their honesty: may they have a good end! Be it known to you all, as many of you as this reaches, that the honoured Yagoube el Hakim has come to us, and has given us to understand the injustice commonly practised by his majesty the Sherriffe of Mecca, and by his dependants in the place of Jidda, and that you wish to come into the port of Suez, but want security. It is very agreeable that you should enjoy this in the time of our king,[37] servant of the two holy places, and lord of the two lands and the two seas; may God always give him strength and victory! I make you sure, therefore, that you may come to Suez with your ships, with good profit, under the shadow of God and of our Prophet, and under our own both far and near; and that you shall not be molested, neither by us nor our servants, our soldiers nor our subjects; and that you shall not pay aught but eight per cent. of the said merchandise, or its value; and fifty pataka for each ship to the commandant of Suez, in name of anchorage; and that you may come to Cairo itself, and trade for money or barter, as suits you best, without restraint from any one; and if it suits you better to trade at Suez, we will order the merchants thither, without anybody's incommoding or troubling you. So you shall have repose more than you desired; and these promises are good and binding, and will not be changed to the contrary, so that you shall not pay any other expenses to us or to our soldiers. And may the blessing of God rest on him that follows the right way! The 15th of the month Zilkaade, 1186 (February, 1773)." Mohammed Bey being about to leave Cairo to visit his father-in-law in Syria, now pressed Bruce very much to accompany him; but he naturally enough says, "I was sufficiently cured of any more Don Quixote undertakings." He therefore proceeded to Alexandria, where he arrived in the beginning of March. With as little delay as possible, he embarked on board a small vessel, the crew of which, during some heavy weather, proposed to throw his baggage overboard, conceiving that such large cases must contain dead men, which all sailors consider as unlucky guests. Bruce, however, manfully protected his hard-earned treasure, and, after a tedious passage of three weeks, landed safely at Marseilles. FOOTNOTE: [37] The Grand Seignior. CHAPTER XVIII. Bruce returns to Europe.--Visits Paris--Italy.--Returns to England.--Quarrels with the Writers of the Day.--Retires to Scotland.--Marries.--At last publishes his Travels.--The Incredulity of the Credulous.--Bruce's Disappointment--Sorrow--Death. "Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself has said, This is my own, my native land! Whose heart has ne'er within him burn'd, As HOME his footsteps he has turn'd, From wandering on a foreign strand?" But, although "home is home, though ever so homely," there is, perhaps, no idea in the human mind more indefinite than that which circumscribes the precise limits of our "home;" for, like the pupil of the eye, it dilates and contracts according to circumstances. The European who has long sojourned under the constellations of the southern hemisphere, feels that he is "at home" when, from the neighbourhood of the Line, he first sees his old friend, the north star, rising above the horizon. To this man, home is for a moment the hemisphere in which he was born. Our own country, our own county, our own town, parish, house, room, are homes of different dimensions; and, regardless of all these, the sailor-boy has often felt that he was not really "at home" till he once more found himself in his mother's arms. Bruce considered himself "at home" as soon as he landed at Marseilles; and we have deemed the foregoing observations necessary to account for the time which will yet elapse before he actually revisits his native land. The Comte de Buffon, M. Guys, and many others who had taken particular interest in his travels, came to congratulate him on his return, and to listen to his adventures and discoveries. From their honourable friendship and in their liberal society Bruce for a short time enjoyed that refined intellectual happiness which is only known in civilized life. His health, however, was much impaired, and for five-and-thirty days he suffered very great agony from a worm, called faranteit, which had bedded itself in his leg below the knee. This worm is supposed by the Arabs to afflict those who have been in the habit of drinking stagnant water; and their mode of extracting it is by seizing it gently by the head, and then gradually winding it round a feather. Bruce had tried this plan; but, from the unskilfulness of his attendant, the worm was broken, and such severe inflammation ensued that the surgeon advised him to submit to amputation; "but," says Bruce, "to limp through the remains of life, after having escaped so many dangers, was hard; so much so, that the loss of life itself seemed more desirable." The inflammation, however, was at last reduced, though it did not entirely terminate for nearly a year after his arrival in Europe; and, as soon as his health was sufficiently restored, he set out for Paris, accompanied by the Comte de Buffon. The reception he met with in that metropolis was exceedingly flattering. His travels became the subject of general conversation, and his company was courted by people of learning and rank. As an acknowledgment of the favours which he had received from the French nation during the early part of his travels, Bruce presented to the Royal Library a copy of the Prophecies of Enoch, a literary curiosity of great value. He also sent to the king's garden at Paris some of the seeds of rare plants which he had collected in Abyssinia. In July he left Paris for Italy. He was desirous to try the baths of Poretta; and, although he was naturally anxious to revisit Scotland, his native country, he had a still stronger inclination to complete his drawings of Africa, for which he required leisure, with the advice and assistance of professional men. He had also another reason, which, however absurd and unjustifiable, made him obstinately determine, against the advice of all his friends, to proceed to Italy. Before Bruce was consul at Algiers, he had fallen in love with a Scottish lady, to whom he had engaged himself by a promise of marriage. On the banks of the Nile, on the waters of the Red Sea, among the mountains of Abyssinia, and in the burning desert of Nubia, Bruce's heart had remained faithful to his engagement--the charming vision was constantly before him. At the "hillock of green sod" the reader will remember how he insisted that Strates should drink to the health of MARIA! and he had at last hasted homeward, hoping to have all his delightful anticipations realized. But, on his arrival at Marseilles, he found that the lady had so far forgotten him, that she was at Rome, very comfortably married to the Marchese d'Accoramboni. Sorely disappointed, his feelings highly irritated, his leg still inflamed from the farenteit, gaunt, weather-beaten, sunburnt, and in stature six feet four inches, good English measure, Bruce suddenly appeared at Rome before Filippo Accoramboni, to demand that he should apologize in writing for having married a lady who had been engaged to him. The Italian marquis, seeing no good reason for fighting with such a man, politely assured him he would not have married the lady had he known she was engaged to him; but Bruce most unreasonably insisted that this declaration should be expressed in writing, which the marquis very properly declined, upon which Bruce instantly sent him the following letter: _Mr. Bruce to Signor Accoramboni._ "SIR,--Not my heart, but the entreaties of my friends, made me offer you the alternative by the Abbé Grant. It was not for such satisfaction that, sick and covered with wounds, I have traversed so much land and sea to find you. "An innocent man, employed in the service of my country, without any provocation or injury from me, you have deprived me of my honour, by violating all the most sacred rights before God and man; and you now refuse to commit to writing what you willingly confess in words. A man of honour and innocence, marquis, knows no such shifts as these; and it will be well for one of us to-day, if you had been as scrupulous in doing an injury as you are in repairing it. "I am at least your equal, marquis; and God alone can do me justice for the injury which you have done me. Full of innocence, and with a clear conscience, I commit my revenge to Him; and I now draw my sword against you with that confidence with which the reflection of having done my duty, and the sense of the injustice and violence which I have suffered from you, without any reason, inspire me. "At half past nine (French reckoning) I come in my carriage to your gate; if my carriage does not please you, let your own be ready. Let us go together to determine which of the two is the most easy, to offer an affront to an absent man, or to maintain it in his presence. "I have the honour to be your humble servant, "JAMES BRUCE." This sort of epistle came upon the marchese like the simoom. It was impossible to stand against it; and there was nothing left for him but to prostrate himself to the earth, as Bruce had done in the desert. He therefore made the following reply: _Sign. Accoramboni to Mr. Bruce._ "SIR--When the marriage with Miss M., at present my wife, was contracted, it was never mentioned to me that there was a previous promise made to you, otherwise that connexion should not have taken place. "With respect to yourself, on my honour, I have never spoken of you in any manner, your person not having been known to me. If, therefore, I can serve you, command me. With the profoundest respect, I sign myself, "Your most humble and _obliged_ servant, "FILIPPO ACCORAMBONI. "_Al. Sig. Cavaliere Janne Bruce._" This silly affair being concluded, Bruce remained for some months at Rome. From the nobility, as well as his countrymen who were there, he received marks of very particular attention; and Pope Clement XIV., the celebrated Ganganelli, presented him with a series of gold medals, relating to the different transactions of his pontificate. In the spring of 1774 Bruce returned to France, where he resided till the middle of June, when he left Paris, and very shortly afterward arrived in England, after an absence of twelve years. The public was naturally impatient to hear his adventures, and all people of distinction and learning appeared desirous to seek his acquaintance. He was introduced at court, and graciously received by his majesty George III., who was pleased not only to accept his drawings[38] of Baalbec, Palmyra, and the African cities, but to express his high approbation of the very great exertions which he had made to extend the boundaries of geographical knowledge. "When I first came home," says Bruce, "it was with great pleasure I gratified the curiosity of the whole world by showing them each what they fancied most curious. I thought this was an office of humanity to young people and to those of slender fortunes, or those who, from other causes, had no opportunity of travelling. I made it a particular duty to attend and explain to men of knowledge and learning, that were foreigners, everything that was worth the time they bestowed upon considering the different articles that were new to them, and this I did at length to the Count de Buffon, and Mons. Gueneau de Montbeliard, and the very amiable and accomplished Madame d'Aubenton. I cannot say by whose industry, but it was in consequence of this friendly communication, a list or inventory (for they could give no more) of all my birds and beasts was published before I was well got to England." Frank and open in society, Bruce, in describing his adventures, generally related those circumstances which he thought were most likely to amuse people by the contrast they afforded to the European fashions, customs, and follies of the day. Conscious of his own integrity, and not suspecting that, in a civilized country, the statements of a man of honour would be disbelieved, he did not think it necessary gradually and cautiously to prepare his hearers for a climate and scenery altogether different from their own, but he at once landed them in Abyssinia, and suddenly showed them a vivid picture to which he himself had been long accustomed. They had asked for novelty, and, in complying with their request, he gave them good measure, and told them of people who wore rings in their lips instead of their ears; who anointed themselves, not with bear's grease or pomatum, but with the blood of cows; who, instead of playing tunes upon them, wore the entrails of animals as ornaments; and who, instead of eating hot, putrid meat, licked their lips over bleeding, living flesh. He described debauchery dreadfully disgusting, because it was so different from their own. He told them of men who hunted each other; of mothers who had not seen ten winters; and he described crowds of human beings and huge animals retreating in terror before an army of little flies! In short, he told them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. At that time (to say nothing about the present day) the English public indolently allowed itself, with regard to particular regions of the earth, to be led and misled by a party of individuals, who dogmatically dictated what idle theory was to be believed, and what solid information was to be rejected. These brazen images Bruce refused to worship. In their presence he maintained his statements, and they frowned upon him with pompous incredulity. With just indignation, he sneered at their impertinence and folly; but they knew their power, and they deliberately banded together to run him down. "There has not," says Dr. Clarke (who travelled in three quarters of the globe, and who at Cairo had an opportunity of corroborating Bruce's statements), "there has not been an example in the annals of literature of more unfair and disgraceful hostility than that which an intolerant and invidious party too successfully levelled during a considerable time against the writings of Bruce." "I will venture to assert," says Belzoni, "that the only reason why such doubts could have been started respecting his (Bruce's) work, was the spirit of contradiction excited by the illiberality of travellers, and those who were no travellers: the former, because they had not power to resist jealousy, which, in spite of all their efforts to conceal it, shows itself through the veil of their pretended liberality and impartiality; and the latter, because they are unable to control their bad propensity to dispute and condemn everything they have no knowledge of."[39] "It was the misfortune of that traveller (Bruce), who is now no more," says Dr. Russel, in his history of Aleppo, "to have known that his veracity had too often captiously, and sometimes capriciously, been called in question, owing, besides the nature of his adventures, partly, I believe, to a certain manner in conversing as well as in writing, which alienated many who were less than himself disposed to take offence. He is now beyond the reach of flattery or humiliation; and I trust it will not be imputed merely to the partiality of friendship, if, as a small but just tribute to his memory, I repeat here what I have often before asserted in occasional conversation, that, however I might regret a constitutional irritability of temper so injurious to its owner, or however I might wish to have seen him, at times, condescend to explanations which I have reason to think would have removed prejudices, I never, either in course of our acquaintance or in the perusal of his book, found myself disposed to suspect him of any intentional deviation from the truth" (p. 423). As soon as Bruce found that in England public opinion was against him, in sullen indignation he determined to retire into his own country; for, although all ranks of people were amused with his adventures, yet, as soon as he perceived that they doubted his facts, his mind was too just and his spirit too proud to accept a smile as an atonement for a barbarous prejudice and an unjustifiable insult. Determined in no way to compromise his honour, he felt that he had better quit England, and that, under the storm which assailed him, there was "no place like home!" In the autumn he accordingly went to the capital of Scotland, where he was received with that affectionate attention and regard which we must admit the Scotch to have been always ready to pay to any one among them who has reflected credit and honour upon their country. From Edinburgh he proceeded to Kinnaird, where he rebuilt his house, and for some time occupied himself in arranging his estate, which, during his long absence, had not only fallen into disorder, but had become involved in legal difficulties. For more than a year and a half he was thus employed, enjoying the bustle and arrangements which served to divert his mind from the subject which most naturally and severely oppressed it. On the 20th of March, 1776, he married Mary Dundas, daughter of Thomas Dundas, Esq., of Fingask, and of Lady Janet Maitland, daughter of the Earl of Lauderdale. This amiable and accomplished person was much younger than Bruce; and it is rather a singular coincidence, that she was born the same year in which his first wife had died. For some time after his return to Scotland Bruce kept up a correspondence with his friends in France, but after his marriage he had little intercourse with literary people. In the shooting season he generally spent some time at a place called Ardwhillery, in the Highlands, and there, as well as at Kinnaird, he amused himself by translating the Prophecies of Enoch from the Abyssinian. He also made a slow progress in transcribing and arranging his journals; but, happy in his own domestic circle, and conscious that he had been a faithful servant to his country, he seemed to prefer repose to the vexation of laying his travels before the public. Always fond of astronomy, from which he had derived so much practical advantage, he erected, on the top of his house at Kinnaird, a temporary observatory; and, dressed in Abyssinian costume, wearing even the turban, he occasionally enjoyed very natural and delightful reflections in gazing, from a tranquil and civilized country, upon constellations in the heavens, which he had so often watched in moments of danger and privation; but a man's notions seldom fit his neighbours; and, "Eh! the laird's gaen daft!" was the opinion which the country people of Kinnaird secretly expressed among themselves at Bruce's astronomical operations. After having enjoyed nearly twelve years of quiet domestic happiness, Bruce lost his wife. She died in 1785, leaving him two children, a son and daughter. Thus deprived of his best friend and companion, he again became restless and melancholy. "The love of solitude," he very justly says, "is the constant follower of affliction. This again naturally turns an instructed mind to study." These feelings Bruce's friends strongly encouraged, and they used every endeavour to rouse him from his melancholy, and to persuade him to occupy his mind in the arrangement and publication of his travels. "My friends unanimously assailed me," he says, "in the part most accessible when the spirits are weak, which is vanity. They represented to me how ignoble it was, after all my dangers and difficulties, to be conquered by a misfortune incident to all men, the indulgence of which was unreasonable in itself, fruitless in its consequence, and so unlike the expectation I had given my country by the firmness and intrepidity of my former character and behaviour. "Others, whom I mention only for the sake of comparison, below all notice on any other account, attempted to succeed in the same design by anonymous letters and paragraphs in the newspapers; and thereby absurdly endeavoured to oblige me to publish an account of those travels, which they affected, at the same time, to believe I had never performed." "It is universally known," states the Gentleman's Magazine for 1789, "that doubts have been entertained _whether Mr. Bruce was ever in Abyssinia_. The Baron de Tott, speaking of the sources of the Nile, says, 'A traveller named Bruce, it is said, has pretended to have discovered them. I saw at Cairo the servant who was his guide and companion during the journey, who assured me that he had _no knowledge of any such discovery_.'" To the persuasions of his friends Bruce at last yielded, and, as soon as he resolved to undertake the task, he performed it with his usual energy and application. In about three years he submitted the work, nearly finished, to his very constant and sincere friend, the Hon. Daines Barrington. In the mean while, his enemies triumphantly maintained a clamour against him, and in his study he was assailed by the most virulent accusations of exaggeration and falsehood; and all descriptions of people were against him, from the moralist of the day down to the witty Peter Pindar. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1789, it is stated that Johnson had declared to Sir John Hawkins, "that when he first conversed with Mr. Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, he was _very much inclined to believe that he had been there, but that he had afterward altered his opinion_!" Peter Pindar amused all people (except Bruce) by his satirical flings, one of which was, "Nor have I been where men (what loss, alas!) Kill half a cow, and turn the rest to grass." In the year 1790, seventeen years after his return to Europe, Bruce's work was printed and laid before the public. It consisted of five large quarto volumes, and was entitled, "Travels to discover the Sources of the Nile, in the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773, by James Bruce of Kinnaird, Esq., F.R.S." The work was dedicated to the king; and in his preface Bruce frankly explains the reasons which had delayed for so many years the publication of his travels, and admits that "an undeserved and unexpected neglect and want of patronage had been at least part of the cause. But," he continues, "it is with great pleasure and readiness I now declare that no fantastical nor deformed motive, no peevish disregard, much less contempt, of the judgment of the world, had any part in the delay which has happened to this publication. The candid and instructed public, the impartial and unprejudiced foreigner, are tribunals merit should naturally appeal to; there it always has found sure protection against the influence of cabals, and the virulent strokes of envy, malice, and ignorance." He concludes his preface with the following noble words: "I have only to add, that were it probable, as in my decayed state of health it is not, that I should live to see a second edition of this work, all well-founded, judicious remarks suggested should be gratefully and carefully attended to; but I do solemnly declare to the public in general that I never will refute or answer any cavils, captious or idle objections, such as every new publication seems unavoidably to give birth to, nor ever reply to those witticisms and criticisms that appear in newspapers and periodical writings. What I have written I have written. My readers have before them, in the present volumes, all that I shall ever say, directly or indirectly, upon the subject; and I do, without one moment's anxiety, trust my defence to an impartial, well-informed, and judicious public." Now, had the public thus addressed been really "impartial, well-informed, and judicious," what a favourable impression would it have formed of a work appearing under circumstances which so peculiarly entitled it to belief! The author was not only of good family, but a man evidently proud of the same, and therefore not likely wilfully to disgrace it. He had received a liberal education, inherited an independent fortune, and for a number of years had deliberately prepared himself for the travels he had performed. He had not hastily passed through the countries which he described, but remained in them for six years. His descriptions were not of that trifling personal nature which in a short time it might be difficult to confirm or confute, but, with mathematical instruments in his hands, he professed to have determined the latitudes and longitudes of every place of importance that he visited, thus offering to men of science of all future ages data whereby to condemn him if he was inaccurate; while these data were of a description not to afford the slightest pleasure or amusement to the general reader. The work was not a hasty production; on the contrary, it appeared seventeen years after the travels it described had been concluded; and, finally, it was the production of an old man, who in fact, and in his own just opinion, had but a very few years to live; whose constitution had been worn out by the climates which he described, and whose fortune had been seriously impaired by his protracted absence. But his enemies, with pen in hand, like Shylock whetting his knife, impatiently were waiting for his book; and it no sooner appeared than Bruce was deprived of what was nearest his heart--his honour and his reputation. It was useless to stand against the storm which assailed him. His volumes were universally disbelieved; and yet it may be most confidently stated, that they do not contain a single statement which, according to our present knowledge of the world, can even be termed improbable. Nevertheless, in attentively reading the latest edition of Bruce's Travels, it must be evident to every one that, in point of composition, the work has very great faults. Bruce had an immense quantity of information to give, but he wanted skill to impart it as it deserved; and certainly nothing can be worse than the arrangement of his materials. He hardly starts with his narrative before we have him talking quite familiarly of people and places known only to himself; and, although perfectly at ease and at home, he forgets that his reader is an utter stranger in the land. He seems, likewise, never to have reflected that the generality of mankind were not as fond as himself of seeking to trace a dark speculative question to its source. His theories, which, whether right or wrong, are certainly ingenious, constantly break the thread of his narrative; and, like his minute history of all the kings of Abyssinia supposed to have reigned from the time of Solomon to this day, they wear out the patience of the reader. Yet these were evidently very favourite parts of his volumes; and, eager in detailing evidence and arguments which he conceived to be of great importance, he occasionally neglected his narrative, confused his facts and dates, and from his notes being made on separate slips of paper, he fell into several careless mistakes. His dates also are occasionally wrong; but in his notes which he brought to England, they are often inserted in so trembling a hand, that it is but too evident they were written on a bed of sickness. Besides, it must be evident to every one, that, when a man visits such immense countries as Bruce travelled over, his great difficulty is to attend to details. No man can attempt to conduct a trigonometrical survey, and to fill it up at the same time: if he has to determine the grand features of the country, it is impossible that he should be very attentive to minute parts; and if he be particular in his details, he can look but little to the general character of the regions he describes. But Bruce was disbelieved _in toto_; and it was even proclaimed that he had never been in Abyssinia at all! Dr. Clarke says: "Soon after the publication of his Travels to discover the sources of the Nile, several copies of the work were sold in Dublin as waste paper, in consequence of the calumnies circulated against the author's veracity." Nothing could be more dignified than his behaviour under such cruel treatment. He treated his country with the silent contempt which it deserved, disdaining to make any reply to publications impeaching his veracity; and when his friends earnestly entreated him to alter, modify, and explain the accounts which he had given, he firmly replied, in the words of his preface, "What I have written I have written!" To his daughter, his favourite child, he alone opened his heart. Although scarcely twelve years of age when he published his Travels, she was his constant companion; and he used to teach her the proper mode of pronouncing the Abyssinian words, "that he might leave," as he observed, "some one behind him who could pronounce them correctly." He repeatedly said to her, with feelings highly excited, "I shall not live to see it, but _you_ probably will, and you will then see the truth of all I have written thoroughly confirmed." In this expectation, however, it may here be observed, Bruce was deceived. This daughter, who afterward married John Jardine, Esq., an advocate in Edinburgh, never lived to see justice done to the memory of her beloved parent. When Dr. Clarke's examination of the Abyssinian dean strongly corroborated some of Bruce's statements, Mrs. Jardine, who was then ill in bed, sketched with her pencil a short account of this confirmation, so happily expressed that it appeared in the Scots' Magazine for December, 1819, with scarcely the alteration of a word. To the last hour of her life she was devotedly attached to the memory of her excellent father; and in a memorandum written by one of the ablest authors of the present day, she has been described to us as one of the most amiable and intelligent women he ever knew. After the publication of his Travels, Bruce occupied himself in the management of his estate and of his extensive collieries. He visited London occasionally, and kept up a correspondence with Daines Barrington and with Buffon. He also employed his time in biblical literature, and even projected an edition of the Bible, with notes, pointing out numberless instances in which the Jewish history was singularly confirmed by his own observations. His notions of his own consequence and of the antiquity of his family were high, and he had, consequently, the reputation of being a proud man; yet he was in the habit of entertaining at Kinnaird, with great hospitality, strangers, and those people of distinction who visited him; and in his own family he was a charming companion, entering into the amusements of his children with great delight. His young and amiable daughter used to walk, almost every morning, by his side, while Bruce, who had now grown exceedingly stout and lusty, rode slowly over his estate to his collieries, mounted on a horse of great power and size. At Kinnaird he was often seen wearing the turban and reclining in an Eastern costume; and in those moments it may easily be conceived that his thoughts flew with eager pleasure to the mountains of Abyssinia--that Ozoro Esther, Ras Michael, Gusho, Powussen, Fasil, Tecla Mariam, were before his eyes; and that, in their society, beloved, respected, and admired, he was once again--Yagoube, the white man! But, although his life at Kinnaird was apparently tranquil, his wounded feelings respecting his travels occasionally betrayed themselves. One day, while he was at the house of a relation in East Lothian, a gentleman present bluntly observed that it was _impossible_ that the natives of Abyssinia could eat raw meat! Bruce said not a word; but, leaving the room, he shortly returned from the kitchen with a piece of raw beefsteak, peppered and salted in the Abyssinian fashion. "You will eat that, sir, or fight me!" he said. When the gentleman had eaten up the raw flesh, Bruce calmly observed, "Now, sir, you will never again say it is _impossible_!" Single-speech Hamilton was Brace's first-cousin and intimate friend. One evening, at Kinnaird, he said, "Bruce! to convince the world of your power of drawing, you need only draw us now something in as good a style as those drawings of yours which they say have been done for you by Balugani, your Italian artist." "Gerard!" replied Bruce, very gravely, "you made _one_ fine speech, and the world doubted its being your own composition; but if you will stand up now here, and make another speech as good, we shall believe it to have been your own." These trifling anecdotes sufficiently show how sensitive Bruce was to the unjust insults that had been offered to him. For twenty years that had elapsed since his return to Europe, he had endured treatment which it was totally out of his power to repel. It is true, he had been complimented by Dr. Blair and a few others on the valuable information he had revealed; but the public voice still accused him of falsehood, or, what is equally culpable, of wilful exaggeration; and against the public in mass an individual can do nothing. Bruce's happiness was now at an end; he had survived his reputation. When he was asked, "What could he do against so many?" he answered, "DIE!" and this catastrophe soon happened. The last act of Brace's life was one of refined and polite attention. A large party had dined at Kinnaird, and, as they were about to depart, Bruce was gayly talking to a young lady in the drawing-room, when, suddenly observing that her aged mother was proceeding to her carriage unattended, he hurried to the great staircase. In this effort, the foot which had carried him safely through all his dangers chanced to fail him; he fell down several of the steps, broke some of his fingers, pitched on his head, and never spoke again! Thus died, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, in the healthy winter of his life, in vigour of mind and body, James Bruce of Kinnaird, a Scotchman, who was religious, loyal, honourable, brave, prudent, and enterprising. He was too proud of his ancestors, yet his posterity have reason to be proud of him. His temper was eager, hasty, and impetuous; he but selected for the employment of his life enterprises of danger, in which haste, eagerness, and impetuosity were converted into the means of serving the cause of science and his country. The zeal with which he toiled for the approbation of the world, and the pain he felt from its cruelty and injustice, exclude him from ranking among those great men who, by the help of religion, or even philosophy, may have learned to despise both; yet it must be observed, that, had he possessed this equanimity of mind, he would never have undertaken the great things which he accomplished. Bruce belonged to that fearless race of men who are ever ready "To set their life upon a cast, And stand the hazard of the die." He was merely a knight-errant in search of new regions of the world; yet the steady courage with which he encountered danger--his patience and fortitude in adversity--his good sense in prosperity--the skill and judgment with which he steered his lonely course through some of the most barren and barbarous regions of the earth, bending even the ignorance, passions, and prejudices of the people he visited to his own advantage--the graphic truth with which he describes the strange scenes that he witnessed, and his inflexible courage in maintaining the truth of his assertions against the mean, barbarous incredulity of his age, most deservedly place him at the head of his own class, where he stands second to none. His example, therefore, is well worthy the attention and study of every individual whose duty or inclination may lead him to attempt to penetrate the yet unknown, perilous, and uncivilized regions of the globe. Four days after his death, his remains, attended by his tenantry and by several of the principal men in the country, were deposited in the churchyard of Larbert, in a tomb which Bruce had built for his wife and his infant child. On the south side of the monument there is the following inscription: IN THIS TOMB ARE DEPOSITED THE REMAINS OF JAMES BRUCE, ESQ., OF KINNAIRD, WHO DIED ON THE 27TH OF APRIL, 1794, IN THE 64TH YEAR OF HIS AGE. HIS LIFE WAS SPENT IN PERFORMING USEFUL AND SPLENDID ACTIONS. HE EXPLORED MANY DISTANT REGIONS. HE DISCOVERED THE SOURCES OF THE NILE. HE TRAVERSED THE DESERTS OF NUBIA. HE WAS AN AFFECTIONATE HUSBAND, AN INDULGENT PARENT, AN ARDENT LOVER OF HIS COUNTRY. BY THE UNANIMOUS VOICE OF MANKIND, HIS NAME IS ENROLLED WITH THOSE WHO WERE CONSPICUOUS FOR GENIUS, FOR VALOUR, AND FOR VIRTUE. The descendants of James Bruce of Kinnaird remain to this day in their country--unrewarded. FOOTNOTES: [38] A great deal has been written and said against Bruce for having presented to the king, _as his own performance_, these drawings, which it has been very liberally assumed were the productions of Balugani, his Italian clerk. But, even admitting that Balugani held the pencil, we submit that Bruce was fully entitled to present them to the king and his country _as his own productions_. They were not works of genius or imagination, but architectural drawings, the plan and elevation of which were regularly shown by a scale annexed. Their value was their minute accuracy; and their merit consisted in the danger and difficulty with which such details had been procured. [39] The writer of this was acquainted with Belzoni, and has heard him describe scenes in his travels perhaps quite as marvellous as anything told by Bruce; and, knowing the character of the man, he could not for a moment doubt their entire truth.--_Am. Ed._ 
35369	----	The Highlands of Ethiopia By Sir William Cornwallis Harris Published by Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, London. This edition dated 1844. Introduction to the Second Edition. In putting forward a second edition of my "Highlands of Ethiopia," I have two very different duties to perform: first, to thank the press for the extremely liberal and generous manner in which it has received my work; secondly, to reply to certain objections which have been made by one or two periodicals, happily not of the first eminence, against both me and my travels. So numerous, however, are the publications that have evinced a favourable, I might almost say a friendly, disposition towards me, that I am unable to specify them. They will, therefore, I trust, accept in general terms my thanks to them one and all. Their very flattering testimonies have induced me to revise carefully what I have written, in order, if possible, to render it worthy of their warm praise, and to justify their predilection in my behalf. On the other hand, _fas est et ab hoste doceri_. I have consequently turned to account even the animadversions of my enemies--for enemies unhappily I have, and those, too, of the most implacable and malignant character-- mean persons to whom I have shown kindness, which they have apparently no means of repaying but by inveterate aversion. This circumstance I ought not perhaps to regret, except on their account. The parts we play are suitable to our respective characters; and I should even now abstain from prejudicing them in the estimation of the public, if I did not apprehend that my forbearance might be misconstrued. The points of attack selected by my adversaries are not many in number. Ultimately, indeed, they resolve themselves into three: first, my style of composition, which they say is gorgeous and inflated, and therefore obscure; second, the inaccuracy of several of my details; and third, the absence of much new information, which it seems the public had a right to expect from me. On the subject of the first accusation it will not perhaps be requisite that I should say much. To any one who cannot understand what I write I must necessarily appear obscure; but it may sometimes, I think, be a question with which of us the fault lies. That my composition is generally intelligible may not unfairly, I think, be inferred from the number of persons who have understood and praised it; since it can scarcely be imagined that the majority of reviewers would warmly recommend to the public that in which they could discern no meaning. Besides, on the subject of style there is a great diversity of opinion, some thinking that very extraordinary scenes and objects should be delineated in forcible language, while others advocate a tame and formal phraseology which they would see employed on all occasions whatsoever. I may observe, moreover, that "style," as Gibbon remarks, "is the image of character," and it is quite possible that my fancy may have a natural aptitude to take fire at the prospect of unusual scenes and strange manners. Still I am far from defending obstinately my own idiosyncracies, and yet farther from setting them up as a rule to others. In describing what I saw, and endeavouring to explain what I felt, I may very possibly have used expressions too poetical and ornate; but the public will, I am convinced, do me the justice to believe that, in acting thus, my object was exactly to delineate, and not to delude. I called in to my aid the language which seemed to me best calculated to reflect upon the minds of others, those grand and stupendous objects of nature which had made so deep and lasting an impression on my own. At all events, I am not conscious of having had in this any sinister purpose to serve. It is a far more serious charge, that I have presented the public with a false account of the Embassy to Shoa; that I have altered or suppressed facts; that I have been unjust to my predecessors and companions; and that I have at once misrepresented the country and its inhabitants. It has been already observed, that my accusers are few in number. Probably they do not exceed three individuals, two who affect to speak from their own knowledge, and one whom they have taken under their patronage as their cat's-paw. It may seem somewhat humiliating to answer such persons at all. I feel that it is so. But if dirt be cast at me, I must endeavour to shield myself from it, without enquiring whether the hands of the throwers be naturally filthy or not. That is their own affair. Mine is to avoid the pollution aimed at me. This must be my apology for entering into the explanations I am about to give. When I undertook to lay before the public an account of my travels in Abyssinia, I had to choose between the inartificial and somewhat tedious form of a journal, and that of a more elaborate history, in which the exact order of dates should not be observed. I preferred the latter; whether wisely or unwisely remains to be seen, though hitherto public opinion seems to declare itself in favour of my choice. Having come to this determination, it was necessary that I should act in all things consistently with it. As I had abandoned the journal, it was no way incumbent on me to observe the laws which govern that form of composition. My business, as it appeared to me, was to produce a work with some pretensions to a literary character; that is, one in which the order of time is not regarded as a primary element, the principal object being the grouping of events and circumstances so as to produce a complete picture. I perfectly understood that I was to add nothing and to invent nothing, but that I was at liberty to throw aside all trivial details, and dwell only on such points as seemed calculated to place in their proper light the labours of the mission, with the institutions, customs, and type of civilisation found among the people to whom we had been sent. In conformity with this theory I wrote. One of the first consequences, however, of the view I had taken of my subject, was the sacrifice of all minute personal adventures, which scarcely appeared in any way compatible with my plan. I abandoned likewise the use of the first personal pronoun, and always spoke of myself and my companions collectively, thereby perhaps doing some little injustice to my own exertions, but certainly not arrogating to myself any credit properly due to others. Among my friends there are those who object to this manner of writing, and I submit my judgment to theirs. In this Second Edition, therefore, I have reconstructed the narrative so far as was necessary in order to convert the third person into the first. To the charge that I have not observed the strict chronology of a journal, I have already pleaded guilty. It seemed to me far better to arrange together under one head whatever belonged properly to one topic. For example, when recording the medical services rendered to the people of Shoa, high or low, I have not inserted in my work each individual instance as it occurred, but have placed the whole before the reader in a separate chapter. So likewise in other cases, that which appeared to elucidate the matter in hand, was introduced into what I thought its proper place, because there it might both receive and reflect light, whereas in any other part, perhaps, of the work, it might have been without significance, if not altogether absurd. Not being infallible, I may possibly have misinterpreted the laws of rhetoric which I adopted as my guide: of this let the public be judge. I have aimed, at all events, at drawing a correct outline of Shoa and the surrounding countries, as far as my materials would permit, and should I have sometimes fallen into error, I claim that indulgence which is always readily extended to authors similarly circumstanced. While in Abyssinia, my official position very greatly interfered with my predilections as a traveller. I could not move hither and thither freely. To enlarge the circle of science was not the principal object of my mission; but at the same time it must not be forgotten that I enjoyed some advantages which a traveller visiting the country under other auspices would scarcely have commanded. In drawing up my work, however, the character in which I travelled was of considerable disservice to me. Much of the information that I collected, it was not permitted me to impart, which I say, not by way of complaint against the regulations of the service in which I have the honour to be engaged,--on the contrary, I think it most just and proper that such should be the case--but that the reader, when he feels a deficiency in political or commercial information, may know that it has not been withheld through any negligence or disrespect of the public on my part. I now come to consider more in detail the objections which have been urged against my travels. Some of these, it will at once be perceived, are so loose and indefinite as to be wholly incapable of being answered. For example, it is said, I have made no addition to the information already existing respecting the southern provinces of Abyssinia. How can I reply to this? Must I reprint all the works which had been previously published, and point out the additions I have made? The process, it will be acknowledged, is an unusual one. Besides, the scientific world has not hitherto been averse to look at several views of the same country, to compare them for itself, and to derive from the very comparison both pleasure and information. Some additions, moreover, to geographical science I undoubtedly have made, and there are those who have not been ashamed to borrow them. I have ascertained, for example, that the Gochob does not flow into the Nile, as it is made to do in a map which I have seen, constructed by one of the reviewer's greatest authorities. The inquiries I instituted render it probable that the Gochob is the same river with the Juba. And, above all, the longitude of Ankober was, under my directions, and by a laborious series of operations, correctly determined. The importance of this to travellers who may not possess the ability or the means of resolving it themselves, I need scarcely point out. Previously, every position in the maps of Southern Abyssinia was calculated from a false position, and therefore of necessity wrong. But I shall not here enter upon an inventory of my humble services to science. I could wish they were more numerous, but such as they are I trust they will be found not wholly without their value. In "ethnography," or rather perhaps "ethnology," the critic discovers my ideas to be all wrong; and he accounts for the circumstance by supposing in me some innate aversion to the "savage." I certainly dislike that particular variety of our species whether at home or abroad, but it does not necessarily follow that I have been therefore guilty of misrepresentation. These things, nevertheless, I leave to be determined by public opinion, which, so far as I can perceive, is little, if at all, influenced by the bitter and self-interested censures of my enemies. When I determined on making some reply to the "slashing" Aristarchus who has assailed my work--I would say publicly, but that the thing is so obscure that few persons have even heard of it--my design was to attempt something like order, that I might not by a multiplicity of disjointed remarks confound the memory of my readers. But the impossibility of following any rational plan soon became apparent. The reviewer with whom I have to deal is a man who scorns all order and regularity. His only rule is that of _hysteron proteron_, or putting the cart before the horse. Not possibly that he considers such a method of writing best in itself, but that by introducing perfect anarchy into his critique, and returning a dozen times to each objection urged, my faults might in appearance be so multiplied that they would suffice to fill a whole encyclopaedia. Now if in my reply I followed any other than his fragmentary system, I might perhaps seem to many not to answer all his objections, whereas my intention is to demolish every one of them. I resolved therefore to begin _ab ovo_, and giving quarter to no impertinence or absurdity by the way, to clear the ground completely, and leave a perfect _rase campagne_ behind me. That in so doing I shall not prove tedious, is more than I can hope. My adversary is insipidity personified. But if the controversy be unamusing, it shall, at least as far as I can render it so, be brief. The critic whose vagaries I have undertaken to expose, though affecting not to be hypercritical, first dwells with a puerile pertinacity on the title of my book, which he pronounces to be a misnomer, because, forsooth, the territories of Shoa are not high lands, but a high land! Possibly he figures to himself the whole of Abyssinia as one single vast plateau, whose surface presents neither elevation nor depression, otherwise the reader will see no reason why it should be spoken of in the singular. In describing the contents of the second volume, my reviewer speaks of "a slaving expedition among the Galla, _in which the Embassy_," he affirms, "_took part_." The assertion, however, is incorrect, not to apply to it a harsher epithet; for the spectator who looks on a play can with no propriety be said to take part in the acting of it. The mission was sent to Sahela Selassie, not to the city of Ankober. It was consequently my business to attend the king, to watch his movements, and study his character, just as the Embassy under Sir John McNeil attended the Shah of Persia to Herat, though instead of taking part in the siege, he laboured earnestly to put a stop to it. The contents of the third volume are next wilfully misrepresented, the critic desiring to make it appear that a very small portion indeed has reference to the country or people of Abyssinia, though at least two-thirds treat expressly of those subjects, whilst the remainder is strictly connected with them. But it is not merely in the third volume that the critic is unable to discover any information respecting Shoa. He takes courage as he proceeds, advances from particulars to generals, and contends that the book contains no information at all in any part of it, that no account is given of the geography of the country, no sketch of its history, in short no account of it in any way whatsoever. Afterwards, indeed, an exception is made in favour of religion. Taking no interest in this, however, he treats it as a twice-told tale with which he was previously familiar. Considering the modes of thinking prevalent in the quarter, it may, without much uncharitableness, be permitted one to doubt this. Not to insist, however, on a point which may be disagreeable to the reviewer, I hasten to compliment him on his sagacity, which, through the table of contents, has made the discovery, that the political history of Abyssinia for the last thirty years is not given. I acknowledge the omission, and may perhaps have been to blame for suffering any consideration connected with the size of the volumes to weigh with me in such a matter. The historical sketch in question, however, was actually written, though the critic would probably not have derived from it any more satisfaction than from the rest of the book. He objected to its absence because it was not there. Had I introduced it, he would have said it was a twice-told tale, and absolutely good for nothing. My adversary now and then qualifies, as he proceeds, his absolute affirmations. Having again and again maintained that there is no account, "historical or otherwise," given of the country, he afterwards admits his error, but says the account is "confused and unintelligible." I think it was Mr Coleridge who made the remark, when persons complained that they could not understand his work, that it was their fault, since all he had to do was to bring the book, and that it was their duty to bring the understanding. I make the same reply to the critic. Other people understand my account of Abyssinia; and if he really does not, I am sorry for him, but can offer him no assistance. However, there is an old proverb, I believe, which says, "There are none so blind as those who won't see." The argument by which I am proved to have read Mr Salt, though I make no allusion to him, is curious; but I either profited by my reading, or I did not. If I profited, the consequences must be visible in my work; if I derived nothing from Mr Salt, then my work can contain no proof that I did. But it does, according to the critic, contain such proof; _ergo_, I have profited by Mr Salt's labours. It would have been well, however, if the critic had pointed out where and how much; for until he does so, my word will probably be thought as good as his, especially as he is anonymous, and I am not. One proof of my careless reading of Mr Salt is, I own, very remarkable. It seems, had I been well versed in his production, I should have known that Oubie is "still alive and ruler of Tigre;" Mr Salt having, of course, been careful to relate that circumstance. It so happens, however, that at the period I was engaged in writing my work, Oubie was a prisoner, and another prince seated on his throne--a fact, I believe, not preserved in Salt. Next comes on the tapis the orthography of Ethiopia; _apropos_ of which, the critic takes occasion to call in question my classical acquirements. I was not, however, aware that, by preferring one orthography to another, I was laying claim to profound erudition, or setting myself up for "an authority among scholars." On the contrary, I followed those who appeared to me very sufficient guides. Gibbon and Dr Johnson,-- authors who may perhaps, even by the reviewer himself, be permitted to claim a humble niche among our classics. But they wrote, it may be said, in the last century. I therefore refer to a perfectly new publication, on a classical subject, if not the work of a classic,--I mean Mr Saint John's "History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece," in which the orthography I have adopted is likewise made use of. If then I have been affected, I have at all events indulged my affectation in very good company. But the reviewer does not stop here. He thinks the orthography involves a mystery, and he goes about the unveiling of it in a very mysterious way. It is a proof he thinks that I am indebted to Mr Krapf for what little proficiency I may have made in the art of spelling; nay more, that I have derived from that gentleman all my knowledge of Abyssinia of every kind! Before I make any other remark on this part of the subject, I will take occasion to compliment myself on my simplicity; for if I had desired to conceal my obligations to Dr Krapf, and have been conscious of any which I have not frankly stated, I should have been careful to spell Ethiopia _classically_, that is, as the reviewer does, in order to conceal the source from which I had drawn. I should thus clearly have put him on a very wrong scent, since a single letter suffices to lead him by the nose. But the most curious view of this question remains yet to be taken. Dr Krapf, he says, possesses the most complete knowledge of Abyssinia, its geography, language, and literature. He then goes on to maintain that Dr Krapf imparted his knowledge to me, and I that same knowledge to the public. But, no! the reviewer stops short here, and affirms that I envied the public the possession of Dr Krapf's knowledge, and withheld it all; since he everywhere asserts that there is no information whatever in my book. Verily, I have been taking a lesson from that ancient Briton who is represented as having plundered a naked Scotchman: "A painted vest Prince Vortigern had on, Which from a naked Pict his grandsire won!" Because, if I tell nothing new, and owe all I do tell to Dr Krapf, who also imparted to me all he knew, his knowledge must clearly have been very limited. I have acknowledged, however, and I repeat the acknowledgment, that Dr Krapf was of essential service to me in various ways; that he freely imparted to me the valuable information he possessed, and gave me to understand that I was at liberty to make use of it. I did make use of it, having previously however been careful to publish my obligations to him. In fact, there is no man who would be more ready than Dr Krapf, were he now in England, to express his perfect satisfaction with what I have done. He has, indeed, expressed it publicly in his "Journal," where he acknowledges himself to be under obligations to me; and the Church Missionary Society, in its preface, makes the same admission. I am next blamed for not giving a connected history of the mission; the proper answer to which is, that I never undertook to give it. I have not entitled my book "the History of an Eighteen Months' Residence in Shoa," but have said that my observations were collected _during_ an eighteen months' residence there. They are not all my observations, nor have I arranged them chronologically; therefore, though the reviewer feels disappointed, he has no right to quarrel with me. He expected one thing--I published another; simply because I did not write for him, or such as he, but for the public. As it is, however, I am not sorry that he is "tantalised," which he would not be if he possessed one-tenth of the knowledge to which he obliquely lays claim. On most points he is profoundly ignorant, and it suits my purpose to leave him so. Any information that I can impart, without prejudice to the public service, it is doubtless my duty to give; and accordingly, in this second edition, I have stated some facts not recorded in the first. In most cases, indeed, men publish a first edition as an _experiment_, to ascertain how far their views of what information the public needs are correct, that they may afterwards diligently, and to the best of their power, supply it. The Mission, it is said, has been "a complete failure." But how is this proved? By a scrap extracted from some anonymous correspondent to a newspaper, who writes, not from Angollala or Ankober, but from Cairo, which is nearly as though a person residing in Saint Petersburgh were to write authoritatively to China respecting what is going on in Lisbon. But it does not follow that the Mission has been a failure, because some Cairo gossip chooses to say so, or because all the fruits of it have not yet been reaped. A treaty has been concluded, friendly relations have been established, and upon this basis commerce will proceed, slowly perhaps, but surely, to erect its structure. It will be for the next generation to determine whether or not the mission was "a complete failure." A reviewer residing in the purlieus of High Holborn is not competent to do it. On the subject of "German crowns," the critic may, for aught I know, be a great authority; or, as he says on another matter, may know somebody that is. But the quarrel which he seeks to pick with me is so utterly puerile, that I will not engage in it. His positiveness, however, is as usual proportioned to his ignorance, for even on so infinitesimal a point as this he contrives to be wrong, since the marks are not _three_, as he supposes, but _seventeen_, on the coronet and shoulder-clasp. However, supposing I had here been wrong, would it therefore have been fair to infer that on every other point I must be wrong also? An usurer would be a better authority on the aspect of a gold coin than the Chancellor of the Exchequer, yet in finance the Jew might not be a match for the Chancellor. Let it not, however, be supposed that I desire to compare myself with Mr Goulburn, or the critic to a Jew; I merely mention these things by way of illustration. At any rate, my censor's blunder must be obvious to every one who has seen a German dollar, and to adopt his own phrase, "_Ex pede Herculem_." On the practice observed by the Mohammadans in slaughtering animals, the reviewer displays a vast deal of erudition, and quotes the treatise of Mr Lane, on the "Manners of the Modern Egyptians." It happens, however, that there are variations in the practices of the Moslems; and he might as well have argued, that because there are pyramids in Egypt, there must also be pyramids in Abyssinia, as that because the Egyptians do not make use of certain words on particular occasions, therefore, the Danakil and the Somauli cannot possibly employ them. My narrative does not touch on the customs of Egypt, on which Mr Lane writes but on those of a different part of Africa, in which, so far as I can discover, that author has never been. What I relate, however, is matter of fact, and the critic only exhibits his profound ignorance of human nature by supposing that Mohammadanism is stereotyped in any part of the world, since there are as many differences in the customs of the Mohammadan nations, as in those of Christendom. For example,--the practice of "bundling," so common in Wales, does not, I believe, prevail in Egypt; but if our critic were to infer that it is, therefore, altogether anti-Islamite, he would be as completely wrong as he is in the present instance; for that which the Egyptian Mussulman detests, is the established custom in certain parts of Afghanistan. So, likewise, is the invocation of the name of God during the slaughter of animals. The Egyptians, it seems, invoke the sacred name without coupling with it "the Compassionate, the Merciful," which they think would sound like mockery; but what proof is the reviewer prepared to advance in his wisdom, that this rule is observed in India and every other part of the East? The Mohammadans, again, he says, never drink blood; and why? because it is forbidden them by the Koran. But stealing is no less peremptorily prohibited. Will he, therefore, argue, that there is no such thing as a Mohammadan thief? The question is not as to what is forbidden or ordained, but as to a simple matter of fact. I state what I saw with my own eyes. The critic, who was never in the country, who cannot possibly know what I saw or did not see, contradicts me. I leave it to the public to judge between us; asserting, however, that he is fully as ignorant of the people whose customs he so glibly writes about, as he is of the rules of common decency. For verbal criticism I entertain no contempt, though I think that a strict application of its rules to a book of travels, is scarcely called for. However, let us see how the critic succeeds in his task. I relate that the Arabs call the cove _Mirsa good Ali_, the "source of the sea;" from which he immediately infers my utter ignorance of Arabic. The only thing, however, that is really clear from the remark he has made is, that he does not understand English when it happens to be in the slightest degree inverted. A Biblical critic. Dr Parr, if I remember rightly, objected to a passage in the English version of the Bible upon much the same grounds. "Thus," says the Scripture, "he giveth his beloved sleep." Now the doctor maintains "beloved" to be an epithet bestowed on sleep, although the real sense is, that sleep is given to the "beloved." Still, in my opinion, the meaning is so obvious, that it required some ingenuity to mistake it. In my own case, the meaning I think is equally obvious; at least, what I intended to say was, that the Adaiel bestow on Mirsa good Ali cove, the additional name of "the source of the sea." Upon the remarks on "mafeesh," I scarcely know what to say; but if he were to ask me,--is there any point or sense in them? I should reply "_mafeesh_, there is none"--an idiom well understood in English. Let the critic try again at Richardson's dictionary, and if he really can make out the Arabic characters, I think he will be able to discover a meaning which would come in very properly where I have placed it. "It is of no consequence," exclaimed the young assassin, "none," which is precisely the answer sometimes given to the insatiate "beggars" that we are told "surround the traveller" in certain countries, "there is no money in my pocket--none." Nevertheless, as I have passed public examinations, and obtained certificates of superior proficiency in no more than four oriental tongues, I cannot be deemed so competent to offer an opinion on this subject as the reviewer and his accomplices. With regard to the critiques on the Amharic expressions found in my work, it may be sufficient to say, that by his own confession "the reviewer does not understand one syllable of the language," but hazards his remarks on the strength of knowing somebody who does. This appears to me a very poor qualification. It is as though I should set up as a critic in Sanscrit because I have shaken hands with Professor Wilson. However, let us examine the notions of this man who is so learned by proxy. One of the greatest triumphs of his erudition is his explanation of the Amharic word "Shoolada," which, strengthened by Salt, and others, he determines to signify exclusively a "rump-steak." That it has this signification there can be no doubt, but if the critic be disposed to defer on this, as on other occasions, to Dr Krapf's Amharic scholarship, he may yet, as he expresses it, "live and learn." In a copy of manuscript notes in Dr Krapf's handwriting, still in my possession, occurs the following passage, which I quote _verbatim et literatim_:--"In one point the Abyssinian practices agree remarkably with those of the Jews, we mean the practice mentioned in Genesis chapter xxxii, where we find that the Israelites did not eat the nerve, since Jacob had been lamed in consequence of his earnest supplication to the Almighty, before he met his brother Esau. This nerve is called in Amharic `Shoolada.' I cannot determine how far the abstinence from this kind of meat is kept in the other parts of Abyssinia, but it is a fact in Shoa, that many people, particularly those of royal blood (called Negassian), do not eat it, as they believe that by eating it they would lose their teeth, the Shoolada being prohibited and unlawful food. Therefore, if anybody has lost his teeth, he is abused with the reproach of having eaten prohibited meat, as that of vultures, dogs, mules, donkeys, horses, and particularly of man, the meat of whom is said to prove particularly destructive for the teeth." From the above passage, if the reviewer be disposed to accept Dr Krapf for his teacher, he may clearly learn one or two particulars not hitherto comprehended within the wide circle of his knowledge. For example, he will perceive that the idea of eating man's flesh is not yet entirely exploded from that part of Africa. On the contrary, the forbidden luxury would appear sometimes to be indulged in even by those who are one step at least, advanced before the polite Danakil, whom, at the sacrifice of my reputation for charity, I have denominated "vagabonds and savages." The critic's observations on the pronunciation of Amharic and Galla words are so elaborate a specie men of trifling, that it would be wholly lost labour to wade through them. Of the Galla language he knows nothing, and had the case been different, still I might be permitted to judge by my own ear in the case of a tongue absolutely unwritten. Those acquainted with the works of travellers in the East are aware that almost every one has adopted a peculiar system of orthography. All, therefore, but one, might, by a disingenuous critic, be accused of ignorance. But the reviewer goes on to inform the public that "the _vulgar_ mistakes of English pronunciation--which are not participated in by Germans--are the wrong insertion or omission of the aspirate." This is designed as a death-blow to me for writing _Etagainya_ without an initial A, which highly culpable omission he presently afterwards takes occasion to rectify. Under this charge of vulgarity it is some consolation to me to quote as my authority Isenberg's Amharic Dictionary, more especially since that gentleman _is_ a German; but had he even been otherwise, I think his views on this subject of the aspirate might perhaps be preferred to those of any cockney. The elaborate disquisition on _larva_ and _boudak_ [For _boudak_ read _boudah_. It ought to have been translated _sorcerer_, but all artisans, blacksmiths especially, are regarded as _boudahs_. Vide Isenberg's Amharic Dictionary. For _larva_ read _lava_.] proves the critic to be qualified for the reading of proof-sheets, which appears to be the highest praise he can justly lay claim to. He can detect a misprint in other men's works, and when his passions are unexcited, may possibly be able to correct it. But in the matters of ear or style, I would just as soon defer to the judgment of the great "Arqueem Nobba," whoever that may be, [Vide Anti-Slavery Reporter, November 29th, 1843, page 222. For the information of my readers, it may be proper to explain that "Arqueem nobba" is believed to be doing duty for "Hakim nabaroo," "You were the doctor"] from whom he seems to have obtained so much of his Oriental learning. He well knows to whom I allude, if no one else does. I shall turn his weapons against himself, and take occasion to question the classical attainments of a reviewer who translates "_suum cuique_"--"be it for good or ill;" and shall direct the public indignation to the fact of his having aroused curiosity "without gratifying it," by the statement that I "studiously laboured to keep out of sight _a very_ special service performed by the members of the Embassy." What was it? He must surely be thinking of _his reporters_, not of _my assistants_. Be this as it may, he will not attempt to screen himself behind the printer's devil, it being clear that no typical errors can be admissible in his forty pages of letter-press, if two are to be held inexcusable in my twelve hundred! It will by this time, I think, be apparent that an extremely peculiar system of criticism has been adopted in reviewing my book. Here the diction is attacked, there the want of information; now we have complaints that information is given, but that it was obtained through the instrumentality of Dr Krapf; then the reviewer wanders into political and other considerations, and attacks my conduct as leader of the Mission. Occasionally he appears to be overwhelmed by a painful sympathy, an intense philanthropy, extreme sorrow for the dead, which betrays him into persevering rancour towards the living. In discussing, for example, the melancholy catastrophe at Goongoonteh, which, if credit be given me for the smallest particle of human feeling, I must be supposed to have regretted as much as any man, especially since Sergeant Walpole and Corporal Wilson were under my command, and both highly useful to me as soldiers and artisans, the critic suffers his compassion so powerfully to disturb his intellect, that he literally knows not what he says. He may, therefore, if such be his object, be thought extremely amiable by some people, but, upon the whole, I apprehend, he will appear to be infinitely more absurd: because, to obtain credit for a generous and expansive humanity, it is necessary, at least, to bear the semblance of an unwillingness to wound men's reputations, living or dead. A genuine sympathy is always most active in proportion to the capacity of feeling possessed by the object of it. Thus we sympathise with our contemporaries more than with generations passed away; with Christians more than with Turks and Pagans; with Englishmen more than with Chinese; with our relations and friends more than with persons whom we never saw. But my critic reverses this order of things. His benevolence clings to individuals whose names he never heard, and urges him to inflict injury at all events, and pain if he can, upon persons whose sensibilities, he supposes, lay them open to his attacks. In one publication it seems to be intimated that I killed the men myself, whilst in the other I am conjectured to have been standing sentry, and to have dropped asleep at my post. The former charge I shall leave the Government of my country to answer; for if I be guilty and still at large. Government has made itself my accomplice. Shall I on the second point enlighten the critic, or shall I not? The fact is, I was not asleep, though with the greatest propriety I might have been, but at the very moment of the perpetration of the murder, I was leaning in bed upon my elbow, conversing with Captain Graham. Nevertheless, from the form of the _wady_, I could not command a view of every part of the encampment, or discern in the dark the approach of the assassins, at the distant point which they selected for their noiseless attack. As to the manner in which I have related the circumstance, that is another affair, and the critic is at liberty to judge of it as he pleases. I claim, however, the same liberty for myself, and will venture to observe, that this part of his review is more lumbering, heavy, and absurd than ordinary; that in attempting to display feeling, he is only betrayed into lugubrious affectation; and that however I may be able to wield our mother tongue, he manages it so unskilfully that he wounds no one but himself. The next charge is based, like the former, on the critic's sympathy. I relate that at the village of Farri the gentleman entrusted with the command of the watch, "worn out by incessant vigils," fell asleep. The apology, it will be perceived, precedes the statement of the fact. But this new knight of La Mancha is not satisfied. Putting his redoubtable quill in rest, he tilts most chivalrously at my narrative; and, the operation over, chuckles with delight at my supposed discomfiture. He may, perhaps, have learned from some prying visitor to what particular officer I allude in the above passage. But most assuredly the public has not, and therefore no evil consequence can arise from what I say. All our critic's ideas, however, are peculiar. He considers it criminal to hint indistinctly in a published work at a "breach of discipline," but thinks I might with propriety have reported the circumstance officially to Government! My theory of propriety is different. I made no report to Government; but when there were so many broad shoulders to share the blame between them, I thought it quite safe to touch upon it in my volumes. Having waded through the above tedious list of charges, we arrive, so the reader may be tempted to imagine, at something new. But that is not the critic's plan. On the contrary, we find Monsieur Tonson on the stage again. Well might Dr Krapf exclaim, "Deliver me from my friends!" if the reviewer in question be really one among the number. Secretly, however, it is not the Missionary that is aggrieved, but another individual whose name I will not be provoked to print in my pages. This person, we are told, came down to Dinomali, in company with Mr Krapf, "to welcome the Embassy." What he came down to do is not, however, the question. Come he certainly did; and I should have made honourable mention of him had I, during my stay in Shoa, found no reason to be dissatisfied with his conduct. The reverse was the case; and as I did not choose to be at the trouble of writing in his dispraise, I thought it better to say nothing. Let the reviewer be satisfied with that, for, if I should say anything further, I am sure his satisfaction would not be augmented. He is perfectly right in supposing, that I have not imparted to the public all the knowledge I acquired in Shoa, and that I have not related all the piquant comic anecdotes which were often at my pen's point, struggling to see the light. But who knows? The time for telling them with effect is not yet passed, and it is quite possible that, under certain combinations of circumstances, I may yet return to this part of my subject, especially if the anonymous system be persevered in, and attempts be made to wound me from behind the friendly figure of the Missionary. I may here, however, mention by the way, that, besides the learned Theban alluded to, the critic has two other authorities. Dr Krapf and M. Rochet D'Hericourt. Upon them he relies with equal and entire confidence. But I would beg to suggest, that there exist some slight discrepancies between the statements of those two writers, and that weight can be laid on the testimony of the one only in proportion as you mistrust the other. Yet the critic appears to discover nothing of this, never perceives that their testimonies are inter-destructive, but is perfectly satisfied to play off each in his turn against me. These authorities, in fact, are the legs on which his whole accusation appears to stand, though there be in reality an anonymous authority, which, like the third leg in the riddle, helps to support the tottering figure. To Mr Krapf, it is said, the Embassy owed whatever influence it possessed in Shoa. The officers of the Mission were nothing; the presents were nothing; the expectation of assistance and support from the Indian Government, in which Sahela Selassie indulged, were nothing:--the reverend missionary was the "life and soul of the Embassy." I know not whether, as Dr Krapf is a minister of the Gospel, this be meant as a compliment or as a sneer; but so it is. I am said to have had no influence with the king, save through him who was literally all-powerful at court. This being borne in mind, turn we now to the critic's other authority, M. Rochet D'Hericourt, who is said to have been equally influential. But here comes the difficulty, which the critic either perceived or did not perceive. In the latter case he is criminally ignorant of what he ought to have known before he ventured to attack me; and if he did perceive it, then he is still more criminal for having suppressed the truth, and made that suppression serve the purpose of its contrary. It will be seen that I abstain from harsh language, and rather extenuate than otherwise the unworthiness of my adversary. The circumstance, however, to which I allude, is this: the critic maintains that Dr Krapf was all-powerful with Sahela Selassie; M. Rochet D'Hericourt, on the other hand, asserts that Dr Krapf possessed so little influence, that it was only through _his_ special interference, and at _his_ earnest entreaty, that the king suffered him to proceed towards the Galla frontier with the army. Nay, not only had the missionary, according to this traveller, [Rochet D'Hericourt, Voyage dans le Pays D'Adel, et le Royaume de Choa, pages 224-233.] no influence, but the king displayed the strongest possible repugnance for him, and made him feel the effects of his dislike throughout the whole campaign. Consult the "Journal" [Journal of the Rev Messrs. Isenberg and Krapf, page 187] of the worthy missionary himself; and we find that both he and M. Rochet D'Hericourt were, without solicitation or entreaty, on his part at least, "ordered to accompany the king." I am not pretending to dictate to the public as to which of these authorities it shall prefer. I only state facts, and leave others to draw the proper inference. The authority of Dr Krapf, however, at the court of Shoa to me seems to be strangely and wilfully exaggerated. It was a reflected authority, if I may so speak, that he exercised during the residence of the Mission in the country; an authority based upon the influence of the British Government, represented there for the time by me. The amount of his personal influence was such that the slightest accident sufficed to overthrow it. Had it been greater, his application to return would have been listened to. It may no doubt be observed in reply, that neither could my influence, which was fully exerted in his behalf, have been very considerable. But the caprices of despotism are not always to be accounted for, and they will serve to explain both the missionary's want of success, and my own. This subject has been artfully connected with the return of the Mission from Shoa. It is said, that had we not retired, we should have been forcibly expelled. I can certainly offer no proof that we should not; but the probability is, that the king of Shoa would have been in no hurry to dry up a constant source of profit to himself. It may, in fact, be laid down as a general rule, that no Oriental despot ever expels the giver of presents. It is the receiver of presents that he regards as an eyesore, the man who is dependent on him for his daily bread. The critic, however, has been "assured," that had we not retired, we should "probably ere long" have been expelled. But to this I reply, that probably we should not; and I call on him to state his proofs of the "disrepute" into which he asserts we had fallen. I have been "assured," that "probably" he has none to give, and "probably" this assurance is correct; otherwise, I think he would have been too glad to offer them. Be this as it may, the fact is, that we were not expelled, but recalled by our own government, when it considered that the duties for which I had been deputed, were fully accomplished. The next attack upon me is based on certain "strange stories," which the critic says he has heard. For myself, considering the strange people with whom he associates, I entertain not the slightest doubt in the world that he has been crammed with "strange stories," and that he firmly believes them. In fact, he reminds me strongly of an anecdote related by Vossius, who, as Charles the Second observed, would believe anything but the Gospel. So this critic, who has no appetite whatever for plain truth, will swallow "strange stories" by the bushel. For example, with an earnestness which does great credit to his simplicity, he believes that the British officers in Shoa, with the few rank and file under their command, assisted the king in making prisoners among the Gallas. He believes, too, of course, that the field-piece, which had been presented to the king, and was therefore no longer under the control of the embassy, was employed to batter down villages, and, in one word, to effect the triumph of Sahela Selassie over his refractory subjects and heathen neighbours. I feel for the distress his humanity must have suffered, and all through the "strange stories" to which he lends so greedy an ear! But let him be re-assured. The slaughter was not perpetrated by means of the galloper gun, which went not on the expedition at all, but was left by the king at his palace newly erected near Yeolo, the place of rendezvous. (N.B. This is not meant as a translation.) There were no "rounds of _artillery_" in the case, and the escort of British soldiers was taken with us, not to join in the foray, but to protect our own tents. Neither is this "memorable circumstance." "omitted in my volumes," as asserted by the veracious critic. It is distinctly stated for the information of those who are able to read, and the conduct of one of the privates stands specially recorded, who was urged by the Amhara to destroy a Galla. [As a military man, and an Engineer officer to boot, I may perhaps be permitted to suggest, although with the utmost deference to the reviewer and his anonymous authorities, that the term "ammunition" might here have been employed with advantage. But perhaps he may consider "rounds of _artillery_" to be a more _classical_ expression!] The critic's persevering patronage of Dr Krapf is so chivalrous, that I almost regret to show that it has been exerted in vain. Truth, however, requires that I should do so. Perhaps, indeed, the reviewer's purpose may be less benevolent than it appears at first sight. His object may not be so much to exalt the clergyman, as to depress me, by creating, as far as he is able, in the public mind, the belief of what he asserts so positively, namely, that the Embassy fell into utter "disrepute" after the departure of the missionary, that so far from being able to exercise any influence, it would have been forcibly expelled, had it not beaten a hasty retreat. My opponent is a man of dates, and parades them in a manner truly pathetic. But how on these points did he happen to remain so much in the dark? Had he not all the great Abyssinian authorities at his elbow? Was he not acquainted with those who knew everything about the country--Arabic and Amharic scholars, who, by the help of Isenberg's Dictionary, could translate _boudah_, and with the aid of Richardson, plunge into the mysteries of _mafeesh_? Where was the erudite individual who weighed my classical attainments in the balance, and found them wanting? Where was his _fidus Achates_, the "Arqueem Nobba?" How happens it that his oracles grew suddenly dumb when he consulted them on the subject of dates? The reader will scarcely credit the reason of all this when it is stated; but the fact is, that the reviewer had no other object in view than to misrepresent and injure me, though of course aware that it was in my power fully to refute him. I shall do so now, and, as I think, so satisfactorily, that he will not return to the charge. I state in my travels, that through the interference of the British Embassy, four thousand seven hundred persons, reduced by an arbitrary edict of the king to bondage, were liberated; upon which the critic, full of the "strange stories" which his strange associates had related to him, immediately concludes that Dr Krapf might have had some hand in that transaction. At all events he must contrive to make it appear so, otherwise what would become of his primary thesis, that the Embassy "fell into such disrepute?" Montaigne, the reader will doubtless remember, observes somewhere in his essays, that in order to catch his critics napping, he often put forth the opinions of the greatest writers of antiquity, without making the least allusion to the author, in order that, if these should be turned into ridicule, as was not unlikely, he might show that it was not himself that they had attacked, but Seneca, or Cicero, or Plato. Without having any such intention, I have caught my critic in a similar trap. Believing he could attribute the honour to Dr Krapf, he does not call in question the issuing of the edict or the liberation of the slaves, but inquires knowingly, "had _he_, the missionary, nothing to do with their deliverance?" Next, with a skill which does him much credit, he connects the liberation of the princes with this other transaction, so that if the reader believes his unfounded assertion that it was Dr Krapf, not the Embassy, whose influence prevailed with the king in the one case, he may be led to suppose that it was so in the other. This, it must be acknowledged, is a very ingenious piece of workmanship, and has, I doubt not, earned its author much credit. Nevertheless, it will not bear the touch of examination. The simplest statement of facts in the world will suffice to destroy it, together with the critic's main theory on the subject of my loss of influence at the court of Shoa. Dr Krapf quitted Angollala on the 12th of March, 1842, and during May of the same year, left Massowah for Aden. His active influence, it may fairly be inferred, terminated at this date. The forlorn Embassy was now abandoned to its own resources. There was no one to interest the king in its behalf; no one to perform great and benevolent actions, in order that I might obtain the credit of them. While we were in this state of torpor, the proclamation in question was published by the herald. Before Dr Krapf quitted Massowah? Alas! no. For that event took place in May, whereas the royal edict was only promulgated on the 3rd of August. It was by me, therefore, and not by Dr Krapf, that the remonstrance was forwarded to Sahela Selassie, which produced the liberation of the slaves. This fact is known to every member of the Mission, and it ought to have been within the recollection of some of those infallible authorities who at once supplied the critic with facts and with learning, who remembered for him, understood languages for him, and when need was, invented for him. The statement that the parents of the four thousand seven hundred individuals liberated, were slaves, is not true. I have said that their fathers were bondsmen, and their mothers free women, and this position I maintain. To the question who delivered the petition, I reply, "my dragoman of course." Upon his boasted maxim of "giving honour to whom honour is due," the conscientious reviewer will doubtless award the sole credit of the success attending this remonstrance, not to myself, but to the party who presented it, and his doing so will be quite as reasonable as the decision that I collected no geographical information, because my assistant. Dr Kirk, was entrusted by me with the department of survey. In equity he ought surely to have taken the case of Dollond into consideration, since _he_ made the satellite glass and the sextant used in determining the longitude of Ankober, upon which every recent addition to the geography of southern Abyssinia is indebted for whatever value it does possess. Next comes the deliverance of the princes, which took place little more than three months before my return to India. These facts, known to every person in Abyssinia, the correctness of which will be vouched for by every member of the Mission, and the whole particulars of which were laid at the time before the Indian and British governments, may, perhaps, suffice to show in what spirit I have been criticised, and how totally unscrupulous my assailants have been. The gross misstatements disseminated anonymously through some of the public journals, and repeated by the candid reviewer, I have already publicly contradicted with my name. I here also contradict the assertion, that the king remained silent during my sojourn on the frontier. What object the sage reviewer would propose by my going back to take _a second_ leave of His Majesty, when such is the etiquette of no country in the whole world, and my public duties imperatively required my presence at Farri, the reader will be, as I am, at some loss to comprehend. The treaty concluded with the king of Shoa having now been placed by Parliament before the country, I should have thought it unnecessary to notice the remarks which have been made on that subject, but for one or two considerations connected with it. First, it is said, that the ancient practice of detaining strangers had in usage been previously abolished, and it seems that, notwithstanding the treaty, it was afterwards, in one particular case, revived. Clearly the critic does not perceive the force of his own statements; for if, in spite of the most solemn engagements that a prince can enter into, Sahela Selassie denied a British subject ingress to his country, does it not follow that distinct stipulations on this point were necessary? What does it signify, that practically Sahela Selassie had in many instances permitted Europeans to enter his country? Were they not all, whilst there, legally subject to his caprice, and was it not prudent to endeavour to emancipate them from that caprice? But Sahela Selassie, it is said, shortly violated the treaty, and his act is made the subject of accusation against me. Had I broken it myself, the circumstance would have been somewhat more germane to the matter. At present, all that can be said is, that Sahela Selassie is a novice in European diplomacy. The case of hardship alluded to, is that of Dr Krapf, who, having quitted Shoa on urgent private business, was denied re-admission. On this subject I might enter into a long explanation, which, because of the peculiarity of my position, could never be complete. I therefore judge it more satisfactory to refer to the testimony of the Church Missionary Society, which, as well as Dr Krapf himself, has put on record its entire satisfaction with my proceedings. If, therefore, the parties most deeply concerned be content because they understand the whole state of the case, I may safely despise the reproaches of a critic who neither knows nor cares any thing about the matter, further than as it may enable him to prejudice me in public opinion. In every page of the criticism the sophisms and fallacies of which I have undertaken to expose, there is some fresh proof that the reviewer does not see his own way, and that he is perpetually at contradiction with himself. For example, he insists on nothing more incessantly than the all-powerful influence of Dr Krapf over the king of Shoa, to which, he says, the Embassy owed whatever success it met with. No sooner, however, does the missionary quit the precincts of the court, than he is arrested and plundered, evidently, the reviewer insinuates, with the knowledge and connivance of his fast friend Sahela Selassie. What then becomes of his prodigious influence, since it did not suffice for his own protection? But if Dr Krapf was powerless, so likewise, argues the critic, was the Embassy; "for we read of no remonstrances, no applications made to the king on behalf of the missionary, and surely there are no political considerations to restrain communicativeness upon a subject like this." He is perfectly mistaken. For although it may, without compromising any one, be stated that remonstrances were made, there are reasons, and those public ones too, which forbid me to explain why those remonstrances were ineffectual. Had the critic, or his Amharic philosopher, possessed one atom of sagacity, they would have divined those reasons; but as the case is otherwise, I leave them in the darkness which encompasses the whole coterie. As to my having no right to use information expressly collected for me by the Political Agent at Aden, and by Lieutenant Christopher, in reference to the Eastern Coast, that is really a point upon which the reviewer can hardly be reckoned a competent judge. Lieutenant Barker, like Dr Kirk and the rest of my assistants, was under my orders, and sent with me for the express purpose of taking share, as I might see fit, in the duties allotted to me. The authorities quoted by the reviewer, as having been first in the field with every particular respecting slavery and the slave-trade in Shoa, do not bear out his assertion. Not to go any farther, where does he find the fact, which is rather an important one, that the king claims one out of every ten slaves that pass through his dominions? Like most other points which bear materially upon the subject, this is omitted in the "reports" which are so confidently advanced, in order to throw dust in the eyes of those who will take the Reviewer's word for whatever he has the effrontery to assert. Next comes the question of the royal arms of Shoa, which I have stated to be the Holy Trinity. Here the critic, as he thinks, has me clearly at disadvantage. He denounces me, accordingly, to be in the wrong, by showing, not what the arms of Shoa are, but what are the arms of the Ethiopic empire; which is exactly the same as if a traveller in Flanders, having described the royal arms of that country, were to be taken to task because the arms of the Austrian Emperor were different. I make a statement on one subject, and he refutes me by making a different statement on a different subject, which is somewhat comic, to say the least of it. But the arms of Abyssinia are, it seems, the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah," to which the Catholic missionaries have added a cross. M. le Grand, in speaking of Abyssinian coronations, says: "The escutcheon is a lion holding a cross, with this motto: _Vicit leo de tribu Judah_." But all this has nothing to do with the king of Shoa, who employs a device of his own, and that device is exactly what I have represented. The ignorance of the reviewer and his anonymous authorities is again conspicuous in the remarks offered relative to the signet. Why has he not followed the rule he has laid down for my guidance, and "said openly," who these mysterious informants are, in order that, by their calibre, the public might have been enabled to judge whether on any, and on what subject, their opinion or their assertion is likely to be better than my own? As it is, the reader might really be tempted to believe that there existed a penny post in the kingdom of Shoa, and that every subject was in the daily habit of corresponding through it with all his acquaintance. But with exception of a few letters indited by His Majesty, or by the Queen, there are, perhaps, not half a dozen penned during the year, and those are upon scraps of parchment the size of a visiting card, and have neither signature nor superscription, much less device to adorn them. More than ignorance is displayed in the sneers cast upon my ability to use the pencil and the rifle. These qualifications, however incompatible their exercise may be with the dignity to which the critic has been pleased to elevate me, are far from being lightly estimated in Abyssinia; and that foreigner who can neither draw portraits, nor ride, nor slay wild beasts, is not likely to hold a very high place in the estimation of Sahela Selassie, whatever may be thought of him by a learned reviewer. The speculations indulged in as to the success or failure of my Embassy, are artfully spread over the whole article, a little here and a little there; so that the reader, should a reader be found, must always of necessity have doubts unanswered in his mind. There is some skill in this, and I give the writer credit for it; but though he manages his matter well, the matter itself is good for nothing. He puts himself in the place of the public, and demands certain explanations which I am not permitted to give. Parliament alone has it in its power to satisfy my critic, and to Parliament I refer him. Everybody else will feel that an imperfect explanation would be worse than none at all; a complete one I cannot furnish, though it may hereafter be permitted me to clear up the whole matter, which I am fully able to do. It appears to me that I have now answered every objection worthy of notice that has been made against my work on Shoa. Not improbably, I shall be thought by some to have been too minute and circumstantial in my reply--to have exposed too seriously misrepresentations originating in ignorance or wanton malice--to have expended argument on that which deserved only contempt. But, respecting the public as I do, I judged it to be incumbent on me completely to disprove the assertion that I had imposed upon it. I trust I have established my own veracity, which I have been far more solicitous to do than to defend the plan adopted in the composition of my narrative. Much more might have been said, to show that the truth is neither in the reviewer, nor his "private informants," but it is not worth my while to trouble myself further with such people. The public, I am convinced, will agree with me in thinking that I have left no just cause for cavil, and if, therefore, the system of abuse should be persevered in, it can only be because I happen to have enemies who will make a point of pursuing me as long as I am above ground, and perhaps much longer. I wish they could discover some better and more profitable employment, and with that wish I leave them. W.C. Harris. _London, March_ 31, 1844. Extract of Instructions Addressed by the Secretary to the Government of Bombay to Captain W.C. Harris. Bombay Castle, 24th April, 1841. Sir, I am directed to inform you, that the Honourable the Governor in Council having formed a very high estimate of your talents and acquirements, and of the spirit of enterprise and decision, united with prudence and discretion, exhibited in your recently published Travels "through the territories of the chief Moselekatse to the tropic of Capricorn," has been pleased to select you to conduct a Mission which the British Government has resolved to send to Sahela Selassie, the King of Shoa in Southern Abyssinia, whose capital, Ankober, is computed to be about four hundred miles inland from the port of Tajura on the African coast. The Mission will be conveyed to Aden in the Honourable Company's steam frigate Auckland, now under orders to leave Bombay on the 27th instant; and it has been arranged that one of the Honourable Company's vessels of war, at present in the Red Sea, shall be in readiness to convey the Mission thence to Tajura, at which latter place it should immediately disembark, and commence its journey to Ankober. (Signed) J.P. Willoughby, Secretary to Government. To Captain W.C. Harris, Corps of Engineers. The Embassy was thus Composed: Captain W.C. Harris, Bombay Engineers. Captain Douglas Graham, Bombay Army. Principal Assistant. Assistant-Surgeon Rupert Kirk, Bombay Medical Service. Dr J.R. Roth, Natural Historian. Lieutenant Sydney Horton, H.M. 49th Foot,--as a Volunteer. Lieutenant W.C. Barker, Indian Navy. Assistant-Surgeon Impey, Bombay Medical Service. Mr Martin Bernatz, Artist. Mr Robert Scott, Surveyor and Draftsman. Mr J. Hatchatoor, British Agent at Tajura. Escort and Establishment:-- Two sergeants and fifteen rank and file; volunteers from H.M. 6th Foot, and from the Bombay Artillery. An Assistant Apothecary. Carpenter. Smith. Two Tent Lascars. INTRODUCTION. Written in the heart of Abyssinia, amidst manifold interruptions and disadvantages, the following pages will, in many respects, be found imperfect. Their chief recommendation must be sought in the fact of their embodying a detail of efforts zealously directed, under the auspices of a liberal Government, towards the establishment of a more intimate connexion with a Christian people, who know even less of the world than the world knows of them,--towards the extension of the bounds of geographical and scientific knowledge, the advancement of the best interests of commerce, and the amelioration of the lot of some of the least favoured portions of the human race. An obvious necessity for the introduction of the foregoing extract from his instructions will exonerate the Author from an intention to appropriate as his due the very gratifying encomium passed upon his previous exertions in Southern Africa. As a public servant, the freedom of his pen has now in some measure been curtailed; but his official position and resources, added to the able assistance placed at his command, have, on the other hand, extended more than commensurate advantages. To Captain Douglas Graham, his accomplished and early friend, and principal assistant, he acknowledges himself most especially indebted, for the aid of a head and of a pen, such as are not often to be found united. The exertions of Assistant-Surgeon Kirk alleviated incalculable human suffering; and his perseverance, although long opposed by an unfavourable climate, carried through a series of magnetic and astronomical observations of the highest importance to Abyssinian geography. An indefatigable devotion to the cause of science, added to the experience gained during previous wanderings in Palestine, eminently adapted the learned Dr Roth to discharge the arduous functions of natural historian to the Mission; and the splendid collection realised, together with the researches embodied in the various appendices to these volumes, will afford the fullest evidence of his industry and success. To all who were associated with himself, in view to the better attainment of the objects contemplated, the Author here offers his warm acknowledgments for the cheerfulness displayed under trials and privations. Of the able assistance of some he was unavoidably deprived during an early period of the service. The disappointment thus involved in his own person has been fully equal to that experienced by themselves; but they must be sensible that their hardships have not been undergone in vain, and that they too have accomplished their share in the undertaking, so far as fortune permitted. To the Reverend Dr Krapf the thanks of Government have already been conveyed, for the valuable co-operation derived from his extended acquaintance with the languages of Abyssinia. But the Author gladly avails himself of this opportunity publicly to record his personal sense of obligation to the active and pious Missionary of the Church of England, whose kindness from the first arrival of the Embassy on the frontiers of Shoa, to the date of his own departure for Cairo, was unremitting. By no tribute of his own could the writer of these volumes extend the well-deserved reputation of McQueen's Geographical Survey. It will nevertheless be satisfactory to one who takes rank among the foremost benefactors of the oppressed "children of the sun," to receive the additional testimony which is due to the undeviating accuracy of theories and conclusions founded upon years of patient and honest investigation; and this the Author unhesitatingly records, in so far as the north-eastern portions of Africa have come within the observation of the Embassy which he has the honour to conduct. _Ankober, 1st January_, 1843. POSTSCRIPTUM. The length of time that has unavoidably elapsed between the preparation and the appearance of these volumes, needs no apology, neither is it proposed to offer any for their termination in the country of which they treat, and wherein they were written. But the work must not now be suffered to go forth without the expression of the Author's gratitude for the assistance derived during its progress through the press, from the talents and literary taste of his friend Major Franklin Lushington, C.B. Volume One, Chapter I. DEPARTURE OF THE BRITISH EMBASSY FROM THE SHORES OF INDIA. It was late on the afternoon of a sultry day in April, which had been passed amid active preparations, when a dark column of smoke, streaming over the tall shipping in the crowded harbour of Bombay, proclaimed the necessity of a hurried adieu to a concourse of friends who still thronged the deck; and scarcely was the last wish for success expressed to the parties that had embarked, before the paddles performed their first revolution, and the Honourable East India Company's steam frigate "Auckland," bound upon her maiden voyage, shot through the still blue water. A turbaned multitude of manifold religions had lined the pier and the ramparts of the saluting battery, to pay a parting tribute of respect to their late governor. Sir James Rivett Carnac, who, with his lady and family, was now returning to his native land. On board also were the officers and gentlemen composing an Embassy organised under instructions by the government of India. More than a fortnight had been diligently passed in the equipment of this mission; but its objects, no less than the destination of its innumerable bales and boxes, still served as puzzles to public curiosity; and many a sapient conjecture on the subject was doubtless launched after the bounding frigate as she disappeared amid the haze of the closing day. Immortal Watt! sordid is the man who places his foot behind the Titanic engines which owe their birth to thee, and who would withhold, as an offering to the altar of thy memory, a mite, according to his worldly means, wherewith to erect a fabric colossal as the power enthralled by thy transcendent genius! Strange are the revolutions undergone in affairs nautical since the introduction of the marine steam-engine upon the Indian seas. The creaking of yards has given place to the coughing and sobbing of machinery, as it heaves in convulsive throes. Tacking and wearing have become terms obsolete, and through the clang of the fire-doors, and the ceaseless stroke of paddle-wheels, the voice of the pilot is rarely heard, save in conjunction with "Stop her," or "Turn a-head." Marked by a broad ploughed wake, the undeviating course pursued through the trackless main was demonstrated midway of the voyage by a tall pillar of smoke from the funnel of the "Cleopatra," rising against the clear hot horizon, like a genie liberated from his sealed bottle, to proclaim the advent of the English mails. The deep blue sea was glassy smooth. Each passing zephyr set from Araby's shores; but, heedless alike of wind and opposing current, the good ship steadily pursued her arrow-like flight,--passed the bold outline of Socotra, redolent of spicy odours,--and before sunset of the ninth day was within sight of her destined haven, one thousand six hundred and eighty miles from the port she had left. Cape Aden was the bold promontory in view, and it had borrowed an aspect even more sombre and dismal from a canopy of heavy clouds which stole across the naked and shattered peaks, to invest the castle-capped mountain with a funereal shroud. Crossed by horizontal ledges, and seamed with gaps and fissures, Jebel Shemshan rears its turreted crags nearly eighteen hundred feet above the ocean, into which dip numerous bare and rugged buttresses, of width only sufficient to afford footing to a cony, and each terminating in a bluff inaccessible scarp. Sand and shingle strew the cheerless valleys by which these spurs are divided, and save where a stunted balsam, or a sallow clump of senna, has struggled through the gaping fissure, hollow as well as hill is destitute of even the semblance of vegetation. "How hideously Its shapes are heap'd around, rude, bare, and high. Ghastly, and scarr'd, and riven! Is this the scene Where the old earthquake's demon taught her young Ruin? Were these their toys?--or did a sea Of fire envelope once this dismal cape?" Rounding the stern peninsula, within stone's cast of the frowning headlands, the magnificent western bay developed its broad expanse as the evening closed. Here, with colliers and merchantmen, were riding the vessels of war composing the Red Sea squadron. Among the isolated denizens of British Arabia, the unexpected arrival of a steam frigate created no small sensation. Exiles on a barren and dreary soil, which is precluded from all intercourse with the fruitful, but barbarous interior, there is nothing to alleviate a positive imprisonment, save the periodical flying visits of the packets that pass and repass betwixt Suez and Bombay. In the dead of night the sudden glare of a blue light in the offing is answered by the illumination of the blockship, heretofore veiled behind a curtain of darkness. The double thunder of artillery next peals from her decks; and as the labouring of paddle-wheels, at first faint and distant, and heard only at broken intervals, comes booming more heavily over the still waters, the spectral lantern at the mast-head is followed by a red glow under the stem, as the witch, buffeting a cascade of snowy spray, vibrates to every stroke of the engine, and leaving a phosphoric train to mark her even course, glides, hissing and boiling, towards her anchorage. Warped alongside the blockship, the dingy hulls lean over like affectionate sisters that have been long parted; and, flinging their arms together, remain fast locked in each other's embrace. And who are these swart children of the sun, that, like a May-day band of chimney-sweeps, are springing with wild whoops and yells over the bulwarks of the new arrival? 'tis a gang of brawny Seedies, enfranchised negroes from the coast of Zanzibar, whose pleasure consists in the transhipment of yonder mountain of coal, lying heaped in tons upon the groaning deck. To the dissonant tones of a rude tambourine, thumped with the thighbone of a calf, their labour has already commenced. Increasing the vehemence of their savage dance, they heave the ponderous sacks like giants busied at pitch and toss, and begrimed from head to foot, roll at intervals upon the blackened planks, to stanch the streaming perspiration. Thus stamping and howling with increased fury, while the harsh notes of the drum peal louder and louder to the deafening vehemence of the frantic musician, they pursue their task, night as well as day, amid clamour and fiendish vociferations, such as might suggest the idea of furies engaged in unearthly orgies. In the first burst of their revelry, the spectator is happy to escape from the suffocating atmosphere of impalpable coal-dust; and rarely does it happen that for every hundred tons of fuel received, fewer than one life is forfeited by the actors in the wild scene described--some doomed victim, swollen with copious draughts, and exhausted by the frenzy of excitement, invariably casting himself down when his Herculean task is done, to rally and rise up no more. Volume One, Chapter II. DISEMBARKATION AT CAPE ADEN. Quitting the boisterous deck of the steamer, and pulling towards the shores of Arabia, a cluster of barren rocks, which might fitly be likened to heaps of fused coal out of a glass furnace, present an appearance very far from inviting or prepossessing. They are little relieved by a few straggling cadjan buildings, temporarily occupied by those whose avocations enable them, during the summer months, to fly the intolerable heat of the oven-like town. But under the roof of Captain Stafford Haines, who fills the honourable and responsible post of Political Agent, there awaited the embassy, on its landing, a hospitality of no ordinary stamp. It literally knew no bounds, and could not fail to obliterate at once any unfavourable first impression arising out of the desolate aspect bestowed by Dame Nature upon "Steamer Point." A volunteer escort of European artillerymen was yet to be obtained from the garrison of Aden; horses, too, were to be purchased, and sundry other indispensable preparations made for the coming journey into the interior of Africa. During a full week there seemed no termination to the influx of bags containing dates, rice, and juwarree, and scarcely a shorter period was occupied in the selection from the government treasury of many thousand star-dollars of the reign of Maria Theresa, displaying, each in its turn, all the multifarious marks and tokens most esteemed by the capricious savage. Neither was the bustle one whit diminished by the remote position of the town, which, unless through the kindness of friends, is only to be attained on the back of one of the many diminutive donkeys stationed along the beach for the convenience of the stranger. Encumbered with a straw-stuffed pack-saddle far exceeding its own dimensions, the wretched quadruped is zealously bastinadoed into a painful amble by the heavy club of some juvenile Israelite with flowing auburn ringlets, whose chubby freckled cheeks, influenced by the sultry sun no less than by the incessant manual labour employed, are wont to assume a strangely excited appearance ere the journey be at an end. Along the entire coast of Southern Arabia, there is not a more remarkable feature than the lofty promontory of Aden, which has been flung up from the bed of the ocean, and in its formation is altogether volcanic. The Arab historian [Masudi] of the tenth century, after speaking of the volcanoes of Sicily and in the kingdom of the Maha Raj, alludes to it as existing in the desert of Barhut, adjacent to the province of Nasafan and Hadramaut, in the country of Shaher. "Its sound, like the rumbling of thunder, might then be heard many miles, and from its entrails were vomited forth red-hot stones with a flood of liquid fire." The skeleton of the long-exhausted crater, once, in all probability, a nearly perfect circle, now exhibits a horse-shoe-shaped crescent, hemmed in by splintered crags, which, viewed from the turreted summit of Jebel Shemshan especially, whence the eye ranges over the entire peninsula, presents the wildest chaos of rock, ruin, and desolation. From the landing-place at Ras Marbut, a tortuous track of five miles conducts past the coal-depot and Seedie location, along various curvatures of the arid coast, to the cantonment and town of Aden. "Sublime in barrenness," the rugged and lofty cliffs pile themselves upward in masses of the most fantastic shape, now bare and bald, shooting into perpendicular spires, and now leaning over the caravan of heavily-laden camels that toil along the path. The sunshine of perpetual summer reigns throughout the scene. Glittering sand-hills slumber in breezy dimness around the land-locked harbour, and over the faint peaks of Yemen's distant mountains the unclouded sky floats bright and blue. The sparkling waters leap against the dark base of the naked islets; but the wide glassy surface beyond, reposing like a broad lake, is only ruffled by the circling eddy which follows the sportive plash of the bottle-nosed porpoise, or the pluming of a fleet of silver-winged terns, riding quietly at anchor on its tranquil bosom. As the road retires from the beach, the honey-combed cliff's assume the similitude of massive wads and battlements, every where pierced with loopholes and embrasures. A gradual ascent leads through a craggy portal, bristling with cannon, and guarded by the pacing sentinel. One narrow rift in the solid rock, to the foot of which the sun rarely penetrates, forms an abrupt division in the chain, and beyond it the eye suddenly embraces the basin-like valley wherein stands the decayed capital of Arabia Felix. "Aden," saith old Ibn Batuta of Tangiers, "is situate upon the sea-shore--a large city, without either seed, water, or tree." Five hundred years have elapsed since this graphic account was penned, and the vegetation has in nowise improved. An amphitheatre of dimensions sufficient for the Devil's punch-bowl is formed by two volcanic ranges, once in connection, but obviously rent asunder, heaved outwards, and canted in opposite directions by some violent eruption that has forced an opening to the ocean. A sterility which is not to be surpassed invests the scene with an aspect most repulsive and forbidding. No tree varies the dreary prospect, no shrub relieves the eye, not even a flower lends its aid to enliven the wild and gloomy hollow, the fittest refuge that the imagination could picture for the lawless and the desperate. Fortifications are to be traced on every point either liable to assault or eligible for defence: ruined castles and watch-towers perched on the highest elevations of the precipitous hills stand the now inaccessible guardians of other days; and even the limited view to seaward, where the passing white sail of a small coasting craft, or the catamaran of the amphibious fisherman may occasionally be seen, is partially screened by a triangular rock, which frowns like a great spectre over the inner harbour. Seerah, "the fortified black islet," is said to have been the residence of Cain, "the first born of a woman," after the murder of his brother Abel; and, verily, it would be difficult to devise a more appropriate exile for the banished fratricide. Hurled into the sea by a convulsive shock, it is surrounded by pumice and by currents of obsidian, the products of volcanic emission, strewed among vast undulating waves of cavernous lava, or mingled with black masses of porous rock, which bear evidence of fusion, and yield to the touch a metallic sound. Sterility has indeed claimed this dreary region as her own; and even in the more productive portions of the peninsula, little verdure is derived from the almost leafless Besham, the _Balsamodendron Opobalsamum_, a dwarf shrub, which, according to the Arab tradition, formed a part of the present carried to King Solomon by the Queen of Sheba from the aromatic regions of myrrh and frankincense. Where incisions are made in its stem, the far-famed Balm of Mecca flows copiously, but the volatile oil quickly evaporating, leaves a tasteless insipid gum. Nursed by no periodical shower and by no hidden spring, the precious plant, scorched by a withering blast, derives its only moisture from the mists which envelope the mountain-top, when all is sunshine below. Among the most singular features of the Cape is the supply of water, which is found only in the valley of Aden, close under the cliffs, and at the openings of the fissures from the steppes above. Here, piercing to a great depth through the solid rock, are upwards of one hundred wells; many dilapidated and choked up, but others yielding an abundant and unfailing supply. Whence or in what manner they are fed it is extremely difficult to conjecture. All near the beach are bad, and more or less brackish; some are sensibly affected by the tides, and very saline; whilst of those which afford sweet water, one only is visibly acted upon by some lower spring. It is excavated at the entrance of a dark gorge rent by some violent convulsion in the rugged bosom of Shemshan, and the surface, which is in a state of constant commotion, remains at the same level, although daily drawn upon from morning till night for the supply of thousands. The almost total absence of the vegetable kingdom considered, it is not surprising that there should exist also a palpable deficiency in the animal creation. In perhaps no other quarter of the universe are the sparrow and the crow such perfect strangers. The pigeon, the fox, and the rat, divide the sovereignty of the rocky cleft; and the serrated heights are held without a rival by a garrison of monkeys. With these long-tailed occupants of the tower-capped pinnacles are connected wondrous superstitions, and an Aden tradition, extant throughout Southern Arabia, would exalt them into the remnant of the once-powerful tribe of Ad, "a people great, and strong, and tall," who are believed to have been metamorphosed into apes, in token of the displeasure of Heaven, when Sheddad, "the king of the world," illustrious in the annals of the East, impiously sought, in defiance of the prophet Hud, to create unto himself a garden which should rival the Celestial Paradise. The Bostan el Irem, with its gorgeous palaces and shining domes, the similitude whereof had never been constructed on the regions of the earth, is said to be yet standing in the solitary deserts of Aden, although miraculously concealed from mortal ken. Within the silent walls of its lofty towers did Abdallah ibn Aboo Kelaba pass his night of wonder during the reign of Moawiyeh, Prince of the Faithful; and it is believed by every good Moslem that this marvellous fabric of human skill and impiety, which finds a record in the sacred Koran, will endure until the Last Day, an imperishable, but rarely revealed monument of Divine retribution. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1. Lieutenant J.C. Cruttenden, assistant to the Political Agent at Aden, heard the same version repeated at Saana, the capital of Yemen, which far-famed city he has been the first European to visit, since the days of Niebuhr. Volume One, Chapter III. A STROLL THROUGH THE INFANT METROPOLIS OF BRITISH ARABIA. A uniform system of architecture pervades the houses of Aden, nearly all of which would appear to have arisen out of the ruins of former more extensive edifices, now buried far below the surface of the accumulated soil. Tiers of loose undressed stone are interlaid, instead of mortar, with horizontal bands of timber; the walls thus traversed being perforated with pigeon-holes to serve as windows, and surmounted by a low parapet concealing the terraced roof. Many, occupied by the more wealthy, have attained to a third story; but nearly all are destitute of ornament. This is now restricted to the decayed palace of the sultans of Yemen, where "In proud state Each robber chief upheld his armed halls, Doing his evil will." In the thick coating of cement with which the shattered edifice is still partially encrusted, are the remains of various raised devices; and a profusion of open fretwork in wood is still observable, interspersed with latticed cornices, comprising choice sentences from the Koran. The shops of Parsee and Mohammadan merchants already extend an assortment of European commodities to the notice of the visitor; and in a bazaar, infested like other fish-markets by a legion of cats, are exposed sharks and a variety of the finny tribe. Water from the sweetest well is hawked about in dirty skins, instead of the lemonade and sherbet of large oriental towns; and piles of fruit, drugs, dates, molasses, and other abominations, present the same amount of flies, and no abatement of the compound of villainous smells, by which the booth of the shrewd and avaricious Gentoo is so invariably distinguished. In the suburbs, the frail cadjan wigwam of the Arab and Somauli population impart the undeviating aspect of the portable encampment of the nomade hordes. The tattered goat-hair awning of the bare-footed pilgrim to the shrine at El Medina is here; and low crazy cabins of matting or yellow reeds are so slenderly covered in with the leaves of the palm as to form but a scanty shelter against the intolerable heat and dust occasioned by periodical blasts of the fiery Shimal. During his diurnal reign, the sun has shone fiercely over the extinct crater of Aden, and the relentless shower of dust and pebbles has kept the inhabitants within their rude dwellings. But as the declining rays cast a lengthened shadow across the narrow alleys, and the hot puffs, abating in violence, are succeeded by a suffocating calm, the hitherto torpid population is to be seen abroad. That bronzed and sun-burnt visage, surrounded by long matted locks of raven hair--that slender, but wiry and active frame--and that energetic gait and manner, proclaim the untameable descendant of Ishmael. He nimbly mounts the crupper of his now unladen dromedary, and at a trot moves down the bazaar on his way back to the town of Lahedge. A checked kerchief around his brows, and a kilt of dark blue calico about his loins, comprise his slender costume. His arms have been deposited outside the Turkish wall, which stretches its barrier across the isthmus from sea to sea, where flying parties of the Foudthli still infest the plain; and as he looks back, his meagre ferocious aspect, flanked by that tangled web of hair, stamps him the roving tenant of the desert. The Arab has changed neither his character nor his habits since the days of the patriarchs, and he affords a standing evidence of the truth of the scriptural prophecy. He regards with disdain and with proud indifference every other portion of mankind, for who can produce so ancient monuments of liberty as he who, with little intermission, has preserved it from the very Deluge? Is the land of his ancestors invaded? A branch torn by the priest from the venerated _Nebek_ [A tree bearing a fruit like the Siberian crab], having been thrust into the fire, is quenched in hot blood welling from the divided throat of a ram which has only the moment before been slaughtered in the name of God the one omnipotent. Dripping with the crimson tide, the emblem is solemnly delivered to the nearest warrior, who hies him forth with this his summons for the gathering of the wild dans. Down from their rocky fastnesses pour the old and the young, the untried stripling, and the stern veteran with a thousand scars. On, on speeds the messenger with the alarum of coming strife. Transferred from hand to hand, it rests not in the grasp of any; and in a few brief hours, thousands of wild spirits, calling upon Allah for victory, and thirsting for the blood of the foe, have mustered around the unfurled standard of their prophet. Thus it was that the numerous hill-forts and strongholds studding the rich province of Assyr, which borders on the Holy Land of the Moslem, last poured forth their hordes to meet the invader of her fair plains, and the despoiler of her countless flocks. Sixteen thousand warriors, composing one of the most ancient as well as bravest of the Arab tribes, cast aside spear and falchion, and, armed only with the deadly creese, stole during the night upon the camp of the insatiate Egyptian, and slaughtering the greater number, drove Ibrahim Pacha, with the wreck of his army, to seek safety in precipitate flight to Hodeida. In yonder fat and sensual money-changer from the city of Surat is presented the very antipodes to the posterity of Hagar. In drowsy indolence, see him emerge from his treasures of ghee and groceries, among which, scales in hand, he has been patiently squatted since earliest dawn at the terrace of his booth, registering his gains in the daily ledger. Not one spark of animation is there. A dark slouching turban, and ample folds of snowy drapery, envelope the sleek person of the crafty Hindoo, and his lethargic motions render it difficult to comprehend how he should have contrived to exile himself from his native soil, and in such a forbidding spot, even in pursuit of his idol, Mammon. Ajan and Berbera, famous for their early connection with the Greek kings of Egypt, have both contributed largely to the population that now throngs the street. The regular and finely-turned features of those Somauli emigrants from the opposite coast are at once selected from the group, although some have disguised their hair under a thick plaster of quick-lime, and others are rendered hideous by a wig of fiery red curls; whilst the dyed ringlets of a third have faded to the complexion of a housemaid's mop, and a fourth, forsooth, is shaven because his locks have been pulled in anger. [It is the practice of the Somauli to shave the head when thus insulted, and to make a vow that the hair shall not grow again until they have had their revenge.] All present a curious contrast to the jet black skin and woolly pate of the Suhaili, who, in his turn, is destitute of the thick pouting lip which adorns that stalwart Nubian, swaggering like a great bully by his side. At the door of those cadjan cabins, which resemble higglers crates, not less in size than in form and appearance, groups of withered Somauli crones are diligently weaving mats, baskets, and fans, of the pliant date-leaf; and their laughing daughters, yon tall, slim, and erect damsels with the earthen pitchers above their plaited tresses, present, on their way up from the well, some of the comeliest specimens of the ebon race. "Honesty," saith the Arab proverb, "is found only amongst poor fools." The Bedouin has for ages been celebrated for his ingenuity and daring, and the African offset is nothing behind the parent stock. A Somauli thief is perhaps "the cunningest knave in the universe." He has been known to cut away a pile of tobacco so as to leave to the merchant who reposed thereon, naught but the effigy of his own figure: and after entering through the roof of a house, the burglar has taken his exit through the door with chests of treasure, from the top of which the sleeping proprietor has been first hoisted, with his bed, by a tackle lowered through the aperture, and so left hanging until the morning! Muffled in a Spanish mantilla, see the spouse of the bigoted Islam taking the air upon the crupper of a donkey, her fat face so scrupulously concealed, that nothing of it is visible save two sloe black eyes which glitter through perforations in the white veil, and impart a similitude to the horned owl. On the rude steps of the clustering habitations that she has passed, surrounded by rosy-cheeked urchins, are seated numerous dark-eyed and well-dressed Jewesses. Rachel, although discreet, and preserving the strictest decorum, is unveiled. Were it possible to prevail upon her to have recourse to daily ablution, in lieu of the hebdomadal immersion which celebrates her sabbath eve, her complexion would not be less fair than that of the native of Southern Europe; and in the well-chiselled features and aquiline profile of the brunette, are preserved all those marked peculiarities which in every part of the world distinguish the scattered daughters of Israel. The children of the tribe of Judah are most completely identified with the soil of Aden, and may be regarded as the artisans and manufacturing population. Victims heretofore of the tyranny and intolerant persecution which the infidel has ever to expect at the hand of the true believer, they toiled and accumulated, but feared lest a display of the fruits of their labour should excite the cupidity of a rapacious master. Now their prospect has brightened, and the remnant of a mighty though fallen and dispersed people, no longer exists here in poverty and oppression, insulted and despised as they have always been in every part of the Eastern world; but in uninterrupted security ply their industrious occupation, and under British protection fearlessly practise those rites which have been religiously preserved from the time that their priests bore aloft the ark of the covenant. Stone slabs with Hebrew inscriptions mark the resting-place of the departed; schools witness the education of the rising generation; and men and women, arrayed in their holiday apparel, sit apart in the synagogue, to listen at each return of their sabbath to the law which had been read since "by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea" their fathers "went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt." Volume One, Chapter IV. THE GIBRALTAR OF THE EAST. Aden, in its history and reverses, presents the type of many a mighty nation,--it flourished and has fallen. As it once stood, it was the maritime bulwark of Arabia Felix. So early as the reign of Constantine the Great, it was celebrated for its impregnable fortifications, its extended traffic, and its attractive ports. Here the camels of the Koreishites were laden with a precious cargo of aromatics. Here commerce first dawned; and little more than two centuries and a half have rolled away since the decayed city ranked among the most opulent emporia of the East. Its decline is only dated from the close of the illustrious reign of Suleiman the Magnificent; but the spider has since "weaved her web in the imperial palace, and the owl has stood sentinel upon the watch-tower." In the eyes of the true believer, the Cape is hallowed by the tradition that it was honoured with the preaching in person of that arch impostor, "the last of all the prophets," who, with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, became the lawgiver of the Arabians, and the founder of an empire which in less than a century had spread itself from the Pyrenees to the Indus. Three hundred and sixty mosques once reared their proud heads, and eighty thousand inhabitants poured into the field, an army which accomplished the subjugation of El Yemen. This latter, famous from all antiquity for the happiness of its climate, its fertility and surpassing riches, became an independent kingdom at the period that Constantinople fell into the hands of Mahomet the Second. Aden frequently cast off its allegiance; and when the Turks, by means of their fleet built at Suez, rendered themselves masters of the northern coast of the Red Sea, they found the peninsula independent, under the Sultan of Foudthli. Turkey and Portugal, struggling for supremacy in the East, hotly contested its possession; but, being unable longer to maintain their rivalry, it finally reverted into the grasp of its ancient masters. Great natural strength, improved by the substantial fortifications which had been carried by Sultan Selim completely round the zone of hills that engirds the town, now rendered it the fittest of all retreats for the piratical hordes of the desert; and the lawless sons of Ishmael, scouring the adjacent waters, loaded their stronghold with booty. But after the loss of government, Aden could not be expected to retain its opulence. Its trade passed into the rival port of Mocha, and grinding oppression caused the removal of the wealthy. At the period of the British occupation, ninety dilapidated houses, giving shelter to six hundred impoverished souls, were all that remained to attest its ancient glories. The town lay spread out in ruin and desolation, and heaps of stone, mingled with bricks and rubbish, sternly pointed to the grave of the mosque and tall minaret. Few fragments now survive the general decay, to record the high estate of the once populous metropolis, or reveal the magnificence it could formerly boast in works of public utility. The chief buildings are believed to have been situated ten miles inland, and to have been swallowed up by the ever rising, never ebbing, tide of the desert. The red brick conduit of Abd el Wahab can still be traced from the Durab el Horaibi, whence it stretches to Bir Omheit, upwards of eight miles, across a now dilapidated bridge. Here are numerous wells, which supplied the reservoirs; but, "like the baseless fabric of a vision," every vestige of an edifice has vanished. Among the most perfect and conspicuous relics of the past are the laborious and costly means adopted to insure in so arid and burning a climate, a plentiful supply of water. In addition to the wells, three hundred in number, the remains of basins of great magnitude are found in various directions; and in the Valley of Tanks are a succession of hanging cisterns, formed by excavations in the limestone rock. These are lined with flights of steps, and supported by lofty buttresses of imperishable masonry, forming deep reservoirs of semi-elliptical form, which still blockade every channel in the mountain side, and once served to collect the precious drops from heaven, when showers doubtless fell more abundantly than at the present day. In the extensive repositories for the dead, too, may be found assurances of the former population of Aden. Many of the countless tombs in the Turkish cemetery were of white marble, and bore on jasper tablets elaborately-sculptured inscriptions surmounted by the cap and turban; but the greater number of these pillared monuments have either disappeared or been overthrown. Of the evidences of Mohammadanism that once graced the city, nearly all lie buried from sight beneath heaps of accumulated rubbish and debris, the removal of portions of which has disclosed many curious coins of remote date. The minaret of Menaleh, and a tottering octagon of red brick, attached to the Jama el Musjid, lone survivors of the wreck, still point to the sky; and of the few mosques that have been spared by the destroying hand of time, the principal is that of the tutelar saint of the city, beneath the cupola of which, invested with a pall of crimson silk, and enshrined in the odour of sanctity, repose the venerated remains of Sheikh Hydroos. An excellent zig-zagged road, imperfectly paved, and raised in parts to the height of twenty feet, extends from the base to the summit of Jebel Shemshan, and, with some few of the disjointed watch-towers, has defied the ravages of centuries. Three enormous pieces of brass ordnance, pierced for a sixty-eight pound shot, and covered with Turkish inscriptions, were the chief symbols of the former strength of this eastern Gibraltar. These were transmitted to England, when their capture, shortly after the present accession, avenged an insult offered to her flag, and wreathed the first laurels around the brow of her youthful Queen. In general aspect the Cape is not dissimilar from the volcanic islands in the Grecian Archipelago, and viewed from a distance it appears separated altogether from the mainland. The long dead flat of sand by which it is connected with the Arabian continent, rising on either beach scarcely two feet above high water mark, induces the belief that the promontory must on its first production in early ages have been insulated. According to the evidence of the present generation the sea is still receding, and the sand steadily accumulating, but the noble western bay will not be affected for many centuries. Though the glory of Aden may have fled, and her commerce become totally annihilated, her ports will long remain as nature formed them, excellent, capacious, and secure. Important commercial advantages cannot fail to accrue from the occupation of so secure an entrepot, which at any season of the year may be entered and quitted with equal facility. The readiest access is afforded to the rich provinces of Hadramaut and Yemen, famous for their coffee, their frankincense, and the variety of their gums, and abounding in honey and wax, of a quality which may vie with the produce of the hives of the Mediterranean. A lucrative market to the manufactures of India and Great Britain is also extended by the facilities attending communication with the African coast, south of Bab el Mandeb, where the high mountain ranges bordering upon the shore are clothed with trees producing myrrh, frankincense, and precious gums, whilst the valleys in the interior pour forth for export, sheep, ghee, drugs, dry hides, gold dust, civet, ivory, rhinoceros horns, peltries, and ostrich feathers, besides coffee of the choicest growth. A wide field is open for mercantile speculation, and it is not a little pleasant to contemplate the approaching improvement of Christian Abyssinia, and the civilisation of portions of Africa even more benighted and remote, through the medium of intercourse with British Arabia. Under the flag of old England, Aden has enjoyed a degree of happiness and security never previously experienced, even in the days of her greatest glory, when she ranked among the foremost of commercial marts in the East, and when vessels from all the known quarters of the globe thronged her boasted roadstead. Emigrants from the interior as well as from the exterior of Hadramaut and Yemen, and from both shores of the Red Sea, are daily crowding within the walls to seek refuge from grinding oppression, and to free themselves from the galling burthen beneath which they have long groaned at the hand of insatiate native despots. The amazing increase of population and the crowded state of the bazaars form subject for high admiration. In the short space of three years the census has been augmented to twenty thousand souls; substantial dwellings are springing up in every direction, and at all the adjacent ports, hundreds of native merchants do but await the erection of permanent fortifications in earnest of intention to remain, to flock under the guns with their families and wealth. Emerging thus rapidly from ruin and degradation, the tide of lucrative commerce, both from Africa and Arabia, may be confidently expected to revert to its former channel. Blessed by a mild but firm government, the decayed mart, rescued from Arab tyranny and misrule, will doubtless shortly attain a pinnacle far eclipsing even its ancient opulence and renown; and Aden, as a free port, whilst she pours wealth into a now impoverished land, must ere long become the queen of the adjacent seas, and take rank among the most useful dependencies of the British crown. Volume One, Chapter V. VOYAGE ACROSS THE GULF OF ARABIA. Eight bells were "making it twelve o'clock" on the 15th of May, when the boatswain piped all hands on deck to weigh the anchor, and within a few minutes the Honourable Company's Brig-of-war "Euphrates," having the Embassy on board, and commanded by one of its members [Lieutenant Barker, Indian Navy], set her white sails, and, followed by three large native crafts freighted with horses and baggage, stood across the Arabian Gulf. A favourable breeze pressed her steadily through the yielding bosom of the ocean. The salt spray flew under her gallant bows; and as the hospitable cadjan roofs on Steamer Point, first in order, and then the jagged pinnacles forming the spider skeleton of Aden, sank gradually astern, each individual of the party destined to traverse the unknown wilds of Ethiopia, took the pilgrim's vow that the razor should pass no more over his beard, until his foot had again rested on civilised shores--an event not unreasonably conjectured to be far distant for all, and for some destined never to be realised. The breeze increasing, the low sandy promontory of Ras Bir on the African coast became visible during the forenoon of the following day; and before evening, notwithstanding a delay of some hours, caused by an accident to the mainyard of one of the tenders, which obliged her to be taken in tow, the brig was passing a group of eight coral islands, elevated about thirty feet above the level of the sea. The remainder of the fleet having parted company during the night, were now perceived standing directly for Mushahh, the nearest of these islets, situated at the mouth of the Gulf of Tajura, and divided from the Danakil coast by a fathomless channel of seven miles. An iron messenger despatched to bring the convoy to, ricochetted over the blue water, kicking up a column of white spray at every bound, and before the smoke of the gun had cleared the bulwarks, a bald pate protruded between the rigging, was followed by the swarthy person of Aboo Bekr, of the Somauli tribe Aboo Salaam, and commonly styled Durabili, or "the Liar." Nakhuda of a small trading craft which had been employed as a pilot boat during the recent trigonometrical survey of the coast, he was well-known to the officers of the "Euphrates," and was ascertained to be at this moment charged with despatches for Aden, which, whether important or otherwise, had been during three days lying safely at anchor off the island, to admit of enhanced profits by the collection of a cargo of wood. "Salaam aleikum!" exclaimed the old Palinurus as soon as his foot had touched the deck; "Hamdu-lillah! Praise be unto God! it is you, after all. When I saw those two crazy tubs in your van, I believed that it could not be my old ship, although it loomed so vastly like her; but the moment you took in your studding-sails to let Aboo Bekr come alongside, I knew it must be the Capitan Bashi. Kayf halut, how fares it with your health?" The welcome visitor was forthwith accommodated with a chair on the poop; into which having squeezed himself with difficulty, he drew up his knees to his scanty beard, inserted a cigar into his mouth as a quid, and, sipping tea like a finished washerwoman, instituted a train of inquiries relative to the position of affairs in the British possessions across the water. "Tayyib, tayyib," he ejaculated, when thoroughly satisfied that Cape Aden was not again in the hands of the Arabs. "Marhabba, it is well. All, too, is as it should be at Tajura. Misunderstandings are adjusted, and the avaricious chieftains have at last, the Lord be praised! got all the dirt out of their bellies. Their palms have been judiciously tickled, and it only now remains to be seen whether the old sultan, who is fully as fond of money as his neighbours--or his ancient rival, Mohammad Ali, is to have the honour of forwarding the English to King Saloo. My boy has just returned from Habesh, and shall escort you. Abroo has been twice in Bombay, as you know, Capitan. You have only to tell me if he should misbehave, and I'll trounce the young scamp soundly." Meanwhile the bold mountain outline of the land of promise, forming a worthy barrier to the unexplored treasures of the vast continent of Africa, had been rapidly emerging from obscurity, and the brown forbidding bluff, styled Ras Dukhan, "the smoking promontory," in height about five or six hundred feet, was now on the starboard quarter; its abrupt summit, as usual, surmounted by a coronet of fleecy clouds, from which, if not from the thermal well at its base, this Cape has probably derived its appellation. The brig was already standing up the bay of Tajura; but darkness overtaking her, it was resolved to lay to until daybreak; and a gun fired in intimation of approach was presently answered by a display of rockets and blue lights from the Honourable Company's schooner "Constance," riding at anchor in the harbour. The Arabs lay claim to the invention of the compass; and Aboo Bekr, who believed himself in truth a second Anson, was provided with one, which must certainly have been the first ever constructed. Age having impaired the dilapidated needle, it was forced off its pivot by a quantity of pepper-corns, which are here considered highly efficacious in the restoration of decayed magnetic powers. From the native navigators in the Indian Ocean he had borrowed a primitive nautical instrument for determining the latitude; nor was he a little vain of his practical skill as an observer. Through a perforation in the centre of a plane of wood in size and shape like a playing card, was passed a knotted whipcord, and the distance from each knot was so regulated that the subtended angle should equal the altitude of the polar star at some frequented point on the coast. The knot having been placed between the teeth, and the lower margin of the plane brought in optical contact with the horizon, the position of Polaris must be observed with reference to the upper edge; when, if it be above, the desired haven is known to be to the southward--if below, to the northward, and the course is shaped accordingly. "I'll take you in this very night, Capitan Bashi, if you so please," resumed the pilot, whose packet had by this time escaped his recollection altogether. "Only give me the order, and, praise be unto Allah! there is nothing that Aboo Bekr cannot do. My head, as you see, is bald, and I may perhaps be a little old-looking now, but wait until we get on shore, and my new wig is bent; Inshallah! I shall look like a child of five years among the youngest of them." "Now if we had but Long Ali of Zeyla on board," continued the old man, whose merry tongue knew no rest; "if we had only Two-fathom Ali here, you would not make all these difficulties. When they want to lay out an anchor, they have nothing else to do but to hand it over to Ali, and he walks away with it into six or eight feet without any ado. I went once upon a time in the dark to grope for a berth on board of his buggalow, and stumbling over some one's toes, inquired to whose legs they belonged; `All's,' was the reply. `And whose knees are these?' said I, after walking half across the deck; `Ali's.' `And this head in the scuppers, pray whose is it?' `Ali's to be sure,' growled a sleepy voice; `what do you want with it?' `Subhan Allah, Ali again!' I exclaimed; `then I must even look for stowage elsewhere.'" Dawn of the 17th revealed the town of Tajura, not a mile distant, on the verge of a broad expanse of blue water, over which a gossamer-like fleet of fishing catamarans already plied their busy craft. The tales of the dreary Tehama, of the suffocating Shimal, and of the desolate plains of the bloodthirsty Adaiel, were in that moment forgotten. Pleasure sparkled in every eye, and each heart bounded with exultation at the near prospect of fulfilling the benevolent schemes in design, and of adding one mite to the amelioration of Afric's swart sons. Those who are conversant with Burchell's admirable illustration of an encampment of Cape farmers, with their gigantic waggons scattered about in picturesque confusion, will best understand the appearance of the group of primitive habitations that now presented itself on the sea-beach. Exceeding two hundred in number, and rudely constructed of frames of unhewn timber, arranged in a parabolic arch, and covered in with date matting, they resembled the white tilts of the Dutch boors, and collectively sheltered some twelve hundred inhabitants. The bold grey mountains, like a drop scene, limited the landscape, and, rising tier above tier, through coral limestone and basaltic trap, to the majestic Jebel Goodah, towering five thousand feet above the ocean, were enveloped in dirty red clouds, which imparted the aspect of a morning in the depth of winter. Verdant clumps of date and palm trees embosomed the only well of fresh water, around which numerous Bedouin females were drawing their daily supply of the precious fluid. These relieved the humble terraced mosque of whitewashed madrepore, whence the voice of the muezzin summoned the true believer to matin prayer; and a belt of green _makanni_, a dwarf species of mimosa with uniform umbrella tops, fringing the sandy shore, completed a pleasant contrast to the frowning blocks of barren black lava which fortify the Gibraltar whereupon the eye had last rested. As the ship sailed into the harbour, the appearance of a large shark in her wake caused the tongue of the pilot again to "break adrift." "A certain friend of mine," said he, "Nakhuda of a craft almost as fast a sailer as my own, which is acknowledged to be the best in these seas, was once upon a time bound from this port to Mocha, with camels on board. When off Jebel Jan, the high table-land betwixt the Bay of Tajura and the Red Sea, one of the beasts dying, was hove overboard. Up came a shark, ten times the size of that fellow, and swallowed the carcass, leaving one of the hinder legs protruding from his jaws; and before he had time to think where he was to find stowage for it, up came a second tremendous monster, and bolted his messmate, camel, leg, and all." In return for this anecdote, the old man was treated to the history of the two Kilkenny cats in the sawpit, which fought until nothing remained of either but the tail and a bit of the flue. "How could that be?" he retorted seriously, after turning the business over in his mind. "Now, Capitan Bashi, you are spinning yarns, but, by Allah, the story I have told you is as true as the holy Koran, and if you don't choose to believe _me_, there are a dozen persons of unblemished veracity now in Tajura, who are ready to vouch for its correctness." Volume One, Chapter VI. CAST ANCHOR AT TAJURA ON THE AFRICAN COAST. A scraggy, misshapen lad, claimed by Aboo Bekr as his own most dutiful nephew, now paddled alongside in a frail skiff, the devil dancing in his wicked eye; and having caught the end of a rope thrown by the doting uncle, he was on board in another instant. During a former cruise of the "Euphrates," this imp had contrived to pass on the purser a basket of half-hatched eggs, which he warranted "new laid," but with which he was subsequently pelted over the gangway. On being greeted as "Sahib el bayzah," "the master of the eggs," and asked if he had not brought a fresh supply for sale, grinning archly, he dragged forward by the topknot a dull, stupid, little wretch--his messmate--whose heavy features formed the exact reverse of his own impudent animation. "Here," he exclaimed, "is the identical young rascal of whom I told you I bought them; he actually stole the whole from under his mother's hen, and then assured me that they were fresh." "Why don't you grow taller as well as sharper?" enquired the party upon whom the precocious child of the sea had imposed; "'tis now twelve months since you cheated me, and you are as diminutive a dwarf as ever." "How can any one thrive who is starved," was the prompt reply; "were I to eat as immoderately as you do, I doubt not I should soon grow as corpulent." But the arrival of Ali Shermarki shortly changed this desultory conversation to weightier matters. This worthy old man, sheikh of the Somauli tribe Aber Gerhajis, possessing great influence and consideration among the entire Danakil population of the coast, had been invited from Zeyla, his usual place of residence, to assist in the extensive preparations making for the journey of the Embassy; and he now represented the requisite number of camels to be on their way down from the mountains, if the assurances of the owners, upon whose word small reliance could be pieced, were to be implicitly believed. Long faithfully attached to the British government, the sheikh's first introduction arose out of a catastrophe which occurred many years ago-- the loss of the merchant brig "Mary Anne" at Berbera, a sea-port on the Somauli coast, lying immediately opposite to the peninsula of Aden. Deserted from October till March, it becomes, throughout the residue of the year, one uninterrupted fair, frequented by ships from the Arabian shores, by rapacious Banians from India, and by caravans of wandering savages from all parts of the interior--a vast temporary city or encampment, populated by not fewer than fifty thousand souls, springing into existence as if by the magic aid of Aladdin's lamp, and disappearing so suddenly, that within a single week, not one inhabitant is to be seen. Yet another six months, and the purse-proud merchant of Hurrur is again there, with his drove of comely slaves newly exported from the highlands of Abyssinia. There, too, is the wild pagan, displaying coffee, peltries, and precious gums from beyond Gurague; and, punctual as ever, see the kafilah from the distant gurriahs of Amin and Ogaden, a nomade band, laden with ivory and ostrich plumes, and stained from head to foot, both in person and in garment, by the impalpable red dust traversed during the long march from the southward. Religious prejudices on the part of the wily Hindoo precluding all traffic in live stock, the Somauli shepherd retains in his own hand the sale of his black-headed flocks; embarked with which in his frail bark of fifty tons, he stands boldly across the gulf, at seasons when the Arab fears even to creep along the coast of the Hejaz. All other trade, however, is engrossed by the subtle Banian, who divides the _adductor pollicis_ of the right thumb, in order to increase the span by which his wares are to be measured; and he, during many years, has enjoyed, silently and unobserved, the enormous profits accruing from the riches annually poured out from the hidden regions of Africa. No form of government regulates the commerce; and, in the absence of imposts, barter is conducted solely through the medium of a native broker styled Aban, who, receiving a regulated percentage upon purchases and sales, is bound, at the risk of his own life, to protect his constituent from injury or outrage. A vessel standing towards the coast proves a signal to all who gain their livelihood by this system, to swim off, and contest first arrival on board; the winner of the aquatic race, in accordance with ancient usage, being invariably received as her Aban. Thus it was that Ali Shermarki became agent to the "Mary Anne," a small English merchantman from Mauritius, whose captain, imprudently landing with the greater portion of his crew, afforded to a party of knavish Somauli an opportunity to cut the cable, when she drifted on shore and was lost. Hoping by his influence to prevail upon the plunderers to desist, the Aban, then a younger man, exerted himself to gain the wreck, but he was repulsed by a shower of spears, and his boat was swamped. A savage rabble next beleaguered his dwelling, and imperiously demanded the persons of the officers and crew, in order to put them to death; but, true to his charge, Ali Shermarki stoutly resisted, and being severely wounded, succeeded with his blood in securing honourable terms, and preserving the lives for which he had made himself responsible. His zealous integrity was duly rewarded by the British Government, and a sword was presented in token of his gallantry, the display of the brilliant setting of which led to the narration of the foregoing history. The passage from Aden had been made in forty-two hours. As the cable of the "Euphrates" ran through the hawse-holes, and the rest of the squadron feu into their places betwixt herself and the shore, she fired a salute of five guns; and, after considerable delay, a negro was perceived timidly advancing with a lighted brand from among a knot of grey-bearded elders, seated in deep consultation beneath the scanty foliage of an ancient date tree. A superannuated 4 Pr., honey-combed throughout its calibre, and mounted upon a rickety ship carriage, tottered on the beach--the sole piece of ordnance possessed by Sultan Mohammad ibn Mohammad, reputed ruler of all the Danakil tribes. It was, after much coaxing, persuaded to explode in reply to the compliment paid, and for some minutes afterwards, wreaths of white smoke continued to ascend from the chimney-like vent, as though the venerable engine had taken fire, and was being consumed internally. The commander of the "Euphrates," whose naval functions were now temporarily suspended, having long enjoyed the honour of a personal acquaintance with the potentate bearing the above pompous and high-sounding title, repaired forthwith to the palace, which consists of the stern moiety of the ill-starred "Mary Anne," tastily erected, keel uppermost, in the middle of the town, to serve as an attic story. Letters of introduction from the political authorities at Aden, with many complimentary speeches, duly delivered, permission to land was solicited; and although the formidable array of shipping, whose guns, not two hundred yards distant, sullenly overlooked the royal lodge, had given birth to certain misgivings, the Sultan finally overcame his fears, and acquiesced in the arrangement. A spot of waste land, forming a common near the mosque, was pointed out as the site upon which to encamp, but the favour was granted with this express understanding, that the British Embassy should tarry in so enviable a situation, not one moment longer than the exigencies of the service imperatively demanded; a saving clause in the stipulation to which all parties heartily subscribed. The bay in which the "Euphrates" now rode, styled, from its wonted smoothness, "Bahr el Banateen," "the sea of the two nymphs," is a deep narrow estuary, bounded by a bold coast, and extending, in a south-westerly direction, about forty-five miles, when the Eesah and Danakil shores suddenly converge so as to form a straitened channel, which imparts the figure of an hour-glass. Barely three quarters of a mile across, this passage is divided by a barren rocky islet styled "Bab," "the door," as occupying the gateway to the inner bay of Goobut el Kharab, "the basin of foulness." The vortices formed by the strong tide setting through these confined apertures, assume a most dangerous aspect; and although the water in the bowl, whereof the longer axis measures twelve, and the shorter five miles, is so intensely salt as to create a smarting of the skin during immersion, mud adhering to the lead at one hundred fathoms, is perfectly sweet and fresh. Of four islets, two are rocks; Bood Ali, on the contrary, three hundred feet in height, and perfectly inaccessible, being thickly encrusted with earth and vegetable matter, whilst the sides of its nearest neighbour. Hood Ali, are bare, and present unequivocal traces of more recent volcanic action than are to be found in the surrounding debris. Immediately outside the bay, on the Danakil coast, there issues from the rock below high water line, a spring which, at the flood tide, is completely effaced; but during the ebb is so intensely hot, that a crab is instantly destroyed and turned red by immersion. At the western extremity of Goobut el Kharab, a cove three hundred yards in diameter, with sixteen fathoms water, is enclosed by precipitous volcanic cliffs, and the entrance barred by a narrow coral reef, which, at low tide, lies high and dry. In the waters of this recess is presented one of those strange phenomena which are not to be satisfactorily explained. Always ebbing, there is an underflow during even the flood tide; and usually glassy smooth, they become occasionally agitated by sudden ebullition, boiling up in whirlpools, which pour impetuously over the bar; whence the natives, persuaded that there exists a subterranean passage connected with the great Salt Lake, of which the sparkling expanse is visible from an intervening high belt of decomposing lava, term the cove "Mirsa good Ali," "the source of the sea." Volume One, Chapter VII. RECEPTION OF THE EMBASSY BY THE SULTAN OF THE SEA-PORT, AND RETURN VISIT TO HIS HIGHNESS. The first British camp with which the sea-port of Tajura had been honoured since its foundation, raised its head on the afternoon of the 18th of May; when the Embassy, accompanied by the officers of both ships of war in the harbour, landed under a salute of seventeen guns from the "Euphrates," [commanded by Lieutenant J. Young, I.N.,] and in a spacious crimson pavilion, erected as a hall of audience, received a visit of ceremony from the Sultan and his principal chiefs. A more unprincely object can scarcely be conceived than was presented in the imbecile, attenuated, and ghastly form of this most meagre potentate, who, as he tottered into the marquee, supported by a long witch-like wand, tendered his hideous bony claws to each of the party in succession, with all the repulsive coldness that characterises a Dankali shake of the hand. An encourager of the staple manufactures of his own country, his decrepit frame was enveloped in a coarse cotton mantle, which, with a blue-checked wrapper about his loins, and an ample turban perched on the very apex of his shaven crown, was admirably in keeping with the harmony of dirt that pervaded the attire of his privy council and attendants. Projecting triangles of leather graced the toes of his rude sandals; a huge quarto Koran, slung over his bent shoulder, rested beneath the left arm, on the hilt of a brass-mounted creese, which was girded to the right side; and his illustrious person was further defended against evil influence by a zone and bandolier thickly studded with mystic amulets and most potent charms, extracted from the sacred book. Enfeebled by years, his deeply-furrowed countenance, bearing an ebony polish, was fringed by a straggling white beard, and it needed not the science of Lavater to detect, in the indifference of his dull leaden eye, and the puckered corners of his toothless mouth, the lines of cruelty, cunning, and sordid avarice. His Highness's haggard form was supported by the chief ministers of Church and State--Abdool Rahman Sowahil, the judge, civil, criminal, and ecclesiastic, and Hamed Bunaito, the pursy Wazir, whose bodily circumference was in strict unison with the pomposity of his carriage. One Saleh Shehem, too, occupied a prominent seat in the upper ranks--a wealthy slave-merchant, whose frightful deformities have ennobled him with the title of "Ashrem," which being interpreted signifies, "he of the hare-lip." This trio alone, of all the unwashed retinue, showed turbaned heads, every lesser satellite wearing either a natural or artificial full-bottomed peruke, graced with a yellow wooden skewer, something after the model of a salad fork, stuck erect in hair well stiffened with a goodly accumulation of sheep's-tail fat, the rancid odour whereof was far from enhancing the _agremens_ of the interview. Izhak and Hajji Kasim, two elders of the blood-royal, with whom a much closer acquaintance was in store, were perfectly bald,--their patriarchal bearing and goodly presence affording no bad imitation of the scriptural illustrations by the old masters of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul. True to his word, the wag Aboo Bekr, as full of pleasantries as ever, had donned a preposterous tawny wig, quaintly manufactured of the fleece of a sheep; and in his smirking, facetious physiognomy was found the principal relief to the scowling satanic glances of the ill-favoured rabble, dripping with tallow, and redolent of abominable smells, who crowded the tent to the choking of every doorway. It having heretofore been the invariable maxim of the Sultan to exact a visit from the stranger before condescending to pay one himself, the departure from established rule in favour of the liege subjects of Her Britannic Majesty could not fail to prove eminently gratifying. Compliments of the most fulsome nature were bandied about with compound interest, as the coffee-cup passed round to the more distinguished of the Danakil guests. Promises of assistance the most specious were lavished by the authorities, in grateful acknowledgment whereof, Cachemire shawls, and Delhi embroidered scarfs of exquisite workmanship, were liberally distributed, and as greedily tucked under the dirty cloth of the avaricious recipients; and although, in accordance with the unpolished custom of the country, no sort of salutation was offered when the conference broke up, the filthy guests departed with a semblance of good humour, that had been observable in none at their first entrance. Widely different was the mood of the son of Ali Abi, chief of the Rookhba, as he rushed into the pavilion on the exit of his rival, the hereditary Sultan of the Danakil. Lucifer, when gazing forth upon the newly created Paradise, and plotting the downfall of the sinless inmates of the garden of Eden, looked not half so fiend-like as Mohammad Ali, whilst, trembling with jealousy and rage, he demanded the reason of having been so insultingly omitted in the distribution of valuables? "Am I then a dog," he continued, in the highest indignation, "and not worth the trouble of propitiating? whereas that old dotard yonder is to have his empty skull bound with rich shawls from India, and his powerless relatives decorated from head to foot. Inshallah, we shall see anon whether the Sultan of the sea-beach, or the son of Ali Abi, keeps the key of the road to Habesh." Unlike the succession of every other government in the universe, the nominal sovereignty of the united tribes composing the Adaiel of Danakil nation, whereof Tajura is the seat, is alternately vested in the Adali and the Abli, a Sultan drawn from the one, being succeeded by his Wazir, who is invariably a member of the other, whilst the individual to fill the post vacated by the latter, is elected by suffrage from the family of the Sultan deceased. The town is besides the rendezvous of the petty chiefs of all the surrounding clans, who, to the number of eight or ten, claim an equal voice in the senate, and with about an hundred litigious followers each, make it their head-quarters during the greater portion of the year. Mohammad Ali is the principal of these, and his powerful tribe occupying a central position on the road to Abyssinia, he asserts the right to escort all parties proceeding thither--a right which the Sultan denies. The necessity of propitiating at one time, and in the same place, two rival savages, possessing equally the means of annoyance, whilst neither is sufficiently strong to afford protection against the interference of the other, rendered the negotiation one of considerable difficulty and delicacy; nor was it without a vast expenditure of honied words, that the ruffled temper of the malcontent was finally soothed, and he was persuaded to waive the assertion of his recognised claim, until a more suitable opportunity. All the tents having been erected, the steeds landed and picketed in the rear, and the heterogeneous mass of property which strewed the sea-beach reduced to a something less chaotic state, a return visit to His Highness was paid in full uniform; and the _cortege_ being swelled by the naval officers, an exceedingly gay procession of cocked hats, plumes, and gold lace, passed along the strand to the palace, under a befitting salute from the Brig of war. The lounging population were altogether lost in amazement at the sight of such magnificence--old and young, of both sexes, thronging the wayside, with features indicative of unequivocal admiration at the brilliancy of so unwonted a display. The thunder of artillery, to which the nervous old Sultan does not conceal his insuperable aversion, still shook the unpretending couch whereon he quailed, as the procession entered the fragile tenement of stakes and matting which constituted the Divan; and which, without possessing any pretensions to exclude either sun or rain, proved just sufficiently large to include the entire party. A renewal of hand-shaking in its coldest form, and a repetition of yesterday's compliments, and of yesterday's promises mode only to be broken, was followed by a general sipping of coffee, prepared, not in the royal kitchen, but in the _cuisine_ of the Embassy; and after being scrutinised during ten minutes of suffocating heat by numerous female eyes glistening through an infinity of chinks and perforations in the envious matting, the party returned, bearing as a costly token of His Highness's regard, a cloth similar to that composing the royal mantle. It did indeed, in this instance, form matter of heartfelt congratulation, that the regal custom was dispensed with, of investing the honoured guest with a garment from the imperial wardrobe! As the cavalcade, duly impressed with this sentiment, remounted at the gate of the thorn inclosure which fortifies the palace, the Sultana vouchsafed a glimpse of her bedizened person from the stern cabin window of the "Mary Anne"--the withered frame of the ancient beldame, embedded in spells, beads, amulets, and grease, forcibly reminding the spectator of the witch of Endor, and rendering her in very truth, a right seemly partner for her wrinkled lord. Volume One, Chapter VIII. TAJURA, "THE CITY OF THE SLAVE-MERCHANT." In the heart of the peninsula of Arabia, environed on every side by rocky mountains, there stood, in the middle of the sixth century, a celebrated pagan shrine, that had been held in the most exalted veneration during fourteen hundred years. The edifice was believed to cover the hallowed remains of Ishmael, the father of the wandering Bedouin, and it contained a certain sacred black stone, whereon the Patriarch Jacob saw the vision of angels ascending into heaven. On its site, according to the Arab tradition, Adam pitched his tent when expelled from the garden of Eden, and there died Eve, the partner of his fall, whose grave of green sods is shown to the present day, upon the barren shores of the Red Sea. This shrine, of course, was none other than the famous temple of the Sun at Mecca, since so consecrated by the lawgiver of the Mohammadans, as to form the focus of attraction to every true believer. The extraordinary veneration it received in those early days, concentrating the tide of commerce, rendered it the absorbing mart of Eastern trade. Abyssinia at that period held in occupation the adjacent provinces of Arabia Felix, and Abrahah, the vicegerent of Yemen, conceiving the idea of diverting the channel to his own advantage, erected in the country of the Homerites a splendid Christian church, which, under the title of Keleisa, he endowed with the same privileges, immunities, and emoluments, that had pertained, from all antiquity, to the shrine of Sabaean idolatry. "If," says Gibbon, "a Christian power had been maintained in Arabia, Mahomet must have been crushed in his cradle, and Abyssinia would have prevented a revolt which has changed the civil and religious aspect of the world." But alarmed at the prospect of the desertion of their temple both by votaries and merchants, the Beni Koreish, who held the keys of the black stone in hereditary right, polluted the rival fane at Saana, which had no equal, saving the palace of the Hamyar kings, and was calculated to ensure the veneration of every pilgrim. Out of this sacrilege and affront arose the event celebrated in the Koran as "the war of the Elephant." Mounted on a huge white elephant, Abrahah, surnamed El Ashrem, placing himself at the head of a vast army, proceeded to take revenge on the idolaters; but, misled by intelligence artfully given by Aboo Taleb, grandfather to the Apostle of God, he destroyed, instead of the Kaaba, a temple of Osiris at Taief, and the first recorded appearance of the small-pox, shortly afterwards annihilated the Christian forces. The wars that distracted all Arabia, between the Greeks and Persians in the first instance, and subsequently between Mahomet and the population in support of his divine mission, had greatly impaired the traffic carried on by general consent at the temple of Mecca. A caravan scarcely ever ventured forth by any road, that it was not plundered by the opposing partisans, and merchants as well as trade gradually departed south of the Arabian Gulf, to sea-ports which in earlier times had been the emporia of commerce with the East. Raheita, Zeyla, Tajura, and a number of other towns in the Indian Ocean, thus recovered their importance and their lost prosperity. The conquest of the Abyssinian territories in Arabia, drove every Ethiopian to the African shores. Little districts now grew into great consideration. Mara, Hadea, Aussa, and Adel, amongst other petty states, assumed unto themselves the title of kingdoms, and shortly acquired power and wealth eclipsing many of the more ancient monarchies. The miserable town of Tajura, "the city of the slave-merchant," as it exists at the present day, demands no further description. It was for two years in the hands of the Turks, who occupied it after the taking of Massowah, and converted into a fort a venerable mosque, now in ruins, on the sea-beach near the palace. But no consistent chronicle, either of the capture or evacuation, is to be expected where every man is notorious equally as a boaster and a liar, and making himself the individual hero in every passage of arms, never foils to extol his own clan as immeasurably superior in valour to every other. The melancholy aspect of the place is but too well calculated to convey to the traveller a foretaste of the sufferings inseparable from a pilgrimage through any portion of the country denominated Adel; and each barbarian of the entire population of Tajura will be found, on sad experience, a type of the Dankali nation! Bigoted Mohammadans, punctual to the call of the Muezzin, praying three times in excess of the exactions of the Prophet, often passing the entire night in the mosque, or sitting in council at its threshold; sedulously attentive to the outward forms of their creed, though few have sufficient energy to undertake a pilgrimage to the Kaaba, and content, like other hypocrites, with a rigid observance of externals-- the Danakil rise from their devotions well primed with Moslem intolerance, and are perfectly ready to lie and cheat as occasion may offer. Unoccupied, and at a loss for honest employment, idlers without number sauntered about the pavilion at all times and seasons, entering at pleasure, and monopolising chairs and tables with the insolent independence which forms one of their most prominent features. Supported by a long staff, the ruffians gazed for hours together at the novel splendour of the equipage; and invariably disfigured by a large quid of tobacco adulterated with ashes, squirted the redundant saliva over the carpet, although squatted on the outside of the door, with ample space at command. But although thieves by profession on a grand scale, they fortunately contrived to keep their hands from picking and stealing; and notwithstanding that the tents were thus thronged from morning till night, and the sea-beach for many weary days was strewed with boxes and bales of truly tempting exterior, nothing whatever was abstracted. The classic costume of the people of this sea-port consists of a white cotton robe, thrown carelessly over the shoulder, in the manner of the old Roman toga; a blue-checked kilt reaching to the knees, simply buckled about the waist by a leathern belt, which supports a most formidable creese, and a pair of rude undressed sandals to protect the feet of such as can afford the luxury. The plain round buckler and the broad-headed spear, without which few ever cross their threshold, renders the naturally graceful and manly figure of almost every individual a subject for the artist's pencil; but the population are to a man filthy in the extreme, and the accumulated dirt upon their persons and apparel leaves a taint behind, that might readily be traced without the intervention of a bloodhound. Rancid mutton fat, an inch thick, frosts a bushy wig of cauliflower growth, which harbours myriads of vermin. Under the melting rays of a tropical sun, the grease pours copiously over the skin; and the use of water, except as a beverage, being a thing absolutely unheard-of, a Dankali pollutes the atmosphere with an effluvium, such as is only to be encountered elsewhere in the purlieus of a tallow-chandler's shop. All are vain of scars, and desirous of displaying them; but little favour is shown for other outward ornament; and the miserly disposition which pervades the breast both of young and old, inducing an effort towards the concealment of property possessed, a paltry silver ring in the ear, a band of copper wire round the junction of the spear-blade with the shaft, or pewter mountings to the creese, form the sum total of decoration on the arms and persons even of the most extravagant. Fops in numbers are to be seen at Tajura, who have called in the aid of moist quick-lime towards the conversion of the naturally jet black peruke to a most atrocious foxy red--when judicious frizzing, and the insertion of the wooden skewer, used for scratching, completes the resemblance to a carriage mop. But this novel process of dyeing, so contrary to that employed by civilised beaux, is only in fashion among the Somauli, who, in common with the Danakil dandies, employ, in lieu of a down pillow, a small wooden bolster, shaped like a crutch, which receives the neck, and during the hours of presumed uncomfortable repose, preserves the periwig from derangement. Massy amulets in leathern envelopes, or entire Korans in quarto or octavo, are borne on the unpurified person of almost every individual; and the ancient Arab remedy of swallowing the water in which passages from the holy book have been washed from the board or paper whereon they were inscribed, is in universal repute, as a sovereign medicine for every ailment to which frail flesh is heir--the firm of Sultan, Wazir and Kazi, who alone possess the privilege of wearing turbans, holding the monopoly, and driving a most profitable trade by the preparation of this simple, but potent specific. Large doses of melted sheep's-tail fat are moreover swallowed on certain occasions; and a native Esculapius gave proof of the perfection to which the dentist's art has attained at Tajura, by dexterously detaching a carious tooth from the stubborn jaws of a submissive old woman, with the patent machinery of a rusty nail as a punch, struck with a heavy stone picked up on the sea-beach, where the operation was performed for the edification of the encampment. Applications were nevertheless frequent for European aid--a venerable priest numbering threescore years and ten, peremptorily demanding, in addition to a philter, the instantaneous removal of two obstinate cataracts, which had long dimmed his sight, and upon which he had vainly expended the teeth of half the mules in Tajura, roasted, and reduced to an impalpable powder. Education, to the extent of spelling the Koran, is general, and all speak Arabic as well as Dankali; the lore of the most learned being however restricted to a smattering of the holy book, with a very confused idea of numerals, and ability to endite a scraggy Arabic letter, which, when completed with infinite labour, the writer is often puzzled to decipher. To the immortal honour of the Sultan be it here recorded, that although the oldest male inhabitant of Tajura, he is a solitary instance of non-acquaintance with the alphabet. The swarthy cheek of every urchin who distinguishes himself by diligence or quickness, receives in token thereof, a dash of white chalk, a black streak in like manner disgracing the idle and stupid; but the pedagogue would appear to omit the residue of this oriental custom--the stuffing the mouths of the well-behaved with sugar-candy, which would doubtless prove a source of much greater enjoyment. In the evening the ingenuous youth of the town, each armed with a creese in case of quarrel, convene in numbers on the common, to play a game which combines hockey and football; the residue of their time being spent in angling, when the juvenile Walton stands up to the chin in the salt sea, and employing his head as a substitute for the reel, spins out a dozen yards of line in a truly fisherman-like manner. Numbers spent the period of their relaxation from study in gaping with the adults at the door of the pavilion, whilst the magic effect of the magnet was exhibited, or fire produced from the human mouth by means of a promethean, here emphatically denominated "the devil." The softer sex of Tajura, whilst young, possess a tolerable share of comeliness, and a pleasing expression withal; but they are speedily past the meridian of beauty. A close blue chemise, a plain leathern petticoat, or a cloth reaching to the ankles, and a liberal coat of lard over extravagantly braided ringlets, which are knotted with white beads, form the toilet of maid, wife, and widow. An occasional necklace of coloured beads falling over the sable bosom, a pendant of brass or silver wire of no ordinary dimensions in the ear, and large ivory bracelets or anklets, proclaim the besetting foible of the sex: but ornaments are by no means general. Mohammadan jealousy tends to the seclusion of the better order of females to a certain extent; but a marriage in high life, when the procession passed close to the encampment, afforded an opportunity not always enjoyed, of beholding the beauty and fashion of the place. The matrimonial shackles are here easily loosed; and the greater portion of the population being deeply engaged in the slave trade with the interior, have their rude houses filled with temporary wives, who are from time to time unceremoniously shipped for the Arabian market, in order that the funds accruing from the sale of their persons may be invested in new purchases. Agriculture there is none. Every man is a merchant, and waxes sufficiently rich on his extensive slave exportations, to import from other climes the produce he requires. An extensive traffic is carried on with Aussa and Abyssinia, in which nearly all are engaged at some period of the year. Indian and Arabian manufactures, pewter, zinc, copper and brass wire, beads, and salt in large quantities, are at these inland marts exchanged for slaves, grain, ivory, and other produce of the interior,--salt and human beings forming, however, the chief articles of barter. Virgin Mary German crowns of Maria Theresa, 1780, as integrals, and strips of raw hide for sandal soles, as fractionals, form the currency of the sea-port; beads, buttons, mirrors, trinkets, empty bottles, snuff, and tobacco, for which latter there is an universal craving, being also received in exchange for the necessaries of life. Avarice is the ruling passion--the salient point in the character of the Dankali. His whole soul is engrossed in amassing wealth, whilst he is by nature indolent and lazy, and would fain acquire riches without treading the laborious uphill path towards their attainment. Miserly in disposition, there is not an individual of the whole community, from the Sultan downwards, who would not infinitely prefer the present receipt of two pieces of silver, to a promissory note for twenty at the expiration of a week, upon the very best security. "Trees attain not to their growth in a single day," remarked Ali Shermarki, after remonstrating with the grasping ruler on his inordinate love of lucre--"take the tree as your text, and learn that property is only to be accumulated by slow degrees." "True," retorted the old miser--"but, Sheikh, you must have lost sight of the fact, that my leaves are already withered, and that if I would be rich I have not a moment to lose." Volume One, Chapter IX. FORETASTE OF DANAKIL KNAVERY. A share of thirty thousand German crowns, the annual profits accruing from the sale of three thousand human beings kidnapped in the interior, renders every native of Tajura a man of competent independence. It is not, therefore, surprising that the usual rates of transport hire, added to a knowledge of the exigencies of the Embassy, should have produced in this avaricious, but indolence-loving race, no particular desire to bestir themselves. All are camel-owners to a greater or less extent; but the presence of so many interested parties tended not a little to increase the difficulties inseparable from dealings with so listless and dilatory a set of savages--it being of course requisite to consult the advantage of all, to which, as might be conjectured, all are most feelingly alive. The ashes of ancient feuds were still smoking on the arrival of the British; and notwithstanding that it was matter of notoriety that the amount disbursed at the time of departure for Shoa, would be diminished in the exact ratio of the delay experienced--and although, to judge from the surface, affairs looked prosperous enough towards the speedy completion of carriage, there was ever an adverse under-current setting; and the apathy of the savage feeding upon listless delays, the party were doomed for a weary fortnight to endure the merciless heat of the Tajura sun, whose tardy departure was followed by a close muggy atmosphere, only occasionally alleviated by the bursting of a thunder-storm over the peak of Jebel Goodah, and to be perpetually deceived by the falsest promises, without being able to discover where to lay the blame. Bribes were lavished, increased hire acceded to, and camels repeatedly brought into the town; but day after day found the dupes to Danakil knavery still seated like shipwrecked mariners upon the shore, gazing in helpless melancholy at endless bales which strewed the strand, as if washed up by the waves of the fickle ocean. During this tedious detention, which, as the sun shone fiercer and the close nights grew hotter with the rapidly advancing season, waxed daily more irksome and insupportable, and even threatened to arrest the journey altogether, the most conflicting accounts were received from various interested parties, of the actual extent of the Sultan's jurisdiction, averred by himself to have no limits nearer than the frontier of Efat. His revenues were ascertained to be restricted to two hundred head of oxen, camels, sheep, and goats, paid annually by the adjacent Danakil tribes, and it was certain that he enjoyed circumscribed prerogatives, based upon ancient usage; but although nothing is done or undertaken, without his concurrence duly obtained, he possesses no discretion to punish disobedience of his will, and is precluded from acting in the most trivial matter without the consent in full conclave, of the majority of the chiefs. Possessing little or no power over his nominal subjects, he is merely a puppet, looked up to by the wild tribes as the head of the principal family--infirmity and utter imbecility of character rendering His Highness at the same time, little better than a laughing-stock. Faithless and rapacious, his insatiable avarice induced him to take every extortionate advantage of the helpless party at his mercy, whilst his tottering sway debarred him the power of reserving to himself the exclusive right of pillage. Private as well as public _kalams_ were daily held for hours at the sacred threshold of the mosque, during which new schemes of villainy and plunder were devised; and date leaves were indolently plaited by a host of apathetic legislators, as the propriety of permitting the departure inland of the Christian Kafirs was fully discussed and deliberated over with all the vicious bigotry of the Moslem zealot. In order to ascertain how far fraud and impertinence might be carried with impunity, a deputation of the artful elders beleaguered the pavilion during the dead of night, to complain, in no measured terms, that certain of the followers, regardless of orders, had been seen endeavouring, with beads and trinkets, to betray the virtue of females who drew water at the well--a tale which proved, on due inquiry instituted, to be, like other Danakil asseverations, devoid of the slightest truth or foundation. Not even a paltry water skin was to be purchased from a schoolboy under the disbursement of a silver _fuloos_, value four sterling shillings; and a courier, who had, at three times the established charge, been furnished on the security of the high and mighty Sultan, to convey to Ankober a letter advising the King of Shoa of the advent of the Embassy, was, after being three entire days and nights in possession of his ill-gotten wealth, discovered to be still snug within his mat-house, in the bosom of his family. The letter in question had fixed the day of departure, and had been written in the most public manner before the assembled chiefs, in order, if possible, to counteract in some measure the tissue of underplots hourly developing, and to demonstrate to the Danakil capacity, that, whether camels were forthcoming or not, the journey would positively be undertaken; and the nefarious detention of the document, after the receipt of such exorbitant hire, being perfectly in keeping with the outrageously unprincipled and underhand treatment experienced from the first moment of arrival, the Sultan was at last plainly informed that further shuffling and falsehood would avail him nothing; since, if carriage were not immediately furnished in accordance with the plausible agreement concluded, the heavy baggage would be reshipped for Cape Aden, and the party would advance in defiance of opposition, with ten camels that had been brought by sea from Zeyla, by the nephews of Sheikh Shermarki. Mohammad Ali, too, was now heart and hand in the cause, and his jealous rival, on receipt of this unpleasant intimation, began plainly enough to perceive that his guests were in right earnest, and that the golden opportunity of filling his coffers was passing rapidly away. The royal salute, fired alternately from the decks of the brig and the schooner, each tricked out in all her colours, with gay signal flags in honour of the natal day of her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, enveloped the town during forty minutes in a dense white smoke, accompanied by a most unpleasant smell of gunpowder; and during the entire day the beach in front of the British encampment wore the semblance of a disturbed ant-hill. European and native--master and servant--the latter from every nation under the sun, Arab, Persian, Nubian, Armenian, Egyptian, Syrian, Greek, and Portuguese,--all in a state of most active bustle, were selecting light baggage for the approaching departure; whilst crowds of oily savages, squatted on their hams, looked on in smiling apathy at the heaps of valuable commodities that were tossing about the sands. Twenty-one British officers subsequently sate down to dinner in the crimson pavilion, and the health of Queen Victoria having been given with nine times nine, another salute bursting from the sides of the vessels of war, shook the frail town to its foundations, and re-echoed long and loud among the mountain-glens-- flights of rockets ascending at short intervals to illumine the dark sky. The deafening din of the 32 pound stern chaser of the "Constance," which pointed directly towards the royal abode, proved too much for the nerves of the timid Sultan; and no sooner had the lights been extinguished, than his spectral figure, which ever shunned the day, glided into the tent unannounced, and ghostlike, muttered the agreeable intelligence that His Highness, after consulting the horoscope, and ascertaining beyond all doubt that the journey would prove propitious--a fact not previously determined--had come to the resolution, wise though late, of supplying the desired carriage without further delay, and deputing his own son as a safeguard through the tribes--services for which the apparition felt confident of receiving a suitable reward. The voice of the chieftains had become unanimous. At the last of a long succession of meetings convened for the purpose of taking the affair into full consideration, Abdool Rahman, the Kazi, in his capacity of lawgiver, had risen from his seat in the assembly, and ably demonstrated to his mat-weaving audience, why all animosities and heart-burnings must be sunk in the general object of making money, and getting rid as expeditiously as possible of a party of Kafirs, whose guns, unshotted, threatened the destruction of the mosque of the true believer, and the total demolition of Tajura. The Fatheh, being the first chapter of the holy Koran, was duly read, and the Danakil conclave with one voice vociferated a loud Ameen, even so let it be! Volume One, Chapter X. LONG ADIEU TO THE UNPRINCIPLED SULTAN. From this eventful epoch each sultry day did indeed bring a numerical accession to the beasts of burthen collected in the town; but they were owned of many and self-willed proprietors; were, generally speaking, of the most feeble description, melancholy contrasts to the gigantic and herculean dromedary of Egypt and Arabia; and no trifling delay was still in store through their arrival from distant pastures bare-backed, which involved the necessity of making up new furniture for the march. The Dankali saddle is fortunately a simple contrivance; a mat composed of plaited date leaves thrown over the hump, supporting four sticks lashed together in couples, and kept clear of the spinal process by means of two rollers as pads, having been proved by centuries of experience to be not more light than efficient. Accoutrements completed, and camels ready for the march, other provoking excuses for delay were not wanting, to fill, even to overflowing, the measure of annoyance. The demise of a nephew of the Sultan--the protracted funeral obsequies of the deceased-- and the almost nightly abstraction of one or more hired camels by the lurking Bedouin, all contributed their mite. At length however no further pretext could be devised, and nine loads being actually in motion towards Ambabo, the first halting ground on the road to the kingdom of Shoa, the schooner "Constance," getting under weigh, stood up the bay of Tajura, and cast anchor off the incipient camp, of which the position was denoted by a tall cluster of palms. Endless objections being now provokingly raised to the shape, size, and weight of the boxes to be transported, it next became requisite to reduce the dimensions of the greater number, in the progress of which operation it was discovered that the hurry of transhipment at Aden had resulted in the substitution of several dozens of choice marasquino, for a similar number of cases, of equal size, freighted with round shot for the galloper-guns. The work in hand was one of no ordinary labour and difficulty; and, after all, its completion proved insufficient to satisfy the parties. One blockhead complained that his load was heavier than his neighbour's, who had wisely risen earlier in the morning to make his selection; another, that his case, although confessedly light, was not of convenient size; one was too long, another not long enough, a third too deep, and a fourth too loosely packed. From earliest dawn, until final close of day, on a sandy beach, under a broiling sun, was this torment continued without intermission, until the 30th of May, when, by dint of coaxing, menacing, and bribing, every article had been removed saving an unwieldy hand-organ, at which every camel-owner had shaken his wig in turn, and a few stand of arms which had been removed from wooden cases, and repacked in mats and tarpaulins. A great hulking savage finally proposed to carry these latter, upon condition of their being transversely divided with a saw to suit the backs of his wretched hip-galled camels. "You are a tall man," quoth Aboo Bekr drolly, "suppose we shorten you by the legs?" "No, no," cried the barbarian, "I'm flesh and blood, and shall be spoiled." "So will the contents of these cases, you offspring of an ass," retorted the old pilot, "if you divide them." The almost insurmountable difficulties thus experienced in obtaining carriage, but now happily overcome, had so far delayed the advance of the Embassy, as to oblige it to cross the Tehama during the height of the fiery and unwholesome blast which, during the months of June and July, sweeps over that waterless tract from the south-west; and had moreover rendered it impossible to reach Abyssinia before the setting-in of the annual heavy rains, when the river Hawash becomes impassable for weeks together. Independently of the natural apathy of the camel-owning population, the fact of the season of all intercourse with the interior, by Kafilah, having already passed away, rendered every one averse, under any consideration of gain, to so hazardous a journey. Grain was to be carried for the consumption of horses and mules during the passage of arid regions, where, during the hot season, neither vegetation nor water exists; and the wells and pools having notoriously failed in every part of the road, during three consecutive seasons of unusual drought, it was necessary to entertain a large proportion of transport for a supply of water sufficient to last both man and beast for two and three days at a time; whilst, neither grass nor green food remaining near the sea-shore, the hundred and seventy camels now forming the caravan, had been individually assembled from various grazing grounds, many miles distant in the interior. A sufficient number of water-skins had fortunately been purchased at exorbitant prices to complete the equipment, together with mules for the conveyance of the European escort and artillery; and the greedy Sultan, besides receiving the lion's share of the profits on all, had sold his own riding beast for three times its worth in solid silver. But the forage brought over from Aden being long since consumed, the whole were fed upon dates, and to the latest moment the greatest difficulty continued to exist in regard to followers. The services of neither Dankali, Bedouin, nor Somauli, were obtainable at whatever wages; and the whole of the long train of live stock was consequently to be attended by a few worthless horse-keepers, enlisted at Aden, aided by a very limited number of volunteers from the shipping, whose indifferent characters gave ample promise of their subsequent misdeeds. On the departure of the last load, a general begging commenced on a grand scale, on the part of all who flattered themselves that they had in the most remote manner been so fortunate as to render assistance during the protracted sojourn of the Kafirs. Many, whose claims were far from being apparent, after confessing themselves satisfied _in propriis personis_, modestly urged demands on behalf of their still more worthless neighbours; and in order to have any chance of passing in safety to the mountains with so long a line of camels, it was only prudent to propitiate each and all of this predatory hosts of locusts, before entering upon their lawless country. With a feeling of pleasure akin to that experienced by Gil Blas, when he escaped from the robbers' cave, the party at length bade adieu to Tajura. Of all the various classes and denominations of men who inhabit the terrestrial globe, the half-civilised savages peopling this sea-port, are perhaps the most thoroughly odious and detestable. They have ingeniously contrived to lose every virtue wherewith the rude tribes to which they pertain, may once have been adorned; and having acquired nothing in exchange, save the vices of their more refined neighbours, the scale of abject degradation to which they are now reduced, can hardly descend lower. Under this sweeping and very just condemnation, the impotent Sultan, Mohammad ibn Mohammad, stands pre-eminently in relief; and the old miser's rapacity continuing unsated up to the very latest moment, he clutched his long staff betwixt his skinny fingers, and hobbled forth from his den, resolved to squeeze yet another hundred dollars as a parting memento from his British victims. The European escort were in the act of mounting the mules already harnessed to the galloper-gun, which he had vainly persuaded himself could never be transported from the coast, since no camel-owner consented to take it, and repeated attempts that he had witnessed to yoke a pair of oxen to the limbers had proved unsuccessful, even after their stubborn noses were pierced. But mule harness had been ably manufactured to meet the exigency, and when his lustreless eyes beheld the party in horse artillery order, firmly seated in their saddles, and moving along the strand towards Ambabo--forgetting the vile errand upon which he had come, he involuntarily exclaimed, "In the name of Allah and the holy Prophet, whither are those fellows going?" "_Raheen el Habesh_," "to Abyssinia," was the laconic reply that fell upon his astounded ears as the whips cracked merrily in succession; and His Highness was long after seen, still leaning on his slender crutch, and staring in idiotic vacancy after the departing cavalcade, as it disappeared under a cloud of dust from before his leaden gaze. Volume One, Chapter XI. INIQUITOUS PROCEEDINGS AT AMBABO, AND UNDERSTANDING WITH THE RAS EL KAFILAH. The tall masts of the schooner of war, raking above the belt of dwarf jungle that skirts the tortuous coast, served as a beacon to the new camp, the distance of which from the town of Tajura was less than four miles. A narrow footpath wound along the burning sands, across numerous water-courses from the impending mountain range of trachyte and porphyry, whose wooded base, thickly clothed with mimosa and _euphorbia antiquorum_, harboured swine, pigmy antelope, and guinea-fowl in abundance. Many large trees, uprooted by the wintry torrent, had been swept far out to sea, where in derision of the waves that buffet their dilapidated, stag-horn looking arms, they will long ride safely at anchor. The pelican of the wilderness soiled through the tossing surf, and files of Bedouin damsels, in greasy leathern petticoats, bending beneath a load of fuel from the adjacent hamlets, traversed the sultry strand; whilst a long train of wretched children, with streaming elf-like locks, who had been kidnapped in the unexplored interior, wended their weary way with a slave caravan, towards the sea-port, whence they were to be sold into foreign bondage. An avenue through the trees presently revealed the white tent, occupying a sequestered nook on the course of a mountain stream near its junction with the shore. Here horses and mules were doing their utmost, by diligently cropping the scanty tufts of sun-burnt grass, to repair their recent long abstinence from forage, whilst the abbreviated tails of those which had been improved by mutilation, formed the jest of a group of grinning savages. Clumps of lofty fan palms, and date trees loaded with ripe orange-coloured fruit, still screened from view the village of Ambabo, the straggling Gothic roofed wigwams composing which have the same waggon-like appearance as the huts of Tajura,--a similar style of architecture extending even to the unostentatious mosque, alone distinguishable from the surrounding edifices, by uncarved minarets of wood. Greasy ragamuffins still intruding, here continued their teasing persecutions, and Mohammad Mohammad, the son, though not the heir to the throne of the Sultan, having been specially appointed by his disreputable sire to the important post of reporter and spy, unceremoniously occupied one of the chairs, to the exclusion of the lawful proprietor during the entire day. He however proved useful in so far that he was versed in the chronicle of Ambabo. The Nakhuda of one of his uncle's buggalows having contrived a quarrel with a member of the tribe Hassoba, one of the manifold subdivisions of the Danakil, the man threw the gauntlet of defiance by cutting off the prow of the boat. Meeting shortly afterwards in deadly conflict, the insulted mariner slew his antagonist on the spot, and took refuge in the hills, until, tired of long concealment, and believing the affair to be consigned to oblivion, he ventured to settle with his family at Ambabo, and thus founded the present village; but after some years of repose, he was discovered by the relatives of the slain, and, as usual in all blood feuds, ultimately assassinated. Occupying a site proverbially unhealthy, and scourged during the rains by insupportable clouds of musquitoes, the miserable hamlet is but thinly peopled, and the Sheikh being on far from amicable terms with the authorities of Tajura, it is likely soon to be abandoned in favour of some more eligible location. A red savage, falsely representing himself to be one of the household of his Christian Majesty of Shoa, arrived during the afternoon from Ankober, with letters for Aden, and having safely deposited his packet on board the "Constance," was readily induced to return whence he came, with the Embassy. Deeni ibn Hamed, a liar of the first magnitude, but the only Dankali who had voluntarily attached himself to the fortunes of the party, conceiving the arrival of this courier to afford an opening for the exercise of his talents which ought on no account to be neglected, immediately proceeded to tax his lively ingenuity in disclosing the contents of a document which he pretended had been received from Sahela Selassie by the old ruffian from whose clutches his audience had just thankfully escaped; and the mass of gratuitous falsehoods that he contrived to string together with an unblushing front, must be admitted to reflect ample credit upon his fertile invention. Lying appeared in fact to be the chosen occupation of this youthful warrior, who, however, unlike the mass of his compatriots, did possess some redeeming qualities, though they were by no means so conspicuous as his scars. The insuperable aversion to veracity which he evinced on every occasion, renders it difficult to determine what degree of credit may be attached to the tragic tale that he was pleased to connect with a deep gash over the temple, which distorted his vision; and if not received in a less honourable _rencontre_ than he pretended, affords another to the ten thousand instances on record of the savage rancour with which blood feuds are prosecuted. "My maternal uncle, and a native of Zeyla," said Deeni, "becoming embroiled, mutually unsheathed their creeses in mortal strife, fought desperately, and died. The brother of the latter sought my life in revenge, as being the nearest of kin; but after receiving this slash upon my forehead, and another on my arm, which I shall also carry to the grave, I closed, stabbed the Somauli villain to the heart with this good creese, and, glory be to God I divided his windpipe with his own sword." Profiting by the amiable example of the illustrious ruler of Tajura, the Sheikh of Ambabo, a most notable extortioner, resolved to put his chum to a sum of ready money beyond a shadow of doubt, placed a strong Bedouin guard over the only well; and although he had every reason to be satisfied with the success of his nefarious schemes, he did not possess sufficient gratitude to prevent the commission of a robbery during the night, which might have proved more serious than it did. Solace under all misfortunes and annoyances was, however, found in the arrival of Mohammad Ali on the 31st, with a welcome accession of camels for the carriage of water, which rendered certain the prospect of departure on the morrow, it having been distinctly promised by the Sultan, in return for a handsome pecuniary consideration, that his brother Izhak, who had been unanimously appointed Ras el Kafilah, his son, his nephew, and seven other persons of undoubted influence on the road, should be in readiness without fail, to escort the Embassy on the 1st of June, and that the reward of their services should be paid, _ad valorem_, upon safe arrival within the kingdom of Shoa. Three hours after midnight, the galloper-gun, fired within the limits of the British camp as a summons to the drowsy camel-drivers to be up and doing, was echoed, according to previous agreement, by the long stern chaser of the "Constance,"--a signal to the "Euphrates," still anchored off Tajura, to thunder a farewell salute as the day dawned. The work of loading was merrily commenced--the tent went down--and camel after camel moved off towards Dullool; when, on the departure of the last string, it was observed with dismay that the ground was still strewed with baggage, for which carriage had unquestionably been paid and entertained, but for which none was forthcoming. The greasy proprietors were, after some search, discovered below the bushes, engaged in the operation of jerking mutton,--a process sufficiently nauseous in itself to repel any close advance; but persuasion and threats proved alike unavailing. Some had already sent their camels to graze at a distance; others insolently expressed their intention of doing so after the completion of their interesting work, and by far the greater number would vouchsafe no explanation whatever. At length the provoking riddle was solved by the arrival of a peremptory message from the Sultan, naming the price of the attendance of his brother with the promised escort, and modestly requesting that the amount might forthwith be disbursed, or the bargain must be considered null and void! In this awkward dilemma, one of the party was immediately despatched to create a diversion among the Philistines, and to remonstrate against so gross a breach of good faith; whilst the residue, awaiting his tardy return, passed the sultry day beneath the mock shelter afforded by a low date bush, shifting position with the deceitful shadow, which, before any further tidings were received of the delinquent old Sultan and his ungovernable myrmidons, was cast full on the eastern side. At length the anxiously straining eye was relieved by the appearance of the messenger on his way back. After a world of trouble, he had succeeded in hunting out some of the elders, who, however, would only consent to accompany him on the payment of every stuiver of the demand made in the morning, and, quietly possessed of the dollars, they had thought proper to detain the escort. Izhak, backed by Ibrahim Shehem, the most renowned warrior in the next ten tribes, sat as orator on the occasion. The demeanour of the Ras bordered closely on the insolent. A heavy load of impudence could be detected under his broad pudding face; and his desire to be impertinent was favoured in no small degree by the presence of heaps of valuable baggage lying at his mercy upon the ground. The deputation was received quite as coldly as their dishonest and most provoking behaviour demanded; a silence of several minutes affording to each, leisure to pick out his curly locks, and cool himself a little, the whole having walked out in the broiling sun, and become considerably excited withal. Distant inquiries were at length instituted relative to the august health of the Sultan and the royal family, which were stiffly responded to after the current Dankali fashion, "Hamdu-lillah," "thanks be unto God!" The conference then opened with a bluster concerning the movement of the Kafilah from Ambabo without the presence, order, or consent of the Ras, who, after sneering at the attempt as a most unprecedented proceeding, and indulging in a very gratuitous _tirade_ against Mohammad Ali, whom he styled in derision "the supplier of water," and was anxious to make appear the only culprit on the occasion, added, in conclusion, that his own being "a house of mourning," he had given up his intention of proceeding to Abyssinia, and had finally resolved to wash his hands of the business. He was gravely answered that the caravan had started upon express orders given in consequence of a distinct understanding and pledge, purchased the preceding day of the Sultan and himself. He was reminded that every hire and remuneration for camels, guides, and escort, exorbitant though they were, had been paid in full at Tajura; and was distinctly informed that if the terms of the agreement were not fully complied with, ere the night fell, the property of the British Government would be left on the ground, where it then lay, whilst the Embassy proceeded to Dullool, off which place the "Constance" had already anchored, reshipped all the baggage that had been sent to the advance camp, and set sail for Aden. It was further added, that as the consequences of this step would rest upon the head of those who had entered into an express engagement, upon receipt of whatever terms they had demanded as the price of their services, it should be borne in mind that further offensive and unprincipled demonstrations might terminate in unpleasant results. As the interpreter proceeded to unfold this high-toned remonstrance, Izhak was seen to fidget uneasily upon his hams, whilst he sought to conceal his agitation by tracing figures on the sand; and, as the last intimation fell upon his ear, seizing his sandal, he relieved his excited feelings by shovelling a pointed stick through the very centre of the leather. But the swaggering air which he had assumed had now entirely disappeared, and, after a hurried whispering consultation with his confederates, he declared that he had been toiling day and night in the service of the English; that he was perfectly ready to perform every thing required of him, and that, notwithstanding the recent calamity with which his family had been visited, and the dangerous illness of his mother, he would escort the Embassy in person, with trustworthy colleagues; that he would be responsible for all the property left at Ambabo, and only petition for two days' grace to put his house in order before repairing to Dullool. This point being tardily accorded, he rose with Ali Shermarki, who had ridden in as mediator during the heat of the conference, and each offering his hand, in earnest of the matter being finally and amicably concluded in full accordance with the original stipulations of the covenant, set out on his return to Tajura. Volume One, Chapter XII. DULLOOL--THE RAS UNPLEASANTLY REMINDED OF HIS PLEDGE--SAGALLO AND WARELISSAN. Izhak's absent camels, which had been kept close at hand pending the issue of this stormy debate, being now brought in, the ground was speedily cleared of the remaining baggage; and satisfied with the specious assurance of the Ras el Kafilah, that he would on no account tarry beyond nightfall of the following day, the party, relieved from their anxiety, mounted after five o'clock, and galloped seven miles along the sea-beach to the camp at Dullool,--the loose sand being so perforated and undermined in every part by the hermit crab, as to render the sieve-like road truly treacherous and unpleasant. The grassy nook occupied by the tent was situated at the abutment of a spur from the wooded Jebel Goodah, evidently of volcanic origin, which gradually diminishes in height, until it terminates, one hundred yards from the shore, in a thick jungle of tamarisk and acacia, the former covered with salt crystals. Hornblende, in blocks, was scattered along the beach, and, wherever decomposed, it yielded fine glittering black sand, so heated under the noontide sun as to burn the naked foot. The movable camp of a horde of roving Bedouin shepherds, who, with very slender habitations, possess no fixed abode, was erected near the wells; and a quarrel with the followers, respecting the precious element, having already led to the drawing of creeses, silver was again in requisition to allay the impending storm. The heat on the 2nd of June was almost insupportable; but the sultry day proved one of greater quiet than had fallen to the lot of the Embassy since its first landing. Late in the evening, when a cool sea-breeze had set in, Ali Shermarki rode into camp, and delivered a letter which had been slipped into his hand by the Sultan, appealing against the hardship of being left without remuneration for his diligent services, praying that his old heart might be made glad, and hoping that all might meet again ere death should call them--a wish responded to by no single individual of the British party. Neither Izhak nor any of his followers made their appearance, notwithstanding that the redemption of the solemn promise passed was anxiously watched until midnight. At gun-fire the next morning, however, the arrival of the whole being reported, orders were issued to strike the tent, a measure which was doggedly opposed by the Ras el Kafilah, whose brow again darkened as he declared his resolution not to stir from Dullool until three of his camels, which were said to have strayed, should be recovered; and deaf alike to remonstrance or entreaty, he finally withdrew to a distance, taking his seat in sullen mood beneath a tree. The schooner had meanwhile fished her anchor, and was now getting under weigh for the purpose of standing up within range of the next halting ground. The mules were harnessed to the gun, and the tent and baggage packed. Ali Shermarki was deputed to acquaint Izhak with these facts, and to intimate firmly, that unless the order to load were given without another moment's delay, minute guns would be fired as a signal to bring up the brig from Tajura, when the promise made yesterday by the English would be found more binding than those of the Danakil had hitherto proved. This menace had the desired effect, and after three hours of needless detention, the party commenced its third hot march along the sea-beach, whence the hills gradually recede. Bedouin goat-herds occupied many wells of fresh water, which were denoted by clumps of date trees entwined by flowering convolvuli, whose matted tendrils fix the movable sands of the shore; and late in the forenoon the camp was formed at the pool of Sagallo, only three miles from the former ground, but affording the last supply of water to be obtained for thirty more. An extensive and beautiful prospect of the western portion of the Bay of Tajura had now opened, bound in on all sides by a zone of precipitous mountains, in which the gate leading into Goobut el Kharab was distinctly marked by a low black point, extending from the northern shore. The schooner's services were volunteered to admit of a nearer inspection of the "basin of foulness;" but no sooner had she stood out to sea than signal guns fired from the camp announced the arrival of another packet from Shoa. The courier had been forty-four days on the journey, and the tidings he brought respecting the road, although highly satisfactory, added yet another instance to the many, of the small reliance that can be placed on information derived from the Danakil, who, even when disinterested, can rarely indeed be induced to utter a word of truth. The strong party feeling entertained towards Mohammad Ali by the magnates of Tajura, now vented itself in divers evil-minded and malicious hints, insinuating the defection of the absentee, who had been unavoidably detained by business, some hours after the last of the sea-port heroes had joined. "Where now is your friend Ali Mohammad?" "Where is the man who was to supply water on the road?" were the taunting interrogatories from the mouths of many; but come the son of Ali Abi did, to the confusion of his slanderers, long ere the sun had set, bringing secret intelligence that he had sent to engage an escort from his own tribe; and the whole party being now at last assembled, it was resolved in full conclave, that as not a drop of water could be procured for three stages in advance, the entire of the next day should be devoted to filling up the skins, which done, the caravan should resume its march by night--a manoeuvre that savoured strongly of a design to favour the clandestine return to Tajura of certain of the escort, who had still domestic affairs to settle. Thus far the conduct of the son of the Rookhba chief had formed a notable contrast to the proceedings of his backbiters. Whilst Izhak and his stubborn partisans had positively declined to move according to their agreement, unless a further most extravagant and unconscionable sum were paid in advance for their anticipated services, and had altogether assumed a bullying tone, coupled with a most impertinent and overbearing demeanour, this scion of a savage house that holds in its hands the avenues betwixt Shoa and Tajura, and could at pleasure cut off communication with the coast, had never applied for aught save a trifling sum for the present maintenance of his family, and since the first _eclaircissement_, had, to the best of his ability, striven to render himself useful and agreeable to the party about to pass through his country. A most unprofitable discussion, which was prolonged until eleven the following night, had for its object to persuade the transmission of baggage in advance to the Salt Lake, in consequence of the carried supply of water being, after all, considered insufficient for three days' consumption. But the proposal was negatived upon prudent grounds, the honesty of the intentions by which it had been dictated, seeming at best, extremely questionable, and no one feeling disposed to trust the faithless guides further than they could be seen, with property of value. Scarcely were the weary eyes of the party closed in sleep, than the long 32-pounder of the "Constance," proclaiming the midnight hour, sounded to boot and saddle. The Babel-like clamour of loading was at length succeeded by a lull of voices, and the rumbling of the galloper wheels over the loose shingle, was alone heard in the still calm of the night, above the almost noiseless tread of the cushion-footed camels, which formed an interminable line. The road, lit by the full moon, shining brightly overhead, lay for the first two or three miles along the beach, and then, crossing numerous water-courses, struck over the southern shoulder of Jebel Goodah, the distance from whose lofty peak each march had reduced. Blocks and boulders varying in size from an 18 pound shot, to that of Ossa piled upon Pelion, aided by deep chasms, gullies, and waterways, rendering the ascent one of equal toil and peril, cost the life of a camel, which fell over a precipice and dislocated the spine; whereupon the conscientious proprietor, disdaining to take further heed of the load, abandoned it unscrupulously by the wayside. Galeylafeo, a singular and fearful chasm which was navigated in the first twilight, did not exceed sixty feet in width; its gloomy, perpendicular walls of columnar lava, towering one hundred and fifty feet overhead, and casting a deep deceitful shadow over the broken channel, half a mile in extent. Deeni, in his customary strain of amplification, had represented this frightful pass to be entered through a trap-door, in order to clear which it was necessary for a loaded camel to forget its staid demeanour, and bound from rock to rock like a mountain kid. The devil and all his angels were represented to hold midnight orgies in one of the most dismal of the many dark recesses; and the belief was fully confirmed by the whooping of a colony of baboons, disturbed by the wheels of the first piece of ordnance that had ever attempted the bumping passage. Dawn disclosed the artillery mules in such wretched plight from their fatiguing night's labour, that it was found necessary to unlimber the gun, and place it with its carriage on the back of an Eesah camel of Herculean strength, provided for the contingency by the foresight of Mohammad Ali; and although little pleased during the imposition of its novel burthen, the animal, rising without difficulty, moved freely along at a stately gait. The same uninteresting volcanic appearance characterised the entire country to the table-land of Warelissan, a distance of twelve miles. Dreary and desolate, without a trace of vegetation saving a few leafless acacias, there was no object to relieve the gaze over the whole forbidding expanse. In this barren unsightly spot the radiation was early felt from the masses of black cindery rock, which could not be touched with impunity. The sand soil of the desert reflecting the powerful beams of the sun, lent a fearful intensity to the heat, whilst on every side the dust rose in clouds that at one moment veiled the caravan from sight, and at the next left heads of camels tossing in the inflamed atmosphere among the bright spear-blades of the escort. But on gaining the highest point, a redeeming prospect was afforded in an unexpected and most extensive bird's eye view of the estuary of Tajura, now visible in all its shining glory, from this, its western boundary. Stretching away for miles in placid beauty, its figure was that of a gigantic hour-glass; and far below on its glassy bosom were displayed the white sails of the friendly little schooner, as, after safely navigating the dangerous and much-dreaded portals of Scylla and Charybdis, never previously braved by any craft larger than a jolly boat--bellying to the breeze, she beat gallantly up to the head of Goobut el Kharab. Volume One, Chapter XIII. GLOOMY PASSAGE OF RAH EESAH, THE DESCENSUS AD INFEROS. Although Warelissan proved nearly seventeen hundred feet above the level of the blue water, a suffocating south-westerly wind, which blew throughout the tedious day, rendered the heat more awfully oppressive than at any preceding station. The camp, unsheltered, occupied a naked tract of table-land, some six miles in circumference, on the shoulder of Jebel Goodah--its barren surface strewed with shining lava, and bleached animal bones; sickly acacias of most puny growth, sparingly invested with sun-burnt leaves, here and there struggling through the fissures, as if to prove the utter sterility of the soil; whilst total absence of water, and towering whirlwinds of dust, sand, and pebbles, raised by the furnace-like puffs that came stealing over the desert landscape, completed the discomfiture both of man and beast. During the dead of night, when restless unrefreshing slumbers on the heated ground had hushed the camp in all its quarters, the elders, in great consternation, brought a report that the Bedouin war-hawks, who nestle in the lap of the adjacent wild mountains, were collecting in the neighbourhood with the design of making a sudden swoop upon the kafilah, for which reason the European escort must be prepared for battle, and muskets be discharged forthwith, to intimidate the lurking foe. They were informed, in reply, that all slept upon their arms, and were in readiness; but Mohammad Ali came shortly afterwards to announce that matters had been amicably adjusted with the aid of a few ells of blue cloth; and under the care of a double sentry, the party slept on without further disturbance until two in the morning, prior to which hour, the moon, now on her wane, had not attained sufficient altitude to render advance practicable. The aid of her pale beams was indispensable, in consequence of the existence of the yawning pass of Rah Eesah, not one hundred yards distant from the encampment just abandoned, but till now unperceived. It derives its appellation, as "the road of the Eesahs," from the fact of this being the path usually chosen by that hostile portion of the Somauli nation, on the occasions of their frequent forays into the country of the Danakil, with whom, singularly enough, an outward understanding subsists. Its depths have proved the arena of many a sanguinary contest, and are said, after each downpouring of the heavens, to become totally impassable, until again cleared of the huge blocks of stone, the detritus from the scarped cliffs, which so choke the bed of the chasm, as to impede all progress. The labour of removing these, secures certain immunities to the wild pioneers, who levy a toll upon every passing caravan, and who in this instance were propitiated, on application, by the division of a bale of blue cotton calico, a manufacture here esteemed beyond all price. A deep zig-zagged rent in the plateaux, produced originally by some grand convulsion of nature, and for ages the channel of escape to the sea of the gathered waters from Jebel Goodah, winds like a mythological dragon through the bowels of the earth, upwards of three miles to the southward. Masses of basalt of a dark burnt brown colour, are piled perpendicularly on either side, like the solid walls of the impregnable fortresses reared by the Cyclops of old; and rising from a very narrow channel, strewed with blocks of stone, and huge fallen fragments of rock, tower overhead to the height of five or six hundred feet. One perilous path affords barely sufficient width for a camel's tread, and with a descensus of one foot and a half in every three, leads twisting away into the gloomy depths below, dedicated to the son of Chaos and Darkness, and now plunged in total obscurity. It was a bright and cloudless night, and the scenery, as viewed by the uncertain moonlight, cast at intervals in the windings of the road upon the glittering spear-blades of the warriors, was wild and terrific. The frowning basaltic cliffs, not three hundred yards from summit to summit, flung an impenetrable gloom over the greater portion of the frightful chasm, until, as the moon rose higher in the clear vault of heaven, she shone full upon huge shadowy masses, and gradually revealed the now dry bed, which in the rainy season must often-times become a brief but impetuous torrent. No sound was heard save the voice of the camel-driver, coaxing his stumbling beasts to proceed by the most endearing expressions. In parts where the passage seemed completely choked, the stepping from stone to stone, accomplished with infinite difficulty, was followed by a drop leap, which must have shaken every bone. The gun was twice shifted to the back of a spare camel, provided for the purpose; and how the heavily-laden, the fall of one of which would have obstructed the way to those that followed, kept their feet, is indeed subject of profound astonishment. All did come safely through, however, notwithstanding the appearance of sundry wild Bedouins, whose weapons and matted locks gleamed in the moonbeam, as their stealthy figures flitted in thin tracery from crag to crag. A dozen resolute spirits might have successfully opposed the united party; but these hornets of the mountains, offering no molestation, contented themselves with reconnoitring the van and rear-guards from heights inaccessible through their natural asperity, until the twilight warned them to retire to their dens and hiding places; and ere the sun shone against the summits of the broken cliffs, the straggling caravan had emerged in safety from this dark descent to Eblis. Goobut el Kharab, with the singular sugar-loaf islet of Good Ali, shortly opened to view for the last time, across black sheets of lava, hardened in their course to the sea, and already rotten near the water's edge. Many years have not elapsed since the Eesah made their latest foray to the north of the pass, which has since borne their name; and sweeping off immense booty in cattle, halted on their return at Eyroladaba, above the head of the bay. Under cover of the pitchy darkness, five hundred Danakil warriors, passing silently through the gloomy defile, fell suddenly in the dead of night upon the marauders, when, in addition to the multitude slain by the spear and creese, numbers in the panic created by the surprise, leapt in their flight over the steep lava cliffs, and perished in the deep waters of the briny basin. The schooner, although riding safely at anchor near the western extremity, was altogether concealed by precipitous walls that towered above her raking masts, and kept the party in uncertainty of her arrival. Crossing the lone valley of Marmoriso, a remnant of volcanic action, rent and seamed with gaping fissures, the road turned over a large basaltic cone, which had brought fearful devastation upon the whole surrounding country, and here one solitary gazelle browsed on stubble-like vegetation scorched to a uniform brown. Skirting the base of a barren range, covered with heaps of lava blocks, and its foot ornamented with many artificial piles, marking deeds of blood, the lofty conical peak of Jebel Seearo rose presently to sight, and not long afterwards the far-famed Lake Assal, surrounded by dancing mirage, was seen sparkling at its base. The first glimpse of the strange phenomenon, although curious, was far from pleasing. An elliptical basin, seven miles in its transverse axis, half filled with smooth water of the deepest caerulean blue, and half with a solid sheet of glittering snow-white salt, the offspring of evaporation--girded on three sides by huge hot-looking mountains, which dip their bases into the very bowl, and on the fourth by crude half-formed rocks of lava, broken and divided by the most unintelligible chasms,--it presented the appearance of a spoiled, or at least of a very unfinished piece of work. Bereft alike of vegetation and of animal life, the appearance of the wilderness of land and stagnant water, over which a gloomy silence prevailed, and which seemed a temple for ages consecrated to drought, desolation, and sterility, is calculated to depress the spirit of every beholder. No sound broke on the ear; not a ripple played upon the water; the molten surface of the lake, like burnished steel, lay unruffled by a breeze; the fierce sky was without a cloud, and the angry sun, like a ball of metal at a white heat, rode triumphant in a full blaze of noontide refulgence, which in sickening glare was darted back on the straining vision of the fainting wayfarer, by the hot sulphury mountains that encircled the still, hollow, basin. A white foam on the shelving shore of the dense water, did contrive for a brief moment to deceive the eye with an appearance of motion and fluidity; but the spot, on more attentive observation, ever remained unchanged--a crystallised efflorescence. As the tedious road wound on over basalt, basaltic lava, and amygdaloid, the sun, waxing momentarily more intensely powerful, was reflected with destructive and stifling fervour from slates of snow-white sea-limestone borne on their tops. Still elevated far above the level of the ocean, a number of fossil shells, of species now extinct, were discovered; a deep cleft by the wayside, presenting the unequivocal appearance of the lower crater of a volcano, situated on the high basaltic range above, whence the lava stream had been disgorged through apertures burst in the rocks, but which had re-closed after the violence of the eruption had subsided. Dafari, a wild broken chasm at some distance from the road, usually contains abundance of rain-water in its rocky pool, but having already been long drained to the dregs, it offered no temptation to halt. Another most severe and trying declivity had therefore to be overcome, ere the long and sultry march was at an end. It descended by craggy precipices many hundred feet below the level of the sea, to the small close sandy plain of Mooya, on the borders of the Lake--a positive _Jehannam_, where the gallant captain of the "Constance" [Lieutenant Wilmot Christopher, I N] had already been some hours ensconced under the leafless branches of one poor scrubby thorn, which afforded the only screen against the stifling blast of the sirocco, and the merciless rays of the refulgent orb overhead. Adyli, a deep mysterious cavern at the further extremity of the plain, is believed by the credulous to be the shaft leading to a subterranean gallery which extends to the head of Goobut el Kharab. Deeni, most expert and systematic of liars, even went so far as to assert that he had seen through it the waters of the bay, although he admitted it to be the abode of "gins and efreets," whose voices are heard throughout the night, and who carry off the unwary traveller to devour him without remorse. The latest instance on record was of one Shehem, who was compelled by the weariness of his camel to fall behind the caravan, and, when sought by his comrades, was nowhere to be found, notwithstanding that his spear and shield had remained untouched. No tidings of the missing man having been obtained to the present hour, he is believed by his disconsolate friends to have furnished a meal to the gins in Adyli; but it seems not improbable that some better clue to his fate might be afforded by the Adrusi, an outcast clan of the Debeni, acknowledging no chief, though recognising in some respects the authority of the Sultan of Tajura, and who wander over the country for evil, from Sagallo to the Great Salt Lake. Foul-mouthed vampires and ghouls were alone wanting to complete the horrors of this accursed spot, which, from its desolate position, might have been believed the last stage in the habitable world. A close mephitic stench, impeding respiration, arose from the saline exhalations of the stagnant lake. A frightful glare from the white salt and limestone hillocks threatened destruction to the vision; and a sickening heaviness in the loaded atmosphere, was enhanced rather than alleviated by the fiery breath of the parching north-westerly wind, which blew without any intermission during the entire day. The air was inflamed, the sky sparkled, and columns of burning sand, which at quick intervals towered high into the dazzling atmosphere, became so illumined as to appear like tall pillars of fire. Crowds of horses, mules, and fetid camels, tormented to madness by the dire persecutions of the poisonous gad-fly, flocked recklessly with an instinctive dread of the climate, to share the only bush; and obstinately disputing with their heels the slender shelter it afforded, compelled several of the party to seek refuge in noisome caves formed along the foot of the range by fallen masses of volcanic rock, which had become heated to a temperature seven times in excess of a potter's kiln, and fairly baked up the marrow in the bones. Verily! it was "an evil place," that lake of salt: it was "no place of seed, nor of figs, nor yet of vines; no, nor even of pomegranates; neither was there any water to drink." Volume One, Chapter XIV. FEARFUL SUFFERINGS IN THE PANDEMONIUM OF BAHR ASSAL. In this unventilated and diabolical hollow, dreadful indeed were the sufferings in store both for man and beast. Not a drop of fresh water existed within many miles; and, notwithstanding that every human precaution had been taken to secure a supply, by means of skins carried upon camels, the very great extent of most impracticable country to be traversed, which had unavoidably led to the detention of nearly all, added to the difficulty of restraining a multitude maddened by the tortures of burning thirst, rendered the provision quite insufficient; and during the whole of this appalling day, with the mercury in the thermometer standing at 126 degrees under the shade of cloaks and umbrellas--in a suffocating Pandemonium, depressed five hundred and seventy feet below the ocean, where no zephyr fanned the fevered skin, and where the glare arising from the sea of white salt was most painful to the eyes; where the furnace-like vapour exhaled, almost choking respiration, created an indomitable thirst, and not the smallest shade or shelter existed, save such as was afforded, in cruel mockery, by the stunted boughs of the solitary leafless acacia, or, worse still, by black blocks of heated lava, it was only practicable, during twelve tedious hours, to supply to each of the party two quarts of the most mephitic brick-dust-coloured fluid, which the direst necessity could alone have forced down the parched throat, and which, after all, far from alleviating thirst, served materially to augment its insupportable horrors. It is true that since leaving the shores of India, the party had gradually been in training towards a disregard of dirty water--a circumstance of rather fortunate occurrence. On board a ship of any description the fluid is seldom very clean, or very plentiful. At Cape Aden there was little perceptible difference betwixt the sea-water and the land water. At Tajura the beverage obtainable was far from being improved in quality by the taint of the new skins in which it was transferred from the only well; and now, in the very heart of the scorching Tehama, when a copious draught of _aqua pura_ seemed absolutely indispensable every five minutes, to secure further existence upon earth, the detestable mixture that was at long intervals most parsimoniously produced, was the very acme of abomination. Fresh hides stripped from the rank he-goat, besmeared inside as well as out with old tallow and strong bark tan, filled from an impure well at Sagallo, tossed, tumbled, and shaken during two entire nights on a camel's back, and brewed during the same number of intervening days under a strong distilling heat--poured out an amalgamation of pottage of which the individual ingredients of goat's hair, rancid mutton fat, astringent bark, and putrid water, were not to be distinguished. It might be smelt at the distance of twenty yards, yet all, native and European, were struggling and quarrelling for a taste of the recipe. The crest-fallen mules, who had not moistened their cracked lips during two entire days, crowding around the bush, thrust their hot noses into the faces of their masters, in reproachful intimation of their desire to participate in the filthy but tantalising decoction; and deterred with difficulty from draining the last dregs, they ran frantically with open mouths to seek mitigation of their sufferings at the deceptive waters of the briny lake, which, like those of Goobut el Kharab, were so intensely salt, as to create smarting of the lips if tasted. Slowly flapped the leaden wings of Time on that dismal day. Each weary hour brought a grievous accession, but no alleviation, to the fearful torments endured. The stagnation of the atmosphere continued undiminished; the pangs of thirst increased, but no water arrived; and the sun's despotic dominion on the meridian, appeared to know no termination. At four o'clock, when the heat was nothing abated, distressing intelligence was received that one of the seamen, who during the preceding night had accompanied the captain of the schooner-of-war from Goobut el Kharab, and had unfortunately lost his way, could nowhere be found--the gunner, with six men, having long painfully searched the country side for their lost messmate, but to no purpose; Abroo, the son of whom old Aboo Bekr was justly proud, and who was indeed the flower of his tribe, immediately volunteered to go in quest of the missing sailor, and he subsequently returned with the cheering intelligence that his efforts had been crowned with success. Overwhelmed by heat and thirst, the poor fellow, unable to drag his exhausted limbs further, had crept for shelter into a fissure of the heated lava, where he had soon sunk into a state of insensibility. Water, and the use of a lancet, with which the young midshipman who heroically accompanied the exploring party had been provided, restored suspended animation sufficiently to admit of his patient being conveyed on board the "Constance" alive; but, alas! he never reached Tajura; neither did one of the brave tars who sought their lost comrade under the fierce rays of the sun, nor indeed did any of the adventurous expedition, escape without feeling, in after severe illness, the unwholesome influence upon the human constitution of that waste and howling wilderness. But the longest day must close at last, and the great luminary had at length run his fiery and tyrannical course. String after string of loaded camels, wearied with the passage of the rugged defile of Rah Eesah, were with infinite difficulty urged down the last steep declivity, and at long intervals, as the shadows lengthened, made their tardy appearance upon the desert plain; those carrying water, tents, and the greater portion of the provisions most required, being nevertheless still in the rear when the implacable orb went down, shorn of his last fierce ray. The drooping spirits of all now rose with the prospect of speedy departure from so fearful a spot. The commander of the friendly schooner, which had proved of such inestimable service, but whose protecting guns were at length to be withdrawn, shortly set out on his return to the vessel with the last despatches from the Embassy, after bidding its members a final farewell; and in order to obtain water, any further deprivation of which must have involved the dissolution of the whole party, no less than to escape from the pestilential exhalations of the desolate lake, which, as well during the night as during the day, yielded up a blast like that curling from a smith's forge--withering to the human frame--it was resolved as an unavoidable alternative, to leave the baggage to its fate, and to the tender mercies of guides and camel-drivers, pushing forward as expeditiously as possible to Goongoonteh, a cleft in the mountains that bound the opposite shore, wherein water was known to be abundant. Pursuant to this determination, the European escort, with the servants, followers, horses, and mules, were held in readiness to march so soon as the moon should rise above the gloomy lava hills, sufficiently to admit of the path being traced which leads beyond the accursed precincts of a spot, fitly likened by the Danakil to the infernal regions. Dismal, deadly, and forbidding, but deeply interesting in a geological point of view, its overwhelming and paralysing heat precluded all possibility of minute examination, and thus researches were of necessity confined to the general character of the place. Latitude, longitude, and level were however accurately determined [These will be found in the Appendix, Number One], and many were the theories ventured, to account for so unusual a phenomenon. Obviously the result of earthquake and volcanic eruption--a chaos vomited into existence by "Th' infuriate hill that shoots the pillar'd flame," Dame Nature must indeed have been in a most afflicting throe to have given birth to a progeny so monstrous; and there being no locality to which the most vivid fancy could assign aught that ever bore the name of wealth or human population, little doubt can exist that the sea must have been repelled far from its former boundaries. The oviform figure of the bowl, hemmed in on three sides by volcanic mountains, and on the fourth by sheets of lava, would at the first glance indicate the site of an extensive crater, whose cone having fallen into a subterranean abyss, had given rise to the singular appearance witnessed. But it is a far more probable hypothesis that the Bahr Assal, now a dead sea, formed at some very remote period a continuation of the Gulf of Tajura, and was separated from Goobut el Kharab by a stream of lava six miles in breadth, subsequently upheaved by subterranean action, and now forming a barrier, which, from its point of greatest elevation, where the traces of many craters still exist, gradually slopes eastward towards the deep waters of the bay, and westward into the basin of the Salt Lake. Whilst no soundings are found in the estuary of Tajura, Goobut el Kharab gives one hundred and fifteen fathoms, or six hundred and ninety feet; and premising the depression of the lake to have been formerly correspondent therewith, one hundred and twenty feet may be assumed as its present depth. To this it has been reduced by the great annual evaporation that must take place--an evaporation decreasing every year as the salt solution becomes more intensely concentrated, and evinced by the saline incrustation on the surface no less than by a horizontal efflorescence, in strata, at a considerable height on the face of the circumjacent rocks. In the lapse of years, should the present order of things continue undisturbed from below, the water win probably disappear altogether, leaving a field of rock salt, which, when covered in by the debris washed down from the adjacent mountains, will form an extensive depot for the supply of Danakil generations yet unborn; and the shocks of earthquakes being still occasionally felt in the neighbourhood, it seems not improbable--to carry the speculation still further--that Goobut el Kharab, divided only by a narrow channel from the Bay of Tajura, will, under subterranean influence, be, in due process of time, converted into a salt lake, in no material respect dissimilar from the Bahr Assal-- another worthy type of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Volume One, Chapter XV. DISMAL NIGHT-MARCH ALONG THE INHOSPITABLE SHORES OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE. Scarcely had the moon dipped her first flickering beam into the unruffled surface of the oval lake, and lighted the bluff cliffs for some hours previously shrouded in gloomy obscurity, than a loud war-cry from the adjacent heights echoed the assembly to arms, and the shrill blast of the Adaiel conch summoned all to the rescue. Abandoning his occupation, each stalwart warrior seized spear and buckler, which had been laid aside whilst he aided in the task of reloading the camels for the approaching night-march, and with respondent yells rushed towards the spot whence the alarm proceeded. The Europeans, springing from their broken slumbers on the parched sands, stood to their arms. A long interval of silence and suspense succeeded, which was at last relieved by the return of Mohammad Ali, one of whose beasts had unfortunately slidden with its burden over a steep precipice, when the water-skins bursting incontinently, had scattered the filthy but precious contents over the thirsty soil--an irreparable catastrophe which had occasioned the call for assistance, believed by all to indicate a hostile gathering of the wild Bedouin clans. Of two roads which lead to Goongoonteh from the shores of the dreary Bahr Assal, one skirts the margin of the lake by a route utterly destitute of fresh water; whilst the other, although somewhat more circuitous, conducts over high lava banks stretching some distance inland to Haliksitan, and past the small well of Hanlefanta, where the drained pitcher of the fainting wayfarer may be refilled. On finally quitting the bivouac under the scraggy boughs of the dwarf acacia, where the tedious and most trying day had been endured--which each of the half-stifled party did with an inward prayer that it might never fall to his lot to seek their treacherous shelter more--a fierce dispute arose amongst the leaders of the caravan as to which path should be adopted. "What matters it," urged the intolerant Mohammadan from Shoa, who had accidentally been found starving at Ambabo, and been since duly fed by the embassy--"what matters it if all these Christian dogs should happen to expire of thirst? Lead the Kafirs by the lower road, or, _Allahu akbar_, God is most powerful, if the waters of the well prove low, what is to become of the mules of the Faithful?" But the breast of the son of Ali Abi fortunately warmed to a more humane and charitable feeling than the stony heart of the "red man." With his hand upon the hilt of his creese, he swore aloud upon the sacred Koran to take the upper path, and stoutly led the way, in defiance of all, after Izhak and the ruthless bigots in his train had actually entered upon a route, which the event proved must have involved the destruction of all less inured than the savage to the hardships of the waste wilderness. 'Twas midnight when the thirsty party commenced the steep ascent of the ridge of volcanic hills which frown above the south-eastern boundary of the fiery lake. The searching north-east wind had scarcely diminished in its parching fierceness, and in hot suffocating gusts swept fitfully over the broad glittering expanse of water and salt whereon the moon shone brightly--each deadly puff succeeded by the stillness that foretells a tropical hurricane--an absolute absence even of the smallest ruffling of the close atmosphere. Around, the prospect was wild, gloomy, and unearthly, beetling basaltic cones and jagged slabs of shattered larva--the children of some mighty trouble--forming scenery the most shadowy and extravagant. A chaos of ruined churches and cathedrals, _eedgahs_, towers, monuments, and minarets, like the ruins of a demolished world, appeared to have been confusedly tossed together by the same volcanic throes, that when the earth was in labour, had produced the phenomenon below; and they shot their dilapidated spires into the molten vault of heaven, in a fantastic medley, which, under so uncertain a light, bewildered and perplexed the heated brain. The path, winding along the crest of the ridge, over sheets of broken lava, was rarely of more than sufficient width to admit of progress in single file; and the livelong hours, each seeming in itself a century, were spent in scrambling up the face of steep rugged precipices, where the moon gleamed upon the bleaching skeleton of some camel that had proved unequal to the task--thence again to descend at the imminent peril of life and limb, into yawning chasms and dark abysses, the forbidding vestiges of bygone volcanic agency. The horrors of that dismal night set the efforts of description at defiance. An unlimited supply of water in prospect, at the distance of only sixteen miles, had for the brief moment buoyed up the drooping spirit which tenanted each way-worn frame; and when an exhausted mule was unable to totter further, his rider contrived manfully to breast the steep hill on foot. But owing to the long fasting and privation endured by all, the limbs of the weaker soon refused the task, and after the first two miles, they dropped fast in the rear. Fanned by the fiery blast of the midnight sirocco, the cry for water, uttered feebly and with difficulty by numbers of parched throats, now became incessant; and the supply of that precious element brought for the whole party falling short of one gallon and a half, it was not long to be answered. A tiny sip of diluted vinegar for a moment assuaging the burning thirst which raged in the vitals, and consumed some of the more down-hearted, again raised their drooping souls; but its effects were transient, and after struggling a few steps, overwhelmed, they sunk again, with husky voice declaring their days to be numbered, and their resolution to rise up no more. Dogs incontinently expired upon the road; horses and mules that once lay down, being unable from exhaustion to rally, were reluctantly abandoned to their fate; whilst the lion-hearted soldier, who had braved death at the cannon's mouth, subdued and unmanned by thirst, finally abandoning his resolution, lay gasping by the wayside, and heedless of the exhortation of his officers, hailed approaching dissolution with delight, as bringing the termination of tortures which were not to be endured. Whilst many of the escort and followers were thus unavoidably left stretched with open mouths along the road, in a state of utter insensibility, and apparently yielding up the ghost, others, pressing on to arrive at water, became bewildered in the intricate mazes of the wide wilderness, and recovered it with the utmost difficulty. As another day dawned, and the round red sun again rose in wrath over the Lake of Salt, towards the hateful shores of which the tortuous path was fast tending, the courage of all who had hitherto home up against fatigue and anxiety began to flag. A dimness came before the drowsy eyes, giddiness seized the brain, and the prospect ever held out by the guides, of quenching thirst immediately in advance, seeming like the tantalising delusions of a dream, had well nigh lost its magical effect; when, as the spirits of the most sanguine fainted within them, a wild Bedouin was perceived, like a delivering angel from above, hurrying forward with a large skin filled with muddy water. This most well-timed supply, obtained by Mohammad Ali from the small pool at Hanlefanta, of which, with the promised guard of his own tribe, by whom he had been met, he had taken forcible possession in defiance of the impotent threats of the ruthless "red man," was sent to the rear. It admitted of a sufficient quantity being poured over the face and down the parched throat, to revive every prostrate and perishing sufferer; and at a late hour, ghastly, haggard, and exhausted, like men who had escaped from the jaws of death, the whole had contrived to straggle into a camp, which, but for the foresight and firmness of the son of Ali Abi, few individuals indeed of the whole party would have reached alive. A low range of limestone hillocks, interspersed with strange masses of coral, and marked by a pillar like that of Lot, encloses the well of Hanlefanta, where each mule obtained a shield full of water. From the glittering shores of the broad lake, the road crosses the saline incrustation, which extends about two miles to the opposite brink. Soiled and mossy near the margin, the dull crystallised salt appears to rest upon an earthy bottom; but it soon becomes lustrous and of a purer colour, and floating on the surface of the dense water, like a rough coarse sheet of ice, irregularly cracked, is crusted with a white yielding efflorescence, resembling snow which has been thawed and refrozen, but which still, as here, with a crisp sound, receives the impress of the foot. A well trodden path extends through the prismatic colours of the rainbow, by the longitudinal axis of the ellipse, to the northeastern extremity of the gigantic bowl, whence the purest salt is obtainable in the vicinity of several cold springs, said to cast up large pebbles on their jet, through the ethereal blue water. At some distance from the beach was a caravan of Bedouin salt-diggers, busily loading their camels for the markets of Aussa and Abyssinia, where it forms on article of extensive traffic and barter. Two other basins of a similar stamp, but inferior extent, which exist at no great distance to the northward, are styled "Ullool" and "Dus." The first of these producing salt of most exquisite lustre, is preferred by the Mudaito tribes, from whose capital Aussa, it is not more remote than Doba, as they term the Bahr Assal, the right to frequent which is asserted as an exclusive privilege by the Danakil, who for centuries have actually held the monopoly undisputed. Transferred in bulk in long narrow mat bags, wrought of the date-leaf, it is exchanged for slaves and grain, and not only forms, as in other climes, one of the chief necessaries of life, but possesses a specific value for the rock salt of the north, which, cut into rectangular blocks, passes as a circulating medium. A second low belt of hills, gypsum and anhydrite, succeeded by limestone overstrewed with basaltic boulders, forms the western bank of the molten sea, and opens into a mountain ravine. Taking its source at Allooli, the highest point of the Gollo range, this torrent strives to disembogue into the extremity of the lake, although its waters seldom arrive so far, save during the rainy season. The high basaltic cliffs that hem in the pebbly channel, approximating in the upper course as they increase rapidly in altitude, form a narrow waist, where the first running stream that had greeted the eye of the pilgrims since leaving the shores of Asia, trickled onwards, leaving bright limpid pools, surrounded by brilliant sward. Bowers, for ever green, enlivened by the melodious warbling of the feathered creation, and the serene and temperate air of the verdant meadows of Elysium, were absent from this blessed spot, but it was entered with feelings allied for the moment to escape from the horrors of purgatory to the gates of Paradise; and under the shade cast by the overhanging cliffs, which still warded off the ardent rays of the ascending sun, it was with thankful hearts that the exhausted party, after the terrors of such a night, turned their backs upon the deadly waters of the stagnant lake, to quaff at the delicious rivulet of Goongoonteh an unlimited quantity of cool though brackish fluid. Here terminated the dreary passage of the dire Tehama--an iron-bound waste, which, at this inauspicious season of the year, opposes difficulties almost overwhelming in the path of the traveller. Setting aside the total absence of water and forage throughout a burning tract of fifty miles--its manifold intricate mountain passes, barely wide enough to admit the transit of a loaded camel, the bitter animosity of the wild bloodthirsty tribes by which they are infested, and the uniform badness of the road, if road it may be termed, everywhere beset with the huge jagged blocks of lava, and intersected by perilous acclivities and descents--it is no exaggeration to state, that the stifling sirocco which sweeps across the unwholesome salt flat during the hotter months of the year, could not fail, within eight and forty hours, to destroy the hardiest European adventurer. Some idea of the temperature of this terrible region may be derived from the fact of fifty pounds of well packed spermaceti candles, having, during the short journey from Tajura, been so completely melted out of the box as to be reduced to a mere bundle of wicks. Even the Danakil, who from early boyhood have been accustomed to traverse the burning lava of the Tehama, never speak of it but in conjunction with the devouring element, of whose properties it partakes so liberally, and when alluding to the Lake of Salt, invariably designate it "Fire." Volume One, Chapter XVI. AFFLICTING CATASTROPHE AT GOONGOONTEH. Goongoonteh, a deep gloomy zig-zagged fissure, of very straitened dimensions, is hemmed in by craggy lava and basaltic walls, intersected by dykes of porphyry, augitic greenstone and pistacite, with decomposed sulphate of iron, all combining to impart a strangely variegated appearance. Scattered and inclined in various directions, although towering almost perpendicularly, they terminate abruptly in a rude pile of rocks and lulls, through a narrow aperture in which the path to the next halting ground at Allooli, where the torrent takes its source, strikes off at an angle of 90 degrees. Huge prostrate blocks of porphyry and basalt, which have been launched from the impending scarps, and now reduce the channel to this narrow passage, are in places so heaped and jammed together by some mighty agency, as to form spacious and commodious caverns. In the rainy season especially, these doubtless prove of wonderful convenience to the wayfarer; and no tent arriving until late the following day, the re-assembled party were fain to have recourse to them for shelter against the fierce hot blast from the Salt Lake, which, unremitting in its dire persecutions, now blew directly up the ravine. But the rocks soon became too hot to be touched with impunity, and the oblique rays of the sun, after he had passed the meridian, darting through every aperture, the caves were shortly converted into positive ovens, in which the heat, if possible, was even more intolerable than ever. Unlike former stations, however, there was, in this close unventilated chasm, a luxurious supply of water to be obtained from the living rill which murmured past the entrance, and although raised to the temperature of a thermal spring by the direct influence of the solar rays, and withal somewhat brackish to the taste, it was far from being pronounced unpalatable. Notwithstanding that the neighbourhood afforded neither the smallest particle of forage nor of fuel, it became necessary, in consequence of the non-arrival of one half of the camels, no less than from the exhaustion of many of the party, to halt a day in the hot unhealthy gully; and this delay afforded to the treacherous creese of the lurking Bedouin an opportunity of accomplishing that which had only been threatened by drought and famine. The guides objecting strongly to the occupation of the caves after nightfall, on account of the many marauding parties of Eesah and Mudaito, by whom the wady is infested, every one, as a measure of precaution, slept in the open air among the baggage, half a mile lower down the ravine, where the caravan had halted. The dry sandy bed of the stream was here narrow, and the cliffs--broken for a short distance on either side into hillocks of large distinct boulders--again resumed their consistency after an interval of one hundred yards, and enclosed the camp in a deep gloom. The straitened figure of the bivouac rendered it impossible to make arrangements with much regularity in view to defence. The horses were picketted in the centre of the ravine. The European escort occupied a position betwixt them and the northern side, and the scanty beds of the officers of the party were spread close to the southern bank. A strong picket of the Danakil was placed a little distance in advance; and, in addition to the numerous other native guards in various quarters, the usual precaution was observed of mounting a European sentry, whose beat extended the length of the front of the encampment. Old Izhak slept close to the beds of the embassy, and, evidently in a state of considerable trepidation, solaced himself until a late hour by recounting bloody tales of murder and assassination, perpetrated, within his knowledge, by the mountain _Buddoos_ haunting the ravine of Goongoonteh, which, being the high road to the Salt Lake, forms the resort of numerous evil disposed ruffians, who are ever on the prowl to cut throats, and to do mischief. The first night, although awfully oppressive from the heat exhaled from the baked ground, and the absence of even the smallest zephyr, passed quietly enough; and after another grilling day, which seemed to have no termination, spent within the caverns, the same nocturnal arrangement as before was observed with undiminished precaution. An hour before midnight a sudden and violent sirocco scoured the wady, the shower of dust and pebbles raised by its hot blast, being followed by a few heavy drops of rain, with a calm, still as the sleep of death. The moon rose shortly afterwards, and about two o'clock a wild Irish yell, which startled the whole party from their fitful slumbers, was followed by a rush of men, and a clatter of hoofs, towards the beds of the Embassy. Every man sprang instinctively on his feet, seized a gun, of which two or three lay loaded beside each, and standing on his pillow with weapon cocked, prepared for the reception of the unseen assailants. Fortunate was it that no luckless savage, whether friend or foe, followed in the disorderly retreat, or consequences the most appalling must inevitably have ensued; but the white legs of half-naked and unarmed artillerymen having passed at speed, were followed only by a crush of horses and mules that had burst from their pickets. So complete was the panic caused by a sudden start from deep sleep to witness the realisation of the murderous tales of midnight assassination which had been poured into their ears, that the flying soldiery, who in the battle field had seen comrades fell thick around them, and witnessed death in a thousand terrific forms, were rallied with difficulty. But a panic is of short duration if officers perform their duty, and the word "Halt!" acted like magic upon the bewildered senses of the survivors, who, falling in, formed line behind the rifles. Hurrying to the spot which they had occupied, a melancholy and distressing sight presented itself. A sergeant and a corporal lay weltering in the blood with which their scanty beds were deeply stained, and both were in the last agonies of death. One had been struck with a creese in the carotid artery immediately below the ear, and the other stabbed through the heart; whilst speechless beside their mangled bodies was stretched a Portuguese follower, with a frightful gash across the abdomen, whence the intestines were protruding. Aroused in all probability during this act of cold-blooded murder, and attempting to give the alarm, he had received a fatal slash as the dastards retreated; but almost instantaneous death had followed each previous blow of the creese, which, whilst the back of the sentinel was turned, had been dealt with mortal and unerring precision. Two human figures being perceived at the moment the alarm was first raised, crossing the lower gorge of the ravine, and absconding towards the hills which bounded the further extremity of the camp, were promptly pursued by Mohammad Ali and his band of followers, who had seized spear and shield with the utmost alacrity; but although the moon shone bright, and the stars twinkled in the clear firmament, the broken and stony nature of the ground facilitated the escape of the miscreants under the deep shadow cast by the overhanging mountains, where objects could not be distinguished. This afflicting catastrophe gave birth in the breast of all to a by no means unnatural feeling of distrust towards the escort engaged on the sea-coast, not only as to their ability, but also as to their intention to afford protection. The European party had lain down in full and entire confidence, only to be aroused by the perpetration of this most diabolical and fiendish deed; and although those who had been so fortunate as to escape might, now that they had become aware of the existing peril, defend their own lives, yet such an alternative, involving the abandonment of all the government property in charge, was far from being enviable. Upon after investigation, however, it appeared probable, as well from the evil character borne by the gloomy ravine, as from the numberless murders known to be annually committed under similar circumstances of wanton atrocity amongst the native kafilahs _en route_, that a party of the Eesah Somauli, inhabitants of the opposite coast of Goobut el Kharab, but who, to gratify an insatiate thirst for human blood, are in the habit of making frequent incursions into the country of the Danakil, had seized the opportunity afforded by the absence of the sentry at the further extremity of his beat, to steal unperceived down the inumbrated bank of the hollow, and perpetrate the dastardly and cold-blooded outrage. No attempt to plunder appeared as an excuse for the Satanic crime, and the only object doubtless was the acquisition of that barbarous estimation and distinction which is only to be arrived at through deeds of assassination and blood. For every victim, sleeping or waking, that falls under the murderous knife of one of these fiends in human form, he is entitled to display a white ostrich plume in the woolly hair, to wear on the arm an additional bracelet of copper, and to adorn the hilt of his reeking creese with yet another stud of silver or pewter--his reputation for prowess and for bravery rising amongst his clansmen in proportion to the atrocity of the attendant circumstances. At perpetual strife with the Danakil, although the chiefs of the tribes are on outward terms of friendship, and even of alliance, no opportunity is lost of retaliating upon the mountain Bedouin--every fresh hostility creating a new blood feud, and each life taken on either side, being revenged two-fold, _ad infinitum_. Ere the day dawned the mangled bodies of the dead, now stiff and stark, were consigned by their sorrowing comrades to rude but compact receptacles of boulder stones--untimely tombs constructed by the native escort, who had voluntarily addressed themselves to the task. And a short prayer, suited to the melancholy occasion, having been repeated as the mortal remains of each gallant fellow, enveloped in a blood-stained winding sheet, were lowered to their wild resting-place, three volleys of musketry, paying the soldier's last tribute, rang among the dark recesses of the ravine, when the hurried obsequies were concluded by scaling the entrance to the cemeteries, in which, however, it is not probable that the dastardly sons of Satan--still doubtless watching with savage satisfaction from some inaccessible cranny--long suffered their victims to sleep. In the grave-like calm of the night, under the pale light of the wan moon, which only partially illumined the funereal crags that hemmed in the dreary chasm, and rose in gloomy sadness over the vaults of the departed, the scene was mournful and impressive. Mohammad Ali, Izhak, and Hajji Kasim, with all their retainers, appeared deeply touched by the fatal occurrences that had so thinned the ranks of a party for whose lives they had made themselves responsible; but they referred the event to fate and to the Almighty fiat, adding that, although they were unable to restore the dead to life, or undo that which by the will of Heaven had been done, their own eyes should never close in sleep so long as danger was to be apprehended from the dreaded Eesah, whose only honour and wealth consists in the number of foul butcheries with which their consciences are stained, and whom even savages concur in representing as sanguinary and ferocious monsters, "fearing neither God nor Devil." Volume One, Chapter XVII. THE STRICKEN FOLLOWER DIES--CAIRNS OF THE MURDERED--ALLOOLI AND BEDI KURROOF. It had been intended to march at break of day to Allooli, the source of Wady Goongoonteh; but the absence of several of the camels, which had gone astray during the nocturnal confusion, caused delay in this den of iniquity until ten o'clock. The altered deportment of the chiefs meanwhile tended materially to banish from the mind suspicion of treachery. Heretofore, with the single exception of Mohammad Ali, all had been cold, unfriendly, or insulting; but from the moment of the late catastrophe their manner was visibly changed, and the anxiety evinced for the safety of the survivors under their charge was unremitting. They formed a circle round the party whensoever seated, and not a single white face was for a moment suffered to wander beyond their sight unattended by a clump of spears. The wound of the unfortunate Portuguese had been pronounced mortal, and his dissolution was hourly expected; but life still glimmering in the socket, he lingered on with fearful groans, although speechless, and too nearly insensible to be aware of what had passed. Placed upon a litter, arranged as comfortably as circumstances would permit, the attempt was made to convey him to the next ground, but the rough motion of the camel doubtless hastened the termination of his sufferings; and the wretched man breathing his last ere he had journeyed many miles from the scene of his misfortunes, was interred under a date tree by the road-side, in a grave ready prepared for his reception. The last rains having washed away an artificial bank of stones which had formerly facilitated the ascent of the difficult and dangerous passage leading from Goongoonteh into the Wady Kelloo--as the upper course is denominated--a delay of two hours was at first starting experienced in the bed of the torrent, during which all were on the alert. Two huge pointed rocks abutting on opposite angles of the acute zig-zag, reduced it to a traversed waist, so narrow, that room for the load to pass was only afforded when the long-legged dromedary swung its unwieldy carcass alternately from side to side--the steepness of the acclivity rendering it very frequently necessary to perform this inconvenient evolution upon the knees. Many became jammed, and were unladen before they could regain an erect position; whilst others were, with infinite difficulty, by the united efforts of a dozen drivers, who manned the legs and tail, saved from being launched with their burthens over the steep side of the descent, which consisted of a treacherous pile of loose rubbish. To the surprise of every spectator the train passed through the defile without any material accident, and thence proceeded to pick their steps among the rocks, pools, and fissures, which abound in every mountain torrent whose course is short and precipitous. Flanked by perpendicular sheets of basalt and porphyry, of unwholesome sulphury appearance, beneath which many deep pools of cool water had collected, the tortuous road was at intervals enlivened by clumps of the _doom_ palm, environed by patches of refreshing green turf--sights from which the eye had long been estranged. Nine miles of gradual ascent brought the caravan safely to the encamping ground at the head of the stream--a swamp surrounded by waving palms and verdant rushes, occupying high table-land, and affording abundance of green forage to the famished cattle. Most fortunately the sky had proved cloudy, or the march, performed during the hottest hours of the day, would indeed have been terrific. Hence to Sagallo, the dismal country is in the exclusive occupation of a wandering race of the Danakil, who, notwithstanding that the Sultan of Tajura claims the sovereignty of the entire waste, only acknowledge his impotent authority during their occasional temporary sojourn among the huts of that sea-port. The guides asserted, with many imprecations, that from time immemorial few kafilahs had ever halted at Allooli without losing one or more of its members by the Adrusi creeses, or by those of the Eesah; and on the bank opposite to the shady clump of _doom_ palms, under whose canopy the residue of the day was passed, numerous cairns, consisting of circular piles of stone, similar to those left at Goongoonteh to commemorate the outrage of the preceding night, stood memorials of the dark deeds that had been perpetrated. During about three years the road from Abyssinia to the sea-coast was completely closed by hordes of these ruffian outcasts, who continued their murderous depredations on every passer-by, until Loheita, the present Akil of the Debeni, a young, daring, and warlike chieftain, succeeding to the rule on the demise of his father, routed the banditti after a severe struggle, and re-opened the route. The Wady Kelloo is, however, still permanently infested by parties of wild Bedouins, who skulk about the rocky passes: lie in wait for stragglers from the caravan: assassinate all who fall into their ruthless clutches: and, when time permits, further gratify their savage propensities, by mangling and mutilating the corpse. "See how the cowardly scoundrels marked me," exclaimed the fiery old warrior Ibrahim Shehem Abli, drawing aside his checked kilt, and displaying sundry frightful seams, which had doubtless been the work of a sharp knife. "Behold these tokens of Eesah steel upon my thigh; I received them in this wild wady; but, by Allah, I had a life for every one of them. We have a blood feud now, and it behoves all who are not weary of the world, to look well to their own throats." Lurking bandits excepted, who prowl about like the midnight wolf, the Adaiel tribes, although sufficiently barbarous and quarrelsome by nature, are fortunately in a great measure restrained from deeds of ferocity by the certain consequences of spilling blood. None are anxious to involve their family or tribe in a mortal feud, nor would any warrior, incurring the almost inevitable consequences of a two-fold retribution, find support from his clansmen, unless sufficient cause could be shown; and thus, even in the most lawless states of society, are checks imposed by absolute necessity, which prove almost as powerful as the more civilised legal restraint upon the human passions. Although Allooli was represented to be even more perilous than Goongoonteh, it possessed, in point of locality, immense superiority; and every advantage that could be devised, was taken of its capabilities for defence. The baggage, formed in a compact circle on an open naked plain, was surrounded by a line of camels, and the mules and horses were placed in the centre next to the beds of the party. Guards and sentinels patrolled under an officer of the watch; and at the solicitation of the Ras el Kafilah, who was exceedingly anxious to avoid the inconvenient consequences of a blood feud, a musket was discharged every hour at the relief of sentries, in order to intimate to the evil-minded that all within the breastwork were not asleep. Notwithstanding the presence, in the immediate neighbourhood, for several days previously, of a large band of Eesah, the hot night passed without any alarm. The non-arrival, until long after daybreak, of the camels lost at Goongoonteh, added to the length of the next march, obliging the abandonment of the intention entertained, to speed beyond the pale of this site of assassination, the party halted on the 10th. Allooli stands two hundred and twenty-eight feet above the sea, and although intensely hot, and its waters saline, it proved a paradise when compared with every preceding station. Here animal life was once more abundant. A horde of pastoral savages, who from time to time appeared on the adjacent heights, were made acquainted with the effect of rifle bullets, by the slaughter from the tent door of sundry gazelles that visited the swamp; and the venison afforded a most seasonable accession to the empty larder, which was further replenished from the trees overhead, whose fan-like leaves gave shelter to a beautiful variety of the wood pigeon. Shortly after midnight the march was resumed by the moon's light over a succession of small barren terraces, confined by conical and rounded hills. In the lone valley of Henraddee Dowar, which opens into the wide level plain of Gurguddee, there stood by the wayside a vast pile of loose stones, half concealed among the tall jaundice-looking flowers of the senna plant. Towards this spot ensued a general race on the part of escort and camel-drivers, who each added a pebble whilst repeating the Arabic auguration, "_Nauzu billahi mina Shaytani r rajim_."--"Let us flee for refuge to God from Satan the stoned." A tragic legend was attached to the cairn, which, from the dimensions attained, must have dated from a remote epoch. A hoary old man, accused in days long gone of incestuous intercourse with his own daughter, was arraigned before a tribunal of his assembled tribe, and, being fully convicted, was on this spot stoned to death, together with his fair partner in guilt. Throughout Syria and Palestine it is to this day the practice of all who pass the mounds raised over those who die in crime, and whose memory it is intended to dishonour, thus to contribute a stone, as well with a view to perpetuate the monument, as to shield themselves from evil by manifesting the detestation entertained of the infamy commemorated. Gurguddee, eight miles in length, and stretching on either hand to the far horizon, is bounded by steep mountain ranges, whence an alluvial deposit washed down by the rains, presented over the whole of the level plain a surface of cracked and hardened mud, like that of a recently-dried morass. From the southern side, where the clayey tract is thickly clothed with stunted tamarisk and _spartium_, a road strikes up the valley in a north-westerly direction to the Mudaito town of Aussa, distant some three days' journey for a caravan. As the day dawned, the steeple necks of a troop of ostriches were perceived nodding in the landscape, as the gigantic birds kicked the dust behind their heavy heels; and a herd of graceful gazelles were seen scouring towards a belt of stony hillocks which skirted the dry pebbly bed of a river, that expends its waters on the sun-dried plain. Ascending this stream, in which were a few stagnant pools of bitter unpalatable water, a human figure was detected skulking behind some thick green tamarisks by which they were overshadowed. But on being perseveringly hunted down by Mohammad Ali and his wild myrmidons, the prisoner proved to be a Debeni in quest of truant camels--his attempt at concealment having, according to his own account, arisen from the appearance of so many mounted cavaliers, whom he had mistaken for a foraging party of the Eesah, and was naturally desirous of eluding. The caravan halted early at Bedi Kurroof, after a march of sixteen miles, and the camp was formed on a stony eminence of basalt and lava, affording neither tree nor shade. A day of fierce heat succeeded. There was no forage for the cattle; the water was of the most brackish description; and the spot being of old infested by Bedouins, the party passed a restless and watchful night. A legend of blood too was attached to this wild bivouac, as to most others on the road, and thus it was related. One of the young men of a Danakil caravan returning from Abyssinia, fatigued by the hot journey, lay down to rest his weary limbs beneath the shadow of a rock, near which the tent of the Embassy now stood. It was yet broad daylight, but a band of lurking Eesah presently pounced upon the wayfarer, like the eagle on its prey, and, ere he could resume his weapons, had stabbed him to the heart. The dying groans of the murdered man being heard by his comrades, a number of warriors started in hot pursuit of the flying assassins, and after a severe chase, succeeded in capturing the whole gang. Two were immediately speared to death upon the principle of two drops of blood for one; and the remaining miscreants, four in number, having been stripped of their clothes and arms, were kicked forth out of the place. "The Eesah of these lulls," continued the narrator of this tale, as, by the light of the blazing watch-fire, he fashioned a rude wooden bolster for the preservation of his greasy peruke during approaching slumbers, "are perfect _Shaytans_. Outcasts from their tribe, bands of ten or more here wander up and down like wild beasts, cutting the throats of all they meet, whether infidels or true believers--not for the sake of gain or plunder, but purely to gratify an innate propensity to murder. The monsters train for these blood forays upon raw flesh and marrow, and, well anointed with sheep's-tail fat, can travel day and night, during the hottest season, without suffering from fatigue. _Allahu akbar_! but they are devils incarnate!" "Who has seen the Eesah, who has heard the Eesah?" wildly challenged Mohammad ibn Izhak, starting upon his feet, and clashing his now finished bolster against his buckler, as he concluded this harangue. "Who has seen the Eesah, who has heard the Eesah?" shouted a dozen voices in various quarters of the extended camp. "Uncover your shields, uncover your shields! Count well their spears, that not a man of them escape!" "We have not seen them, we have not heard them," responded the patroles on duty. "No Eesah are here. Sleep on in peace!" Volume One, Chapter XVIII. TERRITORIES OF THE DANAKIL DEBENI--SUGGADERA, MURRAH, DUDDEE, AND GOBAAD. Some hours before dawn on the 12th, the kafilah was again loaded and in motion across a low belt of stony eminences which gradually descend to the Kori Wady, a long water-course, varying in width from two to four hundred yards. Threading the moist channel of this stream, where the foot often absolutely left an impression on the sand, and passing the watering pool of Leile, the road ascended a deep valley to the halting ground at Suggadera, in the country of the Danakil Debeni. The entire borders were flanked by dwarf palms and drooping tamarisk, bounded by low hills with cliffs of conglomerate and sandstone, which disclosed dykes of porphyry at an acute angle. Flocks of goats, diligently browsing on the fat pods which fall at this season from the acacia, were tended by ancient Bedouin crones in greasy leathern petticoats, who plaited mats of the split date-leaf; whilst groups of men, women, and children, lining the eminences at every turn, watched the progress of the stranger party. A pastoral race, and subsisting chiefly upon the fermented juice of the palm, and upon the milk derived from numerous flocks of sheep and goats, or from a few breeding camels, the Debeni, a division of the Danakil, are during certain months of the year engaged in the transportation of salt from the deadly Bahr Assal to the Mudaito town of Aussa, where it is bartered for grain. Architecture affords no term applicable to a structure of any kind inferior to a hut or hovel, or it might with propriety be applied to the base jumble of rough stone and shavings of the date stalk, tenanted by these nomade savages, who are divided into clans, and have no fixed habitations. Nevertheless there was something cheering in the aspect even of these frail edifices, the first human tenement which had greeted the eye since leaving the sea-coast, now ninety miles distant. Bare, desolate, and fiery, the entire intervening tract, although infested by the lurking robber and the midnight assassin, may be pronounced in all its sultry parts, utterly unfitted for the location of man. Water of rather an improved description was obtained at Suggadera, under basaltic rock, stained green by carbonate of copper. But not a particle of forage was to be had; and the heat, reflected from a pebbly hill beneath which the tent was erected, brought the mercury in the thermometer to 118 degrees, during the greater portion of the day; and the evil appearance of the place, surrounded by gloomy hills cast into the deepest shadow, led to the maintenance of a vigilant watch during the dark night. Although disturbed at the early hour of 2 a.m., and denied further repose save on the bare ground, the loss of a camel, which was not recovered until late, so far retarded advance, that only four miles were achieved on the 13th. The road continued to wind with a gentle ascent along the bed of the Wady Kori, the hills gradually diminishing in apparent height until they merged into the elevated plain of Murrah, which exhibited pebbles of pink quartz, with a few scanty tufts of sweet-scented grass, yellow and withered. Here, at the distance of two miles from a puddle of dirty rain-water, in defiance of the impotent Ras el Kafilah, the camel-drivers, who studiously avoid trees and the vicinity of a pool, resolved to halt, as being a place after their own hearts. In the dry water-course just left, the chirruping of some solitary hermit bird, and the bursting bud of a certain dwarf shrub which clothed the borders, agreeably reminded the traveller of more favoured climes. But most completely was the illusion dispelled by the forbidding aspect of the sultry plain of Murrah. Monotonous fields strewn with black boulders, glaring in the sun, distressed the gaze wheresoever it was turned--each cindery mass seeming as though it had been showered down during a violent eruption of some neighbouring volcano; although, on nearer inspection, it proved to be the time-worn fragment of an extensive lava sheet. The bare stony plain was decorated with numerous cairns, marking deeds of treachery and blood; and at the distance of twenty miles rose a lofty range of hot table-land, behind which the Abyssinian river Hawash is lost in the great lake at Aussa. The presence at the watering-place of a host of wild Bedouins, whose appearance was far from prepossessing, again induced the cautious elders to anticipate an attack; and the camp occupying a very unfavourable position for warlike operations, no little difficulty was experienced in making defensive dispositions. A gloomy black hill threw its impenetrable shadow immediately in front; and on the flank, a pile of half-ruined sheepfolds, constructed of blocks of lava, afforded extensive concealment. The night however passed away without any alarm, and the intense heat of the day giving place to a somewhat cooler atmosphere, admitted of sleep by turns in some comfort--parties of the Danakil escort contriving by chanting their wild war-chorus, to keep their heavy eyes longer open than usual. An hour after midnight the loading commenced, and the steep rocky hill having been surmounted by a path strewed with loose stones, a terrace of slow ascent, presenting the same dreary appearance of rocks and lava boulders, continued during the residue of the moon's reign. At break of day, however, the aspect of the country began rapidly to improve. Gaining the higher and more salubrious level of Gulamo, the bare sterile land, strewed with black blocks of lava which tore the feet with their jagged edges, was fast giving place to sandy plains covered with dry yellow grass--a most welcome prospect for the exhausted cattle. Heretofore, saving in the wadys, no tree had been seen except small stunted leafless acacias, few and far between, and scarcely deserving of the name. Several small ravines were now choked with continuous groves, and a mountain stream termed Chekaito, which rises in the country of the Eesah, and in the rainy season disembogues into the lake at Aussa, was thickly clothed on both sides with green belts of tamarisk, wild caper, and other wood, overhung with creeping parasites, and affording food and shelter to birds. The pensile nests of the long-tailed loxia depended from the boughs; and whilst the stems, covered with drift to the height of fifteen feet, gave evidence of a headlong course during the rains, water, even at this season, was here and there to be obtained. Heaps of loose stones thrown carelessly together, mark in almost every direction the spot where the victim lies who has been cut off by some cold-blooded miscreant--melancholy monuments connected each with a tale of assassination. But on the banks of the Chekaito many acres of ground are covered with stones of memorial, such as were raised over Absalom, and over Achan the king of Ai, each surrounded by a circular cordon which bears the stamp of high antiquity, and has evidently witnessed the passage of ages. These sepulchres are said to cover the bones of the heroes who fell in a battle fought on the spot at the period that the country was first wrested from the shepherds. "Hai," the designation of the spot itself, is applied also to the entire surrounding district, which is stated to have been formerly peopled by the Gittereza, a gigantic pastoral race, who, under the chief Sango, were at enmity with all the surrounding tribes, but are now extinct. After five times crossing the serpentine bed to the point of junction with the Sagulli, where ostriches cropped the grass around numerous deserted sheep-pens, the caravan finally halted at Duddee, no great distance from Ramudele. For days together the pilgrimage had led across dreary and desolate wastes, and through sterile ravines where no verdure relieved the eye, no melody broke upon the ear, and so few living creatures were to be seen, that the unwonted appearance of a solitary butterfly which had become bewildered in the desert, was duly hailed as an event. The general character is that of a stern wilderness, parched by the intolerable heat of a vertical sun blazing in fierce refulgence over the naked landscape, of which the chief varieties consist in immense plains of dry cracked mud, or in barren rocks towering towards an unclouded and burning sky. The utter sterility of the soil is rather marked than alleviated by occasional sickly plants of most puny growth, and by the scanty verdure of the few valleys wherein water is to be found, generally in a state of stagnation. But at Duddee, forage and fuel were abundant. The water obtained by digging in the channel of the stream was no longer brackish. The heat, although the thermometer rose to 110 degrees, was infinitely more endurable than it had hitherto proved; and the insatiable thirst by which all had been incessantly tormented on the lower ground, had well nigh disappeared. A march of twelve miles over a succession of grassy plains, untenanted by man or beast, but presenting the first cone of the termites that had been seen, brought the party on the 15th to the enclosed valley of Gobaad, a thousand and fifty-seven feet above the ocean. Volcanic ashes, jasper, chalcedony, and quartz, strewed the sandy route, low volcanic ridges, of comparatively recent formation, intersecting the landscape from west to east. The encamping ground, among heaps of hard gravel, near which water was good and plentiful, had only two years previously formed the scene of the discomfiture of the Ras el Kafilah and his party, who had been plundered of all they possessed by two hundred and fifty mounted Eesah. The recollection of the disaster being green in his memory, he had, before leaving Duddee, donned his folio Koran, in the place of a duodecimo edition which previously graced his shoulder. This was a not-to-be-mistaken sign of "_khouf fee_" [i.e. There is danger to be apprehended] and with a terror-stricken face he now came to intimate, that the presence of a band of these lawless ruffians in the opposite hills, together with a gathering of the Mudaito at the neighbouring pools of Sabala and Dagateli, leaving no sort of doubt upon his mind of a meditated attack during the night, it behoved every man to be more than usually on the alert. The equanimity of the brother of the Sultan of Tajura was somewhat disturbed at the assurance in reply to this exhortation, that the Danakil camel-owners were the thieves most to be dreaded, their dirty and dishonest fingers being unhesitatingly thrust into the bags of rice and dates, whensoever opportunity proved favourable; and that the hired escort, whose business it was to prevent this malappropriation of the property of the Embassy, far from assisting to keep watch, left the duty to be performed by the Europeans, and invariably went to sleep on their posts. "Not one of them shall close his eyes to-night, at all events," grumbled the Ras. "I shall myself superintend the business, and see to the safety of the camp; for, by the life of the Prophet, this is an evil spot!" As the red sun went down there was certainly a considerable display of erect spears; but their number gradually diminished as the night closed in; and when the ten o'clock sentry was relieved, Izhak was snoring aloud, according to his wont, whilst each doughty warrior lay fast asleep, with his greasy head upon his shield, and his broad lance in the precise position that it assumed, when it fell from the relaxed grasp of the slumberer. Volume One, Chapter XIX. INTERVIEW WITH THE OGRE. Loheita ibn Ibrahim, Makobunto, Akil, or chief of the Debeni and a section of the Eesah, asserting supremacy over Gobaad, as a portion of his princely dominions, which extend from the Great Salt Lake to Ramudele, a messenger had, immediately upon the arrival of the caravan, been despatched to his encampment in the neighbourhood, to invite the hero to the tent; and the peaceful night passed, having inspired the leader of the alarmist party with new confidence, the non-arrival of the expected visitor was made an excuse for halting the following day. Attended by a numerous and disreputable retinue, dragging as a gift an obstinate old he-goat, the potent savage, whose exploit of clearing the high road of the restless marauders, who long obstructed the passage of kafilahs, has already been noticed in terms of commendation, sauntered carelessly in during the early hours of the forenoon. Not one whit better clad than the ragged and greasy ruffians in his train, he was yet distinguished by weapons of a superior order--the shaft of his spear, which resembled a weaver's beam, being mounted below the broad glittering blade with rings of brass and copper, whilst the hilt and scabbard of a truly formidable creese were embellished in like ostentatious fashion. The wearer's aristocratic air, and look of wild determination, were well in unison with the reputation he had acquired as a warrior chief. Long raven locks floated like eagle's feathers over a bony and stalwart frame. A pair of large sinewy arms, terminated in fingers tipped with nails akin to bird's claws, and the general form and figure of the puissant Makobunto, brought forcibly to mind the Ogre in the nursery tale, who breakfasted on nought save the flesh of tender innocents, and was cut short in his career of cannibalism by Jack the Giant-killer. A mighty man of valour, and presiding over a numerous clan of fierce and savage warriors, he is feared and respected by all the country round, and seemed to be right well aware of his consequence upon the road. For some reason of his own, which he did not think proper to divulge, the audience was deferred until dusk, when the warrior stalked consequentially into the tent, and deposited himself between the arms of a chair placed for his reception, with as much dignity and self-possession as if he had never in his life been seated upon the ground. Although his covering was restricted to a very dirty cotton cloth, he wrapped himself in the impenetrable mantle of silence, and, comprehending no Arabic, gave ear to all the compliments that were translated for his edification into the Dankali tongue, with the most perfect indifference and mental abstraction; until, having swallowed a sufficiency of hot coffee, and stuffed his nostrils with a becoming modicum of Regent's mixture, he deigned to lay aside a portion of his reserve, and in slow, measured language, vouchsafed a brief detail of the energetic measures that had been adopted at his behest, towards the recovery of certain horses sent by his ally, the King of Shoa, to Her Britannic Majesty, and which had, by some unfortunate chance, been stolen in their transit through Gobaad: adding, that he would impart to the Embassy the boon of his protection, and in earnest thereof might probably condescend the favour of his countenance a few stages in advance. Izhak with his compeers sate in gloomy silence during the entire conference, evidently annoyed at the good understanding that subsisted betwixt his rival Mohammad Ali, and the illustrious guest. The presents designed for the propitiation of the Ogre having been duly transferred, were eagerly clutched and hastily conveyed beneath his buckler, or below the ample folds of his greasy garb, as being far too choice for the prying eyes of attendants; and after sitting another half hour in taciturn dignity, the prince of savages rose deliberately from his chair, and, loaded with broad-cloth and trinkets, walked away as he had come, without condescending to pay attention to, or say a parting syllable to any one. The extraordinary hour chosen for this curious audience, had obviously been dictated by a desire to conceal from the covetous gaze of the wild spirits around him, the tribute which he had reasonably calculated upon receiving from the British pilgrims, on the occasion of their transit through his territories; for, in truth, it must be confessed that the social state of these savages does not by any means betray that primitive simplicity so lauded and extolled by Rousseau. Rude barbarians they are, saturated with Moslem intolerance as with mutton fat; and although they tend their flocks in the parched valley after the most approved Arcadian fashion, yet the persons of even the boldest chiefs are not always secure: and however poets may have embroidered the subject with the flowers of their fancy, there is not to be found one individual of the whole community, who would hesitate to cut a throat for the sake of the last remaining button on a waistcoat. Betwixt savage and civilised existence there yawns a wide gulf. The savage man and the civilised man, although descended from a common parent, can scarcely be said to belong to the same stock of humanity, and he who has been pronounced the only true man, the lordly lord of the wilderness, might here more appropriately be designated a devil incarnate. An interesting trait in the children of nature was witnessed on the occasion of the slaughter of the rank buck goat presented to the Embassy by Loheita ibn Ibrahim. No sooner had the razor-like creese been drawn across the throat, with the concomitant ejaculation, "_Bismillahi rahmani rahim_,"--"in the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful,"--than a savage threw himself upon the expiring animal; and having, vampire-like, quaffed as much of the hot flowing blood as he could obtain, besmeared his greasy features with the residue, and wiped them on the still quivering carcass. No tiger could have acted in more ferocious guise, or displayed a greater relish for the tide of life. This had been a day of feasting and carousal; for both Izhak and the son of the Rookhba chief had likewise received sheep, and the slaughter of each had been followed by a general tussle for the possession of the caul. For the purpose of larding the head this is a prize infinitely preferred even to the tail, which appendage in the Adel sheep is so copiously furnished, that the animal is said to be capable of subsisting an entire year upon the absorption of its own fat, without tasting water. It was truly delightful to witness the process of greasing the poll at the hands of the Danakil barber. The fat having been melted down in a wooden bowl, the operator, removing his quid, and placing it in a secure position behind the left ear, proceeded to suck up copious mouthfuls of the liquid, which were then sputtered over the frizzled wig of a comrade, who, with mantle drawn before his eyes to exclude stray portions of tallow, remained squatted on his haunches, the very picture of patience. The bowl exhausted, the operator carefully collects the suet that has so creamed around his chaps as to render him inarticulate; and having duly smeared the same over the filthy garment of him to whom it in equity belongs, proceeds, with a skewer, to put the last finishing touch to his work, which, as the lard congealed, has gradually assumed the desired aspect of a fine full-blown cauliflower. The Dankali who has prevailed over his foe, adorns his cranium with a perfect frost of tallow, dons a leopard-skin decorated with monkey tails three times in excess of the highest bashaw in the Ottoman empire, and tricks himself out with feathers in all the variety of savage fancy, the lobe of his ear being pierced for the reception of pewter rings, which denote the number of his victories achieved. Many warriors thus distinguished had strolled in during the day; for there had been an onslaught upon the Eesah, who, among other recent atrocities, had only the preceding week ripped up six pregnant Debeni females. The same wearisome string of enquiries on the part of each member of the kafilah, were responded to in the same cold monotonous drawl, and then bandied back by the new arrival--apathy and indifference pervading the features of both parties throughout the endless mechanical repetitions of "_Wogerri_?" and "_Wogerri maani_?" To Gobaad, from the shores of Lake Abhibbab, which is formed by the waters drained from Abyssinia, it is said to be one easy day's journey for the pedestrian. Amongst other Mudaito visitors from its borders, there came one of the Galeyla, an outcast from his clan, who bore amongst his fellows the reputation of being a _veritable_ cannibal. This villain became at once the cynosure of every eye, and stood confessed the vilest of the vile. A coil of putrid entrails which encircled his neck had been distended with mutton fat into the figure of monstrous sausages; and the shaggy mane of a filthy hyena, that he had destroyed and devoured the preceding day, being twined in a becoming wreath around his dark brow, mingled wildly with his dishevelled locks. Under the gaze of so great a crowd, his calm repose was calculated to elicit the highest admiration; and fully sensible of his own merit, the man-eater endured the scrutiny of the curious populace with an air of conscious dignity, which was scarcely disturbed when the temerity of the more juvenile spectators called imperatively for the interference of his heavy mace. It is difficult to comprehend the motives which may have induced this worthy to venture thus rashly among his bitterest foes; but the nature of the terms occasionally subsisting between the Mudaito and the Danakil are not more singularly anomalous than those that bind the Danakil and the Eesah, over a portion of which latter Loheita ibn Ibrahim exercises nominal supremacy. Making common cause, and assisting each other against the Mudaito, international hostilities are nevertheless almost unceasing; and mutual interest, added to the aversion entertained to the perpetuation of blood feuds, affords perhaps the only substantial argument for their temporary cessation. Of three chieftains who take the title of Ougass, and whose authority is in some sort acknowledged by the Eesah, the principal is Ougass Robiley, who resides with the Gidderboosi, south of Zeyla. Hoossain ibn Fara, the next in order, is related by marriage to the Makobunto of the Debeni, and asserts influence from the Reahmoosa tribe of Somauli, bordering on Goobut el Kharab, to Kore Koragureet, within thirty miles of Zeyla, where commences the country of the Hebrowal--thence south to the limits of the Galla territory, and north-west to Killulloo. Here it is bounded by Errur, the residence of the old sheikh of the Woema, and by the independent Mohammadan principality of Hurrur, whose Ameer annually confers upon each Eesah chief a conical skull cap and turban, in recognition of his alliance. Not a cloud blotted the sparkling vault overhead, which now blazed out in a perfect galaxy of light, engirdled by the luminous zone of the milky way. Attention was early directed to its beauties by the shower of meteors that in rapid succession shot through the innumerable host of heaven, and temporarily eclipsed their brilliancy. The night was already somewhat advanced when Loheita sent to demand a private audience upon two points of vital importance; and Mohammad Ali being the agent employed, no time was lost in arranging the desired interview. "My beard is troublesome," whispered the Ogre in a most mysterious tone, after he had been some minutes seated in silence; "my tough beard is not readily trimmed with a creese, and a razor would therefore have been desirable." A first-rate Savigny was immediately placed within his grasp. "And, secondly," he continued, trying the keen edge upon the largest of his formidable talons, "my sister, who is far advanced in her pregnancy, has lately rejected food--mutton, beef, every thing in fact has been offered, and equally loathed. Now I am desirous of trying whether she might not fancy a bag of dates." Volume One, Chapter XX. SHOWING HOW THE OGRE ACQUITTED HIMSELF AT GOOTABELLA. Many and tragic were the tales narrated of the prowess of the Ogre when the hot blood of youth boiled in his warrior veins. The first feat of his early days, ascribed to the year of the great comet, is still green in every recollection; and as it was recounted by Ibrahim Shehem, so was it vouched for by those of the Danakil braves, who during the recital crowded around the watch-fire at Gobaad. The grey-bearded elders had sate for many nights in deep consultation, and the chicken-hearted of the Debeni had exhausted all the usual epithets upon the countless number of the foe, and the consequences of rash and fool-hardy adventure, when the youthful chief raised his manly form in the circle, and his brawny proportions seemed to dilate into colossal stature in the dimness of the evening mist. "Listen to my words," he exclaimed, "for they are the sentiments of my heart. Children of Loheita, hearken to the voice of your leader! Has the spirit of the foul hare entered into the breast of the warrior? Is the shield no longer to clash, nor the broad spear to glitter in the valley of Gobaad? Are the Debeni tamely to suffer their wives and their daughters to be carried into captivity, their flocks and their herds to be swept off, their wells to be taken possession of, and their very name made the scorn and the laughing-stock of the dastardly Mudaito, without one struggle to prevent it? Dust be upon my head if the brave sons of the desert should thus root themselves in a quiet spot, like the withered and dying acacia, without a single thorn to avenge an insult! Rouse ye, my children, for in the name of the most holy Prophet I will even dare the danger of the war; and ignominy sully the fame of him who shall suffer his chief to mingle singly in the strife." Reseating his sinewy form upon the rock, Loheita covered his face in the folds of his garment, and in anxious silence awaited the result of this appeal. But the chord of feeling had been struck by a master hand. A low murmur of voices was quickly followed by the deep hum of approbation accompanying the confused clatter of the bucklers, and the elders, rising simultaneously, proclaimed, "It is the voice and the will of the Most High. Even so let it be!" The erect spears sank with one accord to the ground, and the stern "Ameen" of the assembled tribe, rolled ominously amongst the surrounding cliffs. For some days after this harangue, the Debeni maintained a peaceable demeanour: but it was now the still, treacherous calm which precedes the hurricane. The Galeyla Mudaito, who had already possessed themselves of all the choicest grazing grounds in the neighbourhood, and completely closed the caravan route from Abyssinia to the sea-coast, meanwhile continued their depredations with impunity; one subdivision of the tribe settling in the small valley of Gootabella, where they erected permanent habitations, and boasted of their unmolested vicinity to the graves of the ancestors of Loheita. The Galeyla subdivision of the great nation of Mudaito had rendered itself more particularly obnoxious by its aggressions. Many were the young men of Gobaad who had fallen under their sharp knives. Scornful taunts were ever rife upon the tips of their insulting tongues; and few indeed of the huts in the valley had not at some period sent forth the voice of wailing and lamentation for captive maids or for harried flocks. But the day of dire retribution was fast speeding on. The wane of the moon was the appointed signal of rendezvous to the heretofore slothful tribe; and as the darkness of the unlit night shrouded the valley and the hill, all those members of the clan whose spirit had not been utterly quelled by the frequent disasters experienced at the hand of the sanguinary invader, mustered around their youthful chief. Silently, like the descending wreath of snow, the files of warriors poured in from every quarter of his extensive though distracted domain. The nation had responded to the call of its leader; and the wrinkled brow, and the full oily cheek: the thin sinewy shank of the veteran, and the graceful form of the untried but aspiring stripling, were soon mingled together. The sun set upon a busy scene in the lone valley of Gobaad. Two thousand savages, enjoying the rude feast that had been amply provided for their wants, were engaged in close whispering consultation on the coming strife; and wrought to a pitch of frenzy by the spirit-stirring words of their warlike chief, no less than by the exhortations of his wily emissaries, who ever and anon mixed with the carousing groups, to feed their panting passions against the hereditary foe, each warrior firmly clenched his teeth in dread determination, whilst he whetted his sharp weapon to the keenest edge upon the nearest stone. As the fire blazed brightly upon shield, and spear, and stalwart frame, Loheita moved forth in front of his enclosure, buckled for the fray. His active form was fully revealed by the fitful flame; and a dark smile played for the moment over his stern visage, as his followers, rising with one accord, unsheathed their murderous creeses, and, bursting into a loud murmur of applause, swore by the Sacred volume that the steel should that night reek in the hot blood of the accursed Mudaito. Placing himself at the head of his animated retainers, the chief now led the advancing van, and the tramp of the eager savage fell light over the steep mountain and the boundless plain. Deep darkness was esteemed of small account by these children of the desert, who, like the course of the falling thunderbolt, held on their progress in the true direction. Starting as the dense phalanx advanced, the timid gazelle scoured in terror over the valley, and the prowling lion yielded the path to men who were now in a mood not less desperate than his own. The last rocky defile gained, a deep impenetrable gloom pervaded the scene. The very stars were hid under a partial mist, and naught gave token of the habitation or the presence of man, save at intervals the disturbed bleat of captive Debeni flocks. "They were ours once," scornfully muttered the chief betwixt his closed teeth, "and Wullah! if there be faith in the sharp steel of a true believer, they shall this night return to their pastures." "All know the valley of Gootabella," observed the narrator, "closely hemmed in on three sides by towering cliffs, over one perpendicular rock at the neck of which, the river Chekaito, leaping, extends its sandy bed throughout the entire centre, so that ten resolute spirits might defend the only outlet against countless legions. None save the sons of asses would have pitched their tents in that spot; but the Galeyla were overweeningly conceited and vain of their exploits, and held in utter contempt the dispossessed proprietors of the soil, whom they had hitherto so easily despoiled." No timely note of alarm announced the approach of danger; and the noiseless step of the foe gliding unheard round the devoted hamlet, it was encompassed on every side. Infuriate warriors in appalling silence beleaguered the narrow aperture of each matted wigwam. The recollection of captive and murdered relatives, of burning huts and harried flocks, entered deep into the stern soul of each grim assailant; and as the edge of the naked creese was passed cautiously along the finger, a prayer was breathed on high to the throne of the Eternal Avenger. The unsuspecting inmates of every abode were hushed in deep repose. The spear lay entangled in the folds of the scattered garments, the shield had been cast idly in the corner, and the warrior, surrounded by his wives and little ones, was wrapped in peaceful rest, such as he was wont to enjoy when lulled by the gentle murmur of the breaking waves of the Bahr el Shub, in his own far distant land. The suffocating fumes of smoke soon stole upon the sense of the drowsy slumberers; the crackling of flames aroused all abruptly from their dreams of security, and the lurid glare that enveloped the blazing hamlet caused each affrighted inmate to rush to the door, where the crooked steel, driven by the hand of desperate revenge, was sheathed in many a bare bosom. Sudden, electric, and complete was the surprise, and vain were the efforts of the unarmed warrior. Loheita raged through the scene like the demon of the angry element, and each follower ruthlessly strove to emulate his example. A dozen spear-blades transfixed the body of every fugitive. Two thousand of the foe fell during the murderous onslaught; and in that fearful night all ancient injuries were well washed out in the warm blood of the Mudaito. The pent-up wrath of the savage, like the checked waters of an impetuous mountain torrent, bursting all bounds, careered along without restraint. Mockery and insult were bandied back to the frantic screams of the women, as their tender babes were barbarously pitched into the hissing flame; and the red sun rose above the beetling crags to witness a frightful scene of carnage and desolation. Flocks and herds had burst from their folds, and betaken themselves to the wilderness. Scorched and mangled bodies thickly strewed the ground, or lay half consumed among the smouldering embers of the pile. The groans of the dying mingled with the bitter wailing of captive females bereft of husband and offspring; and the chief surrounded by his exulting host sat in grim triumph beside the dense column of smoke, which with an eddying flame ascended high into the vault of heaven from the black and burning monument to Debeni vengeance. A deep fissure in the bowels of the hill had given refuge to a determined few who had sought safety within its rocky sides: but the keen eye was not long in discovering the track of the fugitives; and the insatiate chieftain, speeding upon the trail, tore from the aperture the thorns and overhanging shrubs, and dashed into the cave with spear and buckler. The only resistance made during the foray was in this last stronghold; and Loheita received a deep wound on the breast, the scar of which will be borne to his grave. Desperation nerved the limbs of the surviving Galeyla, who, well knowing that no quarter would be granted, sullenly fought on with the few weapons they had snatched up in their hurried flight; but all died in the unequal strife upon the spot where they had taken their last stand. Crowned with brilliant success, the return of the dauntless young chief from his first expedition was swelled by troops of captive maids and by the pillaged herds of years. But the triumph had been achieved with no trifling loss to his clan. The bodies of thirteen braves, borne by their comrades upon green branches of the palm, closed the order of march, and the war-chorus pealed wildly among the rocks as the victorious host poured back through the valley of Gobaad. A burst of savage acclamation, which rose shrill and high in the noontide heat from the assembled population, was succeeded by a solemn pause as the dread tidings were imparted to the relatives of the fallen. A path was cleared through the now hushed and silent phalanx, whilst muffled females, beating their bare breasts, passed towards the biers between the open ranks. The boldest and the bravest had been untimely cut off; and their widows, throwing themselves upon the lifeless bodies, indulged for a season in the most piercing shrieks and extravagant grief. But the deep loud chaunt of the elders, "It is the decree of the Most High," drowned the hysterical sobs of the bereaved; and the host again moved on in boisterous mirth to indulge, after the successful foray, according to the bent of their inclinations, and prepare for a series of achievements, which have since cleared the surrounding plains. To this day none but the boldest dare, after nightfall, to enter the valley of skulls. The moans of the Galeyla warriors who fell in the affray are heard amidst the funereal sighing of the wind; the plaintive song of the Bedouin maid still chronicles the event; and long will be remembered in the red house of Mudaito the night of the massacre of Gootabella. Volume One, Chapter XXI. SANKUL, AND SUGGAGEDAN. DAWAYLAKA AND AMADOO IN THE LIMITS OF THE GALEYLA MUDAITO. Ascending by an extremely bad road the broken range to the southward, which commands a fine prospect over the valley of Gobaad, the kafilah reached Sankul on the 17th. It forms the focus of several small dales converging from the table-land, and shut in from all breeze by the surrounding steep black cliffs of basalt, passing into hornblende. A small cave near the encamping ground was occupied by a colony of industrious bees, and at the only well, flocks of the diminutive black-faced Berbera sheep were drinking from a trough formed of an ox-hide stretched between four stakes, to which the water was transferred in gourds by greasy Bedouin shepherdesses. The evening was passed in perpetual wrangling with these matrons during the operation of filling up the water-skins; and sad presage was afforded of a coming day of drought, which the exhausted and sinking cattle of the caravan were hourly waxing less able to endure. The next march led over the high table-land of Hood Ali, a stony level thickly studded with dry grass, and extending in one monotonous plateau far as the eye could reach. The fetid carrion-flower here presented its globular purple blossoms among the crevices, and a singular medicinal plant, termed Lab-lubba, was detected by the keen eye of a savage who had before evinced a latent taste for botanical studies. The usual encamping ground at Arabdera was found to be pre-occupied by a nomade tribe of Bedouin goat-herds, who monopolised the scanty water. Descending the range, therefore, the bluff brow of which commanded an extensive prospect over the wide level valley of Dullool, the kafilah halted at Suggagedan. This arid spot in the strand-like waste was covered with masses of lava and with blocks of basalt from the adjacent hills. It was parched by a burning atmosphere, and afforded no water whatever--calamities which resulted in the abandonment of a horse and two of the mules that were no longer able to bear up against thirst and fatigue; whilst many others now dragged their weary limbs with difficulty, and seemed but too well disposed to follow the example. Dullool is one thousand two hundred and twenty-eight feet above the level of the sea--a perfect flat, covered with alluvial deposit, and studded with extensive tracts of coarse dry grass in tufts, among which, as the almost interminable string of camels crossed the following morning, both ostriches and gazelles were descried. It is bounded by a bold mountain range, and the further extremity of the plain, towards the foot of Jebel Marie, is perfectly bare, stretching away to the westward, in one uninterrupted sheet of hard compact mud, which imparts the aspect of the Runn of Cutch. A herd of wild asses, precisely similar to those found on the Indian salt desert, materially enhanced the resemblance; and the sun, which had now attained considerable altitude, casting his rays in a full blaze over the naked plain, called up the dancing mirage that was alone wanting to complete the picture. On this level expanse, which terminates in a _cul-de-sac_, shut in by high basaltic walls, inaccessible either to man or beast, the Adaiel affect to ride down the wild ass, upon lean mules forsooth, and to rip up the quarry with their creeses. There had been much vain-glorious talking upon this head, but it ended, like every Danakil boast, in nothing. The hawk-eye of the Ogre detected an out-lying mare among the ravines at the foot of the range, and he dashed off the road with such lightning speed, that the animal narrowly escaped being hemmed into a corner; but once on the broad desert, and she tossed her arched neck, kicked up her wanton heels, and laughed at the absurd efforts of her impotent pursuers. Loose stones again strewed the approach to the Marie range, which is of trap formation, of a slaty texture, stained with red iron oxide, and intersected by veins of iron clay. A breach in the hills, here about a thousand or twelve hundred feet high, formed a steep sloping ridge of lava rocks, containing quantities of carbonate of lime, disposed in rhomboids and hexagonal sheets. In this nook, surrounded by a thick jungle of acacia, were sundry basins filled with clear water, to which the solar rays had not penetrated. They afforded most refreshing draughts; and the skins having been replenished, the encampment was formed at Dawaylaka, a full mile beyond. Marie is not a word of either Arabic or Dankali derivation; whence it seems not improbable that this bold range of hills may in days of yore have been named by some wanderer from the West. A fine fresh morning succeeded to a very sultry night, passed upon the hard hot stones; and at break of day, the cattle having been taken to the pools, where, at so early an hour, they would drink but little, the skins were again replenished, and the caravan pursued its march to Oomergooloof, which can boast of no water at any season. Of two roads, the lower, but more level, was adopted, in consequence of the exhaustion of the beasts of burthen. It led across a dry desert plain of six miles, over which the delusion of mirage was complete. Covering the valley far as the eye could reach, to the foot of the hills which rise abruptly on all sides, it imparted the appearance of an extensive bay, shut in by projecting headlands--a still calm lake, so unmoved by the wind that every cliff was most distinctly reflected on the mirror of its glassy bosom. Approaching from a higher level, a ripple played upon the surface of the visionary water; and the vapour being too subtle to screen irregularities of the ground, the aqueous expanse soon became gradually disunited, until it ultimately vanished altogether. The scene, cool and pleasant whilst it endured, formed a striking contrast to the baked alluvial desert under foot, destitute of even a vestige of vegetation, but over which was wafted a zephyr as unlooked-for as refreshing. Thrown in a particular way, and on certain atoms, rays of light produce illusions to the vision which are often embodied after the likeness of objects most deeply dwelling in the imagination. Thus it was that the character of the headlands of Dullool, square and perpendicular, together with an islet riding like a ship at her cable in the centre of the molten basin, aided the striking similarity of names in the respective neighbourhoods, to bring vividly before the eyes of all, the apparition of the bay of Goobut el Kharab. Immediately opposite to Oomergooloof is a projecting spur from Jebel Oobnoo, a lofty range visible to the westward; and this divides the plain into two valleys, whereof the southern-most is denominated Wady Arfa. The Marie range here towers overhead, steep and precipitous, to the height of about nine hundred feet; stupendous masses of rock which have been detached from the summit, and strew the entire base, corroborating the assertion of the Danakil that earthquakes are frequently felt in the vicinity. Nomade tribes with their families and flocks, having settled at the wells which exist at a distance, had compelled the gentler portion of the Libyan creation to resort to regions more blest with water; and not even a desert-loving gazelle was espied during the march of twelve miles. Ibrahim Shehem Abli had long viewed with the eye of bigoted disapproval, the attentions paid by one of the Mohammadan followers to two canine companions of the party, pets that had survived the passage of the fiery Tehama, but whose feet had become so lacerated by the hot lava boulders as to incapacitate them from walking. Quilp--for so the offending Moslem was styled from his striking resemblance to that notable character--was in the act of extricating his wire-haired charge from the panniers wherein they travelled, when the irascible little warrior approached, and, drawing his trenchant blade, swore with a dreadful anathema to exterminate him on the spot. "Dog, and father of dogs," he exclaimed, seizing the dismayed mortal by the throat, "beware how thou again defilest thy fingers with those accursed curs, or by the beard of the Prophet I will sever thy gullet as one who has brought foul discredit upon the faith." Then relaxing his grasp, and sheathing his creese with a horizontal flourish, he threw himself into the attitude of a slaughtered victim, and closed the significant lecture by mimicry of the gurgle heard in a divided windpipe, whence the tide of life is welling. Several herds of cattle pertaining to the Issehiraba Mudaito, grazed in the neighbourhood; and these were said to derive their supply of water from pools formed by a cluster of hot sulphureous springs at the further extremity of the plain, which, with a loud noise, rise bubbling from the earth at a boiling temperature. Possessing marvellous medicinal properties, they are believed to be a panacea for every malady: but the tribe not being on terms with the Danakil, these thermal wells could not be visited, neither could water be obtained either for man or beast. A few Mudaito females, with their children, strolled into the camp to sell sheep, and stare at the Feringees; but the Ras el Kafilah would scarcely permit them to be spoken to, and was in a nervous fidget until they departed. Avowing that these greasy dames had come for no other purpose than to spy out the nakedness of the land, and that the creeses of their liege lords would prove troublesome during the night, he strictly interdicted all wandering beyond camp limits, and insisted upon the discharge of several volleys of musketry in addition to the cartridge expended at guard-mounting, and at every relief of sentries. The sky having become gradually overcast towards evening, a deluge, equally to be desired and dreaded, was deemed close at hand, but the threatening appearance passed off with the hot blast of the Shimal, accompanied by a cloud of dust, and followed by a close oppressive night. Skirting the Marie range to a tract thickly strewed with rounded masses of lava and basalt, the detritus from the adjacent hills, the road now wound over a volcanic ridge which divides the valley of Dullool from that of Amadoo, running exactly parallel to it. In this latter the caravan halted on the 21st, about a mile from a large pool of rain-water, occupying a rocky nook formed by huge blocks of basalt. The stagnant green fluid was far more palatable than it looked, although troubled by a legion of homed cattle, asses, goats, and sheep, the property of the Galeyla Mudaito, who were encamped in great force in the neighbourhood, and looked what they are said to be--most desperate villains. Altogether it was a bustling scene. Herdsmen shouted in every direction to their kine, whose sinister glances and lowered heads proclaimed their dislike of the white intruders; flocks of Somauli sheep, with incommodiously overgrown tails, swam about like otters to cool their heated skins; numbers of Bedouin damsels, after laving their own greasy persons, replenished their dirty water-skins; and one wrinkled old hag, in direct breach of the Moslem prejudice against "man's friend," was absolutely detected in the act of cleansing the rough coat of her own pet-dog. This pastoral scene of savage life, where the peaceful occupation of the shepherd contrasted strangely with the presence of spear and buckler, was about mid-day exchanged for the tent. A crowd of listless, tattooed savages, bearing very indifferent characters for honesty, soon swaggered in to see what they could pick up, and presently waxed so passing insolent that it was deemed prudent to intimidate them by a display of rifle-practice. Emboldened by numbers, they had begun to question old Izhak regarding his right to conduct strangers through the country without the permission, first duly obtained, of the "lords of the soil;" but seeing the stones fly about in splinters at two hundred and fifty yards they were not long in decamping, and gave no further annoyance. The Galeyla tribe of Mudaito, which still boasts of the most expert and notorious thieves in the country, is, as might be conjectured, on no very amicable terms with the Danakil; and the very severe chastisement it received at the hands of Loheita ibn Ibrahim sufficiently accounted for the sudden desertion of the unattended Ogre, who donned his seven-league boots, and strode back to his castle from Dawaylaka, after he had pledged himself to accompany the party to the borders of the territory occupied by Mohammad Ali's clan. From Amadoo, Aussa was represented to be only one day's journey for a swift mule, and two for a caravan of laden camels, the road branching off across Wady Arfa, and over the Jebel Oobnoo range, by which the extensive valley is bounded. At this point, moreover, had ceased the pretended influence of Mohammad ibn Mohammad, Sultan of Tajura, the utter futility of propitiating whom had long been sufficiently apparent. Although in the eyes of the uninitiated it was no difficult matter to invest this avaricious imbecile with supreme authority over a fiery desolate tract, in most parts obviously unfitted for human location, his own immediate retainers did not now conceal that Mirsa Dukhan, and the Gollo mountains near the Salt Lake, bound even his nominal jurisdiction. He is in fact Sultan of the sultry strand whereon his frail tenement is erected; for the few lawless wanderers beyond, over whom he would assert supremacy, are universally thieves and murderers, who disdain all fixed abode, disclaim all mortal control, and acknowledge their own unbridled inclinations as their only master. Volume One, Chapter XXII. RED HOUSE OF MUDAITO--CHRONICLE OF THE CONQUEST OF AUSSA. Distinguished like the houses of York and Lancaster by their respective colours, "the white house" of Debenik-Woema, composed of various Adaiel clans, who in time of need rally under one standard, is banded against the Assa-himera, "the red house" of the Mudaito, with the same bitter feud and animosity which spread desolation through the fair domains of England, and poured out the best blood of her heroic sons. Well would it be for the cause of humanity were these savage combatants animated also with the same noble and chivalrous feelings which in days of yore reigned paramount in the breast of the British knight, and met together only in the open field of honourable contest. But the case is widely different indeed; and under whatever circumstances the hated and hereditary foe may here be discovered, the unarmed bosom of the lone, sleeping, or unsuspecting wanderer, rarely fails to prove a sheath for the murderous knife of the assassin. Aussa, formerly an important town, was, less than a century ago, the capital and principal seat of the united tribes of Mudaito, who extend thence to Ras Billool, and are represented to be countless as the hairs of a Danakil head. Regarded as the seat of wisdom and learning, and governed in the latter days of its strength by Yoosuf Ali ibn Ajdahis, a brave and martial sultan, whose armoury boasted of many matchlocks, and of several small pieces of cannon, it long flourished in powerful independence--a bright spot of beauty in a waste of barrenness. But the sun of its prosperity at length set; and the predatory hostilities long exercised towards the various united tribes of Adaiel, leading to a general invasion on the part of the Ado-himera, the prince was slain, the stronghold of the "red house" sacked, and its garrison put to the sword: nor in these degenerate days is this once important place more than an extensive encampment, whereat is held a perpetual fair, frequented by all the tribes of Danakil, Eesah, Somauli, and Mudaito. The site of Aussa, a wide-stretching valley, described to be from eight to ten days' journey across for a caravan, is hemmed in by lofty mountains, and fertilised in all its extended quarters by the Lakes Guraaid, Abhibbab, Hilloo, and Dugod--the first situated a little to the eastward of the town, and the last by far the largest of the four. These vast stagnant basins in the plain receive the Abyssinian waters of the Hawash and its tributaries, in addition to the contributions of all the streams from Jebel Oobnoo and other collateral ranges--the abundance of fluid thus lost upon volcanic formation, so enriching the soil as to enable this district to produce wheat, juwarree, barley, Indian com, pepper, and tobacco, in quantities sufficient for the supply of the entire coast. The Hawash may be conjectured to have experienced interruption in its course to the Bahr Assal and Bay of Tajura, at the same period that volcanic agency divided the waters of the great Salt Lake from Goobut el Kharab. Miles around the wonted boundaries of each lagoon now become annually inundated during the spreading of the great freshes; and, as the floods, carried off by absorption and evaporation, again recede, the soil is covered with a fertilising sediment--a fat alluvial deposit, which with little labour yields an ample return. Even the lazy and listless Danakil, who neither sows nor reaps elsewhere, is here induced to turn agriculturist; but not a single acre of ground in any direction is to be found under the plough from the sea even to the mountains of Abyssinia--a distance exceeding three hundred and fifty miles. Pastoral as well as agricultural pursuits engage the population of Aussa; but whilst the cultivating portion of the inhabitants are permanent residents on the soil, the shepherds are annually driven away by the gad-fly, which attacks the flocks from the setting-in of the rainy season until the termination of the fast of Ramzan, when the waters have again subsided, and the herdsman, descending from the mountains, returns to his occupation in the valley. An extensive commercial intercourse is moreover carried on with Tajura. Salt from the Bahr Assal, blue calico, which is in high demand for the caps universally worn by the married Bedouin females, zinc, pewter, and brass or copper wire, used both for personal ornament, and for the decoration of weapons, are bartered for the produce of the luxuriant soil--some few caravans crossing the Hawash, and pursuing their journey along the western bank to Dowwe, on the frontier of the Wollo Galla, in order to purchase slaves; or striking into the main road at Amadoo, and so prosecuting their way to Shoa for a similar purpose. Mudaito tribes occupy the entire plain of Aussa, but they are now divided into five distinct nations. The Assa-himera are under the rule of Humferi, a descendant of the ancient house of Ajdahis, who preserves the empty title of Sultan, and resides at the decayed capital. Eastward are the Isse-hiraba, governed by Das Ali, an independent chief, and the Galeyla, under Daamer Ibrahim; south are the Dar, who own allegiance to Akil Digger Myargi; and west are the ferocious Koorha, under the sway of Yoosuf Aboo Bekr, who, also with the title of Akil, resides at Alta, and wages war indiscriminately on both Assa-himera and Debenik-Woema. South-westward of the valley of Aussa are the independent Adaiel tribes Hurruk Bodaito, over whom presides Gobuz Elincha, a powerful chieftain, who has espoused Leni, daughter of Birru Lubo, the Prince of Argobba, and through whose territories lies the high caravan route to Dowwe, with which the traffic is considerable. On the north, the Mudaito are bounded by the distinct nation styled Hirto, under the rule of Yingool Ali--Mohammadans, deriving their origin from the Arab invaders of the seventh century, and speaking a language not very dissimilar from the Adaiel, who claim the same descent. Aussa is still the abode of all the Uleemas, Aukal, and learned doctors, for whom the Mudaito have ever been renowned, but the present government is singularly constituted. The aged Sultan Humferi, son of Yoosuf Ali ibn Ajdahis, has retained with his high-sounding title the mere shadow of authority, which is in truth vested in Mohammad Ali, the vicegerent of the Debenik-Woema, appointed by general suffrage from Tajura. Residing at Kulloo, and ruling with an iron hand, he admits of little interference; and, in all cases where disputes between the "red" and "white" houses of the proprietors of the soil and their invaders, terminate fatally to the latter, takes two lives for one, according to the immemorial observance in blood feuds. Ameer Sulaam, the Wuzir of the Mudaito, is head of all the sages, and he is aided in the administration of justice by Hurrur Hassan, Teeoh, and Berbera or "Pepper" Ali, the latter so styled from the volubility of his sarcastic tongue. This triumvirate of venerable sheikhs, whose wisdom and learning is reputed to be _kum el bahr_, "profound as the sea," is referred to on all occasions where knotty points are at issue, whether amongst the Ado-himera or Mudaito; and even the Sultan of Tajura was on a late occasion held bound to abide by their arbitration, relative to the projected marriage of his son to a bride from another clan of the "white house," a measure which was resisted, and which he was desirous of enforcing. Yet a transit duty of fifty per cent, is levied by Mohammad ibn Mohammad upon all exports made by the Mudaito, whereas ten per cent, only is exacted from the numerous Danakil tribes. "A large Arab force from Zeyla," observed Ibrahim Shehem Abli, who was well versed in the chronicles of Aussa, "was induced to join the Debenik-Woema in their invasion of the predatory Mudaito hordes; and overtures of capitulation having been made by Yoosuf Ali ibn Ajdahis, they were thrown off their guard. During the night the Woema, who knew with what villains they had to deal, bivouacked upon the heights of Dugodlee and Hy Tunkoma, where they rested safely enough. But the blockheads of Arabs choosing to sleep in the plain, the garrison took advantage of their folly to make a _goom_: and so cleverly was it managed, that by Allah! they succeeded in drawing their creeses across the throats of all save one." Nothing intimidated by this reverse, and joined by fresh allies from the coast, the Woema were not long in renewing the attack; and the whole of the Adaiel tribes who rally under the standard of "the white house," making common cause, the Mudaito sustained a murderous defeat, when their stronghold, which had maintained its integrity unimpaired for so many centuries, fell at last into the hands of their hereditary foe. A long term of years elapsed, but the hearts of the scions of the "red house" still rankled under this disaster; and, bent upon retaliation, the assembled clans, designing to plunder the now decayed sea-port whence their Arab invaders had been furnished, made a rapid inroad into the country of the Eesah Somauli. Unprepared, the tribe fled before the host in dismay, but presently recovering from the panic created by the sudden burst of war, rallied in great numbers, fell furiously upon the foe, and left not one marauding Mudaito alive to tell the issue of the disastrous day. The "great battle," as this signal rout is still termed, was about three years ago fought within sight of Zeyla, on the plains of Takoosha, now white with the skeletons of a tribe. "Brave men are these Mudaito," continued the old warrior, playing carelessly with the hilt of his creese, which was seldom suffered to repose quietly in his girdle; "but they are not to be compared with us. _Hamdu-lillah_, `Praise be unto the Lord,' I slew their sheikh with my own hand; and here is the identical scratch that I received in the scuffle. As for the Eesah," he concluded, "with their childish bows and arrows, they are sad cowards. One Dankali spear is an over-match for fifty of their best marksmen in a fair fight; and I have myself dealt single-handed with six, although the villains came like thieves in the dark." Ibrahim Shehem was requested to reconcile this character with the issue of the great battle just recounted, wherein the despised tribe had so signalised itself. "That," quoth he of Tajura, "was a dastardly surprise; and _Wullah_, had I been the invader with a handful of Danakil spearmen, there would have been another tale to tell." Bas Ali, late sheikh of the cultivating portion of the Aussa population, some years since made an attempt to restore the exclusive rule to the Mudaito, and to this end headed a conspiracy sworn upon the Koran to plough the field no more until the head of the Woema vicegerent should be exalted upon a pole at the city gate, and his body have been cast out to the hyaenas. He was however waylaid and assassinated by Ibrahim Shehem Abli, who received a wound in the cheek. The numerous scars which adorned the diminutive person of this hero proclaimed him to have made one in many an affray; and, if his own account might be believed, all were honourably gained. Nevertheless the singular aversion that he displayed to passing certain watering-places in brood daylight, and his skulking port at Amadoo more especially, had tended not a little to confirm the disparaging anecdotes maliciously narrated by his compatriots, relative to the mode in which some of these much-prized distinctions had been acquired. The veteran Ali Arab had sat in gloomy silence during the early part of the conversation, but his light wicker cap started to the apex of his bald crown as he rose in wrath at the last vaunting words of the son of the Debeni. "Heed not the empty boast of that braggart," he exclaimed, with boiling indignation, forgetting his wonted taciturnity--"Brave as the lion's whelp are the hardy children of Yemen, and but for the cowardly desertion of their false allies there would have been a different issue to the fell night at Aussa. Do the Woema to this hour not pay tribute to Zeyla in acknowledgment of the assistance rendered? The event was written in the sealed volume of Fate. The decree of the Almighty was fulfilled. But lest you should have believed the disparaging statements of this vain-glorious scorner, I will even recount the misfortunes of a campaign fraught with sad disaster to my kindred." Uttering these words, he led the way to his enclosure, reared of bales of the most costly wares which had been committed to his tried integrity; and there, seated upon the rich shawls of Cachemire, or upon the choicest manufactures of the British loom, the party, provided each with a tiny cup of most potent coffee, gave ear in silence to the old man's tale, which in the two ensuing chapters shall be presented in the form that would appear best calculated to afford a picture of warfare in the Desert. Volume One, Chapter XXIII. ARAB MARCH OVER THE TEHAMA. All was bustle and confusion in the small sea-port town of Zeyla. Camels were screaming as the well-filled sacks were tied tightly upon the saddles. The idle portion of the population had assembled to admire the pride and pomp of war. Women were running to and fro with more than usual briskness, to deliver some forgotten package to a body of men who stood under arms in the market-place; and crowds streamed to join the group through the narrow bazaar, which had been lit up for the occasion, whence arose a confused hum of higgling and barter, as each last want was supplied by the merciless Hindoo trader, on the credit of a successful return from the foray. A motley diversity prevailed in the age, dress, arms, accoutrements, and bearing of the assembled party; but the turban and the checked kilt, the frequency of the long, ornamented matchlock, and the thousand strange-fashioned leathern pouches and pockets, dangling from every part of the person, proclaimed the presence of a body of warriors of the Faithful. And more than sufficient for the sultry climate was the cumbrous attire of the foreign mercenaries. Every colour of the rainbow had been appropriated to their full varied vestments. Red, and yellow, and green, surmounted the dark elf-like locks of the soldiers of Yemen; knives and long heavy swords glittered in their rich shawl waist-cloths; and the national cloak of Arabia, clasped across the tawny breast, floated gaily over each stalwart frame. Numerous mules stood ready saddled in the busy square, and many were the long provident bags and water-skins strapped behind each high wooden cantle. The band had not been engaged to act as cavalry, but Arab troops are somewhat self-willed as to their tactics and style of movement, and at no time relish interference in any of those little private arrangements which they can afford for their personal comfort. The grey eye and the grisly beard of the veteran from Hejaz, and the fierce glance and the long raven hair of the inhabitant of Medina, were exhibited together under the light of a blazing fire; and it might have been observed that the strongest current of female attention set towards the spot where the youth were collected, hammering the hard bullets down their rusty matchlocks. "God is great!"--ejaculated a gaily-bedecked stripling, as he added an extra pinch of powder, for good luck, to the handful already poured into his long culverin. "Bring me alien, that he may feel the hands of the mighty, and _Inshallah_! if the leader of the expedition be of my mind, we shall not return empty-handed to have our beards laughed at by these fat kafirs from Hinde. Better were it to quaff at once the waters of immortality. But alas! Amru! the star was little on the ascendant when, forsaking the pleasant terraces and the cypress-waisted damsels of Mocha, thy stupid head dreamt of receiving two piastres a day from the treasury of the Sheriffe, or of being cooped up with infidels in a perfect _Jehannam_ upon earth." This speech was received with considerable applause, for the Reis Amru was well liked by his comrades in arms. Jokes passed freely among the youth, who were all in high good humour at being released from the dull stupidity of a hot garrison; and each talked gaily of his future deeds of prowess, although as yet nothing had transpired as to the nature or object of the enterprise. But the veterans were crowded together in a mass, and their scowling downcast looks betokened little satisfaction in the coming march. A one-eyed ancient, who had witnessed as many fights as the remaining locks upon his wrinkled head, was employed in grinding a notch from his long sweeping sword, whilst he ever and anon gave vent to his spleen and displeasure. "No good can ever come of intercourse with these unbelieving savages," growled the old man to a fellow gambler. "The skulking sons of the Debeni have been in close conference with the Ameer for the greater part of the day; and the youth Osman is not the leader to conduct a party of the Faithful among the deserts and the hills of this parched land. Blood will flow from the veins of these hot-headed striplings, crimson as the cloth which flaunts above their head-gear. Aye, and the dream of the last night can be now easily interpreted. Listen to me," he muttered, in lower accents: "I dreamt of the pleasant lands of Saba, and saw the sparkling waters flowing over the bright green turf. The tribe of my fathers had assembled together, and the `hail, welcome, may your arrival be happy,' came soothingly to my wearied ear; but an impassable gulf yawned at my feet, and the cold touch of the dread Azrail startled me from my slumbers. Nevertheless if we be fated to perish by the hand of the savage, it shall never be said that old Kasim Ali was the man to oppose his destiny." In good sooth the authorities had been sued for assistance by their friends the Woema; and as immunities, and privileges, and certain percentage upon all slave caravans, were the inducements artfully held out by the sagacious tribe, the proffered alliance had been eagerly accepted. The Woema deputation departed at sunset, after the ratification of the treaty; and a few of their scouts were alone left to serve as guides through a country hitherto untraversed by any Arab inhabitant of Zeyla. Three quarters of the entire garrison were ordered for immediate duty. Gunpowder, balls, and coffee, had been handed out during the afternoon, together with a promise of arrears of pay on return; and as the moon raised her broad disk above the still expanse of the Indian Ocean, the party remained grouped as above related, awaiting in the market-place the arrival of their leader. The impatient Osman, accompanied by the Ameer and all the holy men of the town, shortly relieved them from suspense. His scarlet _abba_ floated over his shoulders, and the gold of his headdress sparkled in the beams of the pale orb, as he placed himself at the head of the party to receive the "Salaam Aleikum" of his officers. The young chief had lately arrived from the opposite coast to take the military command, but his proud and reserved bearing had gained neither the respect nor the good-will of his inferiors. Stories were whispered about that an evil star presided over his destiny, and that the settled gloom on his swarthy brow was caused by the continued tissue of ill luck which had hitherto blasted his every aspiration after fame. His quick ear had caught the murmurings of the discontented. "Dread not events unknown," he exclaimed as he cast a withering glance over the group. "Be not down-hearted, for the fountain of the water of life is involved in obscurity. Defile not the spring of hope with the dust of despondency, for, praise be to God! the creator of the universe, if ye walk even into the dens of the lion or the pard, they will not tear you save on the destined day." Then raising his voice Osman shouted aloud, "_Seero_," move on in the name of the Prophet. "May Allah be with you! May Allah watch over you!" solemnly chanted the chief moola as he waved the holy book in the air. The troops poured through the gateway, and sweeping slowly, like a thick cloud, along the face of the plain, were soon lost in the darkness of the desert. There be always some ardent spirits to raise the drooping mass; and in the commencement of a march, as in the beginning of life, even the most down-hearted feel a spark of hope as to the happy result. But after the first burst of enthusiasm was expended, and the troops were fairly launched into the lone waste, the loose discourse and the merry laugh gradually failed, and in sad and gloomy silence they trod on for hours, sinking in the deep hot sand, or stumbling among the black blocks of lava which were thickly strewed over this tract of fire. The ominous bird of night flitted from left to right and hooted mournfully from a bare tree, as the gallant train swept past the last watering-place in the Wady of Takoosha; and many a "_wullah_" was poured forth, as the herds of antelope bounded along the same evil and portentous track, as if pursued by the exulting demon of destruction. "Man proposes but God disposes," muttered those whose secret misgivings were heightened by these prognostics: the heart of the bravest quailed under the accumulation of unlucky omens, and all felt for the moment, that they were doomed men. Little order prevailed along the motley line. Mounted on his mule and wrapped in his own dark thoughts, Osman led the van, and a group of light-limbed Woema who clustered round the chief, pointed out the direction of march. No vestige was there of a pathway, and the dark ravine and the lone hill were passed in weary succession, as each camel, and mule, and man on foot, struggled along during many hours of the hot night. A few pools of standing water left by a providential shower of rain were at length selected as the first halting-place, and, worn out and dispirited, the sons of Yemen, piling their heavy fire-arms, sank to sleep upon the bare ground. The tract of country extending from the coast to Ramudele is a bare and joyless desert, where water is to be met with only at long intervals, where little food is to be procured either for man or beast, and where the heat is like the breath of the glass furnace. But Arabs are accustomed to the arid regions of their own stony land, and as they feed like famished wolves when food is to be obtained, they can, like those gaunt animals, endure the extremity of fasting. The morning sun roused the party to renovated strength; and as the news spread through the camp that the rich town of Aussa was the object of the enterprise, and that a large force of the Woema had assembled to cooperate in the attack, no bounds were set upon the extravagant bravadoes uttered. Amru, as he strutted along with his turban placed jauntily upon his head, declared that even the gardens of Mocha and their rose-scented _houris_ might be improved by a man of taste, if provided with the requisite means; whilst the grumbling old Kasim and his compeers, cheering up for the moment, commenced a calculation as to the probable gain to be derived from sundry captives, with which on their return they had resolved to fill the market. But although a degree of hilarity had been thus restored throughout the host, the black cloud still hung over the brow of its leader. No friendly footing was established with his followers; no word of encouragement proceeded from his lips. Orders and arrangements were given in the cold, calm tone of desperation, and a feeling of coming evil shook each sturdy frame, as he strode in moody silence to his accustomed station in the line of march. For seven weary days did they manfully toil through the blank dreary desert, where Nature had spread wide her plains of barrenness, and where the image of utter desolation was but seldom disturbed by the appearance either of man or of vegetation. The heat of the day caused the lips to peel. The poisonous wind dried the marrow in the bone; and at rare intervals indeed, some tiny encampment of the wandering _Buddoo_ alone cheered the site of the stagnant pool. A few camels dotted the unbroken expanse of the forbidding plain, and here and there a withered acacia threw her thorny limbs wildly into the hot atmosphere. The camp of the Woema was pitched at Ramudele, and fer on either hand as the eye could compass, stretched along the low belt of bushes which mark the course of the river Chekaito. A confused mass of fragile mats, and animals, and human beings, lay huddled together. From the midst of the disorderly array arose a thick forest of broad-headed spears; and as the men clustered in hundreds to greet the arrival of their allies, the ferocity of their appearance elicited universal applause. The indomitable spirit of savage independence shone in their dark lustrous eyes, and their lank, but well-moulded figures were surmounted by the white ostrich feather drooping gracefully over the matted hair, the token of bloody prowess in the fight. In barbarous profusion an ample entertainment stood ready prepared. Large messes of meat and dishes of melted ghee were smoking in every quarter of the camp; and after the welcome had been received from every hand, Osman retired with the sheiks of the tribe to their temporary domicile, leaving the Arab host to resign themselves to enjoyment, and to rest after their long and weary march over the frightful Tehama. Volume One, Chapter XXIV. MASSACRE OF THE FIVE HUNDRED. Feasting and amusement wiled away the hours until the appointed day, when the necessary reinforcements having joined, the entire force moved hurriedly off towards the unsuspecting object of attack. On the third morning of their march the hills of Dugodlee were crossed, and the smiling valley of Aussa was seen peacefully stretched at the feet of the invaders. Nothing could exceed the beauty of this oasis in the desert, so strangely expanded between two gigantic mountains; the crest of the one frowning black, broken, and abrupt, whilst the other rises in steep but gradual turfy acclivity to the very summit, whence rich indeed was the wide prospect displayed. Green fields extended far as the eye could see. Flocks quietly ranged among the grassy nooks, and four lakes, unruffled by a breeze, reflected back the Iris rays of the morning sun upon the broken sides of the wooded lulls. Hemmed in by fantastic ranges, the river Hawash threaded the upper portion of the long valley like a cord of silver, and rushing into the broad expanse of Lake Hilloo, at length found rest for its troubled waters in the deep, mysterious basin, from which no visible stream adds its tribute to the blue ocean. The city of Aussa was pleasantly situated on the upper extremity of the lake, and its low, conical, thatched roofs were half concealed among the towering verdure of the shadowy trees. As the host crowned the opposite hill, herds of beasts, and crowds of human beings, streamed from every side through the stout hedge of thorns that encircled the wall, and the voice of the muezzin rising faintly from the distant mosque, summoned the inhabitants to prayer in this most unlooked-for tribulation. Confident of success, and exulting in their own numbers, and in the potent fire-arms of five hundred bearded allies, the savage host rushed whooping down the hill, their spears erect, and their souls hungry for the prey. But no shout responded from the silent town of the Mudaito, and no weapon glittered in its defence. Already had the Woema formed in serried lines, and already were the eyes and the shields of the warriors agitated by those portentous revolutions which are the prelude to the fatal rush, when a portion of the thorn fence was quietly drawn aside, and a band of aged men stepped upon the intermediate plain. A green branch waved in their unarmed hands, and their venerable white beards flowed nearly to their girdles. The sages of Aussa, whose wisdom was "as the depths of the sea," and who engrossed all the learning and holiness of the land, were there congregated together. The prejudice of the savage was aroused, and the presence of men acknowledged, to whom every dispute among the tribes had hitherto been referred, and whose decisions had been always most implicitly received. The cause of complaint, and the hope of plunder, were for the moment almost forgotten, and every spear sank to the ground as sheikhs and akils advanced to the front to receive the message from the beleaguered city. Assuming the posture of earnest entreaty, the elders of the Mudaito were not sparing of their oily words:--"All ancient differences should be fully adjusted, and the Woema should depart to their own tents, loaded with the richest produce of Aussa as a free gift of its elders; but the great conference could not be held until the morrow; the chief, Yoosuf Ali, was absent, and a swift messenger could scarcely reach him before nightfall. Would the Woema meanwhile destroy the seat of learning and of religion? Would the sons brandish the gory spear where their fathers were wont to fall prostrate in prayer? If camels had been stolen, the thieves should be delivered over to punishment, and every point of dispute should be most satisfactorily arranged." The chiefs of the Woema withdrew in order to deliberate apart, and divers were the opinions given in the ensuing discussion. The fiery Arab urged an immediate attack, now that the enemy were unprepared and fully given into the hand of the spoiler; but the words of mercy at length prevailed, and the terms having been acceded to, the wily elders, as they took their departure, displayed features lighted with a grim smile of inward satisfaction. High raged the storm in the camp of the invading chiefs. Expressions of contempt were bandied back upon the term of coward, with which Osman had taunted the Adel conclave. Swords and creeses were drawn, and stout adherents were not wanting with spear and matchlock to support their respective leaders. The veteran Sheikh nevertheless contrived to still the troubled waters. Commanding his clan to draw back, and be at rest, he succeeded in convincing the Arab that _he_ was not to be forgotten in the forthcoming division of the spoil. Finally the parties separated in sullen mood--the Woema to ascend the hills of Hy Tunkoma, where they had resolved to rest among the rocky caverns, whereas the fearless sons of Arabia remained upon the open plain on which the angry dispute had taken place. Meanwhile the town was in a state of hot fermentation. The few warriors who were accidentally at home, inflamed by the speeches of their respected elders, prepared quietly for the most desperate resistance. Swift-footed messengers stole out ever and anon through various cuts and passages in the hedge, with orders to call to the rescue every member of the tribe; and the most fearful denunciations were prepared for any who should refuse aid in this the day of national distress. Onwards over hill and dale sped the untiring scout. At his warning voice the shepherd left his flock, and the hunter stayed his successful chase. Sheikhs and akils seized spear and shield, and with all disposable force obeyed the hasty summons. Every encampment joined its quota to the fast swelling host, now streaming towards the valley of the deep waters; and long ere the moon raised her pale disk above the hills, full communication had been held with the city, and every arrangement was thoroughly matured for the attack. Blinded by the feint of abject submission, the doomed body of Arabs had encamped upon the open plain. Little order or arrangement could be observed, and not a symptom was there of military vigilance. No watchful sentry paced his steady beat, nor had any disposition been attempted for safety or for defence. All had bivouacked on the spot where they happened to be standing, and after their appetites had been sufficiently appeased, the lazy partisans lay grouped together with their long pipes, talking over the pleasant hopes of the morrow, or uttering the scornful taunt on the coward folly of their infatuated allies. The song and the keen joke of their distant country occupied the first hours of the evening, and then the greater portion sank to rest upon the green sward. But the slumbers of many were of a disturbed and fitful nature; and at midnight old Kasim Ali, whose advice, though ungraciously given, was generally attended to, repaired to the light pall under which reposed his leader. Osman was still awake, and after listening to the words of the veteran, who predicted coming evil, the first orders were given. Guards having collected under arms, matches were lit, and some preparation attempted for defence. But the warning voice had come too late. The Mudaito host, crouching warily upon the ground, had glided like serpents along the dark plain till they had gained the requisite distance for the onset; and as if starting from the very bowels of the earth, a countless array showed suddenly a bristling front, not one hundred yards from the encampment. Short was the time allowed to awaken the drowsy soldiery. A hurried exclamation from the chief to stand like men, and a feeble cry from his followers in reply, was succeeded by the rush of the savages. Forward they came, carrying their broad spears erect, whilst their black ferocious eyes gleamed at the thoughts of blood, like the fiery orbs of the basilisk. A volley from the matchlocks only checked their progress for a moment; and as the firing ceased, there arose to heaven a wild unearthly yell, which was closely followed by the fierce shouts of men in contention, and by all the sounds of terror, confusion, and despair. No walls or enclosures were there in that naked plain, or the sons of Ishmael, who well understand their defence, might have fought on more equal terms; but overwhelmed by masses of the reckless foe, and hemmed in on every side by ten times their own number, the struggle was but the effort of individual desperation. Dropping shots had continued for some time in all quarters of the straggling encampment, and Mudaito spear still clashed heavily upon Arab scimitar, when the war-cry of the Woema rose pealing among the cliffs. As the tramp of their footsteps was heard descending to the plain, a short respite was allowed. The assailants withdrew from the murderous onslaught, and the fainting hearts of the survivors again bounded with hopes of life. But transient indeed were their expectations of succour and assistance. The wary eye of the Woema had scanned, even in that uncertain light, the overpowering masses of the foe that crowded the plain; and suddenly wheeling round the shoulder of the hill, they disappeared like a wreath of the morning mist. The Mudaito meanwhile, like hungry wolves, hemming in the devoted party, awaited only the dawn of day to complete its destruction. But the remnant of the Arabs who had escaped now first found leisure to close their ranks; and, taking up a position at the foot of the isolated Jebel Gurmah, they resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible. Osman, wounded and bleeding, was still alive; himself, with Kasim Ali and about fifty men, being all that survived of the gallant five hundred who had marched from Zeyla. The excruciating pangs of thirst were added to the tortures of creese and spear-wound: and in this, their last extremity, the solemn prayer arose to the Prophet of the Faithful, as of men whose hours were numbered. As the day broke, Kasim volunteered to carry a message of capitulation to the savage army; and reposing full confidence in the white cloth waving in the hand of the veteran, each anxious eye was strained in the direction of his footsteps. Received in moody silence by the Mudaito band, a ferocious savage was about to drive a spear-blade through his unflinching breast, when the son of the Sheikh bounded suddenly to his side, and warding off the descending shaft, seized the hand of the old man, kissed it with every reverence, and addressed a few words to the tribe. In days gone by the youth Boorhan had been saved under the creese by the son of Yemen, and gratitude, rarely found in the savage, now paid her outstanding debt. The veteran's overtures of surrender having been received, he turned again towards his comrades, but a fearful sight fell on his sickening gaze. Two large bodies of the enemy had in the interim stolen round the hill, and clustering upon the very edge, were already swarming unseen to the last attack. Vain were his frantic gestures to direct the attention of his doomed comrades to the coming storm; he was seized and pinioned in the iron grasp of a multitude, and the succeeding rush was as the burst of the overcharged thunder-cloud. And feeble was the defence made by men weary, and thirsty, and unprepared. With an appalling whoop, the triumphant savages soon joined the ranks of their sheikh, and not one turbaned head remained visible above the wide plain. All had found a gory pillow in a far distant land. Creese and matchlock, mingled together, plentifully strewed the ground; and clutched in the cold hand of each grim warrior, lay the long Arab sword, dripping to the hilt in the blood of the assailant. The acacia still throws her scanty shade over the bones that whiten on the scene of this conflict. Although of the same persuasion as the invaders, the men of Aussa could neither forgive their most unprovoked attack, nor consign to a quiet resting-place the remains of the true believers. The severe loss they too had sustained, still keeps the wound festering, for well indeed in that fatal night had been upheld the character of the sturdy children of Yemen. Taken by surprise and at every disadvantage, each had fought on fiercely to the last; and although broken matchlocks and rent shields dangle in the mosques as trophies of their defeat, many a Mudaito mother long bewailed the loss of a beloved son, and many a bereaved widow mourned the absence of her liege lord, who returned not from the valley of the deep waters of Aussa. Volume One, Chapter XXV. FIALU, A DEN OF THIEVES IN THE WOEMA TERRITORIES. BARURUDDA AND KILLULLOO. After a march of three miles on the 22nd, over a stony table-land thickly strewed with the never-ending basaltic boulders, the caravan entered the territory of the Danakil tribe Woema, under the uncle and father of Mohammad Ali. A desolate hollow passed on the way, which appeared in the rainy season to form an extensive pond, was enlivened by four bee-hive-shaped wigwams, placed as usual on the site where large hot stones were most abundant, and tenanted by goat-herds, whose numerous flocks were being driven forth to graze by the Bedouin females. Their supply of water is derived from a sequestered pool, occupying a deep narrow precipitous ravine, which abounds in the Hyrax, and boasts of a few trees not dissimilar from the Casuarina. Bearing the euphonous title of Korandudda, this gully wound at the foot of the high terrace selected for the encampment--another right dreary plain, covered with volcanic pebbles, among which the dry yellow grass peeped out in scanty tufts. No traveller through the bleak barren country of the Adaiel can fail to appreciate the simile of "the shadow of a rock in a weary land;" for a tree is indeed a rare phenomenon--and when a few leafless branches do greet the eye, they are studiously shunned, upon the same principle that induces the savage to eschew the immediate vicinity of water. A few straggling acacias occupied the valley of Fialoo, half a mile to the southward, which is the usual encamping ground, and here were large herds of cattle, eccentrically marked and brindled, and glorying in superb horns raking gracefully from the brow. A fat ox was purchased without difficulty, together with a supply of fresh milk, which, if not improved by confinement in a greasy skin bag, proved nevertheless an extraordinary luxury. One of the retainers of Mohammad Ali was now despatched to acquaint Ali Abi of the arrival of the kafilah. It had all along been promised that after entering the territories of the old Sheikh, every danger was to cease, but the goal now gained, the country proved to be a perfect nest of hornets. The thieving propensities of the Galeyla Mudaito having been lately exercised upon the Woema, it had been resolved to inflict summary chastisement, and rag-a-muffins were collecting from all quarters, preparatory to a "_goom_." From morning till night the camp and tent were unceasingly thronged with scowling knaves, amongst whom were several of the Eesah--their heads decorated with white ostrich plumes in token of having recently slain an antagonist in single combat, or more probably murdered some sleeping victim. Towards evening a gang of the Abli, whose chieftain is appropriately surnamed Jeroaa, or "the thief," made a desperate attempt to carry off the best horse, upon which they had strongly set their affections; but the rogues were fortunately observed by the lynx-eyed Kakoo, henchman to Mohammad Ali, just in time to admit of the animal being recovered. The war-cry caused all to fly to their arms; blows were exchanged without any blood being spilled, although one of the Woema shields was perforated by a well-launched spear; and the ringleader of the horse-stealing gang, who had thus narrowly escaped a mortal feud, having been secured to a tree, was by his own tribe severely castigated on the spot. A dense cloud of dust rolling along from the north-eastward, closed the day. Revolving within its own circumference, and advancing on a spiral axis, it burst in full force in the very centre of the camp. The tent fell on the first outpouring of its wrath, and the consistency being so dense as to render it impossible to keep the eyes open, the party were fain to take refuge beneath tarpaulins, and stretched upon the ground, to listen with quick and difficult respiration, until the whirlwind had expended its violence among chairs, tables, and bottles. A few drops of rain ushered in the night which was passed by a newly-entertained Bedouin guard in carousing upon the choice dates of the Embassy, a bag of which had been unceremoniously put in requisition by the Ras, "in order to keep the savages in good humour," or, in other words, to save them the trouble of stealing it; and the musket announcing relief of sentries was discontinued by request of the same authority, lest the smell of gunpowder might have a prejudicial effect upon the voracious appetites of the savages. Before dawn the chief of the nomade tribe Hy Somauli arriving with a hungry and dissatisfied retinue, a halt was proclaimed, to the end that they also might be fed, pacified, and propitiated. The potentate was duly introduced by Izhak as a most particular friend, who had journeyed a long way for the express purpose of making the acquaintance of his English charge; and a deep sense of the honour conferred having been expressed, it was ascertained that the secondary object of the visit was to inquire by whose authority so formidable a party of foreigners were being smuggled through the country, and how it happened that they were suffered to build houses wheresoever they thought proper?--this last allusion having reference to the tent, which had again been pitched, and was very sapiently conjectured to be a permanent edifice. The "Kafir Feringees" therefore continued to be objects of undiminished curiosity during the whole also of this sultry day; a greasy disorderly rabble, which occupied the tent from an early hour, being continually reinforced by parties weary of the debate held immediately outside, which lasted until the going down of the sun. Each new visitor, after staring sufficiently at the white faces, invariably exclaimed "Nubeeo," "Holy Prophet," a mark of undisguised disapprobation, which was further elicited by every occurrence that did not exactly coincide with his nice ideas of propriety, such as eating with a fork, keeping the head cool under a hat instead of under a pound of sheeps' tail fat, or blowing the nose with a handkerchief in lieu of with the fingers. Paws were nevertheless incessantly thrust in at every door, accompanied by reiterations of the Dankali verb "to give," used in the imperative mood; the never-ending din of "Ba, Ba," being uncoupled with any noun designative of the commodity required--a proof that he who demanded was a ready recipient for any spare article that might be forthcoming. A long and tedious palaver, in which voices occasionally ran extremely high, at length terminated in a general uprising of the senators. Izhak was seen curling his scanty side locks in token of victory. The chief had become satisfied of the temporary nature of the tenement inhabited by the "Christian dogs," after one or two of the savages had thrust a spear-blade through the canvass; and the malcontents having to a man been sufficiently crammed with dates, coffee, and tobacco, finally took their departure, chuckling at the success of the foray, and having ingeniously contrived to turn their time to account by stealing one of the mules. Many significant glances had been exchanged over portions of the baggage that had unavoidably been exposed; but a night of redoubled vigilance was cut short by a summons to relinquish sleep and bedding at two in the morning, and a march of sixteen miles over a vast alluvial flat conducted past the Bedouin station of Ulwulli to Barurudda, on the plain of Kellali. The road led along the base of the low range of Jebel Eesah, through abundance of coarse grass concealing lava pieces and volcanic detritus, the prospect being bounded by distant blue mountains towering to the peak of Kuffal Ali. A _korhaan_ rose at intervals, wild and noisy as his chattering kindred in the south, but few other signs of animated nature enlivened the long sultry march. In the grey of the morning, a solitary Bedouin horseman ambled past with some message to the savages at Amadoo, and from him was obtained the disagreeable intelligence, which subsequently proved too true, that not a drop of water existed over the whole of the wide plain within a day's journey, and that the station beyond was thronged with tribes, collected with their flocks and herds from all the country round, at this, the oasis. After a hot dusty day the sky was again overcast, and sufficient rain fell to render every one wet and uncomfortable, without filling the pools, or checking the dire persecutions of a host of cattle ticks, which covered every part of the ground. Absence of water led to another midnight march, and the moon affording little light, the road was for some time lost, though eventually recovered by the sagacity of a female slave of Mohammad Ali's, when all the lords of the creation were at fault. This damsel, who always led the foremost string of camels, was one of those frolicsome productions of Nature, which the wanton dame pawns on the world in her most laughing moods, and the appearance of her daughter could scarcely fail to elicit the mirth of the most sedate beholder. A small round bullet head, furnished with a well-greased mop, and a pair of moist brilliant eyes, formed the apex of a figure, which, in all other respects, was that of the concentrated amazon, exhibiting a system of globes both before and behind, agitated by a tremulous vibration as the short fat legs imparted progressive motion. A blue kerchief tied jauntily over the head--ponderous wooden ear-rings, fashioned on the model of Chubb's largest lock--a necklace of white beads, and a greasy leathern apron slung about the unwieldy hips without any remarkable regard to decency--set off the corpulent charms of the good-natured Hasseinee, the exhibition of whose monstrous eccentricities in Europe, must infallibly have ensured a fortune to the showman. The road continued to skirt the low Eesah range for several miles [see Note 1] to the termination of the plain, which becomes gradually shut in by rounded hills enclosing a dell choked with low thorns, and tenanted by the _galla-fiela_ [i.e. camel-goat], a strange species of antelope, having a long raking neck, which imparted the appearance of a lama in miniature. As the day broke, flocks and herds were observed advancing from every quarter towards a common focus, and on gaining the brow of the last hill overhanging the halting ground, a confused lowing of beeves and bleating of sheep arose from the deep ravine below, whilst the mountain sides were streaked with numberless white lines of cattle and goats descending towards the water. Arriving at the Wady Killulloo, a most busy scene presented itself. Owing to the general want of water elsewhere throughout the country, vast numbers of flocks and herds had assembled from far and wide, and they were tended by picturesque members of all the principal tribes of Danakil composing the Debenik-Woema, as well as from the Eesah, the Mudaito, and their subordinate subdivisions. Dogs lay basking on the grassy bank beside their lounging masters; women, screaming to the utmost of their shrill voices, filled up their water-skins with an ink-black fluid stirred to the consistency of mire, and redolent of pollution; thousands of sheep, oxen, and goats, assembled in dense masses in and around the dark, deep, pools, were undergoing separation by their respective owners, before being driven to pasture; and, with the long files that ascended and descended the mountain side in every direction, imparted the bustling appearance of a great cattle fair. The temporary mat huts of all these nomade visitors who boasted of habitations were erected at a distance on the table-land to the south-westward of this important wady, which occupies a rugged rocky chasm opening upon the Kellali plain, and, receiving the drainage of all the southern portion of the Oobnoo range, disembogues during the rainy season into the lake at Aussa. Even during this, the hottest portion of the year, when the entire country elsewhere is dry, its rocky pools embedded in soft limestone, tainted with sulphuretted hydrogen, and abounding in rushes and crocodiles, afford an inexhaustible supply, without which the flocks and herds of the entire arid districts by which it is surrounded, could not exist. To it the horses and mules of the Embassy were indebted for a new lease of life, short though it proved to many. Two of the former and eleven of the latter had already been left to the hyaenas, in addition to the animal feloniously abstracted by the Hy Somauli, of the recovery of which Mohammad Ali affected to be sanguine. But although the pleasure of another meeting with the robber chief, whereupon he rested his delusive hopes, was shortly realised, and brought with it a train of concomitant inconvenience, no mule was ever restored. Not one of these petty Adaiel tribes are subject to that abject despotism which controls the turbulent spirits of the more powerful African nations, and, bad as absolute power must ever be acknowledged, often tends to their ultimate improvement. The influence of a chieftain is here little more than nominal. All affairs are decided in council by a majority of voices; and, were it not for the fact, that, save during the existence of a common danger, no component member of his clan works for other than individual advantage, the wild and lawless community over whom he affects to preside, might in all respects be appropriately designated a republic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1. The reader who may not feel thoroughly satiated with miles and furlongs, as embodied in this narrative, is referred to the Appendix, where they will be found detailed in a tabular form. Volume One, Chapter XXVI. OMINOUS DEBATES AND INTOLERABLE DELAYS AT THE HALF-WAY STAGE. The second knot in the string of the tedious journey had been unloosed by arrival at Killulloo, which is considered exactly half-way from the sea-coast to the frontier of Abyssinia. But although the worst portion of the road was now behind, the Embassy was destined to waste many days of existence in this vile spot, amidst annoying debates and discussions, most trying to the patience, which threatened to terminate so unpleasantly as well nigh to result in the abandonment of the baggage, as affording the only prospect left of ever reaching the destination. From the very first moment of arrival, Izhak, whose sole object ever appeared to be to render himself disagreeable, devoted his talents and energies to the establishment of a misunderstanding, upon the frivolous grounds of Mohammad Ali having been suffered to distribute a small quantity of tobacco, in order to get rid of some passing unpleasant visitors. "Who gave _that man_ tobacco?" he captiously vociferated, bouncing into the tent as soon as it had been pitched; "this is a piece of interference with my prerogatives as Ras el Kafilah, which cannot be borne." And the explanation afforded not proving at all to his satisfaction, he roundly declared his determination of resenting the insult by throwing up the charge, and returning with all his paid retainers to Tajura. Mohammad Ali being now in the heart of his own country, and having rendered himself extremely useful on the road, whilst his venerable rival had been idle, seemed resolved to assert his claim to a share in the conduct of the caravan. Izhak as unflinchingly maintained his resolution, as brother to the Sultan of Tajura--a point whereon he greatly piqued himself--to hold the reins exclusively in his own hands, or to decamp with the camels; and the Embassy, avowing themselves to be merely travellers through the country, desirous of conciliating all parties, and of interfering with none, maintained the strictest neutrality, and declined mixing at all in the dispute. It was already dusk when a visit was received from the three principal persons of the countless multitudes assembled. These were Ibrahim ibn Hameido, Akil of the Hy Somauli, whose dominion extends from Ramudele to Suggagedan; and the uncle and father of Mohammad Ali--to wit, Wayess ibn Hagaio, who divides with his brother Hagaio Lad the government of the Dermela, the Woema, the Rookhba, and the Midgan, collectively extending from Suggagedan to Waramilli--and Hajji Ali Mohammad, a hoary patriarch of most venerable appearance, commonly styled Ali Abi. As tokens of good-will they brought oxen, sheep, and bags of sour milk; but, owing to an obvious disinclination on the part of Izhak and his sulky colleagues to promote conversation, the interview was extremely stiff; and dates, coffee, and snuff having been duly handed round, the illustrious visitors, signifying an intention of discussing certain topics of importance which had yet to be adjusted, abruptly departed after the polished fashion of the country, without going through the ceremony of taking leave of their entertainers. A vast concourse of armed natives, members of all the various tribes assembled, had in the meantime convened immediately on the outskirts of the camp, where they continued during the whole night in a violent altercation, which periodical supplies of dates and tobacco proved quite inadequate to allay. The discussion was shared by Izhak and by Mohammad Ali, with their respective partisans and retainers, and it continued during the whole of the next day; meanwhile the tent being perpetually thronged with thieves and idlers, who purloined whatever fell in their way, and contrived frequent broils amongst themselves which led to the drawing of creeses in the very centre of the encampment. Throughout the whole of the ensuing night, and part of the day following, the wrangling among the tribes continued with little abatement or intermission, the litigants occasionally breaking into small parties, to hold private _kalams_, and after much mysterious whispering, again resuming their seats in the general assembly. The question of precedence between the elders, already adverted to, and the propriety of suffering so large a party of armed Franks to proceed into Abyssinia, formed the principal subjects of discussion; and the prevailing opinion on the latter question was, that all ought to be compelled to return, if not to be put to death, as unbelievers whose presence boded evil. But the opportunity was also taken of arbitrating old feuds and squabbles. Elopements were investigated and arranged, and all disputes and quarrels of a private nature fully dilated upon and digested. Hundreds of ruffians thus sate from the rising up of the sun to the going down of the same, and throughout the livelong night, formed in a wide circle; the chiefs and men of consequence in the centre, and the venerable Ali Abi, with thin floating snow-white locks, and highly ornamented weapons, seated as president of the council. During the lengthy discussion of each case, every spear stood erect in the hand of the warrior; and on the decision being promulgated, the bright blades were lowered with one accord, a portion of the Koran was repeated, and at the termination of every verse, a general hum succeeding, the concurrence of all parties was chanted in a deep stern _Ameen_! Killulloo being the great mart between the Bedouin tribes and the passing caravans, where the produce of their flocks is bartered for blue calico and other imports in demand, the news of the arrival of so large a party caused an inpouring from every quarter, and each day presented at the rendezvous some new group of exacting chiefs to be propitiated, with a fresh train of thieving followers to be fed and kept in good humour. Every greasy scoundrel possessed a vote in the congress, together with the inclination to render himself obnoxious, and the ability to add his humble mite towards the irksome detention; and it therefore became requisite to court popularity, and to canvass public favour as sedulously as at a general election for a seat in parliament. Ever and anon, a great noise and clamour, and the rushing, spear in hand, of all the idlers to one point, proclaimed a gentle passage of arms among the savages, of which, nine times out of ten, a woman was the subject--some gay Lothario having been recognised among the crowd by an injured husband. But no sooner had the cold steel fleshed from the scabbard, than the bullies were secured by the bystanders, and being perfectly _au fait_ at the business, they were easily restrained from doing each other any grievous bodily harm. In one scuffle indeed, a hot-headed fool who had with singular want of discretion engaged in a quarrel at too great a distance from his companions, got his thick wig somewhat unpleasantly shaved to the skull a hand's breadth or more--a fortunate occurrence indeed as it turned out, since the sight of blood had the instantaneous effect of closing the senatorial proceedings of the great conclave, which had been all night sitting in deliberation, so that its members were yawning in a state of considerable exhaustion and owlish stupefaction. Tolo, the quarrelsome little warrior who thus suddenly adjourned the sessions, lost three of his front teeth by the hands of the husband whom he had injured in more ways than one--but he retained possession of the inconstant lady, and publicly pledged himself, that on his way back from Habesh he would take measures which should set the matter at rest for ever. The arrival from Shoa of a slave caravan in charge of the son of Abdool Rahman Sowahil, Kazi of Tajura, added still further to the assembly in the persons of several hundred unfortunate children of all ages, who sought shelter from the fierce rays of the sun beneath the scanty trees which dotted the rugged basaltic valley of Killulloo, or lay huddled together beneath the hot shadow of an impending columnar rock. Each carried a small gourd as a water flagon, and, although generally in good spirits, some idea of the sufferings in store for these hapless beings could be formed by those who had just achieved the lower portion of the perilous and formidable road. "Have all my children arrived in safety?" inquired a corpulent old slave-merchant who brought up the rear, tenderly accosting his mistress elect, and chucking her playfully under the chin, as she flew to hold the bridle of his mule; "are all my children well?" "_Humdu-lillah_," was the reply of the coy damsel, a really beautiful Christian from Gurague, with long raven tresses, and a very pensive expression, who had been compelled to profess Islamism. Honoured with the caresses of her flit and bigoted purchaser, the poor girl had been made responsible for a drove consisting of three score little sister slaves, all distinguished like herself by a tassel of green beads in the braided hair, and who were now about to be counted by their "father." The son of the Kazi having brought letters from Abyssinia, was shortly introduced by Hajji Kasim, own cousin to Izhak, and by far the most reasonable of the Tajura party. Being in the course of conversation quietly interrogated touching the cause of the Ras el Kafilah's continued irritation, he turned at once to his companion, and solemnly adjured him by the beard of the Prophet to answer conscientiously the following questions. "A head is ahead, is it not, all the world over?" "Of course," responded the descendant of the chief justice, "there can be no disputing that fact." "A tail, too, is a tail, or I am much mistaken," continued the logician, pursuing his thesis,--and this axiom was also unhesitatingly admitted as beyond all controversy. "Well, then," resumed Kasim, whose intellects had been sharpened by a pilgrimage to the shrine at Medina; "no Kafilah can possess two heads; and so long as Ali Mohammad, who is in fact the tail, continues these underhand attempts to usurp the authority vested in the brother of the Sultan of Tajura, our acknowledged head, matters can never go on smoothly." The old man was quietly reminded that the raw tobacco, which had given rise to so much heart-burning, bickering, and dispute, was the sole property of the British party, and that, with every deference to Izhak's supreme authority, some control might with propriety be conceded to the owners over their own wares; but that as to any interference in the quarrel for the Ras el Kafilah-ship, the thing was clearly impossible-- the business having already been fully discussed and arranged with due Danakil patience, by the Sultan, in some twenty tedious conferences with the camel-owners and chiefs of Tajura. Izhak, who had been listening to this conversation with a dark scowl upon his brow, now entered as if by accident, twirling his scanty locks, and beaming with smiles; proof of his restoration to good humour being immediately afforded in the extension of his right hand, not to perform the usual ceremony of reconciliation, but in view to the palm being filled with a sufficiency of Dr Ruddiman's Irish blackguard, to admit of indulgence in his favourite recreation. Hopes were now reasonably entertained of an amicable adjustment, the real cause of dispute having meanwhile been traced to a jealousy respecting the reward which it was conjectured the leader of the caravan would receive at the hands of His Majesty of Shoa. Mohammad Ali had already been privately satisfied upon this point; and Izhak, in order to strengthen his own claim, falsely asserted himself to have received by the Kazi's son a letter from Sahela Selassie, appointing the Sultan of Tajura to the charge of all his European friends who might desire to visit Southern Abyssinia. But the congress still sat as usual. The dispute arranged to-night was renewed at morning's dawn, as though it had never formed the subject of deliberation; and at a period when the near approach of rain in the higher regions, and the consequent flooding of the Hawash, rendered every hour one of the utmost importance, not the slightest prospect of departure could be discovered, beyond the oft-repeated assurance, as often followed by disappointment--"_Bad bokra Inshallah_," "If it please God, the day after to-morrow." Volume One, Chapter XXVII. PERSECUTIONS OF THE GATHERED CLANS--PARTING INTERVIEW WITH THE AVARICIOUS CHIEFTAINS. Throughout this period of irksome detention, the thermometer stood daily at 112 degrees, and the temperature of the small tent, already sufficiently oppressive, was rendered doubly unbearable by the unceasing obtrusions of the wild, dirty, unmannerly rabble who filled the ravine. Imperiously demanding, not suing for snuff, beads, and tobacco, with paper whereon to write charms and spells for defence against evil spirits, swarms forced in their greasy persons from the first dawn of day to the mounting of the guard at night. Treating the pale-faced proprietors with the most marked insult and contumely, they spat upon the beds, excluded both air and light, and tainted the already close atmosphere with every abominable smell. Not one of the greasy crowd could be persuaded that the "cloth house," as the tent was denominated, had not been each day re-erected solely for his individual use and accommodation. Many attempted with their creeses to curtail the much coveted blue calico with which it was lined, and one lank ruffian, who was detected leisurely searching for a peg whereon to hang the skin and entrails of a newly killed he-goat, wrought himself into a positive fury on being civilly apprised that he must look for shambles elsewhere. Neither on the part of those composing the caravan was much privacy allowed during the sultry day, when seclusion was so highly desirable. Here, as throughout the march, offensive camel-drivers obtruded themselves without any regard either to time or season; occupying the chairs, composing themselves to sleep in groups upon the beds or on the table; and, whilst they picked their ears and teeth with the pens, or employed the knives in the pleasing operation of paring their filthy talons, spitting without remorse wheresoever they listed. Hating and despising a Frank with all the zeal of the bigot, they yet insisted upon shaking hands, on each intrusion, with the most scrupulous attention to Danakil etiquette, and with unhesitating alacrity devoured the biscuits and swallowed the coffee of the "Christian dogs." The despotic arrangements enforced by the Ras el Kafilah, although doubtless materially conducive to his own personal convenience, and to that of his unaccommodating followers, were moreover far from enhancing the comfort of the Embassy. Boxes and bales, after having been unceremoniously dashed upon the ground, in utter disregard of remonstrance or of the fragile nature of the contents, had on this occasion, as on the termination of each march, been piled in a circle, each component heap consisting of three sides of a square, which, with the addition of a few mats thrown over the top, formed a habitation fully as commodious as a Dankali is ever accustomed to. Any attempt to disturb the economy of these tenements, by referring to the boxes employed in their construction, being regarded as an act of premeditated injury and insult, was stoutly resisted; and as no portion of the baggage once removed to the tent, was ever received again without a battle, the materials of comfort or occupation were very rarely obtainable. In the selection of his load at Tajura, every self-willed driver had suited his individual inclinations, and as no persuasion could now induce him to deposit any portion in a spot where it might be under surveillance, the provisions, placed beyond the reach of their owners, but accessible to every hungry knave, were perpetually pilfered and purloined. Universal somnolency on the part of the hired guard, had rendered two European sentries and an officer of the watch indispensable throughout the journey; and in such a nest of robbers as Killulloo, the precaution was more than ever requisite. In a fine climate, with a manly foe in front, a night watch is far from being a disagreeable duty. Here it was beyond all things annoying. Pacing up and down over the same re-trodden ground, to keep the heavy eyelids on the stretch, in order to prevent the prowling Bedouin from pilfering a bag of dates, or to detect the lurking assassin, who in the dark creeps like a wild beast to perpetrate his dastardly deed, is but a sorry business; and it was rendered more particularly hateful from the rank offensive steam, which arose thick and hot from the small circle in which the beds were spread. Stifling exudations from the fetid mouths of one hundred and seventy camels that fed on the most disgusting rubbish, filled the suffocating atmosphere, which was impregnated with atoms still more vile from the rancid sheep's-tail fat, wherewith every Dankali is so liberally besmeared. Among the motley races congregated at this crowded watering-place, were the endless tribes of Adaiel, with broad-headed spear and shield of high antiquity--the coast Somauli, armed with light lance and diminutive wrinkled buckler, scarcely larger than a biscuit--and his much-dreaded Eesah brother, carrying a long stout bow of the ancient form, with the double bend, and a quiver of poisoned arrows slung by a lion's tail. These latter were by far the most conspicuous, as well as the most agreeable figures. Their togas, although not less filthy than those of their neighbours, were thrown more gracefully over the brawny shoulder; their picturesque weapons were borne with an ease that habit can alone impart; and, notwithstanding that the white trophy floated over their raven locks in token of bloody deeds, nearly all boasted of laughing, intelligent, and far from unpleasing countenances--a delightful relief at all events from the scowling downcast look of the exacting, perverse, and impracticable Danakil. The Woema, deeming unlawful the use of the bow in their own persons, maintain upwards of one hundred Somauli archers, originally prisoners of war, who, although naturalised among their conquerors, retain their own language, and never intermarry. The hunting portion of the Eesah tribe, who are designated "Bone," usually carry a rude bamboo flute, the wild plaintive cadence of which is believed to charm the ostrich. Their hair, with the aid of suet, is often dressed in the figure of the "pudding" worn by children during their first lessons in the art of walking; and deeply graven on the forehead of each are to be seen the masonic square and compasses. Universally skilled in woodcraft, the ferocious subjects of ibn Fara may be styled a nation of hunters, many being proprietors of trained ostriches, which graze during the day with the flocks in the open plain, and have their legs hobbled at night, to preclude wandering. These gigantic birds are employed with great success in stalking wild animals, a trained donkey being also in constant use--lashed below the belly of which, the archer is carried among the unsuspecting herd, when his arrows, poisoned with the milk of the _euphorbia antiquorum_, deal death on every side. It is to the skill of these wild Nimrods that the Danakil are chiefly indebted for their shields, which are manufactured of the thick hide of the oryx, here styled the Baeza. Two bucklers of a foot or eighteen inches in diameter, fetching each four _tobes_ of blue calico, value two dollars, are obtained from the animal's fore hand; and from the hind quarters are cut others of smaller dimensions, such as are in use among the pastoral Somauli. Ostrich feathers are also principally obtained from the Eesah; the unsullied plumes, when stripped from the fleet-footed bird, being deposited for the convenience of carriage, in portions of the gullet cut to the proper length. The process pursued by these children of the desert in the preparation of smaller fowls for the table, if not strictly in accordance with the directions of Dr Kitchener, can, at all events, claim ingenuity. From some superstitious motive, the feet are chopped off with the creese, and the carcase, undivested of the entrails, having been incased in wet clay, is thrust into a hot fire; on removal whence the feathers are left adhering to the paste, and in culinary phraseology, "the bird is done." Crowds of Bedouin shepherdesses, and females belonging to all the various nomade tribes, were likewise assembled in the Killulloo ravine, and the cry of "_wurkut, wurkut_!" "paper, paper!" was incessant on the part of the softer sex, who, with a licence unknown and a freedom unenjoyed by the daughters of Eve in other Mohammadan countries, were unremitting in their attendance and flirtations, without exciting the jealousy of their lords. From the lips of these damsels, "_Mahisse, Mahisseni!" "Manina teni_?" "Good morrow!" "How do you do?" came not disagreeably; and trinkets such as they loved, being civilly solicited, instead of imperiously demanded, the applicants were rarely unsuccessful. Amongst those who boasted of the most feminine and attractive appearance, were the fair partner and sister of Mohammad Ali--their wedded and single state being as usual distinguishable, from the coif of blue calico which marks the wife, and by the long uncovered plaited locks of the maid. Assembling with many of the frail sisterhood at the door of the tent, where numbers were usually lounging in careless attitudes, they one day demanded that the palm of beauty might be awarded. Unwilling to throw the apple of discord, the mirror was placed in their hands, that the coquettes might judge for themselves; and after each in succession had started involuntarily at the sight of her own greasy charms, and had defended the individual features whereof she was mistress, to the utmost of her eloquence and ability, the verdict was finally found in favour of the virgin daughter of the venerable old sheikh. Although the majority of the slaves imported with the caravan from Abyssinia were of tender years, and many of them extremely pretty, they did not excite that interest which might have been anticipated. Children accustomed to sorry fare and to harsh treatment in their own country, they had very readily adapted themselves to the will of their new masters, whose obvious interest it was to keep them fat and in good spirits. With few exceptions, all were merry and light-hearted. Recovered from the fatigues of the long march, there was nothing but dancing, singing, and romping; and although many wore an air of melancholy, which forms a national characteristic, the little victims to a traffic so opposed to every principle of humanity, might rather have been conjectured to be proceeding on a party of pleasure, than bending their steps for ever from their native land. A very limited number of Shankelas and a few natives of Zingero excepted, the whole consisted of Christians and Heathens from Gurague, whence are obtained the "red Ethiopians" so much-prized in Arabia. Kidnapping has consequently been there carried to an extent so frightful as to impart the name of the unhappy province as a designation for slaves generally. Nearly all of both sexes, however, had already become passive converts to the Mohammadan faith, and under the encouraging eye of the bigoted drivers, oaths by the false Prophet resounded through the camp. Nine-tenths were females, varying in age from six to thirteen years, and all were clad alike in dirty cotton smocks of Abyssinian manufacture, adorned in some instances with cuffs of blue calico. Their long dark tresses, elaborately greased, were plaited into thin cords with tassels at the extremity, and interwoven about the head with a band of coloured thread, to which was suspended a distinguishing cluster of cowrie shells. Bead necklaces, pewter ear-rings, bracelets, and anklets, decorated the persons of the prettiest; and these ornaments, forming the stock in hand of the trader, are invariably resumed on each bargain effected, in order to be transferred to some victim hereafter to be purchased. Each slave was provided with a cruse of water, and had walked the entire distance accomplished from the heart of Africa, with an endurance that in children especially of such tender years was truly surprising. A very few only, who had become weary or footsore, had been mounted on mules or camels, or provided with ox-hide sandals, which in some measure protected their tender feet against the sharp lava boulders. The males, chiefly boys, had been entrusted with the charge of camels, and required no compulsion to render themselves useful; and of the females, some, who boasted personal charms, occupied the position of temporary mistresses. Four large handfuls of parched grain, comprising a mixture of wheat, maize, millet, and gram, formed the daily food of each; and under the charge of the most intelligent, the respective droves slept huddled together on mats spread upon the ground. Some surly old drivers or wanton youths there were, who appeared to prefer the application of the whip to the more gentle persuasion of words; but in the trifling punishment inflicted there was nothing to remind the spectator of the horrors of slavery as witnessed in the western world. Few caravans ever traverse the deadly Adel plains without losing some slaves at least by the sultriness of the climate, or by the wanton spear of the adjacent hordes. Three of the fat merchant's children had been murdered shortly after leaving Abyssinia, and at his instigation a foray was now concerting among the united warriors of the two caravans, having for its object the destruction of the neighbouring Wurboro Galla, whose families were to be swept into captivity. In this unprovoked slave-hunt the Embassy were strongly urged to take part, but positively refusing the aid of British muskets in furtherance of any such object, the project was finally abandoned, more especially when a huge, brawny Shankela, the property of the Kazi's son, was one morning discovered to have effected his escape during the night, doubtless with the design of carrying to the unsuspecting tribe a timely intimation of the gathering storm. Ominous _kalams_ meanwhile went on as usual, and fresh reinforcements arrived to take share therein. Villains of every degree continued to slide in as if hung upon wires, to stand cross-legged within the door of the tent until their curiosity was satisfied, and then to assume a seat in the congress. Hajji Abdallah and Elmi, the nephews of Ali Shermarki, listening by turns, brought hourly reports of the progress making towards final adjustment, and "_Bokra, Inshallah_!" "To-morrow, God willing!" the now undeviating reply to every interrogatory relative to departure, had become a perfect by-word in every mouth. At length, on the 28th, it was pompously announced by the Ras el Kafilah that every point at issue had _bona fide_ been satisfactorily arranged--that the water-skins were to be filled in the evening before the flocks and herds should return from pasture to trouble the pools--and that the journey was positively to be resumed betimes on the morrow. Upon this welcome assurance the three potent chieftains already named were again received, though with closed doors at their own request, in order that each might be invested with a turban and an honorary mantle of scarlet broad-cloth, as rewards of their villainy. A most difficult point of etiquette had now to be overcome. The Akil of the Hy Somauli, whose liege subjects had abstracted the mule from Fialoo, was the bosom friend and partisan of Izhak, whilst the illustrious personages who sat in regal dignity on either side were near and dear relatives of Mohammad Ali; and the rivals respectively watching with jealous eye every act that could be construed into favour or partiality, would infallibly have fired at any preference shown in the presentation of these enviable distinctions from the British Government. The presents were therefore placed on a table immediately opposite to the respective parties, and thence simultaneously launched with the same arm into the laps of the confronted recipients; when each bundle, even to the envelope, being found the exact counterpart of the others, no grounds for jealousy or heart-burning could be devised. Misfortune had during this interim overtaken the "Sahib el bayzah," the imp whose acquaintance was formed in the harbour of Tajura. Detected in the mischievous dissemination of evil tales respecting his clansmen, and in circulating others of an equally discreditable tendency, purely the fruit of his own fertile invention, affecting the throng at Killulloo, he had been taken to task by Abroo ibn Aboo Bekr, upon whom he drew his creese without further ado. The bloodthirsty little savage, who had not numbered his fourteenth year, being seized, was tied to a tree, and most severely chastised. His passionate cries and shrieks under the lash had reached the tent during the interview now happily terminated, and no sooner was he taken down than he came blubbering to lodge his complaint. No satisfactory reply being elicited, the precocious youth unsheathed his knife, with which he viciously went through the form of disembowelling a prostrate foe. His feelings thus relieved, he dried his eyes, and, with a significant toss of the head, remarked as he walked away, "'Tis of no consequence, `_maphish_,' no importance whatever; but by the grace of God I shall cut the throat of that cousin of mine, before I am many days older!" Volume One, Chapter XXVIII. RENEWAL OF DEBATES BY IBRAHIM SHEHEM ABLI, SURNAMED "THE DEVIL"--FINAL ESCAPE TO WARAMILLI. Affairs nevertheless began now to assume a more desperate appearance than ever. The night of this day of good tidings setting-in with a storm of dust, followed by a heavy fall of rain, a party of Bedouins scoured unperceived through the camp, and in spite of every precaution swept off many articles of trifling value. Amongst the booty was a tub of sugar-candy, which, on the hue and cry being raised, the rogues were fain to abandon, together with the bedding of one of the escort. An incessant bombardment of large stones was kept up during the whole night from the thick underwood in the vicinity, directed as well against the sentries on duty, who paced the same weary ground for the ten thousandth time, as against the position occupied by the sleepers, one of whom, having emerged for a moment from the tarpaulin which the rain had rendered indispensable, received a severe contusion. Mohammad Ali, in a state of evident alarm, came as soon as the shower had abated to say that there existed no prospect of the march being resumed in accordance with the solemn promise of the Ras el Kafilah; and that feeling longer unable to answer for the lives of the party amongst such a congregation of lawless ruffians, he was desirous of conducting to Shoa on horseback all who felt so disposed, leaving the heavy baggage to be secured by his father as far as circumstances would admit. Should matters unfortunately reach the decided crisis which there seemed every reason to apprehend, the son of Ali Abi was clearly the staff whereon to rely, his intercourse with Europeans having rendered his manners more frank and ingenuous than those of his selfish and shuffling rivals; but although _kalams_ and altercations had again commenced, a sense of duty for the present precluded the adoption of his project. Morning of the 29th dawned upon no preparations for departure, and a fresh source of detention was indeed found to have arisen from a new claim for precedence put in by Ibrahim Shehem, the litigious member of the tribe Abli, which ranks in the Danakil nation next to that of Adali, to which the brother of the reigning Sultan belongs. Another tedious day of insult and debate ensued; but the question was at length disposed of by the congress, who decided the fiery little warrior to hold place second to Izhak in the conduct of the kafilah, to the exclusion of Mohammad Ali, through whose tribe the party were now to pass. Again it was announced with due formality that all matters at issue were peaceably and satisfactorily arranged, and several bales of blue calico, with quantities of snuff, tobacco, and dates, having been distributed among the weary disputants, they were finally induced to disperse, each carrying his _tobe_ folded in triangular form, and stuck, as if in triumph of his plunder, like a placard, at the end of a slit stick. Ibrahim ibn Hameido, Akil of the Hy Somauli, left at his departure a clump of twenty bold spearmen to escort the Embassy to the banks of the Hawash; and, after shaking hands with each of the European party, to the benediction "_Fee aman illah_," bade the whole "_Tarik is sulama_" God speed upon the road. Ibrahim Shehem Abli, appropriately surnamed by his compatriots "Shaytan," or "The Evil One," carried a great soul under a very diminutive person; and being a perfect Roostum in his own estimation, was one of those who honoured the humble tent of the Embassy with a much larger share of his presence than could have been desired. No sooner was it pitched than the consequential little man strutted in as if by previous invitation, and, with an air that left no doubt as to the side on which he considered the obligation to lay, spread his mat in the least convenient position that could have been selected to the lawful proprietors of the interior. By virtue of a claim which it had heretofore been difficult to understand, he considered himself entitled to the receipt of rations in addition to the handsome pecuniary remuneration extorted at Tajura, and to keep him out of mischief, he had daily obtained in common with the Ras el Kafilah two large handfuls of rice. Elated by his recent advancement, he this evening, after sleeping some hours on the table, suddenly bounced upon his legs, and assuming an attitude of mortal defiance, which his contemptible presence rendered truly diverting, exclaimed with the most exaggerated want of courtesy, "You Franks don't know who I am, or you would treat me with more respect. I am Ibrahim Shehem Abli, who slew the chief of the Mudaito in single combat, and"--placing the hand of one of his audience in a frightful chasm of the skull, which afforded ample room for three fingers and a half--"here is the wound I received upon that occasion. Do you conceive that I can always consent to receive the paltry pittance of rice with which I have hitherto been put off? Double the quantity immediately, and see that I have my proper share of dates and coffee too, or by the head of the Prophet we shall not long continue on our present friendly terms." An Arab of desperate fortunes, the ancestor of this pugnacious little hero, is said to have concealed himself, clothed in white robes, among the spreading branches of a tree; and his partisans having induced the simple-minded villagers to repair to the spot in the dusk of evening, the intruder, on being discovered, was accosted deferentially as a spirit. Revealing himself under the character of a great Arabian warrior, who had shun his thousands in the battle, the man of valour was entreated to descend, and become one of the tribe; but to this he would by no means consent until a pledge had been passed to recognise him as its chief, and assign as his own the whole extent of country visible from his elevated perch, which done, he was pleased to alight, and became the father of Braves. 'Tis well for his posterity that the experiment had not been made in a later day, or the cotton robe would have been stripped from the shoulder of the warrior, and a lifeless trunk been left beneath the tree to mark the interview. Throughout the sojourn of the Embassy at Killulloo, Izhak had peremptorily insisted upon the tent being struck at sunset, lest the display of so much white and blue cloth might excite the cupidity of the Bedouins, and the preparations making to carry this despotic order into effect, may perhaps have been the means of ruffling the never very placid temper of his now second in command. The aversion of the Ras el Kafilah to any thing like a habitable structure being well understood, the unhoused party amused itself at his expense, by the erection of stone walls of considerable extent, as a shelter during the coming night of rain. "In the name of Allah," he exclaimed, blustering up to the spot, and kicking over a portion of the fabric with the pointed toe of the very sandal that had suffered so severely during the disagreeable debate at Ambabo,--"in the name of Allah and his Prophet, what is the meaning of all this? We shall have our throats cut to a man if you people persist in this folly: there will be no rain to-night!" But the rain did fall in torrents, notwithstanding the assurance of the Ras; and although the ravine was now comparatively clear of ragamuffins, stones continued to rattle at intervals against the awning erected for the shelter of the European sentries. That portion of the party off duty, steamed, after an hour's drenching, under thick heavy tarpaulins, whilst the fluid glided unheeded over the sleeping persons of the paid escort, who were well-greased and oiled, like wild ducks prepared for a long flight. On the last day of the month, after nearly a week's tedious detention in an insalubrious and soul-depressing spot, surrounded by black basaltic rocks, where little forage could be obtained, where water, although abundant, was extremely bad, and where the persecutions of prying savages, from whom there was no escape, were unceasing, the Embassy was again permitted to resume its march. Every hour had seemed an age, and "_Galla gassetoi_," the well-known cry to load, had therefore never been listened to with more heartfelt delight. Until after the rear of the string of camels left the ground, and Izhak was fairly seated on his mule, it was scarcely possible to believe that some fresh cause of detention would not be discovered; but the debates were at last over, and the litigants, weary of raising new objections, suffered their victims to advance in peace. The road wound up the Killulloo Wady, and thence over a barren rise strewed with obsidian, and with stones, the common pest of the country, to Waramilli. An interesting sight was presented in the line of march of a tribe proceeding in quest of water to the northward--a long line of dromedaries, homed cattle, oxen, sheep, and goats, interspersed by women and children, scantily clad in leathern petticoats, and laden with the rude date matting of portable wigwams, or the still ruder implements of household gear. Whilst the females thus bore heavy burdens slung across their breasts or led the files of camels, upon which rocked the long, raking, ship-like ribs of the dismantled cabin, the lazy lords sauntered ungallantly along, encumbered with naught save the equipment of spear and buckler, the ferocious aspect of all giving ample presage of the intentions entertained towards any party less formidable than themselves. Total absence of water on the route usually pursued had determined the Ras el Kafilah, after much discussion and deliberation, to adopt the lower and shorter road, which, in consequence of the frequent forays of the Galla, had been for some years closed to caravans. But notwithstanding that so much invaluable time had been lost at Killulloo under such provoking circumstances, and that the march finally made thence fell short of seven miles, he again persisted in halting, thus affording to Hajji Ali Mohammad and Wayess ibn Hagaio an opportunity of rejoining with a party of troublesome Bedouins. The renewed discussions, which did not fail to follow this influx of savages, together with the artful assurances given of the danger to be apprehended on the road selected, had nearly prevailed upon the unstable Izhak to take the kafilah back to Killulloo, for the purpose of proceeding by the upper road; but Ibrahim Shehem Abli, stepping forward in his new capacity, drew his creese, and performing sundry not-to-be-mistaken gestures, swore vehemently upon the sacred Koran to rip up the belly of the very first blockhead who should attempt a retrograde step--his object doubtless being to thwart the views of Mohammad Ali, whose tribe, occupying the upper ground, would derive advantage from the transit of the Embassy by that quarter. Waramilli is the usual encamping ground of a section of the Gibdosa Adaiel, but their place was fortunately empty. Completely environed by low hills, it proved insufferably hot; and no water was obtainable nearer than Wady Killulloo, now distant more than two miles from the bivouac; but the party were in some measure reconciled to detention in this spot by the arrival from Tajura of a special messenger, bringing letters which bore very recent dates. Nevertheless the Dankali to whose hands the packet had first been consigned had nearly perished from intense heat and want of water in his attempt to pass the Salt Lake; and being compelled to relinquish the journey, had returned to the sea-port nearer dead than alive. Petty thefts without end were committed by the lawless rabble who had followed the caravan and located themselves in the immediate neighbourhood. Ibrahim Shehem Abli, totally regardless of the character due to his exaltation, was detected in the very act of drawing a cloth with his foot over a pair of pistols, whilst he cleverly held the proprietor in conversation. His design was to obtain a reward for their restitution,--a trick in common practice by the camel-drivers and hired escort; and this was by no means the first exhibition of his own knavery. But it was some consolation to perceive that, although the Franks were of course the principal sufferers, depredations were not altogether restricted to their property. Numerous shields and cloths were abstracted from too confident Danakil; the Ras el Kafilah's sandals were purloined; and at the going down of the sun, a proclamation went forth through Ibrahim Burhanto, the common camp-crier, that Wayess ibn Hagaio, Akil of the Woema, having lost his spear, all parties possessing knowledge of the nefarious transaction were required to give information of the same to the proprietor, as they hoped to prosper! Volume One, Chapter XXIX. NAGA KOOMI--MEINHA-TOLLI--MADERA-DUBBA, AND SULTELLI. Two windy nights, during which it blew a perfect hurricane, were passed in unabated vigilance, owing to the number of ruffians lurking about the broken ground, the waters whereof tumble in the rainy season into the rugged chasm of Killulloo. At an early hour on the 2nd of July, a voice went through the camp, summoning the slothful camel-drivers to bestir themselves; and the incessant growling of their disturbed beasts, which arose in various keys of dissatisfaction from every part of the circle, followed by drowsy Danakil imprecations, and by the merciless dismantling of huts, to the destruction of bales and boxes, presently announced that the work of loading had duly commenced. A march of fifteen miles over a country more level than usual, though sufficiently rough and stony withal, led through the Doomi valley to Naga Koomi. An abutting prong of land, under which the road wound, was adorned with a cluster of bee-hive-shaped huts styled Koriddra, and at its base the _Balsamodendron Myrrha_ grew abundantly, the aromatic branches famishing every savage in the caravan with a new tooth-brush, to be carried in the scabbard of the creese. The encampment occupied a wide, dreary plain, bounded by the high mountain range of Jebel Feeoh; and although water was said to exist in the neighbourhood, it proved too distant to be accessible. The Ras el Kafilah, at whose hands the Franks experienced about the same amount of respect and tolerance as a rich Jew in the days of Coeur de Lion, here imperiously demanded daily rations of rice and dates for the band of spearmen left as an escort by the Akil of the Hy Somauli; and on being informed that this very unreasonable request could not be complied with, in consequence of the tedious delays on the road having reduced the supplies so low as to be barely sufficient to last to Abyssinia, his brow became suddenly overcast, he relapsed into his wonted ill-humour, rejected a tendered sheep with indignation, and flung out of the tent in a passion. It rained heavily during the greater part of the night, and an early summons to rise found the party again drenched to the skin. The inclement weather had not by any means tended to restore Izhak to smiles; and his mats having proved quite insufficient to preserve him from full participation in the pleasures of the nocturnal bath, the effect upon his temper was but too manifest. "Don't whistle, don't whistle!" he exclaimed with a sneer to one of his charge, who was so amusing himself within hearing; "what are you whistling for? I have loaded the camels under a prayer from the sacred Koran, and you are doing your best to break the spell, and call up gins by your whistling. `_La illah illallah, wo Mohammad rasul illah_;'" "there is no God but God, and Mohammad is the Prophet of God." "_Fein tero_? In the name of the three kaliphs where are you going to?" again vociferated the testy old man, in a terrible passion, to the same luckless individual, who, with a loaded rifle in his hand, had now left the road in pursuit of an antelope. "`_Taal henna_!' `Come back, will you!' _Wullah_! you'll be getting your throat cut presently by the Buddoos, and then I shall be asked what has become of you. Can't you keep the road? This ugly defile is named `the place of lions,' and one of them will be eating you anon." Another march of fifteen miles brought the caravan to Meinha-tolli, where some hollows had been filled by the recent heavy fall of rain; but large droves of horned cattle having soiled in them, the muddy water was so strongly tainted as to be barely drinkable under any disguise. The country throughout bears signs of violent volcanic eruption of later times, which has covered one portion with lava, and another with ashes and cinders. At the outset the road led over the usual basaltic ground, strewed with fragments of obsidian, but after crossing Arnoot, a deep ravine choked with refreshing green bushes, in which the exhausted beasts obtained a most welcome supply of muddy water, the stony valleys gave place to sandy plains, clothed with short yellow grass, and intersected by low ranges of hills. One wide level expanse, termed Azoroo, stretching at the foot of the peaked mountain Aiulloo, was pointed out in the distance as the scene of a signal victory gained about six years since by the Woema over their predatory foes the Mudaito. The bones of upwards of three thousand of the combatants which now whiten the sands, have caused the desertion of the best road by the superstitious Danakil. With the escort were many warriors who had taken part in this engagement, and they described the conflict, which commenced in a night attack, to have raged, spear to spear, and shield to shield, throughout the entire of the following day, towards the close of which the "red house" was routed. As usual, in the evening we sent for a sheep from our flock, but the Ras el Kafilah stoutly asserted that the whole had been transferred to himself for consumption by the escort of Hy Somauli, and although eventually compelled to relinquish one, he did so with an extremely bad grace. Thunder and lightning, with severe squalls and heavy rain, again closed the day--and great confusion and discomfort was occasioned by a sudden whirl of wind, followed by the fall upon the party, of the saturated tent, from the wet folds of which escape was not easily effected. A dreary night succeeded. The watery moon shed but a dull and flitting light over the drenched camp; and the pacing officer of the watch, after an hour's exposure to the pitiless hurricane, calling up his relief, threw himself with aching bones upon the inundated bed. "Did I not tell you what would be the consequence of your abominable whistling," grumbled old Izhak, the first thing in the morning; "old Ali Arab is too sick to be moved, and one of my best camels has strayed, Allah knows where." The rope with which the legs of the lost animal had been fettered, was meanwhile rolled betwixt his hands, and sundry cabalistic words having been muttered whilst the Devil was dislodged by the process of spitting upon the cord at the termination of each spell, it was finally delivered over to the Dankali about to be sent on the quest, and he presently returned successful. Ahmed Mohammad, the messenger who had been despatched from Tajura with an Arabic letter for Sahela Selassie, requesting assistance on the road, returned during this delay. He had passed the night in a Bedouin encampment, the proximity of which had been betrayed by the barking of dogs at each discharge of the musket when the sentinel was relieved. The courier brought advices to the Embassy, and native letters for Izhak and Mohammad Ali. Owing to the jealousy of the frontier officers of Efat, he had been subjected to many days of needless detention, during which the king had led a distant military expedition; and although compliments and assurances of welcome were not wanting, they were coupled with the unsatisfactory intelligence that the party must trust entirely to its own resources, as in the absence of His Majesty, no assistance whatever could be rendered. The rainy season having now fairly set in, it was believed that the pools on the upper road would furnish a sufficient supply of water, and the course was accordingly shaped towards it. Emerging upon the extensive plain of Merihan, bounded to the westward by the lofty peaked range of Feeoh, the route skirted the Bundoora hills, thickly clothed with grass, and varying in height from six hundred to a thousand feet. Wayess, the chief of the Woema, formerly held his head-quarters in this neighbourhood, at Hagaio-dera-dubba; but the Eesah Somauli making frequent inroads, and at last sweeping off all the cattle of the tribe, it was abandoned. The hill ranges on both sides have sent lava streams almost to the middle of the plain, but generally it is covered with a fine light-coloured soil, strewn with volcanic ashes and small fragments of obsidian--the grass, improved by the recent showers, having partially acquired a greenish tint. A singular detached hill composed of fresh-water limestone, contained a few impressions of small spiral shells, whilst the surrounding rocks exhibit the usual cellular basalt. No one could conceive that the rugged arid wastes whereon he trod, had ever in themselves been either productive or populous. Saving the labours of the termites, exhibited in endless mounds of vast dimensions, no monument of industry redeems the inhospitable landscape; yet these measureless plains, no less than the barren mountain ranges so lately traversed, did formerly, as now they might, afford hordes of hardy soldiers, that under a bold leader, such as the mighty Graan, who in the sixteenth century unfurled the banner of the impostor, and at the head of a countless army overran and nearly destroyed the Ethiopic empire, were admirably adapted to possess themselves of the more fertile plains and provinces adjoining. Whatever may have been the virtues and endowments of these olden warriors, their posterity, like the dwellings they inhabit, are sufficiently rude and degenerate. Wady Bundoora, clothed in a thicket of verdant bushes, had been selected as the halting ground, and its appearance promised a copious supply of water; but every pool proved dry, and the march was therefore continued to Madera-dubba--a second and similar ravine, which was confidently expected to afford the desired element. Disappointment was however again in store, and the rain not having extended thus far, the usual reservoirs were referred to in vain. Worse than all, information was here received that not a drop of water would be found at the next station; whilst, owing to the wear and tear of skins, added to the too confident anticipations indulged, barely a sufficient supply for even one day accompanied the kafilah. It had been determined under these untoward circumstances, to move on at midnight; but after an insufferably hot day, rain again interfered. Unfortunately it did not fall in sufficient quantities to be of much utility; a few pints caught in tarpaulins, which, with all available utensils, were placed for the reception of the precious fluid, proving very inadequate to the wants of the thirsty party. At 3 a.m. the caravan advanced down the valley, with cool refreshing weather, and a fine moon shining brightly overhead. From the summit of a tumulus of black lava, marking the point where the undulations of the Bundoora hills trend towards the mountains of the Ittoo Galla, an extensive view was obtained with the dawning day, over a country bearing the most extraordinary volcanic character--huge craters on the one hand towering to the clouds, whilst on the other sank the wide valley of Kordeite, through which lay the high road to the desolate plains of Errur. A few pools of muddy rain-water by the wayside were eagerly drained by the sinking cattle, but a deep ravine, bordered with green trees and bushes, was explored to no purpose; and after crossing the fine open plain of Eyroluf, abounding in gazelles and swine, the road led round the base of a remarkable cone, styled Jebel Helmund, which had long been in view. Isolated, and four hundred feet in height, with a crater opening to the north-eastward, which would seem at no very remote period to have discontinued its eruption, it is surrounded by a broad belt of lava, some three miles in diameter. This has formed towards the plain a black scarped wall, rising from fifteen to twenty feet, of which the wooded crevices teemed with quail, partridges, and guinea-fowl, and were said to be so many great dens of lions. The sultry afternoon was already far advanced, when the weary eye was refreshed by a glimpse of the verdant plain of Sultelli, a perfectly level expanse, so ingeniously overgrown with pale green vegetation as to furnish an exact representation of a wide lake covered with floating duckweed, around which numerous camels were busily browsing on the rank herbage. During the greater part of the year, this plain presents one vast and delightful sheet of water; but the fairy form of the light-footed gazelle was presently seen bounding over the delusive surface, and although clothed throughout with the most tantalising verdure, it yet proved perfectly dry. The camels were milch females, capable of subsisting for days, and even for weeks together, without drinking, whilst their milk serves to quench the thirst of their unwashed Bedouin attendants. Beedur, the chief of a section of the Debeni, who resides in this spot during the rainy season, had long since decamped with his clan to more distant pastures. Every hollow in the rich black soil abounding with shells, was vainly explored; and after a seventeen mile march, the party, weary and thirsty, were fain to encamp on the opposite side, and giving up the search as fruitless, to rest satisfied with the nauseous contents of water-skins filled at the putrid pools of Meinha-tolli--a second, and if possible, a worse edition of the impurities brewed at the Salt Lake. Both amongst men and cattle the utmost distress prevailed. A suffocating blast blew incessantly, heat the most intense was reflected from the adjacent black rocks; and nearly all of the horses and mules were so completely exhausted that there appeared no prospect of dragging them other sixteen miles to the nearest reservoir. But towards midnight the beneficent flood-gates of Heaven were providentially opened, and a violent storm bursting over the camp, in less than half an hour filled every ravine and hollow to overflowing, and afforded a plentiful and truly seasonable, although transient, supply. Tearing up their pickets from the saturated soil, the dying animals thrust into the turbid stream that rolled through the encampment their hot noses, which for two entire days and nights had been strangers to moisture, and filled their sunken flanks almost to bursting. Cackling troops of guinea-fowl flocked to the pools from the adjacent heights. Embankments were thrown up, and wells excavated; and European, Danakil, and camp-follower--Christian, Moslem, and Hindoo--all drenched to the skin, falling together upon their knees in the posture of thanksgiving, sucked down the first copious draught of palatable water that had been enjoyed since leaving Fialoo. Volume One, Chapter XXX. FIELD OF EXTINCT VOLCANOES. OASIS OF YOOR ERAIN MAROO. Singular and interesting indeed is the wild scenery in the vicinity of the treacherous oasis of Sultelli. A field of extinct volcanic cones, vomited forth out of the entrails, of the earth, and encircled each by a black belt of vitrified lava, environs it on three sides; and of these, Mount Abida, three thousand feet in height, whose yawning cup, enveloped in clouds, stretches some two and half miles in diameter, would seem to be the parent. Beyond, the still loftier crater of Aiulloo, the ancient landmark of the now decayed empire of Ethiopia, is visible in dim perspective; and looming hazily in the extreme distance, the great blue Abyssinian range towards which the steps of the toil-worn wayfarers were directed--now for the first time visible--arose in towering grandeur to the skies. Overwhelmed by violent subterranean convulsion and commotion, which, reversing the order of things, has again and again altered the former appearance, the face of the country for miles around the base of the larger volcanoes, presents one sheet of lava. Activity would not appear to have extended much beyond the immediate neighbourhood of each; but there is a connection between the whole cluster visible in small lava streams and a vast quantity of volcanic debris, converted into humus, in the adjacent valleys. Yet it is by no means apparent that these alone have contributed to form the present surface, the south-eastern side of the field terminating in much older formation of wacke. Neither would any one of the craters appear to have very lately poured out the fiery stream. Ibrahim Shehem Abli indeed deposed with an oath to having seen Father Abida in flames about twelve years previously; but, on further investigation, there seemed reason to believe that the conflagration he witnessed must have been confined to the long grass with which portions of the steep sides are clothed. The well-timed deluge of rain which fell during the night had been so eagerly drunk by the thirsty desert, that when the morning dawned the only traces of the storm were presented in numberless channels left by the torrent, with here and there a muddy pool, around which the guinea-fowl were still rallying in clamorous troops. Every portion of the road having been saturated, and rendered far too heavy for the jaded camels, advance was of necessity delayed until noon, by which time they had become sufficiently dry to admit of the resumption of the journey. A bare alluvial plain, skirting the base of the Koomi range, led to a few acacia trees of larger growth than had heretofore been seen. They occupied a hollow styled Ras Mittur, which is the point of union of the two roads from Killulloo, and hence the caravan struck off across a grassy plain, abounding in herds of graceful _mhorr_. The course followed the eastern border of the field of truncated cones; and in the fresh green hue of the bushes with which the cindery tract is studded, was afforded abundant proof of the fertility of its decomposed lava. Passing a cluster of Bedouin huts, whose inmates were watching their grazing herds of milch camels, the road next threaded a narrow belt of verdant jungle. This suddenly opened into the wide plain of Moolu, studded in every direction with flocks of sheep and goats, assembled from all parts of the country round; and in a deep hollow in the very centre lay the attraction--the oasis of Yoor Erain Maroo, a noble sheet of water surrounded by a belt of hillocks, and measuring during even this season of drought, a full mile in diameter. It was indeed a sight most refreshing to the eye. Troops of waterfowl of various plumage sailed over its glassy surface. Birds chattered amongst the autumnal branches of the numerous trees, whose tall stems, half immersed, rose thickly in the centre, and the cool waters of the basin afforded to the weary and travel-stained pilgrims the first unlimited supply of pure liquid that had been revelled in since bidding adieu to the shores of India. In so sultry a land, where, throughout the desert and forbidding plain. Nature has dispensed the first necessary of life with a most niggard hand, those pools which have not a constant supply of running water soon become adulterated by various decompositions of organic and inorganic matter. Wacke cannot resist any long exposure, and hence fluid in contact with it imbibes oxide of iron and muriate of soda; whilst flocks and herds, corrupting the element in a still more offensive manner, not only impart a fetid taste and smell, but stir up the deposited mud, which emits a volume of sulphuretted hydrogen. Yoor Erain Maroo was free from all these impurities, and its reservoir affords a never-failing supply; but the surrounding country is said during the wet season to be extremely unhealthy, violent storms and incessant rain compelling the shepherds to abandon the plains and wadies, and retreat with their flocks to the neighbouring mountains. From Waramilli to Moolu, the country is chiefly occupied by the sub-tribes of Debeni, under the chiefs Beedur and Boo Bekr Sumbhool, the latter of whom usually resides at Hamoosa, and the former at Doomi or Sultelli. Although not always to be trusted, these wanderers appear under a friendly garb; but the lion-hearted guides and escort, with Izhak at their head, had, from the first moment of leaving Killulloo, been doing their utmost to impress upon the minds of their audience the extreme danger to be apprehended on this portion of the road, from the various wild hordes now adjacent, whom they painted as perfect dare-devils. "The Galla are pagans," quoth Ibrahim Shehem Abli with a bigoted sneer, "and, uncircumcised knaves that they are, never heard either of Allah or the Holy Prophet; and as for the Mudaito, although nominally Moslems, they have little more religion than their infidel neighbours. But wait until I get an opportunity," he added, with a caper and a sardonic grin, as he unsheathed his creese for the purpose of going through the figure of disembowelment, "only wait until I find an opportunity, and, _Inshallah_, we shall square accounts." Many were the harrowing tales that had been called to mind by the first loom of the Abyssinian mountains, touching the toil-worn traveller, who, having surmounted all the perils and privations of the road, and arrived within sight of the promised land, had been cut off at the very last step towards the goal. Perpetual strife is waged betwixt the Galla and Mudaito, and the plain of Moolu forming a sort of neutral ground between the countries inhabited by the rival clans, it proves one continual scene of foray and bloodshed. The heathen, watching like hawks from the tops of trees and eminences, pounce, whenever opportunity offers, upon the flocks and herds of the true believers: retaliation is not slow to follow, and thus the feud is well and incessantly sustained. During the latter part of the march, the Ras el Kafilah was nearly thrown into hysterics by the sudden desertion of one of his charge, who, in defiance of the thraldom, which rendered all more like prisoners than freemen, had made up his mind to dine that night upon venison, and had accordingly taken up arms against the alluring herds of sleek and timid antelope that, with white discs on their cruppers, bounded in all directions before the advancing string of camels. Repeated interrogatories of "_Fein toro_?" "whither are you going?" were launched in a commanding tone of voice after the truant, without eliciting the smallest attention or reply. A shot was fired--a fat buck fell--and the successful Nimrod, dismounting, proceeded to secure the spoils; an operation which brought from their occupation in the adjacent pasture, two ancient Bedouin crones in wrinkles and leathern aprons, to be spectators of the dissection. Izhak was old and captious, and not seeing very clearly, the apparition was too much for his shattered nerves. "Allah, Allah!" he peevishly exclaimed, seizing his broad-headed spear from the hand of his henchman, and violently kicking the flanks of his jaded mule towards the spot; "merciful Providence, what childish folly is this? Is the commander a babe that he thus trifles with the safety of the caravan? I did fancy that he possessed some sense, but this is positively the act of a madman. Look at those Buddoos, they will cut his throat immediately, and then we shall have a pretty blood feud, involving the lives of half a dozen Danakil." Despite of all the twaddling old blockhead could do to prevent it, the haunch was nevertheless brought in, and its appearance hailed with considerable delight. But it might almost as well have been abandoned to the vultures of the air, since the Persian cook, who had taken alarm at the menace extended to Quilp in the prosecution of his kennel duties, peremptorily refused to convert the venison into _kababs_, upon the grounds that the knife of the true believer had not passed across the throat of the victim. "Whose dog is Hajji Abdallah Kurmani?" he exclaimed in tones that might have been believed to issue from a dilapidated bagpipe; "whose dog is he, I repeat," throwing the haunch upon the ground, "that he should be invited to deal with any such abomination? Allah and his Prophet defend us, but the Hajji would as soon think of polluting himself with the touch of the unclean beast." This spirited public declaration was by the Moslem audience received with the rapturous applause it claimed; and the worthy pilgrim, fairly carried away by the over-boiling of his virtuous indignation, was actually proceeding to wreak his last vengeance upon the venison, when arbitrary measures were adopted, which resulted in the imposition of twenty-four hours' fast in excess of the many inflicted by the apostle whose shrine he had visited at the holy city. Now the Hajji bore a striking personal resemblance to Hudibras, and like that hero, regarded discretion as being the better part of valour. Since the melancholy disaster at Goongoonteh, he had encumbered himself with a musket and a modicum of cartridges; but even by his warmest admirers it must be confessed that there had never in his demeanour been observed the slightest indication of a design to throw himself away by rash exposure. Entertaining the highest respect for himself, the prudent son of Iran was rarely heard to speak of Hajji Abdallah save in the respectful third person singular. The words of Ibrahim Shehem had sunk deep into his soul, and after the affair of the venison, it was not a little diverting to hear him, in his wonted croaking accents, apostrophise the folly and the infatuation which had prompted him to brave the wilds of unexplored Africa. "Hajji Abdallah was never taxed with lack of common sense," he exclaimed musingly in self-reproach. "Allah knows there be many greater blockheads in this sublunary world than his servant the Hajji. Is it not wonderful that the chief cook to Khwajah Mohammad Rahim Khan Shirazi, and master, too, of recipes for no fewer than nine-and-thirty pilaos, should have proven himself such an ass, such a son of a burnt father, as voluntarily to get in the way of abuse for refusing to _kabab_ unhallowed meat which died without the knife or the Bismillah; and, worse still, in the way of having his own throat divided every minute of each day and night by these bloodthirsty infidels? `_La houl willah koowut illah billah ali ul-azeem_,' `there is no power nor virtue save in God.' What true believer in the fair province of Kurman would ever have suspected Hajji Abdallah of bringing his beard to so vile a market?" Volume One, Chapter XXXI. MENACE OF THE DAR MUDAITO. MOOLU ZUGHIR, AND BURDUDDA. Boo Bekr Sumbhool and Datah Mohammad, co-chiefs of that section of the Debeni styled Sidi Habroo, shortly sneaked into the camp at the head of an appropriate retinue of ruffians, and having been duly propitiated with tobacco and blue calico, deputed a son of the latter to represent the tribe, as an earnest of the black mail having been levied. Mohammad Ali proposed under these circumstances to halt a day, both in order to profit by the first opportunity enjoyed of purifying raiment, and, which was of still higher importance, to refresh the way-worn beasts. But the Ras was in such dire alarm of the Bedouins and Galla, that he had been with the utmost difficulty prevailed upon to encamp near the water, and no persuasion could now elicit his consent to tarry. Columns of smoke which arose high and dense from the country in advance, did not tend to diminish his apprehensions. A shadowy human figure stealing along the summit of the gloomy cliffs which overhung the camp, redoubled his mental perturbation; and anathematising Moolu as the most dangerous nest of thieves and cut-throats along the entire road, he would that minute have resumed the march in the dead of night, had not heavy rain compelled him to bite his nails until a late hour the following forenoon, by which time the camel furniture had become dry. But the event proved that there were on this occasion some grounds for uneasiness. During the process of loading, three mounted Mudaito scouts, wild-looking beings, rode into camp in a suspicious manner; and immediately after moving out of the bed of the hollow, whence the road led over an extensive plain covered with low shrubby undergrowth, the Ras el Kafilah, who momentarily waxed more fidgety and excited, called a general halt, and assumed his shield and brass-mounted spear. "Look well to your weapons," he observed with a truly commander-in-chief-like delivery, "and let all the proprietors of fire-arms lead the van with myself. Two thousand of the Dar Mudaito are out on a foray against the Galla of the neighbouring hills, and I have received certain intelligence that they purpose this day to fall upon the caravan. May Allah protect his servants in the coming strife!" Suitable defensive preparations were made without delay, and the camels formed ten deep to admit of the whole line being enfiladed by rifle balls; whilst the Danakil and Hy Somauli escort, with loins girded for the fight, brought up the rear. Scarcely had these arrangements been completed, when a band of fifty warriors were descried advancing in a compact body over the brow of an adjacent eminence. Carrying their round bucklers on the left arm, and bristling their bright spears, they pressed rapidly towards the front of the line, "on hostile deeds intent." Out to meet them sprang the fiery little champion Ibrahim Shehem, who panted to flesh his creese in the body of another Mudaito, and twenty stout warriors, casting off their upper garments to give freedom to their limbs, were not far behind him. The caravan remained motionless to watch the event, and the formidable line of rifles fronted the foe, who no sooner perceived the muzzles bearing directly on their phalanx, than they lowered their spears to demand a parley, and described themselves to be _en route_ from Jebel Abida to join their clansmen, who were gathering at the waters of Maroo, preparatory to a "_goom_" or onslaught, upon their hereditary enemies, the Alla and Ittoo Galla. The march was resumed immediately upon this banditti passing quietly to the rear, and Ibrahim Shehem Abli relapsed into his wonted composure; but the foot-prints of several other parties being shortly afterwards discovered, the beaten track was abandoned altogether, in order, if possible, to avoid meeting the marauders in number, when the plunder of so rich a caravan would doubtless have been essayed. An advance guard reconnoitred the country round from the summits of trees and termite cones, which alone admitted of an uninterrupted view over the thick verdant bushes that clothed the entire face of the plain. These were interspersed with rich yellow grass, swarming with antelope, hares, bustard, and florikin; whilst fine cedar-like camel-thorns stretched their long arms over troops of pintadoes, coveys of partridges, and spur-fowl. Not a trigger was suffered to be drawn, lest the report should attract to the spot the much-dreaded Mudaito; but although hundreds of warriors might have been ambushed in the dense covert unperceived, it was safely traversed without further hostile demonstration; and the country becoming gradually more and more open, the view extended to the fine peaked range near Afrubba, inhabited by the Ittoo Galla--war-hawks of the mountains, who are distinguished for their sanguinary ferocity. A cloud of dust in the extreme distance being believed to prognosticate a rush of these wild horsemen, the caravan was again halted ere it had proceeded far over the open plain; but the magnifying powers of a pocket telescope converting the objects of alarm into a troop of scudding ostriches, Izhak's confidence once more returned. The residue of the march lay over cracked and blackened soil, from which the vegetation had been burnt the preceding day, the embers still smouldering in various directions, although the columns of smoke had ceased to ascend. Neither fuel nor water could be discovered at the ground selected for the bivouac, but a small supply of the latter requisite was obtained on the way, from a muddy brook trickling over the charred surface of the soil, and filling the gaping cracks and crevices on its progress towards the lower ground. This strange phenomenon arose from the wady at Moolu Zughir, near Afrubba, some miles to the southward, having been filled to overflowing by the recent heavy rain. Moolu Tani, or "the other Moolu," afforded a most alluring spot of bright green vegetation just sprouting from the rich soil which here abounds, and among it the cattle luxuriated until dark. Sundry invocations were now performed with horrid yells, to enable one of the savages to divine the coming of rain; but a night passed in vigilance by sentinels posted on ant-hills, which afforded an uninterrupted view over the surrounding plain, gave place to dawn without any molestation from thunder-storm, Galla, or Mudaito. Betimes in the morning the march was resumed across an alluvial plain, which a few days later in the season would probably have presented a swamp impassable to camels; but no difficulties were now experienced, and the caravan passed merrily on towards a conspicuous barn-shaped hill, which had been visible for many miles. At its base, among sundry other cairns, stood a mound of loose stones encircled by a thorn fence, and almost concealed under the forest of withered boughs that decked every part. Beneath this grotto reposed the sainted bones of Othman, a celebrated Tukhaiel sheikh of days long gone. Amidst prayers and ejaculations in honour of the departed, according to the custom still prevalent in the southern parts of continental Europe, each warrior of the Bedouin escort first in order, and then the drivers as they passed, having previously plucked from some adjacent tree a branch of verdant mistletoe, adorned the venerated pile; and long ere the arrival of the last camel, it had exchanged its sober autumnal garb for the bright green mantle of spring. Picturesque clumps of magnificent camel-thorns of ancient growth here studded the face of the landscape, and, covered with golden blossoms, perfumed the entire atmosphere. The myrrh tree flourished on the hill-side, and the "_garsee_" was first found under a load of fruit resembling the "_leechee_." The bright crimson pulp possesses an agreeable acidity, and the kernel that it envelopes pleases the Danakil in a mess of sheep's-tail fat. No wood had hitherto been seen sufficiently dense to invite the elephant; but in this covert the giant evidently existed; and the oryx, appropriately styled "_Aboo el kuroon_," "the father of horns," ranged in considerable numbers; the half-devoured carcase of one which had been slain the preceding night, attesting the presence also of the "king of beasts." The agility of the Adaiel in reclaiming a refractory camel, although often witnessed with admiration, had never been more prominently exhibited than during this march. One of the most skittish and unmanageable animals of the whole hundred and seventy, had very judiciously been selected by Izhak for a large chest containing medical stores, and the halter was usually held by a gentle slave girl, whom it was the delight of the Sahib el Bayzah to cuff and maltreat. Taking a sudden whim into its head, the restive beast, after the performance of sundry preliminary plunges to ascertain if the load were firm, dashed off the road, galloped over the feeble maid, and, smashing her water-gourd into a thousand fragments, roaring and bellowing, pursued its headlong career across the stony plain. Phials and bottles were undergoing a most destructive discipline, when a fleet-footed savage, who was in hot pursuit, and had already twice turned the fugitive, darting across its orbit, abruptly terminated these gratuitous and uncouth gambols by a sudden twitch of the nose-rope, which brought owner, dromedary, and medicine-chest simultaneously to the earth, with a crash that sounded ominously enough, although not the slightest injury was sustained by either. Meanwhile the caravan had reached Burdudda, where a large pool of dirty rain-water extended strong inducements to encamp, and again led to a violent altercation between the authorities. Apprehensive of misunderstandings with the Bedouin shepherds in the vicinity, Izhak had sapiently resolved to proceed some miles further to a waterless station, whilst Mohammad Ali, insisting that the kafilah should halt, commenced the work of unloading. The camels of either party were for some time divided; but the Ras, after trying the stratagem of advance without shaking his rival's resolution, finally yielded up the point with a bad grace, and all set up their staff. The outline of the highlands of Abyssinia, which had been first indistinctly visible from Sultelli, now stood out in bold relief; and to the southward the view was bounded by the lofty hills of the Afrubba, Farsa, and Azboti Galla, where coffee grows wild in abundance. An intermediate extensive prospect is obtained over the thickly-wooded Moolu plain, stretching some thirty miles in the direction of Errur. This latter is the residence of the old sheikh Hajji Ali Mohammad, and the head-quarters of the Debeni, who take hereditary share in the waters of the valley with their brethren the Woema. It forms, moreover, a place of resort for every wandering vagabond in the surrounding country who possesses a sheep, a goat, or an ox, or has the ability and the inclination to assert his privilege of erecting a temporary cabin; and thus the recurrence of each season of drought, compelling the abandonment of less favoured pastures, pours in its migratory swarm to swell the more permanent muster upon the sultry plains of Errur, and to create the strife inseparable from a gathering of these lawless hordes. Volume One, Chapter XXXII. A TALE OF THE PLAINS OF ERRUR. Aylia was the comeliest of the dark-eyed daughters of the desert. Sixteen tropical summers had already ripened a form modelled in that exquisite perfection which nature is wont to bestow upon her wildest works, and the native symmetry of the sylph-like maid was yet unblemished by any of those barbarous improvements wherein her nation delight. Her sparkling eye, fringed with long silken lashes, in brilliancy eclipsed the pet gazelle that ever bounded by her side; and the graceful gambols of the sportive fawn would seem to have been inspired by the fairy footstep of its blooming mistress. Luxuriant hair fell in elf-like tresses over her ebon shoulder. Teeth of ivory whiteness were revealed by a radiant smile that ever played over her animated features; and few indeed of her virgin charms were veiled under the folds of the slender drapery that belongs to the Bedouin shepherdess. [Note 1. The following narrative, recounted by one of the Woema escort, although necessarily enlarged, is as strictly literal as the embodiment of the subject would admit; and it will convey to the English reader a better picture of life in the desert than could be painted in a less connected form.] The maid tended her father's flocks in the vale of Errur, which forms a constant scene of predatory incursion on the part of the ruthless savages that hover round the border. When least expected, the Galla war-hawks of the adjacent mountains were wont to stoop from their rocky fastnesses, and to sweep away the riches of the Woema. The treacherous Eesah, although ready to extend the hand which should have denoted friendship, was nothing loath to the appropriation of other men's chattels; and throughout all the nomade Adel hordes, whose tents were erected during the more sultry months, the feud and the desultory skirmish favoured the inroads of the foe. Amongst the surrounding clans, even her own tribe was not notorious for its honesty, and by frequent depredations abroad, it invited the foray of reprisal. Thus the brawl and the mortal encounter would follow the stillness of indolent existence with a rapidity not less startling than frequent, and none knew what the next hour might bring forth. But fear had no place in the breast of the daughter of old Ali. Nursed in the lap of strife, the Bedouin blood of her roving sire coursed through her young veins, and she pursued her Arcadian occupation beneath the spreading boughs of the venerable acacia, chanting to her gazelle the wild ditty that revealed the thraldom of her heart, or listening to the bleat of her black-faced lambs from the Hejaz. Often had the shrill war-whoop rung through the wild valley, and the rush of the gathering warriors who flew to answer the summons, arrested her plaintive song, but only lately had it caused her to spring to her feet with a bosom throbbing audibly; and now she would sigh as she sank again upon the smooth bank that formed her favourite seat, for the swain for whom her soft eyes had been strained across the flickering desert was not among the number of those that had swept past, and she knew not why, nor whither he had gone. Many were the ardent suitors who had wooed the hand of the blooming Aylia, and often-times had she been sought from her avaricious father, who viewed the still expanding attractions of his daughter as a certain source of increase to his ill-gotten and idolised wealth. None, however, had yet been able to produce the price set upon the damsel's charms, neither had any possessed an advocate in her eloquence. Her heart had already been tacitly relinquished, but her hand she knew to be in the gift of her sire, and therefore not her own to bestow. Ambeesa it was who had silently gained this ascendancy over the green affections of the maid. The milch goats of Irripa, his mother, were by her driven daily to pasture, and his wigwam was within spear's throw of her own. The twain had known each other from earliest infancy, for they came upon the world's stage in the self-same hour. They had feasted and they had played together as children; and now that their young hearts had become entwined, it was his wont to accompany the nymph into the vale, where they would hold converse the livelong day. The vapid language of the savage admits of but a limited embodiment of the softer passions; but the simple courtship of the uncultivated was ably sustained. Aylia felt the force of her charms when she saw the warrior grasp the spear and the shield, without which no Bedouin ever crosses the threshold of his cabin--in order that he might chase the fawn that she had coveted; or when he drew water from the well in her gourd, to replenish again and again the ox-hide that formed a drinking trough for her thirsty flock. And Ambeesa felt himself amply rewarded when the slender fingers of the blooming girl decked his hair with the aromatic herbs that she had plucked in the wild meadow, or she counted over the ewes that they were shortly to possess in common. Ambeesa was ever in the foremost rank when the spear was thrown over the shoulder of the brave; and successful in every foray, he had won wealth as well as fame. None appeared more frequently in the many-tailed leopard spoils which form the garb of victory; and the white feather always floated above his raven locks. But his father having been treacherously murdered by the Eesah, a blood feud clung to the old man's sole descendant; and it formed to him a source of self-reproach, that although he had for years dogged the footsteps of the assassin, the opportunity had never yet occurred when he might wash out the stain! A skulker amongst his clansmen at a distant oasis, the cowardly savage had profited of his deep cunning to baffle the creese of the avenger; and he still vaunted his trophy of blood without any account of its acquisition having been required. But the day of reckoning and of retribution was now nigh at hand. The mother of Ambeesa had counted out the dowry demanded of any who should espouse young Aylia, and had claimed the girl as her daughter-in-law elect. At the sight of the beeves and the fat rams and the trinkets and the trumpery cloths, the sole remaining eye of the old sheikh glistened with a lustre that it had not known for years; but his haughty soul could ill brook the thought of his daughter being wedded to one whose father's death thus rested unavenged. "Get thee hence, young man," he exclaimed sternly, shaking his silvered locks, after a short inward conflict with his avarice--"Get thee hence, nor show thy face again within my doors as a suitor until thou hast appeased the spirit of thy murdered sire. The blood of him to whom thou art indebted for existence crieth aloud to thee for vengeance; and _Wullahi_, until the grave of Hassan shall have been soaked by thy hands, thou shalt not talk to Ali of his daughter." Ambeesa sought not his dark mistress, but snatching the spear and buckler which had been carefully deposited in a corner of the cabin, stalked forth without uttering a syllable. Passing his own hut in mental abstraction, he took the road to the brook, and throwing himself upon his face, drew a deep draught to allay the fever that consumed him. Then whetting his brass-mounted creese to the keenest edge upon a smooth stone, he muttered a dread oath betwixt his clenched teeth, and strode moodily across the sandy plain. The great annual fair had already assembled at the sea-port of Berbera, and tribes from all parts of the country were flocking thither with their motley wares. The curious stalls of the fat Banians from India were thronged from morning until night with barbarians from the adjacent districts, who brought peltries and drags to be exchanged; and the clamour of haggling and barter was hourly increased by the arrival of some new caravan of toil-worn pedlars from the more remote depths of the interior, each laden with an accession of rich merchandise to be converted into baubles and blue calico at a clear net profit to the specious Hindoo of two hundred per cent. Myrrh, ivory, and gum-arabic; civet, frankincense, and ostrich feathers, were piled in every corner of his booth; and the tearing of ells of Nile stuff and Surat cloth, and the counting out of porcelain beads, was incessant so long as the daylight lasted. Withered beldames, with cracked penny-trumpet voices, were meanwhile actively employed in the erection of new edifices; and more and more camels were ever pouring towards the scene of primitive commerce, loaded with the long elastic ribs, and the coarse date matting which form the skeleton and shell of the nomade's wigwam. It was dusk when Ambeesa entered the long centre street of this busy scene. He had journeyed many days alone and on foot, and his mantle and his arms and his lofty brow were alike deeply stained with the disguising dust of the desert. A gang of _Bones_, with a stalking ostrich, driving before them sundry asses laden with the spoils of the chase, arrived at the same moment from the opposite direction. Rude parchment-covered quivers, well stocked with poisoned shafts, hung negligently by their side, suspended by the tufted tail of a lion, and with their classic bows over their wiry shoulders, the gypsey votaries of Diana advanced swearing and blaspheming towards the Eesah quarter of the straggling encampment. The light which gleamed through the black goat-hair awning of a Gurague slave-merchant, fell upon the features of the wild party as it passed; and Ambeesa's heart beat high with exultation when, in the person of one whose matted locks were decorated with a dirty ostrich plume, he fancied he could recognise the very foe of whom he was in search. The archer was in truth a most truculent-looking knave--one who, if his visage did not strangely belie him, might have been the perpetrator of any given atrocity. The tail fat of four Berbera rams encrusted his head in a perfect helmet of tallow, and the putrid entrails of the antelope he had last slain, were slung in noisome coils about his neck, to the pollution of the atmosphere he breathed. His repulsive front displayed through the accumulated filth of forty years a perfect maze of mystic figures in tattooed relief, on which were imbedded amulets stitched in greasy leather; and the distended lobes of his enormous ears were so loaded with pewter rings, that not another could have been squeezed in. A gap, consequent upon the loss of five front teeth in a recent brawl, made room for a quid of no ordinary dimensions. Two small sunken blear eyes, which appeared to work upon a swivel, squinted alternately, as the inflamed balls were revealed by turns according to the employment of the wearer's sinister vision; and on his meagre sunken cheek yawned a seam five inches in length, which precisely corresponded with a gash known to have been inflicted by the youth's father during a certain moonless night at Errur, when a stab in the back had aroused the veteran from deep sleep to his mortal struggle. "Stay you here, Moosa," quoth one of the bowmen, addressing this captivating hero, as they stopped before the doorway of an unfinished cabin at no great distance beyond the rover's pall,--"tarry you here, and _Inshallah_, we'll turn out these lazy wenches to unload the asses." The name had not been lost upon Ambeesa, who, like all of his bigot creed, placed the firmest reliance in fate. He had sworn never to return until he should have given the body of Moosa to the wild beasts, where the vultures might pick out his eyes. The object of his weary journey was by the interference of destiny in his favour, already within his clutches. He who murdered his sire was assuredly alone with him in a dark lane, and Aylia was without doubt his own! "_Wogerri maani, wogerri maani, wogerri maani_" repeated the Woema coldly, as he extended his open hand towards the doomed victim in token of amity. "_Wogerri, wogerri, wogerri_," carelessly returned the savage thus accosted, at the same time passing his greasy fingers mechanically over the palm presented. The same triple salutation again reiterated, was thrice returned; and it gradually dwindled away to an assenting "_um hum_," in itself fully as frigid as the wearisome repetitions of inquiry had been deeply treacherous. Moosa stooped to shake the pebbles from his dilapidated sandal. His bare back was towards the Woema, for his garment had fallen from his brawny shoulder. It was enough. Muttering through his closed teeth an inaudible invocation to Allah, Ambeesa suddenly drew his creese, plunged the razor-edged blade to the very hilt into the yielding spine of his unsuspecting foe, tore the vaunting white feather from his greasy locks, spumed the prostrate carcase with his foot, spat upon the unseemly features now distorted in the agonies of death, and fled into the wilderness. Months had elapsed, and the festive season had now returned at which the Bedouins annually celebrate their weddings. Many a dark-eyed damsel had been led by her happy swain to the nuptial wigwam, when a gayer procession than usual was to be seen passing up the centre street of the encampment at Gaiel. Eight wrinkled matrons led, brandishing swords and creeses with truly Amazonian gestures, whilst they danced to a wild song in which all joined chorus to the dissonant thumping of a kettle-drum. The charms of the maiden bride who followed, and had been long betrothed, were screened from vulgar gaze beneath a canopy of blue calico, home by a party of the village belles, splendid with porcelain jewellery and grease--their arms, like those of the sister Graces, entwining each other's waists; whilst every idle blackguard that could be mustered, swelled the nuptial train. At intervals, the music of the tambourine gave place to a shrill vocal solo, when the nymphs pirouetted in a mazy circle; and the procession, after thus parading through the hamlet, was preceded on its return by a party of dirty urchins bearing the dower in ornamented baskets woven of the wiry leaf of the palm. Massive ear-rings of brass and copper were amongst the treasures, and the much-prized, though far from becoming coif of blue calico which forms the badge of the wedded wife, had not been forgotten. Aylia was still the fairest of all the daughters of her tribe, and Ambeesa ever the foremost when the spear was thrown over the shoulder of the warrior. Happiness and content reigned in the rude hut. No harsh word had ruffled the existence of the young pair, and the stranger never passed the door without the ready draught of milk being proffered, or the kind word exchanged. But in accordance with the barbarous usage of the Adel Bedouin, the wife was to remain an inmate of her father's dwelling, until she should have become the mother of three children. 'Twas mid-day in the sultry summer months, and the fiery sun poured his fiercest rays from his meridian throne. No human eye was able to endure the broad glare that pervaded the vast sandy plain of Errur, which at intervals was scoured by towering whirlwinds, imparting the aspect of a manufacturing town with its huge steam-engines at work. All animate nature shrank under the scorching heat, which had even curled the few scanty tufts of withered vegetation. The stillness of death pervaded a desolate scene over which floated the treacherous mirage. Not a creature moved, and no sound was heard save the roar of the angry whirlwind tearing every thing before it, as it swept in reckless wrath across the encampment, eliciting while it raged among the frail mat tenements of the location--unroofing some and filling others with dust and pebbles--a curse from the drowsy savage whose rest it had disturbed. Suddenly a shrill cry arose in the distance, the well-known tocsin for the assembly of the men-at-arms. Electrical in its effect, every slumberer started to his feet, and each hut, which had for hours been silent as the tomb, poured forth its warrior, armed and ready for the fight. On the verge of the plain was descried a band of the Alla Galla driving off a troop of camels, and with the points of their spears goading the awkward animals to a grotesque gallop. Their remoteness, and the unnatural speed to which they had been urged, imparted, through the medium of the mirage, the appearance of dismembered animals flying in portions through the deceptive atmosphere. Now a head attached to a long neck was separated from the body, and elevated many feet above its proper place; and now animated legs of exaggerated length could alone be perceived flitting fast over the sultry desert. Unattached tails danced in the quivering vapour, and the entire distance was alive with fragments of men and dromedaries, which seemed to have been hurled through the air by the bursting of an exploded mine. Galla and Woema, pursuer and pursued, scoured for some hours over the sandy waste; and it was near sunset when the pagan marauders were overtaken on the confines of their own territories. A sharp conflict ensued; and two on each side having fallen, the booty was retaken, and the unbelievers put to flight by the sons of the Faithful. From the door of her father's wigwam Aylia watched with inward misgivings the return of the victors; and as she saw the bodies of the fallen borne upon the shoulders of their comrades, her young heart throbbed audibly, for her newly-wedded husband was one of those who had gone forth. As her straining gaze fell upon the still gory corse of him she loved, a flood of hot tears dimmed her lustrous eyes, and uttering a piercing shriek, she sank senseless at the threshold. Roused again to life, the bereaved girl filled the hut with her doleful cries, and shriek succeeded shriek as she bewailed her fallen condition. Death would indeed have been almost preferable to the lot accorded by her destiny. The property brought at his marriage by the deceased was resumed by his grasping relatives, and the late light-hearted wife became once again a slave under the roof of her avaricious parent, there to lead a life of drudgery until another wealthy suitor should pay the dower fixed upon her charms. But the light elastic step was gone, by which Aylia had erst been distinguished above all the Woema maidens. The full black orbs had lost their wonted lustre, and the radiant smile no longer beamed over her faded features. The orphan pledge of her first love clung to a widowed breast, and the heart that beat beneath was broken by the untimely fate of the brave youth Ambeesa. Volume One, Chapter XXXIII. THE ONE-EYED FAMILY. HAO, AND FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE HAWASH. The Arab chieftain of the Foudthli, of whom flying parties still infest the deserts of Aden, is renowned for the possession of two thumbs upon the dexter hand--a proud distinction by which his ancestors have been recognised from time immemorial. Sheikh Oomer Buttoo ibn Ali, akil of the Tukhaiel, who occupy the country from the oasis of Yoor Erain Maroo to Hao, a few miles eastward of the Hawash, glories in the loss of the sinister eye; and he is reputed to have forfeited it by an hereditary visitation, which through every generation has disfigured his ancestors in like manner--no single head of the illustrious line having been known to possess two eyes! This venerable Polyphemus visited the camp after dark, attended by his hopeful son and heir, who has already qualified for the succession; and after receiving each a piece of blue calico in the clandestine manner which these savages prefer to a more orthodox public presentation, they slunk away, well satisfied with their booty. A group of slatternly females belonging to the Ittoo Galla had sauntered carelessly into camp with ox-hides for sale, and tobacco, the produce of their own high lulls; and their abrupt departure as the evening shades drew on, had led to suspicions anent the object of their visit. At the going down of the sun therefore a caution was promulgated by the Ras, enjoining a vigilant look out for Galla and wild beasts; and his earnestness might almost have led to the anticipation of a rush of wild equestrians through the encampment, or a charge of hungry lions from the adjacent gloomy thicket, before the termination of the first watch. But the cry of "wolf!" had been too often dinned into every ear; and although both elders and escort had sworn that this night at least should be one of wakefulness, no surprise was elicited by the disappearance of their bushy heads, one after the other, beneath the mats--an example which was speedily followed by all the Europeans off duty, as the rain began again to tumble in torrents, "Et veterem in limo ranae cecinere querelam." The fear of attracting the "Buddoo," as the much-dreaded marauders of every class were generically designated, still invariably brought an order which there was no gainsaying, to strike and pack the tent before sunset, however threatening the aspect of the weather. But the despotism of the Ras was light in comparison with the tyranny exercised by his unaccommodating train. At whatever hour of the night the arbitrary mandate to load might be promulgated, it was required that the bedding of the whole party should forthwith be delivered at the quarters of the arrogant driver to whom it pertained, since he declined making his camel walk to the spot. Moreover the delay of a few minutes was sufficient to condemn it to be left on the ground, notwithstanding that preparations often occupied two hours, which might as well have been devoted to rest; and this wanton curtailment of sleep was doubly felt after the heavy nocturnal duty that devolved upon all. The route on the 9th led across the flat of Halik-diggi Kabir, a continuation of the Moolu plain, extending from the Azboti and Ittoo ranges to the mountains Aiulloo and Abida. Twelve miles in breadth, it presents one monotonous alluvial level, treeless, but thickly covered with grass, interspersed with dwarf shrubs, and enlivened by herds of the elegant _mhorr_, amongst which the secretary bird occasionally strutted in native dignity. Baezas and zebras, too, were descried on the hills which bound the flat; and a luckless leopard being detected in the act of stealing across the expanse, the savage group pursued like demons from every quarter, and having presently hooted and hunted the terrified animal into a bush, transfixed his carcass incontinently with thirty spears. The whole landscape was alive during this animated scene, which scarcely occupied a minute; and in due process of time the panting warriors rejoined the caravan, their necks, spears, and shields adorned with strips of the victim's tail, whilst he who by dint of superior wind and fleetness had drawn the first blood, was by his comrades publicly invested with the spotted spoils that he had won. The appearance of the party on their return, accompanied by a stray horseman who had fortuitously joined in the chase, gave birth in the bosom of the Ras to an apprehension that the Ittoo Galla were descending upon the caravan. The ranks were accordingly closed, and the Europeans again took post on the flank to be assailed, until a nearer approach revealed in the savage band the features of friends. A descent of thirty feet over a narrow tongue of land, led into the valley of Halik-diggi Zughir, styled by the Adaiel the Great Hawash--its breadth being about two and a half miles, and the bed a perfect level, covered with fine grass, on which grazed a troop of wild asses. Bounded throughout the serpentine progress by parallel banks of corresponding height and appearance, the hollow would seem to extend from the mountains of the Ittoo Galla north to the Aiulloo volcano. It wears the aspect of having been once the channel of a considerable stream--that of the Hawash perhaps, which river may not improbably have been diverted into its present course at the period when the extensive volcanic tract around Mount Abida was in a state of activity, and when subterranean influence must have caused extraordinary revolutions in the entire aspect of the country. Here occurred the last specimen seen of the Kurbeta, the myrrh-bearing tree [Balsamodendron Myrrha], of which two varieties are found abundantly over all the barren hill-sides, from the Doomi valley to the borders of the Hawash. That producing the better description of the gum resin, is a dwarf shrub, with deeply serrated crisp leaves of a dull green; whereas the other, yielding a substance more like balm than myrrh, attains a height of ten feet, and has bright shining leaves. From any bruise or incision inflicted, the "_hofali_" flows copiously in the form of a milky juice, possessing a perceptible acidity, which either evaporates or becomes chemically changed when the gum forms. Left ungathered, it becomes hard with the loss of the volatile oil, and thus crumbles away; but if the wound be cleared frequently, a very large quantity may be collected during the seasons, which occur in January when the buds appear after the first rain, and again when the seeds are ripe, in March. Three ounces of the finest myrrh and one of dross, may thus be obtained during the year, and the secreting vessels lying immediately under the epidermis, a very slight bend in a branch makes it flow freely. The wandering shepherds either tear off one of the lower limbs, or so bruise the stem with a heavy stone as to retard the growth of the tree; but every new sprout is spontaneously covered with gum, although in a somewhat more fluid state. Repeated injuries in the same spot lead to the formation of an ever-filling cavity, and "The mirrhe sweete bleeding in the bitter wounde," is transferred by each passer-by to the hollow boss of his shield, to be exchanged for a handful of tobacco with the next slave-dealer met on the caravan road. But the Danakil are not altogether ignorant of the virtues of the drug, and invariably recommended it for those of the horses that were unable to proceed from heat and exhaustion. It has been seen that from Yoor Erain Maroo, an accession to the escort was received in the person of the hopeful son of Datah Mohammad, co-chief of the Sidi Habroo. This insatiable vagabond, a worthy scion of his stock, had received from the hand of Nature an aspect that could only have belonged to a finished cut-throat. Deeply scarred with the small-pox, his bloated half-shaven muzzle peered through a tangled web of grease-clotted hair, like a drowsy owl out of an ivy bush. He presented a truly striking picture of man in the natural state. Although never without a new quid in his mouth, and another half masticated behind either ear, he passed hours of each day in importuning for more "_timboo_" of which he was the most passionate admirer; and it was his undeviating rule never to pass a white face without repeating in an authoritative tone the trisyllable "_Irreboot_" in token of his determination to add still farther to his stock in hand of yam-needles, which already outnumbered the quills of the porcupine. Firmly persuaded that every mule with the party had been purchased for his especial riding, and equally convinced that his presence was indispensable to the general safety, he appropriated the very first that came within his reach, changing it as often as he thought proper, and never leaving it without a galled back. If not a professor of equitation, he was at all events devoted to the science, and it was with a fiendish scowl indeed that while crossing Halik-diggi Zughir he received an order to dismount from a steed which he had selected out of the drove for the purpose of riding down an oryx. "_Tuwwaddee_!" "attend," he mumbled sulkily as he thrust away the animal with the butt of his spear,--"_Tuwwaddee_! I am a great man's son, and have no intention of walking. If I am not to have a horse, you may even settle as best you can with my father's Bedouins." Mules, horses, and camels, in considerable numbers, were abandoned before the termination of this tedious and sultry march--fatigue, want of water, and lack of forage, having reduced all to such positive skeletons that they walked with difficulty. Ascending three successive terraces, each of fifty feet elevation, the road finally wound into the confined and waterless valley of Hao, famous for the number of parties that have at various times been surprised and cut up by the neighbouring Galla-- "For, with hot rapine fir'd, ensuiguin'd man Is here become the lion of the plain, And worse." Not a month had elapsed since three ill-starred individuals of a Tajura caravan, impatient to satisfy burning thirst, hurrying in advance of the main body, were cut off by a band of Galla horsemen, who had lain concealed behind the rocks immediately above the present encamping ground, and who, after mutilating the bodies, bore off their barbarous trophies in triumph. The dale hard by had only two nights previously to the arrival of the present party, formed the scene of a skirmish between the Ittoo and the inhabitants of the plain, when the bodies of twenty of the former and nine of the latter were left to the vultures and hyaenas. Every hill and valley in this direction could, in fact, tell its individual tale of bloodshed and slaughter. The wild barbarians keep a constant look out to pounce upon any wanderers weaker than themselves, and few are the natives to be seen who bear not on their persons some indelible mark of hand to hand combat. Fatigued by the long march, the Danakil were all fast asleep within their temporary sheds, a few of the drivers excepted, who tended their browsing camels among the adjacent thorns. In an instant the whole valley rang with the cry to assemble at arms, and inconceivable was the confusion that ensued. Many of the escort, only half awake, in rushing forth overthrew portions of their dens upon others who were still inside. Warrior clashed against warrior, shield against shield. The rocky hill-side was presently a living mass of half-clad savages, panting up the steep acclivity, when a few Galla scouts, whose sudden appearance on the plain had caused the alarm, were perceived mounting their steeds; and, understanding themselves to be the objects of these warlike preparations, they precipitately sped their way. From the summit of the height was obtained an exhilarating prospect over the dark lone valley of the long-looked-for Hawash. The course of the shining river was marked by a dense belt of trees and verdure, which stretches towards the base of the great mountain range, whereof the cloud-capped cone that frowns over the capital of Shoa forms the most conspicuous feature. Although still far distant, the ultimate destination of the Embassy seemed almost to have been gained; and none had an idea of the length of time that must elapse ere his foot should press the soil of Ankober. A day of intense heat was as usual followed by a heavy fall of rain, which, owing to the unaccommodating arrangement again peremptorily exacted, of striking the tent at sunset, thoroughly drenched the whole party; but before finally drawing the mat over his sleepy head, the Ras el Kafilah mounted a cone which stood in the centre of the compact circle, and proclaimed in a loud voice to all, a night of light sleep and watchfulness. Volume One, Chapter XXXIV. PASSAGE OF THE HAWASH. Numerous were the apprehensions now in agitation relative to the state of the formidable river in advance, whose shallow stream so easily forded during the season of drought, was not unreasonably conjectured to be swollen by the recent rains. Second of the rivers of Abyssinia, and rising in the very heart of Ethiopia, at an elevation of eight thousand feet above the sea, which it never reaches, the Hawash is fed at long intervals by niggard tributaries from the high bulwarks of Shoa and Efat, and flows like a great artery through the arid and inhospitable plains of the Adaiel, green and wooded throughout its long course, until finally absorbed in the lagoons at Aussa; and the canopy of fleecy clouds, which, as the day dawned, hung thick and heavy over the lofty blue peaks beyond, gave sad presage of the deluge that was pouring between the verdant banks from the higher regions of its source. Passing along the face of the murderous hill, which is of wacke formation, the road descended by several sloping terraces, to the level valley through which the river winds. At first thinly wooded, the soil was covered with tall rank grass, which, in consequence of the perpetual incursions of the Galla, grew in all its native luxuriance, uncropped whether by flock or herd. But as the path wound on, gum-bearing acacias and other forest trees increased both in size and number--the jungle and undergrowth, teeming with guinea-fowl, which rose clamorously at every step, waxed thicker and thicker--groves of waving tamarisk, ringing to the voice of the bell-bird, flanked every open glade, whereon lay traces of recent inundation; and the noble trees which towered above them from the banks of the Hawash, gave evidence in their shattered branches of the presence of the most ponderous of terrestrial mammalia. Vegetation having here assumed a luxuriance known to none of the joyless and unproductive regions hitherto traversed, it is with some difficulty that the pilgrim, anxious to behold the rare phenomenon of a running stream, forces his way through the dense thickets, which, until the foot touches the very brink of the precipitous bank, so completely screen the silent river from view, that its very existence might almost be questioned. But after a persevering struggle, further progress was at length arrested by a deep volume of turbid water, covered with drift-wood, which rolled at the rate of some three miles an hour, between steep clayey walls twenty-five feet in height, bounding a mere break through the mud and sand. The breadth of the channel fell short of sixty yards, and the flood was not yet at its maximum; but its depth and violence, added to the broad belt of tamarisk and acacia, interlaced by large creepers and parasites, which hems in both sides, promised to offer much difficulty and delay in the coming passage. Pensive willows that drooped mournfully over the troubled current were festooned with recent drift, hanging many feet above the level of the abrupt banks; and this appearance, no less than the rubbish scattered over the borders, fully proved the assertion of the natives that the water had recently been out, to the overflowing of the adjacent flat country for many miles. The Hawash, here upwards of two thousand two hundred feet above the ocean, forms in this direction the nominal boundary of the dominions of the King of Shoa. Izhak was therefore strongly urged to despatch a courier in advance, who might apprise His Majesty of the near approach of the British Embassy. But from some latent and sinister motive of his own, the proposal was again negatived, as it had before frequently been, upon the grounds of the dangers to be apprehended on the road. These, according to his showing, rendered it impossible for a single messenger to venture on so rash an undertaking, notwithstanding that Ahmed Mohammad, the Dankali who had been the bearer of the letter despatched to Shoa from Tajura, and who was still with the caravan, had so recently passed twice in safety over this identical route. As a measure of precaution against inundation, the camp was formed upon the summit of a small stony eminence, considerably above high water mark; and several armed Bedouins were presently lounging and prying about the tent, to the great annoyance and discomfiture of the Ras el Kafilah. "Those fellows call themselves Debeni," he remarked, "and will not commit murder wantonly, but the villains are thieves in grain, and will steal whatsoever they can lay their hands upon. They have no business here." Many energetic remonstrances touching the impropriety of the obtrusion, produced not the smallest effect upon these obstinate savages; and finding that they continued to laugh him to scorn, and to set his boasted authority at defiance, the old man finally requested that a musket might be fired over their heads--a measure which quickly brought about the desired decampment. The smell of gunpowder is intolerable to every Dankali. The bravest of the brave slide off with a growl and a sulky look, if a gun be but touched in their presence; and an unexpected discharge, as on this occasion, when a knot has collected, causes every man to start upon his feet, and, with a muttered curse, to bring his spear to the rest. The residue of the day was devoted by the camel-drivers to the preparation of rafts for the transport of the baggage, and the working party was still at the river, when the Adaiel conch sounded to arms, and the shrill war-whoop again summoned all to the rescue. Great was the confusion that ensued, and light-footed warriors were to be seen scampering down every avenue, armed with spear and shield; but the cry proved to have been raised in consequence of a disaster that had befallen one of the camels. Too lazy to loosen the cord which fettered the fore legs of the animal, the stupid owner had driven it, thus crippled, down the steep slippery bank to the water's edge, when, as might have been anticipated, it was swept away by the strong current, without being able to make one struggle for extrication. At sun-down the caravan was closely-packed within a stout thorn fence, serving as a partial protection against the wild beasts and plunderers with which the dense thicket is infested--its endless depths being so entangled and interwoven that no eye could penetrate the gloom. The moonless night was passed in extreme discomfort, owing to a deluge of rain which commenced early, and fell incessantly for many hours. Deafening thunder pealed in startling claps overhead, and broad sheets of fire lighting up the entire face of the landscape at short intervals, for a moment only disclosed the savage loneliness of the wild spot, which was the next instant shrouded in pitchy darkness. With the dawning day, preparations were commenced for crossing the river on ten frail rafts which had already been launched--transverse layers of drift-wood rudely-lashed together, being rendered sufficiently buoyant by the addition of numerous inflated hides and water-skins, to support two camel loads. The sharp creeses of the Danakil had removed many of the overtopping boughs, interlaced with creepers, which impeded transit towards the point selected for the passage, and in the course of a few hours every portion of the baggage had been deposited at the water's edge. Casting off his garments, Mohammad Ali, always the foremost in cases of difficulty and danger, now seized the end of a rope betwixt his teeth, and, plunging into the river, swam with it to the opposite bank, where it was belayed, upon the principle of the flying bridge, to an overhanging willow--a guy which connected it with each raft serving to counteract the violence of the stream, which, in spite of the heavy rain, had fallen upwards of a foot during the night. Raiment was now discarded by every Dankali, and the work commenced in right earnest, but difficult and laborious indeed was the task before them. The water trickled over their greasy limbs until a late hour of the evening, and the utmost exertions only succeeded in accomplishing the transfer of the endless train to the western bank before nightfall, with the loss of three beasts of burden drowned, and sundry firelocks sunk to the bottom. This latter disaster arose from the spontaneous going to pieces of one of the rudely-lashed rafts, when one of the clumsy followers became entangled in the wreck, and but for the exertions of the son of Ali Abi would inevitably have been lost. The fair Hasseinee was amongst those who were thus cast away in the middle of the deep waters; but hers was not the person to sink, and floating like a Naiad on the surface, with long raven locks streaming over her fat shoulders, the nymph appeared to be in her native element, and was soon shaking her wet petticoat on the opposite shore. The baggage being of necessity divided, and the whole of the native escort as well as the camel-drivers employed in loading and navigating the rafts, it was deemed prudent, in addition to an ostentatious display of rifles on both sides, to make liberal disbursements of blue calico, in order to purchase the neutrality of the Bedouins, who infest the borders of the river. On the division of the party, some of the Adaiel females being separated from their lords, a characteristic trait of Ibrahim Shehem Abli was elicited by the proposal for solution of the old riddle of the three jealous husbands, with their wives, who found on the banks of a rapid stream which they were desirous of crossing, a boat that would contain only three persons, whereas each felt unwilling to abandon his fair partner to the mercy of the other. After puzzling for some time without being able to arrange the transit in a satisfactory manner, "_Murhabba_!" he exclaimed; "had I been one of that same party, I should soon have settled the difficulty by cutting the throats of the two jealous rascals, and taking all their women to myself." The stream of the Hawash being exceedingly thick and troubled, from the distance it had rolled betwixt clayey banks, it was with much satisfaction that a pond of wholesome water, styled _Dubbelli_, was discovered, divided from the river by a narrow wooded neck of land, one hundred and fifty yards across. Steep shelving walls strewed with shells and the _reliquiae_ of hippopotami, environed this singular basin, which appeared to be fathomless, and to measure a mile and a half in circumference. Lofty trees, in a wintry dress, cast their deep shadow over the brink; and whilst the stems of many were partially immersed, the leafless branches of some were loaded with storks' nests, and the shattered limbs of others presented tokens of the giant strength of the elephant, no less than of the terrible wrath of lightning and storm. Corresponding tongues abutting from the opposite banks, divide the expanse into two equal bays. A group of wild Bedouins watered their camels on the shore, and in the centre Behemoth rolled his unwieldy carcase to the surface amid floating crocodiles--protruding his droll snout, which glistened in slimy ugliness, to blow ever and anon a snort that might be heard at the distance of a mile. A two-ounce ball, duly hardened with antimony, took effect in the skull of one of the boldest with a crash that was not to be mistaken; but although the monster went down, leaving a gallon of blood to denote the disaster that had befallen him, he had temporarily disappeared; and by the incredulous Danakil the assurance was received with a sneering shake of the head that his carcass must infallibly be found floating in the morning. Much difficulty had been experienced in bringing the horses and mules across the river, and one obstinate donkey, but too well aware of its inability to swim, having pointedly refused to take the water, was towed over by main strength at the end of a rope. Inflated skins kept the animal afloat; but the stubborn head sinking below the surface, the poor beast landed with sides distended almost to bursting by too copious draughts of muddy water. His master, an aged washerman from Hindostan, loving Neddy as the apple of his eye, in the simplicity of his old heart, adopted the prescription of some wag who had facetiously recommended suspension by the heels, in order to try the ancient discipline of the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned mortals. A fit of apoplexy was the result, and the donkey expired under the lancet. Followed by the lamentations of the disconsolate owner, the carcass was dragged some twenty yards beyond the limits of the encamping ground; and no sooner had the dark night thrown a shroud over it, than the foul scavengers of the forest assembled in numbers round the prey, and regardless of a blazing watch-fire that had been kindled to avert the visits of the monarch of the wilderness, commenced their revels with the demoniacal laugh indicative of a right happy mood. Whilst the rain descended in pitiless torrents, a continual chuckle of the highest merriment, which ran through all the various notes of a clear throat, resounded afar amid the crunching of bones and munching of flesh--a deeper growl from some larger beast of prey, now and then varying the infernal harmony, to be followed by another ringing laugh as of a whole legion of devils. Vivid flashes of lightning played over the scene of this midnight carnival; the violent snapping of branches in the adjacent forest proclaimed the nocturnal foray of the elephant and hippopotamus; the loud roar and the startling snort were neither wanting to complete the concert of the wild Hawash, and long ere the morning dawned, the place of the carcass knew it not, every vestige, even to the skull, having found a sepulchre in the maw of "the laughing hyaena." Volume One, Chapter XXXV. WADI AZBOTI. ARRIVAL OF A SPY FROM THE ABYSSINIAN MOUNTAINS. "The Robi is _not_ dead," was the first falsehood that greeted the ear when daylight had returned. To have told the truth on this occasion must have redounded to the personal advantage of the informant, but he had nobly upheld the national character at the sacrifice of a handful of his much-loved tobacco. Repairing to the margin of the lake, the freckled pink sides of a defunct hippopotamus were to be seen high above the surface, as the distended carcass floated like a monstrous buoy at anchor. It had become entangled among the tall tamarisks that rose through the shallow water near the brink, but hawsers were carried out with all diligence, and with the aid of the rudder-like tail, the Colossus was towed to shore, and landed among the mud under the acclamations of the assembled caravan. "Where the carcase is, there shall the eagles be gathered together." A formidable band of "Bones" were already squatted at a respectful distance, to watch the progress of events, and no sooner had the teeth been hewn out than they laid aside their bows and quivers, and having stripped the thick hide from off the ribs, attacked the mountain of flesh with the vigour of a South African horde. Donkeys and women were laden with incredible despatch, and staggering under huge flaps of meat, the archers had soon left the scene of operations. Two reservoirs, each lying at the distance of a musket shot, had meanwhile been visited--the one a sulphuric basin of considerable extent, the other a vast sheet of water, embosomed in trees, dotted over with wood-clothed islets, and teeming with hippopotami. But this was neutral ground; and the fears of the Danakil conjuring into existence a host of lurking foes, the period allowed for investigation was brief. Bidding adieu with light hearts to the muddy Hawash, the party resumed its march so soon as the camel furniture had become sufficiently dry; and skirting the Dubbelli lake, from the waters of which Behemoth blew a parting salute, passed the Bedouin hamlet of Mulku-kuyu in the Dofah district, to a fourth pond bearing the euphonous title of Ailabello. Prettily situated in a secluded green hollow, and presenting about the same circumference as its neighbour, below which it is considerably depressed, this pool resembles a circular walled cistern, and is obviously the basin of an old crater. Its waters, alkaline, bitter, and strongly sulphureous even to the smell, receive constant accessions from a hot mineral well at the brink, and possessing the singular detergent property of bleaching the filthiest cloth, many of the Danakil were for once to be seen in flaunting white togas. Thence the road lay over a grassy plain, covered with volcanic sand and ashes, and shut in by cones of trivial altitude, forming another field of extinct craters, many very perfect, and each environed by its individual zone--whilst the circumjacent country, embracing a diameter of eight miles, exhibited through the superincumbent soil, tracts of jet black lava. Apprehensions being entertained of the non-existence of pools at the station suited for the encampment, still some miles in advance, a detour was made from the main road to Ado, "the White Water," a very extensive lake, at which the skins were replenished and the thirst of the animals slaked. A belt of high acacia jungle embosomed this noble expanse, which exceeded two miles in diameter, the glassy surface in parts verdant with sheets of the lotus in full flower, and literally covered with aquatic fowls. Geese, mallard, whistling teal, herons, and flamingoes, with a new species of the _parra_, were screaming in all directions as they winged their flight from the point invaded, where a party of Bedouin shepherdesses deposed to having seen a troop of elephants bathing not half an hour before--the numerous prints of their colossal feet remaining in testimony, sunk fresh and heavy on the moist sands. Prior to crossing the Hawash, the only sheep observed were the _Ovis aries laticaudata_, or Hejaz lamb, with sable head and neck, thick fatty tail, and fleece composed of hair instead of wool. This species had now, to the westward of the river, given place to the larger Abyssinian breed, with huge pendulous appendages of truly preposterous size, encumbered with fat, and vibrating to the animal's progress. Parti-coloured goats, armed with long wrinkled horns, still diversified the flocks, which were uniformly attended by small dogs with foxlike heads, spotted yellow and white, and evidently high in favour with their dark mistresses. Several of these females wore around the neck large tinkling brazen bells, borrowed from the collar of an Abyssinian mule, and forming a very suitable accompaniment to the massive fabrications of pewter and copper which loaded their ears. Their long black tresses were braided into an infinity of streamers, each resembling the lash of a schoolboy's whip, and various most ingenious tattooed devices scarred their arms, temples, and bosoms. By the beaux of the caravan, unqualified homage was paid to certain coquettes, who carried milk jars curiously wrought of palm leaves, and studded with manifold cowrie shells. To the backs of sundry weird harridans were strapped skins containing sour curds, which attracted flies in the tens of millions usually seen around the molasses at a Banian's stall. No attempt was made to disturb those that clustered in their blear-inflamed eyes; and the swarms collected about the wrinkled comers of the mouth, were only put to flight when the hand was applied to second the wonted exclamation of surprise at the appearance of a white face, "_Nubbee Mohammadoo_!" Numerous wigwams peeped through the extensive forest of aged camel-thorns, which borders on Le Ado, and eventually debouches upon a succession of barren plains covered with herds of antelope. Two rough stone enclosures by the wayside were surmounted by poles, from which dangled the heads of as many lions, dilapidated by time, although still enveloped in the skin, and said to have been speared on this spot many years before by the Bedouins, who exalted these trophies in commemoration of the deed. Immediately beyond this point lay the encamping ground at Wady Azboti, where numerous shallow pools had been filled by the recent rain, but where the ill-starred cattle were compelled to content themselves with water only, not a vestige of grass or green herb remaining in the vicinity. It had, in feet, now become a proverb, that these two essential materials to existence could never be found in the Adel wilderness in one and the same place. Vast flights of locusts, which had assisted to lay the country bare, still carrying desolation in their progress, were shaping their destructive course towards Abyssinia. They quite darkened the air at the moment that the caravan halted; and a host of voracious adjutants wheeled high above the dense cloud, at one moment bursting with meteor-like velocity through the serried phalanx, and at the next stalking over the field to fill their capacious maws with the victims which their long scythe-fashioned pinions had swept incontinently from the sky. The groves around Azboti afforded a welcome supply of bustard, partridges, and guinea-fowl, together with the mhorr, and pigmy antelope; and on the return of the heavily-loaded Nimrods to the tent, infinite diversion was found in the horror depicted on the physiognomy of the warlike leader of the Hy Somauli band, whose old fashioned bob wig, quaint gait, and antiquated comicalities, had justly invested him with the sobriquet of "Doctor Syntax." The professor of natural history was as usual busily engaged in the preparation of cabinet specimens, when the old oddity advanced to see what was going on; and as the bodies of beetles and locusts were subjected to the process of toasting over the fire, his droll features were distorted by lines which revealed plainly enough an inward conviction entertained, that the operation was none other than culinary, and that the hideous insects were to be eaten. But the war-whoop, without which few days ever drew to a close, had aroused the doctor from his cogitations; and at the head of his men he was presently in hot pursuit of a band of ruffians, who had cleverly contrived to drive off a camel pertaining to the kafilah. Returning with the booty after a long chase, the exploit was celebrated by the war-dance, which for an hour kept the camp in a fierce uproar. Formed in a circle, the excited warriors crouched low to the ground as they stomped _vis-a-vis_, and howled with the utmost fury. Then rising with one accord, they brandished their spears aloft, and vaulted frantically in the air through a maze of intricate figures. Next arrayed in line, a brave sprung ever and anon to the front, and striding up and down with mincing gait, went through strange gesticulations and contortions, as he recited the prowess of the dan, and urged it to future deeds of valour-- the clash of spear and shield responding at every pause, whilst the wild chorus pealed along the ranks. Confusion now ensued: the band was engaged in a pantomimic conflict. Savage after savage, rolling his eyeballs, sprang panther-like across the loins of his nearest neighbour, and clinging fast with his beds, tightly clasped his erect opponent with the muscles of his legs. Creeses flashed brightly in the air; mock wounds were inflicted, and the form of dividing the windpipe having been duly gone through, long and loud arose, with the renewed dance, triumphant strains of "_Awey birooah! awey birooah_!" "I have slain my foe! I have slain my foe!" Towards the close of the day, which was hot and muggy under the steam that arose from the saturated soil, a Bedouin rode consequentially into camp, and, after making his observations, departed even as he had come, without deigning an explanation of any sort. Attention was particularly attracted to this prying stranger, from the circumstance of his grey steed being branded on flank and wither with the Ethiopian sign of the cross. Delivering no message, although he was conjectured to be a retainer of Wulasma Mohammad, the Abogaz or _custos_ of the frontier of Efat, whose post was now not distant more than twenty miles, the mysterious demeanour of this spy did not fail to strengthen a report, which had long been in circulation among the mischievous Danakil that at the court of Shoa, the British were far from being regarded in the light of welcome visitors, and further, that an armed party was in readiness to oppose entrance into the kingdom--a rumour which, however improbable, was unfortunately further supported by the extraordinary and unaccountable fact of no sort of recognition having, up to this period, been vouchsafed by His Most Gracious Majesty the King. Rising tier above tier to the supremely soaring peak of Mamrat, "the Mother of Grace," with her domed head ever canopied in clouds, the lofty mountains which fortify the royal dominions now shot like giant castles from the sandy plain, the most conspicuous features in the landscape. Volcanic impediments, such as had beset the heretofore weary path, had at length finally ceased, but the glowing sulphur lulls of Sullala reared their fantastic spires on the verge of the monotonous expanse; and high among the more venerable witnesses to the history of the troubled lowlands, the position of Ankober was discernible to the naked eye, with the steep Chaka range stretching beyond at still greater elevation. The luxuriant verdure which clothed the rugged sides of the nearer slopes, whilst it contrasted strongly with the aridity of the barren tracts at their base, indicated the presence of the autumnal rains; and hereof further evidence was afforded in the low grumbling of frequent thunder, echoing like distant artillery among the serrated summits, as the heavy black clouds at intervals drew their smoky mantle across the scene, and veiled the monsters from sight. The departure of the silent spy was followed by the arrival of a most boisterous visitor from the highlands. The hazy sun, shorn of his bright beams, and looming a dull fiery globe in the dense mist, had no sooner disappeared in wrath, than a furious whirlwind tore along the desert plain, and during the gloomy twilight, the storm, which had been cradled amid the mighty mountains, descended in desolation, like an angry giant from his keep. Black masses of cloud, rolling impetuously along the steep acclivities, settled at length over the face of the waste, for a time shrouding the very earth in its dark dank embrace, only to render more striking the contrast to the dazzling light which in another moment had succeeded. Brilliant corruscations blazed and scintillated in every quarter of the fervid heavens, hissing and spluttering through the heavy fog, or darting like fiery serpents along the surface of the ground--at one instant awfully revealing the towering peaks that frowned far in the distance--at the next flashing in a hot sulphury flame through the centre of the encampment. Meanwhile the deep roll of thunder continued without a moment's intermission, the prolonged growl of each startling clap varying ever as it receded in a fitful change of intonation; whilst the walling of the blast, accompanied by the sharp rattle of hail, and the impetuous descent of torrents of rain, completed the horrors of a tempest which, now at its height, careered madly over the unbroken plain. The soil had soon swallowed the deluge to overflowing. Muddy rivulets poured through every quarter of the flooded bivouac; and the heavy tarpaulins, which had afforded some temporary shelter, proving of little further avail, the shivering but still watchful party were exposed during many dismal hours that ensued to all the merciless fury of this unappeasable hurricane. Volume One, Chapter XXXVI. VALLEY OF KOKAI--HOSTILITIES OF WULASMA MOHAMMAD. A cool cloudy morning succeeding to this dreary, boisterous and uncomfortable night, the caravan was in motion before sunrise across the uninteresting plain of Azboti, in parts completely swamped, and covered towards its borders with one interminable sheet of the aloe and _lilium_, growing beneath spreading acacias upon a gravelly soil. Then commenced a belt of hummocks, formed by prominences abutting from the high land of Abyssinia--a succession of hill and dale, thickly-wooded with a variety of timber, and still clothed with an undergrowth of the wild aloe, through which wary herds of Baeza threaded their way. The road soon entered the pebbly bed of a mountain stream, running easterly between precipitous basaltic cliffs towards the Hawash; but although such torrents of rain had fallen the preceding night, no water was discovered in the wooded wady of Kokai, until reaching Dathara, nearly thirteen miles from the last encampment, where the party partook of the first crystal brook that had occurred during the entire weary journey from the sea-coast. Three thousand feet above the ocean, with an invigorating, breeze and a cloudy sky, the climate of this principal pass into Southern Abyssinia, was that of a fine summer's day in England, rather than of the middle of July between the tropics. Here for the first time during the pilgrimage, the tent was erected under the shade of a wide-spreading tamarind, which, among many other trees of noble growth, graced the sequestered spot. Above the surrounding foliage the long white roofs of many of the royal magazines were visible, perched high on the blue mountain side. In the forked branches overhead were piled haystack-looking nests of gigantic dimensions, thatched with every attention to neatness and comfort--the small aperture left by the feathered architect turned in every instance to the eastward, and carefully secured from the weather; and perched on every twig, an assemblage of strange birds displayed their gay glittering plumage, or filled the cool air with melodious song. But from the summit of an adjacent basaltic knoll, which was ascended towards the close of day, there burst upon the delighted gaze a prospect more than ever alluring of the Abyssinian Alps. Hill rose above hill, clothed in the most luxuriant and vigorous vegetation. Mountain towered over mountain in a smiling chaos of disorder; and the soaring peaks of the most remote range threw their hoary heads, sparkling with a white mantle of hail, far into the cold azure sky. Villages and hamlets embosomed in dark groves of evergreens were grouped in Arcadian repose. Rich fields of every hue chequered the deep lone valley; and the sun, bidding a diurnal farewell to his much-loved plains of the east, shot a last stream of golden light, varied as the hues of the Iris, over the mingled beauties of wild woodland scenery, and the labours of the Christian husbandman. No delegate with greetings from the Negoos awaiting the British Embassy, and the frontier town of Farri, where caravans are received by His Majesty's officers, being now only five miles distant, a letter was prepared, of which Mohammad Ali volunteered to be the bearer. In signifying gracious acquiescence to this arrangement, the Ras el Kafilah gravely intimated that the escort of Hy Somauli spearmen, famished at Killulloo by Ibrahim ibn Hameido, declined permitting the departure of the son of Ali Abi, until they should have received the sum at which they were pleased to estimate their services. Little reason existing to be satisfied with the vigilance of this band of warriors, not one of the component members whereof, Doctor Syntax inclusive, had adopted the plan proposed by the poet for lengthening the days of existence by stealing a few hours from the night, compliance to the full extent of the exorbitant demand had previously been evaded. But as Izhak, in whom the truth was not, now falsely asserted and maintained that the Akil had taken his personal security for the sum, and as it was obviously of the last importance that arrival on the frontier should be timely reported, the money was reluctantly paid, and the courier set forth on his journey. Rain was again ushering in the early hours of the night, when the unpleasant intelligence arrived that a certain Wulasma Mohammad was the delinquent, and that he had contrived effectually to thwart the intentions of his royal master. The king had commanded that his British visitors should be received on the western bank of the Hawash by an escort of honour. Under the commander-in-chief of the body-guard, three hundred matchlock-men had been for this purpose detached from the troops on service with His Majesty, and had actually reached Farri, whence the jealous Moslem had dared to send them back upon the ridiculous pretext of being unable to obtain any tidings of the expected Franks. This important functionary, in addition to his office of state-gaoler, is the hereditary Abogaz of the Mohammadan population of Argobba on the east of Shoa, and the nature of his government exalts him in the eyes of all to the importance of a king. With the title of Wulasma--a word of uncertain derivation, known to Ludolf, the great historian of Abyssinia, who styles the dignitary "Pro rex of Efat"--he possesses unbounded influence over the frontier, his immediate duties being to preserve amicable relations with the Adaiel occupying the plain of the Hawash, and to protect kafilahs and merchants arriving from the independent principality of Hurrur, or from the coast of Tajura. His functions as keeper of the state prison secure for him the respect of all. Christians as well as Islams, who have the fear of a dungeon before their eyes; and although numerous Abogasoch or Wulasmoch, governors of small detached provinces, share his power, the name and influence of all are dim under the light that glares from his loop-holed residence at Goncho. It is the invariable policy of the haughty Abogaz to assume the great man to all travellers, since it is generally understood that through him alone foreigners can be received and forwarded, or if necessary presented to the Negoos. This arrangement involves not only trouble, but considerable expense. His despotic Majesty claiming the prerogative of franking every visitor through his territories, and a portion of the attendant outlay falling upon the functionary who may be honoured with the royal commands. Openly opposed to European innovation, Mohammad particularly disliked the advent of the British Embassy, and was obviously doing his utmost to thwart the more liberal views of the crown, by treating the strangers with disrespect. The imperial order that an escort of matchlock-men should for the first time cross the hill frontier, and proceed into the plain of the Hawash, to do honour to the Christian guests, not only rankled in his Moslem breast, but was calculated to interfere with his resolution to preserve inviolate the avenues to the sea-coast. His intrigues had rendered abortive all attempts to communicate with the Court; and whilst the approach of the Embassy was not reported until its actual arrival at Dathara, his non-compliance with the order given had resulted most prejudicially, the Danakil guides being now more than ever unwilling to persuade themselves that the party would be welcome. Preparations were making the following morning to continue the march to Farri, when the burly functionary was seen pompously approaching with measured step, followed by a retinue of many hundred armed followers, whose shaven heads rose unturbaned above flowing white mantles. Far from announcing himself in the customary manner, he remained seated in portentous dignity, beneath the shade of a venerable tamarind by the road-side, until, every camel having been loaded, the caravan was moving off the ground. A peremptory message was then received through one of his myrmidons, to the effect that he stood strictly charged with the king's commands to suffer not one of the party to advance until the next day, and that he was prepared to enforce the interdiction. There seemed little reason to doubt of this being a premeditated falsehood, as it afterwards proved to be; but the Ras el Kafilah having heard the injunction repeated in presence of the Wulasma Suleiman Moosa, Abogaz of Channoo, as coming direct from His Majesty, timidly declined any infringement, and again threw down the loads. Condescending at length in moody sullenness to approach with his host of retainers, the triumphant potentate, armed with the rosary, or chaplet of one hundred beads, which denoted his intolerant faith, squeezed his pursy figure into a chair, and composed himself with much apparent satisfaction at the success that had attended his scheme of opposition. A debauched, ill-favoured, bloated specimen of mortality, the lines of intemperance were deeply graven on his truculent visage, which was at once cunning, sinister, and forbidding. But the party were not long troubled with his obnoxious presence. The reception he experienced, although civil, was distant and studiously formal, and the sun, beating in a full blaze upon his bald crown, rendered his position so extremely untenable, that after stiffly murmuring replies to the customary inquiries anent the health and well-being of his august master, he rose unceremoniously, and abruptly withdrew. Throughout this brief and very unbending interview, a brawny retainer stood behind the chair, denuded to the waist. In his right hand he ostentatiously displayed the chief gaoler's sword of state--a short heavy blade upon the model of the old Roman falchion, enclosed in a scabbard of massive silver; and his left arm supported a buckler of stiff bull's hide, elaborately emblazoned with crescents and brass studs. The benevolent and prepossessing aspect of the Wulasma Suleiman Moosa, who occupied a second seat, offered a striking contrast to the repulsive arrogance of his scowling colleague. On his right side, protruding upwards with the curve of a scorpion's tail, he wore a semicircular weapon, also denominated a sword, though in fact more nearly allied to a reaping-hook--a proud badge of office, with a fluted tulip-shaped termination to the silver scabbard, which, according to the wont of the despot, had been conferred on the occasion of his first installation in office, but which ludicrously interfered with comfort in an armchair. During the residue of the day, the conduct of the state-gaoler was perfectly in unison with his character and previous hostile proceedings. He brought the white visitors neither presents nor supplies, according to the rules of Abyssinian hospitality; and although made fully aware that the camp was drained of provisions, prevented purchases by the undue exercise of his influence and authority. A pelting rain during the night, from which his sleek person was defended by naught save the pervious branches of a tamarind, had not tended to soften the asperities, or to alleviate the sourness of his aspect, when the day dawned; and it was only on finding the party prepared to advance at the hazard of forcible opposition, that he finally yielded the point, and betwixt his closed teeth muttered his grumbling consent to an arrangement which he felt longer unable with prudence to oppose. "The English are a great nation," whispered the nephew of Ali Shermarki, as he passed the haughty Abogaz, "and you had better take care to treat them civilly. _Wullahi_! one of their ships of war would carry this kafilah over the water, and you and all your host of followers into the bargain." Volume One, Chapter XXXVII. DINOMALI. GREETINGS FROM THE NEGOOS AT FARRI, ON THE FRONTIER OF HIS DOMINIONS. Gradually ascending through a hilly and well-wooded country, still a positive garden of the wild aloe, the road now led through a succession of deep glades, which opened in turn upon verdant mountain scenery; and at on early hour, after the first signs of cultivation had been afforded in the truly grateful sight of ploughs turning up the soil, the tents were erected on the open plain of Dinomali. At this, the frontier station of Argobba, are levied the royal import duties of ten per cent; and a scene of noise, bustle, and confusion did not fail to ensue, such as is wont to attend the arrival of every caravan. In his character of collector-general of customs, the pompous Wulasma took seat below a tree in the centre, whilst his myrmidons, beleaguering every load the moment it was removed from the camel, prevented all access on the part of the owner until scrutinising search had been instituted by the secretary for the salt trade, and the imperial scribes had, by a tedious process denominated writing, completed an inventory of contents. From time immemorial it had been the law of the realm to regard the despotic ruler as the proprietor of every moveable in the land; and it was not without many looks of incredulity and amazement that the custom-house officers now received the astounding intimation that they would touch the baggage of the British Embassy at their peril. Thus for the first time thwarted in their prerogative of forcing open boxes, and inspecting the wares they contained, Debtera Tekla Zion and his brother scribes were tempted to attribute the opposition offered to the truth of a vague report already current, that a foreign king was being smuggled into Abyssinia for evil. And they were still standing in mute astonishment, with idle ink-horns dangling from their hands, lost in conjecture of the probable consequences involved by the unprecedented interference exercised, when a message was received expressive of the compliments and best wishes of Sahela Selassie. Still at a distance from Ankober, His Majesty had resolved, in order to hasten the interview with his guests, to proceed at once to the capital, whither the English were invited to repair with all possible expedition. The arrival of this unlooked-for salutation, which was coupled with an affirmative answer to a request previously made, that the presents in charge of the Embassy might neither be interfered with, nor subjected to the usual custom-house scrutiny when crossing the frontier, had the effect of bringing to his senses the overbearing Wulasma; and, in accordance with the king's instructions, oxen, sheep, bread, beer, and hydromel were liberally supplied without another moment's demur. But a fresh source of delay and annoyance forthwith arose on the part of the Ras el Kafilah, whose latent object being to transfer the charge of Danakil caravans from the hands of the corpulent and now civil gaoler to those of Wulasma Suleiman Moosa, made the acceptance of supplies at the hand of the former a pretext for throwing up his functions and setting out to Ankober, exclaiming as he mounted his mule in a towering passion, for the avowed purpose of laying his complaint at the footstool of the throne, "Am not I the brother of the Sultan of Tajura?" But the furious elder had not proceeded far on his adventurous journey, ere his ears were saluted by repeated discharges of musketry, accompanied by martial music and a solemn vocal chorus. These served to announce the advent of Ayto Katama, commander-in-chief of the imperial body-guard, with the escort of honour consisting of three hundred matchlock-men, who were to have received the Embassy on the banks of the Hawash. The arrival of this important personage, whose schoolboyish sallies ill became his years and high military functions, was speedily followed by the appearance of Ayto Wolda Hana, governor of Ankober, and first nobleman in the realm, also fraught with congratulations. His presence had the effect of recalling the irritated Ras to a sense of duty; and no efficient carriage having been provided by the Abogaz, it was finally arranged, after many difficulties, objections, and disputes, that the baggage should be transported to Farri, other two miles in advance, where Mohammadan porters could be obtained in sufficient numbers to convey it to its final destination--the mountains in every part being deemed quite inaccessible to the camel. Although the distance from Farri did not exceed a mile, the lateness of the hour at which this accommodation was vouchsafed, rendered it impossible to carry the measure into effect until the following day. The governor of Ankober meanwhile politely insisted upon charging himself with the baggage, his officious zeal extending even to the effects of private individuals, whereby much inconvenience was entailed. But notwithstanding his garrulous protestations, and the presence of so large a body of the royal troops, everything was finally left unprotected; and, before his negligence was discovered, four of the remaining mules had been stolen from their pickets by the marauders who infest the neighbourhood. Loaded for the thirty-fifth and last time with the baggage of the British Embassy, the caravan, escorted by the detachment of Ayto Katama, with flutes playing and muskets echoing, and the heads of the warriors decorated with white plumes, in earnest of their bold exploits during the late expedition, advanced on the afternoon of the 16th of July, to Farri, the frontier town of the kingdom of Efat. Clusters of conical-roofed houses, covering the sloping sides of twin hills which form a gorge wherein the royal dues are deposited, here presented the first permanent habitations that had greeted the eye since leaving the sea-coast; rude and ungainly, but right welcome signs of transition from depopulated wastes to the abodes of man. As well from the steepness of the rugged mountains of Abyssinia, which towered overhead, as from the pinching climate of their wintry summits, the camel becomes useless as a beast of burthen; and none being ever taken beyond the frontier, many of the Wulasma's retinue now gazed at the ungainly quadrupeds for the first time. The "ship of the desert" has been created for the especial benefit of sultry, arid, and waterless plains, such as those now crossed, where no other domesticated animal could long exist, but where, even under the most scorching radiation of heat, when the skin peels from the parched lips of the pilgrim, and the horizon beams as with the fires of an hundred volcanoes, the soft lustrous eye of the patient dromedary loses not a jot of its wonted brilliancy. But numbers had been dreadfully wrung during the tedious march, those especially which carried tent-poles and other unmanageable burdens; and amongst others, two of the finest had sung under the weight of the galloper-gun. No sooner was the load now removed, than a swarm of parasitic birds, with brilliant golden eyes, here for the first time seen, swarmed around the galled part, and having dived into the gaping wounds, without causing perceptible annoyance to the sufferer, became so engrossed in the removal of ticks and maggots with their crimson bills, that several were made prisoner with the hand. Boxes and bales as they arrived were deposited within a stone enclosure in the centre of the area; and the bloated Wulasma, again seated in regal dignity beneath an ancient acacia, which threw its slender shade over the heterogeneous pile, placing Ayto Wolda Hana upon his right hand, with the aid of the royal scribes and their ink-horns commenced an inventory _de novo_. Vigorous attempts to force open the cases were once more resisted, with complete success. Earnest expostulations tried in turn by the Moslem and the Christian, were alike unheeded; and amid noise, clamour, and confusion, such as could ill be described, the inquisitive functionaries were fain, as before, to content themselves with a list of packages in the gross. Rough conjectural estimates of the number of muskets contained in each matted roll were however clandestinely formed, by dint of squeezing and pinching; and these too were committed to writing, as though fears were entertained lest the king might now, in his own dominions, be defrauded of a portion of the investment transported in safety thither from a distant land. Hajji Mohammad, a respectable old slave-dealer in the suite of the Abogaz, had during this interim obligingly undertaken to solve certain puzzling geographical questions proposed, and with a staff was methodically tracing on the sand, for the edification of his European audience, the position of the Hawash in its upper course. An insane old Hassoba, long resident at Farri, whose head laboured under the effect of sundry wounds received in youth, had unfortunately become violently excited by too copious libations in honour of the safe arrival of his clansmen. To the annoyance of every one, he had been bawling incessantly for many hours, and he presently staggered up to ascertain if he could throw light upon the subject under discussion. "What do you know about the Hawash?" he exclaimed, in a violent passion, as the name of the lone river fell upon his ear--"Pray where did you learn about the Hawash, or the Ittoo, or the Aroosi?"--and suiting the action to the word, his cudgel rattled heavily over the crown of the unoffending pilgrim to the shrine of the Prophet. Nettled at this unprovoked assault, the venerable man retorted with interest--blows pattered thick and fast, a crowd collected, creeses were drawn, and the friends of the respective parties felt themselves bound to interfere. The belligerent Hajji was held to prevent his committing murder; and the Adel geographer, as he walked reluctantly away, under a shower of stones, turning frequently to breathe defiance to the object of his ire, repeated with a sneer, "Here is the Hawash indeed: what the devil does that old donkey know about the Hawash?" Meanwhile arrived a special messenger, bearing reiterated compliments from the Negoos, with a horse and a mule from the royal stud, attired in the peculiar trappings and colours which in Shoa pertain solely to Majesty. The bridles and breastplates glittered with studs and bosses of polished metal; gay embroidery in coloured worsted covered the saddle-cloth of the mule, and a collection of silver chains, jingles, and bells, encircled her neck. At sight hereof women and girls enveloped in blood-red shifts, who had thronged to the busy scene to stare at the white strangers, at once burst into a loud scream of acclamation. A group of hooded widows, occupying an adjacent public asylum, thrust their fingers into their ears, and joined in the clamour. Escort and camel-drivers, now at their journey's end, had placed no bounds to their hilarity. A fat ox that had been promised was turned loose among the spectators--pursued by fifty savages with gleaming creeses--and ham-strung by a dexterous blow, which threw it bellowing to the earth in the height of its mad career. The rival clans of lean curs, that are respectively quartered on the dung-heaps of the twin hills, and suffer no intrusion into each other's domains, rushed to the neutral ground, and forthwith commenced an indiscriminate engagement over the garbage; and whilst Debtera Tekla Zion, still counting and recounting, amended his long list with untiring perseverance, crowds of porters and lounging visitors added the mite of their united voices to the din, tumult, and intolerable uproar which continued until close of day. Predatory incursions of the Galla upon the Argobba frontier are frequent, and not many weeks had passed away since six of the king's liege subjects were murdered within the precincts of the encamping ground. In defiance of tempestuous weather, two European soldiers and an officer had been on guard without shelter during every night of the long and tedious march, and the sergeant of the escort had every hour personally relieved the sentries: but the exposed position of the baggage, added to the evil character borne by the spot, and the experience already gained at Dinomali, still precluded the discontinuance of watch and ward, whereof all were heartily weary. In the dead of night an alarm caused all to spring from their couches on the hard ground, and to stand prepared for the reception of an unseen foe, whose approach was announced by the blast of some hideous war-horn. Halters had been broken, and mules and horses were charging over the tent ropes, nor was the real cause of the confusion discovered for some minutes. A thirsty dog, unacquainted with the artifice resorted to by the fox that needed water, had recklessly thrust his mangy head so deep into an earthen jar that he was unable to withdraw it, and rushing he knew not whither, was giving vent through his strange proboscis to fearful hollow groans, which might well have instilled terror into the breast of the superstitious, and did not fail to elicit ceaseless howls from the canine occupants of the dunghill. The delinquent was shot, and order being at length restored, those who were entitled to slumber again proceeded to avail themselves of the privilege. After pacing his beat some hours beyond the wonted period of relief, the sentinel who mounted at midnight hailed the officer on duty. Receiving no reply to the challenge, he approached the door of the tent, and there, sad to relate, the first breach of discipline was detected on the part of the guardian of the camp, who, worn out by incessant vigils, was on this, his last watch, lying fast asleep upon his post, with a pistol in each hand! Volume One, Chapter XXXVIII. A PARTING TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE INSCRIBED TO THE PEOPLE OF ADEL. Tradition asserts that prior to the invasion of Graan, "the mighty Adel monarch," who overran and dismembered once-powerful Ethiopia, the eastern limit of the empire was Jebel Aiulloo, known to the Abyssinians as Mount Azulo. But although frequently invaded, no portion of the wide plain of the Hawash has been reconquered, whether by Sahela Selassie, or by his ancestors. The relatives of certain of those in authority have been made prisoners by treachery, and as hostages are held in close durance by the king, but the boasted influence of the Abogaz is principally supported by conciliation, and by the annual presentation of cloths and specie to the various chiefs and elders--a measure having for its object to preserve the avenues to the sea-coast and to the Bahr Assal, whereon Shoa and Efat are almost entirely dependant for foreign wares, and for salt, which the country does not produce. The powerful independent chieftain of the principal section of Gibdosa, who occupy the detached hill of Rasa, across the Robi river, northward of Dinomali, is one of those in nominal alliance with the Negoos; but his wild Moslems make constant predatory inroads upon the frontier of Argobba, slaying Christians and Mohammadans of either sex, without any compunction; and the policy of His Majesty prohibiting retaliation, however aggravated the outrage, Anbassa Ali, or "the Lion," who like Esau of old is said to be covered with hair from the crown of the head even unto the sole of the foot, not unfrequently makes hostile demonstrations in person, which require all the Wulasma's tact and diplomatic cunning to avert. From Hao, on the eastern side of the Hawash, to Farri, the intervening tract, under the nominal jurisdiction of Mohammad Abogaz, is in occupation of a mixed nomade population, not remarkable for their honesty, and composed from numerous subdivisions of the Danakil, but principally from the Burhanto or Adali, under ibn Hamed deen Hassan. This latter, which takes Adaiel in the plural, is the clan of the reigning Sultan of Tajura; and being in days of yore the most powerful and important tribe in the nation, its name has been imparted to the entire country, now corrupted into Adel. In time of war with the adjacent Galla on the south, or when called upon to repel the predatory invasions of the Mudaito, the tribes westward of the Hawash assemble with the Tukhaiel, the Debeni, the Dermela, the Rookhba, the Woema, and the Hy Somauli, the extent of whose respective territories has already been defined. These, with the Abli or Dinserra, under Mohammad Ali, surnamed Jeroa, or "the Thief," which is the tribe of Hamed Bunaito, present wuzir and heir-apparent to the throne of Tajura--the Adaneito and Nakur, under Shehem Mulakoo--the Dondametta, the Duttagoora, and the Hassoba, led respectively by Ahmed Kamil, Sheikh Deeni, and Deeni ibn Ibrahim--collectively assume the title of Debenik-Woema, _k_ being the Dankali conjunction. Adalo bin Hamed, who leads a section of the Gibdosa encamped at Haode and Dunne, occasionally unites with the Debenik-Woema in the time of their need, but he is held virtually independent. The fourth and last section of the Debeni, under the authority of Mahmoodi, has its tents at the isolated volcanic mountain of Fantali, southward of Dinomali, where reside also the united Adaiel clans Uluaito, Muffa, and Eyrolasso, under the great "brave" Lamullifan. These tribes occupy the whole extent of country between Abyssinia and Mirsa Raheita, near the entrance to the Red Sea, the head-quarters of Roofa Boorhan, sheikh of a subdivision of the Duttagoora. Thence they stretch along the coast to the south-eastward, and from Goobut el Kharab, between the parallels, bounded on the south by the Eesah and other Somauli tribes, and flanked on the north by the Mudaito. The Adaiel or Danakil population, which, including the Mudaito, extends as far as Arkeeko, entitles itself Afer, and claims to be descended from Arab invaders, who, in the seventh century of the Christian era, overran and colonised the low tract which forms a zone between the Abyssinian Alps and the coast of the Red Sea. To a certain extent the northern tribes are subject to the Nayib of Arkeeko, whose authority is recognised in much the same proportion as that of the feeble Sultan of Tajura by the southern clans; but although speaking the same language, they can hardly be said to constitute a nation, being so widely dispersed, that for many days together not a trace of man is to be discovered over the joyless deserts which form the lot of his inheritance, scorched by an ardent sun, and alive only with "moving pillars of sand." From time immemorial every individual has been his own king. Each marauding community is marked by a wild independence; and the free spirit of the whole is to be traced in the rapine, discord, and bloodshed which universally prevails. Theirs is "an iron sky, and a soil of brass," where the clouds drop little rain, and the earth yields no vegetation. It is no "land of rivers of water," nor have the "lines fallen in pleasant places." The desert stretches far on every side, strewed with black boulders of heated lava, and enveloped by a glowing atmosphere. In this country of perfidy and vindictive ferocity, the proprietors of the barren land murder every stranger who shall intrude; and the common benefits of water are an object of perpetual contest. Reprisal and revenge form the guiding maxim of all. Monsters, not men, their savage propensities are portrayed in a dark and baleful eye, and the avenger of blood is closely dogging the footsteps of one half the population. As laziness is the chief source of African misery at large, so is it with the Danakil in particular. They possess that "conceit in their misery" which induces them to despise the labours of the cultivator; and such is the characteristic want of water, that, excepting at Aussa, agriculture is unknown, even in its rudest form. A pastoral, itinerant, and belligerent people, divided into endless clans and ramifications, under divers independent chieftains, their mode of living entitles them to rank only one step in civilisation above the positive savage who depends for daily subsistence upon the chase and upon the spontaneous productions of nature. Born to the spear, and bred in eternal strife with his predatory neighbours, each lawless member of the straggling community inherits the untameable spirit of the descendants of Ishmael; and it is made subservient to all the worst vices and passions inherent in the semi-barbarian. In his very attitude and bearing there is that which proclaims him in his own opinion Lord of the Universe, entitled to enjoy, with a thankless heart, all that he is capable of enjoying. No favour claims his gratitude--nothing demands a thought beyond the present moment. Unlike the Arab Bedouin, he is too indolent and improvident during seasons of plenty, to convert the produce of his flocks and herds into a store against the coming day of drought and famine. Gorged to repletion, the residue is suffered to go to waste; and so long as his belly is full, his licentiousness gratified, and he has leisure to lounge about in listless idleness, the measure of his happiness is complete, and the sun may rise and set without his troubling his head as to the mode in which the day has been passed, or how the next meal is to be provided. Many of the Adaiel are extensive owners of camels, and deal largely in slaves--a trade which yields three hundred per cent, with the least possible risk or trouble to the merchant; but when not upon the journey periodically undertaken to acquire the materials for this traffic, all lead a life of indolence and gross sensuality--eating, sleeping, and indulging in the baser passions, according to the bent of their vicious inclinations. Their delight is to be dirty and to be idle. They wear the same cloth without ablution until it fairly drops from the back; and abhorring honest labour, whether agricultural or handicraft, pass the day in drowsiness, or in the enjoyment of a quiet seat before the hamlet, where the scandal of the community is retailed. Basking in the sun, and arranging their curly locks with the point of the skewer, they here indulge in unlimited quantities of snuff, and mumble large rolls of tobacco and ashes, which are so thrust betwixt the under lip and the white teeth, as to impart the unseemly appearance of a growing wen, and if temporarily removed are invariably deposited behind the left ear. No race of men in the world stink more offensively; but whilst polluting the atmosphere with rancid tallow and putrid animal intestines, they never condescend to approach a Christian without holding their own noses! Amongst the Danakil are to be found some of the most scowling, ill-favoured, and hideous-looking savages in the universe, but the features of the majority have an Arab cast which supports the legend of their origin; and notwithstanding the influence exerted upon the lineaments by passions uncontrolled, the expression of many is pleasing, and even occasionally intellectual. All are muscular and active, but singularly scraggy and loosely knit, and to an easy shuffling gait is added a national addiction to standing cross-legged. Young as well as old take infinite pains to disfigure the person, and thus to render it ferocious in appearance. Scars obtained in brawls and conflicts from stones and cold steel are esteemed the highest ornaments, and the breast and stomach are usually seamed with a mystic maze of rhombs and reticulated triangles, produced by scarification with a sharp fragment of obsidian, so as to resemble the plan of a fortified town of days gone by. The upper lip is denuded with the creese, and the scanty beard suffered to flourish in curls along the cheeks and over the chin; whilst the hair, coarse and long, saturated with grease and mutton fat from infancy, and exposed during life to the fiercest sun, becomes crisped into a thick curly mop, like a counsellor's wig, which is shaved behind on a line between the ears, and constitutes the first great pride of the proprietor. The picking it out into a due spherical form affords employment during his ample leisure, and the contemplation of its wild perfection is the predominant object when the mirror is placed within his grasp. Baldness commences at an early age, and many of the ancient dandies seek protection from the solar influence under sheep-skin perukes of preposterous size, their artificial curls, in common with those that are natural, displaying an ornamented wooden spike or bodkin, which serves as a comb, and is often fancifully carved and provided with two or even three prongs. The operation of greasing this wig without the aid of the barber is original. A lump of raw fat, cut from the overgrown tail of the Berbera sheep, having been some time masticated and mumbled, is expelled into the hands, betwixt the palms of which it is reduced by rubbing to a suitable consistency, and then transferred _en masse_ to the crown. Exposure to the fierce rays of a tropical sun soon conveys the desired nourishment to the roots of the hair. A number of jets and brilliants, which first adorn the periwig, are presently fried into oily shreds, and the liquid tallow, adulterated with dirt, trickling in streams adown the swarthy visage and over the neck, exhales the most sickening of odours. All, however, cannot afford this luxury of the toilet, nor is it every one who can resist the temptation of swallowing the dainty morsel when once consigned to the mouth; and hence is seen many a poll of sun-burnt hair, in colour and consistency resembling the housemaid's cobweb broom which is quaintly denominated "the Pope's head." The simple costume of the Bedouin consists of a piece of checked cloth wrapped loosely about the loins, and descending to the knees so as to resemble a kilt or short petticoat; whilst a cotton robe is thrown over the shoulder after the manner of the Roman toga. Miserly in disposition, few outward ornaments grace his person, save an occasional necklace of fat, and a few armlets and bracelets composed of potent passages from the Koran either stitched in leather, or enveloped in coloured thread. A thong adorned with a metal button girds to the right hip of old and young a creese two feet in length, the wooden hilt of which is decorated with a pewter stud, whilst the scabbard is ornamented with an aromatic sprig, employed as a tooth-brush, and masticated for hours together. Three inches broad in the blade, and possessing a truly murderous crook in the centre, the creese is doubtless a most formidable weapon at close quarters. With it the Danakil builds his house; with it he slays the animal, and flays the carcase. It is his sword in battle, his knife at the table, his razor at the toilet, his hatchet, and his nail-parer. A savage desirous of illustrating the most approved exercise, after whetting the blade upon a stone, capers about describing a series of flourishes and cuts, both under and over the shield, stabbing and parrying to the right and to the left, until at length comes the last grand touch of disembowelment, when a ripping motion is accompanied by a bound into the air, and a howl of perfect satisfaction such as might be conjectured to issue from the jaws of the glutted vampire. The spear, which is seldom out of the hand of the Danakil, is some seven feet in length, a shaft of tough close-grained wood called "_adepto_" being heavily poised with metal at the butt, and topped by a blade from ten to fifteen inches long, by three broad, reduced to as keen an edge as constant scouring with sand and grease can impart. Great aversion is entertained to this weapon being stepped over, and its fall to the ground, independently of the damage that might be sustained, is regarded as an evil omen, and believed to destroy its power over the flesh and blood of an enemy. The spear of a chief only is mounted with bands of brass and copper wire, but the points of all are graced alike with a lump of sheep's-tail fat. Although sometimes employed as a missive, the pike exercise is more usually resorted to--the warrior stealing onward in a crouching position, and springing suddenly with a yell and a cat-like bound to transfix the body of his foe. "None but a woman would retain the spear in the hour of battle," quoth one of the braves--"the creese is the hand to hand weapon!" The shield, fashioned out of the stiff hide of the Baeza, or of the wild buffalo, is a perfect circle, of from one to two feet in diameter, with the rim turned outwards, and the centre convexed, for the purpose of checking the flight or launch of the missive. A button or boss which forms the apex is usually adorned with some proud trophy of the chase, in addition to the red beard of a he-goat, undeviatingly attached as a charm. A small bag, slung in the interior of the buckler, contains the portable wealth of the proprietor, and a forked stick is annexed to the hand strap, to admit of suspension to a tree. Engaged, the warrior keeps the shield in a continual revolving motion, in strict accordance with the movement of the eyes, which in fierce and violent frenzy are rolled in the sockets during the continuance of the conflict. Cruel, bloodthirsty, and vindictive, the Danakil do not possess that spirit of individual enterprise or chivalry, or that reckless disregard of personal danger which, to certain races of men, imparts the stamp of military habits; but a season of scarcity dooms every neighbouring tribe whose pastures are more favoured than their own, to invasion, massacre, and pillage. A fiendish whoop is the signal for the gathering of the clan; and, obedient to the call, each man at arms, grasping spear and shield, abandons his wretched wigwam with truly savage alacrity. His fierce and untamed passions now riot uncontrolled, and those who during the foray are guilty of the greatest enormities, strut about on return amongst their fellows, bedecked with ostrich plumes, and other badges of distinction, reciting each to some wild tune, the tale of his bloody exploits. Morose, and possessing little perception of the ridiculous, witticisms and hilarity in conversation are restricted to the ribald jest; but brawls are frequent, and the bivouac is often cheered by the wild chorus selected from a choice collection breathing in every line self-sufficiency and defiance to the foe. Accompanied by savage gestures and contortions--now menacing, now mincing, and now furious-- these strains are chanted during the livelong night with clear and energetic throats, chiefly with the design of intimidating, by the noisy clamour, any hostile party that may be lurking in the vicinity of the encampment, intent either upon the requital of injuries done, or the acquisition of fame by aggressions unprovoked. Superstitious to the last degree, the itinerant Bedouin takes the field arrayed in a panoply of amulets, designed as a defence against witchcraft, and to be thrown towards the enemy in the hour of battle. A verse from the Koran, sewn up in leather, and hung about the neck, secures him against all incorporeal enemies. No whirlwind ever sweeps across the path without being pursued by a dozen savages with drawn creeses, who stab into the centre of the dusty column in order to drive away the evil spirit that is believed to be riding on the blast. All have firm faith in the incarnation of the Devil, who is described as a monster with perpendicular eyes, capable of rolling along the ground with the rotatory motion of a ball; and Ibrahim Shehem Abli, a most unblushing liar, and no less notable a necromancer than warrior, confidently asserted his individual ability to raise seven hundred of these demons for evil, during any moonlight night of the entire year. The mosque and the muezzin have no existence in the interior, where religion gradually shades away; and, unlike the people of Tajura, there is here little external display of Islamism observable, save in the bigoted detestation evinced towards those of every other than the Mohammadan creed. But although prostrations are wanting, and rosaries are untold, the vagrants still preserve their knavish reputations unblemished. The white feather, which in Europe is the emblem of cowardice, is appropriately placed in the head of these midnight assassins, and the neighbouring tribes have not ill-portrayed the national character in the assertion, that "the tongues of the Adaiel are long for the express purpose of lying, that their arms are long but to admit of their pilfering the property of others, and that their legs are long in order that they may run away like poltroons in the day of danger and retribution." Volume One, Chapter XXXIX. THE GENTLE ADAIEL, AND FAREWELL TO THEM. "Yet one kind kiss before we part, Drop a tear, and bid adieu." To be the wife of a true believer, in whatever state of society, from the most refined to the most barbarous, is to be cursed in the fullest acceptation of the word. But of the two extremes, many, if the choice were given, would doubtless prefer the drudgery that falls to the lot of the partner of the untaught savage, with all the manifold discomforts attending precarious subsistence, to the immolation and seclusion, which in civilised Mohammadan countries, is imposed upon the fairest of God's works. Taking no part with her lord in the concerns of this world-- taught to expect no participation in the happiness of that which is to come--she is a prisoner kept to minister to the lusts of the flesh; and the higher the state of cultivation--the more exalted the rank of the captive--so much the more rigorous is the restraint imposed. In the European acceptation of the term, small traces are here to be found of the sentiment of love; and jealousy, when it does exist, would seldom appear to arise from any regard for the object that has created the feeling. The Dankali female has contrived to retain her natural right of liberty; and so long as the wife performs the labour required at her hands, she is at full liberty to flirt unreproved, to the full extent of her coquettish inclinations. Upon Baileela devolves the task of leading the foremost camel, or carrying the heavy burthen slung by a sharp rope which passes across her breast. She fetches water and wood, prepares the milk, and boils the meat. She it is who weaves mats of the date-leaf for the use of her listless and indolent lord; tends his flocks of sheep and goats, dismantles and erects his wigwam when migrations are undertaken to distant pools and pastures; and, seated at his feet, chases away the flies which disturb his repose beneath the shade of the palm. Here, however, the needle is monopolised by the male, and he is sometimes to be seen industriously stitching a new leathern petticoat for his hard-worked partner, who, conscious of the fleeting nature of her charms, makes the utmost of her short lease; and in the nature of her occupation finds ample opportunities for indulgence. The features of the Bedouin damsel, although degenerate, resemble those of the Arabian mother, from whom she claims descent; and so close a similarity pervades the community at large, that one mould would appear to have been employed for every individual composing it. Nature being suffered to model her daughters according to her will, their figures during a brief period are graceful; but feminine symmetry is soon destroyed by the constant pressure of heavy loads against the chest, and under the fiery heat of her native sands, the nymph is presently transformed into the decrepit hag, with bent back and waddling gait. A short apron of bullock's hide, with frilled edges, is tied above the hips with a broad band, the sport of every wanton whirlwind; but from the waist upwards the person is unveiled. A coif of blue calico covers the head of those who have entered the conjugal state, whilst that of the virgin is unattired; but the hair of all is arranged in an infinity of elaborate plaits falling to the shoulders, and liberally greased. So are also sundry narrow bands of raw hide, which are usually tied above the ankles by way of charms to strengthen the legs, and which, contracting as they dry, sink deep below the surface of the part compressed. A petalled sprig, appearing to grow out of the waistband, ascends on either side of the spine, in tattooed relief, resembling tambour work, and diverging across the ribs, finishes in fancy circles around the bosom according to the taste of the designer. This is a constant quantity, and the charms of many a belle are further heightened by scarification--an angle to break the evenness of the smooth forehead, or the arc of a circle to improve the dimple on the cheek, being favourite devices. From the ears of all who can afford personal ornament, depend two conical drops wrought of thick brass wire spirally coiled, resting on a curved iron base, and separated by two broad horizontal bands of pewter. When the wearer is in activity, the flapping of these cumbrous metallic appendages is ridiculous enough, and the rattle may be heard to a considerable distance as they come into violent collision with a necklace composed of a medley of beads, bones, cowrie shells, jingles, and amulets, strung in many rows upon a leathern collar embedded in dirt and grease, and terminating in a large rhomb of pewter. Bracelets and anklets of the same metal are usual, and the ornament of a squalling brat with inflamed weasel-like eyes slung over the back, is rarely wanting to complete the figure--a jerk to the right or to the left bringing it readily across the shoulder when occasion demands. The Bedouin wigwam--a rectangle of eight feet in length by six broad, and five high--is constructed of a succession of branches in couples, curved before the fire, and lashed in the form of a lip-arch. A mat composed of date leaves forms the roof; and the whole fabric, wherein the hand of no master builder is visible, is thus readily transferred from place to place. "_Omnia mea mecum fero_" should form the motto of the wandering Dankali, whose only furniture consists of a tressel hollowed at the top to serve as a pillow--a luxury restricted to the male sex. In the huts of the more wealthy, wooden platters and ladles sometimes form part of the household gear, together with closely-woven mat baskets to contain milk; but this beverage is more usually consigned to a bag of sheep or goat skin--sun-dried flesh, grease, grain, and water, being lodged also in similar receptacles. Milk forms the principal diet of this Arcadian race; and they deride the dwellers in cities for eating birds or fowls, declaring that the flesh must have travelled upon four legs during life to be at all palatable. An ancient camel, a buck goat, or a bull calf, is occasionally slaughtered with a _Bismillah_, and the flesh not immediately consumed cut into long thin collops, and dried in the sun to be stuffed again into the skin for future use. Meat is broiled among the embers upon closely-packed pebbles, which prevents it coming into contact with the ashes; and the master of the house, taking his seat upon the ground beside a lump of raw liver, places a wedge-shaped stone under either heel, in order to impart a slight inclination to the body, and thus preserve the balance without personal exertion. Picking the bones one by one out of the fire, he seizes alternate mouthfuls of the grilled and the raw flesh between the teeth, and with an upward motion of the creese, divides them close to his nose. It may be received as an axiom that no Bedouin will speak the truth, although the doing so might prove to his obvious advantage. He is not only a liar by the force of rooted habit and example, but also upon principle, and his oaths are simple matters of form. The name of God is invoked, and the Koran taken to witness, in falsehoods the most palpable; and to have sworn with the last solemnity is far from being regarded in the light of a binding obligation. A stone having been cast upon the earth, fire is quenched in water, and the adjuration repeated: "May this body become petrified, and may Allah thus extinguish me if I utter that which is not true!" In conversation a portion of every sentence is invariably taken up by the person addressed--the last word being generally considered sufficient, or even an abbreviation to the final syllable. The salutation of the tribes, between whom little bond exists, beyond identity of language, is a cold forbidding touch of the fingers, fully indicative of the unfriendly sentiments of the heart. All prey upon each other, and every individual in whatever rank is by nature, as well as by habit and inclination, an assassin. None will hesitate to mutilate or barbarously put to death any member of another clan whom he may find at advantage, either sleeping or at a distance from succour-- the appetite for plunder, and the thirst for blood, inherent in the breast, being quite sufficient to dictate every act of atrocity, and to impel every dastardly outrage, that a savage can devise or commit. Dwelling in a scene of aridity, hostility, and bloodshed, traversed by barren chains bearing the impress of volcanic desolation, and cursed with a soil rarely susceptible of cultivation, but still more rarely cultivated, the hand of the roving Bedouin is against every man, and every man's hand is against him. The truth of the Scriptural prophecy respecting the untameable descendants of Ishmael, here as elsewhere is well maintained; nor were the words of the poet ever more truly exemplified than in the hot weary wastes of the Adaiel-- "Nothing save rapine, indolence, and guile, And woes on woes, a still revolving train. Whose horrid circle has made human life Than non-existence worse." Arrogant, treacherous, and degraded barbarians, bound in the fetters of idleness and superstition--dissemblers, whose every word is a lie, and whose overbearing and unaccommodating disposition, grafted upon bigoted intolerance, was displayed on every occasion to the personal discomfort of those by whom they were paid and entertained--there was never throughout the long, tedious, and trying journey, either on the part of elders, escort, or camel-drivers, the slightest wish or effort, either to honour or oblige; and it was only on occasions when fire-arms, which they could not gainsay, might prove of service to themselves, that the blubber lip did not swell in scorn at the Christian Kafirs, who were sneered at even in conversation. And these, too, were savages who scarcely knew the use of bread, who rarely employed water for the ablution of their filthy persons, and who kept their heads and bodies floating in a perpetual sea of sheep's-tail fat. On taking leave of the tormenting fraternity at this the happy termination of a weary and perilous pilgrimage, which had been performed without once taking off the clothes, it may safely be averred that no member of the British Embassy had ever passed so long a period with so large a party, without desiring to make further acquaintance with at least one individual: but the last touch of the cold palm was for once received with heartfelt satisfaction, and each bade adieu to the whole community with an inward hope that it might never fall to his evil lot to see their scowling faces more. Volume One, Chapter XL. ASCENT OF THE ABYSSINIAN ALPS. Having thus happily shaken the Adel dust from off the feet, and taken affectionate leave of the greasy Danakil, it is not a little pleasant to bid adieu also to their scorching plains of unblessed sterility. Every change in the soil and climate of Africa is in extremes, and barrenness and unbounded fertility border on each other with a suddenness whereof the denizens of temperate climes can form no conception. As if by the touch of the magician's wand, the scene now passes in an instant from parched and arid wastes to the green and lovely highlands of Abyssinia, presenting one sheet of rich and thriving cultivation. Each fertile knoll is crowned with its peaceful hamlet--each rural vale traversed by its crystal brook, and teeming with herds and flocks. The cool mountain zephyr is redolent of eglantine and jasmine, and the soft green turf, spangled with clover, daisies, and buttercups, yields at every step the aromatic fragrance of the mint and thyme. The baggage having at length been consigned to the shoulders of six hundred grumbling Moslem porters, assembled by the royal fiat from the adjacent villages, and who, now on the road, formed a line which extended upwards of a mile, the Embassy, on the morning of the 17th, commenced the ascent of the Abyssinian Alps. Hitherto every officious attendant functionary had exerted himself to the utmost to promote delay, confusion, and annoyance; and each now exhorted the respective members of the party to urge their jaded beasts to increased speed, and hasten onwards over a rugged path which, in the toil-worn condition of the majority, was not to be ascended without considerable difficulty. The king was waxing impatient to behold the delighting things that had been imported, an account of which, so far as the prying eyes of his servants had been able to discern, had been duly transmitted to the palace; and in order to celebrate the arrival of so great an accession of wealth. His Majesty's flutes once more poured out their melody, and his warriors again chanted their wild notes among the hills, until far out of hearing of the astonished population of Farri. It was a cool and lovely morning, and a fresh invigorating breeze played over the mountain side, on which, though less than ten degrees removed from the equator, flourished the vegetation of northern climes. The rough and stony road wound on by a steep ascent over hill and dale--now skirting the extreme verge of a precipitous cliff--now dipping into the basin of some verdant hollow, whence, after traversing the pebbly course of a murmuring brook, it suddenly emerged into a succession of shady lanes, bounded by flowering hedge-rows. The wild rose, the fern, the lantana, and the honeysuckle, smiled around a succession of highly cultivated terraces, into which the entire range was broken by banks supporting the soil; and on every eminence stood a cluster of conically-thatched houses, environed by green hedges, and partially embowered amid dark trees. As the troop passed on, the peasant abandoned his occupation in the field to gaze at the novel procession; whilst merry groups of hooded women, decked in scarlet and crimson, summoned by the renewal of martial strains, left their avocations in the hut to welcome the king's guests with a shrill _ziroleet_, which rang from every hamlet. The leather petticoat of the wandering shepherdess was no longer to be seen. Birds warbled among the leafy groves, and throughout the rich landscape reigned an air of peace and plenty that could not fail to prove highly delightful after the recent weary pilgrimage across the hot desert. At various turns of the road the prospect was rugged, wild, and beautiful. Aigibbi, the first Christian village of Efat, was soon revealed on the summit of a height, where, within an enclosure of thorns, rest the remains of a traveller, who not long before had closed his eyes on the threshold of the kingdom, a victim to the pestilential sky of the lowlands. Three principal ranges were next crossed in succession, severally intersected by rivulets which are all tributary to the Hawash, although the waters are for the most part absorbed before they reach that stream. Lastly, the view opened upon the wooded site of Ankober, occupying a central position in a horse-shoe crescent of mountains, still high above, which enclose a magnificent amphitheatre of ten miles in diameter. This is clothed throughout with a splendidly varied and vigorous vegetation, and choked by minor abutments, converging towards its gorge on the confines of the Adel plains. Here the journey was for the present to terminate, and, thanks to Abyssinian jealousy and suspicion, many days were yet to elapse ere the remaining height should be climbed to the capital of Shoa, now distant two hours' walk. Three thousand feet above the level of Farri stands the market-town of Alio Amba, upon the crest of a scarped prong formed by the confluence of two mountain streams. A Mohammadan population, not exceeding one thousand souls, the inmates of two hundred and fifty straggling houses, is chiefly composed of Adaiel, Argobba, and merchants from Aussa and Hurrur; and among this motley community it had been ordained that the Embassy should halt that night. Ascending by a steep stony path to an open spot, on which the weekly market is held, the escort fired a desultory salute; and whilst crowds of both sexes flocked to behold the white strangers, forming a double line, they indulged in the performance of the war-dance. Relieved occasionally by some of the younger braves who had earned distinctions during the last campaign, a veteran capered before the ranks with a drawn sword grasped between his teeth; and for the edification of the bystanders the notes of a martial song were powerfully poured forth in chorus from three hundred Christian throats. The cone occupied by Alio Amba is only one of the thousand precipitous eminences into which the entire mountain side is broken on its junction with the plain. Swollen and foaming, the intersecting torrents appeared from the pinnacle like small threads of silver, twining and gliding far below amid green bushes and verdant fields to the great outlet, whence they escape to be soon lost on the desert sand. Together with a boundless prospect over the inhospitable tract beneath, countless villages now met the eye upon the entire intervening mountain side, and wherever the slope admitted of the plough being held, there cultivation flourished. Wheat, barley, Indian com, beans, peas, cotton, and oil plant, throve luxuriantly around every hamlet--the regularly marked fields mounting in terraces to the height of three or four thousand feet, and becoming in their boundaries gradually more and more indistinct, until totally lost on the shadowy green side of Mamrat, "The Mother of Grace." This towering peak, still shrouded in clouds when all was sunshine below, is clothed with a dense forest of timber, and at an elevation of some thirteen thousand feet above the sea, affords secure shelter to the treasures of the monarch, which have been amassing since the re-establishment of the kingdom, one hundred and fifty years since. Loza forms the apex of the opposite side of the crescent, and perched on its wooded summit is a monastery forming the temporary abode of Halloo Mulakoot, heir-apparent to the throne of Shoa. But by far the most interesting feature in the stern landscape is a conical hill, conspicuous from its isolated position, and rising amid dark groves of pine-like juniper, from a lofty serrated ridge. Hereon stands the stronghold of Goncho, the residence of Wulasma Mohammad, constructed over the state dungeon keep, in which, loaded with galling fetters, the three younger brothers of a Christian king--victims to a barbarous statute--have found a living tomb since the present accession, a period of thirty years! After much needless detention in the market-place, exposed to the impertinent comments and rude gaze of the thronging populace, Ayto Kalama Work, a tall raw-boned man with a loose scrambling gait and a dead yellow eye, introduced himself as governor of the town. He condescended in person to conduct the British guests of his royal master to a mansion which had once boasted of himself as a tenant, but was now in the occupation of a fat old Moslem dame and her three daughters, whose respective appellatives being duly translated, proved worthy the days of Prince Cherry and Fairstar. Eve, Sweet-limes, and Sunbeam, all clothed alike in scarlet habiliments, vacated the premises with the utmost alacrity, and many good-humoured smiles; but owing to the length and difficulty of the road, that portion of the baggage most in request did not arrive until midnight--when, through the officious interference of Ayto Wolda Hana, whose garrulity had increased rather than abated, a new inventory of effects in charge of each principal of a village was to be penned by the royal scribe, and thus neither bedding nor food could be obtained. The edifice so ostentatiously allotted for the accommodation of the party by him of the unpromising exterior, was of an elliptical form, about thirty feet in length by eighteen in breadth, and surrounded on every side by those tall rank weeds that delight to luxuriate in filth. Two undressed stakes supported a tottering grass thatch. Windows there were none. A long narrow aperture did duty for a door, and the walls, which met the roof at a distance of ten feet from the ground, were of the very worst description of wattle and dab--the former an assemblage of rotten reeds, and the latter decayed by time in a sufficiency of places to admit the light indispensable to a full development of the dirt and misery within. In the principal of two apartments, a circular excavation in the floor surrounded by a parapet of clay, served as a stove. Heavy slabs of stone embedded in high mud pedestals, and used for grinding grain, engrossed one corner, and in another were piled heaps of old bullock hides in various stages of decomposition. Very buggy-looking bedsteads, equipped with a web of narrow thongs in lieu of cotton tape, assumed that air of discomfort which a broken or ill-adapted leg is so prone to impart. The narrow necks of divers earthen urn-shaped vessels containing mead, beer, and water, were stuffed with bunches of green leaves. Larger mud receptacles were filled with wheat, barley, and beans; and huge lumps of raw beef, with sundry bullocks' heads, which were promiscuously strewed about, garnished the floor, the beds, and the walls, in every direction. The inner chamber boasted the presence of mules and female slaves, who, if judgment might be formed from the evil odours exhaled, were revelling in the garbage of the shambles. Constructed on the slope of a hill, the floor of the edifice throughout was of the natural earth, and dipping at least one foot below the level of the threshold, had never known the presence of the housemaid's besom. Equalling the filthiest Irish hovel in dirt and discomfort, the cheerless abode could boast of no sleek little pig, and of no pond covered with fat ducks, both being alike held in abhorrence by the Jew-Christians of Shoa; and even the old hat was wanting wherewith to cram the gaps through which whistled the keen cutting blast of Alpine climes. Fatigue soon closed the weary eyes; but the change in the atmosphere, consequent upon the great elevation attained, presently interfered with repose upon the damp bare floor. Rain then set in with extreme violence. The water came tumbling through the manifold apertures in the crazy walls and shattered roof, and having speedily flooded the sloping court, poured over the threshold to deluge the floor with standing pools. Although the smoke of sodden wood, unable to escape, proved an inconvenience scarcely to be borne, there was no dispensing with a fire; and troops of fleas and sanguinary bugs, coursing over the body, by their painful and poisonous attacks, might almost have caused a sigh for the execrated plains of the Adaiel, which, with all their discomforts of watch and ward, were at least free from the curse of vermin. But the lingering day dawned at last, and with the tedious hours of a cold and sleepless night the rain had also disappeared. As the rising sun shone against the lofty and now cloudless peaks, preparations were made for continuing the journey to Ankober, in accordance with the royal invitation; but Ayto Wolda Hana, whose presence ever betokened evil, after wading through the compliments of the morning, proceeded with unbending gravity to unfold the dismal tidings that the monarch had altered his resolves. His Majesty would tarry yet some days longer at Debra Berhan, and in consequence graciously extended the option of visiting the court there or resting at Alio Amba, pending his indefinite arrival at the capital. The difficulty, not to say the impossibility, of transporting the mass of baggage to so great a distance, in such weather, and with very inadequate means at command, rendered imperative the adoption of the latter alternative. Aytos Wolda Hana and Katama, with the whole of the escort, meanwhile took their departure, to report orally the important discoveries they had been able to make relative to the nature of the presents designed for the throne, together with the particulars of the quarrel betwixt Izhak and Mohammad Ali, and the respective pretension of the rivals to the honour of having conducted the British visitors into Abyssinia. One of those mysterious boxes, the lading of which, unviolated by the scrutinising scribes, remained hermetically sealed to the inquisitive gaze of officious spies, had, before leaving Farri, been broken open with the design of obtaining access to an indispensable portion of the contents. To this unfortunate necessity may possibly be ascribed the sudden and unlooked-for alteration in the royal intentions. In lieu of ingots of gold were revealed to the astounded sight the leathern buckets, linch-stocks, and tough ash staves pertaining to the galloper-guns. Words of derision burst from the mouth of every disappointed spectator. "These," exclaimed fifty vain-glorious lips at once, "be but a poor people. What is their nation when compared with the Amhara; for behold in this trash, specimens of the offerings brought from their boasted land to the footstool of the mightiest of monarchs!" Volume One, Chapter XLI. PROBATION AT ALIO AMBA. Slowly passed the days of fog, and the nights of dire discomfort, during the tedious detention which followed this unfortunate discovery. From the terrace commanding a boundless view over the desolate regions traversed, the overflowing channel of the Hawash, and the lakes Le Ado and Ailabello could each morning be perceived sparkling with increased lustre, as their fast-filling basins glittered like sheets of burnished silver under the rays of the rising sun. The industrious fleas continued their nocturnal persecutions, as if never to be sated with European blood; and a constant succession of clouds, which ascended the valley, drawing a grey cold curtain before the hoary head of Mamrat, proclaimed, amid prolonged peals of thunder, the commencement of the rainy season. But each succeeding night and day brought no nearer prospect of release, and the change in the imperial resolves were scarcely less frequent than those which came over the towering face of the stronghold of his subterranean treasure. Remonstrances, penned with infinite labour and difficulty, were responded by endearing messages, garbled at the pleasure of those to whom they were confided; but the subtle excuse for the further delay of the desired audience was never wanting, and conjecture became exhausted in devising the true cause of the mortifying indifference displayed to the rich presents from "beyond the great sea." A desire on the part, of the despot to preserve due respect in the eyes of his lieges, and perhaps also to imbue the minds of his foreign visitors with a befitting sense of his importance, were the most probable motives. Under the existing disappointment, it afforded some consolation to remember that embassies of old to Northern Abyssinia had experienced similar treatment, and to know that delegates to Shoa from the courts of Gondar and Tigre are never presented to the king until weeks after their arrival--a custom originating probably in the more kindly feeling of allowing rest to the way-worn traveller at the close of a long and perilous journey, but perpetuated for less worthy considerations. At length there came a pressing invitation to visit the monarch at Debra Berhan, coupled with an assurance that the Master of the Horse should be in attendance to escort the party. But no Master of the Horse was forthcoming at the time appointed, and the following day brought a pathetic billet from the palace--a tiny parchment scroll, enveloped in a sheet of wax, breathing in its contents regret and disappointment. "Son of my house, my heart longed to behold you, and I believed that you would come. As you appeared not, I passed the day in distress, fearing lest the waters should have carried you away, or that the mule had fallen on the road. I commanded Melkoo to wait and receive you, and to conduct you to me; but when I hoped to see you arrive, you stayed out. The mule returned; and when I inquired whither you were gone, they told me that you were left. I have committed the fault, in that I gave not orders that they should go down, and bring you." Meanwhile, the most vigorous attempts were made, on the part both of the Wulasma and of Ayto Wolda Hana, to exercise exclusive control over the baggage lodged at Alio Amba. Locks were placed upon the latches, and guards appointed over the doors of the houses wherein it was deposited-- fully as much care being taken to preclude access on the part of those by whom it had been brought, as if His Christian Majesty had already become the _bona fide_ proprietor. Repeated orders on the subject, obtained from the palace, were uniformly disregarded by the over-zealous functionaries, and it was only by force of arms that the repositories were finally burst open, and that charge of the contents could be resumed. Neither were the persecutions of the gaunt governor of the town among the least of the evils to be endured, resulting as they did in consequences the most inconvenient. Specially appointed to entertain and provide for the wants of the guests, he supplied at the royal expense provisions alike inferior in quality and deficient in quantity, taking care at the same time that the king's munificence should be in no wise compromised by purchases, for these he clandestinely prevented. His conduct might be traced to the same jealous feelings that pervaded the breast of his colleagues in office. In the despotic kingdom of Shoa, the sovereign can alone purchase coloured cloth or choice goods; and Ayto Kalama Work, who is entitled to a certain percentage upon all imports, having formed a tolerably shrewd estimate of the contents of the bales and boxes, believed that these would effectually clog the market, and that his dues would be no longer forthcoming. Resolved to extend the most unequivocal proofs of his discontent, he was pleased to assign to the surviving horses and mules of the foreigners a tract destitute of pasturage--one mulberry coloured steed only being pampered, because from size, colour, and appearance, it was assumed that he must be intended for the king. The continued drenching rain at night during the later marches, with the intense heat and general absence of water and forage throughout the whole pilgrimage, had sadly reduced the original number. Many more had dropped on the ascent from Farri, and of those whose strength had enabled them to climb the more favoured mountains of Abyssinia, the tails of one half were now presented as evidences of their fate. Among the very few incidents that occurred to break the monotony of the probationary sojourn was the arrival of the "Lebashi," the hereditary thief-catcher of the kingdom. For several hours the little town was in a state of confusion and dismay. Burglary had been committed--divers pieces of salt had been abstracted, and the appearance of the police-officer was not one whit more agreeable to the innocent than to the guilty. A ring having been formed in the market-place by the crowded spectators, the diviner introduced his accomplice, a stolid-looking lad, who seated himself upon a bullock's hide with an air of deep resignation. An intoxicating drug was, under many incantations, extracted from a mysterious leathern scrip, and thrown into a horn filled with new milk; and this potation, aided by several hurried inhalations of a certain narcotic, had the instantaneous effect of rendering the recipient stupidly frantic. Springing upon his feet, he dashed, foaming at the mouth, among the rabble, and without any respect to age or sex, dealt vigorously about him, until at length secured by a cord about the loins, when he dragged his master round and round from street to street, snuffling through the nose like a bear in the dark recesses of every house, and leaving unscrutinised no hole or corner. After scraping for a considerable time with his nails under the foundation of a hut, wherein he suspected the delinquent to lurk, the imp entered, sprang upon the back of the proprietor, and became totally insensible. The man was forthwith arraigned before a tribunal of justice, at which Ayto Kalama Work presided; and although no evidence could be adduced, and he swore repeatedly to his innocence by the life of the king, he was sentenced by the just judges to pay forty pieces of salt. This fine was exactly double the amount alleged to have been stolen, and one fourth became the perquisite of the Lebashi. The services of the hereditary thief-catcher are in universal requisition. Should the property lost consist of live instead of dead stock, it not unfrequently happens that the disciple remains torpid upon the ground; when all parties concerned feel perfectly satisfied that the animal has either strayed or been destroyed by wild beasts, and the expenses attending the divination must be paid by the owner. With the design of testing the skill of the magician, the Negoos once upon a time commanded his confidential page to secrete certain articles of wearing apparel pertaining to the royal wardrobe, and after an investigation of four days, the proper individual being selected with becoming formality, the professional reputation of "him who catches" acquired a lustre which has since remained untarnished. Many a weary hour was passed in listening to tales of real or counterfeit maladies, which were daily recounted in the hovel at Alio Amba. Witchcraft and the influence of the evil eye have firm possession of the mind of every inhabitant, and sufficiently diverting were the complaints laid to their door by those who sought amulets and talismans at the hand of the foreigners. A young Moslem damsel, whose fickle swain had deserted her, could never gaze on the moon that her heart went not pit-a-pat, whilst the tears streamed from her dark eyes; and a hoary veteran with one foot in the grave sought the restoration of rhetorical powers, which had formed the boast of his youth, but which had been destroyed by the pernicious gaze of a rival. "Of yore," quoth he who introduced the patient, "this was a powerful orator; and when he lifted up his voice in the assembly, men marvelled as he spoke; but now, although his heart is still eloquent, his tongue is niggard of words." Equally hopeless was the case of an unfortunate slave-dealer, who crawled in search of relief to the abode of the king's guests. A Galla of the Ittoo tribe had undertaken the removal of severe rheumatism, contracted on the road from Hurrur; to which end he administered a powerful narcotic, which rendered the patient insensible. Armed with a sharp creese he then proceeded to cut and slash in every direction, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot; and when the mutilated victim awoke to a sense of his melancholy condition, the ruthless operator had disappeared. Scarred and seamed in every part of his body, he now presented the appearance of one who had been flayed alive, and the skin had so contracted over the gaps whence the flesh had been scooped, that, unless with extreme difficulty, he could neither eat, drink, nor speak. "My life is burdensome," groaned the miserable picture of human calamity; "and it were better that I should die. I have bathed in the hot springs at Korari without deriving the slightest relief. You white men know every thing: give me something to heal me, for the love of Allah!" Volume One, Chapter XLII. THE WEEKLY MARKET. Surrounded by the myrmidons who collect the royal dues, Ayto Kalama Work was every Friday morning to be seen seated beneath the scanty shelter of an ancient acacia, which throws its withered arms over the centre of the market-place. On this day alone are purchases to be made, and the inhabitants of the adjacent villages pouring from all quarters to lay in their weekly supplies, a scene of unusual bustle and confusion animates this otherwise most quiet and uninteresting location. Shortly after daybreak, wares of every description are displayed under the canopy of heaven, and crowds of both sexes flocking to the stall of the vendor, the din of human voices is presently at its height. Honey, cotton, grain, and other articles of consumption, the produce of the estate of the Amhara farmer, are exposed for sale or barter. The Dankali merchant exhibits his gay assortment of beads, metals, coloured thread, and glass ware. The wild Galla squats beside the produce of his flocks, and the Moslem trader from the interior displays ostrich feathers, or some other article of curiosity from the distant tribe. Bales of cotton cloth, and bags of coffee from Caffa and Enarea, are strewed in every direction. Horses and mules in numbers are shown off among the crowd to increase the turmoil; nor is even the wandering Hebrew wanting to complete the scene of traffic, haggling, and barter, which continues, without intermission, until a late hour in the afternoon, when the village relapses again into its wonted six days of quiet and repose. Swathed and folded in dirty cotton cloth, behold in the cultivator of the soil the original of the Egyptian mummy. Greasy and offensive in person and in habits, he moves cringingly to pay his tax to the governor of the fair, who sits in conscious dignity upon a stone; and prostrating himself with shoulders bared among the mud, the serf hands forth the measure of grain from the leathern scrip, or scoops out the prescribed meed of butter from the jar--the vassal token of permission enjoyed to earn his bread by the unceasing hand of labour. No spark of intelligence illumines his dull features; not a trace of independence can be discovered in his slouching gait; and the cumbrous robe with which he is invested would indeed seem far better adapted for the quiet resting-place in the tomb, than for the bustling avocations of stirring life. Here swaggers a valiant gun-man of the king's matchlock guard. The jealousy of the monarch forbids the removal of the primitive weapon from the royal presence, but the white _herkoom_ feather floats in all the pride of blood over clotted tufts moist with the beloved grease; and the dark scowl and the lowering brow betoken the reckless cruelty which stains the character of the band. But the man is a poor slave, and his degraded state has entirely destroyed the few traits of humanity which might have smiled upon his nativity. The surly Adaiel brushes past in insolent indifference to examine the female slaves in the wicker hut of the rover from the south. His murderous creese ensures from the bystanders a high respect, which frequent disasters in the low country has riveted on the heart of the Amhara; and men turn in wonder to gaze upon the mortal who entertaineth not a slavish adoration for the great monarch of Shoa. Squatted beside his foreign wares and glittering beads, see the wily huckster of Hurrur, with his turban and blue-checked kilt. His dealings, it is true, are of no very extensive amount, and salt, not silver, is the medium of exchange; but there is still room for the exercise of his knavery. The countenance both of buyer and seller exhibits an anxious and business-like expression, and the same noise and confusion prevails regarding an extra twopence-halfpenny, as if the transaction involved a shower of golden guineas. The Christian women flit through the busy fair with eggs and poultry, and other produce of the farm. Their ill-favoured features are not improved either by the eradication of the eyebrow, or by the bare shaven crown dripping with rancid butter; and the dirty persons of all are invariably shrouded in yet dirtier habiliments, from the tall masculine damsel of sixteen summers, to the decrepit and wrinkled hag who in cracked notes proclaims ever and anon, "_amole alliche bir_," "salt to sell for silver." The free and stately mien of the oriental female, and the light graceful garment of the east, are alike wanting. The heavy load is tied as upon the back of the pack-horse, and the bent and broken figure of the Amhara dame is debarred by the severe law of the despot from the decoration of finery or costly ornament. A huge bee-hive-shaped wig, elaborately curled and frosted, and massive pewter buttons thrust through the lobe of the ear, constitute her only pride; and nature, alas! has too often withheld even the smallest portion of those feminine attractions which in other climes form the charm of her sex. The inhabitants of Argobba or Efat, under the control of the sinister eye of the Wulasma, are followers of the false Prophet, and speak a distinct language. Little difference, however, is observable in the external appearance of the males from that of the Amhara subject of the empire; and it is not until the removal of the muffling cloth that the rosary of bright-spotted beads is displayed in lieu of the dark blue emblem of Christianity worn throughout Ethiopia. The women, on the other hand, are at once recognisable, no less by their Arab gypsy features, than by their long braided tresses streaming ever the shoulder, the ample smock of red cloth, dyed purple with accumulated lard, and the nunlike hood of the same material, buttoned close under the chin. Fairer, more slender, and better favoured than their coarse Christian sisters of the more alpine regions, they are still scarcely less greasy and unattractive. Loaded with amulets and beads, their belief is proclaimed by the oft-repeated exclamation, "_Hamdu-lillah_!" "Praise be unto Allah!"--the courteous interrogatories of every passer-by, anent health, rest, and welfare, being by the burly and masculine ladies of Shoa, responded by the words "_Egzia behere maskin_!" "Thanks be unto God!" Unrestricted by harem law they fidget about in every direction, their great sparkling eyes peering through a mass of coal-black hair, half concealed by the crimson cowl, and the large shining necklace of amber reaching nearly to the waist. But the hideous sack chemise veils every feature of figure and personal beauty, and the naked hands and feet are alone exhibited, both rather misshapen from hard work and undue exposure to the climate. The crowd makes way for a great Christian governor, probably from some distant province near the Nile. He is surrounded by a boisterous host of armed attendants, and, like them, paddles with unshod feet through the stiff black mire. The capacious stomach, and the bright silver sword with tulip scabbard, betoken high honour and command. An ambling mule tricked out in brass jingles and chains follows in his path; a long taper wand towers above his shoulder; and his portly figure is completely shrouded in the folds of a cotton robe, bedecked from end to end with broad crimson stripes. The garment might be improved by ablution; but repose upon the hide of a bullock is no aid to purity of apparel, and it is white in comparison with those of his unwashed retinue. The arrangement of his hair has occupied the entire morning, and the steam of the fetid butter, which glistens among the minute curls, pervades the entire atmosphere. Muffled high above the chin, the eyes and nose of the functionary are alone submitted to the vulgar gaze, and as he halts for a moment to wonder at the unwonted sight of the Gyptzi strangers, the bloodshot eye betrays the midnight debauch, and the wrinkles of his turned-up nose, the scorn of the savage at the difference of costume and complexion. Approaching the acacia his shoulders are temporarily bared to the pompous dignitary presiding over the fair, who rising to receive him, returns the compliment, and there ensues a tissue of inquiries unknown even to the code of Chesterfield. Cantering over the tiny plain--a scanty level of an hundred yards--the wild Galla enters the scene of confusion, his long tresses streaming in the wind, and his garment blue with the grease of ages. A jar of honey, or a basket of butter, is lashed to the crupper of his high-peaked saddle; the steed is lean and shaggy as the rider, and the snort and the start from either proclaim undefined terror and amazement at the strange sights, and the rugged rocks and precipices, unknown to the boundless meadows of their own green land. Dandies there are none, in aught of outward appearance, for the arrangement of the hair is the only latitude allowed to the invention of the would-be fop. The cotton cloth in every degree of impurity, floats over the swart shoulder both of noble and of serf. Bare heads and naked feet are the property of all, and the possession of the spear and shield alone marks the difference of rank. The chief scorns to carry a weapon except during the foray or the fight, whereas his followers never leave the threshold of their rude dwellings, without the lance in their hand, and buckler on their arm. The terror and abhorrence in which the low country and its attendant dangers are held by the Abyssinian population, have placed nearly the entire trade of Alio Amba in the hands of the Danakil, who are treated by the monarch of Shoa with all deference and respect. Caravans arrive every month during the fair season from Aussa and Tajura, and the traffic, considering the manifold drawbacks, may be said to be brisk and profitable. Numbers of foreign merchants, those of Hurrur especially, whilst disposing of their goods, hold their temporary residence at the market-town, the climate of which, many degrees warmer than the cold summit of the range which towers two thousand feet above, proves far more congenial to their taste and habits. With the proceeds of foreign imported merchandise, human beings kidnapped in the interior countries of Africa are purchased in the adjacent slave mart of Abd el Russool. These wretched victims are then taken through the Amhara province of Giddem to the Wollo and Argobba frontiers, some five days' journey to the north, and resold at a profit of fifty per cent,--the sums realised being there invested in _amoles_, or blocks of black salt, the size of a mower's whetstone. Obtained between Agame and the country of the Dankali, from a salt plain which not only supplies all the Abyssinian markets, but many also far in the interior of Africa, they pass as a currency, and, being bought on the frontier at the rate of twenty-five for a German crown, are retailed in Alio Amba at a profitable exchange. A large investment of slaves is finally purchased with the wealth thus laboriously amassed, and the merchant returns to his native country to traffic in human flesh at the sea-ports of Zeyla and Berbera, or on the opposite coast of Arabia--anon to revisit Shoa with a fresh invoice of marketable wares. Ever ravaged by war and violence, the unexplored regions of the interior pour forth a continual supply of ill-starred victims of all ages to feed the demand, and the hebdomadal parade in the market-place under the ruthless Moslem monsters by whom they are imported, is sufficiently harrowing to those unaccustomed to such revolting spectacles. Examined like cattle by the purchaser, the sullen Shankala fetches a price proportioned to the muscular appearance of his giant frame; and the child of tender years is valued according to the promise of future development. Even the shamefaced and slenderly-clad maiden is subjected to every indignity, whilst the price of her charms is estimated according to the regularity of her features, the symmetry of her budding form, and the luxuriance of her braided locks; and when the silver has rung in confirmation of the bargain, the last tie is dissolved which could hold in any restraint the appetite of her savage possessor. Volume One, Chapter XLIII. THE PRINCIPALITY OF HURRUR. Not many weeks had elapsed since certain substantial merchants of Hurrur, after visiting the shrine at Medina, and making a long and profitable sojourn in Alio Amba, had returned to their native land to enjoy the honours attaching to their religious pilgrimage. Slaves, ivory, and precious gums had been disposed of to great advantage in Arabia, and the proceeds invested in beads, berilles, and broad-cloth, with which the enterprising traders landed at the maritime town of Tajura. Proceeding thence to Efat, they embarked their gains in slaves, mules, and cotton cloths; and designing to pass the residue of their days in ease and affluence, set out by way of Hurrur for the great annual fair at Berbera. In advance of the time, however, these luckless individuals had ventured to speculate to their envious countrymen upon the advantage to be derived from foreign traffic and the presence of the white man. The incautious word had caught the ear of Abdel Yonag, the wily chief of the Hurrurhi, and letters were secretly despatched to his master the Ameer, representing the wealthy hajjis to be men of turbulent and ambitious views, who had devised dangerous innovations, and were plotting, with the Adaiel, the monopoly of the commerce in slaves. With hearts bounding at the sight of their native minarets, and utterly unconscious of the slander that had preceded them, the pilgrims entered the _Isma-deen_ gate of the city; but ere return had been welcomed by wife or child, they were hurried by the soldiery to the presence of the despot, and, without even the mockery of a trial, were beaten to death with huge maces of iron. The independent principality of Hurrur is a spot yet unvisited by any European, and is remarkable for its isolated position among the Pagan and Mohammadan Galla, against whose continual inroads it has hitherto contrived, with the aid of two hundred matchlock-men and a few archers, to maintain its integrity. The Alla, the Nooli, the Geeri, the Tarsoo, the Babili, the Bursoo, the Burteera, and the Gooti, compass it on every side, and making sudden descents, sweep the ripe crops from off the face of the smiling land; but their efforts against the town have uniformly proved unsuccessful, and caravans continue, in spite of hostilities, to carry on a very considerable traffic through the Ittoo and Aroosi tribes, with Shoa and the Somauli coast. Originally founded and peopled by a colony of the sons of Yemen, the town is described to be situated in a pleasant and well-watered valley, surrounded by hills, and enjoying a cool and salubrious climate. A wall of mud and stone, six miles in circumference, with five fortified gates, affords security to the entire population, whose houses, many of them two-storied, are constructed of stone, whitewashed, and terraced. Mosques and minarets are conspicuous in every street. The matin voice of the muezzin is regularly heard, and the Jama el Musjid is believed to be the abode of guardian angels, who stretch the strong pinion of protection over the heads of the Faithful. "How could Hurrur have triumphed thus long over the unbelievers," inquire the devout citizens, "had Allah not extended his right arm to succour the followers of his Prophet?" Aboo Bekr, the reigning Ameer, has wielded the sceptre during the last seven years, and pursuing the barbarous custom of Shoa, his brothers and family are permanent inmates of subterranean dungeons, which for better security are constructed immediately below the foundations of his own palace. Although cruel and vindictive, he is reputed a brave prince, heading the foray in person, and taking the front in the battle field; but suspicion of the stranger would seem to form the ruling feature of his character, nor is this to be wondered at, since bloodshed and aggression are known to have once marked the footstep of the intruder. During the reign of Abd el Kurreem, uncle to the present Ameer, a large body of Arabs from Mocha, instigated by a disgraced member of the blood-royal, who had fled thither for safety, laid siege to the town, and assisted by guns of small calibre, which are now mounted on the walls, had nearly prevailed. Again the guardian angels stretched their white wings over the beleaguered city. The magazine blew up and destroyed numbers of the enemy, and their traitorous leader, who had induced the attack by representing his countrymen to be infidels and apostates from the true religion, falling into the hands of the garrison, had his head exalted on a pole in the market-place, after the brains had been dashed out with an iron club. Death is now the portion of every fool-hardy wanderer from the shores of Araby, and whilst the Galla is compelled to relinquish his arms at the gate, every precaution is taken to exclude from the land the foreigner of whatever nation. In the features of the Hurrurhi is to be traced a strong resemblance to those of the parent stock. The costume consists of a checked kilt, a creese, and a cotton toga; the display of a turban being restricted to the Ameer, to the moolahs, and to those who have performed the pilgrimage to the shrine of the Prophet. Although distinct in itself, the language bears a singular affinity to that of the Amhara, but Arabic forms the written character. Barter is the most usual system of commerce, but the _mahaluk_, a small copper coin resembling the _dewani_ of Jiddah, is current in the realm. Twenty-two of these go to a nominal coin styled _ashrafi_, whereof forty are equivalent to the German crown. It bears on the reverse the name of the reigning Prince, and on the obverse the quotation from the Koran, "La _illah, illilah_!" "there is none other God but Allah." Around Hurrur the soil is rich, and extensively cultivated, especially in coffee. Two thousand bales of the finest quality are annually exported into India and Arabia by the ports of Zeyla and Berbera, which are visited thrice during the year by large caravans laden with ivory, ostrich feathers, ghee, saffron, gums, and myrrh, which latter is produced in great abundance. Blue and white calico, Indian piece goods, English prints, silks, and shawls, red cotton yam, silk thread, beads, frankincense, copper wire, and zinc, are received in exchange, and a transit duty of one _frazil_ of the latter metal is levied by the Ameer on every slave passing through his dominions from the cold hills of his brother of Shoa, where these commodities are bartered. [The distance of Hurrur from Zeyla may be assumed at 150 miles south-south-west and from Ankober, 190 miles East.] Between Aboo Bekr and the Christian monarch the most friendly intercourse subsists. Letters continually pass and repass, and scarcely a month elapses without the arrival of a caravan. The chief of the Wurj or merchants of Hurrur, standing specially appointed by the Ameer, possesses absolute power to punish all offences, and adjust all disputes amongst his own countrymen, who are not less fond of drawing the creese than their Adaiel brethren. Tullah, an inferior description of beer, being brewed and swallowed in alarming quantities, brawls and scuffles too frequently terminate the debauch in blood. Should a Christian subject of Shoa be slain, the offence is passed over in politic silence, but when the reverse is the case, the worldly wealth of the sinning Abyssinian is confiscated by the crown, and his person handed over to the tender mercies of the Moslem savages. The continual change of inhabitants, the excessive cheapness of provisions, and the prevalent custom of hand-fasting for the visit, tend little to improve the morality of the market-town. The chains of the convenient alliances formed, are by no means binding on either party, and the sum of twopence-halfpenny is perfectly sufficient to support during the week the trader and his temporary mate. One hundred pieces of salt are considered a large dowry; the nuptials are celebrated by feasting and routing alone, and whilst the utmost indifference prevails on the part of the husband, he loosens the matrimonial knot at pleasure, by carrying his partner before the kazi, and thrice repeating the words, "Woman, I thee divorce." One fourth of the entire population of Alio Amba are Hurrurhi and Danakil. Of the worthies who accompanied the Embassy from Tajura, the majority continued to reside at Farri and Channoo for the convenience of foraging their camels, but flocking every Friday to the market, they never failed to confer the pleasure of their society for a few hours. Gubaiyo, the deputy-governor of the town, had been specially appointed to the service of the foreigners, and whilst discharging his office of spy with the most creditable diligence, he exercised with strict impartiality his functions as door-keeper, enforcing, greatly to the amazement of the independent Adaiel, the Abyssinian usage, which precludes the invasion of visitors unless duly introduced. The obnoxious red man, whose iniquities had well nigh cost the lives of the whole party at the Great Salt Lake, and who had now the impudence to seek a reward for his services on the road, was the first who came under the remorseless lash of the despotic bully; and it was a not less cheering and delightful sight to behold the warm-blooded little warrior, Ibrahim Shehem Abli, flying like a football down the steps leading from the court-yard into the muddy lane, before the propulsive impetus of a Christian toe, which presently sent the tyrannical Izhak bounding after his colleague, with many a severe thwack from the wand of office, ringing across his Moslem shoulders, as he vainly proclaimed himself own brother to the reigning Sultan of Tajura. Volume One, Chapter XLIV. ESCAPE FROM THE MARKET-TOWN. Abyssinian despots sully not their dignity by condescending to divulge even the smallest design to the most confidential of their courtiers. In elegant Amharic phraseology "the belly of the master is never known;" and thus it occurred that had any possessed the inclination to predict the probable period of detention, none could boast the ability. A fortnight rolled tardily away, and the burning curiosity of the savage having meanwhile overcome the scruples dictated by state policy, it became matter of public notoriety that the king had taken up his residence at the adjacent palace of Machal-wans, where preparations were actually in progress towards the long-desired audience. The reappearance of the commander-in-chief of the body-guard, with the escort of honour, was the first welcome sign of approaching release from the vile market-town of Alio Amba; and the most illustrious peer of the realm, attended by a junto of scribes, and a host of reluctant porters, was not far behind him. Penmanship being so extremely tedious a process, it is not the court etiquette to endite letters when a verbal communication will answer the purpose; and the visitors were accordingly charged with abundant compliments, and with an invitation to behold the royal person on the ensuing Sabbath, which had been pronounced by the astrologers "a day of good omens." "Tarry not by day, neither stay ye by night, for the heart of the father longeth to see his children. Hasten that he be not again disappointed." But, unfortunately, the hour selected by the skill of "those who read the stars" did not find approval in the sight of the guests; and in order to gratify the royal impatience, it was therefore proposed that the interview should take place one day earlier. His Majesty, however, laboured under the effects of _cosso_, a drug resorted to by all who revel in raw diet; and feeling yet unequal to appear in public, it was finally arranged that audience should be deferred until the Monday following. A fresh inventory of boxes was immediately commenced; and, after much opposition, those intended for presentation to the throne were separated, and sent off to await arrival at a hamlet distant two miles from Machal-wans. The next labour was to dismantle the structure of bales and packages which during the detention at Alio Amba had been piled in view to the economy of space, so as to admit of some of the party occupying the tier next the roof, whilst others had slept in cabins formed below, or upon, or underneath, the table. But no sooner had the king's baggage departed than the Wulasma came to announce that there were no more porters, and that if any thing still remained it must be left behind. Another battle followed, and a war of words, which lasted a full hour and a half, was again crowned with victory. Ayto Kalama Work, who had been the chief instigator of this opposition, is charged with manifold affairs. Independent of his important duties at the seat of his authority, where he is responsible for all tribute in salt, in honey, and in specie, he is entrusted with the treasures lodged in Ankober, Aramba, Debra Berhan, and Kondie, and is expected to be present on all state occasions at the palace. To assist in the discharge of these onerous and multifarious duties, he has many stewards and subordinates, of whom the chief, who superintends the _ghemdjia_ house, or royal wardrobe, wherein the most costly manufactures are deposited, had already proceeded in advance to spread the carpets in the great reception hall. He was accompanied by Deftera Sena, the secretary, whose business it is to receive and register all transfers to the state revenues, and who had been for the last fortnight almost incessantly busied with his pen. Liberated from irksome captivity, the utmost difficulty was next experienced in procuring mules--no steps to supply the place of those destroyed having been taken by the inimical functionaries whose express duty it was. The few survivors of the late numerous drove were mustered, but only one proved in a condition to proceed, and it was not until a messenger had actually set out with a complaint to the king, that measures were taken to supply the number required. A clamorous mob now assembled in order to witness the difficulties raised in the way of the foreigners; and it required the utmost exertion on the part of Gubaiyo, both with his long stick and still longer tongue, to keep the idle crowd at a respectful distance. Mounted at length, the party turned their backs towards the market-place, and entered upon a circuitous path, winding, by abrupt declivities and steep ascents, over three mountain torrents, towards the village of Sallal Hoola, at which the night was to be passed. Kind nature had everywhere spread the ground with her gifts in inexhaustible profusion and variety, supplying all the more immediate wants of mankind, yet enforcing the doom of labour so wisely imposed upon her lazy children. Rich acres of com by the wayside were interspersed with quiet hamlets, and with luxuriant meadows abounding in trefoil and a vast variety of red and white clover. Crystal brooks leapt in numerous cascades, and hedge-rows gay with endless flowers, the dog-rose and the fragrant jessamine, imparted to the rural landscape an aspect quite European. Southern Abyssinia proper commences with Efat, at the foot of the first range of hills, which continue to increase both in altitude and fertility to the summit of the lofty barrier that stretches north and south to form the brink of the elevated table-land of Shoa. Violent storms of thunder and lightning, which usher in the rainy season, are attracted to this region as well by the great elevation of the mountain as by the highly ferruginous nature of the rocks. It is a land of hill and valley, smiling under the influence of the copious deluge; and so striking a contrast does it present to the general character and climate of the torrid zone, that at first sight the delighted traveller might believe himself transported by some fairy agency to his northern home. Ayto Wolda Hana, although loquacious enough, had been somewhat subdued by the temperature of the low country, to which, as well as to every thing Mohammadan, he evinced an insuperable disrelish; but once again within the influence of the cold mountain breeze beyond the limits of the Wulasma's jurisdiction, and he was in his glory. Two running footmen kept pace with his gaily-caparisoned mule. Immediately behind him rode a confidential henchman carrying the emblazoned shield and decorated lances which denoted his position in society; and in the height of Highland anarchy the tail of the McGregor was seldom of longer dimensions than that of the pompous governor of Ankober. Suddenly leaving the party, the great man was observed to dive into a village by the road-side, whence in a few minutes he returned, issuing a variety of orders in a far from melodious tone of voice, which evidently had reference to the mulberry steed already mentioned as having been brought from Aden. The animal had not been seen for many days, and every application regarding it had been so dexterously evaded, that, although the tail had not been brought in, it was believed to have gone the way of all flesh. To the surprise of every one, the charger, prancing and neighing, was now led forth, in the best condition, by one of the King's grooms. So thoroughly had the worthy functionary been impressed with the erroneous conviction, that it formed a part of the present designed for his royal master, that the fortunate beast had been turned into clover, and duly fed with the choicest barley, whereas all its companions, although surrounded by plenty, had been suffered to starve. At Sallal Hoola, another hovel had been provided by the royal bounty, smaller in dimensions, more dark, dirty, and dismal, and infinitely better garrisoned with vermin than the abode wherein the last fortnight had been passed. Environed by miry swamps and stagnant pools, it presented an appearance the most gloomy and wretched, whilst the materials for comfort were, as usual, denied by the officious functionaries, who had taken care to deposit the baggage most needed in quarters of the village where, at so late an hour, free access was impossible. The gloomy recesses of the veranda were crowded with female slaves, occupied in the various processes of preparing bread, which the population had been called upon to supply in large quantities to the palace against the approaching arrival of the foreigners. In one corner, two old women who alternately plied their pestles to a most monotonous ditty were pounding grain in a wooden mortar. In another a group of buxom lasses were rocking themselves to and fro over mills fashioned like the high-heeled slipper of the days of good Queen Bess, upon the inclined surface of which they contrived, with a stone and great personal labour, to convert the grain into a form something resembling flour. It trickled in a scanty stream into a vessel placed below the depressed plane for its reception, and was presently wrought into thick cakes, full a foot and a half in diameter. These were merely shown to the fire, and a crude substance was thus produced, which by a well-fed Indian elephant would certainly have been rejected with a severe admonition to his keeper. In this dreary and soul-depressing spot, destitute of beds and not overburdened with food, were experienced the very opposite of the delights of the Salt Lake--cold, damp, and wet in perfection; but the glad prospect of an interview with His Majesty on the morrow buoyed up the spirits of all, and misery was disregarded. Ayto Katama had proceeded in advance to Machal-wans to seek at the royal hands permission to fire a salute of twenty-one guns on the British Embassy reaching the royal lodge--a point previously urged, but without success. It had already been brought to the King's notice that the foreigners partook of food which had been prepared by Mohammadans--a proceeding which in Shoa is reckoned equivalent to a renunciation of Christianity. Ideas the most extravagant were, moreover, in circulation relative to the powers of the ordnance imported, the mere report of which was believed sufficient to set fire to the earth, to shiver rocks, and dismantle mountain fastnesses. Men were said to have arrived with "copper legs," whose duty it was to serve these tremendous and terrible engines; and in alarm for the safety of his palace, capital, and treasures, the suspicious monarch still peremptorily insisted upon withholding the desired licence, until he should have beheld the battery "with his own eyes." Volume One, Chapter XLV. PRESENTATION AT COURT. It rained incessantly with the greatest violence throughout the entire night, and until the morning broke, when a great volume of white scud, rising from the deep valleys, and drifting like a scene-curtain across the stern summit of the giant Mamrat--now frowning immediately overhead--foretold the nature of the weather that might be anticipated during the important and long-looked-for day. The baggage having with considerable difficulty been collected from the various nooks and comers wherein the porters had deposited their loads, and no prospect of a brighter sky being in store, the circumjacent morasses were waded to the face of the hill which obscured Machal-wans. Too steep and slippery for mules, this was also ascended on foot, with the aid of long staves; and the rain, which had been dropping gently for some time, again setting-in with the most malicious steadiness, as if resolved to mar all attempt at display, the whole cavalcade was presently drenched to the skin. An hour's toil over very heavy ground opened a sudden turn in the road, whence the escort, resting their cumbrous matchlocks over the rocks, commenced an indiscriminate fire--the reports of their heavily-loaded culverins, mingled with the answering note of welcome from the expectant crowd below, echoing long and loud among the broken glens. As the clouds of smoke floated slowly away on the dense atmosphere from the shoulder of the mountain, there burst upon the sight a lovely view of the stockaded palace at Machal-wans. Its conical white roofs were embosomed in a fair grove of juniper and cypress, which crested a beautifully wooded tumulus rising at the extreme verge of the valley from the very banks of a roaring torrent. A bright green meadow, spangled with flowers, lay stretched at its foot: the rose, the eglantine, and the humble violet, grew around in all the grace of native wildness, to recall recollections of happier lands, whilst the great Abyssinian range, which even here towered almost perpendicularly some two thousand feet overhead, and whose peaks were veiled in wreaths of white fog, formed a magnificent background to the picture. Isolated farm-houses were profusely scattered over the verdant landscape--rich fields glistened in various stages of maturity--and the rills, swollen by the recent storm, came thundering over the mountain side, in a succession of foaming cascades. Another hour's wading through deep ploughed fields of beans and peas and standing corn, and across the rapid torrent brawling over a rocky bed, brought the draggled party to two time-worn awnings of black serge, which not five minutes before had been pitched for its accommodation in a swamp below the royal residence, and which admitted the rain through an infinity of apertures. This continued up to the last moment, thick and heavy; but the utmost efforts of the deluge had proven insufficient to cleanse the mud-stained garments; and now the tramp of six hundred porters, in addition to the vast crowd which had assembled to witness the long-looked-for arrival of the British Embassy, soon converting the ground into a positive quagmire, ankle-deep in black mud, seemed to render utterly hopeless any attempt at the exhibition of broad-cloth and gold lace on the approaching presentation at the Court of Shoa. The governors of Ankober and Alio Amba, whose special affair it was to provide food, and otherwise to render assistance needed, left the visitors to pitch their own tent, whilst they lounged in the palls, and contented themselves with urging the instant gratification of the royal curiosity, which was momentarily becoming more and more intense. Persecution on the part of the unruly and boisterous mob, to whom every object was new, meanwhile waxed greater and greater--thousands pressing forward to gaze as at wild beasts, and all contributing their mite to promote confusion and discomfort, now at the climax. Sally after sally was made by the uproused commander-in-chief of the body-guard, and many were the long sticks broken to small fragments over the backs and shoulders of the wild spectators in the course of his vigorous applications. But it was to no purpose. The ring was no sooner formed than broken, and the self-constituted clerk of the course, becoming at length weary of his occupation, he joined his idle colleagues in the tent, and left the multitude to their own devices. A remonstrance to the King, touching the indignities to which the liege subjects of Great Britain were thus exposed at the hands of the Amhara rabble, on the very outskirts of the palace, was followed by a visit from Birroo, the favourite page, bearing an apologetic message on the score of ignorance; and repeated messages through this shrewd little confidant of royalty, who possessed all the airs of a spoiled pet, elicited first permission to fire a single gun--then five--and lastly, the desired salute. With his assistance, moreover, the crowd was to a certain extent repelled, and the spacious tent having finally been erected, amid peals of savage wonder, the floor was strewed with heather and with branches lopped from the myrtles and from various aromatic shrubs that grew thickly around, and preparations were at length commenced for the interview, which, during the continuance of the tumult and uproar, had been by a succession of messages repeatedly and earnestly desired. It was now noon, and the weather having temporarily cleared, the British party, radiant with plumes and gold embroidery, succeeded, after much fruitless opposition, in mounting their gaily-caparisoned steeds, and escorted by the governors, the commander-in-chief of the body-guard, and by a numerous and clamorous escort, proceeded in full uniform towards the palace. Many were the attempts made to enforce the etiquette which denies ascent in equestrian order; but as, on gaining the foot of the eminence, the roar of artillery burst from the centre of the encampment, and the deep valley, filling fast with a cloud of white smoke, began to echo back the salute at the rate of six discharges in a minute, no further interference was attempted, and an universal shout arose of "_Malifia Ungliz, melcom! melcom_!" "Wonderful English, well done! well done!" Noise, bustle, and confusion, which in Abyssinia are reckoned highly honourable to the guest, were again at their climax on reaching the outer cricket, where the form of obtaining the royal permission to pass was to be observed ere entrance could be accorded by the state door-keepers. Further detention was experienced in the court-yard, at the hands of sundry officers of the privy chamber, whose visages were but ill-adapted to sustain the character of high official importance, and whose assumption of dignity proved singularly ludicrous. At length came a message expressive of His Majesty's unqualified surprise and satisfaction at the extraordinary celerity with which the guns were being served, and his desire to see the Embassy forthwith; but attempting to advance, opposition was again interposed, and it needed another message, and yet another command, before admission could be obtained to the royal presence. The last peal of ordnance was rattling in broken echoes along the mountain chain, as the British Embassy stepped at length over the high threshold of the reception hall. Circular in form, and destitute of the wonted Abyssinian pillar in the centre, the massive and lofty clay walls of the chamber glittered with a profusion of silver ornaments, emblazoned shields, matchlocks, and double-barrelled guns. Persian carpets and rugs of all sizes, colours, and patterns, covered the floor, and crowds of Alakas, governors, chiefs, and principal officers of the court, arrayed in their holyday attire, stood around in a posture of respect, uncovered to the girdle. Two wide alcoves receded on either side, in one of which blazed a cheerful wood fire, engrossed by indolent cats, whilst in the other, on a flowered satin ottoman, surrounded by withered eunuchs and juvenile pages of honour, and supported by gay velvet cushions, reclined in Ethiopic state His Most Christian Majesty Sahela Selassie. The _Dech Agafari_, or state door-keeper, as master of the ceremonies, stood with a rod of green rushes to preserve the exact distance of approach to royalty, and as the British guests entered the hall and made their bows to the throne, motioned them to be seated upon chairs that had previously been sent in--which done, it was commanded that all might be covered. The King was attired in a silken Arab vest of green brocade, partially shrouded under the ample folds of a white cotton robe of Abyssinian manufacture, adorned with sundry broad crimson stripes and borders. Forty summers, whereof eight-and-twenty had been passed under the uneasy cares of the crown, had slightly furrowed his dark brow, and somewhat grizzled a full bushy head of hair, arranged in elaborate curls after the fashion of George the First; and although considerably disfigured by the loss of the left eye, the expression of his manly features, open, pleasing, and commanding, did not in their _tout ensemble_ belie the character for impartial justice which the despot has obtained far and wide--even the Danakil comparing him to "a fine balance of gold." All those manifold salutations and inquiries which overwrought politeness here enforces, duly concluded, the letters with which the Embassy had been charged--enveloped in flowered muslin and rich gold kimkhab--were presented in a sandal wood casket, minutely inlaid with ivory; and the contents having been read and expounded, the costly presents from the British government were introduced in succession, to be spread out before the glistening eyes of the Court. The rich Brussels carpet which completely covered the hall, together with Cachemire shawls and embroidered Delhi scarfs of resplendent hues, attracted universal attention, and some of the choicest specimens were from time to time handed to the alcove by the chief of the eunuchs. On the introduction of each new curiosity, the surprise of the King became more and more unfeigned. Bursts of merriment followed the magic revolutions of a group of Chinese dancing figures; and when the European escort in full uniform, with the sergeant at their head, marched into the centre of the hall--faced in front of the throne, and performed the manual and platoon exercises amidst jewellery glittering on the rugs, gay shawls and silver cloths which strewed the floor, ornamented clocks chiming, and musical boxes playing "God save the Queen," His Majesty appeared quite entranced, and declared that he possessed no words to express his gratitude. But many and bright were the smiles that lighted up the royal features, as three hundred muskets, with bayonets fixed, were piled in front of the footstool. A buzz of mingled wonder and applause, which half drowned the music, arose from the crowded courtiers; and the measure of the warlike monarch's satisfaction now filled to overflowing, "God will reward you," he exclaimed, "for I cannot." But astonishment and admiration knew no bounds, as the populace next spread over the face of the hills to witness the artillery practice, which formed the sequel to the presentation of these princely gifts. A sheet was attached to the opposite face of the ravine. The green valley again rung to the unwonted roar of ordnance; and as the white cloth flew in shreds to the wind, under a rapid discharge of round shot, canister, and grape, amidst the crumbling of the rock, and the rush of the filling stones, the before despised sponge staves became a theme of eulogy to the monarch as well as to the gaping peasant. A shout rose long and loud over the pealing echoes which rattled from hill to hill; and far along the serrated chain was proclaimed the arrival of foreign guests, and the royal acquisition through their means of potent engines of war. Compliments from the throne, and personal congratulations from the principal courtiers and officers of state, closed the evening of this unwonted display; and the introduction, by the hands of the favourite page, of a huge pepper pie, the produce of the royal kitchen, with a command that "the King's children might feast," was accompanied by the unheard-of honour of a visit from the dwarf father confessor, who might without difficulty have concealed his most diminutive person beneath the ample pastry. Enveloped in robes and turbans, and armed with silver cross and crosier, the deformed little priest, whose entire long life has been passed in doing good to his fellow-creatures, seating his hideous and Punch-like form in a chair placed for its reception, in squeaking accents delivered himself thus:-- "Forty years have rolled away since Asfa Woosen, on whose memory be peace, grandsire to our beloved monarch, saw in a dream that the red men were bringing into his kingdom curious and beautiful commodities from countries beyond the great sea. The astrologers, on being commanded to give an interpretation thereof, predicted with one accord that foreigners from the land of Egypt would come into Abyssinia during His Majesty's most illustrious reign, and that yet more and wealthier would follow in that of his son, and of his son's son, who should sit next upon the throne. Praise be unto God that the dream and its interpretation have now been fulfilled! Our eyes, though they be old, have never beheld wonders until this day, and during the reign over Shoa of seven successive kings, no such miracles as these have been wrought in Ethiopia." Volume One, Chapter XLVI. Appendix, Number I. By the passage of the polar star over the meridian, the magnetic variation at Ankober was observed, with the aid of a well-regulated chronometer, to be 7 degrees westerly. The longitude was determined both by a series of lunars, and by the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, the mean of upwards of 150 observations having been taken. Appendix, Number II. Remarks on the Natural History of that Portion of the Adel Country Situated along the Route from the Sea-Coast to the Frontier of Efat. FROM TAJURA TO KILLULLOO. The advanced state of the season was unfavourable for observations in the department of natural history. Both animal and vegetable life were apparently in a state of torpor; the trees and shrubs were in general leafless; and no annual plant whatever was to be seen, even in the immediate vicinity of the watering-places. The few insects that were not in a state of chrysalis, seemed drowsily to procrastinate their existence until food for the new generation should be prepared by nature. Amphibia, Saurii, and Ophidii, which are generally not so dependent on a supply of water, existed in small numbers in their lurking-places, whilst birds and larger animals must at this season have migrated to more favoured countries. Basaltic and trachytic hills, either isolated or in chains, rise at a distance of about half a mile from the sea-shore, which is winding and shelving. The hills are in general rounded, and marked by broad veins of similar composition, but containing more perfectly crystallised felspar, quartz, and zeolith. They have not the sharp peak, but are broken and cliffy, and have apparently been upheaved at different periods. On leaving the shore, a most striking specimen of columnar basalt presented itself in the ravine of Galeylafeo, which, for nearly half a mile, runs through the heart of a huge mountain. In width it is about 200 yards, and the perpendicular pillars are 200 feet in height. It is evident that water could not have been the sole agent in producing such a huge cleft, although at present the ravine presents the appearance of a regular water-course. The surrounding hills consist of the same rock, but covered with loose boulders, which are much stained with oxide of iron. Amongst the confusion of volcanic masses on the plain of Warelissan, excepting in some rare cases, when the true lava stream could be traced to its source, it was difficult to determine the exact site of the craters from whence they had been ejected. The hill which separates Bahr Assai from the sea, with its singular tops of limestone, slate, and creta, deserves a more minute examination than could be given at this season of withering heat. The western side is the most interesting, as being more open and disclosed; there is, however, as in all formations in the vicinity of volcanic countries, no uniform inclination of the layers. The range bordering the eastern shore of the lake is basalt and basaltic wacke; on the western, it is partly gypsum and limestone, but resting on basalt. The great salt lake is a deep extensive basin, separated by an immense lava stream from the remainder of the bay, the head of which it once formed. Resembling the Dead Sea in the depression of its level, in the density and chemical constitution of the fluid, and in the loneliness, sterility, and desolation of its borders, it yet differs from it materially in the ways by which volcanic action has produced the strange phenomenon of the existence of shores so considerably below the level of the ocean. In the Dead Sea, the lake of Tiberias, and the valley of the Jordan between them, it has apparently been a distortion and crushing of immense masses which have subsided into subterranean caverns. In the Bahr Assai it has been produced by the erection of a new bank, serving as a dam or barrier across the head of a long narrow bay, by which a considerable body of sea-water was separated from the former common receptacle. As high as the level of the Arabian Gulf are to be found, in the basin of Bahr Assai, the salts and earthy (magnesian) precipitates of the salt water, which in the course of time was reduced to its present level by evaporation, the yearly supply of rain-water being but as a drop to the ocean. Huge heaps of lava, having been apparently in strife with the opposite element, are erected on the banks over wacke, or in other cases over a finely-grained soft mart. The latter, when clear of lava, presents a thin layer of gypsum, with numerous shells of Melania, Limnaeus, Physa, Planorbis, Cyclostoma, Unio, and Cycas, some of which are at present to be found in the distant fresh-water pools and rivulets. The shallow water on the borders of the lake presents natural salt-pans, and a crust of fine salt, two inches thick and tolerably clean, covers nearly the whole of the surface. The supply would seem to be inexhaustible; for when cut out with a spaddle, a new crust is soon furnished from the waters beneath. Being visited by almost every tribe of the Adaiel and Somauli, and unhappily situated on the borders of the most lawless and savage of them, this remarkable spot is almost forbidden ground for the observer, not to speak of the obstacles thrown in the way by the destructive temperature and the general absence of the necessaries of life. In the ravine of Goongoonteh, and during the continuation of the journey as far as Killulloo, slight variations of trap formation were met with. The wacke is of a fine grain, and its constituents are indistinctly mingled; it is traversed by empty holes and bubbles, and occasionally by druses of zeolith. Coarse quartz, sandstone, and conglomerates are sometimes found towards the surface. The country must have frequently been agitated by violent earthquakes, detaching huge masses of rocks from the hills; and, bereft alike of vegetation and animal life, it presents altogether a most monotonous appearance. The lower classes of animals, of ephemeral existence, are found on every living or vegetating body. Of _Coleoptera_ were observed: two species of Pimelia (longipes), one of Cetonia, of Copris (Isidis), of Erodius (gibbus), several Staphylini and one Gyrinus. Of _Orthoptera_: Locusts, Blattidae, Mantidae, Truxalidae. Of _Hymenoptera_; several bees, especially at Killulloo, one of which, marked with light brown segments on the abdomen and bearing a long sting, was exceedingly annoying. Of _Piezata_: many different ants. Of _Diptera_ and _Hemiptera_: several species. Of _Lepidoptera_: two species of Papilio and several of moths; and it was a matter of great wonder whence these butterflies obtained food in a country where even one flower could not be discovered. Of _Myriapoda_: one Iulus, and several Scolopendra. _Arachnida_ were in great numbers: Mygale, Epeira, Lycosa, and one small Androctenus. Of _Crustaceae_: near the sea-shore a Pagurus existed in astonishing numbers, and in the sweet waters a Daphnia. _Vertebrata_ were still scarcer; and the _Reptilia_ had their representatives in the three orders Saurii, Ophidii, and Batrachii. A small lizard, very agile, existed under stones; also serpents, Vipera and Coluber, and in moist places Bufo and Rana. Amongst the Birds-- Of _Rapaces_: Perenopterus and Falco are numerous. Of _Gallinacea_: Numida meleagris, and various partridges. Of _Cursorii_: Struthio-camelus and Otis. Of _Ciconidae_: Ciconia Marabu. Of _Cantores_: Corvus, Loxia, Sylvia, Vidua. Of _Mammalia_, three species of Antelope, one of Hyrax, one of Equus (Onager), one of Sus (Phacochaerus); and fresh holes in the sand indicated the presence of animals most probably of the order Rodentia. The sheep of the country are the Hejaz lamb (Ovis aries laticaudata); white body and black head and neck, covered with hair, and having thick, short, fat tails; male without horns. The goats and cattle are generally small in stature, of all colours, and surmounted with very large horns. The shepherd dogs are small, and spotted with yellow and white; they have long pointed skulls like the fox. With regard to the flora of this part of the country, the small quantity found in flower, belongs, with few exceptions, to the family of the _Leguminosae_, amongst which the order of _Mimoseae_ is the most extensive both in species and specimens; they are however all stunted and shrubby, and seldom attain any size. Still the only fuel and shade found during the journey was supplied by this tribe. There exist also several _Capparideae_; Cadaba, Sodada, Capparis. Cadaba rotundifolia is the most common. The _Asclepiadeae_ are represented in the Stapelia pulvinata, which however was seldom found in blossom, and in the Pergularia tomentosa, with stately flowers and capsules. The _Malvaceae_ existed in Ruitzia and Abutilon; and the other families found by the wayside, Moringeae, Rutaceae, Tamariscineae, Chenopodeae, Amaranthaceae, Cruciferae, presented only solitary specimens. Of the _Euphorbiaceae_ there were but three; and of the Palm tribe there only appeared to be two species, the Phoenix dactylifera and Hyphaene crucifera, both of which gradually disappeared as the soil improved. Nature has scattered the necessaries of existence with a niggard hand over these desert plains, and the supply of water is indeed scanty. In such a hot climate, those pools which are not fed by running streams soon become adulterated by the decomposition of organic and inorganic matter. The wacke cannot resist any long exposure, and thence the water imbibes oxide of iron and muriate of soda, discovered in the pools of Goongoonteh, Allooli, and Bedi Kuroof; and again the numerous flocks and cattle of the caravans which are driven into the pools taint and corrupt the liquid in a still more offensive manner. The fetid smell and taste of the waters of Duwaylaka, Amadoo, Fialoo, and Killulloo, is indeed so oppressive as to be subdued only by a considerable quantity of spirit; and moreover the deposited mud, when stirred up, emits a volume of sulphuretted hydrogen. During the wet season all the lower parts of the country are said to be exceedingly unhealthy, violent storms and incessant rain in the plains and wadies forcing the inhabitants to retreat to the mountains. FROM KILLULLOO TO THE FOOT OF THE ABYSSINIAN MOUNTAINS. The desert of the Adaiel, spreading from the sea to the foot of the Shoan Alps, is not altogether a plain, as it has been most likely in remote ages, numerous wadies, with banks more or less high, now intersecting the greater part of it. These banks rise in some instances to hills of firm rock, generally wacke. They however consist of but lightly cemented conglomerates, or loose boulders. Towards the middle, as the ground rises, extinct volcanoes make their appearance, sometimes scattered and solitary, with indistinct cones and craters, completely covered with volcanic cinders, and sending off sheets of lava in all directions; or in whole clusters, with cones and craters complete, connected with each other, and environed by belts of their products. The extensive plain of Eyroluf is a solid level of a dark, black, undecayed lava. The tract of land between Killulloo and Dathara especially has been visited and overwhelmed by the action from below, which, having reversed the original disposition, has covered the surface with the effects of its violence. There is little to be seen of the under parts, although here and there some of the later formation, the residuum of the calcareous waters, has spread like a thin coat over the low grounds; but violent commotions have again and again altered and destroyed the first appearance, and it is now difficult to determine the centre pool from whence the fiery stream issued. In the absence of a main volcano and a main volcanic range, it may be concluded that, similar to some violent eruptions in South America, large mountains have been thrown up in the midst of former extensive plains, the fluid and half-fluid matter having burst forth wherever they were nearest to the surface. Small extinct volcanoes were found on the plains of Sultelli and Eyroluf. The road passes close to the isolated cone of one of these, called Jebel Helmund. The walls are straight and black, covered with several smaller cones of ashes; the hill itself is about four hundred feet in height; the crater is on the eastern side, a little below the top; and the sides, which are steep and sloping, are clothed with shrubs towards the base. On the road to Moo stands a similar volcano; but the influence of these craters does not seem to have extended far beyond the immediate neighbourhood, although there is a connexion between the whole cluster on the plain of Mittur, which may be seen in the small lava streams and debris of volcanic product on the adjoining plains of Sultelli and Eyroluf. It is not, however, apparent that they alone have formed the present state of the surface, as the south-eastern side of the plains is terminated by a much older formation of wacke. Between Meinha-tolli and Madera-dubba, obsidian, pumice, clinkstone, and fresh-water limestone containing shells of Melania, were strewed about Excellent soil is found in all these situations, the low grounds being overflowed at some seasons, and, as in all volcanic countries, producing much vegetation. The extensive plains of Moolu and Burdudda are thickly covered with grass, and intersected by small brooks and pools, terminating towards the Hawash in very broken, hilly ground, and the large plain on the eastern bank of the river bears every sign of being annually deluged. The country of the Adaiel is throughout very sparingly watered. During spring and autumn the hills collect sufficient rain-water for numerous rivulets, which after a course of scarcely one mile are absorbed by the sands, and dry up altogether by the end of the rains, whilst the deep hollows and clefts in the firmer rock preserve small quantities for the dry months of the year. The Hawash itself, although receiving all the rivers of Efat, and of the eastern declivity of the Shoan mountains, does not reach the sea. The banks, thickly overgrown, are about thirty feet in height, and very abrupt. Its fall is scarcely perceptible, yet the rush of the water is very considerable. On the western bank volcanic hills and sheets of water again appear, the latter being situated lower than the bed of the stream. One of these, impregnated with alkali, is evidently an old crater filled up, and supplied by a hot mineral spring. The water is much esteemed for washing clothes; it possesses an hydrothionic smell and a bitter taste, resembling that of the salt of magnesia; but the borders are verdant, and a species of Cyperus grows luxuriantly in the water. This portion of the country, though still sparingly supplied with the means of subsistence, is more favourable for specimens of zoology than the burning tract between Tajura and Killulloo. Of _Beetles_ the family _Coprophaga_ had many representatives: Scarabaeus, Copris, Ateuchus, Onitis, Aphodius, Trox; Melolontha; four species of Cetonia (on the Aloe); one Silpha, Hister, Abax, Graphipterus, Anthia, Staphylinus, Elater, Cantharis, Erodius, Moluria, Pimelia, Mylabria, Chrysomela. Of _Orthoptera_, large flights of Gryllus migratorius were observed near Azboti. Acrydium and Gryllotalpa very common throughout. Also many Neuroptera, and termite cone studding the face of the country. Of _Acephala_ only one, Unio, was found near the Hawash. A few frogs were seen in the waters, but no fish; and although lizards abounded on the land, there were no serpents. One large-sized tortoise was picked up. Birds of all descriptions inhabit the plains and enliven the scanty woods: the ostrich, Otis arabs, the partridge, ducks, adjutant, Charadrius spinosus, Psittacus, Lampromis, Tanagra erythrorhyncha, Pyrrhocorax. Of beasts, the giant in creation, the elephant, and his rival in hugeness, the hippopotamus, abound in the plain of the Hawash; and rapacious animals, the lion, the leopard, and the hyaena, prowling about the camp during the night, render indispensable the protection of a stout thorn fence. Of the order _Rodentia_ the porcupine is common; also a variety of rats. Of _Ruminantia_: a few antelopes. Of _Fissungula_: Hyrax. Of _Setigera_; Phacochaerus abyssinicus; and of _Lemures_: Galago. The flora, so dependent upon the nature of the ground, offers little variety throughout this tract, although a few new plants were found in the favoured plain of Sultelli. Four _Compositae_ (one Santolina), three _Leguminosae_ (one Cassia, resembling Senna), one _Euphorbia_ (rotundifolia), one _Solanum_, one _Cucurbitacea_ (Cucumis africanus), one _Crucifera_ (Farsetia linearis), three _Malvaceae_ (Hibiscus urens, Althaea spec.), one _Tiliacea_ (Grewia spec.), one _Cistinea_ (Helianthemum spec.), one _Acanthacea_ (Acanthus carduifolius), four _Gramineae_, one _Cyperacea_. There were, however, no large timber trees, though edible berries of a sub-acid taste were supplied from a Helianthemum and a Grewia. Between Waramilli and Naga Koomi the shrubs of the Balsamodendron myrrha were first discovered, and these continued as far as the Hawash. Grass too is met with on the wide plains. Large camel-thorn acacias, and a strange tree of the family Capparidea, at intervals interrupt the uniform desert waste; but even the luxuriant vegetation which prevails on the banks of the Hawash contains little besides the Tamarix africana. A high jungle of Acacia extends near the plain of Azboti, supplying an abundance of sweet gum-arabic, and the last stage to Dathara is encumbered with the Aloe soccotrina. There are also many fine forest trees in the valley of Kokai, amongst which the Tamarindus indica stands conspicuous; but no cultivation whatsoever is to be seen during the entire progress of upwards of three hundred miles from the sea-coast to the green hills of Abyssinia. Appendix, Number III. Description of the Frankincense Tree, as Found near Cape Guardufoi, on the Somauli Coast, by Captain C.B. Kempthorne, Indian Navy, Commanding the Hon. Company's Sloop of War "Clive." At Bunder Cassim, about one hundred miles to the eastward of Berbera, the mountains come close down to the coast. There is a pass and road over them, and a few hours' walking will, it is said, lead to a fine climate, and to a beautifully fertile country, abounding in the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the lion, and thickly populated by pastoral tribes. Several rivers take their source in the high land, and, flowing to the southward and eastward, fall into the Indian Ocean, 4 degrees or 5 degrees north of the equator. The chief town of the Miggertheyn Somauli is at Bunder Maryah, which lies twenty miles south-west of Ras Feeluk. The range is here about 5000 feet in altitude, and three miles from the shore. Ascending 1000 feet, a wide plain presents itself, bounded on every side by precipitous mountains studded with the frankincense and gum acacia trees, but looking bare and naked from the total absence of underwood. The frankincense assumes the most singular aspect, from the fact of its invariably growing from the bare and smooth sides of the white marble rocks of which these bills are composed, without any soil whatever to nourish it. Many of the trees have even attached themselves to the huge masses that have rolled down into the valley, and now lie scattered over the stony surface. From the base of the trunk, and about treble its diameter, a very round thick substance is protruded, of a nature between bark and wood. This adheres most firmly to the stone, and at a distance resembles a mixture of mortar and lime. From the centre of the mass the stem, having first taken a bend or curve outwards of several inches, rises straight up to a height of forty feet. It throws from the top short branches covered with a very bright green foliage, the leaves being narrow and rounded at the end, five or six inches in length by one broad, crimped like the frill of a shirt; or rather bearing a stronger resemblance to that beautiful species of sea-weed found along the coast of England, and styled by urchins "the old gentleman's ruffles." From a foot to eighteen inches is the usual girth of the stem, and it tapers gradually away to the summit. The bark is perfectly smooth, and consists of four distinct layers. The outermost of all is very thin, and similar to that of the beech. The two next are of a singularly fine texture, resembling oiled letter-paper, perfectly transparent, and of a beautiful amber colour. It is used by the Somaulis to write upon. The inner bark of all is about an inch thick, of a dull-reddish hue, tough, and not unlike leather, but yielding a strong aromatic perfume. The wood is white and soft, and might be applied to many useful purposes. By making a deep incision into the inner rind, the gum exudes profusely, of the colour and consistency of milk, but hardening into a mass by exposure to the atmosphere. The whole mountain range from Bunder Maryah to Cape Guardufoi is composed of limestone and marble, and near the latter place especially the marble is so white and pure that it approaches to alabaster. Pink and greyish black are also common colours, and in parts it might be mistaken for sandstone, until chipped off with the hammer. On the plain visited the frankincense is nowhere to be found resting upon the ground, or upon any sort of soil, and the purer the marble to which it adheres the finer the growth of the tree. It would seem that this singular production of the vegetable world derives its sole nourishment from carbonate of lime. The young trees produce the best and most valuable gum, the older merely yielding a clear glutinous fluid resembling copal varnish, and exhaling a strong resinous odour. During the south-west monsoon the pastoral tribes in the neighbourhood of Ras Feeluk collect large quantities of frankincense, which they barter to the Banians, of whom a few reside at the villages along the Abyssinian coast. Boats from Maculla, and from other ports on the opposite Arabian shore, also come across during the fine season and carry away the gums that have been accumulated, and which are exchanged for a coarse kind of cotton cloth worn by the Somauli. End of the First Volume. Volume Two, Chapter I. THE CAPITAL OF THE KINGDOM OF SHOA. His Christian Majesty passed the greater portion of the wet night succeeding the presentation of the British Embassy, in revels amid the foreign riches so unexpectedly heaped upon him. Long tormented by curiosity which he had been afraid to gratify, he now minutely examined every novel article with all the greediness of the savage; and the royal scribes having been duly assembled, elaborate inventories were penned upon scrolls of parchment, to be deposited for the edification of posterity in the archives of the kingdom. The fire-arms and the warlike munitions were transferred forthwith to the grand arsenal; the rich manufactures of the loom were added to the shelves of the palace wardrobes; and the curiosities, including the Chinese dancing girls, were carefully immured in the mouldy magazines of Mamrat, Kondie, and Aramba, with labels and tickets setting forth their respective properties, and proclaiming to future occupants of the throne of Shoa that these wonders were added to the state treasures by the red men called Gyptzis, who came from beyond during the auspicious reign of Sahela Selassie. Ere day had dawned, the favourite page was deputed from the king to inquire whether all had slumbered happily. Etiquette demanded that our reply should be in the affirmative, but if an estimate were formed from the drenched and miserable aspect of the tent, the report made to the palace must have been far from favourable. In the absence of the cap, which had been lost upon the road, the fly of the marquee was hastily lashed with cords to the pole, and becoming saturated during the night by the pelting storm, it had presently slidden down, and formed a funnel, which completely put an end to sleep. Hajji Kasim and Izhak, who, with some of their bigoted Moslem retainers, had repaired to court to witness the reception of "the Christian dogs," had presented themselves at nightfall, wet, shivering, and famished, to implore food and shelter, which had been denied by the officers of the royal household. Upon the principle of good for evil, we gave them abundance to eat, and each of us contributed a share of his bedding, but the untoward fall of the canvass proved equally disagreeable to Christian and to Mohammadan. Drenched to the skin, the true believers, spite of their covering of lard, were fairly swamped where they lay; and the Ras el Kafilah's pet Koran having been trampled under foot in the confusion attendant upon repitching, he angrily left the tent in the morning by one door, at the moment that the spoiled page entered by the other, grumbling as he went, "Allah! how could the sacred volume experience any better fate at the hand of infidels?" Six hundred peasants, who had been pressed on the service of the state from the Mohammadan villages of Argobba, after transporting the king's baggage from Alio Amba to Machal-wans, had bivouacked without food or shelter upon the bare saturated ground, and were strewed over the greensward like the slain on a battle-field. As the day dawned, their loud cries of "_Abiet, abiet_," "Master, master," arose to the palace-gates from every quarter of the valley; but they lifted up their sad voices in vain; and reiterated entreaties for dismissal passing unheeded, I with great difficulty succeeded in purchasing for them a sufficient number of oxen, which were instantly slaughtered, and eaten raw upon the spot. The sceptic in Europe who still withholds his credence from Bruce's account of an Abyssinian brind feast, would have been edified by the sight now presented on the royal meadow. Crowds swarmed around each sturdy victim to the knife, and impetuously rushing in with a simultaneous yell, seized horns, and legs, and tail. A violent struggle to escape followed the assault. Each vigorous bound shook off and scattered a portion of the assailants, but the stronger and more athletic still retained their grasp, and resolutely grappling and wrestling with the prize, finally prevailed. With a loud groan of despair the bull was thrown kicking to the earth. Twenty crooked knives flashed at once from the scabbard--a tide of crimson gore proclaimed the work of death, and the hungry butchers remained seated on the quivering carcass, until the last bubbling jet had welled from the widely-severed throat. Rapidly from that moment advanced the work of demolition. The hide was opened in fifty places, and collop after collop of warm flesh and muscle--sliced and scooped from the bone--was borne off in triumph. Groups of feasting savages might now be seen seated on the wet grass in every direction, greedily munching and bolting the raw repast. Entrails and offal did not escape. In a quarter of an hour nought remained of the carcass save hoofs and horns, and the disappointed vultures of the air assembling round the scene of slaughter with the village curs, found little indeed to satisfy their hunger. During this general carousal of the grateful host, the smooth-spoken purveyor-general, who was completely at a loss to comprehend the meaning of the liberality extended, advanced with a sleek and pampered band of parasites. The assistance of the unfeeling functionary had been craved in vain, and he now, after casting a contemptuous glance towards the sated serfs, in honied words inquired with obvious surprise, "whether the party had not rested well, that they thus troubled their heads unnecessarily about the worthless bondsmen of the Negoos?" No suitable lodging being obtainable at Machalwans, I deemed it advisable to adopt the king's proposal of proceeding at once into winter quarters at the capital. Preparatory to setting out thither we had an audience of the king. "My children," quoth His Majesty, "all my gun-people shall accompany you; may you enter in safety! Whatsoever your hearts think and wish, that send word unto me. Saving myself, ye have no relative in this distant land. Ye have travelled far on my affairs. I will give you what I can, according to that which my country produces. I cannot give you what I do not possess. Be not afraid of me. Listen not to the evil insinuations of my people, for they are bad. Look only unto Sahela Selassie. May his father die, he will accomplish whatsoever ye desire!" The sun shone brightly through the fleecy white clouds, as our party left the wet encampment in the valley, and under an escort of fusiliers took the way to the capital without that regret which is usually felt on quitting the precincts of royalty. A green, swampy meadow led to the foot of the mountains, over which numberless cascades foamed furiously to the plain. Supported from the base to the utmost summit by artificial terraces, and clothed with the most luxuriant cultivation, there were parts over which it seemed hardly possible that the plough should have passed at so great an angle. But wheat and barley delight in a dry stony soil, and with a fair proportion of the "former and the latter rain," will here yield abundant return to those who, by their industry, strive to emulate the prosperity of more happily located neighbours. From Machal-wans to Ankober the distance does not exceed six miles; but the ascent is great and immediate, and the reduction in temperature perceptible at every step. Springs gushed out clear and sparkling on either side of the rugged path, and beautiful plants luxuriated in the moist atmosphere. The prospect was altogether delightful, and the change more than ever striking from the hot deserts of the Adaiel, which now, at a yet greater depression, stretched away in fading tints to the extreme point of vision. The latter portion of the road lay through the forest of Aferbeine. Cedar-like junipers, dried up by the blast of centuries, rearing towards the sky their tall skeleton forms, rocked to every breeze. Younger scions of the stock, clothed in a sombre cypress garb, flourished in vigour among the drooping and silvery _woira_, of which the pensive branches were hoary with ancient moss hanging in fanciful festoons; and saving when the zephyr sighed through the foliage, or a bird whistled from the topmost branch, silence reigned throughout the sylvan scene. Whether in Europe or in half-civilised Abyssinia, monastic establishments are invariably seated in spots the most romantic. Deep in the recesses of Aferbeine stands the church and monastery dedicated to Tekla Haimanot, an ecclesiastic of extraordinary abilities, who flourished during the thirteenth century, and rescuing the greater portion of the empire from the yoke of usurpation, restored it to the hands of Yekweno Amlak, the lineal descendant of the ancient Ethiopic dynasty. Subsequently canonised for his successful exertions in the cause both of Church and State, the monk, whose history is obscured with numberless superstitious traditions, is to the present day held in the highest veneration. Thrice during the year a festival is held in celebration of his birth, death, and ascension, and by the entire Christian population he is regarded as the patron saint of Abyssinia. Instantly on emerging from the forest, the metropolis of Shoa, spreading far and wide over a verdant mountain, shaped like Afric's appropriate emblem, the fabled sphynx, presented a most singular if not imposing appearance. Clusters of thatched houses of all sizes and shapes, resembling bams and haystacks, with small green enclosures and splinter palings, rising one above the other in very irregular tiers, adapt themselves to all the inequalities of the rugged surface; some being perched high on the abrupt verge of a cliff, and others so involved in the bosom of a deep fissure as scarcely to reveal the red earthen pot which crowns the apex. Connected with each other by narrow lanes and hedgerows, these rude habitations, the residence of from twelve to fifteen thousand inhabitants, cover the entire mountain-side to the extreme pinnacle--a lofty spire-like cone, detaching itself by a narrow isthmus to form the sphynxs head. Hereon stands the palace of the Negoos, a most ungainly-looking edifice with staring gable ends, well fortified by spiral lines of wooden palisades. They extend from the base to the summit, and are interspersed with barred stockades, between which are profusely scattered the abodes of household slaves, with breweries, kitchens, cellars, storehouses, magazines, and granaries. Over those portions unengrossed by cultivation or by architecture, shrubs and bushes and great beds of nettles assumed the most luxuriant and lively appearance. Huge fallen masses of rock strewed the lower valleys, and others seemed ready to be launched at a moment's notice upon the clustering habitations; whilst in the distance, the bronze cross of the church of "our Lady," peeping above the dark foliage of the juniper, touched the chord of feelings but little in unison with the wild escort that surrounded us, above whose streaming locks floated bloody emblems, that breathed aught save conformity to the mild tenets of the Christian religion. Ankober, literally translated, signifies the gate of Anko. She was queen over the Galla tribe, by which this mountain was peopled from the invasion of Graan until its reconquest by the crown of Shoa, and has bequeathed her name to the narrow winding path which forms the "_her_" or gate to the suburbs. Skirting the brink of a yawning abyss, and scarcely wide enough for the foot of a mule, it is not traversed without a feeling of insecurity, and the labour of a few hours would suffice to render all approach to the capital impracticable, unless to the mountain goat. Loud cheers from the whole assembled population, female as well as male, greeted our arrival, for the thunder of our guns in the adjacent valley had given birth to a feeling of respect in the breast of all; nor was it without considerable difficulty that we made our way through the dense crowd that whitened the entire hill-side, and lined every valley. At length we reached a newly erected building fronting the palace, which had been set apart by His Majesty for our occupation, and which was now completely thronged by porters, and beleaguered by clamourous spectators. Wistful looks were exchanged as we entered this barn-like and dreary abode, which for months, if not for years, was to form our asylum. A decent new thatch, and a neat basket-work ceiling, did indeed form a roof to the structure, but further, the crude and unfinished shell whereon they rested, could hardly claim the denomination of "a house." It rather resembled a den in Exeter 'change, or an aviary upon a magnified scale; and the open hide-lashed ribs, being innocent throughout of dab or plaster to choke the interstices, wind, rain, and mountain fog considered themselves to be equally His Majesty's guests, and entitled to the occupation of the uninviting interior. Oblong in form, windowless, chimneyless, and provided at either end with a lofty but narrow door, rudely fashioned of massive planks and beams, each of which, in the absence of a saw, had involved the demolition of an entire tree, the edifice yet afforded an unusually favourable specimen of Shoan architecture; and to account for its desolate and unfinished condition, it may be proper to add, that the proprietor, who had been honoured with the fair hand of a princess of the blood royal, having a few weeks previously been so unfortunate as to incur the displeasure of his despotic father-in-law, now occupied apartments in the state prison, whilst the management of his estate was, _ad interim_, considerately undertaken by the crown, without even the preliminary of a _fieri facias_. Inner walls divided the centre room from two narrow verandahs, intended for the reception of mules, horses, and household lumber. The floor was precisely as nature made it, depressed rather than raised, and little improved by the many recent inundations to which it had been subjected. Torrents of muddy water filled the trench which environed the entire structure, and occasionally bursting the banks of the dyke, oozed copiously between the palisades, to cover the soil with artificial lakes; whilst the small open area beyond, into which it disembogued-- hemmed in on all sides by rank vegetation, stinging nettles, and half-ruined but noisily inhabited hovels--was, without any exaggeration, eighteen inches deep in honest mire. Although our pilgrimage had at last terminated, the prospect, both within and without, was still far from encouraging. The mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer stood at 58 degrees, and it became necessary to adopt immediate measures towards the exclusion of the cold driving mist and the whistling wind, which the absence of a fire rendered far from agreeable. The union flag of old England, stretched across the hall, lent the aid of its ample folds to enliven the interior. Tent walls and tarpaulins composed tolerably comfortable cabins in the verandah closets. Gun-cases, placed on end, and connected by the lid of a chest, formed a temporary table, and with a puncheon as a washing-stand, and two swinging shelves overhead, completed the furniture of each apartment. Boxes and bales, as they continued to arrive, were piled around the inner walls, and soon reaching to the ceiling, the appearance of a booth at a country fair, on a rainy day, ere the wares have been exposed for sale, was gradually imparted to this highly unique residency in the capital of Shoa. Volume Two, Chapter II. RESIDENCE IN ANKOBER. But darkness now reigned within our cheerless abode. Candles that will burn for more than ten minutes together, or afford light sufficient either to read or write, are luxuries which have no existence in so primitive and benighted a land; and strips of old cotton rag dipped in unpurified bees' wax, forming, like most other good things in the empire, a royal monopoly, are doled out by the purveyor-general to the favoured few with but a niggard hand; whilst the absence of glass or other transparent substance, and the continued presence of rain, sleet, clouds, and fog thicker than the steam of a wash-house, rendered it for some time difficult to admit the scanty light of heaven during its fitful visits through the overcast atmosphere. Wood, too, belongs exclusively to the despot, and is far from being abundant in the timberless realm; but packing cases, as they became empty, were furnished with a sheet of oiled parchment, and these admirable substitutes for glazed sashes, were, in defiance of exhortations not to deface the king's walls, inserted therein from time to time. A chafing dish, raised upon a high mud pedestal, at length cheered the long dreary evenings, although the wet sodden fuel yielded a very feeble blaze, whilst its dense smoke, choking the chimneyless room, covered walls and roof with soot. Last, but not least among our improvements, were tallow dips, which we manufactured of the fat tail of the Ethiopian sheep, and these afforded us sufficient light by which to retire to bed, where fleas, revived by the unwonted warmth of English blankets, denied all rest. The low moaning of the storm behind Mamrat, and the distant growl of the thunder, usually ushered in the night. There was a sound as of the surf breaking over a rocky shore, and before many minutes the hurricane was at its height. Crashing reverberations of thunder rattled among the serrated cliffs, whilst the gates of heaven poured forth a deluge, which rendered every lane and footpath throughout the town, ankle deep in running water. Often after one of those falls of rain so common in tropical countries, the face of the lowlands for fifty miles would be concealed under an impenetrable fog. The spectator rode upon a sea of billowy clouds which rolled beneath his foot, lashing with their spray the dark islands formed by the peaks of the higher mountains: and beyond, in the hot Adel plain might be seen the Hawash winding through the distance, until melted into the limits of the horizon. As the great bank ascended, all around became wet and clammy to the touch; and the mist, although sluggish and slow to move, was of a nature so keenly searching, that in defiance of all muffling, it seemed to penetrate to our very bones. Together with those privations which are common to a residence among all savage nations, there are many which Abyssinia claims exclusively as her own; nor, if viewed only as a place of abode, does the country possess aught save the salubrity of the climate to counterbalance its manifold discomforts and disadvantages. Although in the midst of abundance, we experienced the utmost difficulty in obtaining the most common necessaries of existence--bread, meat, and water; and notwithstanding that a sufficiency of wheat to sustain life for an entire year may be purchased for one German crown, yet where the stranger is concerned, the grain, without the assistance of the monarch, can scarcely be converted into the staff of life--the process entailing all the petty worry and annoyance which in other lands are solely undertaken and performed by menials. In a kingdom where the inhabitants are solely dependent upon the exertions of slaves, the difficulties are increased ten-fold to those who are obliged to employ hired domestics. The markets are at a great distance from the capital, and held at long intervals; nor are they ever so well supplied as to admit of the requisite weekly stock being purchased at any individual place. Hence much trouble and inconvenience arose from the necessity of dispatching messengers simultaneously to the various remote bazaars; and very great difficulty was experienced in preserving even the small number of live stock required for consumption in a country where all the surrounding meadows pertain alike to the crown, and where labour is so difficult to be procured. Whilst porters are not to be obtained unless through a direct mandate from the king, the unwillingness of mule-owners to hire their cattle at the existing low rate, the displeasure and heartburning of the authorities if a larger bribe were offered, the badness of the roads, and the steepness of the hills, all combine to render it a perplexing matter to dispense with this species of service. On the other hand, the greatest difficulty is experienced in providing for a permanent establishment of baggage-horses with their attendants, owing to the existing necessity of distributing them in small lots among the limited private grazing grounds in the vicinity, whence, when wanted, they are not to be obtained without infinite difficulty. Every arrangement, however minute in detail, or trivial in importance, here demands a sacrifice of time and temper in a tedious and lengthy conference, which, in accordance with the custom of the country, must be carried on by the principal persons engaged in the transaction. No article is readily to be purchased, nor can any thing, how trifling soever, be accorded without the royal mandate, and when that is at last obtained, the applicant would appear to be further than ever removed from the realisation of his object. "It is done," is the mode of signifying that a request is granted, and the despot believes that to will is to accomplish; but whilst his commands are usually obeyed more to the letter than in the spirit in which they have been given, his public officers embrace every opportunity of consulting the interests of the privy purse, to the stranger's disadvantage. In utter abhorrence of the country and its inhabitants, the Moslem servants who accompanied the Embassy from India all took their departure, willing rather to brave the dangers and difficulties of a long journey through the inhospitable deserts of the Adaiel, than to prolong a hateful sojourn in Abyssinia. One half of the number were murdered on the way down, and the places of all long remained empty. In any part of the world it would be difficult to find domestics inferior to their Christian successors. The consumption of _brundo_, or raw beef, and the sleeping off a surfeit which, in its progress towards stupor, exhilarated them to positive intoxication, formed the sum total of their services; yet every idle noisy vagabond who was in the receipt of four pieces of salt per mensem, with the promise of a new cloth annually, value three shillings and nine-pence sterling, held himself entitled to a permanent place before the drawingroom fire. All stipulated for one day out of the thirty on which to drink _cosso_, and during the other twenty-nine, few ever stirred without grumbling. Honesty is not prominent among the Abyssinian virtues, and the lack of it sometimes redounded to the discredit of the master. A youth who was entrusted with a dollar to purchase sheep in the adjacent market, ingeniously contrived to smuggle into the flock, two for which he had not paid, being convinced that such an economical arrangement must prove highly agreeable to his employers, and thus lead to his own advancement. A hue and cry was raised on the discovery of the theft, and it required some time to persuade the magisterial authorities that the goat-herd had not been defrauded with the cognisance of the _bala-beit_. [Master of the house.] An _afero_, or janissary, had been specially appointed as a spy over the actions of the foreigners, and he rendered himself sufficiently obnoxious. Not satisfied with prying into the contents of boxes for the information of the purveyor-general, his immediate superior, he reported to the throne every the most minute circumstance that occurred; and besides originating several ingenious falsehoods, was so indefatigable in proclaiming us to be heretics, that he was shortly turned out of the house in disgrace, with an order never to show his face again. Ethiopia derived her faith from the fountain of Alexandria; but how is her Christianity disfigured by folly and superstition! The intolerance of the bigoted clergy, who rule with the iron hand of religious ascendancy, soon proclaimed the British worse than Pagans, for the non-observance of absurd fasts, and blasphemous doctrines; and the inhabitants, priest-ridden to a degree, received their cue of behaviour principally from their most despotic tyrant, the Church. Unquies, the Comus or Bishop of Shoa, was the most open and undisguised in his hostilities. Beset by evil thoughts at an early age, he imitated the example set by the celebrated Origenes; and so much is he respected by the monarch for his austerities and religious devotion, that His Majesty invariably speaks of him as "the strong monk." To him was traced a report that the Embassy were to be summarily expelled the country, in consequence of the non-observance of the fasts prescribed by the Ethiopic creed, and because a Great Lady, whose spies they were, was on her way from the sea-coast, with a large military force, to overturn the true religion, put the king to death, and assume possession of all Abyssinia. On the festival of the Holy Virgin, the cemetery was thrown open, wherein rest the remains of Asfa Woosen, grandsire to Sahela Selassie. It is a building adjoining the church of Saint Mary; and being anxious to visit the mausoleum, I sent a message to the Lord Bishop, requesting permission to do so. An insolent reply was returned, that since the English were in the habit of drinking coffee and smoking tobacco, both of which Mohammadan abominations are interdicted in Shoa upon religious grounds, we could not be admitted within the precincts of the hallowed edifice, as it would be polluted by the foot of a Gyptzi. Nevertheless, we were permitted to attend Divine service in the less inimical of the five churches of the capital, and offerings were made according to the custom of the country. The cathedral of Saint Michael, distinguished above all its compeers by a sort of Chinese lantern on the apex, being invariably attended by the monarch, came first in order; and after wading through the miry kennels that form the avenues of access, our slippers were put off in accordance with Jewish prejudice, and giving them in charge of a servant to prevent their being stolen, we stepped over the threshold. The scowling eye of the bigoted and ignorant priest sparkled with a gleam of unrepressed satisfaction at the sight of a rich altar-cloth, glowing with silk and gold, which was now unfolded to his gaze; and a smile of delight played around the corners of his mouth, as the hard dollars rung in his avaricious palm. A strange, though degrading and humiliating sight, rewarded the admittance we had thus gained to the circular interior of the sacred building. Coarse walls, only partially white-washed, rose in sombre earth but a few feet overhead, and the suspended ostrich-egg--emblem of heathenish idolatry--almost touched our heads as we were ushered in succession to the seat of honour among the erudite. In a broad verandah, strewed throughout with dirty wet rushes, were crowded the blind, the halt, and the lame--an unwashed herd of sacred drones, muffled in the skin of the _agazin_; but beyond this group of turbaned monks and hireling beggars there was no congregation present. The high-priest having proclaimed the munificence of the strangers, pronounced his solemn benediction. Then arose a burst of praise the most agonising and unearthly that ever resounded from dome dedicated to Christian worship. No deep mellow chant from the chorister--no soul-inspiring anthem, lifted the heart towards heaven. The Abyssinian cathedral rang alone to the excruciating jar of most unmitigated discord; and amid howling and screaming, each sightless orb was rolled in the socket, and every mutilated limb convulsed with disgusting vehemence. A certain revenue is attached to the performance of the duty; and for one poor measure of black barley bread, the hired lungs were taxed to extremity; but not the slightest attempt could be detected at music or modulation; and the dissonant chink of the timbrel was ably seconded by the cracked voice of the mercenary vocalist. No liturgy followed the cessation of these hideous screams. The service was at an end, and the _Alaka_, beckoning us to follow, led the way round the edifice. The walls were adorned with a few shields, and with miserable daubs representing the Madonna, the Holy Trinity _in caelo_, the Father of Evil enveloped in flames, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Saint George and his green dragon, Saint Demetrius vanquishing the lion, Saint Tekla Haimanot, Saint Balaam and his ass, the Patron Saint, and every other saint in the Abyssinian calendar. But they boasted of no sculptured monument raised to departed worth or genius--no proud banner or trophy of heroic deeds--and no marble tablet to mark the quiet rest of the soldier, the statesman, or the scholar. In the holy of holies, which may be penetrated by none save the high-priest, is deposited the sacred _tabot_, or ark of the faith, consecrated at Gondar by the delegate of the Coptic patriarch; and around the veil that fell before this mysterious emblem, there hung in triumph four sporting pictures, from the pencil of Alken, which I had lately presented to His Majesty. They represented the great Leicestershire steeple-chase; and Dick Christian, with his head in a ditch, occupied by far the most prominent niche in the boasted cathedral of Saint Michael! Volume Two, Chapter III. INTERVIEWS WITH THE KING. Meanwhile, during the tedious fast observed by all classes in commemoration of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, the king continued his residence at Machal-wans. On such occasions. His Majesty seeks the retirement of a country seat, and subsists upon raw fish, with vegetable oil and pepper. He is moreover averse to occupy the palace at Ankober in the rainy season, when the elevated position of the isolated peak whereon it stands becomes a fearful mark for lightning, by which it is often struck; whilst huge masses of rock, loosened from the adjacent heights, come thundering into the valley, to the annihilation of every house that opposes their headlong course. The greater part of the court, however, continued to reside at the capital, and many were the demands made for presents by public officers of the state, amongst whom the Abyssinian habit of begging is sufficiently rife. "There be pleasing things in my country which are not in yours," was the usual form of application, "and fine things in your country which are not found in mine." Well assured that no return would be accepted for what they coveted, many had recourse to a species of refinement in the art of begging--the offer of block salt--and _amole_ in hand, they desired that the wares brought for sale might forthwith be exposed. Others tendered _mamalachas_, or trifling offerings, which, if once accepted, are considered to establish a claim to ready acquiescence in demands the most preposterous. Broken decanters were exhibited four times over by the domestics of the royal household, who, with tears in their eyes, entreated the price of the vessel as the only means of saving them from condign punishment. A shield was never defaced, nor a mule lost, that the delinquent did not refer himself to the Residency for the amount of the fine imposed; and one of the imperial footmen finally sought to place beyond all question his right to appropriate the very cloth upon the table. "I am the waiter in the great banqueting-hall," quoth the modest applicant, "and therefore I require this cloth as a dress." Nor were even the royal family idle during this interval. Belete-Shatchau, "superior to all," a notable shrew lately divorced by the governor of Mans, and daughter of the queen by a former marriage-- first in order--and then Worka Ferri, "golden fruit," another of the princesses royal--established their respective claims to articles of British manufacture, beads, chintz, and tinsel, by the presentation of potent hydromel in long-necked _barilles_, screened under wicker cases. Their example was speedily followed by the illustrious Queen Besabesh, "thou hast increased," who begged to be informed what "delighting things" had been brought for _her_ acceptance. But the report of this fact being immediately conveyed to the despotic ears, His Majesty lost not a moment in hinting "that it were desirable that all presents intended for the palace, should pass through his own hands." It is not permitted to any subject of the realm to receive the smallest gift without submitting it forthwith to the Negoos, who either appropriates it with an "_Egziher istikh_!" "May the Lord reward thee!" or accords permission to its retention; and concealment is sure to be visited, on discovery, with the severest punishment. Birroo, the son of a defunct nobleman, and the especially favourite page of the king, had been appointed _baldoraba_, or "introducer" to the Embassy, and in this dignified capacity had occasion to pay me almost daily visits with messages or commissions from the throne. Dilapidated matchlocks and swivels were to be restocked by the carpenters of the European escort, musical boxes to be repaired, garments were to be embroidered, or state umbrellas to be renewed; and every task had fortunately been achieved to the entire of the royal satisfaction. Before taking leave, the court favourite never failed to beg for something, and, being a pet with all, he never asked in vain; but it shortly became matter of public notoriety that he had been disgraced, and thrown into durance, upon being detected in the act of burying the dollars and other presents that he had received. The king commanded that a portion of the gifts which had led to this disaster should be returned to me, and I entreated pardon for the juvenile indiscretion of the page. "Birroo has been degraded," replied His Majesty, "but you must not be concerned thereat; for not only did he conceal from me all that you had given him, but, on being detected, swore falsely upon my own life that he had received much less than proved to be the case. I have dismissed him for ever from my presence, but his punishment is light when compared with the enormity of his transgression." The delinquent was, however, released upon a second representation, and restored to the possession of his gun, which had been forfeited; and although not reinstated in the royal confidence, he was subsequently appointed one of the _adrash adaree_, or "keepers of the great room." The first visit that we paid to Machal-wans was on the occasion of the king's indisposition. The high-priest, the chief eunuch, the purveyor-general, Wulasma Mohammad, and ten or twelve other of the courtiers, were in attendance; but they were dismissed after the customary compliments had passed; and His Majesty, reclining as usual upon the throne, thus proceeded, through the interpretation of the Reverend Dr Krapf, to detail the long catalogue of his ailments. "You may listen. I am not now so hale as in my younger days. Mine eyes trouble me day and night. I have pains in the neck. My teeth have grown long and become loose from fever, and my body has wasted away. Draw nigh whilst I recount the particulars of my late illness. "I was returning from the expedition against the rebel Galla. I felt suddenly unwell. My head grew giddy. The earth turned round. It became blue under my feet. I fell from my mule. I believed myself dead. I was no longer sensible. My gun-men became afraid. They ran away to a man. The enemy made a show of attack. The army was in confusion. A governor rebelled. He sought to place his son upon the throne. The people dashed cold water over me. I recovered my senses. I was able to resume the command, and order was restored." Priest-ridden and superstitious to the last degree, the monarch undertakes nothing without first consulting the superiors of the Church, and is deterred from change of residence, or from projected military expeditions, by their prophecies and pretended dreams, which are of course modelled according to the bribes that have been received from parties interested. On two occasions only is he said to have acted in opposition to the ecclesiastical counsel. The first cost him eight hundred warriors, who were cut up by the Galla during the passage of a morass, and the second the severe indisposition of which he still felt the effects. The royal swoon, thus amusingly narrated, had been followed by the consignment to captivity for life in the dungeons of Goncho, of the traitor who had so prematurely sought the elevation of his son, and who was the proprietor of the Residency. Medicines administered to the king are invariably tasted by the physician in the presence of the patient, and on a phial of goulard lotion being now sent to the palace for external application to the despot's neck, it was returned in consequence of its being labelled "Poison." Of this he entertains the most undisguised dread, and it was not possible to overcome his apprehensions that a drop might find its way into his mouth during the hours of repose, and so cut short his reign. But although living in perpetual alarm of assassination, and never moving abroad without weapons concealed under his garments, or unaccompanied by a numerous and trustworthy escort. His Majesty's fears did not extend to his British guests; and during our subsequent visits to Machal-wans, he hesitated not to trust us all about his person with loaded fire-arms, when none of his attendants were present. Many were the curious discussions held at these confidential interviews. Portraits were executed by the royal command--architectural plans prepared--and hunting expeditions or wars of extermination plotted against colonies of baboons and monkeys, the only quadrupeds of which the country can boast. Magazines were exploded by means of detonating shells--seven-barrelled pistols and stick-guns for the first time introduced at court--and a liege subject of the realm was nearly shot dead by the royal hand, when clumsily making trial of an air cane, from which a wax bullet had previously been fired through the wicker table. "My son," quoth the king, "I am old, and have but few years more to live. I have seen many strange things from your country, but none that surpass this engine, which without the aid of gunpowder can destroy men. Sorrow were it that I should have died and gone down to the grave before beholding and understanding so wonderful an invention. It is truly the work of a wise people who employ strong medicines!" Volume Two, Chapter IV. SPECIAL SUMMONS TO MACHAL-WANS. His Majesty had more than once intimated an intention of holding consultation relative to his projected expedition on the termination of winter, and early one morning an express courier arrived to desire our immediate attendance at the palace. Blacksmiths and workers in silver were as usual plying their craft in the verandah, under the royal eye-- artists were daubing red and yellow paint over the pages of the Psalter, or illuminating the lives of the saints with white angels and sable devils--saddles and warlike furniture were in course of repair--spears were being burnished--gun-locks cleaned--and musket barrels engraved with the despot's name; but the artificers were all summarily dismissed, and the king, rising from his seat in the portico, beckoned us to follow into the audience hall. "_Gaita_," "master," he cautiously began, "there is yet another subject upon which I am desirous of taking counsel, and wherein I need your assistance. It is my intention shortly to undertake an expedition to the great lake in Gurague. In it be many islands which contain the treasures of my ancestors. There are jars filled with bracelets of solid gold. There are forty drums made of elephants' ears, and many holy arks pertaining unto ancient churches, besides seven hundred choice Ethiopic volumes, some of which have unfortunately been defaced by the animals called _ashkoko_ [Hyrax Abyssinicus]. Elephants abound on the borders. In the trees are found black leopards of a most ferocious nature, multiplying always among the branches, and never descending upon the earth; and the waters of the lake, which are smooth as glass, and without bottom, teem with monstrous _gomari_ [Hippopotamus amphibius], and with fish of brilliant colours, red, yellow, green, and blue, such as have never before been seen. "Moreover there are specifics against small-pox and other dreadful diseases. No resistance is to be anticipated, for the inhabitants, who are chiefly Christian monks, have often invited me. I must no longer delay to recover the lost wealth of my forefathers, and it is fitting that you, with the British officers who have come hither from a far country, should accompany me and construct boats. Hereof my people are ignorant, and your name as well as mine will therefore become great, and will live in the annals of this kingdom. "From the summit of a lofty hill near Aimellele, I have beheld through a telescope the lake and its tall trees, but the elephants came in numbers. I feared that my people would be destroyed. I ran, and they all ran with me. Now, what say you? What is your advice in this matter? Are you able to build boats?" In furtherance of His Majesty's intentions, I caused models of skin punts, gun rafts, and a pontoon train, to be prepared upon the most approved design, with crews and ordnance complete, and advised that every requisite should be prepared at Ankober whilst leisure served, in order that he might take the field with ample means at his disposal. The king expressed himself above all things pleased both with models and advice, which he declared to come from wise and expert soldiers; but he was still obviously undecided, and the fear of wild beasts and of the lone forest at length kicked the vibrating beam. The castle visions of glory mounted far out of reach, and his fickle ambition evaporated in a bluster of empty words-- "My people will weep at the carriage of such ponderous engines." "The preparations must be made on the banks of the Hawash, or on the borders of the Lake Zooai, where timber grows abundantly. A man of rank, one of the frontier governors, who resides near Aimellele, should be summoned as guide to the expedition, and might then be consulted." But the presence of the great functionary was ever wanting--no further wish escaped the lips of the vacillating monarch--and engrossed with the passing whim of the moment, the chivalrous project of the day had vanished. So passed the dreary winter on. The arrival in the kingdom of Shoa of the many valuable presents brought by the Embassy, had not proved more agreeable to the traders from Gondar and Tigre who reside in Ankober, than to the narrow-minded governor of Alio Amba. These men had been in the habit of selling glass-ware, cloths, and fire-arms to the king at a very considerable premium, and now did not fail to repeat and to improve the absurdities circulated by the mischievous Danakil regarding the foreign intruders. The Gypzis were pronounced eaters of serpents, mice, and other reptiles, and had come with the design of possessing themselves of the country by the aid of magic and medicine. Great umbrage was taken at our practice of toasting the wretched half-baked dough which we received, under the denomination of bread, from the royal stores; and a soldier who carried a metallic pitcher to the stream, was roundly taxed with having used charms to poison the water, which was consequently condemned as unfit for use until purified by the blessing of the priest. Predictions of the impending fate of Abyssinia were derived from the fact of the foreigners employing instruments which read the stars; and the despot was repeatedly and earnestly warned to be upon his guard. But His Majesty cut short these insinuations by threatening to extract the tongues of three or four of the maligners, and paid no attention whatever to the threat of excommunication extended to him by the fanatic clergy of Aramba, who had declared the ban of the Church to be the just punishment due for the admission into the empire "of red heretics, who ought carefully to be shunned, since they practised witchcraft, and by burning the king's bread threatened to bring a famine upon the land." Taking their cue from the feelings of the people, the Shoan sorcerers gave out that Sahela Selassie was to be the last of the Ethiopian dynasty, descended from the house of Solomon, who should sit upon the throne of his forefathers, and that a foreign king would come by way of Alio Amba to usurp the dominion. It is, amusing to trace the progress of these crafty insinuations among an ignorant and weak-minded people. In some of the northern provinces it was confidently asserted that the Sultan of the Mohammadans had already conquered Shoa, and that all the surrounding Moslem potentates were about to unite with him in a war of extermination against the Christians; whilst in others it was believed that an Alaka, or chief of the Gypts from Grand Cairo, had contrived to smuggle himself into the capital, carrying his sovereign in a box, and that after consulting the heavenly bodies until a favourable horoscope was presented, he stamped his foot upon the ground, which opened, and ten thousand red soldiers, with beards flowing to their girdles, springing forth out of the chasm, placed the aforesaid monarch upon the throne. "Now," said the magicians, "will Theodorus arise according to the tradition, that he will come in the latter days of -Ethiopia, and create a kingdom of Peace." Theodorus was one of the emperors who reigned during the fifteenth century, and was canonised. It is recorded, that during the observance of his festival the queen-dowager had prepared a great entertainment, and the guests being all assembled, the heavens rained down a shower of fishes ready roasted. In the Ethiopic liturgy, the miracle is thus commemorated. "Peace be upon thee. King of the Agaazi nation, Theodorus, Son of the Lion; thy memory shall this day be celebrated with the slaughter of oxen and sheep, with which alone Zion Mogass, thy mother, kept it not, for the clouds also dropped fishes." It is confidently believed that this saint will rise again from the dead, and reign a thousand years, during which period neither war, famine, nor discord, is to disturb the happiness of Abyssinia. Volume Two, Chapter V. TERMINATION OF WINTER. In due process of time, spite of the denunciations of the fanatic priesthood, the silver and beef of the foreigners attracted the denizens of the adjacent villages, and we acquired a respectable retinue, such as an Abyssinian deems indispensable on all excursions abroad. A house better adequate to our wants had been purchased, and the bargain duly concluded according to the custom of the country by an oath on the life of the despot; but this was shortly annulled through the officious interference of the governor of the town, and it was not until the eleventh hour, when rain had begun to abate, that the Master of the Horse was prevailed upon to rent his newly-erected domicile. A fat ox having been slaughtered to drive out the Devil, it was handed over to the domestics, and wading through the blood which flowed over the threshold, we entered upon the premises in due form, and having hoisted the Union Jack over the new Residency, we quaffed with the burly landlord several horns of old hydromel for good luck. "Have you a better house than this in your country?" he inquired exultingly: "I rather suspect not." Ayto Melkoo, the Baldaras, or King's Master of the Horse, has under his charge the royal stud, saddles, and accoutrements, as also the workers in leather--is equerry in waiting, and conservator of pastures and meadows pertaining to the crown. He is moreover the greatest gourmand in the kingdom, and condescending to honour the denounced Christians with his company at the house-warming, did ample justice to the novel viands that were placed before him. He even submitted to the innovation of a silver fork, and politely partook of a salad, notwithstanding his firm conviction that the undressed vegetable would cause a return of ailments to which he had been a martyr in youth. The circulation of water for the ablution of fingers caused no little diversion on the removal of the cloth; but the marasquino which followed was unhesitatingly pronounced to be a nectar fit for princes alone. "Were but the Negoos aware with what good things the board of you English is spread," he exclaimed, smacking his lips after the last glass, "His Majesty would come and dine with you as often as you chose to invite him." "But let me give you a lesson in politeness," added the old man, when, in reply to his abrupt intimation of intended departure, he was wished a "safe entrance to his house," in accordance with Abyssinian etiquette--"You should have said `stay.'" "Such is not the fashion of the countries across the water," was Graham's reply: "every man is permitted to withdraw as he lists, and be happy in his own way." "Ay, ay," returned the guest; "but then if you had pressed me to tarry, I would at all events have stopped with you until the moon rose. Do you see?" The fast of the Assumption having meanwhile terminated, the king announced his intention of removing to Angollala, his favourite place of residence; and thither, in defiance of excessively heavy rain, he set out on the day appointed by the household priests. "My children," said His Majesty at parting, "ye have travelled far on my account, and have no kinsman saving myself. My people are bad people, and I am sorry thereat. They bring me daily all manner of reports regarding yourselves and your evil intentions. The rumours have doubtless reached your ears, but ye must not suppose that Sahela Selassie believes one of them. Ye are my friends, and I will deal with you accordingly. I will that ye come shortly to Debra Berhan and witness the great annual review at the feast of Maskal. Ayto Wolda Hana shall conduct you." But the important functionary thus selected was of all others arrayed in the most open hostility, and, unlike the majority of his avaricious colleagues, his enmity had been proof against overtures and advances. "I am a lone man," he invariably replied, "and have neither wife nor child. Grey hairs have come out on me. I am the son of sixty years. I want nothing in this world but the favour of the king." To judge from appearances, the pinnacle of his loyal ambition had already been attained. Governor of Ankober, and president of the _madi beit_, or kitchen, wherein are prepared hydromel, pepper soup, and sour beer-- comptroller of all the royal porters and of the household slaves, who are the hewers of wood and the carriers of water, who grind, bake, express oil, and manufacture candles--receiver-general into the imperial magazines of all tribute in cotton, grain, thread, sheep, and poultry-- and charged with the superintendence, the erection, and the repair of all public buildings throughout the realm, as well as with the arrangement of the interior economy of the capital--Ayto Wolda Hana can have little left to desire; and so conscientiously does he acquit himself of these manifold onerous duties, that it is affirmed his royal master could scarcely exist without him. A visible diminution in the male population of Ankober follows the departure of the monarch to either of his more distant places of residence. During his absence the administration of affairs devolves chiefly upon Ayto Kidana Wold, who may be termed the viceroy. In charge of the secret police and magisterial department, he adjusts all private differences, watches over the public safety, and besides ministering daily to the wants of all consigned to him, gives annually three great entertainments at the expense of the crown. He has been honoured with the hand of Woizoro Askuala Work, sister to the queen-dowager, and as the receipt of the promised invitation to Debra Berhan required an intimation of intended departure, it afforded me a long sought opportunity of making the acquaintance of this stately dame. Seated in the utmost of Abyssinian pomp, and surrounded by a goodly train of slaves, pages, and handmaidens, she received us with the greatest affability, and in the temporary absence of her lord, expressed the highest gratification at the attention of our visit, although unable to accept the presents that I offered, from an apprehension of the royal displeasure. But conversation during a morning call is here little more than a string of the most earnest and pathetic inquiries respecting one's own health, and that of one's wife, relatives, and children. Even two old crones, who are obviously tottering on the very brink of the grave, and who are afflicted with every pain and with every sorrow entailed by the fall of our first parents, never meet in the street without indulging in a string of good wishes which are reiterated so long as their breath will permit. "How are you? How do ye do? How have you passed your time? Are you well? Are you very well? Are you quite well? Are you perfectly well? Are you not well?"--are questions which serve as the prelude to a thousand other interrogatories; and at each response the Deity must be invoked as to the unadulterated happiness and perfect felicity that has been unremittingly experienced since the last meeting. Should the encounter take place twenty or even a hundred times during one and the same day, a repetition of the ceremony is enforced, and for each progressive stage of morning, noon, evening, and night, there exists a distinct set of phrases, which, from the never-ending repetition, are grating and wearisome. Passengers stand in the lane, denude their shoulders, and roar out salutations intended for the inmates of huts some hundred yards from the hedge. The slumberer is started from sleep by the dinning "How do ye do?" from some gentleman passing ere the day has dawned to his country residence; and from morning until even-tide, one's ears are assailed by a most harassing tissue of polite inquiries from every individual of whatever rank, who may think proper to pass himself off as an acquaintance. Volume Two, Chapter VI. DEBRA BERHAN, THE HILL OF GLORY. In Shoa the preliminaries of a journey are replete with noise, inconvenience, and confusion. Friends come to "see you off," as an indispensable piece of etiquette, and the lounging townspeople, who have at no time much business of their own, flock to assist the traveller by filling the court-yard, choking the door-way, and amusing themselves by canvassing the property packed. Should rain be falling, which is too frequently the case, the rabble take shelter inside the house, subject every article within their reach to the pollution of greasy paws, leave the carpet an inch thick in mire, and, unless by dint of shoving and elbowing, debar all egress to the lawful proprietor. It was in the midst of attentions such as these on the part of the idlers of Ankober, on a raw, cold, foggy morning in September--the last of the Ethiopic year--that we took the road to Debra Berhan. The sun was already high when the sure-footed mules were mounted, and as the retiring mist scudded over the face of the mountains, many were the bold beauties revealed. Cascades tumbled down the stupendous range on the one hand, amid snug houses and tufted knolls, and on the other, at the foot of perpendicular crags thundered the river Airara. On its bank stands the only piece of machinery in the kingdom--a rude watermill constructed by an Albanian visitor; but the intolerant and ignorant priesthood pronouncing the revolution of the wheel to be the work of devils and genii, its use was interdicted after three days, and it has since remained silent. Beyond the ford of the foaming torrent the road becomes extremely rough, steep, and difficult. The first traveller had been unable to breast the mountain side outright; and his zigzag route remains untouched by the hand of the pioneer. The craggy rock must be surmounted, and the narrow and slippery channel be still threaded with the same risk as when the first bold foot was planted on the serrated ridge; and the torrent of centuries, whilst indenting the furrow yet deeper, has added the impediment of slimy residuum. The range whereof the Chaka forms a part divides the streams that flow into the Nile, from those which are tributary to the Hawash; and the ascent above Ankober being not less than two thousand feet, the difference in temperature on the summit was fully perceptible. Half an hour was occupied in the scramble to a crumbling basaltic pillar styled "_Room dingai_," "the standing stone," which very aptly transfers its name to this most indifferent pass to the new capital of Shoa. Mamrat still towered overhead full three or four thousand feet, making its total height above the level of the sea at least thirteen thousand; yet is snow a stranger to its cloud-capped summit, and indeed to the language of all Amhara, south of the cold mountains of Simien. It is from June to September that old Father Nilus carries plenty into "the land of marvels"--and rolling on to its mouths in solitary grandeur, without receiving a single tributary in its long course of thirteen hundred and fifty nautical miles below the junction of the Tacazze, it may fairly be stated that Abyssinia holds in her Christian hands the inexhaustible riches of Egypt. Hatze Tekla Haimanot the Great, had therefore reason on his side when, in the beginning of the twelfth century, he wrote under the style of "Son of the King of the Church of Ethiop to the Pacha and the Lords Commanders of the Militia at Grand Cairo, desiring attention to the fact that in himself for the time being was vested power to render the Nile an instrument of vengeance for overt acts of hostility--the Almighty having given into his hands its fountains, its passage, and its increase, and thus entrusted him with power to make the river work good or evil." Among the numberless fictions recorded of this emperor, it is said that when he was about to relinquish the cares of government in order to retire to a cloister, he divided his countless wealth with his feet into two parts, the one designed as an offering to the Church, the other to be distributed in alms among the poor: and both heaps, although mountain high, were, on being weighed, found exactly equal. Lalibela, one of his successors, is believed to have attempted the diversion to the Indian Ocean and to the Lake Zooai, of all those principal tributaries to the Nile which take their source in the highest table land. The measure was in resentment for the persecutions exercised towards the Christians in Egypt after the Saracen conquest, and the monarch was only induced to relinquish his gigantic project by the earnest remonstrance of the monks, who strongly urged the impolicy of fertilising the arid Moslem countries that intervene betwixt the mountains and the sea. On the summit of the Chaka commences an uninterrupted terrace, stretching hundreds of miles to the southward, through the fair territories of the Galla. Glimpses of blue sky, of a brightness unseen for months, now gave happy presage of coming fine weather, and a cold bracing breeze from the eastward announced the termination of the protracted season of rain. The country had assumed the uninteresting character inseparable from elevated downs--rich swampy meadows, clothed with camomile, clover, and trefoil, and covered with oxen, horses, and sheep, being intersected by gentle undulations of moor-land, with occasional oviform hills. Bare-banked rills, streaming through the lower tracts, succeed each other in quick succession, and drain the table-land to the sources of the Bereza; whilst the great extent of ground under cultivation, waving crops of wheat, beans, and barley, with independent farm-houses scattered over the face of the landscape, proclaim a government which cannot be of a very bad description, and regions long exempt from the presence of an inimical power. Across the Toro Mesk, the principal streamlet that intersects the road, and the sources of which are visible at a great distance to the north-east, is a rude pile of stones bearing the dignified appellation of "the King's Bridge." Johannes, the Armenian architect, received the hand of a high-born dame in reward of his skill, and by no foot save that of the despot, is the barred entrance ever passed. Two other bridges, upon the same primitive principle, have since been constructed over nameless but rapid rivulets, and if not very durable, they serve greatly to facilitate the royal progress at periods when the country is inundated. During the reign of the sire and grandsire of the present monarch, the entire tract between Ankober and Debra Berhan was in the hands of the heathen Galla; and Tenna Kaloo, the last daring chieftain who disputed its possession, has left in the minds of the present generation the recollection of the prowess in arms that he evinced to their fathers, numbers of whom fell in the strife. Not a tree, nor even a shrub higher than the Abyssinian thistle, is to be seen, save here and there a solitary "cosso," whose venerable boughs, the witnesses of idolatrous rites, mark the ancient site of villages now gone to decay. Flourishing Christian hamlets have risen in their stead; yet the visible population is small, and the long naked sweeping plains, silent and lonesome, present a stern and melancholy appearance, which the absence of groves and hedges and singing birds tends materially to heighten. The vulture and the eagle are alone seen wheeling above the green cliffs, or a solitary buzzard soaring in quest of his prey over the great sheets of cultivation. Shepherds, wearing high conical hempen caps, lay ensconced, with their large shaggy dogs, under the shelter of knolls and caves; and in some few of the fields, where last year's crops were yet unhoused, or the land remained untilled, the peasantry pursued their industrious occupation. At length the monotonous view opened over a wide plateau sloping gently to the west. The blue peaks of Sallala Moogher, beyond which flows the infant Nile, rose faintly in the distance, and the intervening country, still destitute of wood, was traversed by broad, broken, precipitous ravines. On a hill to the northward is visible the extensive market-place of Bool Worki, "the cave of gold," a great mart for horses, mules, and woollen cloths, which, with grain, asses, and horned cattle, are brought every Saturday by the adjacent Galla tribes. and, when sold, pay a heavy duty to the crown. To account for the name of the place, there is a tradition extant, that in days of yore, many holy arks with vast quantities of the purest gold were deposited by the emperors of Ethiopia in a certain deep cave having a bottomless lake interposed to save them from the grasp of the avaricious. Its waters form the abode of a legion of evil spirits, whose Alaka gratuitously exhibited himself one market-day, mounted upon an ambling mule loaded with massive golden trappings, and attended by a black cat wearing about its neck a bell of the same costly metal--a sight quite sufficient to deter intrusion on the part of the curious. A cluster of white-roofed houses, straggling beyond the walled palace and the church of the Holy Trinity--long indistinctly visible--now rose rapidly to view; and a small eminence having been ascended, the goal was presently attained. As we passed the royal lodge, a page mounted on one of the king's horses rode forth to reconnoitre, and, taking a hasty glance, galloped off to make his report. The customary announcement through an Afero, who has always access to the palace, elicited a pair of monstrous Galla rams, which were thrust into observation while the message which follows--one strictly in accordance with Abyssinian etiquette--was delivered with shoulders bare by him to whom it had been confided:--"Are you well? Are you well? Are you well? Have you been quite well since our last interview? Are you all well? Have my children had a good journey? Have they entered in safety? My love amounts to heaven and earth; therefore the king said, they might eat these sheep." Awnings, wrought of goats' hair, and resembling the black tents of Kedar, had meanwhile been erected for us on the green-sward, and we had no sooner taken up our quarters than there came, by a succession of maids of honour, bread in wicker baskets, old hydromel in coloured decanters, pots of honey, and compliments in profusion from the queen. Many of the courtiers visited us in the evening, too evidently fresh from the royal banquet, which is daily spread in the great hall, and from which few ever rise in a state of sobriety--their amount of friendship professed, and the modicum of flattery that they bestowed, being in the exact ratio of the potations swallowed during their revel. Glimmering lights soon illumined the straggling hamlet--dancing and singing occupied both sexes of the inhabitants--and with almost as much pomp and ceremony as in more civilised lands, the departed year was consigned to its last long resting-place in the relentless tomb of Time. Volume Two, Chapter VII. THE ROYAL SLAVE DEPOT. No royal residence can be conceived more desolate and less princely than the palace at Debra Berhan, "the Hill of Glory." Crumbling walls of loose uncemented stone, patched in their various breaches and dilapidations by splintered palisades, surround a vast assemblage of wattle and dab edifices, of various shapes and dimensions, which are clumped together in separate court-yards, without any regard to appearance. Six rude gateways on the southern side conduct through as many miry enclosures, lined with troops, and crowded with herds, flocks, and applicants for justice. A paddock, covered with bright green turf, extends in front of the chamber of audience. Hoary junipers stretch their moss-grown branches fantastically over the lawn; and at the further extremity of the enclosure rise the mouldering remains of the palace of Zara Yacoob. This monarch, who was the founder of Debra Berhan, is reputed to have been endowed with the wisdom of Solomon, his great ancestor: and the vestiges that remain of his abode, certainly exhibit an order of architecture far superior to that of the present degenerate day. It has been composed of large blocks of hewn, though unsculptured, stone; but, in common with every other boasted edifice erected in the height of Ethiopic splendour, it perished during the reign of Nebla Dengel, by the hand of the destroyer Graan. Hatze Zara Yacoob first attached capital punishment to the continuance of idolatry. He instituted an inquisition, and persecuted every one who paid adoration to the cow and serpent. Amongst others who underwent execution were two of his own sons-in-law; and he finally issued a proclamation, confiscating the lands of those who should thenceforth neglect to carry on the right arm an amulet inscribed with the words, "I have renounced the Devil and all his works for Christ Jesus our Lord." Tradition asserts that "the Hill of Glory," now barren of trees, was in days of yore thickly covered with forest, through which ran a single path. In the beginning of the fifteenth century the founder, who was also styled Constantine, fled into its depths before an invasion of the Adaiel, and becoming bewildered in the intricacies, hurried hither and thither, exclaiming in his dilemma, "_Ber eza, her eza_?" "Where is the road?" Suddenly there shone forth over the eminence a great halo of light from heaven, which served him as a beacon by which to escape out of the labyrinth. In some of the adjacent swamps are to be seen the ancient remains of decomposed timber, and a few venerable junipers still survive within the palace enclosure; but beyond these monuments of antiquity the truth of the legend rests solely on the name of the river Bereza, a serpentine stream winding round the foot of the hill, and forming one of the principal sources of the Blue Nile. Tegulet, "the city of the wolves," the capital of all Abyssinia in her brighter days, and a spot untrodden by European foot since the visit of Father Alvarez, forms a conspicuous feature in the view presented from the village. Occupying a commanding promontory, round which flows the river Salacha, it is environed by singular bluffs; and one natural fissure, visible from a great distance, affords the only practicable ascent to the impregnable fortress, upon which the Galla, in the meridian of their power, were unable to make the slightest impression during reiterated attempts to carry it by storm. The Alaka of Tegulet is superior also of the celebrated shrine of Sena Markos, a saint of the days of Tekla Haimanot. The monastery, named after its founder, occupies a similar inaccessible fastness, overlooking a part of the valley of the Nile, and the whole of the north and west of Shoa, as far as the chain of lofty mountains which here form the bulwark of the Christian kingdom. The view from the village of Etteghe, near Tegulet, is so extensive that it has given rise to a proverb, "From Etteghe is the Echegue or Grand Prior of the Monks, to be seen at Gondar." Forty-four rivulets, corresponding in number with the churches of that city, are said to pay tribute through this district to the Adabai, which sends its waters down the Jumma to the Nile; their short course of little more than one hundred and fifty miles, involving so rapid a declination to the westward, that nearly all have cataracts in some part, and are consequently destitute of finny inhabitants. The immediate environs of Tegulet are intersected by the beds of rapid torrents, having high precipitous banks, which afford few accessible roads, whether to man or beast--a fact to which this portion of Shoa may be concluded to have owed its security during the inpourings of heathen and Mohammadan hordes. Tegulet-wat, "the devouring depths," a fathomless abyss yawning on the banks of one of these streams, and described as the habitation of demons, is believed by the superstitious to communicate with the "great water." It proved the grave of numerous Christian warriors, who, during the bloody contest with the Adaiel, tumbled unexpectedly into its dark bosom, and were heard of no more. It was at the close of the fifteenth century that Mafoodi, the bigoted king of Hurrur, unfurling the green banner of the Prophet, commenced those devastating inroads upon the frontiers of Shoa, which finally led to the dismemberment of the Ethiopic empire, and proved the greatest calamity that has ever befallen the country. Under a vow that he would annually spend the forty days of Lent among the Abyssinian infidels, he overran Efat and Fatigar when the people, weakened by rigorous fasting, were less capable of bearing arms--burned churches and monasteries, slew without mercy every male who fell in his way, and driving off the women and children, sold some into foreign slavery, and presented others to the Sheriffe of Mecca. Alexander, the then reigning emperor, was assassinated at Tegulet by Za Selassie, commander-in-chief of the royal body-guard, who had been bought over by Mafoodi. The eyeballs of the regicide were seared with a red hot iron; his hands and feet were chopped off; and he was stoned to death amid the curses and execrations of the populace, after he had been paraded on an ass in this mutilated condition throughout Shoa and Amhara. Debra Berhan is one of the principal depots for the numerous royal slaves, the possession of whom casts the foulest blot on the character of the Christian monarch. A strange clatter, and a Babel-like mixture of tongues, greets the ear of the visitor, and the features of many races, and of many nations, are distinctly visible among the crowd that throngs the gate, although all are alike enveloped in the disguising costume of Abyssinia. The huge black Shankela, with blubber lip and bloodshot eye, is resting for a moment against the broken wall, and stretching a brawny limb which might have supported the bully Hercules himself. Grinning from ear to ear as his burly neighbour sports some savage joke in licence unrestrained, he seizes with a three-horse power his bundle of split wood, which two Amhara could with difficulty raise, and poising it like a feather upon his woolly head, walks away in all the vigour of a young giant. With his own approving eye the monarch has selected this specimen from a lot of powerful negroes captured beyond the Nile, and fifteen silver crowns must not be lightly squandered even by the great sovereign of Southern Abyssinia. Rations are well supplied to support his sinewy form, and unless on a cold raw day, when the soaking rain has penetrated every thread of his black blanket, and his shivering frame brings vividly to mind the difference of climate, the enslaved pagan, in his present condition, as hewer in the royal forests, enjoys himself fully as well as if ranging in savage liberty over his own free country of the sun. Not so the scowling Galla who follows in his rear. The spirit of roving independence is still unsubdued in his fiery eye; and the slender figure and the bent leg proclaim the wild rider of the grassy plain. Heavy and heartbroken he plods along under a burthen to which his strength is quite inadequate; and the groan escapes from his lips as the bitter thoughts enter his soul of the disgraceful lash of the task-master, that perhaps awaits his return, and he remembers the lost wife and little ones whom he has for ever left on the distant savannahs of the Hawash. Issuing from the gateway under the authority of a bloated eunuch, a numerous flock of brown damsels take their way to the river. Heavy earthen jars are slung over their slender backs, and the light forms of the unfortunates are little concealed by their torn and scanty attire. These are newly purchased Christians from the last Gurague caravan, and the language of the Amhara is still strange to their ear. Garlands of the yellow buttercup deck the plaited raven locks of each captive maid, and a plaintive song is chanted in soft mellow notes to beguile the hours of toil. But the lines of slavery have already found place among their youthful features, which possess beauty unknown to those of their oppressors. The low chorus swelling mournful and piteous from the band, has recalled thoughts of home and liberty to the joyless breast; and the sad tear is brushed from the long dark eye-lash at the recollection of happier hours spent in their own sweet land of spices. Following close behind comes a group of favoured dames of a certain age, from whose minds time has effaced all remembrance of country and of kindred. Exalted to the post of mistresses of the royal brewery, and decked out like the first ladies of the land, in flowing garments resplendent with crimson stripes, they have little reason to wish for a change of condition. Bars and studs of solid silver load their perforated ears, and ponderous pewter bangles encircle each wrist and ankle. Their wigs, arranged according to the most becoming fashion, in minute rows of tiny curls, glisten under a coat of butter, and their fat cheeks, plastered with grease and red pigment, are calculated to strike respect into the heart of the most indifferent beholder. Their unceasing clack and clatter tell the tale of the wonted freedom of female tongue, but the small jar with the green branch protruding from the narrow neck, is strapped over the breast with the thong of slavery; and the attending eunuch, with his long thin wand--an emblem of his own withered person--proclaims the fact that the ladies cannot roam at pleasure over the verdant mead, but must restrict themselves in the beaten path according to the cracked voice of their driver. Seated upon a gaily caparisoned mule, amidst the jingling of bells and brass ornaments, the general of the gun-men proceeds in state across the green parade. He is attired in the richest garments that the land can produce. A glaring cloth of red silk is wound about his brow, a silver sword decorates his right side, and fifty robed followers attend his every behest. But he too is a slave, as was his father before him, and as his son will be after him. All the bones and sinews of his attendants are the purchased property of the monarch, and it is only by the imperial will and pleasure, which may be changed to-morrow, that he is now ambling in chintz and satin to dine at the royal board, instead of holding place in the foremost group, with a black blanket over his shoulder, and a load of wood upon his head for fuel in the royal kitchen. Here comes a demure damsel from the harem, disfigured by all the foul garments and native filth which delight the inhabitant of Shoa. It is Wuletta Georgis, one of Her Majesty's confidential slaves, and she is revolving in her mind, how, in executing her mistress's commission, she can contrive to promote her own interests. Born and bred in the palace, the Abigail is ordinarily treated with kindness, unless the fracture of a brittle decanter, or the unbidden attack upon some savoury dish, involve a little wholesome correction. Unlike the philosophical maid in Rasselas, who had broken the porcelain cup, she needs pecuniary aid, and thus is her request sobbed out: "Only one dollar to replace the queen's looking-glass, and may God reward you!" But the sob is evidently assumed for the occasion, and a sly glance may be detected in the corner of her cunning eye, to observe the effect of her false appeal. The full price of the fractured mirror has already been received from three several individuals, and her mistress will assuredly confiscate the profits; but the tenure of property during even one short half hour possesses charms irresistible, and the poor girl falls prostrate on the ground as the silver is dropped into her unwashed fingers. A last group is straggling through the gateway. The aged and the infirm, who can still perform a light task, have just received their daily dole from the royal storehouse at the niggard hand of the pampered steward. The vigour of their youth has been expended in the service of the despot, and now, in the evening of life, their original scanty pittance is yet further reduced. A wistful glance is cast upon the handful of raw barley, which must content them for the day. Hunger and destitution are painfully portrayed in the deep furrows of each withered face, and the shrunken limb totters as the keen wind whistles through the wet folds of the tattered goat-skin girdle, which reaches barely to the knee. No fostering hand awaits their return to the cheerless hut, to minister in kindness to the necessities of age; and the last closing scene will drop a welcome curtain of repose over sinews ground by indigence and toil, during half a century of hopeless bondage. Volume Two, Chapter VIII. NEW YEAR'S DAY. New Year's Day, which fell on the 10th of September, was, according to the Abyssinian calendar, the eighteen hundred and thirty-fourth since the nativity of Christ, and it was celebrated with much rejoicing and festivity. Betimes in the morning came a summons to the presence of the Negoos, who, seated in the portico of the audience chamber, was enjoying the genial warmth of the rising sun. The interior of the hall was strewed throughout with newly-plucked rushes, and under a large iron chafing-dish, with a cheerful wood-fire, basked a whole host of sleek cats in couples--a portion of the dower received with the fair daughter of the Galla Queen of Moolo Falada. The king was particularly affable, and in the highest spirits. His hand having been extended to each of us in turn, with the usual inquiries relative to our "safe entrance," the congratulations of the season were offered to His Majesty, according to the customary form: "As the departed year of Saint Matthew has closed happily upon your auspicious reign, so also may the coming year of Saint Mark! May God prolong your days, and continue the throne in the line of your ancestors unto your children's children, to the end of time! May He extend the boundaries of your dominions, and cause your spear to prevail over the lance of the enemy! May He endow you with wisdom to judge your subjects aright, and move your heart unto clemency; and may He cause high and low alike to understand and to appreciate the equitable sway of the Father, whom Heaven has appointed to rule over them!" Elaborate models of a domed palace, completely furnished, and an English saddle and bridle, were next presented, and received with every manifestation of delight, coupled with a prayer from the royal lips that "God might glorify the donor." A long and minute scrutiny led to an infinity of questions, not easily answered, as to how the shield was to be slung to the pommel, and why the entire foot, instead of the great toe only, should be inserted in the stirrup? "The sun in different countries shines with more or less brilliancy," exclaimed His Majesty, with truly royal eloquence, as he concluded the examination--"the birds and the beasts are different, and so are the plants. I am fond of new inventions, if it be only to look at them, and although they should prove on trial to be inferior to old ones." Abd el Yonag, the chief of the Hurrur slave-merchants, was seated, rosary in hand, during this conversation, and in his weather-beaten countenance were displayed all the cunning lineaments of the petty retailer in small wares, curiously contrasted with the sagacity of the extensive dealer in politics, who had succeeded in obtaining an accurate measure of the monarch's foot. The knave too protested to have seen the world, and gave out that with his own grey eyes he had beheld the glories of Britain's eastern possessions. To support his widely circulated character for universal knowledge, the Moslem miscreant now seized between his bony fingers two handsome pieces of sprigged muslin, fresh from the looms of Manchester, which I had presented for Queen Besabesh, and throwing them contemptuously towards the corner of the throne, muttered betwixt his lips the word "Bombay." "What's that, what do you say?" cried the king, in his usual abrupt manner. "May it please your Majesty," returned the turbaned traveller, to our great diversion, "'tis the name of this cloth--it is called Bombay." But an opportunity presently occurred of laughing at the beard of the irreverent pedlar, nor was it suffered to pass unheeded. The despot exhibited a silver sword scabbard, which had been curiously enamelled to represent one of the scaly inhabitants of the deep, and it was acknowledged _nemine contradicente_ that the artist had succeeded in producing a highly creditable resemblance to a fish. "A fish," quoth the man of Hurrur, "what is that?" Even the monarch smiled when the explanation was rendered. "Fishes live in the great sea between Abyssinia and Bombay, and he whose eyes have not suffered under Oubie's searing irons, might behold numbers every day of the voyage." "_Istigh-far-allah_," "Heaven defend me," growled the discomfited Wurj, as he slunk into a corner--"'tis passing strange that Abd el Yonag should have never seen the wild beast of the water." Attended by the dwarf father confessor, and holding deep consultation with several of the household priests, the king presently led the way through the secret door on the north-eastern side of the palace enclosure. Two umbrellas of crimson velvet, surmounted by silver globes and crosses--his never-failing attendants on all occasions of state-- were supported by sturdy slaves, and twelve richly caparisoned steeds, representing the months of the year, were led by the royal grooms. A numerous and motley retinue of dismounted cavaliers followed, and on reaching the meadow, the brows both of monarch and subject were bound by the monks with green fillets of a wiry grass, styled "_enkotatach_" whence the festival takes its appellation. Unlike the rugged mountains of Ankober, which can alone be traversed by the sure-footed mule, the country around Debra Berhan is well adapted for the equestrian, and the bright azure of the sky, mottled by fleecy clouds, the fresh verdure of the turf, and the elasticity of the air, all lent their aid to the coming tournament. Armed with a slender staff, the king mounted his charger, and bounding over the green-sward, opened the sports of the day. Groups of wild savages were instantly to be seen scouring in every direction, engaged in the _gombeza_, or joust, but His Majesty in flaunting striped robes shone conspicuous. Well mounted, a fearless horseman, and admirably skilled in the use of the spear, he had on no previous occasion been seen to so great advantage as during his participation in the warlike exercises of the new year--now pursuing, and now in turn pursued by the warrior whom he had honoured by selection as his antagonist in the tilt. "Guebroo is sick," quoth the monarch, the moment this display was over; "he has received a severe wound in the head during a skirmish with the rebel Galla, and I am desirous that you should now visit him, taking with you the medicine for putrid sores!" Ayto Berkie, the governor of Bulga, volunteered his escort to Daluti, the abode of his invalid brother. Crossing the serpentine Bereza, the road led through swampy meadows, and over little cultivated knolls destitute of either tree or shrub, towards Angollala, which, after a gallop of seven miles, opened in the distance. On the summit of a tabular eminence rose the king's two-storied palace, above churches and conical houses; and five distinct knolls, forming an arc in the intermediate and otherwise level landscape, were severally crowned by the abodes of favourite courtiers--that on the extreme right, embowered in luxuriant trees, pertaining to Ayto Guebroo, governor of Mentshar. Ascending the tumulus by a steep and stony path, and passing through a muddy court-yard, we reached to the abode of the great man. Surrounded by mournful attendants, he reclined on an _alga_ before a fierce fire, his right eye screened by a shade of blue calico, and his comely partner sobbing violently at his feet. The Gille and Loomi Galla, bordering on the ancient province of "Fatigar," having revolted, the warrior had taken the field with his contingent, and becoming opposed to a rebel in hand to hand combat, had received the first spear on his buckler, which was now ostentatiously displayed. The horse of his adversary fell under a well-directed lance, and the dismounted pagan sued for quarter; obtaining which, he treacherously launched his remaining shaft, which had cleft the forehead, and passed through the corner of the eye, although without destroying the vision. The patient having pledged himself to submit to the prescribed treatment, which few in Abyssinia will do, an operation was successfully performed by Dr Kirk. Drying her tears, the hostess had meanwhile slaughtered a ram, and made extensive preparations for a repast. Piles of thin _teff_ cakes, which loaded the low wicker table, were flanked by decanters of mawkish old honey wine; bowls of pepper porridge smoked at the place appointed for each guest, and lumps of raw meat were in profusion; nor was it without infinite surprise that the hospitable entertainers and their domestics beheld the chops submitted in the first instance to the influence of the hot embers. "Do all of your nation thus burn their meat?" inquired the lady, after long and attentive observation: "I was told that such was the case, and that you burnt the king's bread too, but could never have believed it." No small difficulty was experienced by the despot in comprehending how an eye could be restored by the use of the knife; but His Majesty was at a still greater loss to understand by what means a subject had been cured, whilst himself remained in partial blindness. Ayto Katama was present at this observation, and turning to one of the party, he whispered, "You must not suppose that the Negoos is blind of that eye: may Sahela Selassie die, he sees better with it than with the other!" Like -sop of old, who was once a bondsman, the general of the body-guard still retained the grovelling spirit of slavery, varnished with the address of the artful courtier; and he thus invariably followed the advice given to Solon by the hunchback author of the Fables, "that we should either not come near crowned heads at all, or speak those things only that will prove agreeable to them." Volume Two, Chapter IX. THE FALLS OF THE BEREZA. Hunting expeditions filled up the leisure hours of the busy monarch. Standing on the verge of the deep ravine by which the now deserted fastness of Tegulet is insulated from the plain of Debra Berhan, it was His Majesty's diversion to project stone balls from his rifle at the hyenas basking upon huge fragments of fallen rock, which form caverns one thousand feet below, and choke the bed of the pathless chasm. Then the steps of the royal cavalcade would be directed to the valley of the Bereza, where "Satan's horses," in the shape of gigantic adjutants, were striding over the plain on their long stilt-like legs, with well-filled pouches dangling beneath their bills. Here, seated upon the green turf, the Negoos awaited the report of his scouts. Whilst turning the corner of the numerous abrupt eminences, his ears were ever saluted by loud cries of "_Abiet! Abiet_!" from the mouth of many a petitioner, and a very respectable body of plaintiffs and defendants were continually in attendance. Judgment was calmly delivered until the arrival of some breathless horseman with intelligence of the discovery of a colony of baboons, would arrest the proceedings of the sylvan court. "Sahela Selassie ye moot?" inquired the sporting monarch on one of these occasions, adjuring the informant by his own illustrious life; "are they well surrounded?" "May Sahela Selassie die if they be not," responded the slave, as he bowed his head to the dust; "hundreds graze in yonder corn-field." "Then by the death of Woosen Suggud they shall be slain," was the rejoinder, as His Majesty galloped towards the spot, followed by a train of attendants carrying every rifle and fowling-piece of which the imperial armoury could boast. On the verge of the deep valley we presently descried a countless pig-faced army, laying waste the rising crops. Lusty veterans, muffled in long flowing manes, strutted consequentially among the ladies; and others, squatted upon their hunkers, with many a ghastly grin displayed their white teeth whilst hunting down the vermin that infested their rough shaggy coats. Casting aside his chequered robe, the king, with all the ardour of a schoolboy, dashed into the middle of the amazed group, and under a running fire from himself and courtiers, the field was presently strewed with slain and wounded. Mangled wretches were now to be seen endeavouring to reach the precipitous chasm of the Bereza, whose white foaming waters were thundering below, whilst the grimacing survivors, far out of danger, whooped in echoes amid the bush-grown clefts, to reassemble the discomfited forces. Return from this brilliant victory was celebrated by the war-chorus, until the appearance of an _erkoom_ waddling over the ploughed land, again proved the signal for general pursuit. This gigantic and deformed bird is of the genus Hornbill, and an abrupt unmeaning excrescence above his huge jagged forceps, imparts a fancied resemblance to the slaves of the king, who carry water-jars upon their heads, which has dignified him with the title of "Abba Gumbo," "the Father of the Pitcher." It has blue wattles, which, when the bird is worried, become inflamed like those of the turkey-cock; and from the fact of its always constructing the door of its nest to the eastward, the Abyssinians assert that it will never build out of sight of a church. The plumage throughout is to appearance of a sooty black; but the expansion of the wings displays an assemblage of snowy quills which form the pride of the warrior who has slain his enemy in battle. Mules were abandoned with one accord; and under the encouraging gaze of the despot, the courtiers, springing into their high-peaked saddles, scoured after the devoted quarry. Weary with its long flight, the heavy bird alighted a dozen times, but no rest was ever allowed. Again he was turned, and again he distanced his pursuers, until beleaguered on all sides, he was finally speared by the chief smith and body physician, who, as an equestrian, shone _facile princeps_. His skill rewarded the head of each hero engaged with the coveted white plume, which is the Amharic emblem of death. "My children have never seen the `Devil's sheep,'" gravely observed His Majesty, as he ascended towards the palace preceded by strains of martial music. "They live in holes in the rocks under the great waterfall, and have long snouts. My people are afraid. Take guns in the morning, and the pages shall show you the road. Now you may eat." Heavy dew covered the waving grass, as, accompanied by the promised escort, we proceeded at an early hour to gratify the royal curiosity by the destruction of the dreaded monster. It proved on realisation to be an inoffensive badger; and although the sport did not afford very much diversion, the cataract amply repaid the ride across the meadow. Leaving the terrace of table-land, the serpentine river, far hid from sight, winds through a succession of rounded hills towards a precipitous valley, down which the foaming torrent rushes over a descent of eight rocky basins. Hemmed in by fantastic pillars of basalt, composed of irregular disjointed polygons, the dark craggy surface, laid bare by the violence of ages, is at strange variance with the bright emerald turf which creeps luxuriantly to the very verge of the frowning abyss; whilst twelve hundred feet below, the sparry walls suddenly contract to the breadth of fifteen yards, and the accumulated waters of the cascades, discharging through this natural flood-gate, boil onwards in their wild career. At some distance from this point are the royal iron mines, and near them a perpendicular crag, which rears its crumbling form from the very bottom of the vale to the level of the upper stream, marks the suddenness of the descent. The entire lace of the verdant hills that repose above the roaring cataract, were covered with thyme and other aromatic herbs, yielding up their fragrance at every step; and new and lovely flowers, sparkling under the morning dew, carpeted the slope. From the very brink of the dizzy torrent, lofty junipers raised their tall stems, and flung their mossy arms to a vast height, though still appearing but as small twigs; and the white cloud of foam and spray which arose from the gloomy chasm, reflecting the prismatic colours of the rainbow, completed a picture of singular wildness and magnificence. How different, indeed, is the fate awaiting the waters of one and the same shower discharged over the high ridge of the Abyssinian Alps! A drop, falling on the eastern slope of the shed, wends its short course by the nearest streamlet towards the muddy Hawash; and, if not absorbed by the thirsty plains of the Adaiel, adds its mite to the lagoon of Aussa--to filter, perhaps, through some subterranean channel into the Indian Ocean. But far distant is the pilgrimage that awaits the more ambitious cloud that sinks on the western side. Joining the Bereza, and taking the sudden leap over the dazzling cataract of Debra Berhan, it hurries down the Jumma on its impetuous course to the Bahr el Azreek-- rolls through the golden sands of Damot--and, after visiting Meroe and Thebes, and all the stately pyramids, either adds its humble tribute to the blue waves of the Mediterranean, or is sacrificed to the fertility of the land of Egypt: "Where with annual pomp, Rich king of floods! o'erflows the swelling Nile." Volume Two, Chapter X. THE ANNUAL REVIEW. As the month rolled on, under a cold and pleasant sky, the governors of the adjacent districts flocked with their quotas to Debra Berhan, to be in readiness against the approaching anniversary of "Maskal." On this festival, which is held in commemoration of the discovery of the Holy Cross by Saint Helena, the rabble militia composing the Amhara forces is marshalled in order of review, and the grassy slope in front of the palace became daily more and more thickly dotted with black booths and mules and neighing steeds. Honours, appointments, and rewards, are now conferred upon the brave and the deserving; and this being also the season of retribution, the forfeited property and the household chattels of delinquent officers add to the fair-like confusion. Herds of cattle, and long files of confiscated slaves, wooden tables, rickety bedsteads, and other paltry prizes of royal seizure, crowded the bustling parade; whilst groups of shivering camels, transferred by writ of execution to an uncongenial clime, took up their cold station on the bare ground, which was in a few days to receive their long scraggy bones. On the eve of the anxiously expected day of jubilee, the din of the _nugareet_, followed by the repeated discharge of heavily-loaded matchlocks, proclaimed the movement of the household troops towards the palace portals, in order to guard the imperial person from any sudden outbreak of the wild host encamped in the environs. Halting in front of the tents of the Embassy, they performed the war-dance in our honour by the light of numerous torches. Whilst the leaders solaced themselves with a cup of our curacoa, their curvetting chargers, ridden by confidential henchmen, bore gallantly among the dense mass; and the bright metal stars and studs of their appointments gleamed amid the dark ranks of the warriors, as they howled the Amhara death chorus. Bidding us good night, the Master of the Horse declared, amongst the affirmative whoops of his followers, that next to the royal safety, the lives of his much-esteemed foreign friends should be uppermost in his thoughts during the coming vigil. Most unkingly was the appearance presented by the palace at break of day, for all was disorder and confusion among the court. Dirt and filth reigned paramount in every purlieu--mire to the ankle obstructed every gateway--and the rods of the wearied door-keepers were broken to splinters in their laudable endeavours to check the rush of the eager and greasy mob. The very houses themselves seemed more gloomy, and the time-worn mud plaster of the ancient walls more sombre and dilapidated than usual. The despot was for some hours to be seen squatted in the porch of the banqueting hall, surrounded by all the concomitant litter of a forge, which, puffing away at the foot of his _alga_, under the personal supervision of the chief smith, blew a cloud of dust and ashes into the royal nostrils. Decorum seemed to be laid aside for the day. Chattering and noise resounded in every quarter. Restraint was removed from the tongues of all, and the uplifted voice of the monarch was at times scarcely audible, amid the clatter of surrounding courtiers, and the ringing of the crow upon the anvil. Twenty sallow eunuchs, acting each at one and the same time as master of the ceremonies, introduced to the royal notice the crowds of lieges, who, arrayed in most filthy garbs, came crushing together to the front. Priests, and monks, and petty governors, women, slaves, and cultivators, bore each some present to swell the imperial stores. Honey, butter, and beads, sticks, crutches, and censers, were alike received with complimentary speeches, saving in the instance of one burly knave, who had presumed to come before the king with a poor bundle of grass. Of him no notice whatever was taken. The very crowd seemed ashamed of so scurvy an offering, and an opening being spontaneously made, a few kicks and shoves sent the ill-provided vassal speedily out of sight, unrewarded by the customary "God give thee more!" from the lips of his puissant sovereign. But a very different scene presented itself when, at a later hour, we were ushered through the grassy lawn to make our bows to His Majesty. Surrounded by the grandees of the court, in their holiday attire, the generals of the cavalry and body-guard, the household officers, and the alakas and high-priests of all the principal churches, he reclined on a moveable throne, tricked out for the occasion in velvet and satin. Rich _kimkhabs_, gay silken vests, and a profusion of silver swords and decorations for gallant conduct, sparkled on the persons of the courtiers; and the turmoil attending the early hours of business had given place to the unbending gravity of Abyssinian etiquette. The artillery escort having, greatly to the admiration of the bystanders, gone through the manual and platoon exercises with blank cartridge, three hundred _Aferoch_, under the command of the purveyor-general, entered the arena, elevating high above their heads bundles of peeled wands, bound together with wisps of rushes, and decked with garlands of the yellow "cross-flower." The wild song of rejoicing at the return of spring, and of the season of blossoms, "when the fleas retire and the flies appear," had been heard a considerable time, waxing louder and louder, as these lictors, with their fasces, approached the scene of exhibition. Shouting the war-chorus, they now moved forward with a mincing gait, and after the most abject prostration to the earth, with a yell, hurling their rods in a heap before the palace steps, the whole crouched in a semicircle. Their leader and his stewards, some on horseback, others on foot, clothed in the spoils of wild beasts, then displayed themselves individually in the dance, galloping or vaulting between the open ranks, encouraging the men to fight, and demean themselves as warriors in the day of battle--each ending his recitative by a terrific howl, in which he was joined by the whole band. This exhibition terminated, we were marshalled to a gay Turkish pavilion, which had been purposely erected, below the royal inspection tower. A small, roofed building, resembling the judge's stand on a country race-course, occupies a raised platform immediately within the palace enclosure. Gaudy cloth hangings enveloped this cage, and carpets and rugs of all colours covered the top of the rude wall for some distance on either side. The Negoos was already seated when we cantered past, and taking off our hats, received his condescending salutation. The usual paraphernalia of silver-embossed velvet floated at his feet. The chiefs of the churches, and the civil officers of state--a gorgeous band--were arranged along the platform, whilst a motley crowd of many thousand spectators stood closely packed over the plain below. Dense masses of cavalry were in readiness at the further extremity of the parade, to perform the pageant of the day. At the distance of one hundred yards from the imperial stand, a stack of tall leafless willow staves had been erected on the bright green turf which extended far and wide in front. Around it were squatted files of warriors, ensconced under their round shields like the tortoise beneath his shell--the management of sundry huge culverins, of inordinate dimensions, being divided betwixt every three. The muzzle rested over the shoulder of one, a second worked the butt, and a third was prepared, with blazing brand, to fire on the signal given. The review commenced by the advance of Ayto Katama's body-guard, consisting entirely of fusiliers, three-fourths of whom were on this occasion equipped with the muskets that I had recently presented. Divided into four bodies, consisting each of about one hundred men, they moved slowly forward, shouting the usual war-chorus, in imitation of the voice of the lion, and were kept in line by the vigorous application of the rattan. Numerous bracelets, the reward of distinguished gallantry, glittered throughout the band, and the fixed bayonets, heretofore unknown in Southern Abyssinia, gleamed brightly in the sunshine. Gaining the prescribed distance, the warriors crouched on the ground as if to receive cavalry. A grey-headed but energetic veteran sprang to the front--danced during some time in a variety of uncouth capers--and uttering a howl such as might be conjectured to issue from the demon in the wolfs glen, discharged his piece. The signal was followed by a running fire along the entire line, when the remaining companies, advancing in succession in the same order, went through similar evolutions, and all marched off dancing and singing to the outer ring. The commander-in-chief of this doughty band had meanwhile formed a conspicuous, although rather a ludicrous figure in the performance. Adorned with a flowing garment of his favourite chintz, the flaring pattern of which the kaleidoscope itself must have found difficulty in devising, Ayto Katama, a bondsman from his youth, exhibited himself in front of the phalanx of slaves, his head enveloped in a crimson harlequin cap. Tripping and mincing with the most unseemly capers and gestures, he brandished his crooked blade in a fashion which could alone have proved dangerous to himself. An inveterate chronic sore throat had rendered his voice husky; and his vapouring unmilitary motions, which reminded us of the strut of a crippled peacock, shed a broad light of caricature over this opening scene of the pantomime. But the king's Master of the Horse next advanced with his glittering squadron of picked household cavalry--the flower of the Christian lances. Ayto Melkoo was arrayed in a parti-coloured vest, surmounted by a crimson Arab fleece, handsomely studded with silver jets. A gilt embossed gauntlet encircled his right arm from the wrist to the elbow. His targe and horse-trapping displayed a profusion of silver crosses and devices, and he looked a stately and martial warrior, curvetting at the head of his troop of well-appointed lancers. Forming line at the distance of half a mile, and approaching the willow pile with a musical accompaniment from a mounted band of kettle-drums, the squadron halted, and the leader, couching his lance, advanced in front. Whilst putting his charger through all the evolutions of Abyssinian _manege_, he vaunted his prowess in arms, recited the prodigies of valour performed in the service of his royal master, and proclaimed his continued good faith, and future bold intentions--his followers, at intervals, like the Romans of old, responding their assent by the loud clatter of lance against shield. The harangue concluded, his spears were dashed upon the ground, and the chieftain, drawing his broad two-edged falchion, brandished it in the air: "_Tockatoo, Loola, Loola, Gummoo, Sik, Oooooh_," he vociferated, as he dashed his heels into the flanks of his prancing steed. An instantaneous howl, and independent discharge of culverins, answered the signal, and the wild troop swept past at a gallop to the further extremity of the parade. At the royal request, I caused a salute of twenty-one guns to be fired by the artillery escort, from the brass three-pounder, which had been dragged by oxen below the willow-stack. Great was the admiration of the wild Galla multitude as they gazed on the appointments and embroidered housings of the British officers now assembled on horseback in front of the watch-tower; and sufficiently diverting were the remarks they passed on our fluttering plumes of white and red feathers--their own emblems of bloody though not chivalrous deeds. When the cannonade opened upon ears that had never before listened to the thunder of ordnance, and a cloud of white smoke curled high above the heads of those who had hitherto beheld such volumes arise only from their own burning hamlets, a buzz of applause pealed from end to end of the extended fine. Each echoing report carried to the hearts of the disaffected a powerful argument for future loyalty, and it needed little discrimination to unravel the royal policy which had dictated the display. Thirteen governors, clothed in spoils stripped from the lion and the leopard, with other conspicuous trophies of the chase, next passed successively in order of review. Decked in emblems of blood--rings, feathers, bracelets, and gauntlets--tokens all of individual prowess in hand to hand combat with the king's foes--the leader of each glittering cohort indulged in a long rambling harangue, ere shouting the signal for the charge. Many there were who wore the _akodama_--a massive transverse beam of silver projecting across the brows, and hung with a profusion of chains and pendants, the reward for the slaughter of an Adel, several of which respectable body, including the Ras el Kafilah and his fiery coadjutor, Ibrahim Shehem, were spectators of the martial manoeuvres of the Amhara troops. An interesting, though perhaps not a very military sight, was witnessed as the hours drew on. The famished governors, judges, chiefs, nobles, courtiers, and dignitaries of the church, who occupied the elevated platform on either side of the royal box, unable longer to resist the calls of hunger, were suddenly to be perceived in the act of employing their crooked swords in reducing the dimensions of several sides and flaps of raw beef, which had been furnished by the king's munificence, and were ostentatiously displayed by as many menials--nor, under the well-directed and vigorous attacks of the assembly, were the reeking collops long in disappearing. A few only of the detachments, whose leaders were not gifted with eloquence, charged past without a halt from the ground on which they had formed; and it is not improbable that these, having made the circuit of the palace enclosure, had swelled the pageant by appearing a second time on the stage. Others, dismounting, performed various evolutions on foot--ancient heroes, with falchions of truly portentous dimensions, capering and striding before the line, until on a signal made by the culverins, they vaulted again into the saddles, and dashed onward over the green-sward, now fast fading under the tramp of hoofs. Last of all came the tall martial figure of Abogaz Maretch, chief of all the tributary Galla in the south, at the head of his Abitchu legion, who closed the display of barbarian tactics. Three thousand in number, the sea of wild horsemen moved in advance to the music of the kettledrums, their arms and decorations flashing in the sun-beam, and their ample white robes and long braided hair streaming to the breeze. At the shrill whoop of their leader, with the rushing sound of a hurricane, the cohort clattered past the royal stand, and the moving forest of lances disappeared under a cloud of dust. From eight to ten thousand cavalry were present in the field, and the spectacle, which lasted from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon, was exceedingly wild and impressive. Did the warriors who this day recounted their valorous achievements before the monarch only possess hearts of a measure with their good weapons and strong seats, they could not fail to prove the means of extensive power and conquest under the control of an aspiring chief; but such unfortunately is not the case, and the speed of their stout hardy steeds is too frequently exerted in the wrong direction. As soon as it became dark, several rockets which we had brought with us were discharged from our tents by the king's express desire. With fire-arms the Abyssinians were previously acquainted, and the brass galloper which had echoed so recently, although viewed with wonderful respect, was still only the engine on a colossal scale, to which they were familiarised. But these were the first rockets of which His Majesty had viewed the flight, and the impression they produced upon his mind, as he gazed from his watch-tower, was scarcely less than that worked upon his assembled subjects. Night had thrown her mantle around, and the novel principle of ascent, with the grandeur of the brilliant rush into the skies, afforded matter of amazement to all spectators. When the projectile started with a loud roar from its bed, men, women, and children, fell flat upon their faces. Horses and mules broke loose from their tethers, and the warrior who had any heart remaining shouted aloud. The Galla tribes who witnessed the meteor-like explosion from the vicinity, ascribed the phenomenon to the use of potent medicines, and declared that since the Gyptzis could at pleasure produce comets in the sky, and rain fire from heaven, there was nought for them left, save abject submission to the king's commands. The ceremony of burning the stack of willow staves on the parade commenced shortly after this exhibition, and, superintended by His Majesty in person, terminated the proceedings of the busy day. Shrouded from the gaze of the populace, the ladies of the royal harem danced and clapped their hands together, as their white ghostlike figures moved in circling procession around the pile so shortly to be committed to the flames. Then followed a rush of torch-bearers from various quarters, mingled with the corps of Aferoch, and all reeling under the effects of strong old hydromel. Three hundred flower-decked fasces, displayed bright and fresh in the morning, but now withered and faded, were with savage shouts and yells cast simultaneously on the pyre, and a burst of lurid glare, which revealed all that was passing, at once proclaimed their ignition. Thousands crowding to the spot added their tribute, and joined in the din of voices. Black crosses to repel the devil were by many described on their foreheads with the charred wood, in the struggle to obtain which hard blows were dealt lustily about, and some of the competitors were even forced into the pile. The legend asserts, that on the discovery of the Holy Cross by the mother of Constantine the Great, she caused beacon fires to be lighted on all the high hills of Palestine, upon beholding which a general shout of joy was raised by the people of Constantinople. In imitation hereof, wild songs and yells of triumph from the inebriated Christians of Shoa, now completed the turmoil and confusion, and with the crackling red flames that curled up the tall dry staves, ascended high towards the starry vault of heaven in honour of Saint Helena. Volume Two, Chapter XI. THE GALLA CAPITAL. Angollala, on the Galla frontier, founded ten years since by the reigning monarch, is now the capital of the western portion of Shoa, and during the greater part of the year it forms His Majesty's favourite place of residence. Thither he proceeded on the morning following the festivities of Maskal. Upwards of three thousand horsemen composed the _cortege_, which was swelled every quarter of a mile by large detachments of cavalry. Led by their respective chiefs, each band dismounted at a considerable distance on the flank, and advancing on foot with shoulders bared, fell prostrate with one accord before the state umbrellas. The Negoos bestrode a richly caparisoned mule, with swallow-tailed housings of crimson and green, and massive silver collars; and he was closely followed by the corps of shield-bearers under the direction of the Master of the Horse, who, by vigorous sallies, and the judicious exercise of a long stick, kept the crowd from encroaching upon the royal person, during our eight-mile ride over the level plain. From four to five hundred circular huts, consisting of loose stone walls very rudely thatched, cover the slopes of a group of tabular hills that enclose an extensive quadrangle. On the summit of the largest eminence, near the church of Kidana Meherat, stands the palace, defended by six rows of stout high palisades. A clumsy stone edifice of two stories, rising in the form of a dove-cot, occupies the centre. It was erected by Demetrius, an Albanian visitor, and is considerably superior in point of architecture to all other domiciles in the realm, although somewhat tottering in appearance, and deserted from an apprehension of earthquake, which holds strong possession of the royal mind. "Earthquakes are bad things," was His Majesty's remark, "for they overthrow houses, and demolish my people." The rugged ascent up the steep hill-side was thronged with spectators, male and female, assembled to greet the arrival of their sovereign, and to stare at the foreigners. Paupers and mendicants crowded the first enclosure; and the approach from the second gate through four court-yards, to the King's quarters, was lined with matchlock-men and fusiliers, who, as the Embassy passed between the ranks, made a laughable attempt to present arms in imitation of the artillery escort at the review. Kitchens, magazines, and breweries were scattered in all directions; and, with the long banqueting-hall, the chamber of audience, the apartments of the women, and the solitary cells, formed a curious, but far from imposing group of buildings. The despot, in high good-humour, conducted us over the unswept premises, and up a rude ladder to the attic story, which commands a pleasant prospect over wide grassy meadows, intersected by serpentine streamlets, and covered with the royal herds. Upon a floor strewed with newly-cut grass, blazed a wood fire in an iron stove, with the never-failing cats luxuriating under its influence. A dirty couch graced the alcove, and a few guns and fowling-pieces the rudely white-washed walls, but otherwise the dreary chamber was unfurnished. "I have brought you here," quoth His Majesty, "that you may understand what I want. These rooms require to be ornamented; and I wish your artist to cover them with elephants and soldiers, and with representations of all the buildings and strange things in your country, which my eyes have not yet seen. At present my children may go." Awnings had been pitched on the summit of Debra Maskal, [The Hill of the Cross] the southern eminence. The weather was now intensely cold, and a fire during the evening hours could not be dispensed with. As the embers died away, and the smoke cleared from the interior of the flimsy pall, our teeth chattered under the pinching exhalation from the ground. Rifles became rusty in a single night from the heavy white dew that saturated the cloth--watches stopped beneath the pillow--and heaps of blankets proved of small avail to warm our cramped and shivering limbs, which told full well of the hoar frost that was encrusting the verdure of the adjacent meadow. In the filthy purlieus of the palace, and close to the outer gate, stands a mound of ashes and rubbish, mingled with the noisome lees that stream over the road from the adjacent royal breweries. Packs of half-wild dogs, the pest of Angollala, luxuriate hereon during the day, and at night set forth on their reckless foray, dispelling sleep, and destroying tents in their pilfering invasions. Long before the dawn, the shrill crowing of a thousand cocks first startles the slumberer from his uneasy repose. The wild whoop of the oppressed Galla, who demands redress, then mingles with the "_Abiet! Abiet_!" reiterated by the more civilised Amhara from every hill-top; and the memory of those who have ever witnessed the breaking of the glorious day amid nature's luxuriant forests of the East, is forcibly carried back to the tangled thicket, where the _campanero_ tolls her bell-like note from the branches of the spreading tamarind, and the wild ape fills up the interval with his deep voice of exultation, as he pounces upon the bitter apple of the wood. Bands of mendicant monks next silently take post on the crest of a crumbling wall, within spear's length of the slumberer's pillow, and by a shrill recitative, followed by a chorus of independent voices, dispel the morning dream, whilst they scream with a pertinacity that bribery can alone quell. Psalms and hymns never fail to usher in the morn; and when the asperity of cracked and aged throats is somewhat mellowed by distance, the chant of Christian praise--now rambling wildly through all the varied shakes and intonations of a single voice--now swelling with the choral unison of many--is not altogether unpleasant. But greatly more melodious would it fall upon the mortal ear, if a lesson in music were taken from the larks, which rise in hundreds from the steaming meadows, to lift their matin song--at intervals warbling far and faint in the cool dewy air, and again approaching with one rich quaver of delicious harmony, as they fearlessly alight upon the awning. To the cry of "_Abiet_!" which now resounded so unceasingly, the Abyssinians attach the opinion that, on the last day, Satan, taking up his post before the gates of heaven, will continue thus to vociferate until he gains admittance. On presenting himself before the judgment-seat, it will be asked "what he would have?" "The souls which have been wrested from me by the angels," is to be the reply; but on his acknowledging inability to specify the names of those who have robbed him, the Father of Evil will receive a command to be gone, and never to shew his face again. Importunity is an attribute which stands prominently forth in the character of a native of Southern Abyssinia. For hours together the numerous applicants for redress continue thus to call upon the "master" from every eminence around the palace, until at length the door-keepers appearing, beckon the petitioners to draw nigh. Well aware, however, of the existing understanding between these servitors and the very judges against whose decision they would appeal, they give no heed to the summons, but thrusting their fingers into their ears, do but lift up their voices the louder, until the king commands one of his pages to cause the whole to assemble in the court-yard, where, with shoulders bared to the waist, the parties fearlessly bring their complaint before the throne. Opportunities were therefore daily afforded of witnessing the dispensation of justice in this singular and anomalous land, where an Ethiopic translation of the code of Justinian, adapted to the customs of the country, forms the basis of legal decisions. The Fetha Negest, or "Judgment of the Kings," as this volume is entitled, is said to have fallen from heaven during the reign of Constantine the Great; but its statutes, although liberally quoted on all convenient occasions, are not considered binding upon the monarch, unless found in perfect unison with his own despotic pleasure. Disputes are first adjusted by the governors of provinces, who, in the powers with which they are invested, resemble the feudal barons of the middle ages, and often perpetrate the grossest injustice. But the injured party can always seek redress in the court of the Four _Wamberoch_, or "the chairs," who are the judges civil and criminal. These dignitaries daily take their seat in the verandah of a building allotted in one of the palace courts, where accuser and accused delivered their conflicting statements in an equally elevated tone of oratory, accompanied by much theatrical gesture. The decision lies again under appeal to the throne; and whensoever the king sees fit to reverse it, the severest censure is invariably passed upon the delinquent "chairs." The lives and the lands of every subject of Shoa belong _de jure_ to Sahela Selassie, and of their persons and worldly substance he is absolute master. Whether at the demise of the king or of the subject, the estates of the latter are again at the disposal of the crown, and without the occurrence of either contingency, the mere will and pleasure of the despot is alone requisite to their resumption. Violent use, however, is not often made of this arbitrary power, and it is rarely resorted to except in cases of high treason or of offences against the state, which, in place of capital punishment, are visited by confiscation of property, with imprisonment for life. But if the criminal shall have taken timely sanctuary in the monastery of Affaf Woira, his person is held inviolate, even by the king, and the monks can generally mediate with success. Slavery, either limited to the offender, or extended to his whole family, and continued to his descendants, during one, two, or even seven generations, is a punishment from which no class is held exempt, but exile is usually substituted for offences committed by the clergy, the banished ecclesiastic being then commanded to "stay not by day, neither to tarry by night," if he would avoid the penalty that awaits delay. In accordance with the Mosaic dispensation, a life for a life is the sentence passed upon the murderer; but, obtaining the consent of the relatives of the deceased, he is authorised by law to purchase his pardon, and to beg through the land until he shall have accumulated the stipulated ransom. His escape under any circumstances involves forfeiture of property by all his relatives who may be residing north of the river Airara, and unless he be produced, the attachment continues in full force during three generations. Robbery is usually investigated through the Lebashi, or "thief-taker," who is indispensable to Abyssinian jurisprudence, and the unhappy wretch whom his imp selects, if unable to pay the fine adjudged, is visited by castigation either with a whip or cudgel. If a Christian, he is then confided to the care of a follower of the Prophet in some of the hot unwholesome Mohammadan districts--if an Islam, to that of a Christian--the party on whom the culprit is thus quartered, being in either case held responsible to the crown for his safe custody during his term of hard labour. In all the courts of judicature, interest for money lent is recognised at the rate of one _amole_ per mensem upon each dollar. No note of hand is ever exchanged, but the security of a substantial house-keeper is taken, who is termed "_was_." Debtors are generally manacled, and suffered to roam about, in order to beg the amount due among the charitably disposed; and it is a fact, that in the absence of a "_was_" either the creditor or one of his retainers is chained to the defaulter, and the happy couple thus linked, wander through the country together, crying "By Mary! By Mary!" until the requisite sum shall have been contributed for the sake of the Holy Virgin. At home and abroad, on excursions and on military expeditions, the loud cry of "_Abiet_!" salutes the royal ear from situations the most strange and unexpected, and although the sceptre is despotic, appeals are almost always promptly attended to. The more boisterous petitioner, who will not remain content with the promise of a future consideration of his claim, is sometimes visited with the stick, but no available opportunity is neglected of listening to those who present themselves. The halting-stone and the green turf are frequently transferred into seats of justice; judgment is given whilst ambling over the fields and meadows; and during five days of every week, many hours are patiently devoted by the monarch to the unravelment of knotty points in litigation. Volume Two, Chapter XII. CHASM OF THE CHACHA. The King had oftentimes vaunted the extraordinary natural fortification of Angollala by the river Chacha, which for two days' journey to the north-westward rolls through a deep precipitous valley, opposing an impassable barrier; and being then joined by the Bereza and by numerous other streams, skirts the celebrated sanctuary of Sena Markos, whence the combined waters, taking the title of Jumma, roll on into the Nile. Setting out one morning at sunrise through the "sirkosh ber," [i.e. The secret gate or wicket] he sent a page to conduct us to the junction of the tributary Facha, which tumbles its torrent over a perpendicular wall seven hundred feet in height; and here His Majesty, surrounded by a crowd of noisy applicants for justice, already occupied his favourite seat on the brink of the giddy chasm. A cloud had overcast the despot's brow, for "Boro Winkee," his favourite war-steed, had that morning fallen down dead whilst exercising in the meadow. Taken in battle from a potent Galla chieftain, whose name it inherited, the steed had long enjoyed a stall within the royal bedchamber, and strong fears indeed were entertained for the effeminate little page Katama, who had been the luckless jockey. But no punishment followed the catastrophe. The boy was a court favourite, and Antonistye, his father, by far the most renowned warrior in Shoa, was mayor of the corporation of king's herdsmen, who take the field in independent bodies, and under the title of _Abelam_ [derived from the Amharic word "_abella_," "he may eat up"] form a distinct class, mingling with no other portion of the population. "What think you of my Galla ditch?" inquired the monarch. "Have you any such in your country?" There could be but one opinion regarding the yawning gulf, which extends a full mile in breadth, and has been rent by some violent convulsion in the bowels of the earth. Fifteen hundred feet below the otherwise uninterrupted plain, the mingled waters flow on like a silver cord, fed at intervals by foaming cascades, which raise a shower of white spray in their headlong descent: whilst frowning basaltic cliffs cast a deep gloom over wild steppes and terraces, whose lone hamlets and cottages are scarcely to be distinguished from the fallen masses of rock. Vast colonies of pig-faced baboons, the principal inhabitants, sally forth morning and evening from their strong city, to devastate the surrounding crops, in defiance of incessant war waged against them by the peasantry, armed with sticks and stones; but outcasts, and criminals too, find a safe asylum among the almost inaccessible crannies of the perpendicular scarps, where they hide amidst masses of foliage, unthought of, and unmolested. Deep buried in the bosom of this stupendous chasm, and immediately below the roaring cataract, stands the little hamlet of Gureyo, the seat of the royal iron-works, and thither, after the sylvan court had closed, the king descended, leaning on the arm of the chief smith, great master of the Tabiban, or mechanics, and royal physician in ordinary. The process of smelting and refining pursued in Abyssinia has been common to almost every age and country from the earliest antiquity. Broken into small fragments and coarsely pulverised, the ore is mixed with a large proportion of charcoal, and placed in a clay furnace resembling the smith's hearth, but furnished with a sloping cavity considerably depressed below the level of the blast pipes. The non-metallic particles being brought to a state of fusion by the constant action of four pair of hand-worked bellows, the iron with the scoria sinks to the bottom. This is again broken, and re-fused, when the dross flowing off, the pure metal is discharged in pigs, which, by a repetition of heating and welding, are wrought into bars; but owing to the very rude and primitive apparatus employed, the unceasing toil of ten hours is indispensable to the realisation of two pounds' weight of very inferior iron, which after all, in private works, is liable to a heavy tax to the crown. Embowered in a dark grove of junipers on the opposite brink of the Chacha rises the silent village of Cherkos, rendered famous a few years since through the massacre of one thousand of its Christian inhabitants by Medoko [his gazelle], a celebrated rebel. His proceedings occupy one of the most conspicuous pages in the chronicles of Shoa. Exalted by rare military talents and undaunted intrepidity to the highest pinnacle of royal favour, he became elated by the distinctions conferred, and being suspected of aiming at even greater dominion, was suddenly hurled into the deepest disgrace, and bereft in the same moment of property and power. Burning with revenge, the warrior crossed the border to the subjugated, though disaffected Galla, whom he had so lately held in check, and who now with open arms received him as their leader in revolt. At the head of a vast horde of wild cavalry, reinforced by a number of matchlock-men, who had deserted their allegiance, the rebel marched upon Angollala. But he was frustrated in his designs by finding the only assailable point fortified by staked pits and ditches--the deep rugged channel of the Chacha opposing, as he well knew, an insurmountable barrier in every other direction. Desertion soon spread among the undisciplined rabble, and after several skirmishes with the royal troops, the offender sought an asylum at Zalla Dingai. Through the powerful mediation of Zenama Work, the Queen-dowager, he was suffered to throw himself at the feet of his despotic master, and not only obtained pardon, but from motives of policy was eventually restored to all his former dignities. Medoko's second rebellion and tragic death, embodied from the authentic details of eye-witnesses, will form the subject of the six succeeding chapters. They are designed to throw upon the character of the monarch, and upon the customs of his court, a light which could scarcely have been admitted through any other lattice. The standard of revolt long waved over the heathen frontier, and when the storm which for months threatened the subversion of the empire had at length been quelled by the extinction of the fiery and turbulent spirit that had raised it, large offerings were made by His Majesty to all the churches and monasteries throughout the realm, in return for their prayers; and solemn processions and thanksgivings were attended by the exercise of every sort of work of charity and devotion. Among the royal retinue this day seated before the village of Cherkos, was a young man of haughty and daring exterior, whose flowing black mantle covered a breast that must have been often agitated by strange emotions. It was Chara, the son of the rebel, one of the only two members of the disgraced family to whom Sahela Selassie has become reconciled, and a youth who is said to resemble his sire, not less in appearance than in gallant bearing. Prior to the breaking out of the insurrection, he had urged the arrest of his father; but no attention being paid in the proper quarter, he subsequently enlisted under his banner, and carried arms against the crown until the fall of the traitor, when, from his previous well-timed, though disregarded disclosure, he received full pardon for the past. Ayto Tunkaiye, a gigantic warrior, greatly distinguished for his valour, who enacted a prominent part in Medoko's execution, was also of the _cortege_; and beside him stood Hailoo, younger brother of the rebel noble, who purchased restoration to royal favour at the expense of a deed of the blackest treachery. This he recounted not only without a blush, but with extraordinary satisfaction at his fancied heroism. Apprehending a similar fate with him whose cause he had espoused, he fled across the border, and found a safe asylum with Wodage Girmee, a powerful Galla chieftain, long in open revolt, and one of the bitterest enemies of the monarch. Basely assassinating his benefactor, whilst seated unsuspectingly in the open field, he sprang upon his horse, and casting the head of his victim at the royal footstool in token of his villainy, was rewarded by advancement to the government of Mesar Medur, a post of high honour, which he enjoys to the present day, and which occupies the frontier of the Galla dependencies. Volume Two, Chapter XIII. MEDOKO THE REBEL. "Like whom to Shoan eyes, None ere has risen and none ere shall rise." Renowned for his great strength and dauntless heart, Medoko was of a more robust and brawny form than most of his countrymen. There was a bold bearing in his erect carriage--his gait was proud, and his speech haughty; and not less dexterous in the management of his steed, than powerful in wielding his weapons, he stood proclaimed the most valiant, although the most insolent, of the Amhara. His handsome features and his gallant deeds had gained for him the palm of favour among all the dames of the land. An aquiline nose stood prominent from his manly countenance, and a bright eye sparkled clear and daring under a bushy brow. The fairest daughters of Shoa loved to look upon the warrior, and rejoiced to add their beauty to his harem, or to experience the gifts of his bountiful hand; and the shrill note of female welcome burst from every throat, as he curvetted through the streets upon his gallant charger shining in brass and steel, or careered at speed over the plain, with his white and crimson robe streaming behind his athletic frame. Riches and honours and preferment had been again liberally showered upon his head by the monarch who had so frequently received the benefit of his assistance, and had been more than once indebted for his life to the strong arm of the chief. The memory of past crime seemed to have been obliterated and forgotten--"Had he not err'd, his glory had been less;" and he was now raised to the high post of governor of all the Galla, and Abogaz of the southern frontier of the kingdom. But there was no lack of enemies to the imperious favourite; and among the most bitter of his opponents was one who, by the insidious tongue of malice, materially contributed to achieve the downfall and destruction of the bravest son of Shoa. Well versed in all the petty arts of a mean and sycophantish court, Father Asrat had held during two successive reigns the snug office of confessor to the royal family. Sleek from good living, his hood fell without a wrinkle over his portly person; and bowing in devotion before his superiors, the words of flattery flowed in profusion from his honied tongue. The sins of the rich were easily forgiven; substitute was immediately produced for the slight penance decreed by his lip; and the effects of his indulgence might be clearly observed in the fine muslin which ever encircled his shaven head--in the glossy condition of his pampered mule--and in the gay ivory handle of his polished crutch, which were ostentatiously displayed as he daily brushed through the court-yards of the palace. On many occasions the audacity of Medoko had broken out into open mockery of the priestly rapacity; but although the dark feelings of revenge rankled in the breast of the monk, yet a scowling look of hatred was alone ventured in return to the jibes of the great governor and first favourite of the despot. On one fatal festival, however, when the fumes of the old hydromel had gained a complete ascendency over the party, a bitter jest was retorted by the exasperated priest, a fierce wrangle ensued, and the holy person of Father Asrat was violently spurned against the wall by the strong arm of the hot-blooded chief. A reconciliation had been outwardly effected by mutual friends, but from that day the most wily insinuations were used to poison the breast of the king. The actions of the past were vividly brought to his recollection; words that had never been spoken, and expressions craftily distorted to serve a vile purpose, were daily poured into the royal ear; and although the demeanour of the monarch remained unchanged, suspicion was gradually being instilled into his mind, and the cloud required but a slight shock to discharge its contents. According to the custom of the country, the royal princesses lived in total seclusion until it suited the despot's caprice or policy to open the door of their cage. "A daughter of the royal house will be led to the nuptial altar on the morrow," is the sole intimation afforded; and the happy bridegroom is not aware of the honour to be conferred, until the hand of "the introducer" leads him from the group which encircles the throne, to the immediate performance of the rite. But the stout-hearted Medoko had contrived to behold the beauty of the far-famed princess "Golden Fruit," and intoxicated by a long succession of prosperity, and stirred up by the deceitful priest to believe that the king would refuse no request preferred by a chief whose services were held in such high esteem, he rashly resolved upon demanding the only remaining favour which the monarch had hitherto withheld. On a bright morning in May before the commencement of the monsoon, a distinguished cavalcade entered the outer gates of the palace fortifications. The stately person of the leader was enveloped in a flowing robe bedizened with many crimson stripes, and a long white feather streamed high over his raven hair. A gauntlet and bracelet of silver decorated his sinewy arm, the token of many a hard conflict; and the massive silver sword was girded to his right side, the emblem of high authority and place. The bearer of his silver shield preserved a respectful space for the chief, and a dark war-steed, glittering in chains and studs of polished metal, followed at his side. A dense mass of wild Galla, armed with the serrated lance and tough black buckler, closed the procession, which, amidst the acclamations of the assembled mob, wound up the rocky path of the palace hill at Ankober. On gaining the last flight of steps, the great door was thrown open, and Medoko advanced to the audience of leave previous to his departure to the seat of his government. The small latticed gallery had been decked out in his honour, and the crimson velvet hangings of state depended in front, loaded with massive silver ornaments. Rich carpets were spread below for the convenience of the more favoured nobles. The officers of the household, uncovered to the waist, stood in a double row in front; and the monarch reclined upon his seat of honour at the open window, gaily clad in a green silk vest bordered with gold, over which the folds of the usual white robe of Abyssinia hung gracefully around his recumbent figure. Advancing to the prescribed limit, Medoko, according to the custom of ages, prostrated himself to the earth before the descendant of Solomon, and then, raising his haughty figure erect before the monarch, he boldly preferred the request of his heart. "Behold, I have brought a present to the king, that he may hear me in love, and dismiss his servant well pleased from his presence." Ten war steeds fully equipped, together with five hundred bullocks, twenty slaves, and two large bags of silver coin, were ushered into the court-yard. The eye of the avaricious king brightened with satisfaction at the liberal gift of his vassal, and the words were spoken more kindly than usual--"What is the desire of the Abogaz?" But the answer of daring rashness which followed fell like a thunderbolt upon the court--"The hand of the Princess Worka Ferri." The rod of green rushes dropped from the grasp of the astonished "introducer," and chiefs and nobles half rose from their seats, as the mysteries of royal seclusion were thus boldly infringed before the multitude. But although the monarch was irritated to the last pitch by this unprecedented insolence, he restrained his feelings under the usual cold calm smile. "We will converse regarding this business at a future period," he said; and the audience was closed with an invitation to the chief to pass his last evening in the private apartments of the palace-- an honour conferred only upon a favoured few. Warnings and advice were not wanting from many quarters; and recollection called to mind many dark scenes which had been transacted at the friendly board of the despot, who was well known to be in a dangerous mood when too many smiles lighted up his countenance, and who preferred the quiet capture of his enemy to forcible seizure in the open day. But the rash Medoko, confident in his own ascendency through service rendered, discarded every thought of evil. With a stout heart he entered the gloomy hall at the appointed hour, and under the guidance of an eunuch proceeded along the rough dark passages of the interior. On gaining the inner apartment, he found Father Asrat and his assistant kneeling in the corner before their low desks, mumbling the lessons of the evening from the miracles of the Holy Virgin--divers flasks of potent spirits being as usual ranged on the wicker table for the entertainment of the select company. All were in the highest humour. The demeanour of the monarch was kind and conciliating; and amongst the honours and favours which were that night liberally bestowed, the priest received the high office of chief of the church of the Saviour in the romantic village of Cherkos. The customary topics were discussed--the usual quantity of strong liquor was swallowed--and at intervals the choristers chanted the Psalms of David. The evening passed in great hilarity, and the company at length rose to depart. His heart bounding high with future hope, Medoko stooped low to pay the salutation of the night, and was instantaneously pinioned from behind, whilst a rush from the front prevented every effort to lay hand upon his weapon. By his fierce struggles he once nearly regained an erect position, but numbers crowded through every passage, and he found himself stretched on the floor securely bound and hampered with many coils of rope. "Fetters and a dungeon for the slave!" exclaimed the monarch as he quitted the scene of betrayed hospitality, and guards entered to obey the royal mandate. But ere the captive could be borne to his doom, a heavy foot pressed upon his prostrate neck. The smile of satisfied revenge played over the bloated features of the malicious monk, and it shot through the heart of the fallen warrior. A deadly vow was muttered betwixt his clenched teeth; and as he lay foaming with rage, the words were half audible through his suppressed breathing, "Let him guard his cowled head if he can: henceforth to the Devil with my allegiance!" Volume Two, Chapter XIV. ESCAPE FROM GONCHO. Medoko had been hurried from the presence, and urged along the rough road with as much rapidity as possible; but people are seldom so unfortunate as they suppose themselves to be. His fate was not as yet accomplished, and a slight diversion had been already made in his favour. A faithful follower, alarmed at the protracted stay of his chief, had silently stationed himself at the secret outlet of the palace, whence he witnessed the progress of his beloved master. A devoted band, having hastily collected, followed close on the footsteps of the guard; and as the prisoner passed through the thick forest of Aferbeine, the shrill note of the Galla henchman more than once fell on his attentive ear, to convey the welcome tidings that he was not altogether deserted in this his hour of distress. As the party climbed the rocky steep, the moon was fast sinking behind the great mountains, and her pale beams fell cold over the isolated rock of Goncho, on the summit of which is perched the state prison of the kingdom. The lower extremity of this hill is rent and furrowed by many tangled ravines, and the bare craggy scarp frowns over the wide-spreading valleys which stretch on either side. Sharp palisades guard the approach, and strong gateways lead through well-defended courtyards to a cluster of edifices which form the residence of the frontier governor, and the entrance to the places of confinement. Vanquished by fate, yet refusing to yield, a spasm of painful emotion covered with cold dew the brow of the haughty chief, as he passed the rocky threshold of the prison. But the thoughts of a free foot on the mountain-side, and the signal vengeance that would follow, banished from his stout heart the usual feelings of despair, and in ironical words he returned the salutations of his brother Abogaz, into whose keeping he was about to be consigned. Wulasma Mohammad was a fat imperious personage, of most sinister expression of countenance, and much more feared than either loved or respected. The cool healthy air of his mountain fortress, and a quiet life of inactivity, had filled his veins with a rich flow of blood, and he spent the greater portion of the day over a jar of potent hydromel. His body had become bloated and his mind bewildered by the fumes of the liquor; and dividing his time between dreaming and drinking, he left the charge of his bolts and avocations to his burly brother Jhalia, who, fortunately for the prisoner, was now engaged on the frontier in quelling a disturbance which had been induced by the stupidity of his superior. The vulture eye of the Abogaz brightened up on the arrival of the illustrious Medoko; and being at the moment unable to comprehend whether he came as a prisoner or as a guest, an order for entertainment and wine rung through the apartment, instead of chains and fetters for the malefactor. Relieved from the ropes which had hitherto confined his movements, the chief was ushered with all ceremony into the great hall of the court; nor was it until after reiterated requests on the part of the guard, and a solemn adjuration by the life of the king, that the blinking gaoler, cheated out of his expected carouse, consented to take some measures of precaution. Built on the only sloping face of the hill, the governor's houses stretch entirely across the outlet from scarp to scarp, and from his immediate bedchamber two trap-doors cover the passages to the inner recesses of the prison. A staircase descends from one into the vaults underground, where immured in chains are the state criminals, and the younger branches of the royal family; and a passage leads through the other to a series of small apartments erected upon the upper surface of the hill, but surrounded by strong palisades to the very verge of the precipice. The scarp was of considerable height, and had never yet been attempted by those offenders whose lighter crimes had enforced a residence in these more agreeable locations; and the besotted Wulasma being in no mood to reflect on the strength and daring of his present charge, merely conducted him to one of these places of security, and barring the door on the outside, retired grumbling to the crown officials, after leaving an ample repast for the entertainment of his distinguished prisoner. The rude wax taper was flaming and sinking at intervals over the untouched food, as one quarter of an hour was passed in attentive musing; but the peculiarities of the prisoner's situation were too striking not to be immediately taken advantage of, and he accordingly braced up his spirits for the enterprise. Having contrived with his host's knife to remove the thongs and sticks which composed the walls of his flimsy dungeon, he crept into an outer apartment, where the stars could be perceived twinkling brightly through an aperture. To wrench the iron bars from the window was the work of a moment; and leaping from a considerable height, Medoko stood unshackled in the cool air of heaven. There remained still many hours of the night, and the darkness favoured his undertaking, although otherwise little suited to the task to be performed; but palisade and paling gradually yielded to his strength, and after an anxious hour of exertion, he reached the dark precipice unnoticed and undiscovered. Nought broke the stillness of the scene save the sound of the wind whistling over the bleak crags; and as the daring fugitive stood for a time in meditation before venturing the awful leap, an owl, brushing his cheek, soared away on noiseless pinion; its hoot which re-echoed from below seeming as the voice of a spirit calling to follow without fear. Quickly recovering his confidence at the omen, and nerving himself for the perilous task, he slid down the face of the precipice, and recommending his soul to the Holy Virgin, quitted hold of the last tuft of grass which sustained him over the yawning gulf. Down, down dropped the chief, until his very senses reeled again; but his flowing cotton robe materially assisted the miraculous descent, by catching the sharp points, and restraining for a moment the rapidity of his flight. The strength of his long brawny arms served him well in this hour of need, as clutching the rocks he retained his hold for a second, in order to gain breath for the next dread plunge into the gloomy abyss. Then bounding again like the falling stone, he pursued his flight, till at length, bruised and bleeding, he reached the bottom of the rocky scarp, hitherto untraversed except by the sticky foot of the lizard. The shrill note for assistance, well known to every Galla ear, was speedily answered by his watchful followers. Crowding round their beloved chief, they quickly bound up his wounds, and after a short rest the party recovered the beaten track. Placed once again on his own good steed, he raised his form in the stirrups, and shouted his battle-cry of defiance. Each bridle was laid loose upon the mane, and the wild riders plunged at speed down the flinty ravine, now partially illumined by the flash of matchlocks from the alarmed garrison. A brave spirit is not to be subdued by exile, for every soil forms his home and his country; and away to the free plains of the Galla the headlong course was bent, where Medoko was well assured of receiving every sympathy and protection. Volume Two, Chapter XV. INSURRECTION OF THE GALLA. In the heart of the mountain range of Garra Gorphoo stood a large Galla hamlet--for it has been since visited in wrath by the monarch--situated in one of those sweet locations which the children of nature delight to select. The deep valley is thickly clothed with the most luxuriant cultivation, and its sides rise in a gentle slope, throwing out a succession of verdant terraces, teeming with herbs and wild flowers. On one of these stood the village of Mundeeda, the residence of Goma, the great chief of the Abitchu. A bright green sward extended far in front, and the steep mountain that rises behind afforded shelter from the bleak blast of winter. A sparkling brook, after dashing in tiny cascades down the craggy face, glides away in a quiet course over the enamelled meadow, until lost in the grove of dark junipers which rest on the side of a grassy knoll, where the sacrifice was performed in honour of the deities, and where the listless heathen was wont to dream away the hours of idleness. The tenements, although low and rudely constructed of stakes and mud, were warm and commodious; and the numerous posts which rose from the clay floor to support the thatch, served as a resting-place for shields, and spears, and crooked swords, which now imparted to the interior the semblance of an extensive armoury. Every thing was in a state of utter confusion and uproar. Large droves of wild shaggy horses, and clusters of fiery savages were grouped on the plain outside. The ringing shout of the warrior mingled with the neigh of his war-steed, and the din and the clatter of household avocations resounded from the interior of every hut. To add to the bustle, the Galla females were running from house to house, with their long raven tresses streaming over their bare shoulders; whilst their short leather petticoats, with embroidered flounces, displayed the well-shaped limbs and the graceful form, for which the tribe are so justly famed. In every nook large earthen jars, and wicker baskets, filled with grain, were stored in readiness to supply the demands for food, as each tribe poured in to the general gathering of the clans. Black eyes peered wildly over the grinding-mill and the cauldron; and the merry laugh at the novel appearance of the motley throng, with the suppressed scream of delight from the timid maiden, arose frequently from the dark corners of the hovels. Preparations were making for hospitality on the most extensive scale. A successful foray had that very morning returned laden with spoil, and the king of the Amhara had for once amply supplied the table of his revolted lieges. Crowded around the cheerful blaze of a fierce fire that was crackling in the centre of the largest building, sat a score of persons, who were beguiling the time until the entertainment should be ready, by discussing the daring escape of Medoko, and the success which would assuredly attend the movement of the morrow. The dress of the greater number of these men was the usual cotton cloth, black and soiled with the grease of years; but the accumulated massive ivory rings upon the arm, the ostrich-feather floating over matted locks, and the spoils of the lion and the leopard dangling over the back, proclaimed the presence of the chieftains of the land. Their gaunt frames and supple limbs betokened a life of activity and endurance, and their restless eyes gleamed over the fire with all the quick suspicion of the savage. The black bull-hide formed the only covering to the host of attendants that thronged behind their respective lords, and a few Amhara robes flaunted in white and crimson, amidst the sombre vestments of the Galla group. But Medoko and his sons, in stature above all their compeers, appeared in the full costume of the Christian warriors of Efat. Decked in silver gauntlets and armlets, with the graceful _akodama_ hanging in glittering clusters over their manly brows, the master-spirits of the scene were easily to be distinguished. The usual robe of peace had been well replaced by the skin of the tawny lion, which nearly reached the ground. Fastened on one side around the sinewy throat, it allowed full freedom to the right arm, and only partially concealed the rich silk vest, and loose kilt-like trowsers, which hung barely to the knee. The kindling fuel of insurrection had indeed been well fanned--ancient wrongs were fully brought to mind, and vengeance was liberally promised. Few were there present who had not suffered either in person or in property, from the midnight appearance of the Christian despot. Hereditary feud and quarrel had therefore been laid aside on the soul-inspiring words of the chief, and the weapons had been eagerly seized in a common cause, at the thoughts of the devastation which ever marked the bloody track of the Amhara host. These Galla tribes dwell with their horses in boundless prairies, engaged, some in the cultivation of the fruitful soil, and others in the pasturage of their numerous flocks, but all are ever ready on the moment to mount for the battle or the foray. Baggage and hospital are unknown to the wild array, and rations are found when required among the plundered herds of the enemy. A scrip of tobacco forms the only luxury in camp. A greasy cloth enfolds by day and night the body of each brawny savage. Lance, and sword, and shield, complete his equipment; and the hardy host, leader and partisan, sleep without cover on the cold bare ground. The wild hordes from the boundless plains of the Hawash, under the gigantic Wodage Girme, first poured in their warriors. The depths of the Moolo Falada forests next swelled the numbers, and the heights of Entotto and Sequala had completed the rebel force, eager for spoil and for revenge, which was ready to cover the land with desolation on the morrow. The sacrifice to the Great Spirit had been that afternoon performed by the priest with every favourable result, and the preparations for the feast of departure were now completed. Bullocks and sheep were slaughtered by the score on the green meadow, and beside each carcass an abundance of bread and beer were deposited for the impatient guests, who immediately grouped around the food, and with keen knives commenced the attack. A long wicker table had been placed in the centre of the largest apartment, and deep earthen vessels, filled with thick pepper soup, were ranged in double line down the middle, whilst cakes of every description thickly covered the surface. The chief took his station at the top, and the guests were squatted on their hams on either side. Slave boys, on their knees, supported huge jars of sour beer, and the females, perched upon adjoining bedsteads, were ready to dole out the more potent liquor. The steam of the bowls, containing a decoction of fowls, red pepper, onions, and grease, together with the more offensive effluvia from fifty rancid heads and as many unwashed persons, were endured with the most stoical indifference; and the feeble light of a few tapers that glimmered faintly through the smoke, was just sufficient to reveal the rows of eager faces in earnest preparation, and the gleam of the sharp teeth whetting for the entertainment. The hum of voices in low conversation ceased on the moment, when the host, dipping a fragment of bread into one of the large bowls, dropped the savoury morsel into his elevated mouth. Every hand forthwith felt its way to the provender, and the loud smacking of satisfied lips succeeded the suppressed chatter of tongues. Servants, bending over the guests, amply supplied their wants, by tearing the bread with their hands, and after a plunge into the porridge, consigning the dripping morsel to the first empty fingers that were protruded. No fork or spoon graced the festive board. No conversation now enlivened the scene. All sat like silent wolves engaged in a plentiful repast, considering that one thing at a time was sufficient for man. The delicate raw meat was next introduced, and the dismembered limbs of sheep and oxen were placed as a dessert upon the groaning board. The servants threw themselves upon the flesh, and drawing their long crooked knives from their girdles, cut and hacked the bloody joints into small squares, which were received from their fingers, and bolted with the greatest satisfaction, until nature cried enough. Then commenced the deep carouse. Horn after horn was drained. The presiding deities over the liquor jars were unceasingly employed in serving out their contents, and as the brain reeled under the influence of strong old mead, the words of contempt burst from every lip. "Who is the King of Shoa, that he should trample upon men braver than himself? Here is our protector and avenger. Medoko is our leader, and he alone shall be our king!" But the uproar, which for a time rose wildly from the hut, gradually died away as the horn was carried with a more unsteady hand to the mouth. Warrior after warrior stretched himself to sleep beside the cleanly picked relics of his reeking feast; and chief after chief, staggering a few paces from the table, drew his garment over his head, and resigned himself to a heavy slumber. Volume Two, Chapter XVI. MASSACRE OF THE CHRISTIANS AT CHERKOS. The verdant meadows of the Shoan district of Daggee are strangely crossed and intersected by low chains of barren rock, with here and there an isolated hillock crowned by the abode of the Christian farmer; whilst between each little eminence rolls the lazy brook, winding sluggishly over the flowery plain, as if reserving its energies for the thundering leap into the great chasm of the Chacha. Broken, craggy, and desolate, this mighty abyss sinks upwards of a thousand feet abruptly from the plain. Its giant sides are in part slightly fringed with moss or sweet-scented thyme; and a few small huts dot the narrow ledges; but the wolf and the hyaena chiefly tenant the dark fissures, whilst the vulture screams her death note over the yawning gulf. Superstition has wrapped the beetling cliff and the gloomy ravine in her dark embrace, for here the captive toils in the bowels of the earth to procure the stubborn iron. The clang of the dreaded smith disturbs the stillness of day; and the chant of the hymn rises solemnly in the morning mist from the adjacent church of the Saviour, which stands embosomed in a dark grove of junipers. Far down in the bottom, the Chacha appears like the small murmuring mill-stream, although the accumulated waters of a broad plateau are there rolling on to swell the mighty Nile; and at frequent intervals the mountain torrents pour their tribute over the frowning scarp, which for miles forms the impregnable fortification of the land. Near the commencement of this stupendous precipice, and barely a gunshot from its brink, stands Angollala, the Galla capital of the kingdom, commanding the upper pass into the Christian land. Three small hills which rise abruptly from the plain, and enclose a circular area, had been judiciously selected as a site by the wary founder, but the settlement was at this date in all the disorder of infancy. Only a few hundred hovels, composed of most flimsy materials, had been hastily erected on the sloping sides of two of the hillocks; but the smallest was distinguished by the more imposing edifice dedicated as a church to the Ark of the Holy Covenant, and its table summit was crowned with an ample residence for the Negoos. A few trees raised their stunted heads above the thatch of the various kitchens and storehouses, which were crowded thick over the crest, and the flowering _umbar_ threw a broad zone of fragrant lilac blossoms around the royal buildings. Stones and rocks, strewed plentifully in every direction by the hand of nature, formed a considerable impediment to the rapid advance of horsemen; and stout heavy wooden palings, which descended in a double or treble row far down the slope, completely screened the inmates against any sudden surprise from the border foe. A wide meadow stretches from the palace tumulus to the very brink of the abyss; and on the opposite height is situated the lovely village of Cherkos, which, from its beauty, had been formerly designated by the Galla "The Queen of the Hill." Sheltered by a magnificent grove of evergreens, the hamlet overlooked the pleasant slope which extends to the verge of the precipice, gaily diversified with rich fields of cultivation and plots of green pasture land. It had been captured from the heathen by the last king of Shoa; and although colonised by favourite Christians of the court, the revenues were bestowed upon the church of the Saviour, which had been erected immediately below the village, in the dark depths of the Chacha ravine, and which was now under the direction and guidance of Father Asrat. The hazy sun had sunk beyond the dark waters of the muddy Nile; the rivulets were trickling in discoloured streams from the surrounding hillocks, to form a temporary lake in the enclosed amphitheatre, and each reeking thatch sent up its tribute to the cloud of thick mist, which was fast settling over the low hills of Angollala. The meadow brooks were swollen to the brim, and the long plains, brilliant with verdure, presented a pleasing prospect to the eye, although a most treacherous surface to the incautious foot. The monsoon was indeed raging in violence over the land; and according to custom, the monarch, thinly attended by his household officers and establishment, alone occupied the palace. All the governors and great men had taken leave and departed to their respective provinces, the capital was well nigh deserted, and as night closed in, the few remaining serf inhabitants were seeking a dry corner in their frail huts, to shiver through the weary hours of darkness. As the moan of the wind is heard preceding the coming storm, so the hum of a confused multitude first struck upon the practised ear of the vigilant. The alarm was quickly spread by the fierce baying of the dogs. The chant of the singer suddenly ceased within the palace, and the king, followed by all his attendants, rushed to the southern palisade. Then was distinctly heard the clattering of hoofs over the opposite heights above the Chacha, as the pagan host surrounded the devoted hamlet of Cherkos. The glare of light and the faint wreath of smoke next succeeded, as the torch spread from hut to hut. The wind blew cold and gusty, and the flames wheeling in fearful eddies through the mist, revealed at intervals the cliff and the crag, and the peaceful church reposing amid the dark grove of junipers, hitherto unpolluted by the foot of the Gentile. The wild shout of triumph, mingling with the shrill shriek of despair, now rolled in fitful notes across the intervening plain. The whole firmament was illumined by the flames of the burning village, and they were witnessed in terror by the assembled inmates of the palace; for the sacred precincts of the church itself had now been invaded, and a group of priests in their last extremity could be distinctly seen, surrounded by a mass of the savage foe. But the next eddy of mist from the boiling cauldron that was interposed, shrouded the scene. The priest Asrat shuddered at the thoughts of his narrow escape, for he had only that morning quitted the sacred shelter. But the eyeball was in vain strained to see what was passing. Darkness rendered its efforts abortive. By degrees the flame expired, and one horrid shout of exultation from ten thousand wild throats rose over hill and dale, in earnest that the work of slaughter had been well finished for that night, and that numbers were not wanting for the morrow. Hurry and confusion reigned throughout the capital. The king was advised to avail himself of the protection of darkness, and retire to Ankober; but his evening dream had been pleasant, and he was buoyed up by the words of the strong monk. "Shall I leave my children in the day of their distress," he exclaimed, "and the seat of my fathers to be polluted by the accursed touch of the rebel? No; death is preferable to such disgrace." The royal gates opened to receive the terrified inhabitants, who came flocking up the hill. Every matchlock was lowered from the walls of the great hall, and distributed amongst the young and able-bodied. Doors were barred and barricaded, and sufficient means of defence for a time seemed to have miraculously sprung from the untenanted location. The pens of the scribes were now wielded with vigour; and as each tiny letter, or token, or entreaty, was handed for approval, the wild horseman mounted on the moment, and his long hair streamed in the night breeze, as, floundering through the muddy outlet, he dashed at speed over the eastern plain. The pressing call for aid flew quick through the land. The love and the fear of the king brought governor and vassal to the rescue; and as hatred of the rebel's insolence stimulated even the dullest to action, long before morning numerous bands from the immediate vicinity had formed, on the meadow, a living barrier between the beleaguered monarch and his stern foe. Volume Two, Chapter XVII. BATTLE OF ANGOLLALA. The day dawned, and there remained nothing of the late beautiful village of Cherkos. Death and desolation had spread to the very gates of the capital, and the rocky ridge was covered with a dark mass of the Galla host. But the plains were too miry to support the weight of man and horse; and after an ineffectual attempt from one or two small parties, the cloud of war settled again upon the scene of slaughter. Frightful indeed was the sight which met the gaze of the Amhara, as they took their position in front of the plundered village on the frowning scarp of the ravine. The opposite crags were studded with the mangled bodies of their murdered compatriots. Men, women, and children, had been ruthlessly sacrificed, and the thousand favoured inhabitants of a pleasant abode now lay stark and weltering among the rocks, where the strength of the fierce pagan had hurled them. The heaving of an arm here and there evinced that the spark of life still remained in some; but the chasm was impassable to the foot of man, and the wolf and hyaena lay undisturbed, gorged and glutted after their reeking festival. The sun shone brightly for the few days following the appearance of the heathen host, and the surface of the muddy meadow had recovered its wonted consistency. Both parties were anxious for the combat which was to decide the question of supremacy, for both were equally hard-pressed for the means of subsistence. With their usual reckless indifference to the future, the Galla had wasted the country, and rioted in its destruction. The supplies brought to the royal camp were nearly exhausted; and the king, galled by the presence of the rebellious array within sight of his capital, having now succeeded in assembling a much superior force, resolved upon giving battle on the morrow. Prayers and psalms had been recited the livelong night--vows were made at every shrine in the kingdom--and the ark of the cathedral of Saint Michael had been transported from Ankober under a canopy of red cloth, to shed its holy influence over the Christian army. At an early hour the king, under the shade of the velvet umbrellas, surrounded by his chiefs, nobles, and high-priests, and preceded by kettle-drums and wind instruments, issued from the palace gateway, and with his band of matchlock-men, took up a position about a mile from the town. During the night, detachments had been steadily moving from every direction to this fixed point. Column after column streamed through the valley, or poured down the sloping hill; and as the day broke, the warriors of Amhara formed a deep line of horse and foot on either side of the monarch, one narrow plain and the river Chacha alone separating them from the enemy. Nor were the Galla in any way slow to take their station, bristling in a dark front along the opposite ridge, where the tall figure of the rebel was distinctly to be observed, marshalling his wild forces for the coming fray. The battle commenced by repeated discharges from the king's gunmen; but the distance was too great for execution, and a shout of derision answered each impotent volley. The gigantic Tunkaiye first pressed forward to the close encounter, and the cavaliers of Shoa were not slow in following his example, for many fought under the eyes of their wives and children--all for the honour of the king, and the glory of true religion. Down came the pagan host like the rushing blast, and the stones flew far under the clatter of their hoofs. But they were fiercely met by the long-bladed spears of the Amhara, and every inch of ground was for once stoutly contested. The roar of the foaming cataract, which thundered within fifty yards of the battle-field, was lost in the hoarse yells which rung through the air. The rocky bed proved for a time the scene of slaughter, and the turbid waters receiving numbers of dying and wounded wretches, hurried them to eternity. At length, each individual singling out his foe, the contest assumed the confused appearance of a chance medley. The sharp lance met with little opposition from the cotton robe; and deprived of other weapons. Christian and Galla, grappling stoutly together, fought with sword and knife, and in the fury of the moment, and in the excitement of the struggle, many rolled over the frowning scarp, clinging tightly together in the last embrace of death. Medoko and his gallant sons were everywhere in the thickest of the fight. His shout, rising high over the storm, animated the faint-hearted, and his presence roused to new life and exertion the successful partisan. Many of the Amhara bands were already reeling from the repeated shock of the wild riders of the Hawash, when suddenly, in the very heat of the action, a large body of warriors, clothed in black mantles, and armed with long heavy spears, rushed down the hill on foot, and, prostrating themselves as they passed the royal umbrellas, descended fresh into the arena. The fierce inhabitants of Mans had sped to the rescue from their hereditary estates, and their savage ferocity and reckless bravery was well known throughout the land. The relations and the household retainers of the rebel attempted to breast the storm, but they were scattered like autumnal leaves before the angry blast; and the chief arrived to the succour only to behold the spot strewed with the bodies of his stoutest partisans, and to witness his beloved son, the youthful Hailoo, sink before his eyes, transfixed by a dozen spear-blades. A panic seized the pagans; and, dismayed and broken-hearted, they fled tumultuously in every direction. In vain Medoko performed the most incredible acts of valour--his voice had now lost its charm; and, crippled by a wound in his shoulder--his proud heart swelling with indignation--he at length perceived that the fortune of the day was not to be retrieved. Cutting his way single-handed through the squadrons of the enemy, he also gave the loose rein to his horse, and scoured over the hills. The sun had reached the meridian when the hot pursuit commenced, and the arm of vengeance was not stayed until long after his sinking below the western horizon. Every Amhara spear was dripping in blood to the haft. The stain of gore was on every cheek, and as the weary warrior returned from the massacre, the chest of his jaded war-steed was ornamented with the cloth of the accursed Gentile, whose body he had left to the fangs of the wild beast. After galloping for some miles with the few chiefs who had escaped from the fatal field, a short halt was allowed to refresh the horses, and Medoko proclaimed his intention of accompanying the party no further. Asylum and assistance were offered in vain; the stout heart of the rebel had been quelled by the late heavy loss he had sustained, and for a time at least he bowed to the power of the monarch of Shoa. Short was the moment allowed for the explanation, and after a hurried parting and a hope for better days, the band mounted and pressed on. Medoko and his surviving son Chara, now commenced the more difficult undertaking of threading their path back again among the advancing Amhara; but a perfect knowledge of the localities enabled them to take advantage of every hill and hollow. After many weary hours of anxiety they passed the capital undiscovered, and urging their horses to speed, took the road to Ankober. The Bereza was swollen and unfordable, but their gallant steeds successfully breasted the rushing waters. The king's watchmen had left their cold posts, in order to take shelter from the cutting blast, before the riders swept down the rocky defile of the Chaka, towards the wooded sides of Mamrat; and long ere the voice of the brotherhood had risen in the matin chant, the rebels had been formally admitted to sanctuary, and were safely reposing in the sacred monastery of Affaf Woira. Volume Two, Chapter XVIII. TRAGIC END OF MEDOKO. In an open glade, at the foot of the great mountain range, stands the church of Affaf Woira, and the tenement of Abba Salama, its superior, enclosed by a rough stone wall. Numerous huts are scattered in clusters over a wooded eminence, which rises on the steep side of the river, and here the indolent brothers, "Beneath the shade of melancholy boughs. Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time." An air of the most perfect repose usually pervades the scene. The inmates are alike indifferent to the blast of winter and to the cares of life. Majestic trees tower high overhead, yielding undisturbed protection to the vulture and the white ibis. The "monk of the wood," the Gureza ape, there displays his variegated coat floating in peace amongst the mossy branches; and whilst every breath from beneath wafts up the perfumed air, the lazy monk of the monastery, during the entire day, basks in the sun amidst the bright flowers of nature's growth, gazing in apathy on the sparkling stream which steals through the forest, half hid in a fringe of the willow and the bamboo. But bustle and confusion for once disturbed this dreamy repose. The priests had been engaged in noisy choir, and the sacred drum had resounded since dawn of day. At length the portals of the hallowed edifice were thrown open, and the holy procession, under the thundering chorus of an Abyssinian psalm, moved over the bright greensward. The gay umbrellas of the church, rich in satin and silver, led the van, and the corpulent Superior, in his white cotton robes, followed the insignia, bestriding a sleek mule decked in metal chains and tinkling bells. At his side marched the bearers of the straight falchions, sheathed in scabbards of polished silver. A band of priests followed, with their heads swathed in folds of white cotton, and their persons wrapped in black woollen cloaks, profusely studded with blood-red crosses and other emblems of Christianity; and closing the procession strode two hundred stout dirty monks, clothed in the skin of the wild antelope, with their shaven heads enveloped in dark greasy cloths, each carrying in his hand a small iron cross, and joining the tribute of his lusty throat to the deafening chant. Dell and dingle rung again as the psalm increased in violence, and the cavalcade, threading the intricacies of the wood, proceeded on its mission of mercy, to implore pardon for the rebel who had thrown himself on the protection of the monastery. The conference with the monarch was long and stormy. The royal vengeance, though far from being appeased, was curbed by a fear of the Church, and more particularly so at the present juncture, when religious disputes regarding the two natures of Christ were beginning to excite an unusual ferment in many parts of the kingdom. An unwilling pardon was at length extorted, and the triumphant monks returned amidst the joyful acclamations of the female inhabitants of Shoa, whose shrill voices are raised on every possible occasion, and whose feelings were in the present instance enlisted in the behalf of their old favourite. The trip also would appear to have been profitable to the holy fathers, for it was currently reported that one half of the remaining wealth of Medoko was the stipulated price to be paid for this monastic intercession. The nature of Abyssinian custom impels the humbled grandee to tempt again the slippery ladder of power; and disgraced for a time, the courtier, bending his neck to the misfortune, dances attendance on his capricious master until fickle fortune smiles upon his fallen condition. Unless enjoying the favour of the monarch, and basking in the sunshine of the court, he is held of no account whatever; and the quiet retirement of country life is despised and detested by a race who are ignorant of its pleasures, and possess neither amusements nor intellectual resources. The property and estates of Medoko had not been confiscated, and months rolled quietly along as day after day he took his station among the courtiers in waiting; but the eye of the monarch was turned in cold indifference upon his former favourite, and there were not wanting counsellors to whisper deeds of blood into his ear. Besides the father confessor, the haughty chief had other enemies who were chafed at the sight of the numerous band of well-equipped followers that Medoko still entertained upon his ample means. Many also had lost relations during the rebellion, and misfortune had not abated one atom of the imperious demeanour which ever characterised the chief. The feast of Maskal was now approaching, and it being rumoured that honours and government were to be again bestowed upon "the murderer of the Amhara," as the rebel was denominated among the conspiring band, measures were taken to counteract the royal intention, if such had really been entertained. The most odious calumnies were industriously circulated; fresh accusations of disloyalty were daily carried to the palace; and the monarch, hourly assailed on every side, at length resolved to test the feelings of his vassal, by the offer of an inferior post in the unhealthy country of Giddem. For the last time the gallant chief at the head of his followers swept up the palace hill of Angollala, and leaving, according to the etiquette, his son Chara, together with his retainers, in the middle court-yard, where shields and spears must be deposited, Medoko crossed the enclosure, and alone and unattended entered the inner wicket. On the several faces of the inner square are the entrances to the principal buildings of the palace. The great hall of entertainment on one side faces the king's stables on the other, and the artificers' workshops stand opposite the balcony of justice; but all are connected by stone walls and stout palisades, through which private wickets lead to the interior apartments. His Majesty had not yet taken his seat in public, but the usual throng of people were lounging about the yard, or seated on the rough bedsteads which line one corner, for the convenience of the great. Medoko had hardly taken his solitary seat, when wreathed in smiles the father confessor approached his victim. Whispering in his ear the intentions of the king, he strongly advised him to reject the proposal with scorn; and no sooner had he ended than the four conspiring chiefs advanced from the interior, bearing the royal preferment to the country which was so thoroughly detested, and which had been hitherto offered only to men of low degree. The royal presentation, although received with the impatient curl of the lip, and an indignant breathing from the distended nostril, was declined in courteous terms--"The slave of the king desires only to be near the person of his master." But far different was the insolent answer carried back to the monarch, whose superstitious feelings were further irritated by the previous discourse and forebodings of the monk; for a black bullock had been discovered lying dead at the threshold of the gateway, portending that on that day an untimely fate awaited some one within the royal precincts. For a time no word escaped the moody lip of the monarch. His features remained fixed and still; but a withering glance from his solitary eye shot over the band as he dismissed them from his presence with the cutting remark, "That they were all traitors alike, and lazy cravens to boot." The hint was sufficient to Guffa Woosen, the _Dedj Agafari_, a man who stickled at no atrocity to gratify his master and to serve his own ends. After a hurried and mysterious consultation with six others equally unprincipled as himself, they proceeded together into the outer court-yard. Approaching by degrees, the band surrounded the bed of the chief, who was lulled into fatal security by a message that the king was about to appear to receive in person the refusal of office in Giddem, and whilst bandying a joke about the frail tenure of the dungeons of Goncho, five long-bladed knives were suddenly sheathed to the hilt in his brawny back. Undaunted to the death, Medoko reared himself with difficulty from his couch, and his good sword flashed instantaneously from the scabbard. He had been unwarily caught in the toils; but, like the wounded lion, he stood fiercely at bay, and some of the hunters paid dearly for their treacherous sport. In the hour of battle his sword had seldom required a second blow, and as the trenchant blade now fiercely descended into the neck of the chief conspirator, the head of Guffa Woosen for a moment drooped upon the shoulder, and in the next his lifeless trunk fell heavily to the ground. Again the ruddy steel gleamed overhead, but the energy was fast fleeting from the stout sinew, and Selunko, although marked for life with a desperate slash over the face, succeeded with the remnant of his cowardly ruffians in basely escaping from the scene. A general rush and scramble now ensued for the tops of walls and houses; and from these elevated places of security, savage yells proclaimed the perpetration of the dastardly deed. The king seized a double-barrelled gun from the wall, lest the mighty warrior should attempt to storm the harem; and a high tribute was paid to the single arm which had thus cleared the court. Desperately wounded, the chief now staggered across the yard, fainting and falling more than once ere he reached the gateway. No doorkeeper remained to dispute the egress, and as yet none dared to cross the path of the stricken brave. One little enclosure alone separated him from his devoted followers, but his strength was fast sinking with the welling blood, and after swaying for a time from side to side, utterly exhausted, he fell, with a groan, upon his knee in the last pangs of death. Tunkaiye, the great bulwark of the throne, was the first who recovered from the panic, and cautiously advancing with the chosen of the Amhara chivalry, he beheld through the wicket the situation of the chief. Rushing through the door, he dealt a blow from behind on the neck of the recumbent figure, and the head sunk to rise no more. One faint struggle of the right arm was alone to be distinguished, and one word was indistinctly murmured amidst the gurgling of the flowing blood; for the long knives of the assassins had penetrated into a brave heart, and the victory over the king's enemy had been already achieved. Crowds now rushed to the spot, and the limbs were hacked to pieces by the miserable poltroons amidst the coarsest ribaldry and mirth. One wretch, as he thrust his crooked knife into the late brilliant eye, exclaimed, "How is it that my father now bears the bite without power to brush away the gnat?" and another, after succeeding with difficulty in hewing through the iron muscles of the stout arm, declared, with a laugh, that "the skin of an elephant was composed of less tough material." Deprived of their weapons, and of the countenance of the mighty fallen, Medoko's son and followers surrendered on the first summons; and a dog, carrying off his father's hand, brushed past young Chara as he entered the murderous court-yard. Stones and sticks were still being expended on the remains of mortality which were strewed in every direction. All human resemblance had already been entirely effaced, and a deep pool of blood remained to mark the dire tragedy. To this hour the stain is settled upon the spot; and it is daily before the eyes of the perpetrators of the outrage. The stern warrior is never mentioned within the precincts of the palace, and rich offerings are continually made to all the churches in the land, to dissipate the unpleasant dreams which too frequently haunt the royal couch. But although the name is now used amongst the Amhara only to still the unruly child, the gallant Medoko is the darling theme of the roving Galla. The heathen female draws the long tress across her flashing eye at the recollection of his fate; and the chief yet thinks with respect of the brave spirit who could quell the feud and the intestine quarrel, and who had led the wild host with success, to spoil the dominions of the Christian despot. Volume Two, Chapter XIX. THE GALLA BORDERS--PROCLAMATION OF WAR. Shortly after our departure from Ankober, a robbery was committed in the residency; and the delinquents having been duly traced out by the Lebashi, were sent in chains to Angollala, and incarcerated in one of the palace court-yards. The principal party proved to be a slave of the king, aided and abetted by a scribe, who had been for some time employed in copying manuscripts for Dr Roth; and the greater portion of the stolen property was shortly returned by the hands of the chief smith, who succeeded the disgraced page in the office of _baldoraba_. "Strangers have visited me from a far country," was the message wherewith he was charged, "and whilst residing under my protection they have been plundered by my subjects. My name has become tarnished. I have beaten the culprits with sticks, and shall cut off the ears of the slave Wooseni, and sell him to the merchants of Hurrur." Intercession, backed by presents, was successfully made with the king and queen, in behalf of the offender, a lad of ten years of age, and he was liberated after severe castigation. "God must be angry with me," sobbed the juvenile thief, who had once before been detected beneath a bed with a pair of scissors in his possession--"God _must_ be angry with me, for I have only twice attempted to rob, and on both occasions have I been punished." Among the articles stolen, which consisted chiefly of beads, were sovereigns of William the Fourth and of Queen Victoria, and suspicions arising in the royal mind that these were not of gold, as asserted by Lieutenant Barker, His Majesty proposed testing the metal by the ordeal of fire. A coin of the former reign was accordingly thrust into the forge, and having then been immersed in water, was broken with a chisel by the conclave of smiths. "Call you this English gold?" exclaimed the Negoos: "here then is a piece of Abyssinian gold for you,"--and throwing upon the ground the brass foil of a sword scabbard, he laughed immoderately. A fourpenny piece was then exhibited, as a somewhat more portable and commodious medium of exchange than blocks of fossil salt, and the figure on the obverse immediately elicited the inquiry whether the queens of England went forth with their armies to battle, since Britannia was equipped with spear and shield, and was about to set a _sareti_ in her crown like the warrior king of the Amhara. [The _sareti_ is a sprig of wild asparagus worn in Shoa as a token of victory, as will be seen presently.] A quarrel of long standing between Ayto Melkoo and the commander-in-chief of the gun-men, who ranked among the foremost of the court sycophants, had been this day brought for adjustment before the royal tribunal. The award being found in favour of the appellant, the Master of the Horse, although a great favourite, was handcuffed, and imprisoned in the brewery, but after a few hours' durance he was set at large, and his punishment commuted to a fine of seven hundred and fifty pieces of salt. "It is of no consequence," he remarked somewhat unwisely, "I shall carry a _mamalacha_ to the `commander,' Captain Harris, and he will pay the amount for me." This boast had given occasion to malicious insinuations on the part of his enemies, and after dark a confidential message was brought to me from the palace, to the effect that Ayto Melkoo stood suspected of concealing certain "pleasing things" understood to have been received from my hands. But this imputation, which, if confirmed, must have involved disgrace and confiscation of property, proved, fortunately for the accused, to have no foundation. A better instance could scarcely have been adduced to illustrate the fleeting and precarious nature of the despot's smiles. The mother of this tottering favourite, a native of Ambasel in the province of Lasta, was for many years the mistress of Hatze Yasoo, then Emperor of Gondar, on whose demise she became an inmate of the seraglio of Asfa Woosen. Ayto Wadi, the distinguished Galla governor of Angollala, being thrown into prison by the latter monarch, contrived to solace himself with the presence of the lady, and the Master of the Horse was the result of the intrigue. No disgrace whatever attaching to his illegitimate origin, he was regarded in the light of a member of the royal family; and, being brought up in the palace, has succeeded during three several reigns in maintaining a position at court, which might now have been sacrificed by the clandestine possession of a dozen ells of English broad-cloth. The _amende_ was, nevertheless, made to him in the course of a few days, by the addition of another village to his landed possessions at Doba. Such paltry proofs of espionage were invariably followed by some especial token of the royal goodwill, ushered in by a goat, or a jar of honey, as a peace-offering. In this instance, after the despot had been fully satisfied of the groundless nature of his surmises, I received a special invitation to accompany him the next day on a shooting excursion, a Galla ram, the size of a well-grown calf, having first been thrust into the tent by the bearer of the message--the dirty page Besabeh--who, as usual, composed himself to sleep in a corner after the due performance of his errand. Saturday, being the Jewish Sabbath, brings rest from all labour, and is invariably devoted by the king to excursions abroad. Starting on horseback at an early hour, a gallop of several miles led us across the Chacha, and over the border of the Galla dependencies, to an extensive, but narrow sheet of water, where an otter had lately been seen. "It has hands, and nails, and fingers like a man," observed the monarch gravely, "and a head like a black dog, and a skin like velvet; and it builds its house at the bottom of the river, and plucks grass, and washes it in the water; and all my people thought it was the devil, and would destroy them with strong medicine. Now is this animal found in your country, and how do they call its name?" We amused ourselves by killing snipe, much to the entertainment of the monarch, who displayed little talent for shooting birds on the wing, and made no secret of many very unsportsmanlike ideas. Numerous ducks and geese soon arrested his attention. Drawing up with his retinue, and resting his weapon over the shoulder of an attendant to insure steady aim, he kept up a murderous fire with ball, shot, and slugs, during a full half hour. The weather was passing cold, and ever and anon His Majesty blew his nose betwixt his thumb and fore-finger, and wiped them on the mantle of the governor of Bulga, who eagerly proffered it for acceptance. A serious diminution in the numerical strength of the feathered fools resulted in no attempt to take flight or even to shift position. Incredible though it may appear, the living still paddled among the floating carcasses of their slaughtered comrades, as if nothing had happened, until the destroyer, weary of persecuting the "unclean birds," which were not even taken out of the water, remounted and crossed the country at speed to a wide meadow, traversed by the serpentine Chacha. Bald coots were here playing at hide-and-seek, whilst red-headed divers peeped warily forth for an instant, as the noisy cavalcade advanced. The spoonbill, and the leather-necked ibis of Egyptian veneration, displayed their white plumage along the sedge-grown borders. The heron, the snakebird, and the redshank, waded through the shallow drifts; and geese, widgeon, teal, and mallard, rose whirring in the air at every step. But amidst all this inviting variety, the snowy egret was the object of the king's ambition; and although, after many unsuccessful attempts, he failed in adorning his head with her unsullied plumes, he retired perfectly satisfied with his skill as a rifleman, after a long stray shot had perforated the eye of an "_alata furda_." This is a gigantic slate-coloured crane, with eccentric red wattles; and several pairs that were marching over the mead had previously elicited most notable displays of gunmanship on the part of Ayto Berkie and others of the royal favourites. Abogaz Maretch, with his feudal train of Abitchu, joined the _cortege_ as it passed Wona-badera, his seat of government. The treeless expanse passed over--a type of the entire Galla territory north of Moolo-Falada, where forest land commences--consists of wide valleys clothed with a verdant carpet of grass, clover, and trefoil, which, from their redundant luxuriance, almost impede progress. Every little intersecting eminence is completely covered with flourishing fields of barley and wheat, and crowned with villages fortified with strong stockades; and one ancient _woira_ excepted, whose venerable boughs formed in days gone by a trysting-place to the hostile pagans, not a single bush or tree was visible during the long ride. An extensive barrier of loose stones hastily thrown up during the rebellion of Medoko, fortifies the south-eastern environs of Angollala; and although confessedly inferior to the great wall of China, it is calculated to offer temporary opposition to horsemen who are no Nimrods. Some of the lower parts were cleared by Captain Graham and myself without the slightest difficulty, and much to His Majesty's amazement; but every attempt on the part of the Amhara to follow our example proved a complete failure. On our return we passed through a palisaded wicket in this breastwork, which is dignified with the title of "the King's Gate," and forms the scene of the few public executions that take place. Chiefs and governors were also accorded the privilege of squeezing through with the crowned head, but followers and people of low degree were compelled by the stick of the doorkeeper to adopt a circuitous route over a belt of stony hills adjoining, which form a continuation of the defences. The ascent to the palace was accomplished under a wild choral chant, laudatory of the monarch, which invariably announces his return from an excursion abroad. The road was lined with pilgrims clothed in yellow garments, and having each a cross of blue clay upon his forehead. They had been to perform their vows, or redeem their pledges left, at the sanctuary of Debra Libanos [Mount Lebanon], chief seat of learning in Shoa, and the renowned scene of the miracles of Tekla Haimanot, its founder. Hard pressed by his enemies, the patron and lawgiver of Ethiopia is said to have leapt through the trunk of a venerable tree, a seam in which yet vouches for the truth of the legend that it spontaneously clave asunder at his holy bidding, but closed to foil the sacrilegious assailants who sought his life. Being athirst, he prayed unto God, whereupon the archangel Michael, who was his mediator, caused a fountain to rise at his feet, supplied by the stream of the river Jordan. A cross which he carried in his hand had been swept away during the passage of a neighbouring torrent, but no sooner did he curse the waters, than they were dried up, and have never since flowed above the channel! The remains of the saint still cast a halo over the spot in which they he interred, and the pool which he blessed, retains to this day the property of cleansing the leper, and healing every disease on either of the three days annually devoted to the commemoration of his birth, death, and ascension. Famous as the most holy of shrines throughout Southern Abyssinia, men of every rank, from the monarch to the meanest peasant, if unable to repair thither in person, delegate their substitute with offerings according to their wealth. Having on his way bathed in the "Segga Wadum," or "river of flesh and blood"--a tributary to the Nile, formed by the confluence of the Sana Robi and the Sana Boka--the pilgrim quaffs the waters of the mineral well, describes upon his forehead the sacred emblem of Christianity, and after kissing, at the adjacent church of Saint Mary, a cross which is asserted by the priesthood to have fallen from heaven, he is secure against sickness and witchcraft. The very earth from Debra Libanos is carried away as an antidote to maladies, and all who meet the returning pilgrim, fall prostrate upon the ground, and kiss the dust from off his feet. No sooner had His Majesty entered the palace-gate, than the sound of the imperial kettle-drum announced the presence of the herald, and crowds collected to listen to the royal edict. Standing upon the hill-side beneath the shadow of a solitary stunted tree, which, had it a tongue, could unfold many a tale of woe and oppression, he thus proclaimed in a loud voice to the multitude assembled; "Hear, oh, hear! Thus saith the King. Behold, we have foes, and would trample upon their necks. Prepare ye every one for war. On the approaching festival of Abba Kinos, whoso faileth to present himself at Yeolo as a good and loyal subject, mounted, armed, and carrying provisions for twenty-one days, shall be held as a traitor, and shall forfeit his property during seven years." Volume Two, Chapter XX. A LECTURE ON PHYSIC. The skill of the medical officers attached to the Embassy had already produced its effect upon a nation so ignorant of the healing art. Woizoro Indanch Yellum, aunt to His Majesty, arriving from Achun-Kurra on a visit to the court, was made the bearer of compliments on the part of Zenama Work, the Queen-dowager, [i.e. rain of gold] "respecting the pardon of the delinquent slave." But they were accompanied by a request for medicine, and an admonition that the British guests of her son would do well not to squander all their drugs amongst those who knew not how to appreciate them. "We have seen wondrous things achieved in the time of Sahela Selassie," concluded this message from "the golden shower,"--"and the prophecies respecting the red men have indeed fully come to pass." The fame, too, of the operation performed with such singular success upon the governor of Mentshar had spread far and wide, and applications for surgical aid became daily more numerous--the patient, in lieu of tendering a fee, invariably insisting, when cured, upon the receipt of some reward. Priests, renowned for the sanctity of their lives, applied in the same breath for a white head-dress, and for a remedy against disorders superinduced "by eating the flesh of partridges." Even nuns did not disdain assistance, and many a hapless victim to Galla barbarity sought a cure for his irreparable misfortunes. An exceedingly ill-favoured fellow, striding into the tent, exhibited a node upon the forehead, which he desired might be instantly removed. "The knife, the knife," he exclaimed; "off with it; my face is spoiled, and has become like that of a cow." A ruffian who, in a domestic brawl, had contrived to break the arm of his wife, entreated that it might be "mended;" and a wretched youth, whose leg had been fractured twelve months previously, was brought in a state of appalling emaciation, with the splinters protruding horribly. Amputation was proposed as the only resource, but the Master of the Horse was loud in his opposition. "Take my advice," he remonstrated, "and leave this business alone. If the boy dies, all will declare that the `proprietor of the medicines' killed him--and furthermore, should he survive, it will be said the Almighty cured him." In Shoa, the practice of surgery directs the removal of a carious tooth with the hammer, punch, and pincers of the blacksmith. Should venesection be required, a stick placed in the patient's mouth is tightened by means of a thong passed round his neck, and the distended veins of the forehead are then opened with a razor. Cupping, performed by means of a horn exhausted by suction, is also extremely fashionable; and actual cautery, which is believed to strengthen the muscles of the spear arm, is applied by means either of a pile of lighted cotton, or a stick heated by rapid friction. Fractured bones that have united badly are said to be violently rebroken to admit of their being properly set; and upon the authority of Ayto Habti, the chief physician in ordinary, it may also be stated, that splinters coming away are successfully supplied by portions of the skull of a newly-slain sheep or goat! But amulets and enchantments are by all classes held far more efficacious than the drugs of the Abyssinian "possessor of remedies," [_Bala medanit_, "the master of the medicines," is the term applied to every physician] which of a truth must be acknowledged to form but a feeble _materia medica_. Insanity, epilepsy, delirium, hysteria, Saint Vitus's dance, and in fact all obstinate disorders for which no specific is known, are invariably ascribed to the influence of demons or sorcerers, and the patient is either declared to be possessed of a devil, or to labour under the disastrous consequences of inumbration by the shadow of an enemy. Shreds of blue paper are held to be preservatives against headache, and the seeds of certain herbs are worn as charms against hydrophobia and disasters on a journey; but of these, some must be plucked with the left hand, and others with a finger on which there is a silver ring, and all under a fortunate horoscope, or they can avail nothing. Small-pox frequently devastates the land, and a free boy of pure blood is then selected from among the number of the infected, and carefully secluded until the pustules are ripe. Many hundred persons assemble, and a layman, chosen for the rectitude of his life, having mixed the lymph with honey, proceeds to inoculate with a razor. Death is often the consequence of the clumsy operation, of the origin of which no tradition exists; neither has any charm been yet discovered to avert the scourge. Whilst invalids of all classes daily flocked to my camp for medical assistance, applications were not wanting from the palace, in proof of the reputation that we had acquired. One of the princesses royal, who had been lodged with the illustrious guest from Achun-Kurra, in the crimson pavilion presented by the British Government, found herself in need of advice; and on being visited, lay concealed beneath the basket pedestal of a wicker dining-table, whence her sprained foot was thrust forth for inspection. Divers respectable duennas of the royal kitchen, who had been severely scalded by the bursting of a pottage cauldron, were also treated with success when they had been given over by the body physician, at whose merciless hands the sobbing patients had been plastered over with honey and soot. A mutton bone was next extracted from the throat of a page, where it had been firmly wedged for three days. But the cure which elicited the most unqualified and universal amazement was that of a favourite Baalomaal [Officer of the royal household] who, labouring under a fit of apoplexy, which had deprived him of animation, was suddenly revived by venesection, after fumigation with _ashkoko goomun_ [Hyrax's cabbage] had been tried without the smallest avail, and preparations were already commencing for his interment. Medicine, in fact, now engrossed the royal attention. Phials and drugs without number were sent to the tent, with a request that they might be so labelled as to admit of the proper dose being administered to patients labouring under complaints, for the removal of which they were respectively adapted. Two or more invalids, who objected to be seen, were certain to arrive at the palace within every four and twenty hours; and no subterfuge that ingenuity could devise was left untried, by which to augment the already ample stock of pills on hand. "You will take care not to give the whole of the remedies to my people, or there will be none left for myself, should I fall sick," was an almost daily message from the selfish despot. But prescriptions designed for his own use were invariably tried first upon a subject; and the much-dreaded goulard-wash having been once more prepared, directions were given to apply it constantly to a boy who had been found labouring under ophthalmia, in order to ascertain whether he died or survived. The most particular inquiries were instituted relative to the mode of counteracting the influence of the evil eye, and much disappointment was expressed at the unavoidable intimation that Dr Kirk's dispensary contained neither "the horn of a serpent," which is believed to afford an invaluable antidote against witchcraft, no preservative against wounds received in the battle-field, nor any nostrum for "those who go mad from looking at a black dog." "We princes also fear the small-pox," said His Majesty, "and therefore never tarry long in the same place. Nagasi, my illustrious ancestor, suffered martyrdom from this scourge. Have you no medicine to drive it from myself?" Vaccine lymph there was in abundance, but neither Christian, Moslem, nor Pagan had yet consented to make trial of its virtues. Glasses, hermetically sealed, betwixt which the perishable fluid had been deposited, were exhibited, and its use expounded. "No, no!" quoth the king, as he delivered the acquisition to his master of the horse, with a strict injunction to have it carefully stitched in leather--"this is _talakh medanit_, very potent medicine indeed; and henceforth I must wear it as a talisman against the evil that beset my forefathers." "You must now give me the medicine which draws the vicious waters from the leg," resumed His Majesty, "and which is better than the earth from Mount Lebanon;--the medicine which disarms venomous snakes, and that which turns the grey hairs black;--the medicine to destroy the worm in the ear of the queen, which is ever burrowing deeper;--and, above all, the medicine of the seven colours, which so sharpens the intellects, as to enable him who swallows enough of it, to acquire every sort of knowledge without the slightest trouble. Furthermore, you will be careful to give my people _none of this_." Volume Two, Chapter XXI. THE CAMPAIGN. In common with all other African potentates, Sahela Selassie never engages in war, induced either by public principles, or by national glory, and, least of all, by a love of his people. Whilst the fear of rebellion and disturbance at home deters him from attempting on a grand scale to resume the lost possessions of his ancestors, to wield the sceptre as they did, three hundred miles south of his present limits, and to re-unite the scattered remnants of Christian population who once acknowledged their supremacy--revenge, the almost invariable success attending his arms, and the insatiable love of plunder inherent in the breast of every savage, impel him thrice a year to gather his undisciplined militia, in order to undertake sudden and sweeping inroads, either for the purpose of chastising insurrection among the subjugated usurpers of portions of the ancient empire of -Ethiopia, or of asserting his unstable authority over some neighbouring tribe that may heretofore have succeeded in maintaining its independence. The wilds of Abyssinia are not easily explored by the solitary traveller, and I therefore gladly embraced the opportunity of acquiring important information relative to the mode of Amhara warfare, as well as of visiting regions almost unknown. Superstition, policy, and fear, alike influenced the wily monarch in his expressed desire to be accompanied by his British guests. The presence of the stranger being considered to shed a blessing over the army, is invariably enforced by royal mandate, which extends indiscriminately to all residing within the kingdom; and whilst His Majesty, distrusting the sojourn in his undefended capital of so large a body of foreigners, sought the augmentation of his consequence in the eyes both of enemies and subjects, I indulged in the hope that the cause of humanity might be promoted by the check which the presence of the European invariably enforces upon the excited savage, during the revolting and sanguinary scenes of exulting victory. From the fact of the army having provided rations for no more than twenty days, it was clearly impossible that operations should be directed against Lake Zooai, in Gurague, distant from Angollala one hundred and fifty miles; and this circumstance fully explained the before incomprehensible indifference displayed by the Negoos to every preparation which might facilitate the advance of his troops. Keeping the secret of his real intentions fast locked in his own despotic breast, it is the invariable practice of His Majesty to publish a manifesto of the approaching campaign, calculated to mislead his enemies; and he not unfrequently carries the deception so far, as to make three or four marches in a direction quite opposite to that in which he had inwardly resolved to strike the blow. None have the slightest idea in what quarter the thunderbolt is to fall, and as the fatal season draws nigh when the state revenues are to be levied, anxiously must throb the conscious bosom of that vassal who has fallen under the royal displeasure. Beyond the removal of muskets and matchlocks from their pegs, to be oiled and exposed to the sun before the porch of the great audience hall, few signs of preparation were observable for the approaching foray. Angollala was indeed somewhat more populous than usual, and beggars more numerous and importunate. Wild Galla chieftains, too, were in attendance with propitiatory offerings and outstanding arrears of tribute, and the interior of the palace presented a scene of increased bustle and confusion. His Majesty was to be seen absorbed in the inspection of venerable pots, pans, and pipkins, which would have been esteemed invaluable contributions to the British Museum. Tailors, silks, tinsel, and satin, were in equal requisition towards the decoration of the imperial person, and the fat Master of the Horse, assisted by the _elite_ of the household warriors, sat cobbling old leather with laudable assiduity for the edification of a whole host of eunuchs. But in the arsenal there was no busy note of preparation such as is wont to precede European warfare; no crowding of light ordnance and heavy batteries; no commissariat, waggon-train, or sick carriage; and no interminable files of camels loading for the approaching march. "The steed, The mustering squadron, and the clattering car," had no place on the parade: the complicated and expensive equipment, and the munitions of the siege, were alike wanting; and although a few detachments were bivouacked on the adjacent meadow, and the black pall of a governor was here and there to be seen, it was still difficult even to conjecture whence the army of the despot was to spring. Abject slaves to superstition, the Amhara never fail to consult the omens before setting out on a military expedition. Priests and monks are referred to by the monarch, and the accidental fall of the targe from a saddle bow, the alighting of a hooded crow in the path of a warrior, or the appearance of a white falcon with the tail towards him, are believed to augur unfavourably to success; whilst the flight of a pair of ravens in any direction, or the descent of a falcon with her head towards the army, are on the other hand esteemed certain prognostications of victory. For a full week prior to the opening of the projected campaign, the nocturnal howling of dogs had boded an inauspicious termination. One cur bayed at the moon as she rose; a second and a third took up the vile note, and a doleful concert of hundreds gave birth in the mind of the Christian soldier to presage of coming evil. Queen Besabesh was to await the issue of the foray at Angollala, and the command of the town meanwhile devolved upon the eunuch Wolda Mariam, with a garrison sufficient to deter visits on the part of the Galla, who have more than once attempted to burn the palace during such incursions into their territories. On the morning of the day appointed, a flourish of trumpets from the royal band proclaimed the exit of the Negoos from the palace, and shortly after sunrise the imperial crimson velvet umbrellas issued through the outer gateway at the head of a numerous procession. Crossing the meadow, His Majesty, resplendent in cloth of gold, took the road to the south by the wicket in the Galla wall, on which a strong advance picquet had already taken post. Every house in Angollala swelled the passing cavalcade; and each valley and hamlet in the environs marshalling its quota of mounted warriors, the nucleus of the incipient army, before advancing many miles, had become thick and dense. Abogaz Maretch with the Abitchu legion streamed from the stockaded hill of Wona-badera, and a band of veterans occupying the summit of an adjacent rock meanwhile chanted the prowess of the royal warrior, who halted a few seconds in acknowledgment of their flattering eulogium. Little order or arrangement is attempted during the first march, which invariably terminates at or near Yeolo, in order to afford time to stragglers to rejoin, or to admit of the return of those who may from any circumstance prove incapable of toil, or unprepared for the campaign. Immediately in advance of the army, screened beneath a canopy of scarlet broad-cloth, were borne on an ambling mule the Holy Scriptures and the ark of the cathedral of Saint Michael, the miraculous virtues of which sacred emblem, throwing into shade those of the Palladium of Troy, are believed to ensure victory to the Christian host. Supported by the crimson _debaboch_, the king rode next upon a richly-caparisoned mule, a small space around the royal person being kept clear by the corps of shield-bearers, who were flanked on the right by fusiliers and matchlock-men of the body-guard, and on the left by the band of kettle-drums on donkeys, with trumpets and wind instruments. Numerous governors, judges, monks, priests, and singers followed, and behind them rode a curious accompaniment to a martial expedition. Forty dames and damsels, professing the culinary art, with elaborately-crisped bee-hive wigs, greased faces bedaubed with ochre, and arched blue eyebrows, were muffled in crimson-striped robes of cotton--a demure assemblage rigorously guarded on all sides by austere eunuchs armed with long white wands. Beyond, far as the eye could penetrate the canopy of dust which hung over the horizon, every hill and valley swarmed with masses of equestrians and pedestrians, warriors, henchmen, and camp-followers, sumpter horses, asses, and mules, laden with tents, horns of old mead, and bags of provisions--throngs of women carrying pitchers of beer and hydromel at their backs, and lads with glittering sheaves of spears upon their shoulders, leading gaily-caparisoned war-steeds--all mixed and crowded together in the most picturesque disorder and confusion. After crossing the Chacha, the country to the south-west is no longer safe for a single traveller; and owing to the determined hostility of the various wild Galla tribes by which it is inhabited, small Amhara detachments would even find difficulty in passing. The road lay through an amphitheatre of low broken hills, rising amid rich meadows and fields, and clothed in parts with juniper or camel thorn, through dark groves of which peeped numerous tiny Galla hamlets--the distant landscape being bounded by the great blue mountain ranges of Bulga, Garra Gorphoo, and Sallala Moogher, collectively forming a crescent, but towering independently in isolated grandeur. At the termination of the fifteenth mile, the ladies and their eunuchs, having hovered about for some time in uncertainty, finally settled down, like a flight of flamingoes, in a pretty secluded valley, through which winds the deep muddy Baroga. Their halt, and the selection made of a site for the royal kitchen, proclaimed the encamping ground under a naturally scarped table-hill styled Gimbee Bayello, which imparts its name to the spot. A fierce scramble for places ensued, and the several detachments bivouacking _sub divo_ around the dingy palls of their respective leaders, which arose on the next minute, soon spread far and wide over every dell and meadow. The centre of the straggling camp, which could not have measured less than five miles in diameter, was occupied by the royal suite of tents, consisting of a gay parti-coloured marquee of Turkish manufacture, surrounded by twelve ample awnings of black serge, over which floated five crimson pennons, surmounted by silver globes. Until these had been erected, and duly enclosed by an outer screen of cotton cloths, the Negoos, according to his wont, ascending an adjacent eminence, with all the principal chieftains, and an escort of several hundred picked warriors, remained seated on a cushioned _alga_; and under the crimson canopy of the state umbrellas, watched the progress making towards his accommodation. Horses abound in the kingdom of Shoa, as well as throughout the adjacent champaign country of the Galla; but save during the foray, they are rarely mounted by the indolent Amhara, the sure-footed mule being better adapted to his taste, and to the rugged hills that compose the greater portion of the frontier. The note of war, however, had so materially increased the value of the steed, that even the few horses we required had been obtained with difficulty. Every old, unsound, and vicious Rozinante in the realm was speciously presented, and in turn rejected, when Abogaz Maretch at length advertised his stud. Two hundred pieces of salt were the price fixed upon the first purchase; and as this _small change_ was not procurable within thirty miles, and moreover would have formed the load of two jackasses, ten Austrian convention dollars were forwarded in lieu thereof, each valued at ten amoles, and exhibiting all the requisite jewels in the star and coronet of Maria Theresa. "I have kept your silver," was the chief's reply, "because you have sent it; but in future when I sell you a horse, I shall expect you to pay me in salt." In a country where even the hire of a porter is dependent upon the arbitrary caprice of the despotic sovereign, and where the inferiors of the court, entertaining one and all the most thorough contempt for truth, are lavish of promises without the smallest intention of performing them, no little difficulty had also been experienced in obtaining transport at so busy a season. Our preparations were therefore of an extremely limited nature, no member carrying aught save the scantiest bedding, whilst the general commissariat was restricted to a small bag of flour with the jerked flesh of two oxen that had been provided on the occasion from the royal herds. But orders for the supply of porters, who were not to be hired, had only been issued at the very last moment, when the purveyor-general, with his customary liberality, reducing the kingly grant by one half, those finally furnished--three in number--proved barely sufficient for the carriage of rocket staves, medical stores, and surgical instruments required for the state service; the flimsy cotton awnings and scanty baggage of both officers and escort being reluctantly transported by a few hired domestics, or lashed with sharp leathern thongs upon the galled backs of feeble old pack-horses, purchased on emergency at the adjacent market of Bool Worki. When contrasted with disciplined forces, the camp equipage of the rabble Amhara was small and portable indeed. A commissariat is unknown, every soldier and follower transporting his own provisions, which are limited to parched grain, or sun-dried flesh; and as, owing to the rapidity of the march, and the usual absence of opposition, the campaign is rarely protracted beyond a fortnight, this system has been found to answer. Governors and leaders alone occupy tents, whilst every component member of their respective quotas, in defiance of cold and rain, bivouacks upon the bare ground, with his head upon the shield, and no screen betwixt himself and the vault of heaven, save the clothes upon his back. Strange was the sight presented as night closed over the first encampment of the chivalry of Shoa. Rockets were to be fired by the royal request to instil terror into the breasts of the Galla hordes; and we had selected the peak which rose near the head-quarters, as being the most centrical site for the display. Ascending from below, the hum of the mighty host arose in the still clear atmosphere, and the gleam of the bright embers which ran through the depths of the valley, and danced over the intervening heights, until lost in the far distance, presented the appearance of a city of ancient days, whereof the great arteries being alone lit up during the nocturnal hours, full scope was allowed to the imagination to populate at pleasure the intervening gloom. The appearance at Angollala of the muskets presented to His Majesty by the British Government had already caused no inconsiderable consternation, it being the generally received belief that the bayonet, hitherto a stranger in the land, formed a great receptacle for poisonous spells. The roar of each flight of "fire-rainers" now produced a panic from end to end of the scattered camp. A buzz and a clamour of voices followed each luminous ascent, to burst forth into a loud peal of wonder when the brilliant shower of meteors fell after the explosion. Confusion ensued; horses and mules, breaking from their pickets, scoured away in terror, pursued by henchman and warrior, their figures, flitting in dim perspective among the countless bale-fires, like shades called into existence by some magic agency; and the scene doubtless proved to the gazing monarch that the political object in contemplation had been well and fully accomplished. Habitual suspicion on the part of the despot inducing him to apprehend desertion to the enemy, the arms of the fusiliers of the body-guard were piled according to long-established usage, in one of the royal tents, and strongly guarded. The chiefs and nobles then sate down to a repast in the pavilion, where hydromel and beer and raw flesh were in regal profusion. As the horn circulated briskly, and the spirits of the guests mounted in proportion, it was curious to listen to the vaunts of coming prowess that arose from the board. No limit was placed upon the victims who were to be gathered to their fathers, and loyalty and devotion knew no bounds. "You are the adorners," stammered one, as the party broke up, who had been decorated by his English friends; "you gave me scarlet broadcloth, and behold I have reserved the gift for the present occasion. This garment will bring me signal success; for the pagan who espies a crimson cloak over the shoulder of the Amhara, believing him to be a warrior of distinguished valour, takes like an ass to his heels, and is speared without the slightest danger." Volume Two, Chapter XXII. THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY. Rome is said to have subdued the world under the direction of a hen and chickens, but the legions of Shoa and Efat are aroused to victory by the shrill crowing of a cock, which is invariably carried with the army, in one of the wicker baskets forming the pedestal of the banqueting table. One hundred and fifty-six choristers, termed _asmaroch_, are entertained at the expense of the crown, upon extensive grants of land, to chant psalms and hymns each livelong night of the entire year. Twelve are brought on duty every month, and their vigils, which are invariably kept standing, are observed with more than usual strictness during the continuance of a military expedition. Throughout the hours of darkness their loud chorus arose from the pavilion without a moment's intermission, and their vocal labours around the holy ark ceased only with the approach of dawn. Many detachments being still in the rear, a halt was proclaimed with a view to admit of their joining the head quarters, and the king, escorted by two thousand cavalry, made an excursion to a knoll at some distance from the encampment, whence on a range stretching to the south-eastward, the hill of Dalofa was conspicuous. Hereon His Majesty has recently erected a palace, which he rarely visits except for the purpose of controlling by his presence the disaffected and turbulent Galla, whose continual outbreaks render it a far from agreeable place of residence. Gazing for hours over the extensive tract of rich meadow land which lay stretched like a map at his feet, the mind of the contemplative monarch, occasionally occupied by the administration of justice, appeared to be chiefly engrossed with the coming chapter of events, and to be abstractedly scanning the direction in which to pounce upon the surrounding foe. The favourite dancing girl meanwhile attuning her shrill throat to song laudatory of her own vocal powers, and of her happy state of independence, in wild though far from pleasing notes carolled ever and anon as the spirit of the nightingale entered into her soul. "Care have I none, no flock to keep, Nor corn to grind, nor field to reap; 'Tis mine alone through the livelong day To charm the king with my roundelay. "Task have I none, no toil to share, Nor wood to fetch, nor load to bear; 'Tis mine alone but to dance and sing, And drink to the health of my lord the king." "Pity is it," remarked one of our party, "since the damsel has so little to do, that she does not that little better." "What fault have you to find with her performance?" growled the chief smith from beneath the ample folds of his lion skin cloak, enveloped in which he had composed himself to rest under the shadow of an adjacent bush;--"what fault have you to find with the king's _asmari_? She sings according to the fashion of her own country, and that is surely sufficient." Early the ensuing morning the royal drums beat to saddle, and in half an hour the army, which had swelled meanwhile to about fifteen thousand fighting men, was in motion over a country especially favourable to its advance. Some military precautions were now observed. Large brigades of horse served as flanking parties, and the heights to the right and left were severally occupied, as the state umbrellas advanced over the level green sward, at the rate of three miles an hour. The king, with a few favourite chiefs, preceded by Ayto Berri, the quarter-master-general, and by the corps of guides escorting the holy ark and Book of the law, led the host, which, extending for miles and miles to the rear, came pouring over the hills, and down the valleys, like a swollen river bursting its banks, and overflowing the entire country. The military system of Shoa being entirely feudal, each governor in the realm is required to furnish his contingent of militia in proportion to his landed tenure--the peasantry being at all times ready for the foray, and expected to purvey horse, arms, and provisions, without payment from the state. Four hundred fusiliers, bondsmen of the king, alone receive pay--eight pieces of salt, value twenty pence sterling, being disbursed annually to each, in addition to the food and raiment granted to every royal slave. Little discipline exists in the army thus composed, but considerable tact is evinced in its organisation and distribution--small confidence being reposed in that portion which is not drawn from ancient possessions. Of three grand divisions, the centre, commanded by His Majesty in person, consisted of the _Luguamioch_, under Ayto Melkoo, Master of the Horse; the _Gasha Shakri_, or shield-bearers, and the detachment of the collector of newly-levied tribute. Immediately on the left flank were the fusiliers of Ayto Katama, commander-in-chief of the bodyguard, behind whom came the _Wotzbietoch_, or females of the royal kitchen;-- then the legion of Ayto Guebroo, governor of Mentshar; and, lastly, the detachments of Shoa-Meda, of Morat, and Morabietie. The van, consisting of skirmishers, is invariably led by the great governor of the subjugated Galla, under the title of _Worari_. With Abogaz Maretch, who now filled this important post, were the tried governors of Bulga, Kembibit, Gola, and Ootuba, whose respective detachments are Christians, and who are all drawn from the neighbourhood, where intercourse with the Galla is most frequent. The third division, or rear-guard, is commanded by the general styled _Wobo_, who is arbitrarily chosen from the seats of seven governments in the north, viz. Giddem, Geshe, Antzochia, Mans, Kaa, Gabriel, and Efrata--the same individual being never selected on two consecutive expeditions. By the continual exercise of his staff, the Master of the Horse, assisted by the shield-bearers, contrived to preserve the proper distance between the van of the army and the royal person, but confusion reigned elsewhere. Warriors were huddled together without order or arrangement, and every trooper selecting his own position in the detachment to which he belonged, diverted himself by devising the death of the numerous hares that scampered through the army, and, strange to say, often threaded the maze of hoofs in safety. During the early part of the march, herds of cattle grazing quietly in the pastures around various hamlets, proclaimed a subjugated tribe; and clans of tributary Galla, each led by its respective chief in some fantastic costume formerly received at the royal hands, met His Majesty at intervals, in order to present tribute either in horses or kine--the whole greasy band dismounting at a respectful distance on the flank, hurrying before the despot's path, and with bosoms bared, prostrating themselves simultaneously upon the earth. Little respect, however, was paid to the standing crops--afield after field of ripening corn being trampled level with the ground, in spite of the remonstrance of the disconsolate husbandmen, who, with heavy stones upon their heads, threw themselves at the feet of the king with loud and reiterated appeals. The course was generally south-west, and conjecture was on the rack as to the scene of active operations and the ultimate destination of the army. But the secret still remaining with its royal leader, any new speculation on the subject did but elicit the old remark, "The belly of the master is not known." Choristers continued to beguile the tedious march with their rambling stanzas, and to pour out shrill strains of melody like the notes of the wild bird. The rough riders galloped before the van of the host to exhibit the paces of steeds received in tribute; and His Majesty, alighting ever and anon from his mule, reposed for a few minutes upon the cushioned _alga_ which was carried in his train. Nothing could be more tame and monotonous than the country passed over. Wide grassy undulations, interspersed with extensive cultivation, rose unrelieved by a single tree or other redeeming feature, save the many European flowers that wantoned beneath the joyous sunshine on the far-stretching prairie. The Karinza, the Fincha, the Chatti, and the Rufa rivers, all tributary to the Nile, were crossed in succession. Deep, narrow, muddy channels intersecting verdant meadows, these presented the general character of all Galla streams, cutting silently through the rich dark soil, and leaving swampy quagmires on the waving downs. At long intervals the Negoos, dismounting to change mules, proceeded some distance on foot--an example followed by all. On the first of these occasions His Majesty went through the comedy of thrusting his feet into slippers, selected from a bag carried by a slave, which contained numerous pairs manufactured of various coloured morocco. Many were tried in succession, but the royal heels being invariably chafed and blistered, the experiment was finally abandoned in despair; and sacrificing dignity to comfort, the despot, like his liege subjects, advanced unshod. For several hours not a horned head had been visible around the deserted hamlets; and late in the afternoon, when the van of the flagging army arrived in the extensive plain of Abai Deggar, completely environed by hills, the order was given to encamp, destroy, and plunder. Instantly ensued a rush from all quarters at full gallop. Flourishing fields of wheat, barley, and beans, the produce of the toil of a rebellious tribe, were ravaged and overrun by the locust hordes; and in the course of half an hour, the soil being stripped of every acre of cultivation, there commenced a general scramble for the rafters and ribs of houses, of which the skeletons were presently consigned to the flames. The women of the royal kitchen had, as before, been the first to select a centrical and advantageous spot on which to pursue their important avocations; but some arbitrary change having been directed by His Majesty, who occupied his usual elevated position, the camp was thrown into confusion. Quarrels and scuffles might now be witnessed in every quarter. Those who had taken possession of a luxuriant pasture or the vicinage of water, stoutly defended the treasure against invading comrades, and recourse being had to weapons, sword cuts and broken heads were quite in fashion. Although now in an enemy's country, neither picket, vidette, nor sentry was mounted, and not the slightest precaution against nocturnal surprise was adopted towards the security of the camp. But no advantage was taken of the Amhara neglect, and another and similar forced march over a country equally devoid of interest with the tract already crossed, led to the long narrow valley of Karabarek, at the foot of the Garra Gorphoo mountains. The bright spear-blades glittered through the cloud of stifling dust that marked the course of myriads over ploughed land. Green fields and smiling meadows quickly lost their bloom under the tramp of the steed; for no cultivation was now spared, and ruin and desolation were the order of the day. Straggling parties of the Sertie Galla had been seen crowning the heights that skirted the line of march, and near the peaked hill of Wyfun they were assembled in numbers; but none ventured within half a mile of a host, twenty thousand in number, all thirsting alike for the blood of their enemies. Far and wide the country was laid waste, and every vestige of human habitation destroyed under the torch, the flames racing among the riper barley with the speed of a galloping horse; but the wretched inhabitants, aware of the approach of the spoiler, had abandoned their dwellings before the storm burst over them, and one aged man only had yet fallen into the merciless clutches of the invaders. This prize had stained the hand of a follower of Ayto Gadel, governor of Chercha, a functionary far from being notorious for courageous bearing. On the occasion of Medoko's last advance, his was the mansion first beleaguered by the insurgents, but he fled in dismay, leaving his fair partner to defend the premises. Joining after the first day's march, he had put the most diverting questions relative to the English, with whose appearance he was greatly perplexed. "Are these people pagans?" inquired the hero with owlish features, but too strongly indicative of his vacant mind. "No." "Are they Islams?" "No." "Then what are they?" "Christians." "Christians! Impossible. They observe no fast, and wear no _mateb_ as a badge of their religion Is there any grass in their country?" [_Mateb_, i.e. Mark or token. The blue silk cord worn around the neck by the Christians of Shoa.] "Why not?" "How did I know? Have they cattle?" "Abundance." "And sheep and goats?" "Certainly." "And their Negoos, does he carry _debaboch_ [Umbrellas of state], and make great _zumachas_ [Military expeditions] with warriors like these?"--turning his oyster eyes, lighted with something like martial fire, towards the countless rabble in the rear. But the party thus interrogated could keep his temper no longer; and as the little hunch-backed father confessor rode jauntily up with a dirty page perched on the crupper of his mule, to volunteer a lesson in the noble art of equitation, he galloped off, exclaiming with a sneer-- "Like these, forsooth! One of Her Britannic Majesty's regiments would in a single hour sweep from off the face of the earth the whole undisciplined mob that swells the train of the boasted descendant of King Solomon." Volume Two, Chapter XXIII. THE FORAY. Thus far the greatest irregularity and confusion had prevailed among the Amhara troops, alike during the march and the encampment. A council of war was daily convened, when each leader made his report and received verbal instructions for his guidance; but no order of any sort was promulgated until the moment before it was to be carried into effect, and all depended rather upon the whim and caprice of the monarch than upon the exigencies of the service. The first intimation of intended march was conveyed by the royal drums sounding suddenly to saddle a quarter of an hour before the advance, which, as the state pavilion went down, was announced by a flourish of horns. But notwithstanding that the strictest silence had been observed on the subject by the Negoos, as well as by all who might have been unavoidably admitted to his confidence, strong surmises were entertained that a foray from Karabarek was to be the order of the following day; and about two hours after midnight, the sudden and unusual cessation of the psalm singing, followed by the heavy tramp past our tents of Ayto Shishigo's detachment of Shoa-Meda horse, confirming the opinion, the hum of the surrounding body, like that of a disturbed hive of bees, continued until dawn. No sooner was it light than His Majesty rode silently forth from his enclosure without beat of the _nugareet_, and thousands instantly flocked towards the royal person. The state umbrellas were encased in white bags, and the usual cumbrous Abyssinian robe, which effectually impedes all rapid movement, was on this occasion cast aside. Short wide trousers of various hues hung loosely to the knee. A thick white cloth girded up the loins. The skins of wild beasts, the lion, the panther, and the ocelot, alone hung over the brawny shoulder of the warrior; and, with exception of about two hundred musqueteers with bayonets fixed, every man-at-arms was equipped with spear, sword, and buckler, a mounted henchman behind many leading a spare charger. At first starting the crush and confusion was truly terrific. Horses and mules rearing, kicking, and plunging, with lances bristling, and shields thumping in every direction, threatened instant destruction to each component member of the dense mass, which, crowded and locked fast together, streamed at a rapid trot after the king without the slightest order or regularity, save such as was preserved by the exertions of the shield-bearers who rode immediately behind. The occasional passage of ploughed land, producing a suffocating cloud of dust, served still more to increase the confusion, which had reached its climax when a rivulet intersected the line of march. Steep perpendicular banks and treacherous channels opposing the extended front of the legion, and checking advance, a simultaneous exertion was made to gain the only practicable fords, which were in an instant filled to choking. The fiercest struggle for extrication ensued. Numbers floundering in the soft mud, or borne out of their saddles by the pressure of the crowd, were trampled under foot, whilst those who bestrode the stoutest steeds, clearing the way before them by sheer strength, forced their weaker neighbours to incline to the right and to the left, like frail reeds before the rush of the mountain deer. The morning was bitterly cold. The hoar-frost lay thick and white upon the meadows; and as the rabble host trampled over the crisp grass towards the high range of Garra Gorphoo, which, at the distance of a few miles, rose to the height of twelve or fifteen hundred feet, the breath arose heavy from the nostril of man and beast, like a cloud of smoke, mixing with the dark columns of dust which followed the clattering hoofs of neighing war-steeds. During the first hour's advance up the valley, reports were continually being brought in, and messenger after messenger galloping off in every direction; and as the foot of the mountain was gained, Ayto Berkie, with a large detachment of the men of Bulga, leaving the main body, moved upon the left, whilst the king struck up the steep face of the range in the centre of an extended line of men, who scoured every hill and hollow, and beat every nook and corner at a rapid pace. Stretching thirty miles in length by about twelve or fifteen in breadth, the mountains of Garra Gorphoo, covered throughout with one sheet of rich cultivation, form the water-shed between the Nile and the Hawash. The various rivulets that on either side wind down towards the parent streams, intersect it into hundreds of verdant valleys, on the swelling slopes of which the white-roofed houses of secluded Galla hamlets peep forth among dark green groves of juniper and acacia, that add beauty to the fair prospect. These tropical highlands are inhabited by the Sertie tribe, who, long in a state of open rebellion, had rendered themselves doubly obnoxious to the despot, by attacking a detachment of Amhara the preceding year, of whom, whilst entangled in a morass near the foot of the range, eight hundred men were slain. The day of retribution had at length arrived. The object of the expedition, hitherto so carefully concealed, was now fully developed; and the military dispositions for sweeping destruction appeared to be right skilfully made. Hurrying onward with ominous rapidity, slaughtering all who fell in their path, and with their weapons goading forward the herds of sleek cattle which teemed in every valley, the wild host now poured like an overwhelming torrent down the flowery slopes--now breasted the steep sunny acclivity like flames driven before the wind--and now wound in Indian file along the edges of cliffs affording scanty footing for a wild cat, where the loose soil, crumbling at every step, left the naked precipitous rock as the only available passage. Far and wide the crops were laid prostrate, as if beaten down under the violence of the hurricane; and before ten o'clock, the highest pinnacle of the green range having been crowned, a wide prospect burst upon the eye. A succession of richly cultivated plains dotted over with clusters of conical white houses, in parts surrounded by clumps of tall junipers, stretched away from the foot, the very picture of peace and plenty. Embosomed between the isolated peaks of Yerrur, Sequala, and the far-famed Entotto, lay the wide plain of Germama, thickly peopled by the Ekka and Finfinni Galla, upon whose doomed heads the thunderbolt was next to fall; and full in its centre two placid silver lakes, like great mirrors, reflected back the rays of the morning sun across sheets of luxuriant cultivation, extending for miles, nearly ready for the sickle. Far beyond, the long wooded line of the Hawash, rolling its troubled waters towards the plain of the Adaiel, loomed indistinctly through the haze; and in the extreme distance, the lofty blue range of the Aroosi and Ittoo Galla, skirting the mysterious regions of Gurague, bounded the almost interminable prospect. The morning mist, loaded with dust raised by the tramp of the Amhara steeds over acres of ploughed land, hung heavy on the slopes, and partially screening the approach of the locust army, conspired to enhance its success. Twenty thousand brawny warriors, in three divisions, covering many miles of country, and linked by detachments in every direction, pressed on towards the inviting goal--their hearts burning with the implacable hatred of hostile barbarians, and panting to consummate their bloody revenge. Taken entirely by surprise, their devoted victims lay helplessly before them, indulging in fatal dreams of happiness and security, alas! too speedily to be dispelled. Hundreds of cattle grazed in tempting herds over the flowery meads. Unconscious of danger, the unarmed husbandman pursued his peaceful occupation in the field; his wife and children carolled blithely over their ordinary household avocations; and the ascending sun shone bright on smiling valleys, which, long before his going down, were left tenanted only by the wolf and the vulture. Preceded by the holy ark of Saint Michael, veiled under its scarlet canopy, the king still led the van, closely attended by the father confessor, and by a band of priests, with whom having briefly conferred, he turned towards the expectant army, and pronounced the ominous words which were the well-known signal for carrying fire and sword through the land--"May the God who is the God of my forefathers strengthen and absolve!" Rolling on like the waves of the mighty ocean, down poured the Amhara host among the rich glades and rural hamlets, at the heels of the flying inhabitants--trampling under foot the fields of ripening corn, in parts half reaped, and sweeping before them the vast herds of cattle which grazed untended in every direction. In the extreme distance their destructive progress was still marked by the red flames that burst forth in turn from the thatched roofs of each invaded village; and the havoc committed many miles to the right by the division of Abogaz Maretch, who was advancing parallel to the main body, and had been reinforced by the detachment under Ayto Shishigo, became equally manifest in numerous columns of white smoke, towering upwards to the azure firmament in rapid succession. We followed close in the train of the Negoos, who halted for a few minutes on the eastern face of the range; and the eye of the despot gleamed bright with inward satisfaction, whilst watching through a telescope the progress of the flanking detachments, as they poured impetuously down the steep side of the mountain, and swept across the level plain with the fury of the blast of the Sirocco. A rapid detour to the westward in an hour disclosed the beautifully secluded valley of Finfinni, which, in addition to the artificial advantage of high cultivation, and snug hamlets, boasted a large share of natural beauty. Meadows of the richest green turf, sparkling clear rivulets leaping down in sequestered cascades, with shady groves of the most magnificent juniper lining the slopes, and waving their moss-grown branches above cheerful groups of circular wigwams, surrounded by implements of agriculture, proclaimed a district which had long escaped the hand of wrath. This had been selected as the spot for the royal plunder and spoliation; and the troops, animated by the presence of the monarch, now performed their bloody work with a sharp and unsparing knife--firing village after village, until the air was dark with smoke, mingled with the dust raised by the impetuous rush of man and horse. The luckless inhabitants, taken quite by surprise, had barely time to abandon their property, and fly for their lives to the fastness of Entotto, which reared its protecting form at the distance of a few miles. The spear of the warrior searched every bush for the hunted foe. Women and girls were torn from their hiding places to be hurried into hopeless captivity- Old men and young were indiscriminately slain among the fields and groves; flocks and herds were driven off in triumph, and house after house was sacked and consigned to the flames. Each grim Amhara warrior vied with his comrade in the work of retributive destruction amongst the execrated Galla. Whole groups and families were surrounded and speared within the walled courtyards, which were soon strewed with the bodies of the slain. Wretches who betook themselves to the open plain, were pursued and hunted down like wild beasts; and children of three and four years of age, who had been placed in the trees with a hope that they might escape observation, were included in the inexorable massacre, and pitilessly shot among the branches. In the course of two hours the division left the desolated valley laden with spoil, and carrying with them numbers of wailing females and orphan children, together with the barbarous trophies that had been stripped from the mangled bodies of their victims. The hoarse scream of the vulture as she wheeled in funereal circles over this appalling scene of carnage and devastation, and the crackling of falling roofs and rafters from the consuming houses, alone disturbed the grave-like silence of the dreary and devoted spot, so lately resounding to the fiendish shouts and war-whoops of the excited warriors, and to the unpitied groans of their helpless captives. And as the exulting barbarians, followed by the curses of many homeless fugitives in Entotto, crossed the last range, gloomy columns of smoke, rising thick and dense to the darkened heavens, for miles in every direction, proclaimed that this recently so flourishing and beautiful location had, in a few brief hours, been utterly ruined, pillaged, and despoiled, as far as the means of ruthless man could effect its destruction. The royal division crossed the deep vale of Finfinni by a most dangerous and difficult defile, leading over the bed of the principal torrent, which winds through an extensive belt of dark juniper forest, of truly magnificent growth. Lofty pine-like trees, hoary with the moss of centuries, towered above banks that rose some hundred feet almost perpendicularly, and were clothed throughout with tangled undergrowth. A huge fragment of porphyry, nearly choking the straitened descent, afforded barely sufficient room for the passage of a single horseman, whilst a succession of slippery rocks and treacherous pools filled up the channel to the opposite bank, steep, abrupt, and wooded. Loud shouts drowned the pleasing murmur of a splashing waterfall; and so great was the confusion caused by the crush of men, horses, and mules, mingled with frightened droves of oxen and sheep, all struggling tumultuously towards the only outlet, that many accidents occurred. Horses and riders were forced over the precipice--others were trampled under foot by the overwhelming rush from behind, and a handful of resolute men might with ease have kept at bay the whole rabble army of the invader. But the Abyssinian system of warfare consists in surprise and murder, not in battle or fair conflict. The king continued to advance rapidly without the smallest check, and being escorted only by a few fusiliers of the body-guard, carrying each two rounds of ammunition, was necessarily much exposed; but confident in the terror with which his meteor-like descent would inspire his unwary foes, no dispositions were made for the security of his person, in the event of resistance or surprise. Emerging from the forest which extended two miles beyond the Finfinni defile, the scattered forces began to rendezvous around the state umbrellas, now unfurled, to which they were directed by the incessant beating of kettle-drums. Whilst the work of destruction still continued to rage on all sides, herd after herd of lowing beeves came pouring towards the royal standard, and each new foraging party brought with it fresh groups of captive women and girls. Some of the more braggart warriors affecting inability to return their blood-stained blades to the scabbard, pompously carried them in the hand unsheathed; and even the boyish arms of some of the most effeminate of the royal pages had proved victorious over a defenceless victim. The slaughter had been immense. Every desolated court-yard was crowded with the bodies of the slain-- childhood and decrepit age had fared alike; and the murderers, unconscious of the disgrace attaching to unmanly deeds, unblushingly heralded their shame. Detailing their deeds of cruelty, they basked in the smiles of their savage and approving monarch, whose only eye became at times frightfully wild with excitement, although his demeanour throughout the long day of horrors was cool and self-possessed, from the experience that he had acquired during eighty-four similar forays. After a brief halt, the march was resumed through the country of the Ekka Galla, which was clean swept with the besom of destruction; and the distinguishing green sprig of asparagus in the woolly heads of successful cavaliers became more and more numerous as the eventful day drew on to its close. The sun at length disappeared behind the western mountains, towards which the course of the army was directed; and night, casting her mantle over the dismal scene, stayed the arm of the warrior. During fourteen hours passed in the saddle, above fifty miles of country had been passed over; and the weary forces finally halted in the Ekka valley, without possessing the smallest idea of the position of the rear division, with the tents and baggage, to the leader of which no clue had been afforded as to the royal intentions. Horses and mules were now turned loose among the standing beans; and several thousand head of cattle, tired to death with the distance they had been driven from their wonted pastures, were, with infinite difficulty, collected in a hollow, girdled on three sides by a deep ravine. It was closed on the fourth by a steep acclivity, on the summit of which the king, surrounded by his chieftains, took up his position for the night. His Majesty, although fasting throughout the day, sent his only loaf to be eaten by "his children;" and looking forth upon the fruits of his masterly foray, seemed, in the contemplation of the amassed herds, to be insensible alike to the cold wintry blast, and to the long calls of hunger. 4 A wilder scene can scarcely be imagined than that presented by the nocturnal bivouac of the locust-like army of the Amhara, flushed by its recent success. Loud whoops and yells, arising from every quarter of the wide valley, mingled with the incessant lowing of kine, the bleating of sheep, the shrill neighing of the war-steed, and the occasional wailing of some captive maid. Groups of grim warriors, their hands embrued in the innocent blood of infancy, and their stern features lighted by the fitful flame, chuckling over the barbarous spoils they had won, vaunted their inhuman exploits, as they feasted greedily on raw and reeking carcasses. Spears and bucklers gleamed brightly around hundreds of bale-fires, composed of rafters stripped from the surrounding houses; and the whole distant landscape, red from the lurid glare reflected by scores of crackling hamlets, completed a picture worthy the pencil of the artist who delights in the delineation of brutal revelry. No sentry paced the environs of the straggling encampment--no watchword challenged the tramp of the man-at-arms. The deep hum of thousands gradually waned and died away, and each composed himself to slumber on the spot where his carousal had been held. A pall constructed with spears supporting a cotton robe, screened the person of the Negoos; and so long as the biting cold would permit, we slept at broken intervals upon the bare ground, amid the gorged and weary warriors, the saddle of each serving for a pillow-- "The earth our bed, our canopy the sky." Volume Two, Chapter XXIV. THE ROYAL ACHIEVEMENT. Welcome to all was the first grey light that illumined the eastern sky, and summoned the warrior from his uneasy slumbers. So uncomfortably had the night been passed, that it was in truth rest to rise. The despot was among the first to abandon his cold couch; and a bulletin of success having been penned by the royal hand, for the information of Queen Besabesh, the main body of the division, convoying the interminable droves of cattle, was in motion across the Ekka valley. Escorted by five thousand cavalry. His Majesty then proceeded to a knoll at some distance within the scene of yesterday's carnage, upon the summit of which he tarried, whilst parties went out in search of the body of his grand-nephew, the youthful son of Ayto Besuehnech, who, with several others of the Christian host, had fallen in the running conflict. It was a cool and lovely morning, and the mountain breeze played freshly down each opening glade. The ascending sunbeam danced over the steep rugged sides and ruined stone edifices of the fastness of Entotto, anciently the proud seat of Ethiopic splendour, and still believed to conceal much of the wealth lost to the empire at the period of Graan's invasion, when Nebla Dengel was driven into Tigre. The great volcanic cone of Sequala, rivalling the lowland Aiulloo, was again visible in the distance, its once active crater converted by the revolutions of ages into an extensive lagoon, on the banks of which stands the celebrated shrine of Guebra Manfas Kedoos, a saint renowned for the destruction, by his prayers, of live hundred genies. On the one hand frowned the dark wooded slave mart of Roque, in the Yerrur hill, where millions of Christians have been bought and sold; and on the other rose the mountain Dalacha, sacred to the Wato sorcerers, whose tempting demesnes have escaped pillage and conflagration, in consequence of their blessing having been followed by the birth of Sahela Selassie. Far in the distance a low belt of vegetation screened the sleepy Hawash, and over the intervening tract numerous tributaries to the Casam, absorbed eventually in the parched plain of the Adaiel, conveyed the eastern drainage of Garra Gorphoo through the ravaged valley of Germama. Over this wide expanse not a living inhabitant was now to be seen. In every direction the bloodstained ground was strewed with the slaughtered foe, around whose disfigured corses groups of surfeited vultures flapped their foul wings, and screamed the death note. The embers of deserted villages smouldered over the scorched and blackened plain. Ripe crops, which the morning before had gladdened the heart of the cultivator--now no more--were level with the ground. Flocks of sheep, untended by the shepherd, strayed over the lone meadow; and bands of howling dogs wandered up and down in fruitless quest of their lost masters. A single day had reduced to a wilderness the rich and flourishing vale of Germama, including the dark forests of Finfinni, which for years had slept in peace; and their late numerous and unsuspecting population had in a few hours been swept from off the face of the earth by the devastating irruption of the barbarian Amhara hordes. The remains of the fallen chief having, after much search, been recovered from the ashes of a still smoking village, were shrouded with a white cloth, and borne upon a bier from the scene of desolation. Glutted with booty, the despot now left his locusts to pursue their own course up the Ekka valley, where flames and plunder again marked their straggling return towards the mountains of Garra Gorphoo. Each hamlet was ravaged in succession; and cats, the sole remaining tenants of the deserted huts, were dislodged by the torch of the Wobo. For miles and miles the road was lined with dusty and wayworn warriors laden with spoil: flocks and herds, donkeys, mules, and horses, honeycombs, poultry, household utensils and farming gear, with captive women and children, indiscriminately mingled with the men-at-arms. Whilst some of these latter, wounded and mutilated, were lashed upon the backs of their palfreys, others, dismounted, were dragging behind them their lame and exhausted steeds; sheep and goats, unable through fatigue to proceed, being cut limb from limb while still alive, and the bleeding trunks left quivering in the path by the wanton butchers. Re-entering the mountains, across which the sun now cast the long dark shadows of evening, the camp was sought in vain; but the rear division, with tents and baggage, was at length descried pouring down the opposite height under a vast canopy of dust to the encamping ground at Boora Roofa. A long march the preceding day had brought it to Sululta near to Moolo Falada, where it met and destroyed those who had fled from the immediate scene of the king's inroad, made numerous female captives, and, with the loss of the sumpter horses laden with horns of hydromel, acquired considerable booty; information casually received of the main division having thence led it back through the mountains to the present halting-ground, after all had made up their minds to another cold bivouac in the open air. During its more recent progress, this division had carried fire and sword through the country of the Sertie Galla, where it yet remained unplundered; and, as the day again closed, the vault of heaven was re-illumined by volumes of lurid smoke from the surrounding hamlets. Such is the appalling retribution with which Sahela Selassie is wont to visit those rebel tribes who withhold the moderate tribute imposed upon them. The relinquishment to the crown of three or four hundred of the many thousand head of cattle captured during this and the preceding day, would, with some twenty or thirty horses, have averted this awful chastisement, the fearful consequence of taxation refused. The revolt of tribes inhabiting remote portions of His Majesty's dominions arises too frequently from the oppression of Galla governors, over whose proceedings he can exercise very inadequate control; but it is caused in a principal degree by the absence of outpost or fortification to hold his wild subjects in check. Could he be prevailed upon to abandon his present weak mode of securing the Galla dependencies, to strengthen them by those military arrangements for which the country is so peculiarly adapted, and to place a better limit upon the exactions of frontier governors, what bloodshed and misery might not be averted! The army halted at Boora Roofa to enable straggling detachments to rejoin; and small parties went out in various directions to complete the work of demolition among the deserted hamlets of the Sertie tribe, some of which, embosomed deep among the mountain glens, had hitherto escaped attention: hives of ungathered honey, heaps of unwinnowed corn, and the half-flayed carcass abandoned within the filthy habitation, bearing ample testimony to the precipitate flight of the hunted inmates, around many of whose bodies gaunt vultures already held their carnival. Early during the forenoon, horsemen rode in to the royal pavilion with important intelligence, that Ayto Hierat, a favourite governor, had, at the distance of a few miles, surprised and surrounded a Galla in a tree, among the branches of which the caitiff awaited the arrival of the king. Impatient to wreathe his brow with new laurels, the monarch lost not a moment in sallying forth to destroy the unfortunate wretch, taking a most formidable array of single and double-barrelled guns and rifles of every calibre, together with an escort of five thousand cavalry. Receiving a long shot through the thigh at the royal hands, whilst imperfectly ensconced among the foliage, the victim, abandoning all hope of escape, wisely cast away his weapons, and cried loudly for quarter; being admitted to which, he kissed the feet of His Majesty, and thus escaped his otherwise inevitable fate. To take the life of a Galla, and to secure a prisoner of either sex, are, in Amhara warfare, accounted one and the same thing; and although, where adult males are concerned, the more merciful alternative is rarely adopted, the despot, whose dreams often conjure up his past deeds of blood in judgment against him, has become more lenient than of yore. Yet the valuable presents to which the destruction of a helpless foe entitles him from every governor in the realm, the increased respect acquired in the eyes of his subjects and warriors, and the additional lustre shed over his already chivalrous reputation by each new murder, however foul, induce him still to seek occasions such as this to embrue his hands in gore. Messenger after messenger now galloped into camp at full speed, with the joyful tidings of the king's achievement, each new announcement eliciting yet louder and louder songs and shouts from the _wotzbeitoch_, eunuchs, and parasites at the royal quarters. In another hour the cavalcade returned in triumph, the wounded captive riding on a mule behind the exulting monarch, who, by virtue of his bold exploit, wore in the hair a large green branch of wild asparagus, whilst the greasy garment of his bleeding prisoner graced the proud neck of his war-steed. Repeated volleys of musketry, with the blasts of horns, and the din of kettle-drums, proclaimed the signal prowess of His Christian Majesty. Priests and women flocked to receive him with a clamour of acclamation, and he alighted amid the most stunning uproar. Through the Master of the Horse I presently received a message to the effect that the attendance of every member of the Embassy had been looked for, the Galla having been entrapped purposely that his destruction might be accomplished by the hand of the King's British visitors, in view to the exaltation of the national name. "Why tarried ye in the tent? I desired that my children might slay the heathen in the tree; but, when they came not, I myself performed the deed." I informed the puissant monarch in reply, "that, independently of its being the Sabbath, and none of the party possessing the smallest inclination to destroy a defenceless human being under any circumstances, no public body was authorised by the law of nations to draw a sword offensively in any country not in open hostility with its own. That in Shoa an elephant was esteemed equivalent to forty armed Galla, and a wild buffalo to five; and of these much-dreaded animals we were ready to destroy any number that he might think proper to permit." Great was the triumph and the quaffing of mead, and the feasting on raw beef, during the residue of the day and the early hours of the night, for, lo! the king of kings in single combat had prevailed over his Galla foe. Essential assistance had been afforded by the medical officers of the Embassy to the sick and wounded; amongst the latter, to a brother of the Queen; yet many reproaches were now abroad, in that its members had eaten the royal bread, and destroyed none of the enemies of the state. The example of other foreigners, who were represented to have shot Galla out of trees, was contrasted somewhat unfavourably to British courage; and a private of the artillery escort was roundly taxed with cowardice for permitting the escape of an unarmed peasant, who lay concealed in a bush by the way-side, and could have offered no resistance. The defenceless wretch was subsequently pursued by thirty Amhara horsemen, but escaped unscathed on foot into the forest, under a shower of their Christian lances. In all countries where a martial spirit is fostered by continual forays, and where the exertions of a single day are sufficient to maintain the successful marauder for six months to come, the daily unceasing labour of the cultivator is forsaken for the shield and spear. But in Abyssinia, where the principal booty is monopolised by the monarch, the case is widely different, since, although military expeditions are of frequent occurrence, the sword of the plunderer is as often turned again into the ploughshare--whilst the despoiled husbandman, again tilling his devastated lands, and occupying the brief intervals of peace and repose in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, the fair provinces of the Galla, flowing with milk and honey, are speedily reclothed in one sheet of luxuriant cultivation. The Abyssinians have been represented as a bold, martial, and chivalrous race--but in Shoa the "champions of the Cross" are impelled by none of that knightly valour which warmed the breast of the crusader of old. The white feather, that emblem of cowardice in other lands, forms the boast of their murderous exploits; and the system of the noble art of war would seem to consist in the merciless destruction of the enemy by sudden inroad and surprise. Harrying the invaded country with overwhelming masses of undisciplined cavalry, the only opposition to be encountered is an occasional skirmish during the night with an outlying detachment, or by day during the passage of a weak body through morasses or intricate defiles. The appearance of a foe invariably proves the signal for increased disorder, all who are so disposed sallying forth to the assault, when those who harbour animosity against a comrade not unfrequently avail themselves of the opportunity to assassinate him in the _melee_. Cruelties emanating from the hereditary detestation of the heathen, which, with the barbarous spoils earned during the foray, is handed down as an heir-loom from generation to generation, are unfortunately countenanced by the monarch, who has too often personally set the disgraceful example of mutilation; whilst the bigotry and superstition of the savage Amhara induces him to regard every pagan in the light of a dog, as doth the fanatic Moslem the Christian. The revolting barbarities practised in the hour of victory, which from time immemorial have had existence in Ethiopia, and unfortunately also over the greater portion of unhappy Africa to which discovery has yet extended, are perpetuated by the commission of similar enormities on the part of the Galla usurpers of the fairest portions of the land, who butcher children and old men without distinction, mutilate all who fall into their hands, and enslave females upon every opportunity. The rapid muster of the Amhara under their respective chieftains, the disorderly march, the rude, but for the purpose sufficient tactics, with the slaughter and devastation consequent upon success, forcibly bring to mind the wars of feudal Europe. The stimulus afforded by individual interest in the murders committed during the foray stands at present in the place of discipline, since without one or the other no army could be brought into the field. Triumph attends the return of the Christian warrior from battle in proportion to the number of lives he bears upon his arm, and for each enemy slain he is entitled to some conspicuous personal badge, which forms his greatest pride. A ring, a gauntlet, or a bracelet, gained at the expense of acts the most dastardly, raises him accordingly in the estimation of relatives and companions in arms, and signal success almost invariably paves the way to royal preferment. Discipline alone can check the prevailing barbarity, by superseding desultory hand to hand combat, and keeping every soldier in such comparative ignorance of the number that fall to his individual prowess, as to preclude the vaunting of exploits. To those especially who have been eye-witnesses of such a foray, it must afford matter for deep regret that feud and contest should hitherto so effectually have debarred access to the interior, and should have checked the advance of Christianity and civilisation, which, as in happier lands, must bring with them the means of providing for redundant population, and could not fail to ameliorate the horrors attendant upon the existing system of Abyssinian warfare. Volume Two, Chapter XXV. LIBERATION OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR. During the more than usually successful campaign of the Amhara host, an opportunity was afforded us of laying down, as scientifically as very limited time would permit, an extensive and most interesting tract of country hitherto scarcely known--not to be explored by the adventurous but single traveller, and only to be visited under the peculiar advantages afforded to the British Embassy by the despotic Negoos. We were all much disappointed that this acquaintance should not have extended to the Lake Zooai, as anticipated from the manifesto originally promulgated at Machal-wans; but Ayto Berri, many years Quarter-master-general of the royal troops, who, in his _quondam_ capacity of Mohammadan rover, had often visited that famous expanse of water, strongly discountenanced the contemplated measure of molesting the inoffensive inhabitants of its five islands--mixed Christians and pagans living in profound peace with each other, and with every surrounding neighbour. To his advice may in some measure be ascribed the alteration in the king's intentions; but the argument which had probably more weight with His Majesty than the harmless attributes of the population, was based on the dense and difficult character of the extensive forests, swarming with Galla and with wild beasts, through which the army must pass, after crossing the pillaged valley of Germama. The Christian camp at Boora Roofa was crowded with disconsolate groups of heathen captives, many with infants at their backs, and nearly all in a state of nudity, with long raven tresses streaming wildly over their shoulders. Hopeless slavery was theirs; but influenced by my earnest remonstrance, aided by the active and reverend missionary. Dr Krapf, whom philanthropic feelings had enabled to endure the uncongenial atmosphere of ignorance and unbelief--whom the purest and most praiseworthy motives had induced to obey the royal summons to the field, and who, from his long experience, knew when to touch the latent spark of mercy,--the king wiped out the foul stain of the preceding day by consenting to liberate the whole. Ere the _nugareet_ sounded the return of the troops, a proclamation went forth commanding the immediate release of every prisoner of war; and as the dissatisfied army turned its back upon the valley, long files of widowed dames and fatherless girls were to be seen hurrying in freedom across the hills towards their desolate hearths, overjoyed at the sudden and unexpected restoration of their liberty through the white man's intercession--the ruthless soldiery, disappointed at the loss of their booty, having previously stripped the last covering from all, and sent them forth naked as they came into the world. It would be superfluous to dwell upon the satisfaction which filled the breast of every member of the Embassy, at this signal victory over savage ferocity; and heartfelt were the congratulations on all sides, that Providence had permitted us to be thus instrumental in ameliorating the condition of so large a number of our fellow-creatures. A long march brought us the same day to the river Alelta, a tributary to the Nile, and forming near the encampment Lake Sertie, a full mile in diameter, bounded by low hills of trachyte and porphyry. A web of deep miry ravines, shut in by high crumbling banks, presented a wet and slippery footing, and many were the disasters that befel the demure dames of the royal kitchen. Wicker parasols might be seen floating down the current as the luckless proprietors struggled in the black slimy mud among mules and war-steeds, or emerged in truly pitiable condition to be censured by the austere guardians, who, horror-stricken, had witnessed from above the absence of all order and decorum. Each moment rendered the treacherous passage more and more impracticable; and it was not difficult to understand how, in the month of June the preceding year, the spot should have proved the grave of eight hundred of the Amhara cavalry. At that season the country, flooded for many miles around, becomes one great quagmire, which is not to be crossed without extreme caution. Before the king had passed with the main body of the victorious troops escorting immense plunder, the Sertie Galla, taking advantage of superior knowledge of the locality, completely cut off the van of the army, consisting of the Mentshar and Bulga detachments. They had become entangled in the mazy labyrinth, and were massacred to a man ere assistance could be rendered by the matchlock-men of the bodyguard, who did not reach the ground until the enemy were in full retreat. His Majesty's object in now revisiting the scene of this catastrophe was sufficiently obvious. No sooner had the imperial cavalcade halted among the bleached skeletons of the fallen warriors, than champions, whose steeds were distinguished by greasy garments stripped from the bodies of Galla victims, caracoled proudly in front of the state umbrellas, brandishing their bright weapons aloft--exhibiting the human fragments that had been won during the recent bloody foray--and after a detail of their individual exploits, shouting defiance to the humbled Sertie. The wild triumphal exhibition concluding after half an hour, a band of music advanced, and continued to play until the pavilion had been prepared for the royal reception. Early the ensuing morning the king sent confidentially to my tent, to inquire if none of his guests could divine whether the day were propitious to the advance of the army--a point upon which he felt somewhat dubious. Our confession of lamentable want of skill in augury was succeeded by a march of sixteen miles to Ellulee Jidda over a monotonous landscape of swelling downs and shallow valleys, intersected by streamlets that had scooped deep channels in the loose black soil. The stately relict of a deceased Galla chieftain rode through the ranks with her tribute in horses and kine, and experienced a most gallant reception at the hands of the monarch. She might have sat for the portrait of La Belle Sauvage, but the grease wherein the person of the handsome dame was embedded, tended unfortunately to destroy the romance inseparable from her Amazonian appearance and feudal condition. Various triumphant detachments also met the royal cortege _en route_, the chiefs and victorious warriors careering in succession before the van of the army, with green sprigs of asparagus waving above their dishevelled and newly-dressed locks. Prisoners were seated behind the cruppers of some of the more merciful, and the flank of each grey steed was dyed with clotted human gore. A short rambling recitative, expressive of loyalty and devotion in the field, was followed by savage yells and whoops, twice or thrice re-echoed by their marshalled band of followers, when they vaulted lightly from the saddle, prostrated themselves on the ground, and galloped off, each in his turn, to make way for some new squadron, whose war chorus came pealing over the hills-- "The combat's past, the fight is won, Then triumph o'er the prostrate foe; The heathen blood has freely run, Raise high the chaunt, Woko, Woko. "Let hill and dale return the note, Woko, Woko, ayah Woko; Loud ring from every Christian throat The shout of death, Woko, Woko." Whilst the army was encamping, the legion of Ayto Shishigo, rejoining the royal division with three thousand head of oxen, in like manner reported their successful exploits to the king, who, as usual, occupied the summit of an adjacent eminence. Tribute was still in a course of diligent collection, and Galla chieftains, with their hair plaited after the model of the lotus-flower, were flocking with their dues from all directions. One refractory village only, of the Jidda tribe, withholding its impost of a single horse, paid the penalty of its folly. The inhabitants fled, but their deserted houses were sacked and consigned to the flames, the stakes and palisades by which, in common with every hamlet in this direction, it was strongly fortified, affording fuel for the royal kitchen, and subsequently a scramble to one half of the army. Volume Two, Chapter XXVI. THE TRIUMPH. A long march across the Sana Robi next brought the troops to Belat, in the neighbourhood of Yeolo. His Majesty, seated upon his cushioned _alga_, halted frequently in the wide undulating meadows to witness warlike rehearsals on a still more splendid scale; on the termination of which, many of the quotas having received their dismissal, dispersed to their respective districts, although not until after one Amhara soldier had been treacherously murdered by a rival comrade, and another had been desperately wounded in a trifling dispute. Before sunrise the ensuing morning the victorious troops, reduced by one third, marched upon Angollala, driving exultingly before them upwards of thirty thousand head of cattle, the entire of which were, _par excellence_, the property of the king. Arrived within sight of the capital, strains of martial music burst from the centre division, when every throat throughout the vast army joined in one deafening chorus. Half a mile to the south of the Galla wall a tent had been erected, to which His Majesty retiring for a few minutes, arrayed himself preparatory to the triumphal entry; and the various leaders, at the head of their respective squadrons, meanwhile took up the position allotted in the coming pageant. As the state umbrellas, preceded by the ark of Saint Michael, passed through the Ankober gate of the defences, the assembled chiefs and warriors who had been most distinguished during the successful foray, arrayed in the glittering badges of former achievements in arms, placed themselves in advance. One hundred gore-stained steeds, resplendent with trappings and brass ornaments, and fancifully caparisoned in gay cloths and chintz housings, bounded and pranced gallantly under this chosen band of proud cavaliers, who, with lances couched, and party coloured robes flaunting in the wind, slowly curvetted over the verdant carpet of turf. Their glossy black hair, loaded with feathers and green branches in token of recent triumph, and their variously emblazoned shields, glancing brightly in the sun-beams, they rent the air with shrill whoops and yells, responded at frequent intervals by loud shouts of welcome from the palace, and from all parts of the town; whilst the dense phalanx of warriors in the rear--their forest of lances partially obscured under a thick canopy of dust--pressing tumultuously forward, and pouring the wildest war-songs from ten thousand throats, completed one of the most brilliant and savage exhibitions that can be conceived. The king was enrobed in the ample spoils of a noble Hon, richly ornamented, and half concealing beneath their tawny folds an embroidered green mantle of Indian manufacture. On his right shoulder he wore three chains of gold as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, and the fresh-plucked bough of asparagus, which denoted his recent exploit, rose from the centre of an embossed coronet of silver. His dappled war-steed, bedizened with housings of blue and yellow, was led prancing beside him, and immediately in advance bounded the champion, on a coal-black charger, bearing the imperial shield of massive silver, with the sacred emblem of Christianity in high relief, whilst his long plaited raven locks floated wildly behind, over the spotted hide of a panther, by which his broad shoulders were graced. Abogaz Maretch and Ayto Berkie rode on either side of the crimson _debaboch_, and a marshalled line of shield-bearers, under the Master of the Horse, preserved a clear space around the royal person until the cavalcade had gained the stockaded knoll, upon the summit of which the palace is erected. Here a deputation of priests, clad in snow-white garments, received the victorious monarch with a blessing, and under a volley of musketry. His Majesty proceeded to ascend. The outer court was crowded with female slaves, beggars, and menials, who, on the first appearance of the umbrellas within the gate, greeted the royal return with the shrillest clamour, and cast themselves prostrate in the dust. Fusiliers and matchlock-men of the imperial body-guard lined the second palisaded enclosure, and under a _feu-de-joie_, their leader, performing the war-dance before the holy ark, led the procession to the last enclosure, where the king being met by the eunuchs of the royal household, entered the palace by a private door, and surrounded by pages and attendants, presently took seat in a high latticed balcony fronting the inner quadrangle. Full in the centre stood a gigantic drum, whereat twelve old hags thumped unceasingly with crossed hands, keeping time energetically with their feet, whilst, under the most frightful contortions and gesticulations, they cursed and screamed defiance to the enemies of the state. Sixty concubines, their faces besmeared with red ochre and grease, and their frizzled locks white under a coat of lard, sang and danced with increasing vehemence their shrill melody, regulated by the drum, now dwindling into recitative, now bursting forth into a deafening chorus. Around this strange group, the dismounted cavaliers formed fifteen deep, and filling the entire court, poised each his trophy of blood aloft upon the glittering point of his lance; and as the whole danced, and whooped, and howled like wild beasts, warrior after warrior, springing with a fiendish yell into the centre of the ring, cast his prize contemptuously upon the ground, and kissing the dust, did abject homage at the feet of the triumphant despot. "Behold in me the king's great warrior," now resounded from every quarter. "I it was who slew his enemy in the open field, or speared him in the burning hut. May victory ever attend his armies in the battle! May Sahela Selassie reign for ever!" A general shout and clashing of shields, with the sudden cessation of the wild music, announced the close of this savage pageant. The curtain dropped before the monarch, and, as the actors dispersed rapidly to the right and to the left, the discharge of an old dismounted iron gun, which, vertically elevated against a stone, was revealed at the further extremity of the court, announced to the public that the tragedy of "the Royal Robber" had been performed with the most brilliant success, and would be repeated again during the season. Rumours of the destruction of the entire Christian host had flown to Angollala in consequence of the Negoos having, for the first time in his life, passed the night apart from his baggage; and the grief and consternation which prevailed during six days, had only been dispelled by the unexpected and triumphant return of the victorious army. Evil omens had, indeed, resounded through the departing camp, but destiny had been satisfied with a youthful scion of the royal stock; and although the weapons of a lost descendant of the house of Solomon adorned the rude walls of the pagan Galla, still fire and sword had ravaged their fair country; and the rich booty with which the adjacent meadows were profusely dotted, proclaimed a harvest which, during thirty years, and eighty-four successive expeditions, had not been eclipsed in the annals of Amhara bloodshed and rapine. Volume Two, Chapter XXVII. NUPTIALS IN HIGH LIFE. Ayto Hierat's crime brought its own punishment. The prominent part he had taken in the event at Boora Roofa, which had so recently covered his royal master with glory, could hardly be suffered to pass unrequited, and three days after the return of the expedition to Angollala, he was accordingly honoured with the hand of Woizoro Belete Shatchau [Anglice, "Superior to all,"] a shrew possessing the most diabolical of tempers, whom two husbands had already divorced, although a princess of the blood royal. On the morning appointed for the nuptials, we received an early summons to the palace, in order to witness the ceremony. The throne was tricked out with unusual gaiety for the occasion, and the king, covering his mouth with a fold of his striped mantle according to undeviating wont, was still in the hands of the barber, who, having curled the last lock, was adjusting the green _sareti_. The court-yard was already crowded with spectators, and a numerous train of female slaves, who had entered by a side door, were arranging themselves in front. The quaint, loose chemises of blue and red, with broad white borders, which formed the attire of all, imparted a most grotesque appearance, and each carried on her woolly head a large wicker basket, ornamented with bead draperies arranged in every variety of fanciful vandyke. These antique figures and their burdens constituted the dower of the bride, whose wedding garments we had supplied, and who presently entered, riding upon a white mule, gaily tricked out in forked housings, chains, and brass bells. The Princess Worka Ferri [i.e. Golden Fruit], her sister, followed upon a second, similarly caparisoned; and both ladies were distinguished by large _aftabgirs_ of crimson silk, as well as by a cowl of silver network which covered the hair, and terminated in a tiara of pendants and globules falling over the forehead. A crimson-striped robe formed the costume of each, and their naturally plain faces were rendered hideous by a coat of red ochre with blue-stained arches in the place of eyebrows, which it is the fashion of Shoa to pluck out. Next in order came the royal band of music, with numerous mounted female attendants clad in pea-green vests. A dance and vocal chorus was continued during a quarter of an hour, to the dissonant thunder of the war drum; and as the umbrellas filed slowly across the court through the opposite wicket, the happy bridegroom approached the throne, and did homage to the sovereign who had thus rewarded his services by alliance. The presence of the priest is so far from being held indispensable, that a wedded pair forms a rare phenomenon in Abyssinia. No marriage rites whatever solemnised this union; and the shrew, in full procession, proceeded straightway to spend the honeymoon at the abode of her third husband, who, following at a respectful distance, exhibited in his features small anticipation of conjugal felicity. Descending through the great gate, a train of dirty cook-boys led the van, bearing on their heads pots, pans, and culinary utensils. One hundred female slaves followed, carrying baskets of bread, vessels of hydromel, bedding, wearing apparel, and other baggage required on the journey. Next came the band of flutes in full play, and immediately behind, the amiable bride herself, most aptly styled "superior to all." Two maids of honour, bearing decorated barillas of choice wine from the royal cellars, rode on either side of their mistress. Numerous mounted Amazons--musty-looking Ethiopic figures in blue and white smocks, and party-coloured bead helmets--kept the inquisitive crowd at a distance with their long white wands; whilst an escort of three hundred chosen spearmen, flanked by nobles, eunuchs, and pages on horseback, brought up the rear, amid the thumping of _nugareet_ from the hill top, and the shrill acclamations of the entire female population of the town, which rung from every eminence in honour of the nuptials of Princess Belete Shatchau. "My Galla subjects revolted," exclaimed the despot tauntingly, as soon as the wedding was over--"My Galla tributaries revolted: I have played them one trick, and I will shortly play them another." The customary congratulations after a victory were offered in the words, "God has aided your arms." "Yes," replied the monarch; "the God of my fathers has assisted me--I have slain four thousand six hundred of mine enemies, and have captured thirty-seven thousand and forty-two head of cattle." When complimenting the king on the clemency extended towards the prisoners of war, who had on this occasion been released for the first time during his reign, I did not lose the opportunity of commenting upon the destruction of innocent and helpless children, as being a most inhuman practice, and one quite unworthy of the Christian warrior. The despot smiled, as if half ashamed; and looking down, replied, "I am aware that it is bad, but in all countries we must conform to the customs that prevail. The Galla destroy the Amhara without discrimination, and we do but retaliate. You must all accompany me on my next campaign in January. I shall build a fortified house at Karabarek, and you must there tarry with me. Whenever you are present I will release the captives." During the absence of the army at Garra Gorphoo, one of the Mohammadan inhabitants of Argobba had been waylaid and wantonly murdered by the Adaiel, who are in constant feud with the frontier population of Efat. The relations and clansmen of the deceased surprised the village to which the assassins belonged, and, in revenge, slew sixteen persons. Wulasma Mohammad succeeded, after much difficulty, in apparently pacifying the lowland tribe, who had in their turn sworn upon the Koran to take bloody vengeance; but no sooner had he returned from the border, than thirteen Moslem females, proceeding from the town of Channoo to draw water in the wady, were barbarously butchered at the well. This tragedy being followed by an application for troops to chastise the delinquents, now induced the remark, that "if the Adaiel could see one fourth of the Amhara host, they would cease to trouble the frontier." "No," replied His Majesty, "it will not do. My grandfather tried his arms with the people below, but he was surprised, and lost four thousand men and six thousand oxen in the bed of a dry ravine. The water of the _kwalla_ [i.e. Low valleys] is putrid, and the air hot and unwholesome. Noxious vapours arise during the night, and the people die from fever. We fear their sultry climate and their dense forests, and their mode of warfare. They leave open only one avenue; and when the Christians enter the thicket, breaking short their lances, they rush in and fight at close quarters. No one can stand against them. Our muskets avail nothing, by reason of the trees and bushes. Furthermore, the Adaiel are subtle in strong medicines. They poison the wells with drugs, and corrupt the water with magic spells and enchantments. It is their wont to mix together the flesh of a black dog, a cat, and a certain forest bird. This they strew craftily about the ground, and whoso eateth thereof, becomes instantly insane and dies." According to the etiquette of the court, I now placed at the foot of the throne the presents which custom enforces after a victory. "My son," resumed the king, "I am your father. I am rich. You have already given me too much, and I desire not your property. I wish only for your love, and for that of your nation. I am fully aware of the objects of your residence in my kingdom. I have seen your character, and know that you will slay elephants, and buffalos, and wild beasts. You must not go away, but accompany me on many more expeditions. You have now seen much people. You must go with me to Gurague, where you will behold other tribes, and a far more extensive country. I shall build a wall. My father subdued all the population of Shoa, and I fear no enemy to the south, in Gurague, Enarea, or Zingero. None can stand before me. The Adaiel and the people of Geshe [a province on the northern frontier of Shoa] alone contend with me. In Geshe they have large shields, and fight hand to hand. The country of the Adel is difficult of access, and unfortunate for the Amhara. It is an old dependency of the empire of my ancestors; but the men are brave, and stand firm in battle. They will not run away." Volume Two, Chapter XXVIII. CHRONICLE OF THE INVASION OF MOHAMMAD GRAAN. In connection with the foregoing remarks respecting the inhabitants of the lowlands, it is now desirable to sketch, for the reader's information, some of those early hostilities between the Mohammadans and Christians, which find a record in the meagre annals of Abyssinia. They led, in the sixteenth century, to an event so often alluded to in these pages,--the invasion of Graan, "the Left-handed," whose irruptions proved the greatest calamity that ever befel the country. The allegiance claimed from the Adaiel by the emperors of Ethiopia is known to have been evaded at a very remote period. Ages ago gold was returned for gold, apparel for apparel; and the intractable Moslems were studiously kept in good humour whensoever they thought proper to visit the Christian court. Their revenues arose chiefly from the supply of camels for the transport of merchandise to various parts of Africa, and from the importation of fossil salt, which then, as now, passed instead of silver currency, and for which they purchased slaves, together with the rich staples of the interior. Thus the interests of Adel and of Abyssinia have always been so intimately linked, that the declaration of war was certain to prove disastrous alike to the victor and to the vanquished, since it must have interfered equally with the commerce by which both were enriched. Nevertheless, upon all suitable opportunities, the fanatic lowlanders, urged by religious hate, plundered the Christian churches, and massacred or tortured the priests, until they at length drew upon themselves a war of extermination. The Abyssinian chroniclers state that Amda Zion, who died at Tegulet about the middle of the fourteenth century, first made a retributive inroad, in consequence of his rebellious vassals having, amongst many other derogatory expressions, taunted him as "an eunuch, fit only to take care of women." But the Emperor was never beaten. He overran and laid waste the plains from the mountains to the borders of the ocean, and swept off to the highlands a prodigious amount of cattle. Every species of enormity appears to have been practised in retaliation by the Amhara, who were commanded to "leave nothing alive that drew the breath of life." This behest was obeyed with all the rage and cruelty that revenge and a difference of religion could inspire; and before the termination of the campaign, the dauntless young King of Wypoo had been slain, together with Saleh, the King of Mara, who boasted descent in a direct line from the Apostle. Constant commercial intercourse had long been maintained between Cairo and Abyssinia, both across the desert and by way of the Red Sea. Great caravans, composed formerly of Pagans, but now of Mohammadans, passed in without molestation, and dispersed Indian manufactures through the heart of Africa. Friars, priests, nuns, and pious laymen, in vast numbers, also set out annually on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, whither, with drums beating before the holy cross, they proceeded by the route of Suakem, making long halts for the performance of divine service. But with the power of the Mamelukes, all communication across the desert, whether for commercial or religious purposes, was closed to the Christians. After the conquest of Egypt and Arabia by Selim the First, caravans were invariably attacked, the old were butchered, and the young swept into slavery; for the Emperor of the Ottomans, fully imbued with the merciless bigotry of his creed, held it a sacred duty to convert by the sword the subjects of a monarch whose ancestor had been honoured with the correspondence of the great founder of the Saracen empire. Many Arabian merchants, flying about the same period from the violence and injustice of the Turkish tyrants, had sought an asylum in the opposite African states, whereupon the Ottomans took possession, from Aden, of the seaport of Zeyla, and not only laid the Indian trade under heavy contributions, by means of their galleys cruising in the narrow straits of Bab el Mandeb, but threatened the conquest both of Adel and Abyssinia. Betwixt these countries there subsisted peace from the death of Amda Zion to the middle of the fifteenth century. Towards the close of the reign of Zara Yacoob, who founded Debra Berhan, the flame of discord was again fanned by a certain queen of Zeyla, who is said to have aspired to the hand of the Emperor; but the Christian arms were still in the ascendant. Baeda Mariam, the next occupant of the throne, passed his life in a constant struggle to assert supremacy over the low country; and, on his death-bed, he caused himself to be so turned that his face might be towards the sandy deserts of the Adaiel, to whose subjugation his whole energies had for ten years been devoted. Mafoodi's inroads, it has been seen, commenced during the reign of Alexander. They continued, with increasing horrors, throughout that of his successor Naod. Nebla Dengel being only eleven years of age when called to the throne, Helena, his mother, ruled during his minority. Albuquerque was at that period viceroy of India, and to him the queen-dowager sent to implore assistance for troubled Abyssinia. Arriving at Goa, the ambassador announced himself to be the bearer of "a fragment of wood belonging to the true Cross on which Christ died, which relic had been sent, as a token of friendship to her brother Emmanuel, by the Empress over Ethiopia;" and this overture was in due time followed by the arrival at Massowah of an embassy from the King of Portugal. Father Alvarez has recorded the unfavourable reception experienced in Shoa at the hands of the young emperor, who could never be brought to recognise his mother's proceedings, which had led to this influx of foreigners. At the age of sixteen, having adopted the title of _Wanag Suggud_, signifying "feared among the lions," he had taken the field in person against Mafoodi, who, backed by the rebellious King of Adel, still continued his wasting inroads on the Christian frontier. At the opening of the campaign, this fanatic, who had resolved either to conquer or to die a martyr to his religion, threw the gauntlet of defiance to the Christian chivalry, and it was instantly accepted. The infidel was slain in single combat by the monk Gabriel, a soldier of tried valour, who had assumed the monastic cap during the preceding reign in consequence of having been deprived of the tip of his tongue for treasonable freedom of speech. Cutting off the head of this vanquished antagonist, he now threw it at the feet of his royal master, and exclaimed, "Behold, sire, the Goliath of the Infidels!" The green standard of the Prophet and of the faith was taken, twelve thousand of the Moslem were slain, and the youthful emperor, in defiance, struck his lance through the door of the King of Adel. The monk who had thus delivered Abyssinia from her worst scourge, was welcomed with the applause of the whole nation. Maidens pressed forward to strew flowers in his path, and matrons celebrating his achievements with songs, placed garlands on his head, and held out their babes to gaze at the warrior as he passed. It was shortly after the departure of the Portuguese embassy that Graan, "the Left-handed"--then King of Adel--made his first appearance on the Ethiopian stage, where he was long the principal actor. In league with the Turkish Bashaw on the coast of Arabia, this mighty warrior sent his Abyssinian prisoners to Mecca, and in return was furnished with a large body of Janissaries, at the head of whom he burst into Efat and Fatigar, drove off the population, and laid waste the country with fire. In 1528 he took possession of Shoa, overran Amhara, burnt all the churches, and swept off immense booty. In his next campaign the invader wintered in Begemeder, and the following year hunted the emperor like a wild beast through Tigre to the borders of Sennaar, gave battle to the royal troops on the banks of the Nile, with his own hand slew the monk Gabriel, who had vanquished Mafoodi in single combat, cut the army to pieces, practised every species of atrocity, and set fire to half the churches in Abyssinia. Famine and plague now raged, and carried off those whom the sword had spared. The princes of the blood were all destroyed; Axum was burnt, and the monarch himself, after being compelled to take refuge in the wilderness, was finally slain. With him died also the boasted splendour of the Abyssinian court, for he was the last monarch of Ethiopia who displayed the magnificence of a "king of kings." Markos, the aged Archbishop, had, on his deathbed, appointed as his successor John Bermudez, a Portuguese who had been detained in the country, and at the request of Claudius, who succeeded to the empire, he now proceeded to Europe to obtain assistance. Don Christopher de Gama, with five hundred soldiers, obtained possession of Massowah, slew the governor, and sent his head to Gondar, where, as an early pledge of future victory, it was received with raptures by the queen. The general was shortly confronted by Graan in person. Artillery and muskets were for the first time opposed in Abyssinia; and the Portuguese leader being wounded, took refuge in a cave. Deaf to persuasion, he refused to seek safety in flight; and a Turkish lady of extraordinary beauty, whom he had made prisoner, and who had affected conversion to Christianity, shortly betrayed him to the enemy. He was carried before Graan, who, with his left hand cut off his head, and sent it to Constantinople, his body being quartered, and sent in portions to Arabia. But the Portuguese were far from being disheartened by this grievous misfortune, and the armies were shortly in a position again to try their strength. Before the engagement had well commenced, Peter Lyon, a marksman of low stature, but passing valiant withal, who had been valet to Don Christopher, having stolen unperceived along the dry channel of a ravine, shot Graan through the body. He fell from his horse some distance in advance of the troops, and the soldier, cutting off one of the infidel's ears, put it into his pocket. This success was followed by the total rout of the Mohammadans; and an Abyssinian officer of rank finding the body of the redoubted chief, took possession of his mutilated head, which he laid at the feet of the Emperor in proof of his claim to the merit of the achievement. Having witnessed in silence the impudence of his rival, the valet produced the trophy from his pocket, with the observation that His Majesty doubtless knew Graan sufficiently well to be quite certain, "that he would suffer no one to cut off his ear that possessed not the power to take his head also." Delivered from his enemy, Claudius now sought to repair the ravages which had been committed in his country. A total eclipse of the sun shortly afterwards threw both army and court into consternation--every ignorant monk who practised divination declaring the phenomenon to portend another invasion from the lowlanders. But in spite of this prophecy an interchange of prisoners took place. Del Wumbarea, the widow of Graan, had thrown herself into the wilds of Atbara, and her son Ali Jeraad, who was made prisoner after his father fell, being now set at liberty, Prince Menas, only brother to the emperor, was released from his captivity in the sultry deserts of Adel, whither he had been carried during the reign of Nebla Dengel. I Noor, the Ameer of Hurrur, who was deeply enamoured of Del Wumbarea, had proved the means of her escape from the fatal field whereon her husband died. The heroine now pledged her hand in marriage to him who should lay the head of Claudius at her feet; and Noor instantly sent a message of defiance to the emperor, who was engaged in rebuilding the celebrated church of Debra-work, "the mountain of gold," which had been burnt by the infidels. Claudius, who had almost by a miracle rescued Abyssinia from the Mohammadans, marched instantly to accept the challenge. Many prophecies were current amongst the soldiery that the campaign was to prove unfortunate, and the hot-headed monarch to lose his life; but he laughed at these monkish predictions, declaring an honourable death to be infinitely preferable to the longest and most prosperous reign. The rival armies were on the point of engaging, in the year 1559, when the high priest of Debra Libanos rushed before the emperor to declare a vision, in which the angel Gabriel had warned him not to suffer the king of the church of Ethiopia to expose himself in a needless fight. Thus discouraged, the cowardly Abyssinians instantly fled, leaving Claudius supported only by a handful of Portuguese soldiers, who were soon slain around his person, and he immediately afterwards fell, covered with wounds. His head was cut off, and laid by Noor at the feet of Del Wumbarea, who, in observance of her pledge, became his wife, and with truly savage ferocity commanded the trophy to be suspended by the hair to the branches of a tree before her door, in order that her eyes might continually be gladdened by the sight. It hung in this position during three years, ere it was purchased by an Armenian merchant, who caused it to be interred in the holy sepulchre of Saint Claudius at Antioch; and the name of the hero who had been victorious in every action save that in which he died, has since been enrolled in the voluminous catalogue of Abyssinian saints, where it now occupies a conspicuous place, as the destroyer of Mohammad, surnamed "the Left-handed." To the present day the most preposterous legends are believed with reference to the personal prowess of this fierce invader, his gigantic stature, and the colossal size of his steed. He is said to have wielded a brand twenty feet in length; and although it is matter of notoriety that he fell in the manner above narrated, by the hand of a Portuguese soldier, he is represented to have received no fewer than four thousand musket bullets before yielding up the ghost. The supernatural achievements of Graan are handed down to posterity in an extant Amharic volume; and his inroads gave birth in the mind of the people of Shoa to a superstitious dread of the Adaiel, such as was long entertained of the Turks in Northern Europe, and which it has been seen extends even to the warlike monarch. Volume Two, Chapter XXIX. PROCEEDINGS AT ANGOLLALA. Certain Abyssinian potentates of old are recorded by their biographers to have bestowed in religious charity all their worldly substance, saving the crown upon their heads. But such will never be said of Sahela Selassie, whose endowments, although frequent, are invariably regulated by prudence. Avarice stigmatises his every gift, and even adulterates the incense of his sacrifice. The countless droves of sturdy beeves which now ranged over the royal meadows were daily inspected with evident signs of satisfaction; but whilst the sleekest were distributed over the various pasture-lands, the leanest kine were despatched to the several churches and monasteries, as offerings after the successful campaign. At this season of rejoicing and festivity, the host of loathsome objects that habitually infest the outer court, or crawl in quest of alms around the precincts of the palace, had increased to a surprising extent, in order to share the royal bounty. Swarms of itinerant paupers, who bivouacked under the old Galla wall, sang psalms and hymns in the streets during the entire night; and long before dawn the clamour commenced around the tents of a throng of mendicants, resembling the inmates of a lazar-house, who, with insolent importunity, reiterated their adjurations for relief by Georgis, Miriam, Michael, and every other saint in the Abyssinian calendar. Many petty pilferings were of course committed by this ragged congregation; and a deputation of the inhabitants of Angollala soon presented a petition to the throne, praying for the dismissal of the vagrants, who had become an intolerable public nuisance. On the festival of Tekla Haimanot we received an invitation to witness the distribution of royal alms, which was to be followed by a beggars' feast. The wonted inmates of the palisaded enclosure were no longer there, but their place was occupied by a shoal of even more wretched beings, just imported with a caravan from Gurague. Upwards of six hundred slaves, of every age, from childhood to maturity, and most of them in a state of perfect nudity, who had been snatched by the hand of avarice from the fair land of their birth, were here huddled together under the eye of the rover for inspection by the officers of the crown, preparatory to being driven to market; and the forlorn and destitute appearance both of old and young, stamped them objects but too well fitted for participation in the charity of a Christian monarch. Immediately on our arrival within the court-yard of the palace, we were conducted by the king to the royal bedchamber--a gloomy apartment, lighted chiefly by the blaze of an iron chafing-dish, and shared not only by a Moolo Falada cat, with a large family of kittens, but by three favourite war-steeds, whose mangers were in close proximity to the well-screened couch. Cleanliness did not characterise the warm curtains; and although cotton cloth had been pasted round the mud walls for the better exclusion of the wind, an air of peculiar discomfort was present. A rickety _alga_ in one corner, a few hassocks covered with black leather, an Ethiopic version of the Psalms of David, and a carpet consisting of withered rushes, were the only furniture; and the dismal aspect of the room was further heightened by the massive doors and treble palisades which protect the slumbers of the suspicious despot. The mystery of our introduction into the precincts of the harem, was presently explained by the appearance of one of the young princes of the blood royal, who had arrived in the course of the morning, and, with eyes veiled, was now led in by a withered eunuch, in order that he might receive medical assistance. Saifa Selassie, "the sword of the Trinity," is an extremely aristocratic and fine-looking youth, about twelve years of age, possessing the noble features of his sire, with the advantage of a very fair instead of a swarthy complexion. Beneath a red chintz vest of Arabian manufacture, he wore a striped cotton robe, which fell in graceful folds from the girdle, and from the crown of the head a tassel of minutely-braided locks streamed to the middle of his back. "This is the light of mine eyes, and dearer to me than life itself," exclaimed the king, withdrawing the bandage, and caressing the boy with the utmost fondness--"Give him the medicine that removes ophthalmia, or he, too, will be blind like his father." I assured His Majesty that no alarm need be entertained; and that although the cause was to be regretted, the day which had brought us the honour of an interview with the young prince could not but be deemed one of the highest good fortune. Much affected by this intimation, he laid his hand upon my arm, and replied, "We do not yet know each other as we ought, but we shall daily become better and better acquainted." "Whence comes this _maskal_?" resumed the inquisitive monarch, raising a Catholic cross devoutly to his lips, as the royal scion was reconducted by the shrivelled attendant towards the apartments of the queen--"to what nation does it belong?" "It is the emblem of those who, in their attempts to propagate the Romish religion in Ethiopia, caused rivers of blood to flow," was the reply. "No matter," exclaimed His Majesty, in rebuke to the Mohammadan dragoman who would fain have assisted in the restoration of the paper envelope--"How dost thou dare to profane the holy cross? These are Christians, and may touch it, but thou art an unbeliever." The votaries of Saint Giles had, meanwhile, been ushered through a private wicket, and in the adjacent enclosure offered a most revolting spectacle. The palsied, the leprous, the scrofulous, and those in the most inveterate stages of dropsy and elephantiasis, were mingled with mutilated wretches who had been bereft of hands, feet, eyes, and tongue, by the sanguinary tyrants of Northern Abyssinia, and who bore with them the severed portions, in order that their bodies might be perfect at the Day of Resurrection. The old, the halt, the deaf, the noseless, and the dumb, the living dead in every shape and form, were still streaming through the narrow door; limbless trunks were borne onwards upon the spectres of mules, asses, and horses, and the blind, in long Indian file, rolling their ghastly eyeballs, and touching each the shoulder of his sightless neighbour, groped their way towards the hum of voices, to add new horrors to the appalling picture. An annual muster-roll being kept as a check, all who were ascertained to have been participators in the distribution of the preceding year were unceremoniously ejected by the myrmidons of the purveyor-general, who has ever the interests of the state revenues warmly at heart. The mendicants were next classed in squads according to their diseases, and the dwarf father confessor, by no means the least frightful object in the assembly, proceeded, in capacity of king's almoner, to dispense the royal bounty. Sheep, clothes, and money, were distributed with a judicious hand, each donation made being carefully registered by the scribes in attendance; and half-baked bread, raw beef, and sour beer, in quantities sufficient to satisfy every monk and beggar in the realm, having been heaped outside the palace gate, all ate their fill, and dispersed. Next to the merciful disposition of Sahela Selassie, his munificence to the indigent may be ranked among his most prominent virtues. Whilst the needy never retire empty-handed from his door, no criminal ever suffers under the barbarous mutilation, so many distressing monuments of which had this day shared his liberality. Blood flowing from the veins of a subject finds no pleasure in the eyes of the ruler of Shoa. Under his sway the use of the searing iron has become obsolete, and the sickening sentence is unknown which in the northern states condemns the culprit to the wrenching off of hands and feet, whereof the teguments have previously been severed with a razor at the wrist and ankle. But widely opposed are the views of humanity entertained in different climes; and the scene that awaited our return from the banquet, although in strict accordance with retributive justice, was in appalling contrast with the more merciful fiat of civilised jurisprudence. A warrior had been convicted upon undeniable evidence of the murder of his comrade in arms, with whom he had lived for years on terms of the closest intimacy. During the recent campaign, he had gone with this companion into the wood, and taking advantage of the opportunity afforded by hostilities with the Galla, had felled the unsuspecting man to the earth with a blow of his sword. Fame, such as is only to be acquired by the slaughter of the foe, prompted the dastardly outrage; and the treacherous assassin who had embrued his hands in the blood of his dearest friend, now placed the green trophy of valour triumphantly on his guilty head. "Where is thy brother?" was the question that awaited his return to the camp; but, like Cain of old, he denied all knowledge of what had befallen the absentee; and it was not until the body had been discovered, that suspicion fell heavily upon himself. Mourning relatives threw themselves in sackcloth at the imperial footstool, and cried aloud for the blood of the prisoner. Arraigned before the monarch, the investigation had been patiently conducted during the beggars feast, and the "Fetha Negest" having been duly consulted, the sentence proceeded from the royal lips--"Take him hence, and deal with him as you will." The last sun that was to shine upon the malefactor was sinking fast towards the western horizon, when, with hands bound behind his back, he was hurried from the presence for instant execution. Its rising rays had seen him seated at the door of the hut, whilst his young wife adorned his locks with the newly-plucked branch of asparagus, that was the record of his infamy, but the meridian beam had witnessed his arrest. The relatives of the murdered, and a band of the king's headsmen, each armed with shield and broad-headed spear, now formed a close phalanx round him as he proceeded with the stoicism of the savage to meet his well-merited doom; and an infuriated mob followed, to heap taunts and ignominy upon his numbered moments. Impatient of delay, the friends of the deceased were about to immolate their victim on the meadow close to the encampment of the Embassy; but adjured by the life of the monarch, they urged the culprit over the rocky mound adjoining the Galla wall, which was already crowded with a vast concourse of spectators, burning for the consummation of the last sentence of the law. Scarcely had the unresisting criminal passed the summit, than an eager hand stripped the garment from his shoulder, and twenty bright spears being poised at the moment, he turned his head to the one side, to receive a deep stab on the other. Whilst still reeling, a dozen blades were sheathed in his heart, and a hundred more transfixed the prostrate body. Swords flashed from the crooked scabbard--the quivering corse was mutilated in an instant, and on the next the exulting executioners took their way from the gore-stained ground, bearing the trophy aloft, as they howled with truly savage satisfaction the Christian chorus of death! Mother, sisters, and wives, now flocked around the lifeless clay, rending the air with their piercing shrieks.--"Alas! the brave have fallen, the spirit of the bold has fled." "_Waiye, waiye_--woe unto us, we have lost the son of our declining years"--"our brother and our husband is gone for ever!" Bared breasts were beaten and scarified, and temples were torn with the nails until the evening closed, and it was dark when the mourners ceased their shrill lamentation. But the turbaned priest was not there; no absolution had been given, nor had the last sacrament been partaken; and the unhallowed remains of the murderer would have found a tomb in the maw of the hyena and the vulture, had not a charitable hand enclosed them under a cairn of stones by the highway side, where many a grass-grown mound marks the fate of the cowardly assassin, who had destroyed his brother in the wood, and whose memory is coupled with dishonour. Volume Two, Chapter XXX. TRIUMPHAL ENTRY TO THE CAPITAL. "Reculer pour mieux sauter," is a maxim strictly in accordance with His Majesty's notions of strategy. Twenty days had elapsed since the return of the expedition, when the arrival before the palace of six thousand head of cattle proclaimed the success of a second sweeping foray directed against the Ekka and Finfinni Galla. A Mohammadan merchant residing at Roque, the market town and great slave-mart of Yerrur, was suspected of having with his own hand slain the son of Ayto Besuehnech, grand-nephew to the king--this youth having pressed on far in advance of his comrades in pursuit of the retreating pagans. To avenge his untimely death, a detachment, consisting of five thousand horse, was despatched under the command of Aytos Berkie, Chilo, and Dogmo, the government of which latter chief had previously been extended in acknowledgment of his recent services. They made a forced march through Bulga, and although foiled in their principal object by the precipitate flight of the rover whose life they sought, the whole of his family and followers were massacred, his effects plundered, and his house burnt to the ground. The survivors of the Ekka and Finfinni tribes, believing the fatal storm to be expended, had already returned with the residue of their flocks and herds, and were actively engaged in restoring their dilapidated habitations, when the Amhara hordes again burst over their fair valley, slew six hundred souls, and captured all the remaining cattle, thus completing the chastisement of these devoted clans, who, notwithstanding the generous restoration of their enslaved families, had failed to make submission--and redeeming the royal pledge "to play the rebels another trick." The king had not honoured Ankober with his presence since the arrival in Shoa of the British Embassy, but His Majesty now announced his intention of entering the capital in triumph. Thinly attended, and unscreened by the state umbrellas, he issued at sunrise on horseback through the _sirkosh ber_, the only addition to his usual costume being a plume of nine feathers stripped from the _Rasa_, or egret, which were worn in the hair in token of his recent prowess at Boora Roofa. Putting his horse into a gallop, he never drew bridle until stopped by the Bereza, many parties under governors of the adjacent districts joining the royal _cortege_ from various quarters, and swelling the retinue to two thousand equestrians, who continued at a furious pace to clatter over the stony ground. Mosabeit, a village standing on a peninsula formed by the junction of the Toro Mesk water with the Bereza, imparts its name to this, the most direct road from Angollala to Ankober. The river forded, the king mounted his mule, and diverging to the right, passed through a valley studded with hamlets, the inhabitants of which, male and female, came forth with many prostrations to the earth, whilst the women raised their voices together in the usual ringing _heleltee_. On all occasions of rejoicing and ceremony, whether on the successful return of the monarch or of the warrior, or on the sight of a passing procession, the ladies of Abyssinia, with their characteristic love of noise, thus burst forth into a thrilling clamour of welcome, moving the tongue with more than ordinary volubility against the palate, and producing a continuous succession of tremulous notes. One watchful dame on the outskirts perceives the approach of the cavalcade, and forthwith gives out her wild screech of warning. In a moment the mountain side is covered with every female within hearing; the _Hil! lil! lil_! progresses fast and furious as they bend nearly double to assist in upraising the yelling chorus; tears stream from their eyes in the violence of the exertion, and far and near the hills resound with the gathered volume of their shrill throats. The king halted for a moment at a pile of stones by the way-side, covered with rags, feathers, and flowers, to which every devout Christian adds his tribute whilst saluting it with his lips. It points to the white-roofed church of Saint Michael the Archangel, peeping through a dark clump of junipers at some distance from the road, and many were the fervent kisses of adoration bestowed by the triumphant warriors. A little beyond, a large black cross on the summit of a tumulus directs attention to the residence of Ayto Berri, quarter-master-general of the Amhara forces. Here His Majesty again diverged, in order to lead the cavalcade through the most thickly populated tract; and after resting for half an hour in the Ungua-mesk, one of the many royal meadows, now black with the Galla herds, he turned suddenly off to the Motatit road, according to his invariable custom, when proceeding to the capital after a successful foray. The Arsiamba, styled at its point of intersection with the route usually pursued, _Ya Wurjoch Maderia_, the "resting-place of merchants," is a singular cataract rolling over columnar basalt, of which the ribbed cliffs on either side are thronged by bees. But by far the most interesting object is a certain white pillar, overgrown with nettles, standing at the foot of the hills which bound the Ungua-mesk. It is designated "Graan's stone," and is famous from an existing tradition that the Moslem invader tied his war-horse to it on the occasion of his leading the Adaiel to the destruction of Debra Berhan. Abundantly cultivated, and rich in grazing land, the tract we had passed over is throughout so destitute of trees and even of bushes, that the inhabitants employ no other fuel than dried manure. Arrived at the summit of the Chaka mountain, where straggling _cossos_ break the monotony of the landscape, many hundred females, assembled from the numerous villages in the vicinity, lining the surrounding heights, again kept up one continued cry. It was drowned at intervals by discharges of musketry which echoed among the broken glens as the despot descended; and, preceded by a war-dance, wherein all the warriors joined, he finally took up his quarters for the night in a house separated by a deep valley from the capital. Early the ensuing morning we rode out to the Chaffa meadow at the foot of the palace, to meet and welcome His Majesty, who, after arraying himself within a marquee erected for his accommodation, shortly appeared through a gorge in a low range of hills, which was crowned on either side by matchlock-men of the imperial body-guard. These kept up an incessant fire as the royal _cortege_ advanced over the grassy plain, preceded by a band of mounted warriors, who, as on the occasion of the triumphant entry to Angollala, careered in intersecting circles. The king bestrode a richly caparisoned mule, and wore a green scarf mantle of Delhi embroidery. A golden collar encircled his neck, and a massive silver akodama extended on either side a considerable distance beyond the temples. The ends of the beam were hung with a profusion of silver chains a yard in length, whilst a row of spangled pendants across the brow half obscured the eyes, and imparted a peculiarly savage aspect, which was enhanced by a large branch of wild asparagus floating above the curly locks, and by a white and crimson robe drawn across the lower portion of the face. As the cavalcade advanced, the braves continued to caracole until reaching the extremity of the meadow, where the assembled priests and monks of Ankober, as well as of the neighbouring churches and monasteries, were drawn up to receive their sovereign. The holy arks were each screened under the canopy of a large embroidered umbrella; and that of Saint Michael, the senior, which had accompanied the army into the field, was carried beneath a _debab_ of solid embossed silver, decorated with chain pendants and fretwork. Psalms having been chanted by the turbaned body, who danced vehemently to their own chorus, the _Alaka_ of the cathedral advancing, laid his hands on the head of the victorious monarch, and gave his blessing, when the procession moved slowly forward towards the foot of the hill, singing the death knell of the pagan,-- "Moolohoy Moolo? Hai hai! Wokao? Selala dabito!" The warriors, preceded by the royal band of kettle-drums and wind instruments, took the lead up the long steep and narrow path, which winds along the verge of a precipitous ascent to the palace, perched on the very pinnacle of the cone. A proclamation, through the herald, having commanded the presence of all the inhabitants of the capital and of the villages adjacent, every roof, bank, and cliff, was crowded with women and girls. As the king passed on, they kept up an unceasing clamour, and it increased to a deafening din as he approached the gate of the outer enclosure, where a dense mass of curled heads extended across the entire open area in front of the palisades. The British escort, drawn up before the lower defences, presented arms as the monarch passed, and within the stockade stood the high priests of the five churches, robed and mitred. The clamour, the music, and the echo of musketry, continued during the tedious ascent of the steep and difficult path, which, broken into steps, winds betwixt lofty palisades, through nine gateways and lodges, to the inner enclosure. Here His Majesty took his seat in a raised alcove, the throne, and the usual trappings of royalty, being on this occasion new throughout, and more than wonted cleanliness pervading every quarter of the palace. Once more the large drum in the middle of the court gave forth its deep notes. Three hundred concubines, seated in a circle around, again screamed and clapped their stained hands in deafening concert. A dancing girl, flanked by two wild braves, whirled in front of the throne, and in a series of eulogistic rhymes, composed by herself, chanted a rehearsal of the recent heroic deeds of the puissant monarch, "who, although invariably triumphant over his heathen foes, had never decorated his royal brow with a branch greener than that by which it was now surmounted." Each time she turned towards the crowd, a shrill clamour of united voices rang forth the chorus to her verse. The skin-clad warriors leapt and howled;--akodamas, coronets, and silver swords, glistened in the morning sun; and as the chiefs, governors, and nobles, formed in a semicircle on either side of the latticed balcony, stamped and clapped their hands in savage triumph--the populace, crowding the carpeted yard, and lining every wall, capered, yelled, and shouted with the wildest enthusiasm. A general war-dance followed the cessation of the shrill notes of the songstress, and the pageant concluded with a royal salute, fired by the artillery detachment over the British flag, which, in honour of His Majesty's arrival, floated far below in the centre of the capital of Shoa. Volume Two, Chapter XXXI. THE PALACE AT ANKOBER. The entire slope of the palace eminence is studded with thatched magazines and out-houses; and these, shame to the Christian monarch, form the scene of the daily labours of three thousand slaves. In one quarter are to be seen groups of busy females, engaged in the manufacture of beer and hydromel. Flat cakes of teff and wheat are preparing by the hundred under the next roof, and from the dark recesses of the building arises the plaintive ditty of those who grind the corn by the sweat of their brow. Here cauldrons of red pepper soup yield up their potent steam; and in the adjacent compartment, long twisted strips of old cotton rag are being dipped in bees' wax. Throughout the female establishment the bloated and cross-grained eunuch presides; and his unsparing rod admonishes his giggling charges that they are not there to gaze at the passing stranger. In the sunny verandah of the wardrobe, tailors and curriers are achieving all manner of curious amulets and devices--the offspring of a savage brain. Blacksmiths are banging away at the anvil under the eaves of the banqueting hall. Turbaned priests, seated in the porch, armed with a party-coloured cow's tail, indolently drive away the flies from volumes which are elevated on a rack before their ancient eyes, and detail the miracles of the saints. Under one shed, notaries are diligently committing to parchment elaborate inventories of tribute received. Sacred books are being bound in a second. In a crowded corner painters are perpetrating on the illuminated page atrocious daubs of our first father carrying spear and buckler in the Garden of Eden; and in the long shadow thrown by the slaughterhouse, whence a stream of blood is ever flowing across the road, carpenters are destroying bad wood in a clumsy attempt to fashion a gun stock with a farrier's rasp, for the reception of an old honeycombed barrel which promises to burst upon the very first discharge. Governors and nobles, with shields and silver swords, are seated above. Clamourous paupers, itinerant monks, and applicants for justice, fill the lower courts. The open _Arada_ before the great-gate is choked with idlers, gossips, and immoveable beggars, who, from the rising up to the going down of the sun, maintain one incessant howl of importunity. Oxen and asses, goats and sheep, have established their head-quarters in every filthy avenue. Newly-picked bones and bullocks' skulls strew the rugged descent; and on the last terrace, surrounded by stagnant mire, behold Ayto Wolda Hana himself, seated in magisterial dignity, arranging the affairs of the nation. Hundreds tremble at his uncompromising nod; and appellant and respondent, accuser and accused, alike bared to the girdle, bend in cringing submission, as in a cracked and querulous voice the despotic legislator delivers his arbitrary fiat. During the absence of the Negoos on military expeditions, the most inquisitorial espionage is exercised over the actions of every foreigner, and the strictest police established, to insure the safety of the almost deserted capital. Every avenue is vigilantly guarded, and no stranger allowed to enter the town without permission of the viceroy. Children only are suffered to leave the houses after dark; and watchmen, patrolling in all directions, apprehend every adult who may be found abroad during the night. But Ankober was now thronged to overflowing. Brawls disturbed the streets, and, during the early hours of each evening, drunken parties were to be seen streaming home from the royal banquet, shouting the war chorus, and not unfrequently preceded by one of the court buffoons, engaged in the performance of the most absurd follies, antics, and grimaces. Day and night the invocations of a host of mendicants arose from every lane and alley, and the importunity to which we were exposed on the part of the wealthy had attained the point beyond which it was scarcely possible to advance. Each ruffian who had destroyed an infant considered that he possessed an undeniable right to be "decorated from head to foot, and completely ornamented." Villains, streaming with rancid butter, entered the Residency, and desired that the "Gyptzis's bead shop might be opened, as they had brought salt to purchase a necklace;" whilst the king's three fiddlers, who had each slain a foe during the foray, appearing with the vaunting green _sareti_, attuned their voices and their squeaking instruments to the detail of their prowess, and demanded the merited reward. "The gun is the medicine for the cowardly Pagan who ascends a tree," was the maxim of many who aspired to the possession of one of these weapons; and for hours together men stood before the door with cocks and hens and loaves of bread, to establish their claim to the possession of "pleasing things." With the design of aiding his fast-swelling collection of natural history. Dr Roth had offered rewards to all who chose to contribute, and the king's pages were kept well supplied with ammunition for the destruction of birds; but the unconquerable love of sticking a feather in the hair almost invariably spoiled the specimen. A bat, firmly wedged between the prongs of a split cane, was one day brought by a boy, who extended the prize at arm's length: "I've caught him at last," he exclaimed with exultation--"It is the Devil, who had got into the monastery of Aferbeine; I've caught the rascal; _min abat_?" "what is his father?" After this strong invective, which is indiscriminately applied also as occasion demands, to man, beast, and every inanimate thing, the youth was not a little surprised to perceive the naturalist quietly extricate the much-dreaded animal with his fingers. A party of females, who carried pitchers of water at their backs, had halted in the road, and looking over the hedge, were silent spectators of the proceeding. "_Erag, erag_," they exclaimed with one accord, placing their hands before their months as they ran horror-stricken from the spot--"_O wai Gypt_," "Alas, Egyptians! far be such things from us!" On the festival of Michael the Archangel, whose church immediately adjoins the palace, the monarch received the holy sacrament in the middle of the night, and returned thanks for his victory, a chair having previously been obtained from the Residency to obviate the fatigue stated to have resulted from former orisons. The holy ark, which had brought success to his arms, was again placed under the silver canopy, and thrice carried in solemn procession around the sacred edifice, under a salute of musketry and ordnance. Large offerings were as usual made to it, alms distributed among the poor, a new cloth given to each of the king's slaves, and a feast prepared for every inhabitant of Ankober. Rejoicings, which had continued throughout the city since the triumphal entry, were this day renewed with increased energy, even girls and young children whooping war-songs in celebration of the safe return of the warriors from battle. But the voice of lamentation succeeded to the strains of joy. An eclipse had suddenly inumbrated the moon, and as the black shadow was perceived stealing rapidly onwards, and casting a mysterious gloom over the face of nature, late so bright, the exulting Christians were seized with the direst consternation. The sound of the drum was hushed, and the wild chorus was heard no more. Believing the orb to be dead, and that her demise prognosticated war, pestilence, and famine, the entire town and suburbs became a scene of panic, tumult, and uproar, whilst women and men, priests and laity, collecting together in the streets and in the churches, cried aloud upon the "Saviour of the world to take pity on them--to screen them from the wrath of God--and to cover them with a veil of mercy, for the sake of Mary, the mother of our Lord." The pagan Galla, of whom there are many in Ankober, lifting up their voices, joined in the general petition, and, from not comprehending the Amharic tongue, placed upon it the most absurd construction. During the whole period of the moon's obscuration, the wailing continued without intermission; and when the planet, emerging, sailed again through the firmament in all her wonted brilliancy, a universal shout of joy burst from the lips of the savages, in the firm belief that the prayers and sobs of the multitude had prevailed, and awakened her from the sleep of death. His Majesty had been previously apprised of the precise hour and minute at which the obscuration was to commence and terminate, and his incredulity in the first instance was followed by equally unfeigned surprise at the powers of divination displayed. "Eclipses are bad omens," said the king, when their causes had been explained. "Was Subagadis not slain on the appearance of one, and did another not bring defeat to Ras Ali?" The chief smith was, nevertheless, instructed to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the use of logarithmic tables, and of "the instruments that read the heavens;" and the royal attention was temporarily diverted from the study of medicine to the contemplation of the celestial bodies. In Shoa, the silver sword is the emblem of rank and authority, and it is girded on the loins of none but those who enjoy an exalted place in the sovereign's favour. The forfeiture of government and the loss of the cumbrous badge go hand in hand, and many are the weary hours of attendance indispensable towards the restoration of either. On no foreigner who had yet visited the Christian land had this mark of distinction been conferred, but the despot now suddenly resolved that the fluted tulip scabbard should adorn his English guests. "You bring the stars upon earth, and foretell coming events," said His Majesty, as he presented these tokens of favour and confidence--"you are my children; you possess strong medicine. You must wear these swords in assurance of my permanent love, that your name may be great in the eyes of all my people." Volume Two, Chapter XXXII. THE FOREST OF MAMRAT. Excursions abroad continued as usual to occupy the royal leisure; and even when rats and horned owls formed the ignominious quarry, the king's Gyptzis were invariably summoned. But the dark forests which clothe the foot of Mamrat proved the favourite scene of these rambles, and thither the steps of the monarch were usually directed. Large colonies of the _gureza_, which inhabit the noblest trees, offered an irresistible attraction; and although, from their retired habits no less than from their appearance, these inoffensive apes are regarded in the light of monks, their holy character did not exempt them from frequent and severe punishment. A shower of iron and stone balls tumbled one after the other from his perch on the topmost branches of some venerable moss-grown _woira_, where, notwithstanding many cunning artifices, the white cowl and the long snowy cloak upon the otherwise sable body, betrayed the place of concealment; and numbers being soon prostrate upon the ground, the survivors, amazed at the murderous intrusion, were to be seen swinging from bough to bough like a slack-rope dancer, and leaping from tree to tree as they sought more secure quarters in the, to man, inaccessible sides of the hail-capped mountain. Occupying manifold caves and subterranean crannies in this the most elevated pinnacle within the range of vision, the idolised riches of Sahela Selassie are covered with massive iron plates, barred, and secured by large heaps of stone. A strong guard of matchlock-men occupies the only practicable ascent to the treasury; and the keys of its well-crammed coffers, which are never opened unless for the purpose of being still further stuffed, are strictly confided to Ayto Habti, the master Cyclops of the realm. At the extremity of a forest vista, the huge wooded cone presents a grand and imposing object, avenues of tall trees screening its dark defiles, whilst the fleecy vapour that steals across the hoary summit, discloses glimpses of the many smiling hamlets which crest the Abyssinian Alps. A Mohammadan legend asserts, that in time of yore, "the Mother of Grace" towered even to the skies, and so remained until the first invasion of Graan. Ameer Noor, his brother, the ruler of Hurrur in its golden days, having formed his camp upon a rising ground above Alio Amba, despatched his chieftains in all directions to slay, burn, and plunder. Upon their return, laden with rich booty, obtained without having encountered a single Amhara, the disappointed Ameer exclaimed, in his religious zeal, "'tis the mountain Mamrat that hides the dastardly infidels. May Allah, the only one God, who rules over the universe, grant that it be overthrown, and my foes revealed!" Scarcely had the pious prayer escaped his lips, than the pile reeled to and fro like a drunken man, and sank to its present level. "The country of the Adaiel," adds the same veracious authority, "through which the Ameer led the followers of the true Prophet, was in those days a trackless desert, totally destitute of springs; but on his stamping his foot upon the thirsty soil at the termination of each day's march, there gushed forth a fountain of living water, which has continued to flow until the present time." During the struggle that followed the arrival of the Moslem invaders, the Christians are said to have been in danger of perishing from lack of provisions, until the inhabitants of Argobba, who are styled Shooggur, from the name of their ancestor, supplied the army, by rolling over the mountain side skins filled with grain. In a battle fought shortly after the arrival of this seasonable supply, Ali Muggan, the governor of Zeyla, was slain on the terrace betwixt Mamrat and Alio Amba, and his body left to the wild beasts; whereupon Noor, his brother, cursing the race who, professing the faith of Islam, had been the agents of so dire a calamity, doomed their necks to be chafed for ever by the galling yoke of vassalage to unbelievers. Far hid in the rugged bosom of the "Mother of Grace," is a spacious cell, often visited by the king. During one half of the fourteenth century, it formed the abode of an anchorite, renowned far and wide for the austerity of his life, who invariably slept upon a bed of sharp thorns, and whose food was restricted to roots and wild honey. Hatze Amda Zion was then engaged in his disastrous war with Adel; and the ascetic, seizing his white staff, abandoned his rigorous solitude for the first time, and fired by religious zeal, rushed into the presence of the Emperor, who was encamped on the banks of the Hawash. Displaying the holy cross to the dispirited soldiery, he exhorted them to be of good heart, and not to let the standard of Christ droop before the profane ensign of the infidels; for that it was written in the book of the Revelation of Saint John, that Islamism was that year to be crushed and trodden under foot throughout the world. At his bidding, three merchants of Hurrur, who, under the guise of suttlers, performed the office of spies, were hung without trial, and their heads being transmitted to the King of Adel, proved the forerunners of a bloody defeat, which he shortly afterwards sustained. To the latest occupant of the cave of Mamrat is attached the legend embodied in the two ensuing chapters. It is fully illustrative of the grovelling superstition that enthrals the Amhara, of whom none ever allude to the dread sorcerer Thavanan, without an invocation to the Deity. He was an exiled noble of Northern Abyssinia, high in the favour of Asfa Woosen, fifth monarch of Shoa, who took forcible possession of his sister, and after degrading the courtier for opposing this despotic measure, sentenced him to the loss of an eye, which was put out with a hot iron. Resolved to have his revenge, the outcast became a worshipper of the eighty-eight invisible spirits, termed _Saroch_, believed to be the emissaries for evil of Warobal Mama, the King of the Genies, whose court is held at the bottom of Lake Alobar, in Mans, whence his drum is heard pealing over the water whenever war, famine, or pestilence are about to visit the land. Having purchased supernatural powers at the price of his hope of salvation, Thavanan tormented the king day and night--spirited away his seraglio, and, having thus recovered his sister, deprived her oppressor of sight by means of magic spells. Taking the name of Abba Zowald, he then became a stern ascetic; and his bones now lie interred in the cell beneath a pile of rough stones, which, during a long period of mortification, served him for a couch, whilst roots and wild fruits formed his only fare. Angels are said to have ministered unto him; his voice was the voice of an oracle; and none recognising the sorcerer in a holy Christian anchorite, who had despised the world and its vanities during a period of fifty years, he lived universally regarded in Abyssinia as a second Peter. Volume Two, Chapter XXXIII. THE NECROMANCER, A LEGEND OF SHOA. In the lone recesses of a rocky cave reclined the youth Thavanan, lost in gloomy meditation. The hues of care and study were indelibly stamped upon his lofty forehead; and although the bent brow and the quivering lip betokened a stern mental conflict, still courage and high daring shone bright through the shroud of revenge which had settled over his dark features. The white robe of Abyssinia lay uneasy on his shoulder; and the blue silk cord which encircled his neck, the badge of Christianity, nearly burst in twain as the swollen sinews started from the throat, in this his hour of agony. A fearful storm raged without. Thunder rolled in continued peals, crumbling in pieces the sparry roof over-head, and the hot lightning illumined every nook and corner of the retreat, whilst the waters of the broad lake, now raised in wrath, came dashing and foaming to its very mouth with all the violence of a winter sea. But the war of the elements was unheeded by the sufferer, and ever and anon, starting from his recumbent position, he paced in desperation the uneven floor of the slippery cavern. "Years have rolled away since that withering moment," he exclaimed; "but the wound is yet green in the mind, and the feeling is still fresh as when writhing under the searing iron of the tyrant. The star Medaboot proclaims the hour of the requisite sacrifice. I acknowledge thy power, great Genius of the Water. Warobal Mama, I call for thy aid." Stripping the robe from his person, and tearing the bandage from his sightless eye, he roused a sleeping goat from the corner of the cave. A garland of yellow flowers was wreathed in fantastic folds among the long sharp horns, and a white collar twined its mystic threads around the throat. The animal had been a favourite of former days whilst browsing on the green meadows of Shoa, and knowing the voice of its master, it quietly followed his footsteps into the centre of the grotto. The bright eyes were turned upwards in confiding innocence as it licked the hand which had so often fed and caressed it; but all pity and compassion were effaced in one fiery feeling of revenge. The words of the dread spell to the spirit of the deep were poured forth on the midnight blast; and the sharp knife gleaming for a moment in the air, was plunged into the heart of the unresisting victim. Shrieks filled the cavern, and unearthly echoes were flung back from every side of the broken vault, whilst the life-stream gurgled on to mingle with the waters of the lake; and as the last faint groan was rendered from the expiring animal, the badge and symbol of Christianity was dipped in the crimson tide which had flowed to the honour of the genius and his satellites. [The cord of blue silk styled "mateb," which in Abyssinia is worn around the neck of the Christian to denote his faith, has usually a small silver cross appended.] A sulphur-coloured fowl was next subjected to the necessary preparations for the sacrifice. One eye was deliberately scooped out amidst blasphemy and execration, and the bright blue cord which had hitherto graced the neck of the Christian, now gory with unhallowed blood, was bound in a mysterious knot on this the second victim to the powers of darkness. The holy cross was suspended to the desecrated thread; and having raised the flickering embers with sweet woods and subtle essences, Thavanan crushed the head of the fowl under his heel until the brains flowed, and then dashed the body into the fire. The flame shot aloft in one fierce spire of light, blazing like the arrow of the infernal host, and, again, satiate with the pungent offering, sank amid a stifling cloud of fetid smoke. Casting himself upon the rocky floor in an attitude of prostration, the youth listened in awe to the moans of the wind which had succeeded to the hurricane. But his courage was firm as the foundations of Mamrat; and it was well for him that his heart quailed not during that hour of perilous endurance. The effects of his diabolical incantation were soon manifest. Foul spirits mowed and chattered in his ear, and the cold rushing of pinions flapping lazily through the air wetted him with slimy spray. But revenge and desperation had steeled his nerves; and after a period of intense misery, which appeared without limit to the sufferer, the melancholy sound of a drum came faintly booming over the face of the waters--the welcome token that the hour of trial was past, and that the sacrifice had been accepted. Waxing louder and louder, the pealing of the music shook the rocks with its continuous reverberations. Unearthly voices, ceasing to torment, faded altogether away; and the renegade, casting one look on the ashes of things holy and once prized, stepped forth from the mouth of the cavern. Wild and fearful was the scene which met his gaze. The moon was for the moment unobscured, but huge masses of pale cloud, like armed hosts, sped fiercely across the skies, whilst thunder and lightning seemed to warn the astounded beholder that spirits of another world were engaged in their unholy revels. Unruffled by the breeze, the great lake spread like a sheet of molten silver at his feet; whilst every cliff and crag, revealed boldly to view, was fearfully lit up by the reflected glare of an unearthly lurid flame, which at short intervals spouted in jets from the centre of the expanse, amid streams of wild melancholy music and the clash of the magic drum. Roused to daring deeds in this moment of frantic excitement, with one short prayer to the spirit he had invoked, Thavanan plunged headlong into the cold deep waters, which gurgled and bubbled over his descending form; but baffled in his design to reach the glittering white sand--now the only haven of his hope--he rose once more to the surface. All was dark, dismal, and lonely. A thick fog covered the water, the earth, and the sky, whilst the voice of his better angel alone came moaning through the mist, bewailing the lost soul of a son of Adam. Again and again he struggled to reach the glowing bed of the lake, but mortal strength and energy were unavailing to pierce the fathomless abyss. The clear searching element rushed unresisted into his mouth and ears--the faintness of death spread over his exhausted limbs--and his senseless form, tossed to and fro, became the sport of the heaving billow. But the sound of the spell had swept along the blast, and the savour of the sacrifice had penetrated into the halls of magic. A long sinewy arm raised the body high over the water. The drum again pealed through the boundless space; the bright fire threw one last triumphant stream above the surface, and a heavy plunge beneath the waves was succeeded by the utter silence of solitude. The soft tinkling sound of harps first stole upon the slumbers of the neophyte. Bright, happy visions flitted over his awakening senses, and the sweet melody of voices ushered him again into existence. Starting from his trance, the bewildered Thavanan found ample scope for the indulgence of his wonder and astonishment. Far as the eye could scan, innumerable arcades stretched in endless vistas on every side, with alternating domes of the purest pearl. Pillars of variously coloured amber and crystal rose to sustain the glowing fabric, and cloths, such as emperors alone can boast, strewed the floors in unbounded profusion. In the centre of each gallery stood an altar of virgin silver, from which a never-failing arrow of flame diffused a mellow light over the glittering pillars of the hall. Around their more searching sister, jets of sweet-scented water played high in the air; and dancing on the apex of each fountain, a sparkling emerald, the ransom of a monarch, gently regulated the rush of the stream, in token that the elements were here held under control. Superb paintings, illuminated in transparency, shed a dreamy languor over the scene, and music lent her exhaustless charms to captivate the sense. Sweet strains of triumph, ringing in full chorus among the lofty domes, died gently away into the softness of repose; and at times the low murmur of the waves fell pleasingly upon the ear, as the lake poured forth her springs in homage to the master spirit, and imprinted the kiss of obedience on the magic abode of Warobal Mama. Colossal statues of Famine, War, and Pestilence, frowned from their lofty pedestals in all the sternness of brass above the glories of this rich and varied scene. Each giant arm grasped a knotted mace, whose awful blow on the iron drum of misfortune was well known to the dismayed inhabitants of the upper regions of earth as the sure harbinger of woe. Arts and sciences had each their separate niche in the spacious apartment; and favoured votaries were deeply engaged in scanning subtle essences, or preparing potent spells. The hum of confused voices was borne on the fragrant atmosphere, whilst at intervals strange emblems and tokens were delivered by the elders to the attending pupils, who each sprang aloft upon gaudy pinions to execute the behest of his superior. But the smiling face of fair woman was wanting to complete the scene; for love was unknown to the dread spirit of the lake. In the immediate vicinity of the wondering mortal, an elevated throne stood the most conspicuous object. Spiral steps of gold led to the shrine of power. Precious stones sparkling in rich wreaths of enamel, hung a brilliant balustrade in front--and forming the seat of high honour and place, a white ivory shell rested amid the shining leaves of the ever-flowering lotus. The sea-snake rose in glittering green folds to receive in his soft embrace the recumbent occupant; and ministering spirits of strange form, bearing harp and censer, were ranged in silence around. Thundering peals of music, and a sudden prostration, proclaimed the presence of the genius of the place; and, amid the clash of lute and timbrel, a cloud of incense floating high over head, disclosed a dwarf crouching on the shell. His aspect was mild and beneficent, and a flowing white beard entirely covered his minute person; but the essence of ethereal intelligence shot from his piercing black eye, and a pale fire played among his long yellow locks. Again the harps rung out the silver notes of welcome, and a vocal chorus was wafted to the delighted ear of the intruder:-- "Ask for riches, ask for wealth, For kingdom, strength, or iron sway, Paramount in lady's bower, Revenge for wrongs, or length of day." Borne forward by an irresistible impulse, Thavanan found himself among the kneeling crowd in front of the throne, and a soft still voice proceeded from the high place:--"Mortal, what would'st thou with us? Answer without fear." "Revenge," replied the petitioner, "revenge for injury unprovoked--a house rifled and burnt, a fair sister carried to the lawless harem, and the eyeball blasted for ever, of one who had heretofore looked upon the great monarch of Shoa as a perfect Deity upon earth." "Let the child of clay take the oath of allegiance, and be instructed to obtain his wish," responded the being in whose tiny form was concentrated such power and grandeur; and as the words proceeded from his lips, the floor sank under the foot of the proselyte, and Thavanan stood with an attending spirit in the centre of a gloomy grotto. A blood-red cross, which flashed amid the darkness, revealed sights horrible to behold, and conjured before the imagination thoughts upon which it was then madness to dwell. But daring to the last, the apostate, in presence of the symbol of Christianity, abjured all the high hopes of Heaven. Revenge upon earth filled his soul for the moment; and although the touch of that blessed sign struck through his young heart like the sharp stab of the searing-iron, the fearful oath was firmly and distinctly repeated. Volume Two, Chapter XXXIV. THAVANAN THE TORMENTOR. Months had passed away since the disappearance of the gay Thavanan, once the favourite of the potent monarch of Shoa. Fallen in a single day from his high estate, and deprived of an eye before the scoffing multitude, the innocent victim to intrigue had departed alone and on foot through the gateway of the palace. A thousand cavaliers had that morning obeyed his least command, but not one attended him in the hour of adversity; and shunned as a thing accursed by the brutal mob, he wended his way in moody silence to his home in the green meadow of the Chaka. But the myrmidons of tyranny had outstripped his heavy footstep. Ashes alone proclaimed the site of his late flourishing abode, and a solitary goat, bleating amid the ruins, was all that remained of his once numerous possessions. The king's _aferoch_ had been busy since early morn, and every thing had been swept with the besom of destruction. The flocks and the herds of the disgraced noble were now in the royal pastures, and his family and relatives, his serfs and drudges, in the household of the despotic monarch. Stunned by the fatal intelligence, Thavanan, followed only by the goat, withdrew unnoticed from the scene of desolation, and his very name was for a time forgotten in the land. Towards the close of the year strange reports were circulated from the palace. Unseen hands abstracted the choicest viands--the clearest hydromel was drained ere it reached the expectant lip--and a thousand vagaries were played in the great hall of entertainment. The replenished horn was dashed untasted to the ground, and the delicate morsel transferred from the gaping mouth to the rushes which strewed the floor. The monarch himself was not exempt from the foul plague. His palate was daily cheated of some accustomed dainty; and once, to the horror of the assembled courtiers, a bloody tail was inserted as the royal jaws opened to essay a dish prepared in the seraglio--a loud laugh ringing meanwhile among the rafters of the banqueting-room, which struck upon the ear of the discomfited despot like the merry tones of his exiled favourite. Priests were called in to the rescue--holy books were read, and consecrated water profusely sprinkled upon the walls, but all without the slightest effect. Doors were closed and double-locked, and guards were planted over every aperture, yet still the pest continued without any abatement. The palace was in a state of terror and confusion, and the life of the king became weary and burdensome. Awful voices now sounded at night through the lone apartments, and apparitions haunted the imperial slumbers. The band of nocturnal singers was trebled, but the stout lungs of thirty hale priests, who surrounded the royal bed-chamber, and elevated their voices in psalm to a more frantic key than had ever before been heard in Shoa, failed to intimidate the goblin. Tossing on his couch, the restless monarch sunk weary to sleep, only to be jaded by spectres and evil dreams, in which the wronged Thavanan invariably appeared as the chief tormentor. The nuisance continued without intermission, until, on the high festival of Easter, harassed and exhausted, the Negoos took his customary seat in the great hall of his ancestors. The groaning table was once again well filled. The holy feast had induced chiefs and nobles in some degree to overcome the fears which had latterly estranged them entirely from the banquet; but there was no joy in the depressed eye, no mirth or hilarity on the tongue of any guest, and a low whisper hardly disturbed the silence which reigned among the dismayed assembly. The usual infernal sallies were on this day practised exclusively at the royal board, before which the uneasy monarch, occupying a high alcove, and surrounded by pages and men at arms, reclined in his wonted grandeur. Suddenly, another figure appeared at the table, resting one hand in a curiously wrought earthen vase, and extending the other high, in defiance towards the throne. "The lost Thavanan!" shouted the crowd: "he has pawned his soul to the fiend"--and swords flashed from the scabbard, as men's hearts were strengthened at the sight of danger in a tangible form. But high over the storm rose the voice of the despot:--"Back, minions, back! we will ourselves deal with the ingrate. Death--but a lingering death--shall be the portion of him who trifles with the pleasure of kings!" It was indeed Thavanan who confronted the frown of majesty; but how changed from the mild and handsome favourite of former days! White as the feather of the _Rasa_, his dishevelled hair floated over the bent shoulder, and stern revenge was graven in the deep furrows of his pallid cheek. His solitary eye gleamed with infernal expression, and bright with the cabalistic figures of magic lore, a golden fillet screened the mutilated orb. Retaining his disdainful position, he cast first a withering glance over the crowd, and then addressed the prince in words of scorn:-- "False monarch, repent in time, for the serpent will turn upon its destroyer. Proud descendant of the race of Solomon, the wit of thy illustrious ancestor is dull in comparison with the wisdom of the meanest disciple of Warobal. I defy thy myrmidons and thyself!" And uttering these words, Thavanan instantaneously disappeared from before the gaze of the astounded and crest-fallen court. The waters of the mystic vase hissed and bubbled for a moment. A dark cloud of stifling steam shot aloft, and a thick crust of red ashes, which strewed the board, remained the sole memento of the unwelcome intrusion. Again the hearts of the vassals fell within them; and whilst a gloomy silence pervaded the hall, the triumphant song of the tormentor came ringing among the notes of wild music. "Far down in the depths of the azure blue, Away from the mists of the cold dull sky, Concealed from detested mortal view, Thavanan lives in liberty." The courage of the tyrant quailed before the dread powers which were in array against him, and resolved upon an act of tardy justice. Freedom was restored to the degraded and enslaved family, and the confiscated lands were returned threefold to the impoverished race. But the door of the royal harem was closed on the fair daughter of the house of Thavanan, and the wail of the captive maid still cried aloud for redress. Persecution, nevertheless, ceased for a time; and men breathed more freely as their hopes gained ground that the spirit of the avenger was appeased. On the proclamation of the annual military expedition, the chiefs and nobles of Shoa thronged once more to the capital. Swarming around the black tents of their warrior leaders, multitudes were spread over hill and dale, and the Amhara host, in all its savage magnificence, had mustered on the highest mountains of Anko. But evil omens and portentous signs were witnessed continually. Dogs howled unceasingly during the livelong night. Throughout the hours of day, the shrike croaked from every bush; and the merlin, turning her back on the passing cavalier, arranged her sober plumage on the stone, without bestowing, in earnest of victory and success, one glimpse of her snow-white breast. No heed was given by the stern monarch to these portents of coming evil; and on the eve of the intended march the halls of the palace were crowded with all the chivalry of Efat. Boisterous mirth presided at the banquet; but as the last horn of old hydromel was drained to the downfall of the Galla, there arose a fearful cry from the interior enclosure, and bands of eunuchs, with horror depicted upon their withered countenances, burst into the chamber from every direction. Falling prostrate at the footstool of the throne, they proclaimed the disaster which had descended like a thunderbolt on the heretofore unsullied honour of the nation. "He has left the old and the ugly," sobbed the trembling guardians; "but alas for the fair and beautiful ones of the harem, they are all gone on the wings of the evening wind!" King and nobles rushed into the court-yard, and every hut which crowned the pinnacle of the capital poured forth its inmates to gaze at the wondrous spectacle. High over the up-reared peak of the mountain soared a rich rosy cloud, lit by the last glorious rays of the setting sun, and charged with a freight more prized than the fine gold of Kordofan. Amhara's fairest daughters were revealed to the unhallowed view of the gaping multitude, and no envious vest shrouded their amazing charms. All had been caught up by the whirlwind in the simple dress of ordinary avocation; and as their light laughing voices came tinkling from above, they carried the bitter truth to the exasperated monarch, that the captives enjoyed their present thraldom as a happy release from the bolt of the harem gate, and the rod of the testy old eunuch. Dishonoured in the eyes of his subjects, and smarting under the loss of objects which still held a place in his heart, the despot stamped and raged in uncontrollable fury. The beat of the nugareet and the voice of the herald forthwith proclaimed the abandonment of the projected expedition; and, plunged in the deepest mortification, Asfa Woosen retired to brood in solitude over his unprecedented misfortune. Morn witnessed the dispersion to their respective quarters of governors and their levies; and before the shades of another evening had closed over the deep valley of the Airara, a breathless courier galloped through the palace-gates with the unlooked-for but welcome tidings, that the ladies of the royal harem had been discovered reposing unattended among the high fern and heather of the adjacent mountain side. Again were the parchment faces of the wrinkled eunuchs radiant in sallow lustre. Three hundred mules were instantly dispatched for the conveyance of the truant flock to their fold; and at midnight the muffled damsels were consigned, amid the cracked exultations of attendants, to their wonted cages in the palace. But the fair sister of Thavanan was not of the number, neither could any clue be obtained to her fate or condition. A small scroll had indeed been discovered on the turf, sealed and bearing the address of the ruler of Shoa--a gigantic glow-worm, attached by a single yellow hair to the envelope, having particularly attracted attention to that which it was conjectured might contain the desired information. The curiosity of the king finally overcame the cautious scruples of the priesthood, who advised the immediate destruction of the missive. As the wax crumbled between his fingers, a roar of thunder shook the palace to its foundations, whilst a stream of black dust, pouring from the parchment to the table, gradually assumed the semblance of a pillar of sand agitated by the fierce whirl of the storm. A pungent odour impregnated the apartment, and the crackling sound of the devouring element was followed by the presence of the dread tormentor. "I have come once again, monarch of the hard heart, to repay the debt which is still due, and, blasted like the much-injured Thavanan, thy soul may henceforward entertain some feeling of pity for thy fellow-men. Listen to thy doom. No mercy was shown unto me, and none shall be extended to thee. Thy son, after a short reign of terror, shall fall by the hand of a slave, and die cursing the author of his existence; and thy son's son shall bear upon his disfigured countenance the searing mark of his ancestor's cruelty. My face thou shalt see no more--Spirit of the flame, perform thy task." A bright flash shot from the centre of the dark threatening column, and curled towards the king, a sickening sulphuric fume filling the presence chamber, and the necromancer vanished in the thick smoke. Plunged for hours in a death-like stupor, Asfa Woosen was only aroused from his lethargy to bewail the loss of the left eye, which had been scorched in the socket by the contact of the fierce flame. The calamity greatly softened and influenced the actions of his after-life; and torture and mutilation grew gradually out of custom in the kingdom of Shoa. During the reign of his grandson, the one-eyed Sahela Selassie, there dwelt in a mossy cavern, among the recesses of the forest of Mantek, a hermit of renowned sanctity. Father Peter was universally feared and beloved, but none knew from whence he derived food or nourishment. The skin of the agazin formed his humble garb, and a rude leathern girdle encircled his loins. His charms and amulets were never known to fail, and his language was not as that of other men. Crowds daily gathered round his cave in the rock to receive on their knees the benediction of the recluse; but no one had ever entered the cell, and few cared to pass it after nightfall. Moans and cries of agony then mingled with the midnight blast; and the sound of the scourge was often heard amid prayers for deliverance from the evil one. On a fresh morning of May, when the roses and jessamine were scenting the dewy air, the wild flowers springing over the face of the green meadow, and birds warbled pleasantly amid the rich foliage, the peasants came as usual to listen to the words of other days, and to receive the blessing of the austere anchorite. But the accustomed seat was vacant, and no answer being returned to the voice of inquiry, the boldest entered the retreat. Curiously emblazoned scrolls and relics were strewed among the nooks and mouldy recesses of the damp grotto; the body of the venerable hermit was stretched in eternal slumber upon a bed of sharp stones; and the tale soon spread through the land that the holy Father Peter--now no more--was indeed the dread necromancer Thavanan, who had thus, by the continued penance of half a century, expiated his fierce act of apostasy. Volume Two, Chapter XXXV. THE REIGN OF SUPERSTITION. Not a monk is there in any of the lone monasteries of Shoa, not a hermit of the many in her cold mountains, not a dwarf nor a decrepit priest who has renounced the society of his fellow-men, but enjoys the reputation of being fully competent to blast the harvest at pleasure, to poison the fountain, and to render the able-bodied incapable. The thoughts of all classes move in a dense atmosphere of superstition. Talismans, written in mystic characters, if mixed with the seeds and leaves of potent witch plants, gathered by the hand of the forest recluse, afford a feeling of security which is not to be extracted from the pages of the Gospel; nor does any one ever venture to mount his mule without a preservative against the spear of the bandit, or the sharp knife of the heathen. Savage man, obtaining only through the medium of his own wishes and imagination a glimmering idea of the invisible and supreme Power, seeks some tangible object of veneration, and some ostensible source of protection. Thus the Abyssinian, whose vague religious ideas afford him but small consolation in the hour of tribulation, and but little reliance of security or deliverance in the day of danger and distress, reposes implicit faith in the doctrine of amulets, which present a substance stamped with a mystic and supernatural character, and one capable of being attached individually to himself. The arms and neck are therefore clothed in a perfect panoply of charms against the influence of every misfortune and disease, whether experienced or anticipated; and the _tulsim_, which is a worked zone studded with minute leathern pockets, containing sacred spells enveloped in double and treble wrappers, encircles the waist of every man, woman, and child, throughout the Christian dominions of Sahela Selassie, who himself reposes firm faith in their efficacy. The influence of the evil eye exercises a strong control over the minds of all. Bad spirits are believed to roam about the earth and the waters, and to occupy houses after dark, whence the Amhara never ventures to throw fluid on the ground, lest the dignity of some unseen elf should be violated. The _Beza_, or sacrifice for the sick, is considered lawful and efficacious, and is frequently resorted to. The bullock, as the type of the invalid, after being driven round his couch amid singing and clamour, is slaughtered outside the threshold; or an egg is turned thrice towards the head of the patient, and then broken beside him. Saint Michael is, by many of the more ignorant, supposed to be the Almighty. The Virgin Mary is considered the creatress of the world; and _Sunday_ is understood to have been a saint of surpassing sanctity, greatly superior both to Saint George and to Saint Michael, on which account he claims one day out of the seven, whereas other saints enjoy their festival only once during the month. No Amhara will venture to destroy a serpent save on Saturday or Sunday, when the sight of one of these reptiles is deemed a favourable omen. In common with the heathen Galla, the Christians of Shoa make annual votive sacrifices in June to _Sar_, the evil spirit--notwithstanding its strict prohibition by royal proclamation. Three men and a woman, who understand how to deal with the Evil One, having assembled at the place appointed, proceed to perform the ceremony in a house newly swept. A ginger-coloured hen, a red she-goat, or a male Adel goat with a white collar, is sacrificed; and the blood of the victim, having been mixed with grease and butter, is secretly placed during the night in a narrow alley, when all who step therein are supposed to receive the malady of the invalid, who is thus restored to perfect health. During a visit some years ago to Motatit, the king perceived evidences of this pagan ceremony in the streets; and tracing the rite to a wealthy individual, who had caused it to be performed in order to free himself of disease, the honour of true religion was speedily vindicated by the transfer to the royal coffers of all the worldly substance of the delinquent. Under cover of the night, a thread of cotton yarn is often stretched by the hired sorcerer completely round some devoted tenement; and the extremities having been connected by means of an iron link, well imbued in blood, the walls and doorposts are freely sprinkled and bedaubed with gore. Day dawns upon the incantation, which is believed to be the work of the Devil himself; and among all the assembled multitude, who consider that some heavy calamity, if not instant death, would follow the act, there is not to be found one individual sufficiently bold to remove the spell, and thus deliver the inmates from its withering influence. Since the king's arrival in the capital, the appearance of the bloody finger on the wall had thrown the inhabitants into the deepest consternation; and to the astonishment of every by-stander, a missionary of the Church of England tore away the charm without any evil consequences following his rashness. That very night, however, the defeated necromancer planned an attack to rob the clergyman's premises, and it was only defeated by the extra vigilance preserved in consequence of the exposure of the impostor. The drum of the water kelpie is heard by the credulous native in the echo of every roaring cataract, and the wretch drowning in the swollen torrent is believed to be dragged under the overwhelming wave as the favourite food of the malicious spirit of the deep. Divers plants and herbs possess properties and qualities the most baneful; and a bunch of the _Fegain_ grass, if skilfully cast upon the person of an obnoxious enemy, produces dire disease and speedy death. Sorcerers and necromancers attaining the respectable age of four and five hundred years exist in numbers in many parts of the land, flitting through the air, and riding upon the wings of the wind; and unbidden and invisible guests, such as Thavanan the Tormentor, enter the banqueting hall, to rob the festive board of its choicest viands. Hid from mortal gaze, and realising upon earth all the delights of paradise, the magic village of Dooka Stephanos forms the never-failing topic of all wonder-loving souls, and the poetic fancy of Abyssinia has been fairly exhausted in descriptions of this rare scene of blissful enjoyment. "Its sleep-inviting groves and grassy lawns are situated on the overflowing Nile; and there, released from the shackles of wedlock, beautiful females abound. Potent liquors pour on in never-drying streams, and the earth yields her spontaneous fruits without care or labour. But shrouded in magic mist, these Elysian fields open their portals only to those mortals of commanding form and handsome features, on whom the glance of favour has been cast by the bewitching inmates of the enchanted garden. Human endeavour is ineffectual to unriddle the mystery in which it is enveloped; and the dread art of the sorcerer and his most potent talismans, prove alike unavailing to loosen the spell for the advantage of those on whom Dame Nature has bestowed a crooked figure, or even an ill-starred visage." As in the dark ages, dwarfs are nevertheless treated with considerable respect, and regarded with the utmost fear. Many of the most learned and praiseworthy in the land are to be found among those who have been created during nature's freaks. The monarch's father confessor, a perfect Asmodeus in appearance, is of extremely diminutive stature, but he is possessed of singular good feeling, and forms a gratifying contrast to the majority of his countrymen. The chiefs and nobles often select their secretaries and household priests with reference to their bodily imperfections; and the most erudite sage in the capital, whose charms and talismans are esteemed all-powerful, and who knoweth every plant from the "cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall," sustains his character for wisdom and for lore, as much by the deformity of his appearance as by the brilliancy of his understanding. Sickness and misfortune are usually ascribed to the influence of the evil eye of the _Booda_, or sorcerer. Long consultations are held to discover from whose sinister glace the calamity has emanated; and when suspicion has gradually settled into conviction, the most implacable hatred is conceived towards the delinquent; and although concealed under that garb of indifference which the savage can so successfully assume, yet the opportunity of revenge is never suffered to pass unheeded in after-life. Hailoo, the father of Oubie, the Nero-like Dedjasmach of Tigre, added much to his previous notoriety by the extermination of all the _Boodas_ who fell within his murderous reach. Superstition exulted in reeking hecatombs of human victims; and the love and veneration of his subjects knew no bounds on his last summary act of collecting together and roasting to death thirteen hundred miserable wretches, who were suspected to possess, and to have exerted with success, the influence of "the evil eye." By the credulous Abyssinian, every blacksmith and worker in iron is held to be endowed with supernatural powers, and to be able to transform himself at pleasure into the likeness of a wolf or a hyena. It is a common practice amongst this class of handicrafts to fasten a metal collar about the neck of the whelps of those animals, and turn them loose; when the badge being retained through life, and occasionally seen, the fabulous stories in circulation are strengthened in the eyes of the uninitiated. The presence of any Christian emblem, or portion of Holy Writ, is supposed sufficient to neutralise the labours of the Vulcan. No metal can be welded within sight of the cross; and should any scrap of the Bible be worn on the person of the by-standers, the desired figure can never be imparted. Of this belief an instance was afforded shortly after our return from Angollala, when a bar of iron was to be transformed into a tire for the wheel of a gun-carriage. The small draft of air created by a pair of primitive native bellows proving of none avail, the smiths declared aloud that the phenomenon arose from some holy charm. Badges and emblems, spells and amulets, were cast aside by all; but the labour was renewed without any better effect, and the artisans stood aghast. A pair of British forge bellows were now produced, and the assembly were requested to don their paper armour, and to stand round the anvil. The potent blast poured from the nozzle, and under the brawny arm of one of the European soldiers, the sparks flew far and wide. In five minutes the work was completed, to the dismay of the Abyssinian magicians, who came privately to request of me that no further public exhibition of the sort might thenceforth be made, lest their name and their glory should be extinguished throughout the land. Volume Two, Chapter XXXVI. EXCURSION ALONG THE NORTH-WESTERN FRONTIER OF EFAT. The disparaging reflections cast by the chivalrous people of Shoa, in consequence of our refusal to slaughter defenceless pagans during the murderous expedition to Entotto, rendered it imperative that some decided step should be taken by which to wipe out the stain, and restore the tarnished lustre of the British name. The destruction of an adult elephant, which is reckoned equivalent to that of forty Galla, is an achievement that had not been accomplished within the memory of the present age, although mentioned in traditions connected with the exploits of the most renowned Ethiopic warriors. I accordingly solicited permission to visit the distant wilderness of Giddem, on the northern frontier of Efat, in the dense forests of which the giant of the mammalia was reported to reside--a pretext which further afforded plausible grounds for exploring a portion of the country reputed to be amongst the most fertile and productive in Abyssinia. The king opened his eyes wider than usual at this unprecedented application. "My children," he returned deliberately, "how can this be? Elephants are not to be slain with rifle balls. They will demolish you; and what answer am I then to give? The gun is the medicine for the Galla in the tree, but it has no effect upon the _zihoon_." [Elephant.] Finding me resolved, however. His Majesty's most gracious permission was finally accorded to depart forthwith, and orders were issued to a royal messenger who was appointed to accompany us, commanding the governors of provinces through which the route lay, to afford every assistance in their power to "the strong strangers of the Negoos." But all assertions relative to the possibility of destroying the monarch of the forest were still received with an incredulous shake of the head; and whilst not the smallest expectations were entertained at court of the success of the Gyptzis, the greatest ridicule attended an undertaking which, by all classes at the capital, was considered certain to prove alike foolhardy, dangerous, and futile. Instructions had been issued that the king's guests were to be conducted by the royal road over the Gorabela mountain, a singular mark of condescension, partaken but by few in the realm. This permission enabled us to enjoy a most extensive panorama from the heather-grown heights. Mamrat reared her stupendous head perpendicularly from the dark-wooded bosom of the valley, and seemed half buried in the clouds. The palisaded buildings of the palace covering the slope of its isolated hill frowned in pride over the numberless circular houses of the straggling eastern metropolis. Clumps of the sombre juniper, and spreading cossos hung with red garlands of mast, formed vistas on every side. On the one hand rose the lofty blue range of Bulga, and on the other the eye ranged uncontrolled over the boundless plains of the savage Adaiel, spread out below like a great chart, and embracing a prospect of many hundred square miles. In the centre soared the stern crater of Abida--the beacon which, in days long gone, marked the dominions of the proud emperors of Ethiopia, when, according to the traditionary couplet, "their sceptre swayed from Azulo to the Bashilo, and from Errur to Gondar." The porters at the royal lodge were on the alert, and adjurations by the king's life were not wanting to deter our advance to the Airara. "_Bu Negoos_," "_Bu Sahela Selassie amlak_," were talismanic words energetically vociferated, and a heavy staff was thumped across the path in earnest of its being closed to plebeian transit. But where is the Abyssinian who is proof against bribery and corruption? Beads will force a passage when the mandate of the throne is received with incredulity, and the dollars of Maria Theresa, if possessing all the requisite marks, will insure participation even in a crown monopoly. An exceedingly steep path conducts to the summit of the Chaka; but it is here paved throughout with boulders, so supported at intervals by transverse beams, as to form a succession of clumsy steps, constituting the only made road in the kingdom of Shoa. The heather ceases with the Gorabela mountain; and from the summit of the now bare range the route we were to follow strikes off near the residence of a petty governor, who bears the singular name of "_Mout bai nore legne_." "Oh, that there were no death for me!" is the interpretation thereof; but judging from the appearance of the lord of the manor, who numbers some threescore years, he is not likely long to find his wish realised. Engaged in earnest conversation with the old man, was Ayto Guebroo, who, in consequence of inability to check the repeated rebellions of the Loomi, by whom he so recently was wounded, had at last been deprived of his government and of his silver sword, and was on his way to the presence of the despot in deep disgrace. The Abyssinian verdure is singularly evanescent, a month without a shower being sufficient to dry up the rich herbage, and to darken the hue of the foliage; but the "rain of Bounty," which usually falls in February, giving a fresh impulse to vegetation, the hills and valleys again teem with abundance. November was fast drawing to a close, and the aspect of the country generally was brown and withered. The best pastures were covered with the sleek beeves swept off from Finfinni, and the cornfields were yellow with the royal crops now under the sickle, whilst in the numerous threshing-floors muzzled oxen were already treading out the grain. Our route led across Motatit and the Toro Mesk, through dales and over hills abutting upon the face of the bluff frontier of Shoa, in which are the sources of many of the more distant tributaries to the blue Nile. Never was there a tract more destitute of birds or wild animals, a few plovers and larks, with some of the more common species of _Rodentia_, being the only objects of natural history observed during a march of twelve miles, which led to the halting ground in the centre of the little village of Asophee, opposite to the frowning mountain Kooromania. Under our flimsy cotton awnings, the night proved intensely cold; and on resuming the journey at an early hour the ensuing morning, over a swelling country thickly dotted with Christian hamlets, we found the more sheltered pools by the road-side covered with a thin coating of ice, the first witnessed since our arrival in Abyssinia. At the village of Amarague, hospitable entertainment had been prepared by Ayto Egazoo, whose name signifies, "May they buy." This notable warrior had, prior to the late foray, introduced himself to me, somewhat k-propos of his title, by an ingenious but abortive attempt to sell an unsound horse. Dismounting on the right side from the identical straw-coloured steed, he now placed himself, with shoulders bared, in the middle of the road, and by the life of the king adjured us to enter his abode, in order to partake of a sheep that had been expressly slaughtered. Wulleta Selassie, his comely partner, daughter to Shishigo, the governor of Shoa-meda, had kindled in the dark hall the fiercest of fires, and immediately on the termination of complimentary inquiries, an ox-hide being spread, the heavy door was barred to exclude the evil eye. Raw collops having been steadily rejected, bones, singed in a somewhat cannibal-like fashion, were rapidly circulated by the attentive host. "Take the eye," he repeated, coaxingly, to each in turn, presenting at the same time betwixt his finger and thumb the extracted orb of the deceased mutton--"do, the eye is the daintiest part. No!--well you _must_ eat this marrow," crushing the uncooked shank with a grinding-stone handed by a slave girl, and extending the splintered fragments to be sucked. Overflowing bumpers of sour beer having been filled in a gloomy corner at a huge earthen jar, each horn was tasted by the cup-bearer from the hollow of his palm, in demonstration of the absence of poison. The surplus repast, fluid as well as solid, quickly disappeared under the united efforts of the retinue; and a bead necklace having been hung about the neck of the lady's hopeful son and heir, we finally effected our escape from the ovenlike apartment, with the aid of divers promises made to both master and mistress, and sundry pieces of silver disbursed to silence a host of importunate menials. Ayto Egazoo rode forth, in accordance with etiquette, "to see the party off." From the courtyard of his snug but dirty domicile, Tegulet, and the blue hills of Argobba and of the Wollo Galla, bounded the extensive prospect. Regaining the road, we crossed in succession the Tekroos-Bado, Moosh, and Goodawurud rivers, all remote sources of the blue Nile. On the banks of the latter stands the monastery of Saint George, famous as having been left unmolested when the district was in the hands of the Galla, many of whom are even said to have been converted to Christianity. Goodawurud was the title of a potent chieftain, who, with Merkurri, Amadich, and Logo, held the country after Graan's desolating visit, until expelled by Asfa Woosen; and a considerable portion of the revenues are now applied to the maintenance of the monastery of Medak, whose superior, the Alaka Amda Zion, has charge of the heir presumptive. Nothing could exceed the beauty of the position selected by the cowled fraternity of Saint George; large bands of whom, lounging away their hours of idleness beneath the funereal junipers in which the retreat is deeply embosomed, were for once aroused from listless apathy by the passing cavalcade of white strangers. The land swarms with friars, monks, and anchorites, who are habited in yellow dresses, as the badge of poverty, or in the prepared skin of the antelope. Usually licentious in their manners, they roam through the country a perfect pest and plague to society. Men become monks at any period of life. Those who are afflicted with grievous sickness, vow that in event of recovery they will abandon the world, and transfer all their moveables to the church. The rich often deliver over their property to their children, who are bound to support them until death. The poor subsist upon the bounty of the king and of the community; and many never enter the cells of the monastery at all, but with their wives reside at ease in their own homes, having assumed the counterfeit piety of the order solely for the sake of defrauding their creditors--since, however deeply involved, all former scores may be cleared off with the ease and rapidity of the most indulgent court of insolvency, by the simple process of "putting on angels' clothing." The skin of the Agazin is usually adopted as the garb of humiliation; and this emblem, together with the unwashed person, is intended to commemorate the legend of their great founder Eustathius, who boasted of having performed no ablution during a long term of existence, and who miraculously crossed the river Jordan, floating securely upon his greasy cloak. The prophet Samuel is also sometimes referred to as affording another notable example of the advantage extended by the mantle of hide, in the asserted fact of his having sailed seven days across a great sea, borne in safety, with his disciples, upon his leathern robe. Throughout Shoa, lakes are believed to form the great rendezvous of evil spirits; and in one called Nugareet-fer, at the foot of the hills, the drum of the water kelpie is frequently heard, to the no small terror of the superstitious auditors. Shortly after crossing the stony bed of the Daimadamash, a road branches off to Angollala and Debra Berhan, past the monastery of Maskalie Ghedam, a title signifying "My cross is a convent." Beyond the Dewasha, a second strikes northward to Gondar, past the seat of government of Zenama Work, the Queen-dowager, which occupies a beautifully rounded tumulus styled Zalla Dingai, "The rolling stone." "Bad people," saith the tradition attached to this spot, "were one day seated upon a rock that formerly occupied the summit of the hill. They were telling lies, and busied in contriving tricks by which to circumvent their neighbours. Suddenly the mass gave way, and all who sat thereon, being precipitated into the deep torrent that rolls beneath to join the river Mofa, were crushed to atoms for their evil doings." After fording the Goor river, and ascending a high ridge, the Queen's white palace forms a striking object in the landscape; and beyond it is a square eminence, where, under the eye of the erudite Alaka Woldab, the reigning monarch passed his earlier years, until the assassination of his sire opened to him the accession. From this point we obtained an extensive view over Geshe and Efrata, with the Great Saka mountains stretching towards the Nile. A little further on the heather-grown range suddenly terminates in an abrupt descent of full three thousand feet, at the foot of which lies the rugged province of Efat, blending into the blue plains of the Adaiel. The great beacon Azulo, with the wide crater of Abida, hazy and hot, were visible in the east. Afrubba, and the high hills of the Ittoo Galla, rose in the distance, and a perfect chaos of rude disjointed mountains lay piled towards Ankober, seeming as though they had been gathered from many countries, and pitched together by giant handfuls, to fill up the deep intervening chasm. Hitherto the road had been rough and stony--the eminences steep and bare; and after passing the sombre groves of Saint George, the only redeeming feature was the church dedicated to "Our Lady," reposing quietly amid the rich foliage of the "cosso," and other large-leafed forest trees. In many respects the face of the country now resembled the sides of the great Indian Ghauts--masses of light brown, chequered with pale yellow; but stubble or standing corn in every accessible nook and corner usurped the place of the wild grass, with which nature so prodigally clothes the mountain scenery of the East. Numerous parties, consisting of twenty or thirty peasants, carrying on their heads bales of coarse cotton cloth as tribute to the king, passed us at intervals-- the sword by their side and the spear in their hand, indicating that the frontier along which they journeyed was in a far from settled state. This tract of high land, which forms the watershed between the Nile and the Hawash, is richly cultivated and abundantly irrigated--a fresh stream, on its course to the former river, intersecting the western side of the range, and forming a deep valley every second or third mile. After leaving the Goor, however, the face of the country, becoming more sterile, is covered with heather, and for the last few miles to the top of the Turmaber pass, neither village nor cultivation is to be seen. During the descent, which passes through a gap in the precipitous trap rocks, and is steeper and even worse than that of the Chaka, the bleak and lofty peaks of Aramba, Gaifaiyetto, Woti, Mamrat, Kondie, and Wofasha, are severally revealed to view; these forming a continuation of the great mountain range which fortifies the whole eastern frontier of Shoa, from Bulga to Worra Kaloo, and extends thence through Ambasel, Yedjow, and Lasta, to Simien, the highest point of Abyssinia. From the foot of this pass the road leads across the Telunko, close to Debra Sena, a small eminence covered as with an inverted bowl, by a dense, cabbage-shaped clump of junipers, concealing Saint George's church--a celebrated shrine for the performance of vows and orisons, which is visited from great distances. Hence the route winds to the bottom of a deep wooded dell, rich in botanical specimens, where the clear stream of the Telunko is again crossed, to the face of a steep acclivity leading to Dokaket, the ancient capital of Emmaha Yasoos, third monarch of Shoa. The sun was dipping below the opposite range as a halt was proclaimed by the King's guide at the house of Ayto Abaiyo Gurwa, the governor of the district, whose hospitality proved unbounded. For a full hour he continued shouting and scolding, ordering and countermanding; and whilst he expressed the greatest mortification at my declining to appropriate two fat oxen, in addition to liberal supplies of sheep, bread, mead, and beer, he was with difficulty prevailed upon to accept a present that I had prepared in acknowledgment; a piece of self-denial rarely experienced at the hands of a native of Southern Abyssinia. "But," he added, "henceforth you may know me as your friend; therefore send to me frequently, and I will tell you when I have any concern. Wolda Mariam, my henchman, who is here, is in my confidence. Furthermore, he will visit you on my part. Appoint now a _baldoroba_, who may introduce him, that access be not impeded." The party nominated as the medium of communication stepped to the front, and the two, baring their shoulders, and bowing the one to the other, fell back into their respective places. Ankober is the capital of the eastern division of the kingdom of Shoa, in which are comprised the provinces of Basso, Dabdabo, Karaba, Kawt, Mans, Giddem, Abomesa, Mahhfood, and Dokaket. The last-named especially forms the scene of constant inroads from the savage Adaiel, whose country lies little more than a cannon shot below; the Amhara, who on the Farri boundary are severely punished by the politic monarch for taking a life, even in retribution, flocking hither to entitle themselves to wear the decoration of the "akodama," the _ne plus ultra_ of their ambition. And such is the bitter hatred subsisting between the two nations so closely bordering upon each other, that but for the lofty hills and cold climate of Ankober, the Moslems, who are the far braver race, would doubtless have paid its Christian population a hostile visit long ere now. On the adjacent northern frontier, the intricate labyrinth of broken ravines, over which our view had ranged in the morning, forms a strong natural barrier against the Wollo Galla, whose incursions are nevertheless frequent; whilst the Tulema, residing in the Saka range, entertain as decided a disinclination to descend from their own bleak hills, as do the Amhara to visit the hot valleys and forests of the Adaiel, which stretch beyond the borders of Efat. Volume Two, Chapter XXXVII. THE SHREW OF MAHHFOOD. Bidding adieu to the hospitable host, we continued our journey along the eastern side of the Turmaber range, through a country considerably improved in point of beauty. There was a warmth of appearance about the numerous hamlets, quite in unison with the increased temperature of this lower tract. Gayer flowers bloomed by the way-side; more brilliant birds fluttered among the thick corinda hedges, through which peeped the eglantine, the honeysuckle, and the blackberry; and the entire prospect, although exceedingly broken, was covered with the most luxuriant grass, in every spot where the hand of the cultivator had not been busy. The slope of each hill and abrupt eminence was wooded with junipers and other fantastic evergreens; fields of yellow safflower glowed in golden tints; and teff, growing in the depths of the valleys, resembled greatly the waving rice-fields of Asia. Dame Twotit, one of the king's choristers, who accompanied the army to Garra Gorphoo, and was now making a professional tour of the provinces, joined us _en route_, carrying a small wicker parasol; and as she ambled along upon her mule, with the butter pouring in streams over her shoulders, through the influence of the solar rays, the good lady was pleased to chant extemporaneous couplets in honour of the war about to be waged against the beasts of the forest. "The Gyptzis will slay the elephant, whereof all the warriors of Amhara are afraid"--whilst it formed the burden of her song, conveyed an opinion diametrically opposed to that entertained by the public; and the followers, inspired by the words of a woman, took up the sentiment, and made the valleys re-echo to their martial chorus, which attracted to the roadside the inhabitants of every hamlet in the vicinity. Mahhfood, a village hemmed in by high kolqual hedges, formed the termination of the march. Its natural fortifications having uniformly proved insurmountable, this district has never been conquered either by the Galla or Mohammadans. The residence of the governor, who has been honoured with the hand of Woizoro Birkenich, daughter of Queen Besabesh by her former marriage, stands on the apex of the loftiest of the many isolated hills; and in accordance with the precaution invariably taken to prevent surprise on these disturbed frontiers, it is surrounded by a formidable fence. Our camp was pitched at the foot; and the thermometer having stood in the morning at 32 degrees on the summit of Dokaket, the difference in temperature was considerably felt during the afternoon, when the mercury mounted to 90ø under the flimsy palls which formed our only screen. Having been specially recommended to Ayto Gadeloo, whose acquaintance I had formed during the late foray, we paid him a visit of ceremony in the cool of the evening, and were received and entertained according to the perfection of Abyssinian etiquette. The whole of the dirty domestics and household slaves were mustered on the occasion, to witness the presentation of gifts brought for the "Emabiet," [i.e. "The mother of the house"--a title of honour employed in speaking of the queen, the princesses royal, the mistress of a family, and the holy Virgin, who is usually styled "Our Lady."] who, like the rest of the princesses royal, displayed unequivocal signs of being sole and undisputed mistress of the establishment. Fat, fair, and forty, she was seated in a gloomy recess, upon an "alga," and partially screened from view by the intervention of a lusty handmaiden. The good man, who occupied a corner of the throne, presented in his owlish features the very personification of a well-trained, hen-pecked husband, for years accustomed to the iron rule of the shrew--and so complete was her monopoly, that he could be said to boast of little beyond the empty title of governor of Mahhfood. The lady put a few preliminary questions touching the number of wives we each possessed, and appeared highly to approve of the matrimonial code that limited the number to one. But throughout the dingy mansion there was a miserable assumption of regal dignity which considerably retarded conversation, by imparting to the whole ceremony an air of unbending stiffness. The host, who was either unable or unwilling to answer any interrogatories respecting his own country, subjected us to a tiresome catechism; and like the Arab Bedouin, who formed his estimate of the poverty of Europe by the fact of its producing neither dates nor camels, Ayto Gadeloo conceived a passing indifferent idea of Great Britain, from the discovery that it boasted of no mules. "Have you mashela, and daboo, and tullah in your country?" [Anglice, "maize, bread, and beer"] he inquired, whilst his fair partner feasted her eyes upon the "pleasing things" presented, in none of which it was evident the lord of the creation was destined to participate--"Oh, you have all these; well, and have you oxen and sheep, and horses and mules?"--"How, no mules?" he shouted in derision, while the slaves tittered and hid their black faces, and their mistress laughed outright--"Why, what a miserable country yours must be!" Shortly after daybreak we resumed our journey through very thriving crops, descending to the valley of the Robi, where the eye was greeted by a perfect scene of Eastern cultivation. Juwarree, fifteen feet high, teff, chilies, onions, oil-plant, and cotton, in many parts artificially irrigated, flourished with the utmost luxuriance on a rich-black soil, under a climate resembling that of the more favoured spots in Western India. The scenery of this richly-wooded and well-watered valley was not a little enhanced by the beauty of the surrounding mountains, of which the numerous peaks were tufted with trees, and crowned by populous hamlets, whilst the redundance of vegetation, and the growth and quality of the cotton, with a soil adapted for the production of sugar, coffee, and rice, proclaimed the locality to possess the very highest natural advantages as an emigrating settlement. In the broad shallow channel of the Robi, upwards of two hundred yards across, which pours into the Hawash between a belt of verdant acacias two sparkling streams of the clearest water, are found an inexhaustible supply of round pebbles of every size, which being assorted, are used by the Amhara fusiliers in lieu of the usual iron bullets. They are even employed as slugs and shot, and form a large item in the tribute paid by this district, wherein alone they are obtained. Crossing the river, the road entered a thick jungle; and we were warned to be on our guard, as it had long been infested by banditti called Gowezza, composed principally of Christian outcasts, who absconded either from fear of their creditors, or of church censure. During the great famine in the year of Saint Luke, their numbers were augmented by from five to six hundred Christian, Mohammadan, and Galla vagabonds, who formed themselves into a lawless band, and renouncing all forms of religion, took up their permanent abode in the greenwood, where, favoured by the nature of the ground, they could plunder and kidnap with impunity. To the notes of an Abyssinian war chorus, which still proclaimed our hostile designs on the lordly elephant, the plain was crossed without any demonstrations on the part of the outlaws; and leaving the high peaks of Chureecha and Sangota on the right, with Mungut and Sallaish on the left, the road ascended the Gozi mountain by a narrow pass, leading under a peak on which stands a house belonging to Wulasma Mohammad. Abomesa, forming the termination of the range towards the Adaiel frontier, limits his power in this direction, his rights as Abogaz extending westward to Bulga. The district of Gozi is entirely peopled by Mohammadans styled Arablet, whose progenitors are said by tradition to have been left there prior to the reign of Nagasi, first king of Shoa. Hoossain, Wahabit, and Abdool Kurreem, generals probably detached from the victorious army of Graan, are represented to have come from Mecca, and to have taken possession of the country--the legend assigning to the first of these warriors as his capital the populous village of Medina, which is conspicuous on a cone among the mountains shortly after entering the valley of the Robi. Having descended the Gozi range, the road led across an extensive flat, styled "the wilderness of Giddem," which forms the neutral ground betwixt the Amhara and the Adaiel. But less than four years have elapsed since the great chief of the Gibdosa, at the head of his whole clan, made a sudden inroad, and swept off all the cattle in this district. The Christians pursuing the invaders, slew great numbers in an engagement fought near Rasa, and recovered a portion of the spoil; but on their march back, they were in turn overtaken by Anbassa Ali, who destroyed upwards of one thousand. The valley of Giddem is watered by four fine rivers, which we crossed in succession--the Sower, "mystery," the Ashmak, "man who deals in sorcery," the Gasha Bakindee, "shield on my arm," and the Jow-waha, "stupid water"--the whole of which, uniting after their escape from the mountains, join the Hawash not far from Mount Azulo. The Gasha Bakindee, the banks of which are precipitous and thickly wooded, is represented to have been the scene of numberless murders on the part of the Wollo Galla, who are here in the constant habit of way-laying travellers through the wilderness. To the eastward of the valley, therefore, the hand of the cultivator has been stayed, and the forest, standing in large gloomy patches, choked with reeds and wild canes, is tenanted by troops of guinea-fowl, by the boar, the lion, and the elephant; but to the westward, on either side of the road, the cultivation is magnificent--the soil, the climate, and the abundant supply of water, with the shelter afforded by the surrounding hills, proving especially favourable to the labours of the agriculturist. Traces of the huge tenants of the shades so worthy of their bulk, were however visible among the adjacent crops, and the dread entertained of their visits was well evinced by numerous elevated platforms, constructed upon the highest trees that bordered the rich plantations of cotton and red pepper. On the sedge-grown banks of the Sower, beneath the spreading branches of a venerable tamarind, we found Ayto Abaiyo, with a numerous retinue, reposing during the noontide heat, on his way to assume the district of Mungust, to the south-southwest, the late governor having been summarily removed on charges of oppression. In the principal town, Mosabiet, is held one of the chief markets in the kingdom, the high road to Manchettee, the Wollo, and the Yedjow Galla passing through it. The numerous mounted retinue of the haughty functionary had conjured up misgivings in the mind of our guide, who, since leaving Mahhfood, had never ceased allusions to the "Gowezza;" nor was it without much persuasion and remonstrance that he was finally induced to cross the river with us, and to hail from a respectful distance the suspicious band of his own countrymen. Leaving the valley of Giddem, seven miles in length, the route led over a very broken and stony rise into a third vale, also richly cultivated, whence commenced the ascent of the Kokfari range. We halted for the night at the village of Zumbo, pleasantly situated on a pretty green terrace on the mountain side between Manya and Dai Mariam, and I despatched the King's messenger in advance to apprise Ayto Tsanna, the governor, of our arrival within his jurisdiction. Supplies poured in from all directions; but although now far beyond the reach of the much-dreaded freebooters, it was not destined that our hours should be passed in peace. Attracted by the smell of honey, a legion of huge black ants swarmed into the tent; and invading every bed, caused one slumberer after the other to start in madness to his feet. In vain we obtained a light, and massacred thousands upon thousands--a fresh army streamed upon the track of the annihilated troops; and so unremitting were their persecutions, that we ultimately found it necessary to strike the camp, and remove to a remote stubble field, where, although fairly beaten from the field, pursuit was fortunately baffled, and their proximity speedily forgotten. Volume Two, Chapter XXXVIII. HOSPITALITY AT KOKFARI. "May the guests of the Negoos come quickly!--all is prepared for their reception," was the message received early the ensuing morning from the old governor, to whom our party stood specially consigned by the king, and who was, moreover, an acquaintance made in the late expedition, where he had appeared in capacity of "wobo," or general commanding the rear guard. After ascending the steep face of the mountain, and gradually turning the shoulder of the range, we reached his residence, occupying the summit of a steep hill, well fortified with palisades and wicker-work. A deep grove of tall trees on the opposite eminence concealed the monastery of Kasaiyat, famous as the depository of the chronicles of Saint Eustathius, and beyond, a wild tract of forest land, intersected by serpentine rivers, stretched away to the blue hills of Efrata and Worra Kaloo. Approaching the residence of Ayto Tsanna, I caused a salute to be fired in his honour by our escort; and being forthwith ushered into his presence, we found the kind-hearted and hospitable veteran seated in the inner porch of his spacious house, where skins had been spread for our accommodation. Nothing could surpass the munificence of our reception. Bread, honey, butter, hydromel, beer, poultry, and eggs, were supplied in princely abundance, whilst oxen and sheep were slaughtered for the use of the followers, and corn and grass supplied to the numerous train of horses and mules. A spacious domicile was provided, in which, after a fire had been lighted to dislodge evil spirits, our repast was spread; and during the greater portion of the afternoon the liberal and intelligent host continued to witness the drill of the artillery escort, performed at his special request, and to converse with evident satisfaction on the manufactures of Europe, specimens of some of which he had most unwillingly accepted. Messengers were in the mean time despatched to five subordinate governors, with orders to assemble their quotas on the morrow for the purpose of hunting. The _tooltoola_ resounded through the neighbouring districts to summon young and old; and in imitation of the royal proclamations, the mandate went forth by the herald, "that all who should fail to repair to the wilderness on the day appointed would be held to have forfeited their property during seven years." The son of the host, a tall handsome youth, wearing gay necklaces of beads and a streaming white feather in token of his achievements performed during the recent foray, had been specially charged with the entertainment of our followers; and the strength of the potent old hydromel, no less than the liberality with which it had been dispensed, were but too evident upon the majority ere the night fell. Loquacity increased with each additional _gumbo_ that was drained, and loud and boisterous were the praises of the good cheer within the chieftain's hall. Amongst the visitors who flocked to behold the white strangers, was a monk from the adjacent monastery, who proved deeply versed in traditionary lore. It was diverting to listen to the arguments adduced by the holy father against the projected hostilities, and one anecdote considerably staggered the faith reposed by the governor in their success. "In ancient days," quoth the recluse, "one of the most powerful monarchs of Ethiopia, whose name I have forgotten, made war against the elephants with his whole army. The king of the elephants being sore pressed, took unto himself a mouse to wife, and herein he displayed his wisdom and sagacity. The mice espousing the quarrel of their noble kin, entered the imperial storehouses in a countless body-- devoured all the shields, harness, accoutrements, and leather, in a single night, and thus utterly defeated the project of the king of kings." The Amhara possess a most indifferent idea of woodcraft, and never venture to attack a wild beast unless on horseback, in bodies consisting of several hundred warriors, armed with every available weapon, when, according to the approved system of Abyssinian bullying, the animal is sometimes worried to death. But these expeditions are generally undertaken with little success, and seldom terminate without many fatal accidents. He who hurls the first successful spear is entitled to an honorary reward from the king, and to a triumph in the capital, which is attended with ceremonies and rejoicings similar to those that celebrate the return of the murderous foray against the heathen Galla. Owing to the excess of cultivation on the highlands, Shoa generally presents a peculiar deficiency of objects worthy of the chase; baboons and monkeys, it has been seen, are royal game; badgers are believed to be the "Devil's flock," and are therefore studiously shunned; and hyenas, although occasionally destroyed, are in many parts of the country suffered to multiply to an alarming extent, from the existing superstition that Jewish sorcerers descend from the mountains during the night, and transform themselves into the likeness of these animals, whence there could be no good result from their destruction. Neither journey or hunting is ever undertaken without propitious omens, and should these be wanting, the Amhara will retrace his steps on any pretext, and patiently await the welcome sign. The sight of the unclean hare is sufficient to shake the stoutest nerves. An antelope bounding across the path augurs favourably to success in any undertaking. A fox barking on the left hand destroys all hope of a happy result, but on the right hand a prosperous issue may with confidence be anticipated. The appearance of a white buzzard prognosticates good or evil according to the position of the tail, and chief of all the numerous birds of ill omen is the "Goorameila." [Lanius humeralis. Lath.] Death or the most dire disaster, is certain to follow his portentous croak; and there is no inhabitant throughout the realm who has not some tale to record in confirmation of the fatal character of this ominous shrike. That foolhardy wight who giveth no heed to the warning note of coming misfortune has never yet been known to escape. He is either balked in the object of his journey, pillaged, maltreated, or murdered. The omens must in this instance have proved favourable. Under the personal guidance of the host, whose hospitality increased rather than abated, we repaired, on the afternoon of the second day's festivities, to Manya--a village occupying the high promontory of table-land immediately opposite to our former encampment at Zumbo. It overlooked the wide extent of wilderness which was to form the scene of operations on the morrow, but among which it was deemed unsafe to sojourn, as well on account of the wild beasts, as of the constant hostile inroads of the Galla and Adaiel. The route wound by a gradual descent over the Kokfari mountain, so named from the numerous red-legged partridges, the size of a guinea-fowl, with which the coverts swarm--thick copses of brushwood and heather, interlaced with dog-roses, eglantine, and bramble, affording the most alluring shelter in the vicinity of abundant grain and water. Beneath the moss-grown branches of a silvery "woira," which leaned its venerable form over the hill-side fronting the church dedicated to Emanuel, stood a miniature imitation of the sacred edifice, erected according to wont upon a pile of stones. Bread, grain, rags, and feathers, were industriously heaped upon this idol by every passer by, and the kiss was imprinted with fervent devotion upon the rough stem of the tree around which the old governor, dismounting from his mule, fastened a strip of cloth as a votive offering. On reaching our destination, which by certain of the followers who had sacrificed too liberally to the jolly god was accomplished with no ordinary difficulty, several muskets and matchlocks were discharged from the verge of the cliff, to give notice of our arrival to the Gille and Soopa, two tributary clans, occupying the low country, who, in obedience to the summons of the preceding day, were already assembled on the confines of the hunting ground. From the Rasa hills, the residence of the formidable Anbassa Ali, whose domains bound the wilderness of Giddem, Mount Azulo did not appear to be more than one day's journey; and the Hawash, which is said to flow round its base, could be distinctly traced in its course through the hot Adel plains, by the dark line of trees that fringe the banks. The mountain itself, although far beyond the dominions of Shoa, is renowned as the most sacred seat of monkery. Continually emitting volumes of dark smoke, its only inhabitants are Christian friars, who, despising the world and its vanities, retire thither, unmolested by Galla or Mohammadan, to spend their days in blissful peace and seclusion. Universally looked upon as sorcerers, they are believed to live on the most social terms with the lions and wild goats which share the retreat, and the tale assigns to the holy fathers an exclusive subsistence upon fruits, and herbs, and roots, which, together with a pair of wings, are freely furnished them from Heaven; but it is certain that none who have yet returned from the pilgrimage have brought back their feathered appendages,--whilst their lank figure and their sunken eye have betokened rather the toil of the weary wayfarer than the high enjoyment of Elysian feasts. Volume Two, Chapter XXXIX. THE WILDERNESS OF GIDDEM. Before daylight of the following morning, Ayto Tsanna gave the word to saddle, and the tedious descent of the south-eastern face of the steep Manya hill having been accomplished on foot, we gained the border of the wilderness as the sun rose, and took post on a small eminence to await the report of the scouts who were out in every direction among the tangled grass. The valley, environed by mountains, and extending eight or ten miles in one uninterrupted flat, was intersected throughout its extreme breadth by the four streams already named, their thickly-wooded banks harbouring antelope, and a great variety of birds of the most brilliant plumage. These detached jungles, in many points uniting, formed a continuous belt of dark foliage, and in others receding as the miry swamps became niggard of the requisite moisture, afforded limited vistas to the eye, although still accessible with difficulty either to man or horse. A speedy summons arrived from the governor, who, with a large party of retainers, and two matchlock-men forming his body-guard, was seated on the banks of Jow-waha. An elephant had been descried at the distance of some miles, and an uproar had in consequence commenced, sufficient to alarm the most fearless and sedate quarry in existence. After a protracted and tumultuous consultation, the hunt was commenced according to the Abyssinian method--equestrians and pedestrians without number shouting and hallooing to each other as they threaded the paths trampled by the huge quadrupeds through a tangled swamp of canes, so locked and interlaced that no human eye could penetrate one foot on either side, whilst crowds of Galla horsemen galloped on either flank, to complete the impossibility of success. This turmoil continued under a burning sun until past two o'clock, when, having reached the extremity of the waste which divides the country of the Gibdosa Adaiel, the appearance of several horsemen hovering in the distance induced the governor to decamp with precipitation to the centre of the wilderness, without having seen aught save a few recent tracks imprinted on the burnt grass, and a charred log of wood which was long maintained to be an elephant. Here the tributary Gille and Soopa, who had been called out under their respective chiefs, Abbo and Boroo [Boroo signifies "my yellow horse"], came pouring in from all directions--a wild and savage race, whom the Christians declared to be the most hardened, cruel, and insubordinate wretches in the whole world, men who would take a life for the possession of the veriest trifle. More than trebling the numerical strength of the Amhara, their appearance so alarmed the veteran "Wobo," that he forthwith placed himself under the protection of his guests; and apprehending a termination to the day similar to the issue of Chevy Chase, requested that rifles might be discharged for the purpose of intimidation, whilst he ordered his immediate attendants to raise the shrill war-cry to collect his scattered retainers. The Moslems meanwhile contented themselves with gazing at the unwonted appearance of the white strangers, and clumps of Christian spears soon restored the chief to his self-possession, and relieved the forebodings of his dismayed followers, whose extraordinary politeness to the auxiliaries was beyond all things diverting; the most tender inquiries relative to health and wellbeing only eliciting a scowling glance, accompanied by a surly dogged reply. It being in the interim reported that a man had been destroyed by a female elephant, at whose calf he had ventured to hurl his spear, Ayto Tsanna took the opportunity of freeing himself of his unpleasant Galla vassals, by directing them to hem the skirts of the forest, whilst he requested us "to enter the thicket, and destroy the enraged beast, whom no one else would approach." Although well convinced of the impossibility of accomplishing this absurd request, a desire to efface former evil imputations induced a ready compliance, and a body of Amhara spearmen were selected to point out the scene of the alleged accident. Crouching in a compact group at intervals of every few hundred yards as they advanced, they lowered their shields, bristled their spears, and in "the language of the chase," offered up a prayer for Divine assistance, coupled with abuse and defiance to the much-dreaded object of their quest. The story of the catastrophe proved on investigation to be utterly false, the man having been merely lacerated by a splinter in a fall from a tree, instead of killed outright by an elephant, as averred by his comrades. A search of two miles through the shady recesses of a magnificent forest, where some of the venerable trees measured upwards of forty feet in circumference, and where the lemon grew wild in the utmost luxuriance and profusion, led us again to the open plain, without aught being seen but a few of that rare species of ape styled the "monk of the wood." Here a message from the governor was delivered, to the effect that the elephants were surrounded at the further extremity of the waste, and unless immediately attacked would make their escape. Rejoining him with all expedition, it was ascertained that want of method had again frustrated every design, and that the clamour of the unruly multitude had rendered futile this last chance of retrieving the fortunes of the day. Evening was now fast closing around, and many miles were to be retraced to the camp, across bogs and quagmires, rendered almost impassable by the tramp of six hundred horsemen. But before finally leaving the ground, the Galla chieftains and their wild host were assembled; and the governor, taking his seat in the midst, in a set speech informed them that their lord the king had sent them "a strong stranger" as a guest. That their country of Giddem had been chosen in preference to Bulga, Mentshar, or the banks of the Robi, and that elephants _must_ be found on the morrow, or shame would be the portion of all in the eyes of their royal master. Bowing their heads, in token of implicit obedience to the high behest, the chiefs pledged themselves to spare no exertions, and to appear early the following day with double the number of their respective tribes; which assurance given, the opportunity was embraced of urging an old dispute relative to the loss of certain Galla steeds, stated by Boroo, surnamed Amba Bukazia, to have been stolen by the Amhara borderers. "Yellow Horse" rose to speak in favour of his countrymen. His portly figure betokened high command and perfect self-possession. The fines of his dark face had settled down into features expressive of the most imperturbable coolness, and his whole appearance was that of the haughty savage chieftain. Standing erect before his feudal superior, his attitude and demeanour were strikingly bold and dignified. His mantle, surmounted by a shaggy black skin, fell gracefully over his brawny shoulders; and his words flowed on, pleasing and mellifluous, in a smooth stream of native eloquence, which the soft language of the Galla admitted of his modulating into a masterly succession of measured rhymes. The interpreter sat opposite, with his eyes riveted on the orator, and sentence after sentence being rendered into Amharic with ease and volubility, he conveyed to the governor through every marked intonation a close verbal interpretation, without disturbing for a moment the graceful flow of the impassioned harangue. But Ayto Tsanna having already decided the question, and mentally resolved not to listen to the appeal, gladly availed himself of my departure for camp to mount his own horse, and thus abruptly to terminate the unpleasant discussion. Volume Two, Chapter XL. DOWNFALL OF THE ELEPHANT. Ere the sun had risen the ensuing morning, we were again in the wilderness, where nearly double the number of Galla had been assembled by the chiefs Boroo and Abbo, to whom, before commencing the labours of the day, suitable trinkets were presented. The swamps on the southern side of the waste having been drawn unsuccessfully, columns of dust which arose from the opposite quarter high above the trees were pronounced to indicate the presence of a troop of elephants; and thither we all hurried. But the performance of the beaters was even inferior to that of the preceding day. Half the number, visibly shaking with fear, ascended the tallest trees, whilst those who had again induced us to precede them through the ocean of tangled flags, where to kill or even to see a wild beast was perfectly out of the question, used their utmost endeavours, by talking and shouting, to give warning of our approach. But we were resolved to prove that the Gyptzis would not place others in a position which they scrupled themselves to occupy, and the hunt was continued for some hours with those of the Amhara who possessed sufficient courage to accompany us. The sun was oppressively hot, and our side arms, which were insisted upon as a measure of precaution against the treachery of the allies who had been summoned to assist, proved peculiarly cumbersome and distressing; but swamp after swamp was beaten unsuccessfully, and forest after forest traversed without one glimpse being obtained of the desired quarry. At length, about two in the afternoon, I was summoned to the presence of the governor, who, being much fatigued, was seated below a spreading tree, and about to propose a return to the tents. In a long studied speech he set forth "that his followers had done _their_ utmost also for that day, and had driven the elephants, which were countless as the forest leaves, from place to place, as though they had been village kine, but that the Europeans--" Here his harangue was cut short by the appearance of a Galla scout, who galloped furiously up, exclaiming, "They drink, they drink, in the _Jowwaha_!" The council instantly dissolved. Inspired by a new ray of hope, we leaped again into the saddle, and, carrying our rifles across our shoulders, made at full speed for the river. A gallop of three miles through a dense covert, consisting of strong elastic wands, interlaced with prickly weeds and coarse spear grass, left the crowd far behind us; and, arriving at the spot where the animals had been in view, "Yellow Horse," with half a score of his wild riders, was alone present. At the water's edge numerous deep holes in the wet sand were still bubbling from below, and after following the fresh foot-marks a few hundred yards, I ascended a tall tree, from the summit of which, with the aid of my pocket telescope, I presently identified the broad backs of a herd standing at the distance of half a mile. Unconscious of the presence of any foe, they were quietly grouped under a solitary acacia, and but for the flapping of their huge ears, might have been mistaken for masses of rock. Descending as soon as I had thoroughly reconnoitred the land-marks, I made very light of what I had seen, and affecting to doubt the evidence of my eyes, carelessly proposed that the native allies should tarry where they were, whilst Douglas Graham and myself proceeded into the jungle on foot, before the governor with his noisy train should arrive from the rear. After much fruitless opposition on the part of old Boroo, who saw through the plot, and vowed that his despotic master would hold him responsible for the accident which he considered our rash intention to be certain to involve, my arrangement was finally carried. Armed with two rifles each, we stealthily advanced against the wind, under the cover afforded by the dry copse wood, which yielded up a cloud of impalpable dust, and rendered the inclination to sneeze incessant. I had marked a scrubby thorn-bush, which served as a beacon, and on climbing silently to the top, we commanded a view of a small open area that had been trampled completely bare. High cane-like wands and withered grass environed it on all sides, and in the centre, beneath the shade of a venerable camel-thorn, whose stem had been well polished by continual rubbing, stood a gigantic bull elephant, surrounded by four of his seraglio. Thus far we were undiscovered, and British credit being now completely at stake, we paused to take breath, and examine our weapons. Measures having been concerted in a whisper, we then crept upon our hands and knees to the extreme verge of the covert, carefully avoiding the thickest patches, and keeping the tree still always to windward, until, through a beaten track which led towards it, the dark figure of the patriarch of the herd was at last revealed at the distance of only fifteen yards. His trunk was curled around one of his long white tusks; his ears and his under jaw moved at long intervals; and as he swung lazily from side to side to throw his weight on alternate legs, his head was soon turned in the exact position to ensure success. Having first looked at my companion for an assenting nod, I laid my heavy rifle over a forked wooden rest, set the hair-trigger, and planted a two-ounce ball in the only small fatal spot behind the ear which was presented by the monstrous target. A heavy fall announced the effect of the shot, and confusion instantly followed. One of the females whose front had been towards our ambush, rushed forward, and received a volley of hard bullets in her broad forehead, which turned the attack, and brought her also to the ground, after a flight with her companions of fifty yards. She, however, rose after some minutes, and rushing past the cavalcade collected on the outskirts, escaped into the thick forest to die, attention being meanwhile entirely engrossed by the tusker, the nobler quarry, who, although prostrate on his side like a fallen tower, manifested in his dying moments, by sundry portentous noises and uncouth struggles, an inclination to resume an erect position. His destruction was speedily completed; but it was still impossible to leave the spot, from a conviction that the braggart Amhara rabble would not fail to claim the honour and the credit of having slain the prize with their powerless spears, should any perchance find the carcass during the absence of the lawful proprietors--a surmise which was fully confirmed by the appropriation of the tail as a trophy, by the very first man who made his appearance. The death of this lordly monster, to which so little importance would have been attached in those parts of the African continent where the event is one of diurnal occurrence, here created in the mind of every beholder a sensation of astonishment and admiration hardly to be described. The fame of the exploit, carried by express couriers, spread from corner to corner of the empire; and although far from universally credited, it produced even more than the good effect anticipated. Those who, when the storming party first entered the covert, had sought safety in trees, could with difficulty be prevailed upon to descend, in order to approach the mountain of flesh from which life was said to have departed; and finally mustering courage to do so, in the frenzy of excitement, launched their spears and discharged their matchlocks, to the imminent peril of the bystanders and of each other. On the first intimation of the animals having, after two days' diligent search, been actually discovered, three-fourths of the whole party had incontinently disappeared. The Galla horsemen, who had previously boasted the destruction of elephants with their spears, did not venture to approach for a full hour after their ears had been saluted by the reports of our rifles; and even the warrior who vaunted himself the "hereditary chieftain of all the Braves of the Amhara nation," long clung pertinaciously to his secure seat among the topmost branches. As the fact of the downfall of the noble beast became more widely credited, and the scattered forces gradually rallied round it, chief after chief offered his hand in congratulation of the, in his eyes, daring exploit, expressing his wonder and amazement that a small rifle-ball had been able to accomplish the annihilation of the bulk and life of seventy seasons, and extolling the prowess of the king's European visitors in the encounter with so formidable a monster, whose colossal strength could have carried him trampling through a whole array of their own host, dealing death and destruction wheresoever his will impelled him. Whilst dancing and howling around the carcass, they affirmed the deed to be the work of genii, and complimented us as the "bravest of the brave," under the titles of "Figa" and "Gobez;" declaring that "the mould whereof the Gyptzis were fashioned must be of a rare quality; and that if all the subjects of Shoa were but composed of the same material, the dominions of Sahela Selassie would know no limit." Boroo, the brave chief of the Soopa, who, before our shots were heard, had with extreme difficulty been restrained from galloping into the jungle at the head of his gathered retainers, and thus alarming the quarry by the noise and confusion of many hundred horsemen, was more particularly earnest and vehement in his congratulations on our victory. He had himself anticipated none but the most fatal results from what he termed so rash an attack upon the hitherto unsubdued monarch of the wilderness, and had trembled for the royal vengeance which any accident to the party would infallibly have drawn upon his devoted head. "The world was made for you alone," concluded the old warrior in a perfect ecstasy of delight, "and no one else has any business in it." The trunk and ear of the beast so much dreaded throughout the district having been hewn from the carcass, upon the iron folds of which neither the swords nor the lances of the assembled Galla and Amhara could make the smallest impression, were finally borne off in triumph; and as we returned to the encampment on the hill-top, the same honours were paid us which are exacted by the despot on his triumphal entry after a successful expedition against the heathen. Horsemen galloped in every direction, shouting the prowess of the Gyptzis, and announcing that "those who had gone forth to slay the mighty elephant had successfully performed the quest." Groups of women and girls lined the hill-side, and as the hunting-party crowned the steep, raised their shrill voices in praise and welcome. The tents were entered amid the deafening chorus of a war song. Bullocks were instantly slaughtered for all the followers. Double the daily liberal supplies of every description were poured in. Sprigs of green asparagus were presented by the sons of the delighted governor, to ornament our hair in earnest of victory. Dame Twotit composed a new extemporaneous sonnet upon the occasion, which she rehearsed during half the night; and until the cock crew, every quarter of the village of Manya resounded with wild dancing, martial music, and war songs, in celebration of an achievement, now for the first time witnessed by the Christian population of Shoa. Volume Two, Chapter XLI. THE NORTHERN GALLA. Giddem was conquered by Asfa Woosen, grandsire to Sahela Selassie, from Latta, the ruler of the first Mohammadan settlers. A succession of deep valleys, stretching eastward to the very confines of the Adaiel, are occupied by the tributary Galla tribes of Gille and Soopa, who have become converts to Islamism--the Allala river intersecting the country of the former, of which the principal village is Esgieye, and the Negeso that of the latter, whose chief resides at Allaiyo. Further to the north, where a continuation of the wild tract of forest land is visible, the Adaie threads the district inhabited by that portion of the Wollo who own allegiance to Shoa under the government of Efrata, and by the Doogoogra Galla, who were also dependent, but have long been in a state of open rebellion. Large quantities of excellent coffee are cultivated in Manchettee and Efrata, and with the salt pieces or "amoles," which it has been seen are imported from Tigre by the Wollo and Worra Kaloo, are brought to Shoa by the Moslem merchants. In Giddem itself, however, coffee is not cultivated, owing to the prejudice entertained respecting its use by the Christian population generally. Westward of Giddem, and interposed betwixt it and Morabietie, is the province of Mans, largest of all the districts of Shoa, but subdivided into Lalo, Mama, and Ghera, each of which forms a distinct government. Abiye, third king of Efat, defeated and subjugated Gole, the then independent ruler, whose daughter Wolensa, was the mother of Zenama Work, the Queen-dowager. This lady, therefore, looks upon Mans as her hereditary possession, and she is much beloved by the people, although, as regards their allegiance to the crown, they still retain a large share of their ancient independence. Haughty, brave, obstinate, and quarrelsome, they openly avow to have little knowledge of Sahela Selassie--never swear by his name, as is the usage of His Majesty's more dutiful and loyal subjects--often depose the governors whom he appoints to rule over them--and refuse to take part in the annual forays over the southern border, upon the grounds that they have quite sufficient occupation in the adjustment of intestine feuds and boundary disputes. These latter are points not always satisfactorily adjusted in Europe--nor is it extraordinary that they should be attended with some difficulty in Africa. During the rebellion of Medoko, the king, in his distress, sent an urgent message to the people of Mans, saying, "My brothers, my relations, hasten to help me!" and pouring in at the summons, the wild hordes arrived in time to decide the issue of the dubious day. But so well aware is the despot of his precarious footing, that he relies entirely upon the tact displayed by his mother, avowing her northern subjects to be his own flesh and blood, upon whom he could not impose a heavy taxation. The only tribute paid, therefore, is in _sekdat_, a coarse black cloth, manufactured of the fleece of the sheep of the country, and invariably employed in the manufacture of the royal tents. This fabric also furnishes a costume indispensable in so rigorous a climate, where the bleak unsheltered hills, swept by a cutting easterly wind, rank among the coldest portions of Abyssinia. The soil is chiefly a rich black earth, producing abundant crops, but perfectly destitute of timber. Salt is the only circulating medium; and a man's wealth is estimated by the number of his ploughshares, which are carefully buried until wanted. The swarthy complexion of the inhabitants, and their sombre habiliments, distinguish them amongst all the other subjects of Shoa--wearers of the white cotton robe--than whom they are even more superstitious, bigoted, and ignorant; the most enlightened amongst them being esteemed right cunning sorcerers, and as such, dreaded wheresoever they wander. Mans has already been mentioned as a province famous for the lake Alobar, the reputed residence of the King of the Genii, through which the river Shai flows to join the Nile. Of yore, when the spot now inundated was _terra firma_, the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in the house of the wealthiest cultivator residing in the many flourishing villages that then existed, and to have addressed herself to the mistress, saying, "I am hungry, and have nothing to eat. Give me corn, and I will grind for wages." A vast heap of grain was pointed out, sufficient for a week's labour, but no sooner had the Virgin touched it than it was miraculously converted into meal. The inhospitable master now refused the pittance claimed; nor would the "Four Chairs," before whom the complaint was carried, give redress, until a poor shepherd had become mediator. As a mark of the displeasure of Heaven, the scene of this offence against the mother of Christ was forthwith converted into a lake, which has since formed the abode of the lord of all the gins and evil spirits in the land; and from that period large quantities of _dabo_, or wheaten cakes, composed of the whitest flour, have been supplied by general contribution to the shepherds on the festival of Debra Tabor, and on the anniversary of "our blessed Lady." Immediately north of Giddem, betwixt the frontiers of Shoa and Argobba, is the district of Dibbie, under Abba Munsoor, a Wollo Galla of consequence, formerly governor of Wofagabel, in the territories of Birroo Lubo, and notorious for his personal valour. Having with a chosen band of followers rebelled some years since against the Prince of Argobba, he fortified himself at Arikkee, a high table-topped mountain on the Wollo border, where he steadily rejected the terms that were offered for his capitulation. A strong force of spearmen, supported by a thousand musketeers and matchlock-men, was at length sent to reduce the insurgents; but no sooner had the besiegers opened fire from a deep defile that environs the stronghold, than five hundred of their number were laid dead by a storm of stones from above; the residue, as usual on such occasions, retreating in the utmost disorder. The entire scarp of the precipitous hill had been lined with beams and rafters balancing huge masses of rock; and the leathern thongs by which they were lashed being simultaneously cut away by the garrison, destruction was carried along the whole extent of the crowded ravine. After this signal victory, Abba Munsoor abandoned his citadel, and tendering faith to Sahela Selassie, was placed on the frontier of his former liege, where his valour and trusty services have gained him the highest place in the royal favour. The dread entertained by the Christians of the independent Moslem denizens of the low country, has been clearly portrayed by the personal confessions of their monarch. The destruction of a single individual of the hostile tribes, by the most treacherous means, is estimated a feat of the greatest valour, and one that entitles the hero to the highest distinctions. His Majesty's recent allusions to his highland neighbours, the men of Geshe, "who carry broad shields, and fight hand to hand," had reference to the receipt of tidings of the defeat of Ayto Amito, one of his principal frontier governors, by Abogaz Gobassie, a brave chieftain in the service of Birroo Lubo, who, with a large detachment, had attacked and routed the Amhara with great slaughter. This disastrous news had been followed by the arrival of Ayto Kalassie from Kaa, on the west of Antzochia, with intelligence that, being unable any longer to stem the inroads of the Wollo, he had been compelled to take flight, leaving the enemy in possession of a fine district across the river Wonchit, pertaining to the principality of Zenama Work. These events caused considerable consternation in the kingdom of Shoa; and it being apprehended that the Mohammadans would follow up their success in the direction of Giddem, all the Wollo gunmen in the royal service were discharged, and Christians or converted Galla slaves enlisted in their room. A large detachment of the body-guard was then ordered to the north for the defence of the frontier; but under the conviction that, as on all former occasions, the Amhara cavalry would leave them to dispute the field alone with their brave foes, they proceeded on the service with the greatest possible reluctance, although placed under the immediate command of Chara, the son of Medoko, who is scarcely less renowned for valour than was his rebel father. Birroo Lubo, the Prince of Argobba, is descended from Lubo the son of Watsooba, who is said to have been a weaver, and who espoused the daughter of Endries, governor of Gof. Amade, the last ruler of Worra Himano, educated Birroo, the fruit of this union, and created him governor of Gof, whereupon he diligently occupied himself in the extension of his dominions, dividing his residence between that town and Ain Amba. His elder son, Ali Birroo, met an untimely death in one of the many border struggles with the troops of Sahela Selassie; and the only surviving brother, Amade, who is to succeed his now aged father, has already obtained a great reputation for personal valour in the field. The term Argobba is applied by the Adaiel to the whole of the border country in which cotton is cultivated. Caravans constantly come from Aussa to Dowwe, on the frontier, the road being far more secure than that between Tajura and Shoa; and with a view still further to facilitate the communication, the Prince, who is extremely advanced in years, has given one of his daughters in marriage to the chieftain of the united tribes Hurruk Bodaito. The next most influential personage on this frontier is Adara Bille, surnamed, from the title of his favourite war-steed, "Abba Daghet," "the Father of Height." This chieftain resides at Gatira, [The Cypress tree] in the district of Changiet, and presides over the Wollo tribe Gora. As a bribe to secure protection to messengers proceeding to the northern states, he has received a number of villages from Sahela Selassie. Birroo Lubo has given him his daughter in marriage, with territory in his own dominions, and affords military aid in time of need as a check upon the western Galla; and Imam Liban, of the powerful Worra tribe, has likewise made considerable grants of land with a similar object. Thus possessed of extensive power, and courted on all sides, the treacherous chief avails himself of his position to shift the cloak according to the wind; and, although wedded to Birroo's daughter, has never yet assisted that ruler in his hostilities against Shoa. Although not nominally tributary to Gondar, both Birroo and Adara Bille afford military aid whenever called upon, and the Wollo soldiery form the stoutest bulwark of the decayed empire. Were all these fanatic tribes of one accord, they could not fail to endanger the safety of Christian Abyssinia; but they are fortunately divided throughout by the same feuds and private animosities which sever the southern Pagans. Hating Christian and heathen with all the dire inveteracy enjoined by their creed, and slaying both without mercy on every opportunity, the Wollo preserve all the superstitions of the latter, below whom they are in many respects debased by Mohammadan bigotry; thus affording a melancholy proof of what the whole Galla nation must become, should it ever unfortunately happen that Abyssinia terminated her intestine struggles by falling under the grasp of a Moslem ruler. Intercourse with the northern states has imparted to the Wollo a higher degree of cultivation than is possessed by their countrymen in the south; and passing nearly the whole of their time in the repetition of prayers, a proverb and general belief prevails, that their country can never be conquered by those who are not followers of the Prophet. This superstition is embraced even by the Christians of Shoa, in consequence of Ras Ali being last year defeated by the Wollo cavalry at Korkora, on his march to invade Efat. The vernacular language of all this border is Galla, adulterated with Amharic and with the Arabic of the Koran; which two latter may be expected in the course of a few generations entirely to obliterate the aboriginal tongue. Ali Marie, the independent Mohammadan prince of Tehooladeree, wherein is the lake Haik, has long been in firm alliance with the King of Shoa, and twice ably assisted him against the Wollo, an important piece of service, for which His Majesty remunerated him handsomely. It is now two years since he was defeated by Birroo Lubo, and driven to seek refuge at the Christian court, until, having mustered sufficient reinforcements, he contrived, after several severely-contested battles, to reinstate himself in his government; and it is said of this warrior, that on the occasion of his struggle for empire, "he slew so many of the foe with his own hand, that the clotted gore could not be effaced from his spear blade." Again deposed by Birroo, he was now a fugitive in Mofa, a strong fortress to the west of lake Haik. The victor, whose pretext for the war was Ali Marie's refusal to acknowledge allegiance to Ras Ah, has thus, by the subjugation of the Tehooladeree Galla, obtained possession of the entire line of road from the frontiers of Shoa to Tigre, and has, moreover, deprived his enemy the Negoos of his staunchest and most powerful ally. It is not a little singular, that Sahela Selassie, who is on outward terms of friendship with Ras Ali, should have been suffered to afford an asylum to Ali Marie, without being called to account. On the occasion in question, the haughty but humbled fugitive bared his shoulders to the Christian monarch, according to the Abyssinian mode of evincing respect, remarking, as he did so, "that he gave this token of deference for the first time during his life." The Tulema Galla are the last to be mentioned on the northern frontier of Shoa, and at their hands the most serious disasters and reverses have uniformly been experienced. A former emperor of Ethiopia is said to have married a female slave, by whom he had three children, Metcha, Karaiyo, and Tulema. These youths were charged with the royal herds, and being in the wilderness, and brave young men, they soon drew around them a number of discontented vagabonds, who embraced their language and manners, which were those of their mother, a native of the very centre of Africa. Concerting an attack upon the southern provinces of the empire beyond the Hawash, they defeated the imperial army on the banks of the river Gala in Gurague, which runs south towards Zingero; but of numerous clans and houses into which the rebels became subsequently divided, the twelve tribes of Metcha, the Karaiyo, and the Tulema, have alone retained their aboriginal appellation. Attempting to invade the territory of the Abitchu and Ghelan, the Tulema were defeated and driven to the north-west, where they established themselves on the bleakest and most lofty highlands, and to the present day have maintained their independence. One portion have become converts to the Mohammadan faith, but the occupants of the mountain Dera adhere to idolatry. Woosen Suggud succeeded in subjugating some few of these tribes; but on the accession of Sahela Selassie, they cast off the yoke, and being joined by a member of the blood-royal of Shoa, became formidable enemies. Force after force has been sent against Kalala, the capital, on the borders of Morabeitie, and always with the same result. Birroo-Bukiza, and his successor, the brave Abba Damto, have invariably repulsed the "soldiers of the cross," with fearful slaughter, and many governors have been put to a cruel death. In the mind of the superstitious Amhara, fear has gradually given birth to a belief of the existence in these cold mountains of a race of fabulous beings called _Arita_, to whom their reverses are attributed. The lower portion of the body is described to be that of an ass or a black dog, whilst the head and shoulders assume the human form, and with the gait, costume, and language of mankind, complete a disguise which enables the monsters to roam undetected over the border districts of Shoa, in prosecution of their bloody career of cannibalism. Volume Two, Chapter XLII. THERMAL WELLS AT FEELAMBA. The day following our victory over the monarch of the forest was passed in the laborious operation of hewing out the ponderous tusks, each of which formed the load of a donkey, and was valued at one hundred German crowns. A strong force was in attendance to keep the peace; and owing to the inferiority of the tools at command, and the existing necessity of cutting completely through the head to the root of the lower tusk, which was half-buried in the soil with the violence of the fall, the trophies were not borne off until the sun had set. The wounded man had meanwhile been conveyed to the camp for surgical aid. The edges of the laceration in his thigh had been by an amateur practitioner neatly brought together with acacia thorns fastened by threads of wiry grass; and a handful of silver easily reconciled the patient to a few weeks of confinement to his bed. An Armenian, acting in capacity of dragoman to the Embassy, had been the Esculapius--a man who, without the smallest pretensions, gratuitously set up also to be a first-rate Nimrod; and the merriment made throughout this day at his expense had covered him with confusion. When setting out from Ankober with a borrowed musket, he had rubbed his hands and feigned the highest spirits at the prospect of resuming his "old sport," for he had slain elephants by the dozen in Northern Abyssinia; and their tails, he contended, "like the tails of all elephants, were not tufted at the extremity, as I asserted, but covered with long hair, after the fashion of the horse!" A mouse wandering from an adjacent granary at Dokaket, and unwisely scampering over his bed, fell a sacrifice to the well-aimed staff of the hero, who, by virtue of this brilliant exploit, stuck a white feather in his hair, and whooped the war-song during half the ensuing march. Nevertheless, in the course of the first day's unsuccessful hunting, he had been seen to hide himself in a manner far from creditable to his nerves; he had been heard to exert his voice in earnest supplications for assistance at the rumoured approach of the animal for whose life he had previously affected to thirst; and when at last actually confronted with the defunct monster, he was fain to confess that he had only once beheld a live elephant "from the summit of a very high tree, when he discharged his matchlock as the beast retreated, and the people declared that it would die." This curious confession on the part of the impostor, whose statements had heretofore been credited, led to further disclosures. He had been addicted to shooting at hyenas by night in the suburbs of Adowa; and having once been so fortunate as to overturn the object at which he fired, he flew enraptured to the spot, and was somewhat disagreeably surprised to find a Christian man weltering in blood, which flowed from a perforation through the heart. For this untoward murder he was sentenced to pay two hundred pieces of salt, by Oubie the usurper, who, however fond of putting his own subjects to death, permitted no one else to do so with impunity; and being unable to raise the amount of this fine among his numerous friends, he wisely adopted the alternative of flight. In Shoa he set up as a physician, and practised medicine, until so many patients died under his hands, that the king was compelled to issue an interdiction. It formed the veteran's boast, that although well stricken in years, he could still bolt ten pounds of raw beef at one sitting, whereas, if subjected to a culinary process, three were more than he could contrive with comfort. Notwithstanding all his exaggerations, he had witnessed strange sights, which are but too well corroborated. He had seen the monster Oubie, when his conscience was stained by fewer foul crimes than it now is, put out the eyes of his elder brother, who, as the searing-iron hissed over the unflinching orbs, thanked God that he had so long been spared the use of them; and he had seen Ras Subagadis, under whom he once held a petty government in Tigre, executed by the hands of a pagan Galla, who undertook the task for some bread and a barille of hydromel, after numerous Amhara had refused to become headsman to so humane a prince. Every object in visiting Giddem having been fully and satisfactorily accomplished, we bade adieu to the hospitable old governor, whose parting request was, that he might be favourably mentioned to his royal master. This I unhesitatingly promised; and Ayto Elbeshar was deputed to lead the way to the celebrated thermal springs of Feelamba, situated within his government, and which I had determined to visit as we returned to Ankober. Descending by an extremely steep footpath to a deep dell below the Aito hill, the road wound above a mile along the sunken channel of the narrow river, through which meandered a rippling brook of crystal water, varied at intervals by miniature cascades, and shaded throughout its tortuous course by trees and flowering creepers of luxuriant beauty. In an angle formed by a sudden bend are the hot wells, five in number, rising at some distance from each other--the remnants of old volcanic action, which has long entirely disappeared in other parts of its theatre, but has left behind it, in this secluded and highly picturesque spot, a salubrious fountain of life. Aragawi, the most celebrated of these springs, derives its name from one of the nine missionaries of the Greek church, who, at the close of the fifth century, completed the conversion of Abyssinia during the reign of Alameda. He is styled also Za Michael; and is said to have been conveyed on the tail of a huge serpent to the summit of the lofty and then inaccessible rock on Debra Damo, where he founded a convent, of which he is the tutelar saint, and which is still one of the most renowned in Ethiopia. It is recorded of Aragawi that he raised the dead, and caused the blind to see; and among the manifold notable miracles ascribed to him, the not least remarkable is the conversion to Christianity of the Devil himself, whom he persuaded to take the monastic cap for forty years! Selassie, the Holy Trinity, is another open pool or basin situated close to Aragawi, and like it rising in bubbles from the sandy bank and bed of the stream. In both the temperature stood at 118 degrees of Fahrenheit. Mariam, the blessed Virgin, at 115 degrees, issues from a cave, provided with a rude door, and partitioned by a bar of wood into two cells for new and old complaints, and in these patients were in the act of immersion. Abbo, at 120 degrees, percolates from the centre of a steep bank of soft red sandstone, covering basaltic wacke, through an artificial spout inserted for the convenience of drinking the waters. Numbers of dreadfully diseased wretches, the lame, the halt, and the blind, who were here assembled, with victims who had suffered under the Galla knife, formed a horrible spectacle, which called vividly to mind the scriptural account of the pool of Bethesda. The superintendence of the numerous patients who thus flock hither to undergo the discipline of the baths, is limited to the collection of one piece of salt, value two-pence halfpenny sterling, for the use of the wells, which are believed to possess the highest sanative virtues in a great variety of disorders. The waters possess a slight taste and smell of sulphuretted hydrogen; but they may be drunk hot from the spring without creating nausea. There is no precipitate whatever; and not five yards from their source they mingle with a strong current of cold pure mountain water, to which no perceptible alteration is imparted in colour, temperature, or taste. Here we obtained many rare and beautiful birds; amongst others, the Adagoota, a superb black-crested falcon, which had been first seen in the wilderness of Giddem. Following the course of the Feelamba to its junction with the Jow-waha, whereof it forms the principal source, the main road was gained at no great distance from the ford, and the steep Gozi range again surmounted to the village of Telim Amba. It is situated on a height divided by a deep valley from the opposite residence of the governor of Mahhfood, whose lady presently sent me, through a slave girl, the expression of her regret, that "the king's guests" should have chosen to halt at so great a distance; and although it exceeded four miles, she finally insisted upon supplying us with a huge pepper pie, and other ready-cooked provisions. "You might eat these," was the message delivered by the Abigail: "they were prepared for you, but you have taken another road." On the banks of the Robi we had again met Ayto Abaiyo, superintending operations at one of the royal threshing-floors, where all the inhabitants of the district were assembled; and self-interested motives induced him very uncivilly to oppose a day's hunting on that river, upon the score of alleged hostilities with Anbassa Ali. In order to free himself from any further importunity, he clandestinely instructed our guide to lead us by the most direct route, and hence arose the offence which I had committed against the "_Emabiet_." Volume Two, Chapter XLIII. RETURN TO ANKOBER. An extremely steep and infamous road, intersected by numerous mountain torrents, brought us the following day to Aramba. After crossing the district of Arraba Amba, which pays tribute to the crown in agates, whereof numbers of the form adapted for gun-flints are picked up on the face of the soil, the path wound above three miles along the channel of the river Shonkorghie, or "Sugar-sides," which takes its source in the Turmaber range, and during the rains becomes quite impassable. On its borders the blackberry and the corinda abounded, both in full fruit. The scenery was especially beautiful; and in a romantic glen, partially secluded by a grove of tall trees, among which the green and crimson "zoreet" displayed its gorgeous plumage, stood the picturesque church and monastery of "Our Lady." Aramba was taken from the Areeo Galla by Abiye, third monarch of Shoa; and now containing a large portion of the treasures amassed by Sahela Selassie and his ancestors, is garrisoned by a strong detachment of gunmen, and entrusted to the custody of a governor, and of a Shalaka, or captain of a thousand. No stranger is permitted to enter the village without first giving the personal security of one of the inhabitants; and access is not under any circumstances allowed to the stronghold, which occupies the apex of a rocky ridge, possessing great natural strength. Here, in a succession of long barn-like buildings, are consigned to mould and cobwebs, and jealously guarded, every civilised invention received by the despot, which could in any way tend to the advancement or improvement of his people. Our camp was formed on a small level terrace, of which the precipitous brink overlooked a deep dark valley containing the sources of the Aramba water, each flowing through a narrow rocky ravine. Extensively cultivated, and echoing to the shrill voice of the partridge, it is studded with cottages, above the white roofs of which the wreaths of curling smoke rose in agreeable relief against the sombre side of the wood-clothed mountain that bounded the prospect. Woti, towering amid dense forests of timber, and appearing to bear on its venerable summit the crumbling ruins of a giant castle, shut in the view on one side, whilst on the other, far beyond a remarkable pyramidical hill called Koka, could be traced the jungly banks of the Awadee, gradually fading into the blue perspective of the Adel desert. We experienced every civility at the hands of the governor and Shalaka; the latter of whom insisted on mounting guard over our tents in a small temporary bower erected as a defence against the nocturnal cold. Supplies of every description were furnished in regal profusion; and the voracity of the Abyssinian followers, to whom the excursion had proved one continued feast, was most severely put to the test. The king's orders, which, in consequence of the excessive cheapness of all the necessaries of life, entail small burden upon the host, threw open the doors at every stage, and afforded the most lavish commissariat; and although the donors in most instances refused our money, they yet accepted presents of tenfold value in their estimation, which amply remunerated them for the tax imposed by the despotic Negoos. But different indeed would be the reception afforded to the man who should venture to wander through the country without the royal assistance. A well-stocked purse, or a well-filled portmanteau, would not invariably produce a salutary effect, since the savage has always some plan in contrivance, by which to obtain possession of any curious article exposed to his admiring gaze, without imparting aught of value in return; and in Shoa a display of force is frequently requisite to extort that for which the most liberal payment has previously been tendered. Coupled with the desire to obtain property, there ever exists an innate disinclination to part with the most trifling commodity; and even among the higher classes, a stick or a spear is sometimes peremptorily refused to parties who have previously loaded the ingrate with the richest imaginable presents. Our last march lay over the mountain mass of which Mamrat forms the main feature. The ascent in many parts is extremely tedious; and deep dells, intersecting the road, are traversed each by a clear streamlet, leaping from rock to rock in its downward course to vales far concealed from view. A singular bird's-eye view of Goncho, the state prison, was obtained from a natural terrace on which, environed by dark juniper trees, stands the church of Kidana Meherat, "the Covenant of Mercy." This very common title is due to an opinion entertained by the Abyssinian fathers, that God appeared to the Virgin Mary in Paradise, and formed a covenant with her for the redemption of mankind. The voice of the mourners was soon after heard at the house of Ayto Manor, late governor of the district, who, to the great concern of the king, had recently departed this life. In boyhood a playfellow of Sahela Selassie, the young prince had sworn that, on his accession to the throne, he would not forget him, and throughout his long reign he had proved true to his word. Although the deceased had, by his disputes with the merchants of Hurrur, forfeited the government of Alio Amba, the most lucrative in the realm, he was immediately invested with another. Year after year, too, honours and wealth had been heaped upon him from the throne, in gratitude for which he willed to his liberal master the entire of his accumulated property, without making any provision for his own children, who, in the ordinary course of things, are permitted to reside twelve months on the father's estate before it reverts to the crown. A great portion of the latter part of the road lay through the mighty forests of Mamrat, of which the scenery was rendered singularly beautiful by the admixture of vernal and autumnal tints, produced at this season by the great proportion of evergreens. The shadowy and sombre juniper, fashioned like the tall cedars of Lebanon, and the fresh and lively "zigba," "So massy, vast, yet green in her old age," wave stage above stage from the gloomy depths of the valley, to the very pinnacle of the mountain, amid the moss-grown forms of the silver-haired "woira." The imperial purple lory, with myriads of brilliant birds, darted through the cool recesses; the bell voice of the campanero tolled with monotonous regularity, and many a clear and sparkling rivulet bounded over its broken channel. Deep-seated in this retirement lies the monastery of Mantek, said to have been founded a thousand years. It is inhabited solely by _Tabeeban_--men strongly suspected of being Jews in disguise--cunning workers in iron, wood, and clay, who are regarded as sorcerers, and - shunned accordingly by all save the king, to whom they are endeared. The austerities practised by this fraternity, "in order to obtain righteousness before God," are perhaps as severe as any recorded in monkish annals. An oath is taken, under a curse, never to look at a female, nor to hear her voice, nor to eat a morsel of bread which has been prepared by woman's hands, and excommunication for twenty years is the penalty attached to the infringement of the vow. No fire is kindled either on Saturday or on the Sabbath; the most meagre diet is observed throughout the residue of the week; many sit up to their necks in water for days together: at appointed periods all lash their naked bodies with rods of sharp thorns; and whilst every brother sleeps in a sitting posture upon a hard clay bench, with his loins girt about by a tough cord, the _Alaka_, their superior, does penance continually in a massive iron chain. A tree, which points to the monastery of Aferbeine, was adorned by the followers as they passed with the variegated feathers of the _zoreet_, and with fragments detached from their soiled cotton garments. The portals of this convent are guarded by a blind dwarf, two feet four inches in stature, who never moves from his post save on men's shoulders. Among the unwashed tenants of the cloister, there was one who did not disdain to stroll forth, that he might greet the triumphant Gyptzis. Father Stephanos was perhaps the least bigoted of his profession, but he possessed his full share of ignorance and superstition. Leviathan he believed to be a monstrous serpent, carrying the world on its back. None possessed firmer faith in the winged chariot of Ethiopia, in which the celestial ark of the covenant is recorded to have been brought from the Holy Temple; and he further laboured under the happy delusion, that a fire kindled above his secluded convent, must, _par excellence_, be fully as conspicuous at Jerusalem, as the beacons in Palestine by which Saint Helena announced at Constantinople her discovery of the Cross! Old Osman, too, with the aid of his ivory-headed crutch, limped forth from his cell in the outskirts of Ankober, to inquire how his white friends "from beyond the world of waters had entered and passed their time?"--A rover in Gurague, he had dealt largely in human flesh, and seen much of the unexplored interior, but finally followed the example of Habakkuk, the Arabian merchant, who, in the days of Tekla Haimanot the ecclesiastic, and during the reign of King Naod, was brought to embrace Christianity, and became _Etchegue_, or Superior of all the monasteries. A proselyte to the religion of Ethiopia, Osman had renounced the false prophet, and put away every Mohammadan abomination, coffee only excepted. Without the sober berry, he averred life to be a very burden; and the clergy were fain to close their eyes upon the malpractices of one, whose geographical information, united with great abilities as a spy, had exalted him to the highest place in the royal favour. A frequent visitor at the residency, the garrulous monk had opposed strenuous arguments to my projected war against the elephants, herds of which he represented to be so numerous around the lake Zooai, that caravans are afraid to traverse the dense forest unless provided with a number of young goats, to whose bleat the colossus entertains an unconquerable antipathy. "Take my kid with you," he advised: "on no account omit this, or the monsters will assuredly trample you." He had been reminded that "the battle is not always to the strong," but he invariably shook his head; and even now that the chorus of victory was ringing in his ears, and the tail of the fallen actually in his hand, he continued at intervals to ejaculate, with upturned eyes, "No; I like it not."--"By Mary! it doth not please me." In the environs of the capital a vast concourse of people had assembled to welcome our safe return from the hunting-field; and as the ivory trophies of the chase were borne through the crowd upon the shoulders of six men, great were the demonstrations of astonishment and commendation evinced at the successful issue of an expedition so universally ridiculed at its departure. Women and girls shouted in the market-place. Visits of congratulation were forthwith paid by all our friends and well-wishers; whilst the few who had spread disparaging reports, and who still continued to dislike the presence of the British in Abyssinia, evinced by their silence the envy and jealousy to which the unprecedented exploit had given birth in their breasts. Amongst those who felt more particularly annoyed and chagrined was Sertie Wold, the Purveyor General, who had not long before hunted the wilderness of Giddem for two successive months, with a retinue of more than three thousand spearmen and many fusiliers, and who had during that period enjoyed very superior opportunities to ourselves, without however being able to achieve the object of his highest ambition--the death of an elephant. Volume Two, Chapter XLIV. HONORARY DISTINCTIONS. The court had meanwhile removed to Angollala; but a paternal letter from the royal pen awaited the return of the Embassy to the capital. "Are my children well?--have they entered in safety? I have heard with joy of your success. Horsemen were dispatched, and they brought me the glad tidings that you had killed. Hasten hither, that I may confer upon you the reward due unto those who have slain forty Galla in the battle." No time was lost in accepting this invitation, and a guard of honour met us on the road. Together with sheep and oxen from the king, and barilles of hydromel from the queen, visits of congratulation were received from all the principal courtiers present. Amongst others, came Ayto Egazoo, whose hospitality had been extended to us on our way to Giddem; and Ayto Zowdoo [i.e. My crown] formerly governor of the important province of Geshe on the northern frontier, who was dismissed for bravely fighting against the Worra Kaloo, on the occasion when the son of Birroo Lubo fell--an event which, although highly gratifying to His Majesty, policy had induced him to punish by the imprisonment and disgrace of all the principal Amhara engaged. Both of these visitors had, with sorrowful hearts, taken leave of us on our departure; and they now repeated the inward conviction entertained, that the animals against which rash war was to be waged, would have "consumed the assailants"--a persuasion which had led them to cherish not the smallest hope of seeing any one of us again. But greater than all was the delight of the chief smith, when he gave his assurance, after a careful admeasurement, that the circumference of the ivory trophies then lying in the tent for presentation to his royal master, yielded two full spans in excess of any tusk in the royal magazines. A band of fusiliers were at dawn the ensuing morning directed to escort us to the presence; and whilst ascending the hill through the various courtyards, they chanted the war chorus of death before the spoils of the vanquished elephant. A successful expedition against the Loomi Galla having recently returned, the walls of the reception-hall were decorated with numerous trophies hanging above scrolls of parchment closely written with blessings from the priesthood. But the whole court was in deep mourning, in consequence of the demise of Ayto Baimoot, the chief eunuch, who was nurse to the king in infancy, and had been through after-life his principal adviser. Heads were close shaven, temples scarified; and those immediately about the royal person were clothed in sackcloth and ashes. "Your joy is my joy," exclaimed His Majesty, so soon as the usual salutations had been concluded, "and I am delighted when my children are happy. I feared that the elephants would destroy you; but you have achieved a triumph which none other have accomplished during the reign of Sahela Selassie." The ivory was now laid at the feet of the king, who listened with great interest and seeming astonishment to the detail of our proceedings, and to the assurance that the monarch of the forest might always be vanquished by a single bullet, if properly directed. A long confession of the personal dread entertained of the elephant by His Majesty was followed by an anecdote formerly touched upon at Machal-wans, of his own discomfiture, and that of his entire host, by a herd encountered during a foray against the Metcha Galla, when, being firmly convinced that the army would be destroyed, he had deemed it prudent to retreat with all expedition. "I ran," he repeated several times with emphasis--"I ran, and every one of my followers did the same. You evidently understand the mode of dealing with these monsters; but if ten thousand of my people ventured to oppose a troop, the elephants would consume them all." After this candid avowal on the part of the despot, I took the opportunity of intimating that a strong desire had been entertained to bring from Giddem the spoils also of a wild buffalo, but that Ayto Tsanna declared to me that His Majesty, during an expedition made some years previously, had fairly exterminated the species. "_Oonut now_," "that is true," he replied, "and you must not attempt to kill the `Gosh,' for it is a most ferocious and dangerous beast. What answer should I give if my children were to be demolished by buffaloes in the kingdom of Shoa? They consume men and horses. When I slew a buffalo in Giddem, there were ten men and ten horses destroyed. They reside in the thickets where they cannot be seen; and putting their heads to the ground, annihilate all who approach their lair. As soon as they have killed a horse, we close round them in vast numbers, and overwhelm them with spears and guns; but you are few, and cannot attempt this." As this paternal remonstrance might be traced to a desire on the part of the monarch to place his own exploit in a superior point of view, I changed the subject by an assurance of the uniform kindness and hospitality that we had experienced on the road, at the hands of Ayto Tsanna, and at those of the Emabiet in Mahhfood more especially; and each pause was followed by an ejaculation from the royal lips: "Did I not command him? Is not Birkenich my daughter?" Certain rewards and immunities are in Shoa attached to the destruction of enemies of the state, and of formidable wild beasts, which are regulated according to a fixed scale, and never withheld. These His Majesty now signified his intention of conferring; and one of the ministers of the crown entering the hall, accordingly proceeded, by the royal command, to invest the victors with the decorations due to the downfall of an elephant. "You have each slain forty Galla," repeated the king, "and are henceforth entitled to wear upon the right arm this _bitowa_, or silver gauntlet, surmounted by this _choofa_, or silver bracelet; and on the left shoulder the spoils of a he lion, in token of your prowess, that it may be manifest unto all men." His Majesty then with his own hand presented newly-plucked sprigs of wild asparagus, to be worn in the hair during forty days, and to be replaced at the expiration of that period by the _erkoom_ feather. Thus honoured, we took our way down through the court-yards of the palace, a band of warriors again preceding, who discharged their muskets at intervals, whilst they chanted the Amhara war chorus, and danced the death triumph. The rebellion of the Loomi, which had now with infinite difficulty been quelled, affords an excellent commentary upon the nature of Sahela Selassie's Galla tenures. A portion of this tribe had failed to pay their tribute to the now disgraced governor of Mentshar, who was wounded in the attempt to levy it, and the royal forces took the field against them. Botha, who presided over a portion of the Yerrur district, was also a defaulter, though not in open revolt; but at the entreaty of his brother Dogmo, a faithful vassal of the king, he came in with his arrears as the army drew nigh; and having been mildly reproached for the delay, was dismissed with pardon. No sooner, however, had he left the camp, than he went over to the Galla on the plain of the Hawash, and aided the Loomi in a projected attack upon the Amhara. Upon this defection, Shambo, his elder brother, became apprehensive of consequences; for he conceived it by no means improbable that he might be held responsible for an offence in which he had no participation, as in the case of Summad Negoos, late governor of Geshe, who is to this day a state prisoner in consequence of his brother Negooso going over to the ruler of Argobba. He therefore determined to renounce his allegiance, but deferred the execution of his design until after joining Ayto Shishigo, who commanded the troops acting against the Loomi; and it being then proposed to burn a village on the summit of an adjacent hill, belonging to the tribe of Botha, he immediately took part with the enemy, and heading an onset in person, slew a vast number of the Christians. One half of the Loomi hamlets were already in flames, but the work of destruction was now discontinued; and the royal forces retreating in disorder, were again attacked by the rebel brothers, and defeated with great loss within sight of the camp at Cholie. Perceiving his warriors flying in all directions, the king seized spear and shield, and commanded his steed to be saddled, to the end that he might take the field in person. But a wily monk, believing that His Majesty felt no real anxiety to place himself in a position of such imminent peril, threatened him with excommunication if he stirred, and thus the day was irretrievably lost. Hawash Oosha [i.e. "The dog of the Hawash"], who governs the subjugated sections of the Aroosi, Soddo, Liban, and Jille tribes, having meanwhile joined the insurgents, the whole Galla border was in arms. This powerful chieftain, who was for many years the open enemy of the despot, had been finally gained over to the royal interest by large presents, and by the espousal of his daughter; since which period he has held, in nominal subjection to the crown, an important portion of the plain of the Hawash. He soon repented him of the part he had taken in the present insurrection; and the usual dissensions arising among the rebels, a deputation, assured of personal safety, fell on the ground before the footstool of the throne with overtures of future fealty. But the country was rich in flocks and herds; and under the peculiar circumstances of aggravation attending the revolt, the delegates were commanded to arise, and to return whence they came, with an assurance to the contrite rebel that his fair plains were shortly to be the scene of pillage and desolation. Two successful inroads followed close upon this threat, and ample vengeance was taken. The wealth of the Pagans was transferred to the royal meadows. Women wrung their hands in captivity, and a black and burning monument attested the lava-like course of the chastising hordes. The season of retribution again drew nigh, and Shambo and Botha trembled at the fate that awaited them. The powerful intercession of the church was sought with bribes, and obtained. A hooded monk from the cloisters of Affaf Woira stood before the throne with a peace-offering from those who supplicated pardon, and clemency was graciously extended. As the Embassy entered the palace-court at the royal invitation, the traitors were perceived prostrate on their faces, heaping dust upon their heads in token of abject humiliation. The fear of the heavy fetters of Goncho was before their eyes; and the half inebriated state gaoler scowled at them like a basilisk from the ladder of the balcony. But for once he was cheated of his prey. Five hundred head of choice black cattle, which the caitiffs had treacherously swept from those whose cause they so lately espoused, were accepted as the price of pardon; and with an eloquent harangue from the throne, setting forth the duties of a liege subject, Shambo and Botha were dismissed in peace. Volume Two, Chapter XLV. CONCLUSION OF A TREATY OF COMMERCE. Angollala continued bitterly cold throughout the month of December; and fires, although not quite indispensable, were always found pleasant enough. A dry cutting wind from the eastward blew throughout the day; but the clouds, which often gathered over the surrounding mountains, occasionally disturbed the serenity of the afternoon with a squall of hail. Snipe abounded among the serpentine streams which intersected the environs of the palace-hill; and the hero who possessed courage to cast off the blankets before the sun rose, invariably saw the hoar-frost lying white over the faded meadows. Dogs continued to howl in packs, and mendicants to importune as of yore. Dirty pages and troublesome idlers still infested my tent; and the approaches were choked by numerous bands of Yedjow Galla, who were begging their way to the country of Dedjasmach Paris. Day and night their monotonous voices arose from every quarter of the town, and Christian adjurations by "Miriam" and "Kedoos Michael" were often nearly drowned by the choral hymn uplifted to Allah and the false prophet. A new invoice of beads, cutlery, trinkets, _ghemdjia_, and other "pleasing things," had been received from the coast; and visits were therefore unusually frequent on the part of all who loved to be decorated. Abba Mooalle, surnamed "the Great Beggar in the West," with his adopted brother, appeared to hold the lease of the tent in perpetuity; and in return for amber necklaces and gay chintz vestments, hourly volunteered some promise, simply, it would seem, that they might afterwards enjoy the pleasure of forfeiting a gratuitous oath. If solemn asseverations by highly respectable saints and martyrs, were to be received with credit, messengers were almost daily despatched, and on fleet horses too, for the purpose of bringing from the Galla dependencies on the Nile, amongst other treasures, the spoils of the _gassela_, a black leopard, elsewhere not procurable, and "worn only by the governors of provinces." But by some unaccountable fatality, not one of these fleet couriers ever found his way back to the English camp at Angollala; and the cry meanwhile continued, without intermission,--"Show me pleasing things; give me delighting things; adorn me from head to foot." Nor were there wanting other standing dishes of an equally rapacious and insatiable character, and scarcely more addicted to veracity. Gadeloo, "the hen-pecked," was punctual in his attendance, by order of the Emabiet of Mahhfood, who had always a new want to be supplied. "May they buy," with an unsound steed for sale at an unconscionable price, brought daily an urgent request of some sort from his spouse. Neither did any morning pass without a protracted visit from Shunkoor, "Sugar," own brother to the queen, escorted by Ayto Dedjen, "Doors," his shadow and boon companion, and grand-nephew to the monarch himself. But the attachment subsisting between these inseparable allies was one day suddenly dissolved over a decanter of unusually potent hydromel, and a sabre-cut on the head of either, demonstrated, alas! the fleeting and unstable nature of all sublunary friendship. As each evening closed, the nobility were to be seen streaming towards our tents from the royal banquet, supported upon their ambling mules by a host of armed and not very sober retainers; and a tribe of ragged pages bringing messages from the palace, accidentally entered at the same time to report the substance of the conversation, although many of the illustrious visitors were absolutely inarticulate. Lances were hurled at a target to the imminent peril of all spectators; and the neck of the vanquished having been duly trampled under foot, according to the ancient Oriental form of military triumph, all who anticipated any difficulty in reaching their own abodes, staggered back to the Gyptzis to laugh at the mad pranks of Daghie, the obsequious court buffoon, and the flower of Abyssinian minstrelsy. Decked by the favour of the monarch in a shining silver sword, this Merry Andrew, fiddle in hand, came scraping and chanting his way homeward, with eyes sufficiently inflamed to indicate where he had been dining. Kissing the earth as he took his seat in the tent, amid many antics, grimaces, and inquiries, he proceeded to elicit from his instrument imitations of the human voice under various intonations of joy, surprise, and sorrow; and a host of retainers, crowding round the doors with shoulders bared, next shouted their approval to some travestie of the wild Adel slogan, or joined their voices in full chorus to swell the Amhara death triumph, or this, the pibroch of the Nile:-- "The sword is burning for the fight, And gleams like rays of living light; Let thoughts of fear inthral the slave-- Rouse to the strife, ye Gojam brave. "Clustering they come, the Turkish rout Ring back on high the Amhara shout; For honour, home, or glorious grave-- Rouse to the strife, ye Gojam brave. "The sword of Confu leads the war. And dastard spirits quail afar; None here to pity, none to save-- Rouse to the strife, ye Gojam brave. "Our swords in tint shall soon outvie Yon scabbard of the crimson dye. And overhead shall ruddy wave-- Rouse to the strife, ye Gojam brave. "Red as their belts their blood shall flow, Deep as the hue of sunset glow; Mercy to none who mercy crave-- Rouse to the strife, ye Gojam brave." Pages and abigails were hourly in attendance, on the part of their royal master or mistress, with some rubbish from the palace, which was carefully removed from its red and yellow basket of Gurague grass, divested of all its numerous wrappers, and confidentially exhibited with an inquiry, _sotto voce_, "whether more of the same description was not to be obtained?" The outcry raised for detonating caps was wearisome and incessant; for although it was notorious that the royal magazines boasted a hoard sufficient to answer the utmost demand of at least three generations, the king was ever apprehensive of bankruptcy, in event of a quarrel with the Adaiel, "because his own people knew not the road beyond the world of waters." Thus it happened that Kidana Wold, "the long gunman," who had charge of the royal armoury, received private instructions to look in at the Residency at least twice a week, with a _mamalacha_ for fifty or a hundred _tezabs_, and regularly once a month averred that he had been so unfortunate as to drop from his girdle another box of His Majesty's patent anticorrosives--a loss which, unless timely repaired, must inevitably result in the forfeiture of his liberty. "The _Gaita_ has discovered my carelessness," he would add, with tears in his eyes; "and, by Mary, if you don't help me immediately, I shall be sent to Goncho." Treble strong canister gunpowder was also in high demand, its superiority over the manufacture of Shoa being admitted even by the maker. But the sulphur monopoly remained as heretofore most jealously guarded. The ill-starred individual who had charge of the mines on the frontier, in an evil hour accepted silver for a lump of the purified commodity, which was required for the cure of applicants having the beggar's disease; and spies reporting the peculation, the delinquent was condemned to perpetual labour in the hot valleys of Giddem. This convict was accompanied in his exile by a shrewd lad, who had been detected at the Bool Worki market in giving circulation to two counterfeit dollars. Weeks of incessant toil had enabled him to produce out of a lump of pewter, very creditable imitations of the coinage of Maria Theresa. Every spot and letter had been most closely represented with a punch and file; and the ingenious artist, naturally enough, seemed vastly mortified at the untoward consequences of his labour. "Tell me," inquired the king, as the culprit was being removed, "how is that machine made which in your country pours out the silver crowns like a shower of rain?" Architecture now occupied a full share of the royal brain. The hand corn-mills presented by the British Government had been erected within the palace walls, and slaves were turning the wheels with unceasing diligence. "Demetrius the Armenian made a machine to grind corn," exclaimed His Majesty, in a transport of delight, as the flour streamed upon the floor; "and although it cost my people a year of hard labour to construct, it was useless when finished, because the priests declared it to be the Devil's work, and cursed the bread. But may Sahela Selassie die! These engines are the invention of clever heads. Now I will build a bridge over the Bereza, and you shall give me your advice." Early the ensuing morning the chief smith was accordingly in attendance with hammer and tongs; and "when the sun said hot," the pious monarch, having first paid his orisons in the church of the Trinity, proceeded, with all suitable cunning, to plan the projected edifice beneath a fortunate horoscope. Twelve waterways were traced with stones under his skilful superintendence on a site selected after infinite discussion; and in five minutes a train of slaves from the establishment at Debra Berhan were heaping together piles of loose boulders to serve as piers. Splinters of wood connected the roadway, and in three days the structure was complete, its appearance giving promise of what actually happened-- demolition within as many short hours, on the very first violent fresh to which the river is subject during the annual rains. But our predictions of this impending catastrophe were received with an incredulous shake of the head; and my advice that orders should be issued to the Governors on the Nile to keep a vigilant lookout for the upper timbers on their voyage down to Egypt, was followed by a good-humoured laugh and a playful tap on the shoulder of the audacious foreigner, who, to the horror and amazement of the obsequious courtiers, had thus ventured to speak his mind to the despot. In vain was it that I proposed to construct a bridge upon arches which might defy the impetuosity of the torrent. "All my subjects are asses," retorted His Majesty: "they are idle and lazy, and devoid of understanding. There is not one that will consent to labour, no, not one; and if through your means they should be compelled to perform the task, they would weep, and invoke curses on the name of the Gyptzis. Your corn mills are approved, because they save the women trouble, but by the shades of my ancestors!--a bridge--" Here all sense of the decorum due to the sceptre was forgotten for the moment, and the monarch whistled aloud. And the king was right. Weaving excepted, which in so cold a climate is an art indispensable to existence, the people of Shoa can hardly be said to practise any manufacture. The raw cotton, which is as cheap as it is excellent and abundant, is, by him who would be clad, handed over with a number of _amoles_ proportioned to the size of the cloth required. A common bow is used to spread the wool; and the spinning jenny being unknown, the thread is twisted by means of the ancient spindle, to which motion is imparted by a rapid pressure betwixt the left palm and the denuded thigh, whilst the right hand is simultaneously carried upwards for the purpose of "roving." Time is here held of no account; and female labour having supplied the want of machinery in these preliminary operations, the twist is transferred to a rude locomotive loom, and a warm durable mantle is produced with the aid only of a simple shuttle. British commerce has not only forced its way, but created markets and customers in many a wilder and more inaccessible portion of the globe than highland Abyssinia, and its operation promises to open the only means of improvement and civilisation. Even in the absence of water carriage, the experience of many years has proved that the living ship of the desert is a machine of transport adequate to the most important traffic; and, if once established, that traffic would in a few years doubtless bind both people and ruler in the strongest chains of personal interest. It would rapidly change the pursuits of the people--convert the rude hut into a comfortable dwelling--limit, if not extinguish, the slave trade with Arabia, and if not reform, at least enlighten, the clouded Christianity of Ethiopia. A commercial convention betwixt Great Britain and Shoa was a subject that had been frequently adverted to; and His Majesty had shaken his head when first assured that five hundred pair of hands efficiently employed at the loom would bring into his country more permanent wealth than ten thousand warriors bearing spear and shield. But he had gradually begun to comprehend how commerce, equitably conducted, might prove a truer source of wealth than forays into the territories of the heathen. This conviction resulted in the expression of his desire that certain articles agreed upon might be drawn up on parchment, and presented for signature, which had accordingly been done; and the day fixed for the return of the embassy to Ankober was appointed for the public ratification of the document by the annexure thereto of the royal hand and seal. Nobles and captains thronged the court-yard of the palace at Angollala, and the king reclined on the throne in the attic chamber. A highly illuminated sheet, surmounted on the one side by the Holy Trinity--the device invariably employed as the arms of Shoa--and on the other by the Royal Achievement of England, was formally presented, and the sixteen articles of the convention in Amharic and English, read, commented upon, and fully approved. They involved the sacrifice of arbitrary appropriation by the crown of the property of foreigners dying in the country, the abrogation of the despotic interdiction which had from time immemorial precluded the purchase or display of costly goods by the subject, and the removal of penal restrictions upon voluntary movement within and beyond the kingdom, which formed a modification of the obsolete national maxim, "never to permit the stranger who had once entered, to depart from Abyssinia." All these evils His Majesty unhesitatingly declared his determination to annul for the good of his people. Tekla Mariam, the royal notary, kneeling, held the upper part of the unrolled scroll upon the state cushion, and the king, taking the proffered pen, inscribed after the words "Done and concluded at Angollala, the Galla capital of Shoa, in token whereof we have hereunto set our hand and seal,"--"Sahela Selassie, who is the Negoos of Shoa, Efat, and the Galla." The imperial signet, a cross encircled by the word "Jesus," was then attached by the scribe in presence of the chief of the church, the Dedj Agafari, the Governor of Morat, and three other functionaries who were summoned into the alcove for the purpose. "You have loaded me with costly presents," exclaimed the monarch as he returned the deed: "the raiment that I wear, the throne whereon I sit, the various curiosities in my storehouses, and the muskets which hang around the great hall, are all from your country. What have I to give in return for such wealth? My kingdom is as nothing." Volume Two, Chapter XLVI. APPENDIX. Remarks on the Geology, Botany, and Zoology of the Highlands of Southern Abyssinia. Geology. When the portion of North-eastern Africa that is to form the province of inquiry received its present configuration, the fountains of the deep may be supposed to have opened at once upon a surface, of which the prior quality and condition has become so shut out from human observation, that analogies, drawn from other countries under similar circumstances, must supply this deficiency. Porphyry forms the general basis of all the different volcanic formations discernible. From the pinnacle of Jebel Goodah, on the Gulf of Arabia, it may be traced, though indistinctly, in the minor outrunners of the Abyssinian Alps, to the province of Efat, where it passes under red sandstone. The principal Shoan range, and the high westerly plateau towards the valley of the Nile, present solely secondary formations, but the porphyry again emerges on the southerly borders in the ranges of Garra Gorphoo and Bulga; whilst the left; bank of the Hawash valley is distinctly of primitive crystalline formation. The overlying rocks, which seem to have been poured from the centre of this tract, consist of masses of trachyte and columnar basalt, of pyramids of wacke, and beds of lava and tufwacke, with strata of conglomerates and sandstones. The former of these, the trachyte and basalt, belong to the lofty mountains of Abyssinia; whereas wacke, lava, tuffo, and scoria, cover the surface, and form the hills of the desert below; and many districts present volcanoes which, not half a century ago, were in violent activity. The hills of Mentshar, Efat, and Giddem, are detached ranges, running nearly parallel to the Shoan alps. Disclosing in some few spots the nature of their interior, it appears that immediately over the porphyry lies a red sand-stone, embedding vast quantities of coal, and presenting a true stratification. It consists of minute but quite perfect hexagon dodecaeders of quartz in a white cement, is very soft, and cleaves sometimes in regular squares. Its depth was not observed to be very great, nor did the overlying formations, a marl and conglomerates, seem to form obstacles to the miner. The Shoan mountains, of alpine height, exhibit a structure of basalt, wacke, and trachyte; the latter, in all its varieties, surrounds a nucleus of basalt, basaltic wacke, and dolerite. The conglomerates and tuffos at their feet, and partly on their terraces and tops, are of trachytic nature, and sometimes pierced through by small dikes of basalt. Veins of ochre and clay, holes filled with scoria, with intrusions of larger or smaller fragments of various rocks and minerals, and a kind of stratification, are the principal features of this trachytic formation. When the action began, craters or clefts were formed in the then existing crust of trap-rocks, which in their turn were covered with masses of trachytic lava; a little later, the tuffos and conglomerates were deposited, which prove the importance of augite in their formation by numerous crystals of pyroxen embedded in them. Subsequently new basaltic eruptions either raised these deposits to their present height, or pierced them through in their original sites, both cases occurring on the same locality. The basalt composing the hills about Ankober presents no vestige of olivin, nor does it influence the magnetic needle; but a distinction between basalt and greenstone in their finer-grained varieties is difficult; and to determine in words the affinity which they bear to each other in the present instance, the rock might be styled basaltic greenstone. Columns, pentagonal or heptagonal, crown the tops of hills, and seem rather a composition of hornblende than of augite and feldspar. Scoriaceous varieties are found on the outsides of the later protruded masses. The trachyte is generally a compact mass of grey feldstein, which contains crystals of glassy feldspar, irregularly embedded, and in different quantities. Some varieties are porous, some full of small holes, others black from grains of obsidian; and a few, especially near the dikes, incline to phonolite. To the westward the ridge terminates in a high plateau, the western Galla provinces of the kingdom. This vast plain is crossed in various directions by hill ranges, the greater part of which do not rise to any considerable height. Here true basalt is disclosed in all the grandeur of its columnar cleavage, but no other species of rock. Deep and narrow ravines carry off the superabundant waters, and pits of tolerable ironstone afford a supply of metal for the manufacture of weapons. The chief bearing of the mountain chains in Shoa is north and south, with spurs to the west and east. The towering height to which they rise, in a nearly uninterrupted ascent, may be calculated to be from eight to nine thousand feet above the level of the sea, and their single pinnacles far exceed that limit. They are most abrupt, and difficult of access, excepting by the only two passes to the high western plateau. Ravines and chasms of a depth which admits the sun but for few hours, tell of the catastrophe which resulted in their formation. Inaccessible steep cliffs and dismal precipices everywhere line the tiresome footpath of the lonely muleteer. The hills of Efat present more rounded forms; their slopes are better cultivated, and their tops afford the most eligible positions for the abode of the Abyssinian farmer. During the rainy season, all the many rivers which at other times carry only sufficient water for the purposes of the cultivator, not only fill their deeply-excavated beds, but overflowing and inundating all the lower parts of the hills, would sweep off any of the fragile Abyssinian buildings within reach; but the soil, when saturated with humidity, becomes so heavy and compact as to be not easily washed away. The impetuosity of the mountain torrent undermines the fast-decomposing rock, and frequently brings down large boulders and loose stones, which, dashing against the sides of the ravine, are in no small degree instrumental to its destruction. Not less important are the changes going on in the high range, since the time of their formation. Ice is of so uncommon occurrence, that we can scarcely attribute to it any considerable cooperation; but the action of water is materially assisted by occasional earthquakes. Gradual decomposition and decay has produced on the base, and produces still, conglomerates of various thickness and extent. The high plateau enjoys a thick coat of fertile black soil. Lakes, pools, morasses, and swamps, are frequent; the rivers of little fall have muddy and miry beds, which on that account become unfordable during the rains. A few hot mineral wells are known and made use of in Efat and Giddem. Precious metals and precious stones have not yet been discovered; but of useful mineral products, iron, sulphur, and coal, are the principal. Iron ores are the riches of the high plateau, the oxy-hydrate being the best of them. Enclosed in the basalt, it comes to view only in the ravines, whence it is scraped out. From the western borders of the Adel country, and from the extinct volcanoes of Mentshar, is derived the small supply of native sulphur required; the pits are described as exceedingly copious. Coal-beds appear to extend along the whole of the eastern frontier of Shoa; but the combustible nature of the fossil is scarcely known in the country. Copper, tin, zinc, and salt, are all imported into Shoa; the Adaiel possessing the last commodity in abundance. The Shoan clay proves a very indifferent material for the manufacture of earthenware. Excellent quarries could be worked, but the primitive fashion of the dwellings is independent of the use of stone. Botany. The provinces that compose the kingdom of Shoa enjoy not only political but also natural and physical boundaries. From the luxuriant vegetation, or the parched-up desert of a tropical clime, we suddenly ascend to regions where the blessings of fertility are more equably diffused, and which serve as granaries to the inhabitants of the lowlands. From the general nature of the rocks, it is obvious that the soil consists chiefly of decomposed feldspar, which requires abundance of water. Dews, rains, and springs, however, so moisten the mountain side, that artificial irrigation need be resorted to but on few localities. Along the foot of the hills, rude channels, dug out of the sandy or gravelly soil, conduct abundance of water to plantations at a distance from the river side; and, in these lower regions, periodical inundations supply the want of rain.-- It is an established fact, that the _cryptogamic plants_ of cellular construction, are in different zones nearly the same. Under similar circumstances the same lichen covers the face of the rock in Europe as in the continents of the torrid zone, the same mould lines decaying matter, and the same fungus cleaves to bark and root. But, compared with the other orders of plants, the cellulars are most defective in numbers throughout Abyssinia, the peculiarities of the climate being very unfavourable to their development. Every kind of parasitic plant is looked upon with a suspicious eye in Abyssinia; and those of the vascular orders furnish to the conjuring practitioner his principal remedies. But the mushrooms (_Demastafi_), the fungi and puff-balls (_Ya arrogie siet phis_), are believed to pollute the finger that touches them, and to be downright poison. Mould, of course, thrives exuberantly on every substance in so moist a climate as that of Shoa. The blight is but too well known; the _Boletus igniarius_ grows abundantly in the forests; _Parmeliae_ and other lichens cover rocks, or depend fantastically from the withered branches of gigantic trees. _Mosses_, however, are very scarce, and only of four kinds. The _vascular acotyledonic plants_, the ferns, might likewise be expected in greater variety among the Abyssinian weeds than is actually the case. The deep recesses of the few remaining forests harbour some kinds which very closely resemble European forms, and belong to the genera _Aspidium, Polypodium, Asplenium, Adiantum, Scolopendrium, Ophioglossum_, and _Pteris_. No tree is among them, nor are the Abyssinians aware of the useful properties of the tribe. _Adianthum Capillus Veneris_ is called in Amharic "_Sera Besoo_" i.e. much work-- finely wrought. Of the four orders into which the tribe of _monocotyledonic plants_ is naturally subdivided, viz. the Grasses, the Lilies, the Orchides, and the Palms, the first undoubtedly deserves our principal attention, for it is by far the most numerous and important. The great elevation of the Abyssinian plains is so favourable for the cultivation of all _Cerealia_ of the temperate zone, that they may rival the very best agricultural districts of Northern Europe, whilst the low country along the foot of the mountains produces some kinds of tropical grain, and would fully answer for the cultivation of rice, which at present is unknown in the country. The Abyssinian husbandman takes great trouble in improving the cultivated sorts of grain, by changing the seed-corn at every season, and sometimes by sowing promiscuously different sorts to produce new varieties. Hence the astonishing number of distinguishable kinds cultivated in a small compass of ground under certain established appellations, and brought into use for very different purposes. Within a circumference of five miles around Ankober are found, of juwarree, 28 varieties; of wheat, 24; of barley, 16; of rye, 2; of teff, 4; of oats, 2; of maize, 2. Various kinds of bread and cakes are prepared from some of these; malt for beer is chosen from others; and the inferior kinds are given to slaves and cattle. The existing meadow-grasses answer so well, that an introduction of new species, or a regular culture, is not attempted. In times of great famine the seeds of some of these grasses come into use as food. In the swamps and humid meadows, and in many rivulets, species of Cyperus and Scirpus are very frequent, some of which attain immense height, being used for thatching, or in the manufacture of baskets, mats, etc. Papyrus also grows in the low countries of Efat. The following species of grasses and grain are cultivated: Lorghum vulgare (_Mashila_), the Juwarree of India, and Durrha of Arabia, in many varieties, the principal of which are: a (_Sengada_), with red spreading spike; b (_Wogari_), with yellow, compact pendent spike. The young stalks contain a great deal of saccharine, and are chewed: they attain, in good situations, the enormous height of eighteen feet. The produce of Efat and Giddem in this grain is chiefly exported to the countries of the Adaiel; but a small quantity comes to the Shoan marts for inferior kinds of beer, unleavened bread, and the food of mules. In Shoa itself Mashila cannot be raised on account of the low temperature. Saccharum officinarum, the sugar-cane (_Shonkar_), is also planted to a small extent in the low country. The art of making sugar being unknown, it is only chewed; and although regarded a great luxury, and sent in token of friendship by the great, no particular care is bestowed upon improving its growth. Elusine Tocussa (_Dagusa_), a minute grain in quarternaire crosswise disposed spikes, is produced on a low grass extensively cultivated in Northern Abyssinia; and the Emperor of Gondar is said to be forced by etiquette to eat cakes of it, to the exclusion of other farinaceous food. Poa Abyssinica (_Teff_). This millet-like seed is a favourite with all Abyssinians, although the bread made of it is extremely unwholesome and insipid. Four varieties are found, two of a brown, and two of a white kind. The latter has the preference; and the finest, called _Manya Teff_, is grown only upon the king's fields, and can never be purchased by the subject. The straw of the _Teff_ is regarded the best stable-fodder. Zea Maize (_Mar Mashila_), i.e. Honey-sweet Mashila, is principally eaten when fresh and milky. A little roasted it is a most acceptable offering to the visitor. Sixteen kinds of barley (_Geps_) are raised on the hill-tops, and on the high plateau of the Galla country, where neither juwarree nor wheat will thrive. Its greatest consumption is in brewing, but mules and horses are also fed on it, and the finer sorts are eaten (_Mariam Sahr Litch Alkuso Sandarash). Barya Settat_, i.e. "the slaves' portion," as might be imagined, is not of first-rate quality. Secale cereale (_Damash Sanaf Kolo_) finds a limited consumption, mixed with other flour in bread. Triticum aestivum, hibernum, etc. (_Sendi_). Shoa can boast of twenty-four varieties of wheat. Many of these were originally cultivated by the Galla, and subsequently introduced. The other provinces of Abyssinia have also furnished various kinds; but the most esteemed are indigenous, viz. _Y'abuna ehel, Ya beri mangada, Ya gosh gumbar_, i.e. "Aboon's grain;" "bullock's molar tooth;" "buffaloes' forehead." Wheat is frequently eaten unground, in a mixture of parched grain, called _Kolo_, which is the only store carried by the Amhara warrior into the field. Avena spec. (_Gherama_) is a small kind of oats, sown on the poorest fields, in order that favourite mules and horses may crop it while yet green. In times of scarcity the poor are compelled to resort to it. Bambusa arundinacea (_Shemal_). The bamboo is not indigenous in any part of the country, but groves are planted on the king's grounds, in order to supply poles for the royal tents. The following are the grasses found in every pasture:--Lolium temulentum (_Enkerdad_), much dreaded as poison; Chloris spec. (_Agerma_); Andropogon distachyum (_Gasha_); Anthistiria spec. (_Sambalet_); Sporobolus spec. (_Ya teff sahr_) the seeds eaten as those of the teff; Poa brizoides (_Ya Kiri sahr_); Kiri is a species of finch, which eats the small seeds; Setaria spec. (_Ya oosha Sendado_). The next order, that of the _Lilies_, is not so numerous as might be expected of Africa, but when a species does appear, it covers vast tracts with its lovely colours. None but the edible kinds of Allium are cultivated in Abyssinia, ornamental gardens being quite unknown throughout the country. Some grow in swampy meadows, especially those with bulbs, more properly ranking as lilies: others, with perennial stem, are found on dry waste places, such as the Asparagus and the Aloe. The whole year round, the meads are graced by the lovely blossoms of two Commelineae, viz. Commelina Africana, and Tradescantia spec. Both having small oval tubers, they are called _Off angoon_ and _Off gola_, i.e. "bird's egg" (_off_, a bird; _angoon_ and _gola_, or more commonly _angola_, an egg). These tubers are eaten in times of famine. One ixia, a very beautiful kind, of the morasses around Angollala, springs up immediately after the termination of the rains. Haemanthus coccineus, Amaryllis clavata, Gloriosa spec, are rare plants of Efat; Bulbocodium spec, is a very transient form, observable a few days after the "rains of Bounty." Onions and garlic (_Neitch Shongort_) are favourite vegetables; various kinds of Aloe (_Ya jib Shongort_) adorn the wastes of Efat, and furnish good fibres for making ropes. Asparagus retrofractus (_Sareti_), and Asparagus Ethiopicus (_Kastanitcha_), are fructiferous and climbing shrubs: a green twig of the first, stuck in the hair of the sinciput, is a token of exultation after a successful encounter with an enemy or wild beast; the wood of the second is of peculiar hardness, and splitting well serves the Amhara scribe as a pen. Lastly, one Smilax (_Ashkila_) affords the stick in common use as a tooth-brush. That equally beautiful and important order, the _Orchideae_, might be supposed to find its natural ground in Abyssinia, where both atmosphere and soil are so favourable; but ginger is still imported from Gurague: arrow-root and salep are unknown, and not a single kind of the respective genera is an inhabitant either of Shoa or Efat. The real _Orchideae_ of the forests, moreover, are few in number. Epidendrum capense, cleaving to the bark of the wild olive-tree, is the only representative of that interesting group, the _Epidendreae_. Of the plantain tribe, three species have been introduced from the south, but apparently with little advantage; viz. _Mooz_, Musa paradisiaca, a coarse kind of plantain, which is reared on some few spots in Efat for the royal table, and two species of Urania, called _Ensete_ and _Koba_. These are planted in Shoa for the sake of their leaves; they seldom advance to flower and fruit, in consequence of the low temperature. The only visible difference between them is, that in the Koba the middle rib of the leaf is on the underside red, as also the stem; whilst in the Ensete both are light green. Either of these trees, when suffered to grow, attains a height of twelve feet in the stem, exceeding by far that of the Mooz; the leaves are equal in size to those of the latter, and are only used to bake bread upon. Their proper home is Gurague, the famous seat of so many botanical riches. Seed-capsules of the Koba brought from that country contain four or five angular nuts, full of a mealy substance, like the finest arrow-root, which is boiled and given to children to make them grow; the base of the fruit is filled with a delicious pulp like that of the plantain. In Gurague the young shoots of the Ensete form a principal part of the diet, but they are despised by the Amhara, who are not at all addicted to vegetables. The fibres are used in the manufacture of ropes and mats, which form an important article of trade with Shoa. Ensete and Koba are hardier than the Mooz; and towering above the enclosures of the lofty villages, impart an aspect not properly belonging to the landscape, and strangely contrasting with many alpine associates. The _Palms_ of the continents of the eastern world are, with very few exceptions, inhabitants of the sea-borders, and do not thrive at any considerable elevation or even distance inland. The coast of the Adaiel is therefore the only locality where three species of this tribe, viz. Phoenix dactylifera, Hyphaene crucifera, and Borassus flabelliformis, appear; but so scantily, that the date must be imported from Arabia. Baskets and mats are manufactured of the leaves of all, and some toddy is prepared of the Borassus especially. The preceding enumeration of acotyledonic and monocotyledonic plants is not sufficient to determine the systematic place due to the Abyssinian vegetation in general. The Dicotyledones, comprising two-thirds of all the plants, will necessarily help to show, that although included within the tropics, the Flora of Shoa, and of some of the Galla provinces to the west, is, on the whole, subalpine. The avenues of approach to them from the eastward, evince in their scanty dress the influence of a tropical sun; and between these two extremes, a happy and most fertile province intervenes, where, by the side of the hardy grain, cotton and coffee may be raised--where a tea-plant and many species of indigo grow wild--and where, in fact, a temperate and a torrid clime exchange their products as it were upon neutral ground. The _Chlamydoblasta_ number but very few species in Abyssinia. One Nymphaae only, on the lakes of Shoa, and one Aristolochia (bracteata) of the Adaiel country, could be discovered. This latter, called _Gerbaad_, is a secret remedy with the Danakil against poisoned wounds, and in fact they are prone to attribute mysterious qualities to the most of their weeds. Pepper is not found either in a wild or cultivated state, although nothing would oppose the introduction of that favourite condiment, which at present, under the appellation of _Gunda Berberi_ (_Gunda_, an ant; _Berberi_, hot spice) is imported from Arabia and India. Of _apetalous Gymnoblasts_, some important species are to be recorded, since they form the chief pride of the forests. And justly beginning with the Coniferae, the fir (cedar), which graces the Alps of Northern Abyssinia, is replaced in Shoa by a gigantic juniper, Juniperus excelsa (_Det_). This noble tree of the woods as well as of the churchyards attains in its life of one century a height of upwards of one hundred and sixty feet, with four to five in diameter at the base. Growing nearly in the shape of a cypress, it throws off continually the lower branches, which shoot out almost at a right angle from the stem, so that two-thirds of the same are void of green; the top is always a pyramid, and generally scanty. The wood is very inferior, but splitting readily, it supplies, in the absence of proper carpenters' tools, the chief timber used in the construction of huts and churches; and it forms, besides, the common fuel. Neither is any use made of the resin or berries; but twigs lopped off the melancholy trees that overshadow the cemetery, are often strewn upon the corpse before the grave is filled up. A yew tree, Taxus elongata, _Sigba_, also of the Shoan forests, keeps within more moderate dimensions; sixty feet in height, and five in circumference, is the utmost. The tough wood, like that of the wild olive-tree, furnishes the timber for works of art which are to last some time. To tarry beneath its shade, or to inhale the smoke of burning yew wood, is regarded as particularly noxious. The low temperature reigning in the Alps of Abyssinia does not prohibit the growth of a species of fig, which contrasts strangely enough with the tall juniper. The _Shoala_, a kind of Banyan tree, with large, oval, acute, serrated, and subcordate leaves, and racemes of fruits attached only to the stem and principal branches, measures frequently seven feet in diameter, with a height of forty feet, at an age of two-score years. Its roots are partly above ground; but of secondary, or branch-roots, there is no vestige. Requiring no small space for expansion, it stands commonly on the outskirts of the forests, or quite alone, but its shade is extremely dense and unfavourable to other vegetation. The fruit, of the size of a pigeon's egg, brown and insipid, might be eaten by people in distress. In the low country the Sycamore Fig-tree makes its appearance; it is called _Worka_, i.e. "the Golden," by the Amhara, and _Woda_ by the Galla; and has, with those of the latter nation, who are still in the bonds of idolatry, a sacred signification. Being planted over the tombs of notable persons, conjurers, or heroes, offerings are brought to it, and hung up on the branches at certain festivals, when the neighbouring tribes feast together upon that holy and neutral ground. The Worka stands always near running water, towering far over the jungle, although the undivided stem is scarcely ten feet high. The leaf has a yellow tomentum below; and the fruit forms a favourite food of monkeys and of various birds, but is not touched by man. The _Kuaraf_, Gunnera spec, another plant of the same family, of _Artocarpeae_, is an important vegetable during the strict fast of Lent. It grows in swamps and rivulets, and is an annual low plant from a perennial root, with large radical leaves and a leafless stalk, bearing the minute flowers on a bunchy raceme. The petioles, ribs of leaves, and stalks, are eaten fresh when stripped of the epidermis; and their taste is similar to that of the sorrel. The common stinging-nettle (_Sama_) is, by boiling, also prepared into an indifferent food during the quadragesimal low diet. The troublesome weed grows everywhere to a height of five feet. Of the many _Polygoneae_, a few must be noticed on account of their frequent occurrence and of their use. Polygonum tomentosum (_Ba Waha lay_, i.e. "upon the water,") and Polygonum serratum, cover the margins of morasses and lakes. Polygonum frutescens (_Umboatoo_) is the most common hedge-shrub. Rumex arifolius (_Makmako_), frequent in swampy meadows, yields, in its fleshy root, a reddish dye for colouring butter. The root of another species of Rumex, called _Tutt_, is believed to be a nostrum for barbarous and criminal purposes; but, happily, it is quite innocent. Instead of these species, which all belong to the Flora of Shoa, there appear in the Adel country several Boerhaaviae. Introduced into Shoa is a kind of willow (_Aheia_), much employed in the manufacture of saddles. The _monopetalous Gymnoblasts_, being a class next to the highest and most important, contain a large number of plants, of which the following are pointed out: Plantago Capensis (_Ya gura wosfi_), and Plantago Egyptiaca (_Burrh_), both common weeds in Shoa; Plumbago Capensis, with large white corolla, in Efat, and Scabiosa decurrens (_Adai_), with snowy heads, in Shoa, are highly ornamental; Echinops horridus, growing to the height of ten feet about Angollala; Carthamus tinctorius (_Suf_), extensively cultivated in Efat for the oil of the seeds and for the dye yielded by the flowers; Carduncellus spec. (_Dorakus_),--a decoction of the dried flower-heads is administered in ague. Several twining species of Mikania adorn the forests of Shoa; two fructiferous Cacaliae, full of a balsamic sap, and one Klenia, exhibit the brightest scarlet in the jungles of Efat. Pteronia spinosa, and Helichrysum vestitum, are hardy shrubs found on the slopes. Species of Gnaphalium and Bidens are annoying weeds in the cotton-fields. The numerous kinds of Radiatae contain only one of importance, viz. the Polymnia Abyssinica (_Nug_), which is the chief oil plant. _Suf_ and _Nug_ oil mixed is called _Kabanug_, and only used for burning, since it possesses strong purging qualities. The family of the _Compositae_ furnishes altogether but a small number of useful plants in proportion to its extensiveness. The _Campanulaceae_ are low annual insignificant weeds, one Lobelia excepted, viz. the Rhynchopetalum montanum, or _Jibera_. This strange perennial plant, with the aspect of a palm-tree, grows chiefly in moist ravines among the high mountains, and is especially frequent about Ankober. The stem attains upwards of fifteen feet in height, and five inches in diameter. The top carries a crown of large leaves; and the spike is one foot and a half long. When the seeds are ripe, the plant dies suddenly. One Erica (_Asta_), five feet in height, assists likewise to dispel the aspect of a European Flora, which is conveyed by the Veronica Beccabunga and Anagallis of the meadow rivulets. Scrophularia frutescens (_Djodjo_), with a strong smell of camphor, is used as a febrifuge and charm; two kinds of Orobanche are also among the conjurer's infallible medicines. Acanthus carduifolius is the choicest camel-fodder in the desert. Rare specimens of Hyperanthera Moringa, the same as in Arabia, stand near the pools of the low country: a gum, becoming instantly red in the air, flows freely out of any bruise, but is applied to no use. Mint, thyme, and other plants of the family _Labiatae_, so replete with aetheric oils, do not enjoy the reputation due to them. Of the many kinds only three have names and use, viz. Origanum spec. (_Kassi_), and Ziziphora spec. (_Lomi shett_, i.e. "lime-smell"), which are used in the fomentation of boils; Leonotis spec. (_Ras Kimr_), as anthelminthicum by a decoction of the dried leaves, mixed with a little oil. Several _Convolvulaceae_ and _Boragineae_ pass disregarded. Of the former. Convolvulus pes caprae binds the sand of the sea-beach; of the latter, a few specimens of Cordia Abyssinica (_Wanzey_) grow in Efat. Capsicum frutescens (_Geich Berberi_, i.e. "red pepper"), the most important of hot spices in warm climes, and Nicotiana Tabacum (_Tombako_), also an indispensable commodity to many of the Moslem population, are objects of diligent cultivation in the lower country: yet the only tolerable tobacco must be imported from the Ittoo Galla. Solanum marginatum (_Umboi_), a shrub, the seeds of which are strewed on the surface of ponds to stupify the fish, which are nevertheless still eatable, and Atropa arborea (_Amoraroo_), the red juice of whose berry is used by the Amhara women to stain their palms and nails, are common hedge-shrubs in Shoa. Of the narcotic qualities of the Datura Stramonium (_Atafaris_), the Abyssinian sorcerer is well aware. The thief-detector makes a youth smoke the dried leaves of it in order to cause stupefaction, and thus promote the semblance of powers of divination. Neither the potato nor any other edible kind of Solanum has yet been introduced into Shoa. The families of _Contortae, Rubiaceae, Ligustrinae_, have many representatives in the low country. Stapelia pulvinata and Calotropis gigantea are the most prominent: the former has a fleshy, quadrangular, and four-winged stem of two feet height, and when in flower is scarcely approachable; the latter furnishes good charcoal for gunpowder. Kannahia laniflora, with particularly sweet-smelling flowers, lines the borders of the rivulets in Efat; Carissa spec. (_Agame_) has edible berries, and flourishes both in Efat and Shoa. Melanea verticillata (_Adguar_), is a jungle-tree of ten feet height, with purging berries. Psychotria spec. (_Doda Gula_), is a shrub found in Shoa; Coffea Arabica (_Boon_) grows wild in many of the warmer provinces, but is diligently plucked out by the Christian population, who consider the use of the berry to be as foreign to salvation as the doctrine of the false prophet. Where his followers abide in greater numbers, or uncontrolled, as in Giddem and in the countries of the Ittoo and Aroosi Galla, the coffee-tree grows unmolested, no care, however, being taken of it; but its proper home seems to lie far to the west and south, in the kingdoms of Caffa and Enarea, where a donkey's load is sold for the twentieth part of a dollar. Two kinds of jessamine grace with their fragrant flowers the hedges and groves. Olea spec. (_Woira_) is, with the juniper and yew, the principal forest-tree of Shoa; sixty to eighty feet in height, and four in diameter, are its common dimensions. The wood of the wild olive-tree affords excellent fuel and timber; but no use is made of the fruit, which attains the size of a large pea. Among the _polypetalous Gymnoblasts_, in which vegetation has attained the highest degree of perfection with respect to variety of shape and colour, as well as medical and nutritious qualities, we find several important families altogether wanting in the Flora of Abyssinia. The Pomaceae and Amygdaleae are absent, and the existing scarcity of fruit-trees, whether wild or cultivated, is indeed most apparent. Others of more limited utility are very numerous, as the Tricoccae, Rhocadeae, Amarantinae; but the Leguminosae form by far the largest family of polypetalous phanerogames. Of _Umbelliferae_ there exists in the low country one Ferula, a small tree of unknown properties. In Shoa there are several Caucalis (_Karambashu_), growing on pasture grounds, and poisonous to cattle. Coriandrum sativum (_Dumbelan_), and Anethum foeniculum, the well-known European spices, are cultivated. Berberis tinctoria of the forests yields a good yellow dye for mourning apparel. Clypea spec. (_Engotshid_), is a creeper with pellate leaves, upon which small cakes are baked. Ranunculus trilobus (_Goodie_) is a troublesome weed on the meadows. Nigella sativa (_Asmud_) is occasionally cultivated as a spice. Several species of Polygala flourish unnoticed. Some _Balsamineae_ grow in shady places; one of them, Impatiens grandis (_Girshid_), has a tuberous root, with the juice of which the women paint their palms and faces red. Thlaspi bursa pastoris (_Ya bug elat_, i.e. "sheep's tail"), the cosmopolitan weed, follows agriculture also in Abyssinia. Sinapis Nigra (_Sanafitch_) grows wild, and is sometimes resorted to as an additional ingredient of the pepper sauce called _wotz_. Brassica spec. (_Goomun_), a cultivated coarse kind of cow-cabbage, perennial, and five feet high, is eaten as a vegetable after much boiling; the seeds are also used for oil. Of the numerous _Capparideae_, Cadaba Indica is particularly important in the Adel desert, being for many scores of miles the only shrub which affords shelter from the noontide sun. Two species of Capparis make impenetrable hedges in Efat. Cucumis Africanus (_Ya medur oomboi_) is an annual plant, of sandy and desert places; the seeds are a favourite medicine in Shoa, and also with the Galla. Cucumis colocynthis is frequent in the valleys adjoining the Bahr Assal, but is not collected either for home use or for exportation. Cucurbita lagenaria (_Kel_) grows wild, and is cultivated in Efat for water-bottles. Cucurbita pepo, a common coarse pumpkin in Shoa, serves as a vegetable. Bryonia scabrella (_Ya Amor a M'sa_) is a much dreaded poison. Two species of Flacourtia, _Koshim_ and _Menedem_, have edible berries. Viola montana, a violet without smell, grows in the forests of Shoa. _Tamaricinae_ occur in the desert, from the sea-shore as far as to the Hawash; the presence of the principal kind, called _Sagan_, is, to the Dankali herdsman, a sure indication of water near the surface. The genus Hypericum has only showy plants. The _Chenepodeae_,--chiefly weeds, contain one species (called _Amedmadoo_) which is used for polishing metal. Achyranthes spec. (_Talineh_) is a styptic medicine. Phytolacca Abyssinica (_Endott_) is a common shrub in Shoa and Efat; a cold infusion of the dried and pounded berry possesses wonderful cleansing qualities, and is used instead of soap. Silene dianthoides (_Siakul_) is a pretty flower found on the high mountains. Calanchoe verea (_Endehahoola_) is a very common succulent plant, the leaves of which are dried and smoked like tobacco in phthisical affections, or the juice of them administered as refrigerants in inflammatory fevers. Epilobium villosum (_Ya lahm tchau_, i.e. "cows' salt") is regarded as an excellent and wholesome fodder for homed cattle, if given occasionally Punica granatum (_Rooma_), sometimes cultivated in Efat, was introduced from Arabia. Several species of Grewia bear edible fruits in the desert, where their acidity is very grateful. To the various kinds of _Byttneriaceae_ and _Malvaceae_, no particular interest is attached, except to the cotton (_Det_) Gossypium Nigrum, which is cultivated in two varieties, the finer and smaller species growing in the shade of the taller and more hardy. Both are regarded as indigenous to Abyssinia. Grain and cotton-cloth form the principal staple commodities of Shoa. Linum usitatissimum (_Tulbah_) is cultivated merely for the seeds, of which oil is made: flax-dressing not being understood. Vitis vinifera (_Woin Saf_), planted as a curiosity in the king's gardens, bears plentifully, and would doubtless answer well upon volcanic soil. Several species of Cissus interlace the jungles of Efat; one, especially, is a constant companion of the Camel-thorn Acacia in the desert. Euphorbia Abyssinica (_Kolqual_), a singular sconce-like milk bush of the Abyssinian groves, gives charcoal for gunpowder; with the corrosive sap it is frequently attempted to stop ulcers of a phagedenic nature. The inspissated juice of two other species of Euphorbia, _Birgut_ and _Anderfa_, serves as a drastic purgative. The ostrich-hunting Somauli poisons his arrows with the milk of Euphorbia antiquorum, which does not make the meat injurious. Ricinus Africanus (_Gulo_) affords in its seeds a famous medicine for cattle, and is frequent in Efat. Rhamnus spec. (_Gesho_) is a tonic, and a decoction of the leaves of this cultivated shrub is used in the manufacture of hydromel and beer instead of hops. Celastrus spec. (_Chaat_) is a species of the tea planted and used in Efat, but more extensively in Caffa and other countries of the interior. In Efat the fresh leaves are both chewed and used as an astringent medicine, or taken in order to dispel sleep: a decoction in water or milk being also drunk as a beverage, which tastes bitter enough. Hagenia Abyssinica (_Cosso_) affords, in a cold infusion of the dried flowers and capsules, the famous drasticum purgans and anthelminthicum of the Abyssinians. The tree is one of the most picturesque in appearance. Balsamodendron Myrrha (_Kurbeta_) grows on the borders of Efat, in the jungle of the Hawash, and in the Adel desert. The resinous gum called _Hofali_, is collected for exportation. Balsamodendron Opobalsamum (_Besham_) is commonly found with the former, and grows even at Cape Aden. Citrus medica (_Lomi_) flourishes wild in the jungles of Giddem, and is cultivated in Efat: Citrus aurantium (_Bahr Lomi_), lately introduced from Arabia, and Citrus decumana var. (_Trunco_), with apple-like solid pulp, are both found in the royal orchards. Rubus pinnatus (_Injori_) yields the best of all wild-growing fruits in Abyssinia--a true blackberry of the forests. Rosa Abyssinica (_Kaga_), a tree-like dog-rose, bears an edible hip. The Brayera Abyssinica, which serves in Tigre instead of _Cosso_, is not known in the southern provinces. Trifolium saxatile cespitosum (_Nagad_) is sown on the best meadows for green fodder. Vicia faba (_Bakkela_) is most extensively cultivated in Shoa and in the Galla countries to the west; the beans are eaten either fresh and green during the season, or, when dry, made up into soups. Ervum lens (_Missur_), Cicer arietinum (_Shimbrah_), Pisum sativum (_Attur_), Phaseolus spec. (_Adunguari_), are produced in Efat and other warm provinces of the kingdom. Many species of Indigofera, wild and unheeded, grow in the desert and on the borders of cultivation. Pterolobium lacerans (_Kantuffa_) is an impenetrable hedge-shrub abounding in Efat: the bark gives a red dye for leather. Tamarindus Indica attains a majestic size in the jungles of Efat, but is quite neglected; as are also various kinds of Senna (_Senamaki_). Dichrostachys cinerea. Acacia eburnea. Acacia planifrons, and other Camel-thorn trees called _Gerar_, are of the utmost importance to the wilderness and desert; in the latter, the umbrella-like tops collect man and beast beneath their scanty shade during the hottest hours of the day. Some yield superior gum arabic; the twigs serve as food for the camel, and the pods for goats and sheep. The foregoing list of Abyssinian plants comprehends nearly all those which are of importance to the cultivator, farmer, or physician; but no doubt double the number could be added by any people more enterprising and inquisitive than the inhabitants of Shoa. All kind of vegetation not directly useful and beneficial is regarded as a weed, and receives no special appellation; and few of the population know the names of any plant that is not a daily necessary of the kitchen. The physician's lore is kept a profound mystery; and there is not much lost by its limited diffusion, since the whole is a motley collection of very questionable experience and most degrading superstition. Zoology. Of the lowest order of animals, the _Radiates_, nearly the same may be said that was remarked above respecting the lowest order of plants; namely, that their species are in a less degree bound to certain limits of geographical distribution than those in which the respective types hasten in more marked characters to the highest possible perfection. None of the numerous tribe of _Radiatae_ are, in their proper home, directly exposed to the external air and its changes. They live in a medium, which generally preserves a mean temperature, with extremes not prohibiting the possibility of animal existence, and their ephemeral life is little liable to be cut short by any sudden change. Thus we find that the waters and animal humours produce, in different climes, similar beings, in which either the deficiency in bulk is made up by countless multitudes of individuals, or the deficiency in number by high reproductive powers. Intestinal worms (_Wosfat_) prove one of the chief plagues of the Abyssinians. Not only ascarides, but also tape and thread worms (Taenia and Filaria), are to be constantly contended with. The frequency of this disposition must have its source in the usual diet, consisting of unleavened dough-like bread and raw meat, which the accompanying pepper sauce is not sufficient to correct. Once in every month the _Cosso_ and other powerful purgatives are resorted to, and bring momentary relief; but the Guinea-worm, living in the fleshy parts of the limbs, must be endured until it shall have perforated the skin. The influence exercised upon the nature of the _Articulated Animals_ or _Insects_ by the quality of the other visible organised beings, both plants and animals, is much more apparent than in the above-named order of the _Radiatae_. Being bound by the strongest ties to the limits of those beings which are assigned to them as food and home, their species present distinctly marked characters of geographical distribution throughout the world. In Shoa and Efat there appears with the increase of vegetation a larger number of insects, but the most noxious of them remain only during the height of the season. This is most perceptible in the migrations of locusts and caterpillars, which, by a few cold rains, are induced to descend into the open wildernesses and deserts. Such a sudden relief from countless hosts of the locusts, called _Anbasa_, is invariably ascribed, by the superstitious farmer, to the special interposition and agency of his guardian saint, at whose shrine, in the hour of need, offerings and vows are liberally made. Various grasshoppers (_Sada_), mantidae (_Feenta_), and cockroaches, do considerable damage during the hot season. A large black ant (_Goonda_), which bites ferociously, constructs no water-tight habitation, but intrudes at the beginning of the rains into the huts, from which it is expelled with the utmost difficulty. The Egyptian honey-bee (_Neb_), either kept in the farm-yards within baskets, or existing wild in the woods, finds abundance of odoriferous flowers. Honey is an important article of consumption, both in its natural form and when converted into mead. Although so cold, the country is not free from the annoyances of flies (_Sembi_), and musquitoes (_Tenang_). White ants (_Mest_) are not so numerous and destructive in the upper as in the lower country. Small colonies of them live and build their chambers beneath loose stones, but they never come into the houses, and, in fact, the juniper timber of the fragile edifices is seldom attacked by any wood vermin. Various most beautiful butterflies, phalaenes, and moths, while in the caterpillar state (_Tel_), despoil trees and plants that are of no value to the Abyssinian; but his plantations of cotton and cabbage rarely suffer. Neither the silkworm nor the mulberry-tree are found in the country. Numerous varieties of beetles, of those families especially which remove animal matter and soil, with others of more cleanly habits, are comprised under the general appellation of _Densissa_. Among the former, the Coprophaga, many Egyptian species may be met with, as Copris Isidis, Ateuchus sacer, and others; among the latter, chiefly Cetoniae, are found species nearly allied to or identical with some of Senegambia. One notable Inca, the male of which is armed with a powerful head excrescence, lives principally on the sap of wounded trees; Lycus appendiculatus frequents chiefly the flowers of Umbelliferae; many Curculionides inhabit the plants of the family Compositae, but Coccinellae are the most numerous. Species of Lytta abound, but no use is made of them, the Shoans having no real medicine prepared from the animal kingdom. Spiders (_Sherarit_) and scorpions (_Kind_) are studiously avoided, or destroyed, as particularly impure and noxious, though the former never attack aught save their prey, and the sting of the latter is little dangerous. Total disregard of cleanliness is punished with a frightful increase of bodily vermin, as fleas (_Kunitsha_), lice (_Kemal_), bugs (_Tochan_), and acarus scabici (_Ekak_). The large number of water-birds upon the lakes and morasses of Shoa effectually restrain an increase of _Snails_ and _Shells_; some species of Bulimus (_Kendautchi_), minute Helices, Pupa, and Limax, are so few, that the damage done by them is not perceptible. Neither serve the larger kinds as food. The known fresh-water _Fish_ are insignificant in quality and quantity, and only serve to feed the numerous crocodiles which infest the main stream of the Hawash. Its various tributaries, when they first escape from the mountains, carry small species of Salmo and Perca (_Asa_), which are in great request during Lent; but the manner of taking them is primitive and imperfect. All the _Amphibia_ are objects of apprehension and superstition. Serpents (_Ebab_) are not numerous, and are chiefly of small kinds, nor venomous, but the awe in which they are held is quite ridiculous. Tribes in the far west, described as being the meanest of men, and scarcely above the beasts, are charged by the Abyssinians with the heinous custom of eating snakes, and ornamenting their persons with necklaces of the backbone of that accursed animal. Two kinds of tortoises (_Yeli_) are found in the low country, Testudo Graeca and Indica; the latter attains an enormous size in the deep impenetrable jungles of Mentshar. The dread entertained of the Saurii comprises all kinds, the harmless and the formidable. The Egyptian Gecko (_Enkakela_), the chameleon (_Eist_), the Seineus officinalis, and other numerous lizards, which make themselves most useful by the removal of so many annoying insects, are unrelentingly doomed to destruction, whilst the crocodiles (_Azo_) roam unmolested on the abandoned shores of the larger rivers and lakes. The _Feathered Tribe_ exist in great variety of species, which may in some degree be due to the preponderance of migratory birds. The _Scansores_, however, are principally stationary, their food seldom failing throughout the year. The noblest of them is a parrot-like Coliphimus (_Sorit_) of the Shoan forests. Lovely shades of green, and many tints of the brightest red, a stately crest, and a long rounded tail, make it a favourite with the Abyssinians. A tail-feather fastened in the hair of a daring warrior, is a token of late achievements in the battle-field. Two other kinds, called _Wans Sorit_, i.e. Sorit of the river-side, and _Aheia_, i.e. donkey, from its asinine tunes, are much inferior in beauty, though not in size. One, Coliphimus concolor, is of a dull greyish green; the other, C. fasciatus, black and white, with white zones, across the tail; the beak of the female is green; both live in Efat upon different grains and wild figs. Two small kinds of parrot inhabit the fig and tamarind trees of the lower country: their name, _Donkoro_, is also used figuratively of persons talking nonsense. One corresponds almost with Psittacus Taranta. In the other, which is a little larger, the sexes are distinguished by the gay plumage of the male, which is green above and red below, whilst the female is greyish brown and yellow. Centropus Jardini, a beautiful kind of cuckoo, lives solitary on the fig-trees in Efat: several species of woodpeckers, which do not seem to differ from the South African kinds, are found on acacias and tamarinds. Among the _Ambulatores_ many migrate during winter-time from the mountains to the eastern plain; others arrive during summer from the North, most likely from Sennaar and Egypt. They rarely do any considerable damage on the plantations of Teff and Juwarree, whilst their services in destroying numberless vermin are most conspicuous. Bird-catching for food or for amusement is not a sport with the Amhara, but, on the other hand, there is no privilege in favour of the songsters--a study and imitation of the tunes of which might greatly improve the execrable attempts of music, vocal and instrumental, vented by the unskilful Abyssinian performer. Two gaudy kinds of Alcedo play on the rivulets--Merops Bulockii and Nubicus. These truly African species of the flycatcher are in the lower, Upupa epops, the common hoopoe, in the upper country. Certhia tacazze and chalybea, with two other equally beautiful kinds of the humming-bird, proceed with the seasons to their flower-gardens, when the return of rain here, and of warmth there, elicits the most fragrant blossoms, and covers the shrubs of the mountain-side, or the jungle-trees, with soft honey-insects. One of these humming-birds suspends its baglike nest, ingeniously woven of raw cotton, by a string of the same material, to reeds, or cotton-plants. Buphaga Africana picks the larvae of gad-flies out of the galled backs of camels, oxen, and mules, in spite of the struggles of the tortured animal. Jeterus larvatus, and other species of stares, weave their nests of grass, and line them inside with the woolly flowers of an Achyranthes. These nests are suspended in great numbers to the lower branches of solitary trees, and may have given origin to the story of the wonderful groves, where all the fruits are birds enclosed in a shell. Lamprotomis auratus, and some other kinds of thrushes, consume, during their short stay in Shoa of two months, immense numbers of insects. Among the Sylviadae are some eminent songsters, especially Sylvia Pammelaina, and also species of Motacilla, and Saxicola, whilst one Muscipeta, the male of which has two tail-feathers three times as long as the whole body, is quite silent. The head and neck of this remarkable bird are steel-blue, the other parts of the plumage rusty-brown, except the two elongated middle feathers of the tail, which are snowy white, with black quills, and a brown plot at the extremity: they are used as an ornament for royalty. Lanius humeralis (_Gurameile_) is one of those fatal birds, the sudden appearance of which before an army at its outset, forebodes ill-success, and all manner of misfortune to single persons, if the tail be directed towards them. To the other kinds of shrikes no such unhappy celebrity is attached, although they seem not less litigious, and anxious to draw off by their noise the attention of a wayfarer from the vicinity of their nests. Alauda alpestris comes from the West, and returns again after two months, April and May. The most numerous kinds of finches, Ploccus, Pyrgita, Linaria, etc., are all comprised under the appellation _Off_, i.e. small bird: they seem generally to have fixed quarters. Colius Capensis (_Rasa_) is solely in Efat, in company with the Wans sorit. Ravens and crows are of three kinds, but one of them (_Kura_) is particularly remarkable on account of its beak, which is much higher than the crown, carrying a considerable protuberance on the top, the nostrils being situated in an excavation, which runs forward in a broad furrow; the bill is very massive, twice as high as it is broad, and terminating in a small hook; the colour of the plumage is deep brownish black, except a broad bar of white feathers across the sinciput, and sometimes a narrow white line down the back of the neck. Its voice and mode of living and walking is just like that of our crows, but it does not suffer the approach of other species. Swallows are never failing, but the species vary in their visits. Hirundo Capensis and rustica appear to avoid each other, not being seen together in the same localities. Cypselus apus and Caprimulgus species are rarely met with. Coracias afra and Abyssinica live only in the lower country, also the various kinds of Hornbill. _Erkoom_, Buceros Abyssinicus, by far the largest, is mischievous to the Juwarree fields; but the damage done is compensated by his great liking for field-mice also. The Erkoom runs swiftly, and rises seldom into the air: the white wing-feathers are much esteemed as an ornament of the hair by the triumphant warrior. Buceros nasutus, and another species, which differs slightly in colour and size, eat small lizards and chameleons. Buceros erythrorhynchus (_Sholak_), the most frequent of them, rids the plantations of many noxious insects. The tribe of _Raptores_ (_Amora_) is uncommonly numerous, and on the whole very useful in Abyssinia. Those that feed on living animals seldom stoop even at a stray fowl, whilst all their other prey is quite indifferent to the farmer, and the carrion-birds remove quickly whatever the indolent grazier has dragged outside his door. Finding plenty of food, they have no need to wander widely or periodically; yet the large species have their nests at considerable distances from their hunting districts, and commonly on inaccessible precipices. Strix bubo, the only but very common owl of the up-country, and one Otus of the low plain, are treated as birds of ill-omen. From the entrails of the former the necromancer prepares a potent charm. The eagle, Aquila naevia (Nas'r), comes seldom near the villages, nor is he forward in his depredations. Falco biarmicus fights his superiors in size, and deprives them forcibly of their prey; it has got hence the appellation, _Ya Amora Alaka_, i.e. chief of the birds of prey. Morphnus occipitalis (_Adagoota_), a beautiful crested falcon, lives in the lower country of Giddem, and is particularly inert. Several species of Astur and Accipiter (_Bazi_) feed on small songsters and mice. Ternis, spec. (_Goodie_), removes innumerable quantities of locusts; and Milvus parasiticus (_Tshelvit_) cleans streets and premises in company with the crows. Gypaetos barbatus (_Cheffie_), extremely frequent in Shoa, draws near to butchers, and waits patiently for his share--the paunch and other rejected parts of the victim. Vultur arrianus and fulvus (_Vellos_) smell their food many miles off, and gather round it in great numbers. The periodically returning wars, and the extensive stock of cattle kept throughout the habitable parts, feed, with never-failing supplies of carrion, horrible gangs of hyenas, jackals, dogs, and vultures. Cathartes perenopterus and Neophron Niger are less frequent, and always solitary. The tribe of _Rasores_ contains the few birds that are considered fit for Christian food; yet the common fowl (_Doroo_), the only domesticated kind, kept almost in every compound, is very much neglected, and not being of a superior breed, remains small and lean. All other meat is eaten raw by the Abyssinians, but fowls, either tame or wild, must be cooked. The wild ones, pintado, partridge, quail, and grouse, are not prohibited, but still suspected as unwholesome food; and if even long after an indulgence of such meat the gourmand falls sick, he invariably looks back upon that trespass as the cause of his indisposition. Numida cristata (_Chickra_), in bevies of many hundreds, range throughout the lower country. A very large kind of partridge (_Kok_) is found, not in coveys, but in pairs, running swiftly through furrows of the corn-fields. Dogs are taught to catch them without injury; and before being eaten, the bird is kept for some days, to obviate the bad effects of any unclean food which it may possibly have taken. This partridge attains the size of the pintado. Another kind, living on the high plateau, and also hunted down with dogs, resembles more that of middle Europe. Pterocles arenarius, and other species of grouse, occur in the deserts. Pigeons are frequent both in Shoa and in the eastern provinces. _Wani, Ergeb_, and _Kumroo_, are appellations of different kinds, all too wild to tempt the Abyssinian to any exertion to catch or domesticate them. _Wani_ is the largest, above brown, below slaty-grey; the head grey, with a black zone across the sinciput. Another is all grey, except a white zone on the upper neck, and a collar of darker arrow-headed feathers; a third also grey, but with a white head, and brown edges on the wing-feathers. _Ergeb_ has a peculiarly inflated beak; head and neck grey, shoulders and back olive-green, breast and belly citron-yellow, wing and tail-feathers whitish edged and tipped. _Kumroo_ is the turtle-dove, one kind of which has elongated tail-feathers. Otis Arabs, the largest bustard, which is as swift as the ostrich, destroys a great number of locusts and scorpions, and is therefore never eaten. Another smaller bustard (_Wato_) is variously coloured; it lives on the borders of the desert. Charadrius spinosus is a rare visitor of the lakes near the Hawash. Tachydromus isabellinus is an inhabitant of the plains of Efat; and Himantopus atropterus of the morasses near Angollala. Abundance of water makes the provinces of Shoa a favourite place of resort to many species of _Grallatores_. Among the herons are remarkable Ardea ephippiorhyncha, and another called _Alaka fattah_, having particularly long wing-feathers of a darker colour than the remainder of the body, which is above grey, below white. The former lives in the valley of the Abai, the latter about Angollala, but migrates also to the West. Smaller kinds, as Garzetta, Nycticorax, arrive from the North in February, but commonly pass on still more southward, whence they return in May. Ibis religiosa stays for some months on the lakes of the upper country; Numenius, spec. (_Gaga_), about Ankober. The common snipe, some kinds of peewits, the spoonbill, and the flamingo, sometimes extend their migrations as far as Shoa. Geese and ducks swarm unmolested over the lakes of the western provinces; a few descend also to the plain. Chenalopex Egyptiacus builds its nest upon high trees on the river side in Efat. Another rare species carries on the frontal basis a thinly-feathered flexible bunch. All the birds of this class are strangely inapprehensive of danger when moulting or hatching. During their stay in Shoa they are occupied with both of these processes, but the rigorous proscriptions regarding food usually afford them protection. Of _Mammalia_, the _Rodentia_ seem to have no great extension through the cultivated provinces of Shoa. One small house rat (_Eid_), and a field mouse, Otomys albicaudatus, are very obnoxious indeed to the grain, but snares and traps keep them easily down on well-managed farms. Lepus capensis (_Dindjel_) frequents more the plains both of the low and of the up country, and does little damage. To eat of its flesh would be considered downright criminality, not less than myophagy itself. Hystrix cristata (_Shart_) lives only in abandoned termite-cones in the desert. A very rare large squirrel is found upon tamarind trees. Cattle-breeding is, on the whole, in a more advanced state among the Galla than among the Amhara, who prefer agricultural pursuits. The common sheep (_Bug_) of Shoa is small, with coarse black wool; the Adaiel have the Hejaz lamb, short haired, with fat tail; the Galla, a most superior tall fleecy kind, also with fat tail, and without horns. With the latter the Amhara cross their breed. The Galla of Northern Abyssinia rear a peculiar kind with immensely long hair, commonly white; its fleece, dyed black, and then called _Lophisa_, is a dress much prized by chiefs and men of renown throughout the country. The cured skin (_Dabbalo_) of the common sheep is an indispensable part of the male dress. From the wool a kind of camlet cloth is woven. Goats (_Fial_) thrive better in the mountains; they are tall, horned, with short matted hair of many colours; in fact, quite identical with the European kind. The Adel have no breed of their own, but drive down annually from the Shoan marts vast herds into their savannas. The Abyssinian horse (_Feras_) is small, and held in little repute. The donkey (_Aheia_), of a sturdy and strong race, is indispensable to communication and commerce, and as a beast of burthen suffers less than the camel from long privation. The mule (_Bagalo_), higher priced than the mare itself, is eminently useful in the hills, being more sure-footed and better-winded than the horse; it is, however, much better cared for. The she mules are larger and stouter, but the males are the most enduring. The breed from the horse-mare and donkey-stallion is patronised by the Abyssinians, but despised by their more warlike neighbours, the Galla, with whom the horse is a favourite. A wild donkey (_Ya meida aheia_, neither Zebra nor Quagga), a little larger than the common ass, herds in the prairies of the Adaiel country, and is timid, cautious, and swift of foot. Bullocks (_Beri_ or _Ferita_) are similar to the Zebu, but the hump is smaller. Some Galla tribes possess a peculiar breed (_Sanga_), the horns of which attain an enormous size, and serve for bottles; from the smaller horns drinking-cups are manufactured. The calves are not used for food. No work except dragging the plough and thrashing is required of the ox. The wild buffalo (_Gosh_), Bubalus Pegasus, fierce and as yet untamed, inhabits the forests and jungles of Bulga and Mentshar all along the river Hawash; its chase is considered one of the most dangerous pursuits of the hunter, several human lives being frequently expended on the conquest of one beast. Strepsiceros capensis (_Agazin_), and Oryx capensis (_Sala_), are hunted on the borders of the desert. In the latter species, accident sometimes causes the loss of one horn,--a fact which probably gave rise to the story of the unicorn; moreover, the parallel horns are placed so near each other, that when the animal is seen _en profile_ from a distance, it might well appear single-horned. Gazella Mhorr wanders in large herds through the desert; Antilope Saltiana (_Medaqua_) abounds from the sea-coast to the foot of the mountains. Hyrax Abyssinicus (_Ashkoko_), a harmless inhabitant of nooks and corners of the rocks, is common to Shoa as well as to the hills of the Adel. Bruce's Rhinoceros (_Worsisa_), combining the more striking characters of the Asiatic and African species, that is, the two horns of the latter and the plaits and folds of the former, deserves a closer investigation; it lives in the deep jungles of Mentshar, on the banks of the Hawash. Phascochoerus Africanus (_Erya_), the African hog, infests the woods of the warmer districts, and is a horrible-looking brute. Hippopotamus amphibius (_Gomari_) hides its colossal frame during the day in the floods of the Hawash, the Jumma, and other large rivers and lakes. The Wato, a certain caste among the Galla, subsist upon its flesh; and the thick skin is cut into shields or whips. Elephas Africanus (_Zihoon_) is dispersed in many small families, and destroys the plantations of sugar-cane and Juwarree along the foot of the mountains. Not the slightest attempt is made to put a stop to his ravages, the paltry weapons in use being of no avail, whilst severe loss of life follows the footsteps of the enraged animal. A small trade in ivory is notwithstanding carried on with the coast in the tusks found accidentally. Lutra inunguis (_Devil's sheep_), rarely surprised on the banks of the river Bereza, furnishes in its body divers secret medicines to the initiated. Viverra Civetta (_Angeso_) is wild, but frequently kept in cages in the Galla countries to the south-west of Shoa. The Civet (_Dering_), taken out of the bag by means of a small spoon, and collected in cow-horns, is one of the precious articles which the slave caravans proceeding from the interior through Shoa to the coast, barter for their daily food. One Ichneumon (_Mootsheltshella_) robs the poultry-yard. The lion (_Anbassa_), and the leopard (_Nabr_), are well-known throughout Abyssinia. The former seldom pays a visit to the hills, hunting nightly along the banks of rivers, and lurking during the day in his jungle retreats; the latter is more common, and shuns less the presence of man. Both are run down on foot by bodies of men armed solely with lances, which they shower over the slowly retreating beast under a deafening yell. The spoils are an indispensable part of a chief's dress, and objects of importation from the West; the most prized, however, is the skin of the black leopard (_Gasela_), living in and beyond Gurague. The domestic cat is a rarity in Shoa; only great men place them as guardians in their storehouses. The dog (_Oosha_), generally a half-wild companion of the farmer, and inmate of his premises, becomes attached and useful when allowed to share the master's protection. It is taught to keep the herds in order, to catch birds, to defend property, to give warning on the approach of wild beasts. Not the tenth part of the quickly-multiplying race possess owners; but their utility as scavengers proves their safeguard. Canis Anthus (_Dahela_), a wolf-like dog and an offensive thief, frequent in Efat, is caught in pitfalls; its liver has some mysterious virtue. The jackal (_Kabbaro_), and Hyaena crocuta (_Gib_), make nightly inroads into villages and towns; they fight the dogs, and for want of other prey drag off some of these. On the borders of the low country, the night camps must be fenced round with thorns, as a protection against their inroads. Cercocebus griseo-viridis (_Tota_), lives upon wild figs. Cynocephalus Hamadryas (_Zingiro_), the male, with the mane of a lion and a powerful frame, is very mischievous and even dangerous; it congregates in caves and fissures of the rocks. Colobus (_Guresa_), the prettiest of all monkeys, and one duly patronised by the Abyssinians on account of its retired habits, is always on the top of the highest trees, commonly on the Woira, which bears its food. _Filfil_, an animal that throws up mole-hills, baffles all attempts to catch it. Pteropus Egyptiacus and Nycteris Thebaica (_Lelit off_, i.e. night-bird), are harmless, but suspected inhabitants of ruined buildings. An obscure idea of a former supremacy of man over the beasts of the field causes the Abyssinian Christian to view, in a literal sense, those legends which his pious ancestors have recorded of the singular dealings of holy men with the arch-fiend; and he still figuratively personates every evil passion of the human heart by some savage, treacherous, or subtle animal of the inferior creation. The highlands of Abyssinia can, however, offer but a small number of wild animals, and even of these very few are exclusively her own. The cultivation of the greater portion of the land, the absence of extensive forests, jungles, morasses, caverns, and other places of retreat, added to the great diversity of the clime from that of the adjacent countries, which at once excludes the migratory tribes, are the causes of the fortunate contrast presented to the lowlands of the Adaiel, where the dominion of man has yet been very imperfectly established. Appendix, Number III. On the Coffee Tree, Tea Plant, and Cotton, of Southern Abyssinia. Tradition assigns to the countries of Enarea and Caffa the indigenous residence of the coffee tree. In Shoa Proper the cultivation and consumption are strictly interdicted, as savouring too strongly of the abhorred Mohammadan; but in proper situations it grows strong and healthy, and in all the bordering districts subject to Sahela Selassie, where the restriction is not enforced, the plantations are numerous and thriving. Planted before the rains, the seed soon appears above the ground, and when six months old, the offspring is transferred to take the place of some worn-out tree. Water and the manure of the sheep are plentifully supplied, and the crop, which, from a full bearing adult, is generally from thirty to forty pounds, is gathered in March and April. Averaging from eight to ten feet in height, with dark shining foliage, and branches loaded with fruit, it grows luxuriantly in the valleys in any sheltered situation, delighting especially in the soil produced by a decomposition of trap rock, which has been washed down from the adjacent heights; and although taking six years to arrive at maturity, it yields a slight return on the second season of its transplantation. The berries are in the first instance of a dark green hue, which before pulling is suffered to turn red, a white milky-looking pulp called _gullaboo_ meanwhile filling up the space between the cuticle and the seed. Having been shaken and gathered from the branches, the crop is spread in the sun until the pulp becomes sufficiently dry to admit of its removal, which, by continual free ventilation out of doors, is usually the case in one month. The seeds intended for the plantation are not divested of the husk, but sown by the handful in a small plot, which is carefully manured and watered; and the (_gullaboo_), sold separately from the bean, is employed as a beverage with the decoction of the _chaat_. For the better security of his own monopoly at the ports of Zeyla and Berbera, the Ameer of Hurrur opposes the importation of coffee into his own dominions, both from Shoa and from the country of the Galla. The plant is extensively and successfully cultivated; but the price given at Hurrur is high in comparison with that paid in Abyssinia; and the average demanded on the coast by the merchants of the former principality, varying from five pence to seven pence per pound, would seem to be in unison with that customary at Massowah in the Red Sea. The difficulties attending the tedious road to the coast; the lazy indifferent character of the Danakil camel owners, who, regardless of the value of time, spend months upon the journey; and the fitful caprice evinced by the various chieftains though whose territories the caravan must pass--all form great obstacles to the conveyance of the cheaper produce from Abyssinia, although these might doubtless be overcome within a reasonable period by the well-directed efforts of British perseverance. In Caffa and Enarea, coffee grows wild like a weed over the rich surface of the country. The beverage is in universal use among the inhabitants; the price paid is almost nominal; and the convenience of water carriage is alone wanting towards the transportation of the product in unlimited quantities to every portion of the globe. _Chaat_ is a shrub very extensively cultivated, both in Shoa and in the countries adjacent. It is in general use among the inhabitants as a substitute for tea, which, in all its properties and qualities, it closely resembles. The plant is said to have been brought originally from the western mountains, of which the elevation being from five to eight thousand feet, agrees with that of the Chinese tea districts, whilst the average temperature does not exceed 60 degrees Fahrenheit. In a light gravelly soil it attains the height of twelve feet; and the leaves being plucked during the dry season, and well dried in the sun, fetch from one penny to two-pence the pound. They are either chewed, or boiled in milk, or infused in water; and by the addition of honey, a pleasant beverage is produced, which, being bitter and stimulative, dispels sleep if used to excess. The virtues of the _chaat_ are equally to be appreciated with those of the _yerba mate_, recently introduced into England from Brazil and Paraguay. It is already known under the appellation of "Celastrus edulis," and belongs to Pentandria Monogynia _Linn_, and to the natural family of Celastrineae, or to that sub-family of the Rhamneae, which have in the flower the stamens alternating with the petals. The family of Rhamneae, namely, the genus Rhamnus itself, supplies to the poorer classes in China a substitute for tea, and is known under the name of Rhamnus Theezaus _Linn_. [The _chaatt_ may thus be characterised:--Frutex inermis; foliis oppositis, petiolatis, oblongis, serrato-dentatis, glabris. Calyx minimus, persistens. Petala 5. Stamina 5-petalia alternantia. Fructus superus, oblonge baccatus, 5-locularis, polyspermus, vel abortive monospermus. Inflorescentia axillaris, cymosa: cymi dichotome stipulati. The plant supplying the Paraguay tea is a species of ilex, and belongs to the same family of Celastrineee, sub-order Aquifoliaceae.] Cotton of two kinds grows in the sequestered nooks of the eastern face of the mountains of Shoa, and in the valleys at the extreme foot of the range; but from the superior luxuriance of the plant, and the amount of crop produced in the lower situations, the natural climate would appear to exist in those sheltered spots, which in atmosphere much resemble the more favoured parts of Western India. The Efat shrub varies, according to the locality and supply of water, from three feet in height to upwards of seven, and usually assuming the form of a pyramid, extends its lower branches to a width equal to the stature--the size of the leaves, and the soft and yielding nature of the stem, imparting a strong external resemblance to the Bourbon cotton. Eight and nine inches in circumference are not unfrequently attained; and the advantages of a very productive crop twice in each year, the existence of the plant during five seasons, and the heavy return of the particularly fine wool during the very first, award to the species a most deserving pre-eminence. [Gossypium Efatense. Seeds completely covered with a close down. Cotton white; capsules 3-celled, 3-valved; flowers small, with a red fundus; leaves 3 to 5-lobed; lobes acuminated.] The indigenous plant of Efat is not, however, so much esteemed as that from Gondar, which, instead of rising tall and straight from the ground, assumes a spreading dwarfy appearance. The wool is considered superior, and the cloth produced is softer and more elastic, but its existence is limited to three years. Both are planted indiscriminately in the same field, although, when gathered, the crops are preserved unmixed; and after the fifth year the Efat shrub is cut over close to the ground, which is then ploughed up, and sown with wheat or other grain, when, on the removal of the harvest the young cotton shoots are well above the ground, and will yield during two further seasons. [Gossypium Gondarense. Seeds sprinkled with short hairs. Cotton white; capsules 3-celled, 3-valved; flowers large, yellow; leaves 3 to 5-lobed; lobes commonly obtuse.] The seed, having been placed for some time in wood-ashes, is well rubbed with red earth before planting; and wherever the locality is favourable to irrigation, water is not spared. The pod, when ripe, is cut with a knife, the husk removed, and the wool deposited in a bag, with the utmost care to exclude extraneous matter. One full bearing bush produces twice during the twelve months between four and five pounds of raw stuff. End of Volume II. Volume 3, Chapter I. THE HOUSE OF SOLOMON. Ethiopia is the classical appellation for Abyssinia, or Habesh, the most ancient as well as the greatest monarchy in Africa. It is by the latter title that the inhabitants themselves, and all their circumjacent neighbours, still distinguish the highlands included between Nubia and the sources of the blue Nile; and the limits of the Christian empire, governed by the sovereigns of Axum, formerly extended over wide tracts of country, now peopled by heathen and stranger nations. The early history of Habesh is lost in the fogs of fable. In the Chronicles styled Kebra za Negest, "the glory of the kings," a romance which pretends to be a faithful repository of the past, Ittopia is modestly stated to have divided with Romia the dominion of the world, received in direct inheritance from Adam.--"Their rulers were both descended from Shem, who was nominated the lineal descendant of Noah, whence all the globe north of Jerusalem belonged unto the former, and all south to the latter!" This record is believed to have been discovered in the church of Saint Sophia, and it claims for the present royal family descent from the queen of Sheba, whose visit to king Solomon is stated to have placed the sceptre in the hands of the tribe of Judah, with whom it has remained until the present day; and from the peasant to the despot this legend is firmly believed by every native of Abyssinia. "The queen of Ethiopia," saith the Chronicle, "whose name was Maqueda, had heard from the merchant Tamerin of the wisdom and the glory of king Solomon; and resolving to visit him in his own country, she proceeded to the land of Israel with all the rich presents that her empire could afford." After a season the royal lady returned; and her son Menilek, the result of her visit to the greatest potentate of the age, was born, and in due time transmitted to his august sire, that he might be duly instructed in all the mysteries of Jewish law and science. Having been anointed king under the name of David, he returned to his native land, with a large suite of the nobles of Israel, and a band of her most learned elders under the direction of Ascarias, the son of Zadok the High Priest. But previously to his setting out, the gates of the temple of Jerusalem were left unguarded, and the doors miraculously opened in order to afford an opportunity, which was not neglected, of stealing and carrying away the holy ark of Zion and the tables of the law. To queen Maqueda also is attributed the inhuman treatment since experienced by the royal princes, for on resigning the reins of authority to her son, about nine hundred and seventy years before the birth of Christ, she caused a solemn obligation to be sworn by all, that henceforward no female should hold sway in the land; and that those princes of the blood-royal upon whom the crown did not devolve, should, until the succession opened to them, or during their natural term of existence, be kept close prisoners on a lofty mountain; a cruel and despotic enactment, which, through a long succession of ages, was jealously observed. The Emperor of Ethiopia early adopted the title of Negoos, or Negash; and the coast of the Indian ocean towards Sofala was held by his deputy with the style of Bahr Negash, "the King of the Sea,"--a vicegerent with the same title, governing Yemen, which from the earliest times down to the Mohammadan conquest of Arabia belonged to Abyssinia. The family of Menilek ibn Hakim are stated in the Kebra za Negest to have worn the crown in uninterrupted felicity until the year of our Lord 960, when an event occurred which nearly obliterated that dynasty, and first spread anarchy, violence, and oppression throughout the once happy realm. Christianity became the national religion of Abyssinia in the beginning of the fourth century. The Falashas, descendants of the Jews, who are believed to have accompanied Menilek from Jerusalem, had meanwhile waxed extremely powerful, and refusing to abandon the faith of their forefathers, they now declared independence. Electing a sovereign of their own creed, they took possession of the almost impregnable mountain fastnesses of Simien, where their numbers were augmented by continual accessions from the Jews who were expelled from Palestine and from Arabia. Under the constant titles of Gideon and Judith, a succession of kings and queens held a limited sway until, in the middle of the tenth century, the Princess Esther, styled, by the Amhara, Issat, which signifies "fire," a woman of extraordinary beauty and talent, conceived the design of subverting the religion, and with it the existing order of succession in the empire. A fatal epidemic had swept off the Emperor, and spread desolation through court and capital. Del Naad, who had been nominated to the crown, was of tender years; and Esther, deeming no opportunity more favourable, surprised the rock Damo, on which, by virtue of the existing statute, the other scions of the royal house were confined, and having massacred the whole, five hundred in number, proclaimed herself the queen over Abyssinia. The sole surviving prince of his race was hurried by the Amhara nobility into the distant and loyal province of Shoa; and the reins of government passed into the hands of a Christian family of Lasta, styled Zegue, with whom they remained until the thirteenth century. During the administration of Naakweto Laab, the last of this dynasty, Tekla Haimanot the monk, a native of Abyssinia, was created Abuna, [Abuna, or more properly Aboon, signifies "our father"] or Primate of Ethiopia. He had previously founded in Shoa the celebrated monastery of Debra Libanos, and was a man celebrated alike for the purity of his life, the soundness of his understanding, and his devotion to his country. Obtaining extraordinary influence over the mind of the king, he prevailed upon him, for conscience-sake, to resign a crown which could never be purified from the stain of usurpation. The banished line of Solomon, content with the dominion of Shoa, had made no effort towards the recovery of their ancient boundaries; but by a treaty now concluded, Yekweno Amlak was restored to the throne of his ancestors. Naakweto Laab was to retain Lasta in perpetual independence, with the golden stool, the silver kettle-drums, and other insignia of royalty, whilst one third of the realm was permanently ceded to the Primate for the maintenance of his ecclesiastical dignity, and for the support of the clergy, convents, and churches. This was styled the "Era of Partition;" and it formed a stipulation, that the functions of Archbishop should in future be vested in none save a Copt, appointed from Cairo by the chair of Saint Mark. Volume 3, Chapter II. THE LINEAGE OF SHOA. Thus affairs continued until the sixteenth century, when the invasion of Mohammad Graan led to the total dismemberment of the Ethiopic empire; and Shoa, amongst other of the richer provinces, was overrun and colonised by the Galla hordes. Nebla Dengel, the emperor of Gondar, fell by the hand of the Moslem conqueror. Faris, the son of Dilbonach, by a daughter of the house of Solomon, held a Ras-ship under the crown, in the stronghold of Dair, and from his son Sumbellete sprang Nagasi, the first monarch of Efat, who was born at Amad Washa, the capital of Agamcha, and a century and a half ago held his capital in Mans. Prior to the conquest of that province, which was followed by the gradual subjugation of Shoa and its present dependencies, this prince occupied a lofty fortress in the Yedjow country, where some of his descendants still remain. From it are visible the high and impregnable mounts Ambasel and Geshama; the latter of which fastnesses, in the more remote periods of Ethiopic splendour, had served as a place of confinement for the younger brothers of the reigning emperor; whilst the former is in the hands of an independent ruler, whose ancestress becoming the mistress of the Christian governor, the father of the Delilah contrived, during the celebration of her nuptials, to surprise the garrison, and put every man to the sword. Nagasi repaired in due time to Gondar, to be formally invested by the Emperor; but after receiving at the royal hands twelve "nugareet," he died suddenly. To one of his four sons he bequeathed on his death-bed a shield, to a second a spear, to a third a ring, and to Sabastiye, his favourite child, a war-steed which he had always ridden to the combat. The youths were summoned to court in order that they might receive their legacies; and on opening an amulet attached to the horse's neck, it was found to contain the will and testament of the deceased, nominating Sabastiye the successor to his possessions. This prince reigned twenty-five years, and was succeeded by Abiye, his eldest son, who after fifteen years was gathered to his fathers at Aramba, which he had wrested from the Areeo Galla. Emmaha Yasoos, who succeeded next, and reigned thirty-two years, introduced several matchlocks from Gondar, conquered Ankober, and removed his capital thither from Dokaket. At the period of his accession, the sorcerers predicted that if one Arkaradis should be appointed minister, the empire would be doubled. Diligent search was made throughout the realm, but a mendicant was the sole individual of that name who could be found. He was duly inducted into office; and his first step was to revive among the circumjacent Galla an ancient prophecy, that when fires should be seen on the summits of the three loftiest peaks of the great barrier range, their possessions would be overrun by the Christians. After the lapse of a few months, Arkaradis caused beacon-fires to be kindled during the night on the crests of Kondie, Ankober, and Mamrat; upon beholding which many of the heathen fled, and without a blow being struck, sundry districts were appended to Shoa. Asfa Woosen, grandsire to the reigning monarch, succeeded to his father Emmaha Yasoos, and reigned thirty-three and a half years. Of forty-eight male children he was the bravest. He was a great Nimrod, and an unparalleled warrior, slaying three hundred Pagans with his own spear from the back of his favourite war-steed Amadoo. Amongst many other despotic laws enacted during his reign, was one prohibiting the manufacture of hydromel by the subject. Three great rebellions threatened the stability of his empire, which had now shaken off all allegiance to Gondar, but each in turn was quelled by his personal valour. The last insurrection was headed by Woosen Suggud, the heir-apparent. In a pitched battle the youth was wounded by the hand of his father, taken prisoner, and immured throughout the term of the monarch's life. During the last fifteen years of his reign, Asfa Woosen was totally blind. It is fully believed that the sight of one eye was destroyed by Thavanan, as already narrated in the legend of "the tormentor," and that one of the royal concubines, whom that sorcerer had spirited away, destroyed the other shortly afterwards, by means of a powerful spell imparted by her paramour. Since the commencement of the present century, the custom of consigning to a dungeon the brothers and kindred of the reigning monarch has fallen into desuetude in Northern Abyssinia. The princes of the blood-royal now wander over the country unmolested and unheeded, attaching themselves to any chief who may be willing to extend countenance and support, and holding themselves at his disposal in the event of his gaining ascendancy over his rivals, and requiring a titular emperor to perform the indispensable ceremony of nominating a Ras. But the form is still retained, of placing the crown upon the brows of a descendant of the ancient line of Solomon, who is content to be a mere puppet in the hands of the temporary minister; and enjoying a stipend of three hundred dollars per annum, with the paltry revenues accruing from the tolls of the hebdomadal market in the capital, he remains a prisoner upon parole in his palace at Gondar. Volume 3, Chapter III. THE MONARCH AND THE COURT. Sahela Selassie, "the clemency of the Trinity," seventh king of Shoa, whose surname is Menilek, was twelve years of age when the assassination of Woosen Suggud called him from a monastery to the throne, and placed in his hands the reins of despotic government over a wild Christian nation. His sire had enjoyed a brief, but exceedingly active reign of four and a half years, during which he extended his empire far beyond the limits bequeathed to him by Asfa Woosen--made conquests in the south to the mountains of Garra Gorphoo, and in the west to the Nile. The most despotic measures marked his transient but iron rule; and had he survived, the expectations formed of him would in all probability have been realised, and he would have become monarch of all Abyssinia. But the nation groaned under his oppression; and after a series of the harshest acts, induced by visits in disguise, like those of Haroun Alraschid, the great Kaliph of Bagdad, to the houses of his subjects, and to places of public resort, a Shankela slave, whom he had provoked by ill usage, turned upon his royal master, and having slain him with a sword, set fire to the palace at Kondie, which was burned to the ground; and the wealth amassed in many earthen jars melted, according to the tradition, into a liquid stream of mingled silver and gold, which flowed over the mountain-side. In Shoa, as in other savage countries, the tidings of the dissolution of the monarch, unless timely concealed, spread like lightning to the furthest extremities of the kingdom, and become a signal for rapine, anarchy, and murder, which rage unrestrained during the continuance of the interregnum. Every individual throughout the realm deems himself at full liberty to act according to the bent of his own vicious inclinations--to perpetrate every atrocity, and to indulge in the gratification of every revengeful and licentious passion, without fear of retribution or of punishment; and it being perfectly understood that there exists neither law nor rule until the new sovereign shall have been proclaimed, the kingless land for a season runs rivers of blood. Fearful was the tragedy that followed the assassination of Woosen Suggud. The royal family residing at Ankober, and the heir-apparent at a still greater distance from Kondie, there ensued a scene of anarchy and confusion which it would be difficult to describe; and at Debra Libanos alone there fell no fewer than eight hundred victims to private animosity, of whose murder no account was ever taken. The eyes of the monarch being closed in death, the minister styled Dedj Agafari, "the introducer through the door," proceeds to the inauguration of the successor, who, unless some other arrangement shall have been willed, is usually the heir-apparent. Presented to the senators and to the inmates of the palace, the herald proclaims aloud, "We have reason to mourn, and also to rejoice, for our old father is dead, but we have found a new one." The accession thus declared, the king is invested with the robes of state, and taking seat upon the throne, the public officers first in order, and then the people, offer homage, and bow before his footstool. General mourning is invariably observed during the seven days which follow the promulgation of the national calamity. Men, women, and children, evince their grief by tearing the hair, scarifying the temples with the nails, and casting themselves sobbing and screaming upon the ground--the good qualities of the deceased being extolled the while. But the chief mourners on the melancholy occasion are those princes of the blood-royal who are affected by the barbarous practice handed down from the earliest periods of Abyssinian history. For in the kingdom of Shoa revolutionary projects against the crown have invariably been anticipated by consigning the uncles and brothers of the sovereign to a subterranean dungeon, where they pass the remainder of their days in the elaborate carving of harps and ornaments of ivory. Widely different from that of the aspiring Rasselas is the lot of these pining members of the dynasty of Shoa. No happy valley is theirs, whom a barbarous policy has from time immemorial condemned thus to linger in hopeless imprisonment during the remnant of their sublunary pilgrimage, unless the demise of the despot without issue should, peradventure, call some one of the captives from the dank vault to the throne. Food, with scanty materials for amusement and occupation, are indeed allowed, together with permission to breathe the air of heaven after the sun has set upon their own green hills. But no domestic tie links them to the society from which they are immured--no sympathy of wife or child can ever, by a word of kindness, alleviate their lonely condition. The bonds of relationship have been rudely snapped asunder, and the very name of brother is the stern curse of those whose only crime is their affinity to the monarch. Seven princes of the blood-royal were inmates of the vaults of Goncho on the arrival of the British Embassy in Shoa. The legitimate issue male of the reigning sovereign has fortunately been limited to two; but it was not the less melancholy to reflect, that one or other of these interesting youths must, in all human probability, drag out the noon and evening of his days within the walls of that dismal dungeon, where so many have sunk into the grave unrecorded and unpitied. The crown, although hereditary in the house of Solomon, is elective by will at each decease, and the eldest born can assert no exclusive title to succession by right of primogeniture. Bashakh Woorud, "go down if go like," is an ominous title enough to distinguish the heir-apparent to the throne. Better known by his Christian appellation of Hailoo Mulakoot, and now in his sixteenth year, he has by his royal sire been permitted to accompany the army into the field, when he slew some of the Galla with his own hand; but entertaining a predilection for the church, he is educating in the monastery of Loza; whilst his brother, Seifa Selassie, "the sword of the Trinity," who is three or four years younger, is the favourite of his father, and may be regarded as the heir-presumptive. In accordance with the custom of the land, this prince is also secluded in a monastery at Medak, under the Alaka Amda Zion. In addition to a eunuch and a nurse, each of the royal scions is attended by guardians, whose office it is to prevent his playing truant or creating disturbances in the kingdom. They are trained to equestrian and warlike exercises, and to the use of the shield and spear; and are made to attend divine service, to fast, to repeat their prayers, and to peruse the psalms at night. Their course of education differs little from that of other Abyssinian youths, than whom they are even more under monkish influence. The study of the Gebata Hawariat, or "table of the apostles," which comprises the seven epistles of Peter, John, James, and Jude, and the acquisition of the Psalter by heart, is followed by the perusal of the Revelation, the epistles of Saint Paul, and the gospels-- the histories of the Holy Virgin, of Saints George and Michael, Saint Tekla Haimanot, and others, completing the course. Few of the priesthood understand the art of writing, and all regard the exercise of the pen as shameful and derogatory. The royal princes therefore stand little chance of instruction in this branch of education, and their acquaintance with the Abyssinian code of jurisprudence must depend also upon the erudition of their preceptors. The strictest discipline is enforced; disobedience is punished by bonds and corporal chastisement, which latter the king causes to be inflicted in his presence; and fully imbued with the conviction that to "spare the rod is to spoil the child," His Majesty occasionally corrects the delinquent with his own hands. Queen Besabesh--"thou hast multiplied"--the mother of the young princes, and also of four princesses, is the daughter of the last independent ruler of Morabeitie. She was relict of Tekla Georgis, a commoner of Shoa; and although not permanently resident in the palace, is much beloved by Sahela Selassie. Five hundred concubines complete the royal harem, of whom seven reside under the palace roof, thirteen in the immediate outskirts, and the residue in various parts of the empire. By these ladies the king has a numerous progeny; the males, who are not obnoxious to imprisonment on a new accession, being created governors of provinces, whilst the illegitimate daughters are bestowed in marriage upon whomsoever his despotic Majesty may think proper to select among the nobles and magnates of the land. The ceremony of taking into the royal harem a concubine of rank, which measure is usually connected with some political object, consists in an interchange of presents betwixt the monarch and the parents of the damsel. Chamie, the Galla Queen of Moolo Falada, near the Nile, presented with her daughter, who occupies a niche in the harem, a dower consisting of two hundred milch cows, one hundred teams of oxen with ploughs, a number of horses, and many slaves of both sexes, _gassela_ skins, and other choice peltries, and five hundred vessels of virgin honey, with twelve cats to watch over and protect them from the inroads of the mice. Mohammadans and Pagans are compelled, after the formation of the royal alliance, to embrace the Christianity of Ethiopia; but that fidelity is far from being a consequence of the conversion has been evinced in numerous disgraceful instances, the not least notorious of which involves the reputation and the health of one who long enjoyed a most exalted place in the king's affections--a sister of Wulasma Mohammad. Throughout intra-tropical Africa the _nugareet_, or kettle-drum, forms the emblem of power, as does the sceptre in other realms. Appointments, edicts, and proclamations, roll with its notes to the ears of the attentive nation of Shoa. It accompanies all forays and campaigns, is the symbol of investiture, and even the Church is controlled by its echoes reverberating from the palace hill. The trumpet is also a concomitant on state occasions, when two large crimson _debaboch_, or aftabgirs, screen the royal person. The attire of Sahela Selassie, although usually plain and unassuming, is, on certain pageants, more imposing, and is then assisted by all the gold and tinsel that the wardrobe can boast. The precious metal, for which he entertains a vast affection, forming his exclusive prerogative, is displayed in massive bracelets and rings, and in the embroidery with which his tight vest of green silk is profusely loaded, although partially hidden beneath the enveloping robe of Abyssinia. His Majesty's crown is an elegantly embossed tiara, with numerous chains hanging in gorgeous clusters around the brow, and surmounted by the imperial plume of white egret feathers. On the Saturday in Passion week, a solemn assembly is held in the palace court, which is decked out with carpets, and velvets, and gay cloths. The priests then rehearse the military achievements of the monarch, and the gathered population respond with the loud hum of approbation; but with this exception, and that of the great annual review at the feast of Maskal, or the triumphal return from the successful foray against the heathen Galla, there is little pomp or pageant to be witnessed at the present day. Badges and honorary distinctions, however, still continue to be conferred upon the brave in war. The high-sounding titles of household officers are yet scrupulously retained; and these, with the embossed shield, the silver sword, the gauntlet, the bracelet, the armlet, and the glittering _akodama_, attest the presence at the court of Shoa of the last remnant of the ancient, but faded grandeur of the proud emperors of Ethiopia. Volume 3, Chapter IV. THE REIGNING DESPOT. A more singular contrast of good and evil was perhaps never presented than in the person and administration of the Christian despot. Avarice, suspicion, caprice, duplicity, and superstition, appear to form the basis of his chequered character, and his every act exhibits a proportion of meanness and selfishness, linked with a desire to appear munificent. Yet are these radically bad ingredients tempered and concealed by some amiable and excellent qualities. His virtues are many as they are conspicuous: his faults entail harm chiefly upon himself; and the appropriation of the greater portion of his hours might be held up as a worthy pattern for imitation. During the entire forenoon of every day in the week, the Sabbath and Saturday excepted, which latter, as a remnant of Jewish religion, is universally reverenced, is he engaged in public affairs--in trying appeals, and in deciding suits which are brought from all quarters of his dominions. Notwithstanding the impediments offered by a weak constitution, and by many bodily infirmities prematurely brought on by excess, he leads a life of constant activity, and, both as respects his public and his private avocations, stands greatly distinguished above other Abyssinian rulers, who too justly incur the reproach of idleness and perpetual debauchery. After the religious performance of his matin devotions, the king inspects his stables and workshops, bestows charity upon the assembled poor, despatches couriers, and accords private audiences of importance. Then reclining in state upon the throne, he listens for hours to all appeals brought against the decisions of his judges, and adjusts in public the tangled disputes and controversies of his subjects. Here access is easy. Sahela Selassie listens to all, foreigners or natives, men and women, rich and poor. Every one possesses the right to appear before him, and boldly to explain the nature of his case; and although the established usage of the land compels the subject to prostrate himself, and to pay rather adoration than respect, yet may he urge his complaint without the least hesitation or timidity. Judgment is always prompt, and generally correct; nor will the observer be less struck with the calmness and placidity that mark the royal demeanour in the midst of the most boisterous discussions, than at the method and perspicuity with which such manifold affairs are disposed of; and whilst thus receiving the most favourable impression of His Majesty's capacity for the transaction of business, a parallel might be drawn between his demeanour and that of many more civilised monarchs, which would be flattering to the semi-barbarous ruler of Shoa. At three o'clock the king proceeds to dine alone; and no sooner is the royal appetite appeased, than the doors are thrown open, and the long table in the great banqueting-hall is crowded with distinguished warriors and guests. Harpers and fiddlers perform during the entire entertainment, and singers lift up their voices in praise of the munificence and liberality of their sovereign, who, during all this scene of confusion and turmoil, still continues to peruse letters or to issue instructions, until the board has been thrice replenished and as often cleared, and until all of a certain rank have freely partaken of his hospitality. At five he retires with a few of those who enjoy the largest share of intimacy, to the private apartments. Prayers and potent liquors fill up the evening hours, and the company depart, leaving the favourite page who is made the bearer of the royal commands. Midnight calls His Majesty from his couch to the perusal of psalms and sacred writings. A band of sturdy priests in the antechamber continue during the livelong night to chant a noisy chorus of hymns to preserve his slumbers from the influence of evil spirits or apparitions, and daylight brings a repetition of the busy scene, which is diversified by exercise on horseback, whenever leisure and the fickle sky will permit. Making excursions with from four to five hundred mounted followers, it is then his wont to sit for hours on the splashy banks of some sequestered brook, conversing familiarly with those about him, witnessing the exercise of his stud, and devoting every spare moment to the numerous petitioners who crowd with complaints around the royal person. Dreading the fate of his father, the monarch never stirs from his threshold without a pistol concealed under his girdle along with his favourite amulet, in which he reposes implicit faith and reliance. His couch is nightly surrounded by tried and trusty warriors, endeared to his person by munificence displayed to no other class of his subjects, whilst the gates of the palace are barred after the going down of the sun, and stoutly guarded. The principal officers of the royal household, and those most confided in by the suspicious monarch, are the eunuchs. Ayto Baimoot, their late chief, was specially charged with the royal harem, in all its branches, as well as with the establishment of slaves. Long faithfully attached to his indulgent master, he was, whilst he lived, the king's only intimate counsellor, and was never separated from his person. Next in order is the herald, or Dech Agafari, who, in addition to the important duties already detailed, is the channel through whom all new appointments by the crown and all royal edicts and proclamations are published to the nation. Armed with a rod of green rushes, he ushers into the presence-chamber all officials, strangers, and visitors, introducing at the appointed time those who have complaints or representations to lay at the footstool of the throne. He is the Alaka of all who have any boon to crave, and is in charge of the host of pages and younger sons of the nobility who attend upon the king--is in general master of the ceremonies on occasions of state or pageant, and introduces guests who may be invited to the banquet. The keys of the royal library are in the custody of the chief of the Church, the Alaka Wolda Georgis, a layman and a soldier, who was elevated to the exalted post he occupies in direct violation of the established usage of the country. The office of chief smith and Alaka of all the _tabiban_, "wise people," or handicraftsmen, throughout the realm, and of Body Physician, are concentrated in the person of Ayto Habti, who must freely partake of all drugs that are to be administered to the king, and, with the Commander-in-Chief of the Body-Guard, the Master of the Horse, and the dwarf Father Confessor, be in constant attendance upon His Majesty. As well from religious as from worldly motives, Sahela Selassie entertains a vast number of pensioners, who receive _dirgo_, or daily rations, in various proportions--some being limited to dry bread, whilst others extend to mead, the greatest luxury which the country can afford. The distribution of this maintenance comes exclusively within the province of the Purveyor-General, the food being prepared in the royal kitchen by the numerous slaves, who, shame to the Christian monarch, compose the entire household establishment. All foreigners and visitors receive it; and, in addition to about one thousand of this class, there are many besides who possess the privilege of always dining at the royal table. Making munificent donations to churches and monasteries, the king stands in high odour with the fanatic clergy, and thus enjoys the advantage of their influence over the priest-ridden population, whom he rules principally through the church; and, never undertaking any project without consulting some of its members, is in turn much swayed by their exhortations, prophecies, dreams, and visions. Strongly attached to the Christianity of Ethiopia, which abounds in Jewish prejudices, he is still far from being intolerant. According to the best of his uncultivated ideas he encourages letters, and spends considerable sums of money in collecting ancient manuscripts. Possessing natural talents and shrewdness, which have been improved by the rudiments of education, he rules his hereditary dominions with tact and advantage; and might, had his energies been properly directed, have shone one of the greatest potentates that ever wielded the sceptre in the now disorganised empire. Were the active life of Sahela Selassie guided by superior principles-- could he be brought to despise petty things, and to sink the details of unimportant affairs in matters of greater moment--how wealthy and powerful a monarch might he not still become! He would have time at command to plan truly royal projects; and, possessed as he is of means the most ample, would find leisure to carry through his designs. Although, like other rulers of Abyssinia, he is ever entertaining some project of aggrandisement, his mind is yet filled with trifles, and not sufficiently expanded to mature a plan of operations upon an extended scale. Precluded by want of liberal education or of intercourse with civilised nations, from calculating events, or looking deep into the page of futurity, he lives in fact for little beyond the present day. Old in constitution, though not in years--enfeebled by excess, as well in mind as in body--uncivilised--called early to the throne, and ruling during a long succession of years according to one unvarying system--the dictates of his own caprice--he requires some violent impulse, some imminent and apparent peril, to arouse him from the torpor of security, to stimulate his latent energies to greater exertion, and to induce him temporarily to sacrifice a portion of his idolised gold, in order to reap a harvest five hundred fold. From the merciful hand of this unique specimen of absolute authority, the sceptre falls lightly upon the head of the offender. "I have before mine eyes the fear of God," is his frequent exclamation when passing the extreme sentence of the law. Guilty of none of the cruelties or enormities which stain most of the other rulers of Abyssinia-- accessible, not easily offended, even-tempered, patient in his investigations, mild and usually just in his despotism--he is universally adored in his own dominions, rather through love than through fear. The oath by the life of the king is the only binding obligation in the land; and from the general success of his military expeditions, he is feared and respected by all the adjacent tribes. Conducting himself with that easy freedom which generally distinguishes conscious superiority, his demeanour is dignified and commanding; and the appearance of the half-civilised Christian savage, who sways the destinies of millions in the heart of heathen Africa, would proclaim his high descent even in the courts of Europe. Volume 3, Chapter V. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. The hereditary provinces subject to Sahela Selassie are comprised in a rectangular domain of one hundred and fifty by ninety miles, which area is traversed by five systems of mountains, whereof the culminating point divides the basin of the Nile from that of the Hawash. The Christian population of Shoa and Efat are estimated at one million of souls, and that of the Mohammadan and Pagan population of the numerous dependencies at a million and a half. Without including tribute in kind, the royal revenues are said to amount to about eighty or ninety thousand German crowns, accruing chiefly from import duties on slaves, foreign merchandise, and salt. The annual expenses of the state not exceeding ten thousand dollars, it is probable that His Christian Majesty, during his long reign of nearly thirty years, must have amassed considerable treasure, which is carefully deposited underground, and not lightly estimated by its possessor. Nearly in the centre of the kingdom presides Zenama Work, "the golden rain," relict of Woosen Suggud, and mother of the reigning monarch. The seat of her government, it has already been said, is at Zalla Dingai, "the rolling stone;" and she rules over nearly the whole of the north-west, or in fact over almost one half of the realm--appropriating in reversion to the crown the entire revenues of her dependent territories, and appointing her own governors with the royal approval. Judge in her own dominions, her decisions nevertheless lie under appeal to the throne; and even as queen-dowager, she is debarred participation in certain privileges which form the exclusive prerogatives of her son, over whose mind she exerts an influence, compared by the people of Shoa to that which they believe the holy Virgin to exercise over the Redeemer. Long tired of the world and of its vanities, the venerable lady has made numerous applications for permission to retire to a convent, and assume the veil, the royal entreaties to the contrary having alone delayed the execution of the design. Many years barren, she sought the benediction of the wandering "Wato," and her nuptial couch being shortly crowned by the birth of Prince Menilek, the happy event was ascribed to necromantic intervention. Thus the tribe of the soothsayer is to this day left in peaceful occupation of its mountains on the bank of the wooded Hawash, whilst the destroying hand of the Amhara presses in wrath upon the head of the surrounding heathen. Four hundred governors, styled _Shoomant_, are appointed under the crown of Shoa, and these with fifty _Abogasoch_, or guardians of the frontier, literally "fathers of war," corresponding with the margraves of Germany in olden times, conduct the affairs of the kingdom and its dependencies. Some few of these appointments are hereditary; but the majority are purchased by the highest bidder, and the tenure is at best extremely precarious. A governor on his appointment is invested with a silver sword as a badge of office, and is bound to appear with his contingent of militia, whensoever summoned for military service. His grants are regulated by the amount of his levy; and as he rises in the royal estimation, so he receives badges also for subordinates, who may have distinguished themselves by their zeal, activity, or valour. No courtier or great man can, after a long absence, approach the throne empty-handed. Thousands of stern warriors bend down with profound and slavish abasement before the fellow-mortal who presides over their sublunary destinies; and even the nobles of the land twice prostrate themselves, and kiss the dust in a manner the most abject and humiliating. All public officers make oblations from time to time in kind; and the king is, besides, in the habit of requiring arbitrarily from those in charge of districts, tribute in honey, clarified butter, cloth, or whatever else he may happen to require. Weak, and at the same time cunning--suspicious of every one, and placing not the smallest confidence in any of his functionaries--he sometimes precipitates them from affluence into a dungeon, when they believe themselves in the enjoyment of the largest share of favour. Resolved to disgrace a nobleman, he either sends for or visits the doomed personage, treats him with marked kindness and condescension, in view to dispel alarm; and embracing a favourable moment when no resistance can be offered, gives the fiat to those in attendance to secure their prisoner. If not retained by fees and oblations, governments are constantly forfeited and resold. Frequent changes are also made with the design of counteracting collusion and rebellion. Although the power of the Negoos is absolute, it is subdivided amongst all who execute his orders, and little despots arise in all the numerous governors of provinces--each actuated by the same desire of being the executor of his own supreme will. Still they bear a heavy responsibility, and the slightest error in judgment, or, even in the absence of all delinquency, the mere whim of the monarch, may involve them in destruction when least anticipated. Accountable for every event, whether probable or improbable, assiduity in the management of affairs does not always avail. Talents and bravery are sometimes displayed in vain, and mere caprice may hurl the possessor of both from his high estate to the deepest ruin and disgrace. Armed with the delegated authority of the despot, each governor, enacting the autocrat in his own domains, fashions his habits and privileges after those of his royal master. His fields are cultivated in the same manner, and he possesses the advantage of being able to extort from the inhabitants, for a very inadequate compensation in grain, many days of extra labour in each of the great agricultural operations. A fluctuating tribute in kind, regulated by his will and caprice, is exacted from all land-holders, to meet the demands of His Majesty, who, in addition to an inauguration fee of from four to six hundred dollars, is, unless voluntary offerings be frequently made, ever sending requisitions for live stock and farm produce. This system falls heavily upon all classes. A governor trusting to his own resources is speedily impoverished; whilst he who taxes too roughly is certain to be stripped of authority and property, on representation made to the throne. But the Abyssinian is never loth to climb up again whence he has fallen, and the humbled grandee, although impoverished and shunned by the servile crowd, strives again to ingratiate himself with his sovereign-- frequently succeeds by long and patient attendance, and once more girded with the silver sword of authority, he attains that perilous and giddy pinnacle, where the weapon of destruction hangs over his head suspended only by a single hair. The essence of despotism pervading the land to its very core, the Negoos is the true God of its adoration. All the best portions of the soil pertain to His Majesty, and the life as well as the property of every subject is at his sole and absolute disposal. Every act is performed with some view to promote his pleasure, and the subject waits on his sovereign will, for favour, preferment, and place. All appointments are at the king's disposal--all rewards and distinctions come from the king's hand. In years of famine, food itself is only to be obtained from the royal granaries; and it is not therefore surprising that those over whom one so absolute presides should be mean, servile, and cringing, and that they should, in their aspirations after power and place, mould every action of their life according to his will. Concealment of any acquisition, howsoever small and valueless, is invariably visited with loss of office and confiscation of property. Gold forms the exclusive privilege of royalty. Personal ornaments and coloured raiment have until now been restricted by the severest sumptuary laws, and none, except the highest chiefs and warriors of the land, were ever honoured by an exemption from the rule. But these harsh prohibitions, which exist under no other government in Abyssinia, originated long before the present reign, and have been enforced during so many generations, that they are now little irksome to the people. Shoa has hitherto stood exempt from the unceasing endeavours to acquire ascendancy on the part of all the various chieftains who divide the sceptre in the north--allied to-day in bonds of the closest amity, the next arrayed in the most bitter animosity. Engaged in perpetual strife, the march of any one prince beyond the border of his own territories proves the signal to the nearest of his neighbours to carry fire and sword into the heart of his undefended domain; but although torn by civil war from one extremity to the other, the bond of the ancient Ethiopic empire is still not entirely dissolved; and notwithstanding that the "king of kings" has dwindled into the mere spectre of imperial dignity--is deposed and restored to the throne at the caprice of every predominant ruler--his name at least is deemed essential to render valid the title of Ras, and through the latter, of the governors of all the dependent provinces of Abyssinia. But herein the King of Shoa forms an exception; and fortunate it is for His Majesty as well as for his dominions, that the surrounding Galla tribes, united with natural defences, should have so completely shut him out from participation in the intestine disturbances which have ravaged and laid waste every other province of this beautiful and once prosperous land. Although he propitiates the leader of every party, and pursues a conciliatory policy, it would be in his power to mediate with a high hand for the advantage of all; yet is it curious to observe with what tenacity the Abyssinians adhere to preconceived opinions. The kingdom of Shoa, which was formerly a portion of the empire, still continues in general estimation to form an integral part thereof; and Sahela Selassie is therefore, but in name only, regarded as a vassal of the puppet Emperor of Gondar, notwithstanding that he is, _de facto_, an independent monarch. Volume 3, Chapter VI. GALLA DEPENDENCIES IN THE SOUTH. During the reign of Asfa Woosen, grandsire to Sahela Selassie, the independent states of Shoa and Efat were of very inconsiderable extent. Morat, Morabeitie, Giddem, Bulga, and other districts now appended, were at that period distinct governments, as is now the case in Gurague where there are more rulers than provinces. It is not therefore surprising, that amid the perpetual quarrels of the Christian princes, the Galla should have been left in undisturbed possession of the lands which they had wrested from Southern Abyssinia. But no sooner had Asfa Woosen subdued King Zeddoo, the usurper of Morabeitie and Morat, with whom sank also those of inferior pretensions, than he began with his united forces to make inroads upon the Galla tribes. The unsettled state of the newly-conquered provinces precluded extensive operations; and the task of reducing the Pagans to obedience was thus principally bequeathed to Woosen Suggud, whose strong arm not only kept in submission the territories conquered by his father, but added greatly to the western limits of Shoa by the acquisition of Moogher on the Nile, and by the conquest of the Abitchu, Woberi, and Gillan, so far south as the mountains of Garra Gorphoo. Conceiving that a youth who had scarcely numbered twelve years would be unable to hold them in subjection, the tributary Galla revolted immediately upon the accession of Sahela Selassie. But subsequent events proved that they were mistaken in the estimate formed of the monarch's military capacity. He vanquished King Hailoo, who still asserted his dignity in Morat. Having amassed firearms from Gondar and Tigre, as well as from the sea-coast of Tajura, he was enabled to quell many successive insurrections, and for a number of years was fortunate in the fidelity of the lion-hearted Medoko, who was even more feared than himself by the surrounding Gentiles. He caused all the Galla of the province of Shoa-Meda to be circumcised and baptised; and having commanded them to wear about their necks the "_mateb_," or cord of blue silk, to fast, and to eat neither with Mohammadans nor Pagans, nor to touch meat that has not been killed in the name of the Holy Trinity, they have thenceforth been denominated Christians. Throughout his long reign, it has been the king's favourite project to re-unite the scattered remnants of Christian population which still mark the extent of the dominions of his forefathers. The countries to the south and south-west have therefore always received the largest share of His Majesty's attention, and in those directions he has attacked and subdued in succession all the tribes on this side of the Hawash. The Metta, Metcha, Moolo Falada, Betcho-Woreb, Betcho-Foogook, and Charsa-Dagha, are all appended to Shoa. Moreover the royal arms have crossed the Hawash, and to a certain extent accomplished the reduction of the Soddo, of the frontiers of Gurague, of the Karaiyo, Loomi, Jille, and other remote clans. In the north little progress has been made, and many reverses have deterred further attempts upon the wild mountaineers; but in the north-east the Selmi, the Aboti, and several other tribes previously independent, have been reduced to feudal submission, and by judicious management are made to secure the frontier from invasion. But although Sahela Selassie has thus widely extended the limits of his empire, he has adopted no efficient measures to consolidate his conquests. As a contrast between the former and the existing administration, it is said of the southern Galla, "where all was once strength, there is now nothing save weakness. Of yore, tribute was paid by all, whereas at the present day the possession of the dependencies does but entail expense." Three annual expeditions, made, throughout a period of thirty years, for the purpose of collecting the revenues of the crown, have hitherto proved ineffectual to the preservation of permanent tranquillity amongst the tribes subjugated by his ancestors; and the Sertie lake, with other morasses, remain monuments of the dire disasters which sometimes attend his usually successful arms. He neither erects fortifications, nor does he establish outposts; and the government being continued in heathen hands, the tributary tribes rebel during each rainy season, only to be re-subdued as soon as it is over-- the insurgents sometimes tendering their renewed allegiance the instant they perceive the crimson umbrellas of state, but more frequently delaying until the locust-like army of the Amhara has swept their fair fields, and like the devastating stream from the volcano, has left a smoking desert in its train. Chastised by two or three successful forays, the chiefs and elders of the rebellious and ruined clan, finding the futility of further opposition to the yoke, come in with the tribute exacted, and make feudal submission, whereupon they are suffered to ransom their wives and daughters who have been enslaved. It cannot fail to appear extraordinary, that those who are unprepared for resistance should occupy their beleaguered abodes one minute after they had become aware of the presence of their ruthless and implacable foes; but in almost every instance they are in blood feud with all the surrounding tribes of their own nation, at whose merciless hands they would experience even worse treatment than at those of the Amhara. Neither, during persecution, could the tax-repudiating hope to find an asylum among tributary neighbours, with whom they might perchance be on amicable terms, since their reception would inevitably entail on those who harboured the fugitives the last vengeance of the despot. Thus the choice is left between precarious flight to the mountain fastnesses, in the very teeth of the enemy, and the alternative of lurking in the vicinity of the invaded hamlet, upon the slender chance of eluding the keen scent of the bloodhounds. The governor, or, in fact, the king of all the Galla now dependent on Shoa, is Abogaz Maretch, who resides at Wona-badera, south of Angollala. At first a bitter enemy of Sahela Selassie, this haughty warrior chief, renowned for his bravery, was finally gained over by bribes, and by promises of distinction and advancement, which have actually been fulfilled. Partly by force, and partly by soft words and judicious intermarriages with chiefs of the various tribes, he contrives to keep in some sort of order the wild spirits over whom he presides; but he is taxed with want of proper severity, and although still high in favour, has more than once been suspected of divulging the royal projects. Abba Mooalle, the governor of Moogher and of the surrounding Galla in the west, was also formerly very inimical to Shoa; but being won over to the royal interests by the espousal of his sister, by preferment to extensive power, and by the hand of one of the despotic princesses, he was four years since converted to Christianity, when the king became his sponsor. The valuable presents which he is enabled to make to the throne, owing to his proximity to the high caravan-road from the interior, preserve him a distinguished place in the estimation of the Negoos, to whom he is little inferior in point of state. At constant war with the Galla occupying the country to the westward, between Sullala Moogher and Gojam, he hastily assembles his troops twice or thrice during the year, and making eagle-like descents across the Nile at the head of ten thousand cavalry, rarely fails to recruit the royal herds with a rich harvest in cattle. Dogmo, who resides in the mountain of Yerrur, was educated in the palace; and his undeviating attachment to the crown has been rewarded with the hand of one of the king's illegitimate daughters. Botha, Shambo, and Dogmo, are the sons of Bunnie, whose father, Borri, governed the entire tract styled _Ghera Meder_, "the country on the left," which includes all the Galla tribes bordering on both sides of the Hawash in the south of Shoa. Bunnie was, in consequence of some transgression, imprisoned in Aramba; and Botora, another potent Galla chieftain, appointed in his stead. But this impolitic transfer of power creating inveterate hatred between the two families, each strove to destroy the other. Bunnie was in consequence liberated, and restored to his government; but resting incautiously under a tree on his return, not long afterwards, from a successful expedition against the Aroosi, whom he had defeated, he was suddenly surrounded by the enemy, and slain, together with four chiefs, his confederates, and nearly the whole of his followers. His sons were then severally invested with governments; and Boku, the son of Botora, was at his father's demise entrusted with the preservation of the avenues to the Lake Zooai, long an object of the royal ambition. Among the most powerful Galla chieftains who own allegiance to Shoa, is Jhara, the son of Chamie, _soi-disant_ Queen of Moolo Falada, who, since the demise of her husband, has governed that and other provinces adjacent. Sahela Selassie, who it will be seen relies more upon political marriages than upon the force of arms, sent matrimonial overtures to this lady, and received for answer the haughty message, "that if he would spread the entire road from Angollala with rich carpets, she might perhaps listen to the proposal, but upon no other conditions!" The Christian lances poured over the border to avenge this insult offered to the monarch of Shoa, and the invaded tribe laid down their arms; but Gobanah, foster-brother to Jhara, and a mighty man of renown, finding that His Majesty proposed burning their hamlets without reservation, rose to oppose the measure. At this critical moment an Amhara trumpeter raised his trombone to his lips. The Galla, believing the instrument to be none other than a musket, fled in consternation, and their doughty chieftain surrendered himself a prisoner at discretion. Upon learning to whom he had relinquished his liberty, Gobanah, broken-hearted, abandoned himself to despair, and refused all sustenance for many days. The hand of the fair daughter of the queen was eventually the price of his ransom; and on the celebration of the nuptials, the king, who, with reference to his conquest of Moolo Falada, might have exclaimed, with the Roman dictator, "_Veni, vidi, vici_" conferred upon Jhara the government of all the subjugated Galla as far as the sources of the Hawash, and to the Nile in the west. Warlike, daring, and ambitious, exercising his important functions almost beyond the ken of his sovereign, and possessing from his proximity to Gojam and Damot, the means of creating himself the leader of a vast horde, there can be little doubt, although he has hitherto evinced strong attachment to the crown, that, imitating the example of all pagan chieftains who have gone before him, he will one day profit by his opportunities to take up arms against Shoa, and may thus not improbably enact a most conspicuous part in the history of the Galla nation. Volume 3, Chapter VII. THE GALLA NATION. Abyssinia had long maintained her glory unsullied under an ancient line of emperors, until, in the sixteenth century, the ambitious and formidable Graan, at the head of a whole nation of Moslem barbarians, burst over the frontier, and dashed into atoms the structure of two thousand five hundred years. Defended by hireling swords, which, in a series of sanguinary conflicts, wrested the victorious wreath from the brow of the invader, and since supported rather by the memory of departed greatness than by actual strength, small portions of the once vast empire have struggled on, the shadow only of imperial dignity. But the glory had departed from the house of Ethiop, her power had been prostrated before the mighty conqueror, and his wild band; and the Galla hordes, pouring into the richest provinces, from southern central Africa, re-erected heathen shrines during the reign of anarchy, and rose and flourished on her ruins. The history of these African Tartars is, however, veiled in the deepest obscurity. Under the title of Oroma, they trace their origin to three sisters, daughters of Jerusalem, to whom are applied traditions similar to the Scriptural chronicle of the descendants of Lot. In their own language, the word "Galla" signifies _ingressi_; and of themselves they affirm that Wollaboo, their father, came from beyond Bargamo, "the great water;" and that his children were nine--Aroosi, Karaiyo, Jille, Abitchu, Ghelan, Woberi, Metta, Gumbitchu, and Betcho-Fugook--from whose loins have sprung the innumerable clans or houses which now people the greater portion of intra-tropical Africa. But by the Moslem bigots, who form the chief curse of Ethiopia, it is said that the term by which the nation is recognised was applied to the Ilma Oroma, or seed of Oroma, by the Prophet himself, who, on sending to summon Wollaboo to become a proselyte to the true faith, received a direct refusal. "Gal La," "he said No," reported the unsuccessful messenger on his return. "Let this then be the denomination of the infidels in future," exclaimed the arch impostor, "since they will not receive the celestial revelations made to me through the angel Gabriel." But whatever may be the origin of the heathen invaders, it is certain that, as a martial people, they have greatly degenerated from their ancestors. Under one head, they overran the fairest provinces of Ethiopia; and had they remained united, they might, with equal ease, have completed the conquest of the greater portion of the African continent. Relaxing, however, in their common cause against the Christians, the tribes soon began to contest among each other for the possession of the newly-acquired territory. Intestine feuds and dissensions neutralised their giant power; and the weakness and disorganisation by which the majority are now characterised is to be ascribed to the fact of there being no paramount chief. Roving in his native pastures, where his manners are unadulterated by the semi-civilisation of Abyssinia, the equestrian Galla is an object worthy the pencil of Carle Vernet or Pinelli. Tall and athletic, his manly figure is enveloped in a toga, such as graced the sons of ancient Rome, and his savage, wild, and fiery features, are rendered still more ferocious by thick bushy hair arranged either in large lotus-leaved compartments, or streaming over the shoulders in long raven plaits. But grease and filth form his delight; and he sparkles under a liberal coat of the much-loved butter, which is unsparingly applied when proceeding to the perpetration of the most dastardly and inhuman deeds. Accoutred with spear, sword, and buckler, and wedded to the rude saddle, whereof he would seem to form a part, the Pagan scours fearlessly over the grassy savannas which he has usurped from the Christian, and is engaged in perpetual desultory strife with all his border neighbours. Possessing the finest breed of horses in Ethiopia, and wealthy both in flocks and herds, which roam over boundless meadows smiling with clover, trefoil, and buttercups, this pastoral people devote their time equally to agricultural pursuits, and herein they are aided by a delightful climate, and by a luxuriant, well-watered soil. Whilst the women tend the sheep and oxen in the field, and manage the hives of bees, the men plough, sow, and reap, presenting in this respect a striking contrast to their indolent lowland neighbours, the Adaiel, whom they rival in barbarous ferocity, in treachery, and in savage propensities. Rich and verdant valleys, the glory of the mountains, and the pride of the proprietors, flourish with the most luxuriant crops, which are but too frequently swept from off the land by the sudden burst of war. Often is the cup of hope dashed from the lips when the enjoyment of the contents is deemed most certain; and the mangled corse of the husbandman is left on the borders of the very field of which he was garnering in the ripe corn. Nor are the female portion of the Galla population less eminent in the equestrian art than their warlike lords, whose steeds it is their business to tend and saddle for the foray. Distinguished for their beauty among the dark daughters of Africa, their fine figures are slenderly attired in a short leathern petticoat, embroidered with a flounce of white cowrie shells, and clasped around the waist by a zone of coloured beads. A flowing cotton robe completes the toilet of the wealthy; and the time of all is equally devoted to the braiding an infinity of minute tresses, which fall over the shoulders after the manner of the ancient Egyptians. But their garments and their persons are unsparingly anointed with lard and butter; and the romance that might otherwise attach to their native charms cannot fail to be dispelled on near approach. The conically thatched cabins of the Galla are grouped in rural clusters, and uniformly surrounded by a stone wall as a precaution against surprise. The hamlet is often concealed by a dark forest of juniper overhanging the deep ravine, whose ever foaming torrent fertilises the adjacent pastures. Bees form a portion of the wealth of every family, and the flower-clothed meads, fostered by an Italian sky, are covered with them. The same whimsical customs which have been generally practised since the days of Virgil are here extant. The same confused clamour is raised to induce the swarm to alight; and the cylindrical hive having been rubbed inside with the leaves of odoriferous herbs to entice the wild insects to remain, it is suspended under the eaves of the hut, and twice during the year robbed of the honey. To the performance of the religious rites of the Pagan, a tree is indispensable, his devotions and his sacrifices being invariably performed under the shadow of its boughs. On the interment of a priest, a sycamore, or a coffee tree, is planted over the grave, and held sacred for ever; whilst on the banks of the Hawash stands the venerable Woda Nuwee, [_Ficus sycamorus_, the wild fig. It is called _worka_, "the golden," by the Amhara, and attains a vast size] to which the tribes flock from far and wide to make vows and propitiatory offerings, and to recount their exploits in war. Paying adoration only to stocks and stones, and bending the knee to none but idols and serpents, they here make oblations of butter and honey to secure the favour of the deity-- hang upon the spreading branches the trophies taken from their enemies; and performing incantations to _Sar_, the prince of the demons, bind around their necks the entrails of the slaughtered victim which has yielded auspicious omens. Two great annual sacrifices are made to the deities Ogli and Ateti, the former between June and July, the latter in the beginning of September. A number of goats having been slain, the Lubah, or priest, wearing a tuft of long hair on his crown, proceeds with a bell in his hand, and his brows encircled by a fillet of copper, to divine from the fat, caul, and entrails, whether or not success will attend the warriors in battle. This point determined, the assembled multitude, howling and screaming like demons, continue to surfeit themselves with raw meat, to swallow beer, and to inhale smoke to intoxication until midnight--invoking _Wak_, the Supreme Being, to grant numerous progeny, lengthened years, and abundant crops, as well as to cause their Spears to prevail over those of their foes; and when sacrificing to Ateti, the goddess of fecundity, exclaiming frequently, "Lady, we commit ourselves unto thee; stay thou with us always." The Kalicha is the Galla wizard, conjurer, and physician. With the putrefying intestines of a goat hung about his neck, and armed with a bell and a copper whip, his skill in the expulsion of the devil is rarely known to fail. Adoration having been paid to a serpent, the patient is rubbed with butter, fumigated with potent herbs, and exorcised with frantic howls, a few strokes of the lash being administered until the cure is perfected. No Amhara will slay either a Lubah or a Kalicha under any circumstances, from a superstitious dread of his dying curse; and Galla sorceresses are frequently called in by the Christians of Shoa, to transfer sickness, or to rid the house of evil spirits, by cabalistic incantations, performed with the blood of ginger-coloured hens, and red he-goats. But among the Galla sorcerers and soothsayers, the Wato, already mentioned as inhabiting the mountain Dalacha, towards the sources of the Hawash, are the most universally celebrated. Neither Pagan nor Christian will molest this tribe, from the same superstitious apprehension of their malediction, and still more from a desire to obtain their blessing; whilst he who receives the protection of a Wato may travel with perfect security over every part of the country inhabited by the Galla. Subsisting entirely by the chase, they wander from lake to lake and from river to river, destroying the hippopotamus, upon the flesh of which animal they chiefly live--whereas no other heathen will touch it. Feared and respected, and claiming to themselves to be the original stock of the Oromo nation, they deem all other clans unclean from having mixed with Mohammadans and Christians; and refusing on this account to intermarry, remain to this day a separate and distinct people. All barbarians are orators; and the euphonical language of the Galla, which unfortunately can boast of no written character, is admirably adapted to embellish their eloquent and impressive delivery. Cradled in the unexplored heights of Ethiopia, many of the customs of these fierce illiterate idolaters are closely and remarkably allied to those of the more civilised nations of antiquity. Seeking presages, like the Romans and Etrurians, in the flight of birds, and in the entrails of slaughtered sacrifices; wearing the hair braided like the ancient Egyptians, and, like them, sleeping with the head supported by a wooden crutch--wedding the relict of a deceased brother, according to the Mosaic law, and bowing the knee to the old serpent, whom they regard as the father of all mankind--an acquaintance with these wild invaders suggests curious speculations on their origin, when referred to a common parent; and these are rendered still more interesting by the existence of a prophecy, that their hordes are one day to quit the highlands of their usurpation, and march to the east and to the north, "that they may conquer the inheritance of their Jewish ancestors." Volume 3, Chapter VIII. UNEXPLORED COUNTRIES TO THE SOUTH. Divided into endless houses, the majority of the independent Oromo tribes, to the south of Shoa, are governed by hereditary chieftains; and it is only where the Moslem slave-dealer has successfully commenced the work of conversion to the creed promulgated by the Prophet, that this wild heathen race have been brought to bow the neck to the yoke of kings. Of this Enarea affords a most striking example, for there one-half of the entire population have abandoned idolatry, whilst despotism has taken root, and flourishes under a line of Mohammadan rulers. Surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains, this kingdom embraces an extensive table-land, which separates the waters to the north and south, and ranks among the most elevated regions of Africa. Menchilla, stretching from east to north-west, is the principal range, and a spur to the south-west is described as joining the so called Mountains of the Moon. Saka, the capital, contains from ten to twelve thousand inhabitants, mixed Pagans and Mohammadans, who inhabit houses of a circular form, somewhat better constructed than those of the Amhara. Saeed was the son of Ascari, a Mohammadan, and his sister Elikkee wedding a Galla, bore a son, Teso, who was brought up in idolatry, and conquered Enarea. His son Boko also died a Pagan; but Bofo, "the serpent," who succeeded on the death of his father, was converted to Islamism by Mootar, his uncle, the nephew of Elikkee. Abba Bokibo, the present and fourth monarch, is represented to be just and merciful, but his ancestors were monstrous and relentless tyrants, who "caused rivers of blood to flow, and slew the people like cows." Arrayed in a black mantle of goat's hair, His Majesty dispenses justice in the market-place, sitting on the trunk of a tree with a bullock's hide spread beneath his feet. Saka contains upwards of one thousand _moolahs_; but in the absence of mosques, prayers are held at the tomb of Bofo, the first convert to the faith. Twice during each year, great military expeditions are undertaken, which rarely extend beyond eight or ten days. Every soldier carries a small supply of bread, and trusts for further subsistence to pillage and plunder. Many bloody battles are annually fought with the surrounding tribes, and wide tracts of country thus annexed to the royal possessions. The Agallo, Yelloo, Betcho, Sudecha, Chora, and Nono, are all subject to the Suppera, or king, of Enarea, whose sway extends to the Soddo, Metta, and Maleema Galla, about the sources of the Hawash, which rises in Adda-Berga. Limmoo, whereof the capital is Sobitcha, is a province annexed of old to Enarea; and Abba Bokibo, desirous of subjugating Gooderoo, and the countries to the north as far as the Nile, sent to propose an alliance with Dedjasmach Goshoo, the ruler of Gojam. "You sell slaves," was the reply of the Christian potentate, "and are a Mohammadan to boot. It cannot be." One hundred horns of civet and fifty female slaves which had been sent by the Suppera, were nevertheless accepted, and thirty matchlocks, with persons versed in the use of firearms, were forwarded in return. Little sickness of any sort prevails, and mendicants, the pest of Abyssinia, are said to be unknown in the land. The wild vine flourishes, and bears abundance of grapes. The "gosso" tree, which attains a vast height, is covered during the season with delicious berries, and is ascended by means of the tendrils of the vine bound around the stem. Coffee grows wild in every wood, to the height of eight and ten feet, and bends under the load of fruit. A large skin full is purchased for twopence-halfpenny sterling, and the decoction, prepared as in Europe, is invariably presented to the stranger, as is an infusion of the "chaat," a coarse species of the tea-plant, which there flourishes spontaneously, and is cultivated in Shoa. The civet cat is a native of Enarea, and being caught in gins, is kept in the house and fed on meat and boiled maize. The cages are daily placed before the fire preparatory to the operation of removing the secretion, which is performed with a wooden spoon. A lump about the size of a small filbert is yielded at each baking, and it forms a considerable article of export. Myrrh and frankincense are also produced in great quantities, and are employed in religious ceremonies, burnt sacrifices of incense being made to the guardian genius. Notwithstanding the conversion to Mohammadanism of so large a portion of the population, sacrifices are still made to "Wak" on the festival of Hedar Michael, which, together with the Sabbath, is strictly observed by all the Galla tribes. The Woda tree is at Betcho; no woman is suffered to come near it; and under its sacred shade all priests are ordained-- even the followers of the Prophet placing blood upon it as a superstitious oblation. Thousands upon thousands of the heathen having assembled, the Lubah sprinkles over the crowd, first beer, then an amalgamation of unroasted coffee and butter, and lastly, flour and butter mixed in a separate mess. A white bull is then slaughtered, and its blood scattered abroad to complete the ceremonies, which are followed by eating, drinking, and drunkenness. Zingero, which is visible from the high land of Enarea, was, until within the last two years, at constant war with the Galla states. Jimma and Limmoo uniting, then overran the country; and having dethroned Amno Zermud, the occupant of the throne, annexed the ancient kingdom to the dominions of Abba Bokibo. It is bounded on the south by a great river called the Gochob. Anger, the capital, is situated on the summit of a very high mountain; and the whole country, which sinks to a much lower level, is rich and fertile. In days of yore, fourteen kingdoms are said to have been tributary to the sovereign of Zingero. The succession to the throne was determined from amongst the nobles, who, at the demise of the monarch, were wont to assemble in an open field, when he over whose head a bee or a vulture first chanced to fly was elected by the unanimous voice of the people. Although no portion of the population professes the Christianity of Ethiopia, and none of its fasts are observed, the rite of circumcision is universal, and the Sabbath is respected, together with the Abyssinian festivals of Kidana Meherat and Saint Michael. Prior to the conquest of Zingero, no male slave was ever sold,--a practice which is said to have originated in the conduct of one of the daughters of the land. A certain king of old commanded a man of rank to slaughter his wife, her flesh having been prescribed by the sorcerers as the only cure for a malady wherewith His Majesty was grievously afflicted. Returning to his house for the purpose of executing the royal mandate, the noble found his fair partner sleeping, and her beauty so disarmed him, that his hand refused to perpetrate the murderous deed. Hereat the despot waxing wroth, directed the lady to slay her husband, which she did without any remorse or hesitation, and thus brought odium upon the whole sex, who have since been considered fit only to become slaves and drudges. Immediately upon the birth of a male child the mammae are amputated, from a belief that no warrior can possibly be brave who possesses them, and that they should belong only to women. This fact is fully corroborated in the persons of the few prisoners of war who reach the kingdom of Shoa. Since the overthrow of the ancient dynasty, the country has been ravaged for slaves by all the surrounding states, but few will deign to survive the loss of liberty; and suicide is so frequent in captivity, that the males are hardly considered worth the trouble of exporting. Human sacrifices have ever been, and still are, frightfully common in Zingero. When carrying off slaves from that country, the merchant invariably throws the handsomest female captive into lake Umo, in form of a tribute or propitiatory offering to the genius of the water. It is the duty of a large portion of the population to bring their first-born as a sacrifice to the deity, a custom which tradition assigns to the advice of the sorcerers. In days of yore it is said that the seasons became jumbled. There was neither summer nor winter, and the fruits of the earth came not to maturity. Having assembled the magicians, the king commanded them to show how this state of things might best be rectified, and the rebellious seasons be reduced to order. The wise men counselled the cutting down of a certain great pillar of iron which stood before the gate of the capital, and the stock whereof remains to the present time. This had the effect desired; but in order to prevent a relapse into the former chaos of confusion, the Magi directed that the pillar, as well as the footstool of the throne, might be annually bathed in human blood; in obedience to which a tribute was levied upon the first-born, who are immolated upon the spot. Of the independent Galla tribes lying immediately contiguous to Enarea, Goma, under Abba Rebo, is the principal. This king is also a convert to Mohammadanism; and the life of his father having been saved by a vulture, which, according to the legend, plucked out the eyes of a host of Gentiles by whom the royal person was assailed, he retains a domesticated bird, which, with a tinkling bell around its neck, invariably accompanies the army on all predatory expeditions. At the termination of the first march, Abba Rebo, with his own royal hands, slays a white bull, and if the wild vultures of the air join the trained bird in the repast, the omens are esteemed to be fortunate. The Mohammadan Galla tribes, those on the border especially, are uniformly the most savage and barbarous. The Alaba are dire monsters, and more dreaded than the wild beasts, whom they far exceed in ferocity. The cruelties practised by the chief of the Goma are almost incredible. Offenders are deprived of hands, nose, and ears; and their eyes having been seared with a hot iron, the mutilated victims are paraded through the market-place for the edification of the populace. The sight of all prisoners taken in war is similarly destroyed; and a stone having been tied about the neck, they are thrown by hundreds into a river formerly styled Daama, but now denominated the Chuba, from a belief that its waters are composed solely of human blood. It rises in Utter Gudder, where is a tributary tribe called Mergo, subsisting entirely upon the chase of the elephant and wild buffalo. In Goma the Moslem faith is universal. Every man is a warrior; and retaining a number of Shankela slaves to cultivate the ground, remains idle himself, unless when engaged in war or in the chase. The Boono are a republican tribe of Pagans, bordering on Enarea, and who, acknowledging no king, are governed by a council of the elders. Inhabiting lofty mountains to which there is only one accessible road, strongly fortified by nature as well as art, none venture to invade this commonwealth, whilst the Boono make war with impunity upon all the surrounding clans; and, from their signal prowess in the field, are said to be propitiated even by the King of Enarea. Jimma and Mancho are independent Galla tribes under Saana, surnamed Abba Juffar, from the title of his war-horse, which in Ethiopia is usually assumed by the chieftain. From Saka, a southerly course through these provinces leads, by fifteen or twenty easy stages, directly to the Gochob, above the cataracts of Dumbaro, the neighbourhood of which is infested by banditti, who lie in ambush to kidnap the unwary. The river is crossed by means of rafts belonging to the Queen of Caffa. They are capable each of containing from thirty to forty persons, and are formed of the trunks of large trees lashed together with strips of raw hide, and surrounded by high gunwales of the same construction--the helm being a moveable spar, unaided by oars or other propelling power. Caffa is the mountainous peninsula formed by the junction of the Omo with the Gochob. It is an independent country of mixed Pagans and Christians, over whom presides Balee, the relict of King Hullaloo. She is represented to be a young woman of extraordinary energy and ability, very hospitable to the rovers who visit her with blue calico, beads, and trinkets, in return for which she gives cloth and other produce of the country. On the demise of her husband she assembled all the governors of the different provinces, and having caused them to be put in irons, proclaimed herself queen. Her only son Gomarra, "the hippopotamus," still a youth, leads the army into the field; but she often proceeds with the troops in person, and invariably plans the expedition. Whensoever she moves abroad, her subjects are bound to spread the way with their raiment; and as well during the administration of justice from behind a screen with a small aperture, as during the public banquet, drums, fiddles, and flutes play incessantly. Nyhur, Moyey, Ziggahan, Boora, and Alera, are the principal towns of Caffa; and the entire rugged and mountainous country is covered with thick forests, which also clothe the banks of the Gochob, affording shelter to the elephant, the buffalo, the rhinoceros, and other wild beasts, in extraordinary numbers. The river is said to take its source in the distant provinces of Bedee Yedee and Goma, and below the cataracts abounds in hippopotami, which are much hunted by the natives. Dumbaro, Wurretta, and Tufftee, as also the Golda negroes, who go perfectly naked, are tributary to Balee, and pay chiefly in gold obtained from the hot valleys. The inhabitants of Caffa reverence Friday and Sunday, as do the Galla, and like them celebrate the festival of Saint Michael by a great feast; but their language, which is common to Gobo, Tufftee, and Dumbaro, is quite distinct from that spoken by the Galla nation. A considerable trade exists with Enarea in slaves and cotton cloths, which latter are to be purchased for a piece of salt value twopence-halfpenny sterling. Coffee is produced in immense quantities, of the finest quality, and tradition points to this country as the first residence of the plant. It was spread by the civet cat over the mountains of the Ittoo and Aroosi Galla, where it has flourished for ages in wild profusion, and is thence said to have been transported five hundred years ago by an enterprising trader from the opposite coast of Arabia. Beyond the extensive wilderness which bounds Caffa on the south, are the Doko, an exceedingly wild race, not much exceeding four feet in height, of a dark olive complexion, and in habits even more closely approximated to "the beasts that perish" than the bushmen of Southern Africa. They have neither idols, nor temples, nor sacred trees; but possess a glimmering idea of a Supreme Being, to whom in misfortune--such as any of their relatives being slain by the kidnapper--they pray with their feet resting against a tree: "_Yere_, if indeed thou art, why dost thou suffer us to be killed? We are only eating ants, and ask neither food nor raiment. Thou hast raised us up. Why dost thou cast us down?" Many natives of Caffa and Enarea, who for evil purposes have visited the country inhabited by this people, describe the road to it from the former kingdom to pass through forests and mountains, for the most part without population, and swarming with wild beasts, the elephant and buffalo especially. From Bonga, distant about fifty or sixty miles, it is ten days journey to Tufftee, the Omo river being crossed midway by a rude wooden bridge, sixty yards in length. Seven easy stages beyond Tufftee is Kooloo, whence the Doko may be reached in one day. Their climate is warm and the seasons extremely wet, the rains commencing in May, and continuing with occasional intermission until February. The wilderness is principally clothed with a dense forest of bamboo, in the depths of which the natives construct their rude wigwams of bent canes and grass. They have no king, no laws, no arts, no arms; possess neither flocks nor herds; are not hunters, do not cultivate the soil, but subsist entirely upon fruits, roots, mice, reptiles, ants, and honey. They beguile serpents by whistling in a certain note, and having torn them piecemeal with their long nails, devour them raw; but although the forests abound to such an extent with elephants, buffaloes, lions, and leopards, they have no means of destroying or entrapping them. A large tree called Loko is found, amongst many other species, attaining an extraordinary height, the roots of which, when scraped, are red, and serve for food. The _yebo_ and _meytee_ are the principal fruits; and to obtain these, women as well as men ascend the trees in numbers, and in their quarrels and scrambles not unfrequently throw each other down from the branches. Both sexes go perfectly naked, and have thick pouting lips, diminutive eyes, and flat noses. The hair is not woolly, and in the females reaches to the shoulders. The men have no beard. The nails, never pared, grow both on the hands and feet like eagles' talons, and are employed in digging for ants. The Doko are ignorant of the use of fire. They perforate the ears in infancy with a pointed bamboo, so as to leave nothing save the external cartilage, but they neither tattoo nor pierce the nose; and the only ornament worn is a necklace composed of the spinal bones of a serpent. Great annual slave hunts are undertaken from Dumbaro, Caffa, and Kooloo; and the dense forests of bamboo, the creaking of which is represented to be loud and incessant, often prove the scene of fierce and bloody struggles between rival tribes. Wide tracts having been encircled, the band of rovers, converging, impel the denizens to the centre. Holding a gay cloth before their persons, they dance and sing in a peculiar manner; and the defenceless negroes, aware from sad experience that all who attempt to escape will be ruthlessly hunted down, and perhaps slain, tamely approach, and suffer themselves to be blindfolded. One hundred merchants can thus kidnap a thousand Doko; and although long prone to their old habits of digging for ants, and searching for mice, serpents, or lizards, the captives rarely attempt to escape. Their docility and usefulness, added to very limited wants, rendering them in high demand, none are ever sold out of the countries bordering on the Gochob, and none therefore find their way to Shoa. Nothing that is related of these people, whether as respects stature or habits, would seem to be preposterous or unworthy of credit, the descriptions given of them differing in no very material points from what is known of the Bushmen of Southern Africa, amongst whom I have travelled. Agreeing in every respect with the type of Herodotus, they are unquestionably the pygmies of the ancients, who describe them as found in tropical Africa; and it is a fact, well worthy of observation, that the natives of Caffa represent their forefather _Boogazee_ to have issued from a cave in a forest--a tradition which cannot fail to call to mind the Troglodytes, who are also mentioned by the father of history as being inhabitants of this portion of the African continent. It would be beside my purpose to collect and introduce here all that the ancients and modems have written to render probable the existence of a diminutive race of men; but it may be worth observing, in addition to what has been adduced above, that Aristotle, in his History of Animals [Book eight chapter 12] professes his belief in the existence of such a race, which he supposes to have inhabited the marshes about the sources of the Nile, and to have dwelt, like the Troglodytes, in caverns. It would appear from this, that some report of the Doko had reached Greece. The great naturalist does not fix the stature of the small men of whom he speaks, though he adopts the popular name of Pygmies, because he is led to speak of them while noticing the Homeric fable respecting their battles with the Cranes. Homer [Iliad, iii 3, onwards], however, himself, places them near the ocean, where, according to the accounts I received, they are really found. Strabo [Geography xvii 2], who had already imbibed something of the spirit of modern philosophy, thought it better to sneer than to inquire, and rejected the whole story; though he did not hesitate to believe, contrary to experience, that all the animals of Upper Egypt were of diminutive size. Pliny [Natural History vi 35], whose faith was of boundless expansion, could discover no absurdity in the supposition, that there existed a race of men twenty-seven inches high, probably because he may have seen individual dwarfs who were no larger. He makes, however, one remark which may be worth notice,--namely, that the small race had scarcely any nose at all, but instead, two spiracles above the mouth, which served them in lieu of nostrils. But laying aside all these legends, I can discover no absurdity in what is related concerning the stature of the Doko. They are, it is said, about four feet high, in which they resemble the Laplanders, the Samoyedes, and, as I have already observed, the Bushmen. The Naturalist, Commerson [Camus, Notes sur l'Histoire des Animaux d'Aristot, page 405] had heard of a similar people, called Quimos, in the opposite island of Madagascar, though Rochon, and other modern travellers, say they could obtain no information respecting them. Some naturalists, in this as in most other cases, easily elude the difficulty by a bold profession of incredulity. [Virey, Histoire Naturelle du Genre Humain, volume ii page 240, onwards.] It would, perhaps, be more philosophical to investigate and inquire. Great differences we know exist in the stature of different nations, and it has possibly not been yet ascertained what is the smallest or the largest size to which the human body can attain. That no specimens of the Doko race should reach Shoa is remarkable, and may be deemed suspicious; but the reasons given are not altogether destitute of plausibility; and, at all events, the rumours in circulation throughout that part of Africa deserve to be reported, in order that, as discovery advances, they who are destined to achieve it may be prompted to careful examination. Volume 3, Chapter IX. THE RIVER GOCHOB. An inspection of the map will show on the eastern coast an extensive hiatus, which, from the scanty reports that have been gleaned, is most certainly studded with high mountains, and drained by numerous and powerful rivers; but no details have hitherto been obtained that justified the laying down of either with any geographical accuracy. The first accounts of the existence in central Africa of a great river were brought to Etearchus, king of the Oasis of Ammon, by certain youths of the Nassamonians, who, as related by Herodotus, "had been deputed to explore her solitudes. After a journey of many days they were seized and carried into captivity by some men of dwarfish stature, who conducted them over marshy grounds, to a city in which all the inhabitants were of the same diminutive appearance, and of a black colour. This city was washed by a great river, now ascertained to be the Niger, which flowed from west to east, and abounded in crocodiles." The early Arabian geographers specifically mention large rivers descending from the high mountain land to the southward of the blue Nile, and flowing to the Indian ocean; and it is a curious fact, that they designate one of these "the River of Pygmies." The Portuguese were the next who spoke of this stream, upwards of two centuries ago; and from the highlands of Abyssinia a clue to its origin and course has now been obtained, which will serve in a great measure to supply the existing deficiencies, and to cover the wide space of _terra incognita_ in Eastern Africa north of the equator. The Gochob is described to rise in the great central ridge which is now known to divide the waters that discharge themselves east into the Indian Ocean, from those that flow west into the Bahr el Abiad, and more southerly into the Atlantic. Spreading into a lake, and bearing on its bosom a noble body of water, it is joined, fifteen days' journey south of Enarea, by the Omo, a large tributary which rises beyond Tufftee in Susa Maketch, in a jet of water playing the height of a spear shaft. Half a day's journey below the point of junction, the united volume rolls over a stupendous cataract called Dumbaro, the roar of which can be heard many miles, whence pursuing its course to the south-east, it forms the southern limit of Zingero, and finally disembogues into the sea. There seems every reason to believe that the Gochob must be identical with the Kibbee of the best extant maps, described to be a very large river coming from the north-west, and entering the sea near the town of Juba, immediately under the equator. If not the Kibbee, it must be the Quilimancy, which disembogues by several estuaries between Patta and Malinda, four degrees further to the south; but all accounts of the latter that have yet been collected from the coast, authorise the adoption of the first hypothesis. The general course of the Nile to the north, and of the Kibbee to the south, are said to have been well-known to the Egyptians three thousand years ago. The sacristan of the temple of Minerva in Thebes told Herodotus that half the waters of the father of rivers flowed to the north, and the other half to the south, and that they were produced by the tropical rains. The currents experienced in five degrees north of the equator, in the vicinity of the coast, confirm the opinion of a great river rolling a vast body of water into the eastern ocean. At their height during the prevalence of the monsoon in August and September, they are known to sweep a vessel along at the rate of one hundred and twenty miles a day, frequently exposing the inexperienced navigator to the chance of shipwreck on Socotra, whereas before and after the tropical rains the current is scarcely perceptible. Were this caused by the monsoon, it would prevail equally over these latitudes during the influence of the south-westerly winds; but the fact remains, that it is felt only off the coast in about five degrees north latitude, at the period alone when the river must be swollen with the volume of water gathered from the highest mountain land in the interior. Beyond Zingero, and considerably lower down the great river, is the kingdom of Koocha, which is described to be hot, and subject to annual rains of two months' duration. It extends on both sides, with a numerous population inhabiting many large towns, of which Laade, Seylo, Umpho, Jella, Gulta, Aara, and Wunjo, all on the northern bank, are the principal. The houses are conical, and constructed of mud and bamboos, which there grow abundantly. All the nation are Galla, with features strictly those of the Negro, and their king is Bosha, the son of Laade, surnamed, from the title of his war-steed, Abba Wabotoo, "I am he who seizes." In addition to the two umbrellas of state, the one composed of blue, and the other of crimson, this chieftain is distinguished by a shield covered with massive gold, and by many ornaments of the same precious metal on his person. The costume of all classes consists of party-coloured raiment--red, blue, and white, being mingled together in profusion. Large pewter ear-rings are worn by the males; and by the females, whose hair is braided in long ringlets, silver armlets, anklets, and bracelets. Both sexes are great equestrians. The saddles are covered with red imported leather, and the horses and mules are large and abundant. Cultivation in every description of tropical grain is universal; honey abounds in every quarter, and beer and hydromel are manufactured by all. Spices, odoriferous woods, and aromatic herbs, tea, coffee, oranges, nutmeg, and ginger, are exceedingly plentiful. Precious stones are also found, and bartered to certain white men, who, wearing shoes, trousers, and hats, and having yellow hair, come with their merchandise in rowing-boats thirty days from the sea. They bring blue calico, chintz, pepper, tobacco, copper, cutlery, and "fire water," and receive in exchange slaves, ivory, spices, and gold, which latter is brought in large quantities from Douro. Slaves being in great demand, and their acquisition extremely lucrative, Bosha is at perpetual war with all the surrounding tribes, save during the annual rains. The Dannagem, and the Danna-Oorkeshool Galla, are attacked every year, as are also the Malee Galla, a people armed with bows and arrows, who dig pits, throw up bamboo stockades, and place pointed stakes in the ground to annoy the cavalry of Koocha, whose horses being kept in the house all the year round, and abundantly fed, are very superior. Murderers are punished according as they have dealt with their victim--one or two or more spear wounds or blows with the sword being inflicted by the nearest relative of the deceased--but all thieves, delinquents, and poor people, are sold to the white traders, and immense numbers of slaves of both sexes are brought down by the Douro Galla, in rafts with high gunwales, containing six or eight persons. The great river, which in this kingdom is supplied by two large tributaries--the Toreech, rising in the country of the Gama Gobo, and the Teeto, coming from the Alla Galla--is the medium of all trade. It is very broad, and, except during the rainy season, has little perceptible motion. The volume of water is always large, and comes from a great distance inland. Hippopotami and elephants abound; and the _gimjah_, or tree tiger, which infests the borders, is greatly feared for its ferocity, and prized for the beauty of its skin. Native crafts reach the sea in fifteen days, and ivory, slaves, coffee, and a variety of other merchandise, are constantly brought on rafts by the tribes higher up; but the white people never go beyond Koocha, neither do the interior tribes pass down to the sea. The Gochob, of which the discovery promises important accessions in a geographical as well as in a commercial point of view, may be conjectured to be the "Bargamo," or great water, from beyond which the Galla describe their hordes to have poured, when they invaded Abyssinia, after being driven from the vast unexplored interior by the centrifugal force yet unexplained. Like the barbarous nations who were made the weapons of Divine chastisement upon the corrupted empire of Rome, they also brought darkness and ignorance in their train, but were unable to eradicate the true religion. Throughout the regions included between the Nile, the Hawash, and the Gochob, which may properly be termed Galla, none but their own tongue is spoken; whereas to the south of the last-named river, the intruding population have lost their language and become gradually incorporated with the aboriginal possessors of the soil. Whatever may be the true magnitude of the river, it is clearly navigated to a considerable extent by a white people, who reap a lucrative harvest whilst draining the country of its population, by a traffic which must reflect the blackest disgrace upon the name of any civilised people, and is here not rendered the less infamous by the fact, that many of their purchases are Christians. Volume 3, Chapter X. EXISTING CHRISTIAN REMNANTS. On both sides of the river Gochob, there exist in various quarters isolated communities professing the Christianity of Ethiopia, who, for a long period of years, have successfully held their position among the mountain fastnesses in the very heart of the now Pagan and Mohammadan country. One of the most remarkable of these seats is in the lake Zooai, called _Laki_ in the Galla language, and in that of Gurague, _Chillaloo_. Here, in the church of Emanuel, are deposited the holy arks, umbrellas, drums, gold and silver chairs, and other furniture belonging to all the sacred edifices of southern Abyssinia; which, with numerous manuscripts no longer extant, were here deposited by Nebla Dengel, at the period of Graan's invasion. Five rivers empty themselves into this lake. It is described to be a noble sheet of water, teeming with hippopotami, which frequently destroy the frail bamboo rafts employed in maintaining communication betwixt the shore and the Five Islands, Tudduchu, Debra Tehoon, Debra Seena, Goragi, and Amshoot. They are covered with lofty trees, and contain upwards of three thousand Christian houses, constructed of lime and stone. In religion, the population are said by the clergy of Shoa to have sadly degenerated; but although destitute of priests, the churches are preserved inviolate, and monks and monasteries abound. In Gurague, the population are almost exclusively Christian. Twelve isolated churches, previously unheard of, were discovered a few years since, on the conquest of Yeya by Sahela Selassie; and between Garro and Metcha, where forest commences in the south of Shoa, is a small tract peopled by Christians, who reside entirely in caves among the mountains, as a measure of security against the heathen, by whom they are compassed in on every side. Eight days' journey from Aimellele on the frontier of Gurague, is Cambat, a small mountainous province, lying due east of Zingero. With exception of a few Mohammadan rovers, this independent state is inhabited solely by Christians, who have fifteen churches, and numerous monasteries, but, like the people of Zooai, are without priests. The capital, Karempza, is constructed on the summit of a lofty hill of the same name, and Degoyey, the king, who is extremely advanced in years, is represented as a just and upright ruler, very hospitable to strangers, and a great warrior. But between Aimellele, which is a dependency of Sahela Selassie, and Cambat, the road passes through the Adeea and Alaba Galla, the latter governed by a queen whose notorious treachery renders the passage unsafe. Wollamo is another Christian province under an independent sovereign, lying below Cambat to the south-eastward of Zingero, and at constant war with both these states. The country is extremely mountainous, and the inhabitants, who are purchased for twenty pieces of salt, and frequently brought by the slave-dealers to Shoa, are of a fair complexion, and speak a distinct language. Wofana is the capital, and the province is watered by a considerable river termed the Ooma--the surrounding tribes being the Koolloo, Woradda, Assoo, and Jimma. Eight days' journey beyond Zingero is the country of Mager, the king of which is represented to be a very powerful monarch. Korchassie, which is famous for the great river Wabi, flowing to the Indian ocean, is peopled by Christians, as is Sidama also, and both are surrounded by the heathen. But of all the isolated remnants of the ancient Ethiopic empire to the south of Abyssinia, Susa would appear to be the most important and the most powerful. This kingdom is situated beyond Caffa, and extends to the head of the Gitche, which rises in Chara-Nara, and is one of the principal sources of the Gochob. The rains are violent during three months of the year, and the climate is excessively cold, the elevation being much greater than that of Shoa, whilst beyond are mountains which "seem to touch the skies, and are covered with perpetual snow." Sugga Surroo was king over Susa. He was a Pagan; but wore a "mateb," as many of the heathen tribes are wont to do. Hoti and Beddoo were his sons; and on his death-bed he bequeathed the sceptre to the former, who, after a reign of ten years marked by the most galling tyranny, was deposed by the people, and Beddoo elevated to the throne. Turning his attention to Christianity, which had greatly degenerated, he revived the custom of bathing the holy cross on Christmas-day, in the river Gitche, where all the surrounding Galla tribes perform the same ceremony without knowing why. Hoti was exiled in Goma; and having contrived to raise three hundred cavalry, he set out to recover his throne, but was pursued and slain by Abba Rebo. Beddoo is brother to Balee, the Queen of Caffa; and it is now six years since he gave his daughter Shash in marriage to the King of Enarea, through whose country a constant traffic has since been carried on with Northern Abyssinia--numbers of muskets and matchlocks being annually imported, and exchanged for civet, ivory, gold dust, horses, and slaves. The road being thus opened, the priests proceeded to Gondar to the patriarch of the Abyssinian church, who breathed the breath of the Holy Ghost into a leathern bag, which was safely conveyed back to Susa, and hung up in the cathedral. Ecclesiastics in great numbers have been since ordained by the process of opening this bag, and causing a puff to pass across the face. They are distinguished by antique robes and silver mitres, and the churches and religious observances would appear to be similar in every respect to those of Shoa. The King of Susa is described as a tall, fair, and very handsome man of five and thirty, without beard or moustaches, and wearing the hair in the bushy wig-like form of the Amhara. He carries state umbrellas of yellow silk, surmounted by golden globes, wears a sword with a massive golden scabbard, and bears a shield decorated with radii and crosses of the same metal. The government is not despotic. No subject can be put to death unless condemned by the judges. Property is free; and there is no restriction upon dress save in the article of gold, to wear which is the exclusive privilege of royalty. Bonga is the principal town and capital of Susa; and there the king principally resides, in a stone house of two stories. His queen is Meytee, but he has besides "concubines as numerous as the hairs of the head." The banqueting-hall is a long building similar to those of Sahela Selassie, and it is the scene of similar revels. His Majesty presides daily at the feast, but is concealed from the gaze of his carousing subjects by an intervening curtain, whilst the Dedj Agafari, styled "Gubburchu," acts as master of the ceremonies. Public audience is daily given, when the decisions of the judges are confirmed or annulled from a raised throne of solid gold concealed by velvet draperies. Susa is a kingdom of much greater extent than Shoa, but in manners and customs nearly similar. The monarch is approached with shoulders bared, and three prostrations to the earth. On the festival of _Maskal_ an annual review takes place at Booretta. Oxen are then slain for the soldiery, and each warrior receives a jar of beer from the royal cellars. The herald proclaims the approaching expedition to the sound of the _nugareet_. The foray resembles that of the Amhara rabble--the same lack of discipline on the march--the same band of flutes and kettle-drums--the same female culinary establishment. The warriors are similarly armed, and adopt the green sprig of asparagus in token of deeds of blood; and the only existing difference would appear to be, that the booty captured in war is not monopolised by the crown. Tribute is paid to Beddoo by the chiefs of many surrounding Countries, and principally by the Shankela with tattooed breasts. He annually extends his dominions by murderous inroads, directed chiefly against the Sooroo, a tribe of naked negroes inhabiting the wild valleys of Sasa. The Gumroo, a wild people clothed in hides, and rich in flocks and herds, are also frequently invaded, and hundreds swept into captivity. The chief mountain ranges of Susa are Decha, Gobo, and Saadee; and the principal rivers are the Gitche, Cheso, and Adiyo. Large slave caravans pass through the realm at all seasons from the most remote parts of the interior, the Mohammadan rovers being frequently absent from one to two years. The costume of the male portion of the population consists of a robe of striped red and blue cotton in alternate bands, with tight trousers and a loose kilt of the same colours and material. The hair is worn _en "goferi_," as in Shoa, unless after the slaughter of a foe, when it is braided in long tresses like the ancient Egyptians. Copper and ivory bracelets decorate the successful warrior; and a ring of silver is worn in the ear by those who have slain the giant amongst mammalia. The females are described as being fairer and more comely than their frail sisters of Shoa. They wear red and blue striped trousers, reaching mid-leg, with a loose shift and a robe, also party-coloured, the former enclosed by a zone of beads. The hair is dressed, like that of the Amhara, in the shape of a beehive, with minute rows of elaborate curls; but the odour of rancid butter with which these are clotted, is somewhat alleviated by the liberal application of oil of cloves. Marriage is celebrated without the intervention of the priesthood, and polygamy is universally exercised at the discretion of the man according to his worldly substance. The contracting parties simply pledge fidelity, and in event of subsequent separation, the lady carries off her portion. Every house possesses its slaves; but those both of king and subject are permitted to work for themselves one day out of the seven. All occupation is interdicted on the Sabbath, as well as on the festivals of Gabriel, Michael, and Georgis, which are the only saints' days observed in Susa. The language spoken is quite distinct from that of the Galla, from the Amharic, and from the ancient Geez or Ethiopic. It possesses a written character. The houses are constructed upon a circular plan of wattle and thatch. All classes are warriors, well mounted, and frequently engaged in the chase--large packs of dogs being kept for the purpose of hunting the rhinoceros, buffalo, elephant, lion, leopard, giraffe, zebra, and ostrich, which, with many other animals new to natural history, are said to abound. Bridles are manufactured of the skin of the hippopotamus, with which the rivers teem, and numbers of them are slain by the wandering Wato. Raw flesh, eaten with pepper, butter, and wheaten bread, forms the principal diet. Edible fruits are abundant. Citrons, nutmeg, ginger, coffee, and tea, grow wild over the whole country. The two latter are taken by the Christians of Susa, as is also snuff; but tobacco is not inhaled. The grape vine is indigenous and extensively cultivated; and the Outoo, the Gondweiyo, and the Goddo, are described as aromatic trees, of which the flowers, possessing the richest perfume, are dried, pulverised, and amalgamated with civet--the cats producing which are kept in every house, fed on raw beef, and placed before the fire, as in Enarea. Amongst the manifold superstitions of the people of Susa, a new knife, before being used for cutting meat, must be blown upon by the priest. Witchcraft has a firm hold upon every mind; and many a luckless worker in iron is with his whole family condemned to be burnt alive in his house, as an atonement for evil deeds. Theft is punished by sewing up the culprit in a green hide, when he is suspended by the heels in the market-place, with the stolen property about his neck, until the contraction of the drying skin at length puts a period to his sufferings--a refinement this upon the cruelty of the Emperor Maximin. The particulars that I have embodied in this and the two preceding chapters have been gathered from the concurrent testimony of numerous individuals of various tribes, ages, and religions, who have either visited or were natives of the countries referred to, and who, after attaining to manhood, had been borne away in slavery. Together with their own language they retained a perfect recollection of the land of their birth, and of all that had befallen them since the loss of liberty--a loss by many dated from a very recent period, and which had resulted either from the lawless violence of the freebooter, or from the unrestrained cupidity of mercenary relatives. Making due allowance for superstition and geographical ignorance, the fullest credit may be accorded--minute cross-examinations of individuals who could have held no previous communication with each other having corroborated every point. Shedding the clearest light over the countries more immediately adjacent to Shoa, the evidence collected becomes less and less distinct as the lands and tribes under consideration verge towards the distant edge of the horizon. It is important to know that the Gochob, in its upper course, is occupied by so powerful a Christian people, whose sovereign exercises over the destinies of the surrounding Gentiles an influence which, if properly directed, could be made to check the rapid spread of Islamism, instead of fostering the traffic in human beings. The extensive wildernesses beyond Susa may be concluded to form the barrier betwixt the unfruitful land of Nigritia and the fair provinces occupying the most elevated regions of Africa. Seneca relates that two centurions, who were sent by Nero Caesar to explore the head of the Nile, were recommended by the King of Ethiopia to the nearest kings beyond; and that after a long journey they came "even unto the further countries, to immense morasses, the end of which neither the natives themselves did know, nor any body else may hope to find." Volume 3, Chapter XI. THE CONVERSION OF ETHIOPIA. In the year 330 after the birth of our Saviour, Meropius, a merchant of Tyre, having undertaken a commercial voyage to India, landed on the coast of Ethiopia, where he was murdered by the barbarians, and his two sons, Frumentius and Edesius, both devout men, being made prisoners, were carried as slaves before the Emperor. The abilities, the information, and the peaceable demeanour of the brothers, soon gained not only their release, but high office in the court; and living in the full confidence of the monarch until his decease, and subsequently under the protection of the queen-mother, they soon secured the good-will of the entire nation. The work of conversion was commenced, and having proceeded with wonderful rapidity and success, a thriving branch was shortly added to the great Eastern church. Bearing the happy tidings, Frumentius appeared in Alexandria, where he was received with open arms by the patriarch Athanasius. Loaded with honours, and consecrated the first bishop of Ethiopia, a relation was thus happily commenced with Egypt, which has remained firm and friendly to the present day, and throughout fifteen centuries has bestowed upon a Coptish priest the high office of Patriarch Abuna of the Ethiopic church. On his return to the country of his hopes, Frumentius found that the spark of life had spread rapidly throughout the gloomy darkness of the land. Baptism was instituted, deacons and presbyters appointed, churches erected, and a firm foundation laid whereon to establish the Christian religion in Abyssinia. Frumentius was deservedly honoured with a favoured niche in the annals of her church history, and, under the title of "Salama," formed the subject of high praise to all the sacred poets of Ethiopia. "Hail him with the voice of joy, sing praises to Salama, The door of pity and of mercy and of pleasant grace; Salute those blessed hands bearing the pure torch of the Gospel, For the splendour of Christ's church has enlightened our darkness." During the succeeding century, priests and apostles, men of wonderful sanctity, flocked into the empire from all parts of the East, and miracles the most stupendous are related in the legends of those days. Mountains were removed, and the storms of the angry ocean stilled by the mere application of the staff. The adder and the basilisk glided harmless under foot, and rivers stayed their roaring torrent, that the sandal of the holy man should remain unstained by the flood. Aragawi raised the dead--the fingers of Likanos flamed like tapers of fire-- Samuel rode upon his lion; and thus the kingdom of Arwe, the old serpent of Ethiop, was utterly overthrown. The Abyssinians now became subtle casuists and disputants. Abstruse doctrines were propounded, and speculative theories largely indulged in; and the generation passed away ere the knotty points had been satisfactorily determined, how long Adam remained in Paradise before his fall? and whether in his present state he held dominion over the angels? In the year 481, the celebrated council of Chalcedon lighted up the torch of misunderstanding regarding the two natures of Christ. The Eastern church split and separated in mortal feud, and the Saracen pounced upon Egypt, rent and wasted by discord and distraction. The Abyssinians, denouncing the council a meeting of fools, concurred in the opinion of the Alexandrian patriarch. The faith of the Monophysite was declared to be the one only true and orthodox, and the banished Dioscorus received all the honours of a martyr. "The kings of the earth divided the unity of God and man, Sing praises to the martyr who laughed their religion to scorn. He was treated with indignity, they plucked out his flowing beard, Yea, and tore the teeth from his venerable face; But in heaven a halo of honour shall encircle Dioscorus." But during the ensuing oppressions and exactions of the Moslem, the successor of Saint Mark could barely retain his own existence in Egypt; and Ethiopia, his remote charge, now nearly isolated from the remainder of the world, rested for the next ten centuries a sealed book to European history, preserving her independence from all foreign yoke, and guarding in safety the flame of that faith which she had inherited from her fathers. The reign of the ascetics succeeded to that of disputation, and men lacerated their bodies, and lived in holes and caves of the earth like wild beasts. Tekla Haimanot and Eustathius were the great founders of monkery in the land. An angel announced the birth of one, and the other floated over the sea, borne in safety amidst the folds of his leathern garment. Miracles still continued to be occasionally performed. Sanctity was further enhanced by mortification of the flesh, and austerity of life was highly praised and followed by the admiring mob. The original discipline of the anchorite was severe in the extreme. He was to be continually girt around the loins with heavy chains, or to remain for days immersed in the cold mountain stream--to recline upon the bare earth, and to subsist upon a scanty vegetable diet. Monasteries were at length founded, and fields and revenues set apart for the convenience of their inmates; and although a visiting superior was appointed to check corruption and punish innovation or transgression, the asperities of the monastic life gradually softened down. The Etchegue, or grand prior of the monasteries, preferred the comforts of a settled abode to wearisome tours and visitations. Further immunities were granted to all loving a life of ease and spiritual licence; and the commonwealth had to deplore the loss of a large portion of her subjects, who neither contributed tax, nor assisted in military service. Thus converted at an early period of the Christian age, Ethiopia spread her new religion deep into the recesses of heathen Africa. Extending her wide empire on every side, the praise of the Redeemer soon arose from the wildest valleys and the most secluded mountains. From the great river Gochob to the frontiers of Nubia, the crutch and the cowl pervaded the land. Churches were erected in every convenient spot; and the blue badge of nominal Christianity encircled the necks of an ignorant multitude. The usual wars and rebellions arose, and schisms and sects fill up the archives of ten centuries with all the uninteresting precision of more civilised countries. But still the church flourished; the patriarch was regularly received from Alexandria, and a long list of ninety-five Abunas flows quietly through the dull pages of Abyssinian record, from the time of Frumentius the First, until the days of the venerable Simeon, who, whilst gallantly defending the faith of his fathers, was barbarously murdered by the European partisans of the Italian Jesuit. The rise of the Mohammadan power in Arabia, and the rapid spread of Islamism, first circumscribed the limits of the empire, and begirt it round with foes. But although the nation was now called upon to repel the fierce assaults both of the heathen and of the fanatic followers of the false prophet, the measure of her oppression was not filled until the cup had been deeply drained of the converting zeal of European priesthood. The usual horrors attendant upon religious war were then painfully undergone, and the blood of her children was unsparingly poured out. Nearest and dearest relatives rallied under opposite standards; and the same cry of destruction rang from either host, "The glory of the true faith." The zeal of the Jesuit has seldom been displayed in more glowing colours, or in more decided defeat, than in the attempts so perseveringly made to draw within the meshes of his net the remote church of Ethiopia. And although the means employed are to be justly condemned, still that ardour must be the theme of the high praise of all, which impelled old men and young to dare the difficulties and the dangers of a rude uncivilised land, with exposure to the prejudices of a people as bigoted as themselves in the cause of their religion. But the wily system of establishing rival orders and monasteries of mortification--of snapping asunder domestic ties, and of collecting together bands of discontented enthusiasts--well served the interests of the Catholic faith; and there were always to be found obedient servants to bear instructions to the farthest corners of the earth;--men who relinquished few comforts or enjoyments on quitting their austere cells, who were prepared at all hazards, and in all manners, to carry into execution the will of their superiors, and who gloried in the alternative of erecting an eternal fabric in honour of their order, or of obtaining the crown of martyrdom. The custom of ages had, however, struck too deeply into the heart of the Abyssinian. The power of the officiating clergy was paramount in the land. All the passions and the prejudices of the multitude were too firmly enlisted in the cause of ancient belief; and degraded as was the Christianity of the country, its forms and tenets were not more absurd, and not less pertinaciously supported, than those Romish innovations which were so fiercely, though so ineffectually, attempted. The soft wily speech and the thunder of excommunication were alike disregarded. Treachery and force were both tried and found equally unavailing. Blood flowed for a season like water, and the sound of wailing was heard from the palace to the peasant's hut; but the storm expended itself, and finally passed away; and after the struggle of a century, the discomfited monks relinquished their attempts upon the church of the Monophysite, without leaving behind one solitary convert to their faith, and bearing along with them the loud maledictions of an exasperated nation. Volume 3, Chapter XII. THE COURT OF PRESTER JOHN. During the darkness of the middle ages, the church of Abyssinia had fallen into complete oblivion; but about the commencement of the sixteenth century rumours were whispered abroad of a Christian monarch and a Christian nation established in the centre of Africa; and the happy news was first brought to the court of Portugal that a Christian church still existed, which had for ages successfully resisted, among the lofty mountains of Abyssinia, the fierce attacks of the sanguinary Saracen. In the year 1499, Pedro Covilham succeeded in reaching Shoa, where he was received with that favour which novelty usually secures; and although the stranger was prevented by the existing ancient laws from leaving the kingdom, the quest had been successfully performed. The first link was re-established of a chain which had been broken for ages; and shortly afterwards the glories of Prester John and his Christian court were fully disclosed, to abate the intense anxiety that reigned in the heart of every inhabitant of the West. In due process of time an Abyssinian ambassador made his appearance in Portugal. Unbounded delight was experienced by King Emanuel, and every honour was lavished upon Matthew the merchant of Shoa. All believed that the Abyssinians were devout Catholics, and that a vast empire, estimated at four times its actual extent, was about to fall under the dominion of the Roman church. A mission on a great scale was fitted out--the journey was safely accomplished--and excited fancy rioted for a time in the description of palaces and fountains which never existed, and pomp, riches, and regal power, utterly unknown in the land. Missions continued from either court during the succeeding forty years. An alliance was formed. Men learned in the arts and sciences were despatched to settle in Abyssinia. Zaga Zaba arrived in Lisbon, invested with full powers to satisfy the interests of both countries, temporal as well as spiritual. But the difference of faith was now for the first time understood. The bitter enmity of the Roman creed stood prominently to view; and the envoy, after studying the details of the Catholic doctrine, and refusing to subscribe a similar contract on behalf of his church, was unscrupulously put to a violent death in a Portuguese prison. The first flattering ideas regarding the religion of the country being thus found erroneous, the delusion respecting the extent and power of the mighty empire was next to fall to the ground. The Galla were now streaming in hordes from the interior, and Graan, the Mohammadan invader, was carrying fire and sword throughout the country. The dying Coptish patriarch of Abyssinia was prevailed upon to nominate as his successor John Bermudez, a resident Portuguese; and, hurried by the king, this priest proceeded, without loss of time, to seek military assistance from the courts of Rome and Lisbon. Schemes of ambition flitted over the minds of the first conquerors of India, and an alliance with Ethiopia seemed highly desirable as a handle for further acquisition in the East. But dilatory measures delayed the arrival of the Portuguese fleet until the suing monarch had been gathered to his fathers; and it has already been seen that Christopher, the son of the famous Vasco de Gama, anchored in the harbour of Massowah at a time when the new Emperor Claudius was sorely pressed to sustain himself upon the throne of his ancestors. The opportunity was not neglected by the archbishop to reduce the heretic Church to the fold of the Roman see; and a series of attempts were commenced, equally to be deplored from the mischief which they created, and the unworthy means that were employed during the struggle. The signal service rendered by the Portuguese troops in the ensuing wars, the total rout of the Galla and the Moslem, with the slaughter of their invading leader in battle, placed Bermudez in a position to demand high terms from the reinstated monarch. The conversion of the emperor to the Roman Catholic faith and the possession of one-third of the kingdom, were imperiously proposed, and scornfully rejected. Excommunication was threatened by the proud prelate of the West, and utterly disregarded by King Claudius, who retorted that the pope himself was a heretic. Open hostilities broke out; and although the superior discipline of the Europeans for a time gave them the advantage, they were at length separated by a wily stratagem, and hurried to different quarters of the kingdom; and Bermudez being then seized, was conveyed in honourable exile to the rugged mountains of Efat. Although much blood and considerable treasure had been thus fruitlessly expended, the conversion of Ethiopia was far from being forgotten in Europe; and the spark of hope was further kept alive by an Abyssinian priest, who asserted, on his arrival in Rome, that the failure of Bermudez had entirely arisen from his own absurd and brutal conduct, and that the utmost deference would be paid to men of sense and capacity. Ignatius Loyola volunteered to repair in person to re-unite the Ethiopic and Roman Catholic churches; but his talents being required for more important objects, the pope refused the desired permission to the great founder of the society of Jesus, and thirteen missionaries from the new order were chosen instead. Nunez Baretto was elevated to the dignity of patriarch, and Andre Oviedo appointed provisional successor. At that period the navigation of the Red Sea was rendered dangerous by numerous Saracen fleets; and the patriarch, deeming it inexpedient to hazard his own valuable person in the perils of the voyage, reposed quietly at Goa, whilst a deputation headed by Gonsalvez Rodrigues, a priest of secondary rank, was despatched in advance, to ascertain the capabilities of the route, and the sentiments of the reigning monarch. The Emperor Claudius little relished the arrival of these monks, and Rodrigues entirely failed in every attempt at conviction on the points at issue--that the pope, as representative of Christ upon earth, was the true head of all Christians, and that there was no salvation out of the pale of the Catholic church. Dismissed with the reply that the people of Ethiopia would not lightly abandon the faith of their forefathers, the monk retired to work upon the mind of the monarch by the brilliancy of his controversial writing; but a lengthy treatise on the true faith produced no happy result, and the envoy, disgusted with his reception, returned shortly afterwards to Goa. The spiritual conclave was plunged into consternation by the untoward intelligence; and after much mature deliberation it was resolved, that the dignity of the patriarch, and of the great King of Portugal, could not be exposed to the consequences attending the ill favour of the Emperor of Abyssinia; and that therefore the prelate should still remain the guest of the Bishop of Nicea, whilst the daring and restless Oviedo, with a small train of attendants, attempted the business. Arriving in safety, the Jesuit experienced a most friendly reception from the Emperor Claudius; and although the letters of recommendation from the pope were received with mistrust and impatience, the habitual mildness of the monarch restrained him from any overt act of oppression. Deceived by this calm behaviour, the bishop, during a second audience, was sufficiently foolhardy to represent, in the most insolent language, the enormous errors under which the Emperor laboured, and to demand imperatively whether or not he intended to submit himself to the authority of the successor of Saint Peter, and thus remove the heavy obligation under which his empire already groaned. King Claudius replied that he was well inclined towards the Portuguese nation--that he would grant lands and settlements in his country--that permission would not be withheld to the private exercise of the religion of the West; but that as the Abyssinian church had been for ages united to the charge of the patriarch of Alexandria, a subject of such serious alteration must be canvassed before a full assembly of divines. Indignant at what he termed Ethiopian perfidy, but still buoyed up with the faint hope of realising his object, Oviedo changed his mode of attack, and addressed a laboured remonstrance to the monarch, written in the hypocritical tone of false friendship, earnestly entreating him to recall to his remembrance the assistance rendered by Europeans to his afflicted country, and the many promises made by his sire in the day of his urgent distress; imploring him at the same time to preserve a stern vigilance upon the evil influence of the Empress and of the ministers of state; "for in matters of faith the love of kindred must give way to the love of Christ, and in similar situations the nearest relation often proves the bitterest enemy to the salvation of the soul." This insidious reasoning was, however, vainly expended upon the intelligent Claudius, and served but to turn his heart further from the Roman and his cause. The offer of a public controversy on points of disputed faith being shortly afterwards accepted, the Emperor entered the lists in presence of the assembled court, and by his clear knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, utterly defeated the subtilties of the Italian priest; and thus, notwithstanding the conviction of the Portuguese missionary that by supernatural aid he had triumphantly refuted all the arguments urged by his illustrious antagonist, it was fully decreed by the Abyssinian conference, that neither king nor people owed any obligation or obedience whatsoever to the church of Rome. Still Oviedo was far from being reduced to silence. Treatise after treatise was published on the controversy, to confound the minds of the Ethiopians. The errors of the Alexandrian faith were fiercely attacked in every form and fashion; and the superior beauties of the Catholic religion fully expounded. But no advantage resulted. Rejoinders and confutations followed fast from the insulted clergy; and the bishop, furious at the thoughts of his futile exertions to gain a footing in the country--entertaining no hope of making one single convert, whether among prince or people--resolved upon a last effort in the struggle. On the fifth of February, 1559, he issued his spiritual ban over the land, proclaiming that the entire nation of Abyssinia, high and low, learned and ignorant, having refused to obey the church of Rome--practising the unholy rite of circumcision--scrupling to eat the flesh of the hog and the hare--and indulging in many other flagrant enormities--were delivered over to the judgment of the spiritual court, to be punished in person and goods, in public and in private, by every means the faithful could devise. But the folly of issuing this curious rescript without any means of enforcing it was fully appreciated; and the tyrannical conduct of the bishop did but serve to strengthen the Emperor in the bonds of his own faith, finding, as was observed by an historian of the times, "that popery and its wiles were the more dangerous and reprehensible, as the veil was withdrawn from before the spirit of her tenets." There is every reason to believe that the succeeding invasion of the Adaiel was procured through the treacherous designs of the Jesuits, but the event again proved disastrous to their cause. Although the revenge of the baffled bishop was allayed in a torrent of blood, yet the death of the mild, moderate, and liberal Claudius, who perished on the battlefield, shed a baneful influence on their ensuing efforts; and the sceptre devolved into the hands of his brother Adam, a haughty and vindictive prince, who is depicted in Portuguese records as "cruel and hard of heart, and utterly insensible to the beauteous mysteries of the Catholic faith." Swearing vengeance against the Latins, to whose treason he attributed the murder of his brother and the ruin of his country, the new monarch seized all the estates which had been granted to the Portuguese for rendered service, and threatened the bishop and his colleagues with instantaneous death if they presumed to propagate the errors of the Romish church; and on a humble remonstrance being attempted, in the violence of his wrath, he rushed upon the missionary with a drawn sword, vowing to immolate him upon the spot. "The weapon, however," say the holy fathers, "dropped miraculously from his impious hand," and for a season the last extremity of vengeance was exchanged for a system of vile durance. Portuguese troops in the meantime arrived from Goa, and the Bahr Negash, "the lord of the sea-coast," bought over by the gold of India, and stirred up by the wily emissaries of the viceroy, assembled his forces in rebellion. Marching with his European allies to the capital, he defeated and slew the Emperor in a pitched battle, and rescued the Jesuit missionaries from their unpleasant captivity. Warned by former difficulty and distress, the worthy fathers now assumed a more modest and humble demeanour, and were allowed to settle again in their old haunt of Maiguagua, where they remained for a time unmolested by the new Emperor Malek Sashed, who inherited all the horror of his father to the Catholic creed, although tempered by the mildness of his uncle Claudius. But the jealous monks had not yet relinquished their hope of advancement, and bending to the pressure of the times, the deep plot was veiled under the garb of passive obedience. The most pressing solicitations were despatched to Goa for assistance; and the dauntless Oviedo pledged himself with six hundred staunch Europeans to convert, not only the empire of Abyssinia, but all the countries adjacent. The scheme, however, did not suit the politics of the day; and in 1560 the bishop received an order from the head of his society to repair forthwith to his more promising charge in Japan. Loth to abandon all his favourite projects of ambition in the country, and utterly reckless of truth, he addressed the most specious letters to the pope, holding out a certain prospect of prostrating the church of Ethiopia before the apostolic throne, whilst to his immediate superior he dilated upon the richness of the land, and the mines of pure gold which he falsely asserted to exist in every province of the kingdom. But his artful motives were thoroughly pierced by the more wily successor of Saint Peter; and vessels soon after arrived on the coast of Africa, to convey the reluctant fathers to the monastery of Saint Xavier, in Goa. Volume 3, Chapter XIII. THE RELIGIOUS WAR. Miserable indeed appeared the chance of conversion; and after a fierce struggle of thirty years, there remained not one priest of the Romish faith to administer the sacraments to the numerous European settlers and descendants in the country. Even the Jesuits themselves lost heart for the time; but the zeal of Philip the Second stirred the dying embers, and fresh candidates for strife, honour, and martyrdom, were soon in the field. Peter Pero Pays and Antonio de Montzerado, disguised as Armenian merchants, first attempted the perilous undertaking; but being wrecked upon the Arabian coast, they were recognised as Christian ministers, and languished during seven years in a Moslem dungeon. Goa next poured forth her priests to the ineffectual contest. In seeking the promised land, Abraham de Georgis was discovered in Turkish garb on the island of Massowah, and the governor swore by the holy Prophet, that, since the kafir had donned the attire of the true believer, he should also adopt the tenets of the true faith, or die the death of a dog. But the Jesuit clung to his creed, and suffered accordingly; and, shortly afterwards, Jean Baptiste being detected in assumed costume, by the Turks of Comera, he also shared the same fate as his immediate predecessor, in the thorny path of martyrdom. Thus even the road itself seemed to close, and all intercourse was denied with a country wherein the presence of Europeans was neither desired nor permitted; and which would have been suffered to remain unmolested, had not exaggerated ideas of its wealth still pervaded the imagination of all classes throughout the western world. Don Alexis de Menezez, the zealous Archbishop of Goa, who had already with fire and sword propagated Christianity throughout Malabar, now entered the lists, and his sagacious and discerning mind selected the vicar of Saint Anne as a fit tool for the execution of his project. Melchior Sylva, a converted Brahmin, might, from his colour and language, pass through the Turkish wicket. His zeal was great as that of his superior, and the valuable presents whereof he was made the bearer, might prove a bait sufficiently tempting to lure the simple Abyssinian into a fresh connexion. The intelligence of his safe arrival, and of the gracious reception of the presents, again roused the ardent spirit of the order of Jesus; and Peter Pays was quickly ransomed from the Arabs, and despatched with a full train of priests to Ethiopia, where he arrived in September of the year 1603. Superior in every respect to his predecessors, this missionary, instead of attempting to carry his measures by force and overbearing insolence, sought the softer path of insinuation; and whilst his extensive knowledge and plausible address proved strong recommendations in his favour, many circumstances also conspired to forward his views. The country was in a most unsettled state, and the assistance of a few Portuguese troops could turn the scale of war. The condition of the church was low and miserable. Eighty years of incessant strife and distraction had crushed the very name of learning and literature. Few persons were to be found who could read, write, or dispute. Ignorant and unworthy men filled every sacred office; and the ancient defenders of the Alexandrian faith had been swept away on the battlefield. Amidst wars, and rumours of wars, Peter quietly settled with his followers at Maiguagua. Schools were opened, and the wonder ran through the land, that youths of tender age could refute the most learned sages of the wilderness of Walkayet. The curiosity of Za Dengel, the temporary occupant of the throne, was excited, and Peter, with his erudite pupils, was summoned to the court. Prompted by the hope of obtaining assistance from Portugal, this weak prince, under an oath of secrecy, immediately embraced the religion of his guest. But his time was fully occupied in the more worldly object of strengthening himself upon a throne to which he had been elevated by his evil genius; and the falling away from the faith of his forefathers being at length whispered abroad, a rebellion was the consequence. The approaching storm having been perceived by the monk, he withdrew from court before the burst of a revolution, which for some time crushed his every hope of success. The Emperor was slain. New aspirants strove for the ascendency; and war reigned for a season throughout the entire land. Confident in the near approach of Portuguese troops, which had been requested when Sylva carried to India the tidings of the first conversion, Peter now resolved upon the bold game of espousing the weaker party, and thus gaining a firmer hold in event of success. The expected reinforcements did not, however, arrive in time; and the defeat and death of his _protege_ was followed by the advancement of the pretender Susneus to the throne of the empire. Notwithstanding his appearance as a declared partisan in the opposing ranks, Peter's abilities as an architect now created a fresh diversion in his favour. The novel idea of a two-storied edifice engrossed the thoughts of the reigning king; and men flocked from the remotest parts of the country to gaze upon a fabric of stone, which was considered to be one of the wonders of the world. A missionary possessing the varied abilities and acquirements of Pays could not be long in gaining ascendency over a rude and illiterate monarch; and by address and perseverance he had soon effected that which the threats and violence of his predecessors had vainly attempted during a long course of years. Ras Sela Christos, brother to the Emperor, was the first-fruit of the harvest. Partaking of the holy supper with the Latins, he publicly embraced their religion, and many chiefs and nobles followed his illustrious example. Crowded assemblies were held, in which the eloquence of the Jesuits entirely bore down the feeble efforts of the ignorant and uncultivated natives. The holiness of life which was strictly preserved among the neophytes and proselytes of the Catholics, added to the impression entertained of their wisdom; and the introduction of useful arts, raised the glory of the fathers still higher in the land; and the prospect of the aid of disciplined soldiers from the West overturned the last remaining scruple in the mind of the monarch. An edict was published interdicting all persons from holding office who were not well inclined towards the Latin religion; and severe punishments were threatened for the promulgation of ancient doctrines. Assistance was solicited from Rome and Lisbon; and the work of European persecution favourably commenced, by scourging with whips all those stubborn monks who refused to forego their ancient belief. Abba Simeon, the Abuna, repaired to the court to remonstrate with the Emperor on the scandalous interference with his prerogatives in convening meetings and authorising debates upon ecclesiastical matters; but his pride was timely soothed by the royal assurance that all had been undertaken for the benefit of true religion, and that the subject should be fully discussed in his own presence. Again the subtilties and dialectics of the missionaries prevailed; and the total defeat of the Patriarch and his clergy was followed by a second more severe ordinance, awarding the penalty of death to all who should henceforth deny the two natures of Christ. Wonderful was the sensation created by this severe edict, so diametrically at variance with the mild spirit of religion, and with all the ancient usages of the land. Aware of the feelings of the strong party at court, as well as of the entire body of the people, the Abuna placarded on the doors of the chapels an excommunication of all who should accept the religion of the Franks; and the monarch, irritated by this resistance, published a manifesto, "That his subjects should forthwith embrace the Catholic faith." This served as the signal-trumpet for the fight. All classes armed themselves in defence of their religion; and Aelius, the king's son-in-law, placed himself at the head of the malcontents in Tigre. Not yet thoroughly prepared for the struggle, the Emperor found it convenient for a time to temporise, and requested one further debate, which was to prove final between the disputants. The mild Abuna listened to the proposal, and accompanied by a large train of monks appeared in the royal camp, whilst the Jesuit and his colleagues advanced into the arena from the opposite side. The controversy was renewed, and raged fiercely for six days; but disputes in religion are seldom adjusted by the reasoning of the doctors, and the parties withdrew mutually incensed against each other. One further effort was made to restore the disturbed harmony. The Empress Hamilmala, and many of the courtiers, with tears implored the king to desist from his undertaking; and the patriarch and the clergy, throwing themselves prostrate on the earth, embraced his knees, and entreated him to turn a deaf ear to the poisonous insinuations of the deceitful Jesuits, and graciously to allow his subjects to remain faithful to the religion of their forefathers. But the heart of the monarch remained closed to the prayer. The Abuna quitted the court, plunged in the deepest distress, and a bloody war ensued, which shook the empire to its foundation. When Aelius fully understood the last resolution taken by his father-in-law, to defend the Catholics and their religion, he publicly appealed to the people of Tigre, and proclaimed that all who were disposed to embrace the Jesuitical faith might repair to the deluded Emperor, whilst those who held to the ancient belief should forthwith gather under his standard. Finding himself shortly afterwards at the head of a large army, he marched towards the royal camp, resolved to establish the received doctrine of the land, or to perish in the attempt. Abba Simeon, who had attained the venerable age of one hundred years, joined the army of the defenders of the Alexandrian faith; and in giving them his patriarchal blessing, assured the soldiery that all who should fall in the combat died the death of the martyr, and would receive the reward in heaven. The desired effect was produced, and the hearts of the entire force burned with one eager zeal to meet the accursed enemies of their religion. On the appearance of the inflamed force a reconciliation was attempted, and the daughter of the Emperor was made the bearer of terms to her rebel lord. Her tears and entreaties were, however, totally disregarded. The impetuous youth prepared for instant attack; and the princess had barely time to regain her father's tent, when hostilities were commenced. The soldiers of the viceroy rushed furiously upon the royal encampment, and Aelius succeeded in forcing his way, at the head of a small body of troops, to the very pavilion of his father-in-law. But he was here struck from his horse by a stone, and stabbed upon the ground. A panic seized the army of the fallen leader, and the rabble, casting away their arms, fled in all directions. The aged Abuna found himself alone and deserted in the same spot which he had occupied during the attack. His years and high clerical bearing disarmed the violence of the Abyssinian soldiery; but a Portuguese partisan at length threw himself upon the patriarch, and, regardless of his white and venerable hairs, transfixed him with a spear. A frightful massacre ensued; and the heads of the principal leaders of the unsuccessful rebellion were exposed on the gates of the capital as a bloody warning to the seditious. Volume 3, Chapter XIV. TEMPORARY SUBMISSION TO THE POPE OF ROME. Strengthened by this signal victory, other points of the Alexandrian creed were attacked in succession; and the time of the Jesuits was fully occupied in the translation into Ethiopic of sundry dogmatical treatises on subjects of disputed faith. But the barbarism of the language was despised by most--the Latin interpolation abhorred as magic by all--and a furious paper controversy raged for a time; until the Abyssinians becoming scurrilous, the wrath of the monarch was again roused, and he issued a severe edict, wherein the people were forbidden from celebrating the Jewish Sabbath, which from time immemorial had hitherto been sacred. The inhabitants of Begemeder flew to arms; and people from all parts of the country, groaning under the yoke of foreign oppression, poured in to join the standard of rebellion which Joanel had reared on the plains of his government. A horde of Galla, delighting in the confusion, offered their assistance, and the most haughty conditions were speedily conveyed to court from a large assembly in arms. Again the most earnest entreaties were employed to induce the emperor to compromise; but influenced by the words of the Jesuits, he called together his principal chieftains, monks, and learned men, and in their presence solemnly declared that he would defend the Catholic religion to the last drop of his blood; adding, that it was the first duty of his subjects to obey their legitimate monarch. Energetic measures were forthwith agreed upon, and, at the head of a large array, the king proceeded in person to the war. Joanel, finding himself too weak to contend in the plains, withdrew to the inaccessible mountains, where a blockade by the royal troops soon caused a scarcity of provisions. His forces gradually deserted, and he himself escaping to the Galla, was pursued, betrayed, and put to death. This reverse sustained by the defenders of the old cause did not, however, intimidate the inhabitants of Damot, a province situated on the borders of the Nile; for scarcely had the emperor reached his capital, when the population rose _en masse_, with the determination of dethroning a monarch who so basely truckled to a foreign yoke, and of driving from the land the authors of its distraction. An army of fourteen thousand warriors was speedily organised; and monks and hermits, burning with zeal in the cause, emerged from the cave and from the wilderness to join the fast-swelling ranks. Ras Sela Christos marched against the rebels, but desertion considerably thinned his troops; and he confronted the enemy with barely one-half the numerical strength of their formidable array. Governor of the province, and greatly beloved by the people, a proposal was tendered to him, that if he would only lend his assistance in burning the monkish books and hanging the worthy fathers themselves upon tall trees, he might be seated upon the imperial throne of his ancestors. But the general, despising the offer, and resting confident in the firelocks of the Portuguese, rushed to the attack. The combat raged fiercely for a time. Four hundred monks, devoting themselves to death, carried destruction through the royal host; but the tide of victory set at length in his favour, and after a fearful carnage on either side, he found himself master of the field. Great rejoicings at court followed the news of this success. Peter declared that Heaven, by the extermination of his enemies, had given the desired sign that the Roman Catholic should be the religion of the land; and the emperor, who, partly from fear of his subjects, and partly from dislike to relinquish his supernumerary wives and concubines, had not as yet publicly professed the Latin religion, now openly embraced the faith, and confessed his sins to the triumphant Jesuit. A letter containing the royal sentiments was published for the benefit of the nation:--"The king henceforth obeys the pope of Rome, the successor of Peter, chief of the apostles, who could neither err in doctrine nor in conduct; and all subjects are hereby advised to adopt the same creed." And the missionary, who now reasonably imagined that the work was satisfactorily concluded, wrote to the courts of Rome and Lisbon, requesting that a patriarch and twenty ecclesiastics might be immediately sent to the vineyard; adding, that "although the harvest was plentiful, the labourers were but few." These happy and unlooked-for tidings were received by Philip the Fourth of Spain. Mutio Vitelesi, the general of the Jesuits, offered to proceed in person, but the pope refused permission, as he had done in the case of his predecessor Loyola; and Alphonso Mendez, a learned doctor of the society of Jesus, was inaugurated at Lisbon with all the customary solemnities. After suffering much difficulty and delay in his passage, the Portuguese patriarch at length arrived on the Danakil coast with a large train of priests, servants, masons, and musicians. The same greediness and cupidity were experienced amongst the savage Adaiel that the traveller finds at the present day--baseness and avarice having stamped their character for generations; but the troubles of a weary march were soon forgotten in the cordial reception which awaited the party at the royal camp; and the day was finally fixed when the homage of the king and of the country should be rendered to the Pope of Rome. On the 11th of February, 1626, the court and the nobles of the land were assembled in the open air. Two rich thrones were occupied by the monarch and his distinguished guest, and a surrounding multitude gazed upon the imposing ceremony in silence. "The hour is come," exclaimed Mendez, "when the king shall satisfy the debt of his ancestors, and submit himself and his people to the only true head of the church." A copy of the Gospel was produced, and the monarch, falling upon his knees, took the oath of homage. "We, King of the kings of Ethiopia, believe and confess that the Pope of Rome is the true successor of the Apostle Saint Peter, and that he holds the same power, dignity, and dominion, over the whole Christian church. Therefore we promise, offer, and swear sincere obedience to the holy father Urban, by God's grace Pope and our Lord, and throw humbly at his feet our person and our kingdom." As the emperor rose from his position, Ras Sela Christos, suddenly drawing his sword, shouted aloud, "What is now done is done for ever; and whoso in future disclaims the act, shall taste the sharp edge of this trusty weapon. I do homage only to true Catholic kings." The monks, clergy, and noblemen followed the example of their superiors; and the assembly was closed by a public edict, proclaimed through the royal herald, that all Abyssinians should, under pain of death, forthwith embrace the Roman religion. Palaces and revenues were set apart for the ministers of the new faith; seminaries for youth were established throughout the country, and baptism and ordination went on in peace. The success of the Jesuits increased rapidly, and many thousand souls were enrolled, who had been converted from the delusions of the Alexandrian creed. The trial of two years failed, however, to convince the nation of the benefits of the new religion; and the emperor and patriarchs could not deceive themselves in the fact, that the cause advanced rather in appearance than in reality. Missionaries who entered the native churches were found murdered in their beds; the most disparaging stories were everywhere circulated regarding the holy fathers, and more particularly on the representation of scriptural performances at the Paschal feast, when demons being introduced by the Romans upon the stage, the spectators rushed simultaneously from the theatre, exclaiming, "Alas! they have brought with them devils from the infernal regions," and the tale spread like wildfire through the land. Nothing daunted by the unfortunate fate of Aelius and Joanel, Tekla Georgis, another son-in-law of the emperor, with a large body of the discontented, rose to defend the religion of their forefathers. Burning the crosses and rosaries, together with a Jesuit priest who fell into their hands, the party rapidly increased, and the emperor was compelled to march an army to quell the insurrection. The rebels were completely routed by Rebaxus, the viceroy of Tigre, and all who fell into his hands, men, women, and children, were barbarously massacred. Georgis and his sister Adera concealed themselves in a cave during three days, but were at length discovered and brought before the irritated emperor. Condemned by the advice of the Jesuits to be burned to death as a heretic, Georgis was allowed by the monarch publicly to solicit the patriarch to be admitted into the Roman church; but it being afterwards considered politic to imagine that his intentions were insincere, the unfortunate prince was hung in front of the palace in presence of the whole court; and his devoted sister, fifteen days afterwards, suffered the same fate upon the same tree, notwithstanding that the most strenuous efforts were made to save her life by the queen and by all classes of society. To increase the dread effects of his tyranny, the emperor now issued a manifesto, that even as he had punished with death the obstinacy of his own son-in-law, so would he of a surety not spare any who in future committed a like transgression. The remarks of the worthy missionary Antoine, regarding this execution, will show the spirit which animated the fathers in their course of persecution, so novel in the annals of Abyssinia, and so contrary to the mildness of the Christian faith. "He who reads with attention the history of Ethiopia, will observe, that at no previous period was such ardent zeal displayed for the honour of religion, and a direct miracle, indeed, must have induced the emperor to hang his own son-in-law in the blessed cause." Dazzled by the success that had hitherto attended their measures, the patriarch and his colleagues now plunged headlong into proceedings which eventually proved disastrous to their cause. Excommunications were lightly launched in civil disputes, and the soul of every counsellor of the state was committed to the devil if he dared to question the authority of the foreign priest. Conspiracies were hatched against the imperial person; and the body of a distinguished non-conforming ecclesiastic, which had been interred within the walls of the church, was exhumed by order of the Portuguese prelate, and thrown to the wild beasts--an action which raised the indignation of the ethiopians to the highest pitch against a set of men "who had ever the words of religion in the mouth, but who, after persecuting the living, denied even to the dead that repose which neither Pagan nor Mohammadan ever disturbed." The detestation of the fathers and their religion daily waxed stronger in the hearts of all. Their great patron, Ras Sela Christos, was deprived of power and property for seditious attempts; and the bold mountaineers of Begemeder at length seized their long spears to uphold the faith of their ancestors. The viceroy was driven from the province, and Meleaxus, a youth of royal blood, appointed defender of the ancient religion, and leader of the armed host of peasants who flocked to his standard from all parts of the country, but especially from Lasta, the seat of the bravest warriors of the land. To quell this insurrection, the Emperor assembled in Gojam an army of twenty-five thousand men, and attacked the insurgents among their strongholds. His troops were, however, repulsed at all points with the loss of many officers and men, and he was reluctantly obliged to retreat to the plains. Deputies followed from the victorious camp, to supplicate him to take pity upon his subjects, and to dismiss those evil-minded strangers who had so long oppressed Abyssinia. The royal army was in no heart or condition to renew hostilities. Rumours went through the land that angels sent from heaven had proclaimed the restoration of the ancient religion; and in the general excitement the king perceived that his own authority would be fatally compromised unless some concessions were made. The patriarch was nevertheless inflexible; and letters were at the same time received from Rome, instigating the emperor to combat stoutly with his rebellious subjects, and extending to Ethiopia the general absolution of the great year of Jubilee. But the unhappy inhabitants laughed the offer of this indulgence to scorn, and were utterly unable to comprehend by what authority the pope held in his possession the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Volume 3, Chapter XV. EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS FROM ETHIOPIA. The civil war continued, meanwhile, to rage with great expenditure of life, and with alternate success on either side. Enticed into the plain, the enemy were generally worsted by the royal troops, but among the recesses of their native rocks the mountaineers had always the advantage. No sign of intended submission could be observed; and the monarch, becoming suspicious of the Jesuits, who were erecting forts and strongholds under the guise of churches and residences, lent a favourable ear to the entreaties of his subjects. A second remonstrance was penned, wherein he forcibly set forth to the Portuguese bishop, "that the Roman religion had not been introduced into the country by the miracles or the preaching of the fathers, but by royal edict and ordinance, in opposition to the wish of the entire population; and that the prelate must devise some milder measures for the furtherance of the true faith." Foreseeing a heavy storm in case of refusal, Mendez reluctantly complied with the proposal of a modified church code, under the restriction that no public manifesto should announce the change, which must be gradually and silently introduced. The ancient liturgy and the ancient holydays were thus restored, and the celebration of the Jewish Sabbath once again permitted. But the concession was insufficient, and came too late to pacify the turbulent mountaineers of Lasta, who had been altogether victorious during the war. They would listen to no modification of their first demand; but imperatively insisted upon the complete re-establishment of their ancient ecclesiastical institution, together with the expulsion of the foreigners from the land. The liberty and the customs of highlanders are seldom invaded with success; and a religion detested by the common people cannot, without much difficulty, be introduced by the prince. Weary of so many rebellions, and murders, and excommunications, the king, in his advanced age, began to view with an unfavourable eye the firebrand authors of these disturbances. Suspecting his brother and the patriarch of seditious views--offended by the contumacy of his subjects, and the increasing diminution of his own authority--disgusted with the present state of affairs, and apprehensive of future events--he now seriously bethought him of restoring the church to its original footing. But the rebellion must, in the first instance, be quelled; and having with this view concluded an alliance with the Galla, he marched towards Lasta. Twenty thousand peasants, confident of victory, descending from their mountains, rushed into the plain to meet the royal force. The two armies for a time remained in sight in that still calmness which precedes the earthquake. At length the Galla cavalry dashing at speed on the crowded masses of the enemy, threw them into complete confusion-- a fierce combat lasted until the going down of the sun--and the field of battle was left covered with eight thousand bodies of the insurgents. Throwing themselves prostrate before the triumphant monarch on this scene of carnage, the vanquished peasants expressed their grief in the following lively terms:--"Who are these men," they asked with groans, "whom you now behold bathed in blood? Are they Moslems, or Pagans, or even the enemies of the kingdom? No, they are Christians--they are all thy subjects, knit together by the most tender bonds of blood, friendship, and affection. Those warriors who now lie lifeless at thy feet, would, under a better government, have proved the bulwarks of thy throne, and the terror of those very men by whose hands they have fallen. The very heathen blush at thy cruelty, and call thee renegade for having abandoned the religion of thy fathers. Cease, O emperor! in mercy cease to prolong a struggle which must end in the downfall of the throne, and the ruin of all religion in the land!" The empress also mingled her tears with the groans of the wounded petitioners, and adjured the king for the love of God, and in the name of future generations, to take pity upon his subjects, and desist from preparing a sepulchre for himself and for his family. "What have you gained by this battle?" she exclaimed. "You have introduced into the kingdom hordes of pagan Galla, who detest yourself equally with your religion; but futile will be your attempt to establish in Ethiopia a form of worship which is unknown to the greater part of your people, and to the remainder is known only to be resisted to the last drop of their blood." These representations sunk deep into the heart of the emperor; and instead of proceeding in triumph to his capital, he retired to a secluded spot to give vent to his feelings, and bewail the loss he had created. The Galla troops were dismissed; and having collected all the principal monks and clergy, he announced his resolution of allowing the nation to return to the faith of their forefathers. Immediately on this intelligence, the patriarch hurried with all the Jesuit fathers to soothe the ruffled mood of the monarch. "I had fondly imagined," exclaimed Mendez, "that we were the victors, but behold we are the vanquished; and the rebels, routed and put to flight, have obtained all that they desire. Call to mind how many fields thou hast won with the assistance of God and the Portuguese, and remember that thou didst embrace the true faith of thine own free will. We have been sent unto thy charge by the Pope of Rome, and by the King of Portugal. Beware of irritating great potentates to just indignation. They be indeed far off, but God is nigh at hand; and thy apostasy will defile thy name and that of thy nation, and will leave an everlasting tarnish upon the Lion of the tribe of Judah, which now glitters in the standard of Ethiopia." On the conclusion of this harangue, all threw themselves at his feet, and entreated an immediate order to execution, rather than a confirmation from his lips of the rash resolution that he had taken. Retaining a too lively recollection of the streams of blood that had been poured out upon the plains of Lasta, the emperor quietly allowed the Jesuits to arise, and unmoved by their earnest prayers and entreaties, replied shortly, "that his adherence to the Catholic faith had already caused the slaughter of a great portion of his subjects, and that he would have no further dealings whatever with their doctrines." The film fell from before the eyes of the discomfited monks. The friends of the Alexandrian faith, rallying round the throne, united their utmost efforts to strengthen the emperor in his resolves; and the rumour spread abroad that on the feast of Saint John the Baptist the ancient religion was to be re-established throughout the land. Thousands assembled in the capital on that day to assist in the ceremony; and, although temporarily disappointed, the event clearly proved that this act of justice could no longer he safely delayed. Every art and stratagem was still resorted to by the patriarch to put off the evil day; but the Emperor, roused at length by the harsh and uncompromising character of the Jesuit, fiercely exclaimed, "Has, then, the sceptre departed from mine hand for ever?"--and the royal trumpets suddenly sounded through the streets of Gondar, as the herald announced the following proclamation to the empire:-- "Listen and hear! We formerly recommended to you the adoption of the Roman Catholic creed, on the firm conviction that it was the only true one; but numbers of our subjects having sacrificed their lives for the religion of their ancestors, we henceforth accord its free exercise unto all. Let the priests resume possession of their churches, and worship the God of their forefathers. Farewell, and rejoice." It is not possible to describe the rapture with which this welcome edict was received. The praises of the Emperor resounded from every quarter. The rosaries and the chaplets of the Jesuits were tossed out of doors, and burned in a heap. Men and women danced for joy in the streets, and the song of liberation burst from the lips of the disenthralled multitude. "The flock of Ethiopia has escaped from the hyenas of the West. The doctrine of Saint Mark is the column of our church. Let all rejoice and sing hallelujahs, For the sun of our deliverance has lighted up the land." Thus perished the hopes of a mission which, for craft and cruelty, has been seldom equalled in the annals of time. Whilst Rome must indeed have been prompted by no ordinary motive to persevere so pertinaciously in a work of conversion, through all the horrors of banishment and martyrdom, the unworthy means resorted to by the dauntless but unsuccessful agents employed in the enterprise, have left an indelible stain upon the page of her history. Volume 3, Chapter XVI. THE CHURCH, SECOND GREAT POWER IN SHOA. Christianity is the national religion throughout the more elevated portions of Abyssinia; but the wild Galla has overrun her fairest provinces, and located himself in her most pleasant places--the bigoted Moslem crowds thick upon the skirts of her distracted empire, and the tenets that she professes are base, foolish, and degrading. Engrafted on the superstitions of the Jew, the Mohammadan, and the Pagan-- promulgated by rude and ignorant men--and received by a people emerging only into the first stage of civilisation--the light of religion must have been feeble, even in the beginning; but as it was imparted, so it still remains. Sects and parties have arisen, and province has been banded against province in all the fiery wrath of the zealot; but, lost in the maze of subtle controversy, these internal wars have raged for generations without disturbing the original doctrine; and the same errors of the church prevail to this day throughout the land, as when first propounded in the beginning of the fourth century. The Abuna or Archbishop is the spiritual chief of Ethiopia. Consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria, and possessing with rich revenues the intelligence of other lands, the Primate is universally feared and respected throughout the empire, and all religious differences and dissensions must be carried for the final decision of his Holiness. Princes and rulers pay implicit deference to his high behest, and, seated on the ground before his episcopal throne, receive with the utmost respect his every wish and advice. Feuds and quarrels betwixt state and state are satisfactorily arranged in his presence; and war, tyranny, and violence, are controlled by his all commanding voice of mildness and benevolence. But whilst his influence is thus potent, the extent of his diocese is also great; and many local difficulties opposing the pastoral visit to the extremities of his see, the kingdom of Shoa has for ages been deprived of the advantages accruing from the residence of an archbishop. In the hand of the Abuna is vested the exclusive power of consecration. Bishops, priests, and deacons, can from him alone receive holy office. He only it is who grants absolution for heavy offences against either God or man; and the ark of a church, whether newly constructed or polluted by the unhallowed touch of a Mohammadan, must be purified by his hands with the holy _merom_, before being entitled to that high adoration which it thenceforward receives. The second place in spiritual dignity is filled by the Etchegue, the Grand Prior of the monks of Debra Libanos. Seated on the throne of Tekla Haimanot, one of the first founders of the orders of Seclusion, he engrosses the management of all the various monastic establishments throughout the land, and in his hands remains the charge of the existing literature and education. Deeply versed in the subtilties of theology, his opinion is held of the highest import in the never-ceasing disputes upon the uninteresting subjects of false faith which occupy the mind of the Abyssinian divine; but his authority extends only to the simple admittance into the monkish order, and to granting absolution for minor offences. The Comus, or Bishop, who ranks next above the Priest, is without diocese or even authority over the inferior members of the church; and his peculiar function is to bless and purify the sacred ark, should it accidentally receive the impure touch of deacon or layman; to repeat the prayer of admission, and sign the cross on the skull-cap of the candidate for monastic seclusion; and to afford absolution for trivial offences against the conscience. Twelve thousand clerical drones, "Fruges consumere nati," fatten in idleness on the labour of the working classes, and employ their influence to foster the prejudice, bigotry, and superstition of their flock. The kiss imprinted on the hand of one of these licentious shepherds being believed to purify the body from all sin, they are treated with the highest respect and veneration, are fed and caressed both by high and low, and invariably addressed as "Father." Upon payment each of a few pieces of salt, many hundred candidates receive the breath of the Holy Ghost from the Abuna in a single day; but every Abyssinian being ignorant of his own age, it is essential to the reception of priestly orders that the beard should have appeared. Deacons are chosen from among boys and children, because on reaching maturity the life of the adult is not always distinguished by that spotless purity which is held indispensable. The juvenile novices are present during divine service in capacity of servitors, and they complete the requisite number at the administration of the holy communion. The father confessor is bound to the strictest secrecy; and it is believed that on this point a dread oath is taken before ordination, when all the mysteries of religion are expounded by the Abuna, and especially those which have reference to the preparation of bread for the holy supper. In a small house styled Bethlehem, which rises immediately behind every church, the mysterious ceremony is performed. The deacon can alone bake the cake; and the most vigilant guard is invariably preserved against the approach or intrusion of females or other improper visitors during the hour of solemn occupation. Certain revenues and estates are set apart for the support of each clerical establishment; and to ensure the proper distribution, an Alaka, or chief, is selected by the monarch from either class of society. Whilst a successful foray is invariably followed by donations from the throne, the safe return from a journey is acknowledged by an offering on the part of all private individuals; and the shade of the venerable juniper-trees, which adorn the churchyard on the summit of the greenest knolls, is ever crowded with groups of sleek, hooded priests, who bask in the enjoyment of idle indulgence. There are, perhaps, more churches in Abyssinia than in any other part of the Christian world; and he who has erected one believes that he has atoned for every sin. But even the best are very miserable edifices of wattle plastered with mud, only to be distinguished from the surrounding hovels by a thin coating of whitewash, which is dashed over the outside to point with the finger of pride to the peculiar privilege of the two great powers in the land. Circular in form, they have a door to each quarter of the compass, the apex of the conical thatch being surmounted by a brazen cross, which is usually adorned with ostrich eggs, whilst the same depraved and heathenish taste pervades the decorations of the interior. Sculpture is strictly forbidden; but the walls are bedaubed with paintings of the patron saint of the church, the blessed Virgin, and a truly incongruous assemblage of cherubim and fallen angels, with the evil one himself enveloped in hell-flames. Timbrels and crutches depend in picturesque confusion from the bare rafters of the roof; no ceiling protects the head from the descent of the lizard and the spider; and the _tout ensemble_ of the slovenly Abyssinian church presents the strangest imaginable picture of cobweb finery. The Jewish temple consisted of three distinct divisions--the fore-court, the holy, and the holy of holies. To the first laymen were admitted, to the second only the priest, and to the third the high priest alone. All entrance was denied to the Pagan,--a custom which is rigorously enforced in Abyssinia; and her churches are in like manner divided into three parts. Eight feet in breadth, the first compartment stretches, after the fashion of a corridor, entirely around the building. It is styled _Kene Mahelet_, and, strewed throughout with green rushes, forms the scene of morning worship. To the right of the entrance is the seat of honour for priests and erudite scribes; and beyond this court, save on certain occasions, the bare foot of the unlearned layman cannot pass. _Makdas_ is the second compartment. This is the sanctuary in which the priests officiate, and a corner is set apart for laymen during the administration of the holy supper, whilst a cloth screens the mysteries of the interior. Here also hang, arranged around the walls, the bones of many deceased worthies, which have been carefully gathered from the newly opened sepulchre, and are deposited by the hand of the priest in cotton bags. By the nearest relative, the first opportunity is embraced of transporting these mouldering emblems of mortality to the sacred resting-place of Debra Libanos, where the living and the dead are alike blessed with a rich treasure of righteousness, since the remains of Tekla Haimanot, the patron saint of Abyssinia, still shed a bright halo over the scene of his miracles upon earth. To _Kedis Kedisen_, the holy of holies, none but the Alaka is admitted. Behind its veil the sacrament is consecrated, the communion vessels are deposited, and the tremendous mysteries of the _tabot_, or ark of the covenant, are shrouded from the eyes of the uninitiated. The gold of the foreigner has penetrated the secret of the contents of this box, which are nothing more than a scroll of parchment, on which is inscribed the name of the patron saint of the church; but the priest who dared to open his lips on the subject to one of his own countrymen would incur the heavy penalties due to the sacrilege. The most ridiculous exploits are recorded of Menilek the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who crowned a long course of iniquity by plundering the Temple of Jerusalem. The true ark of Zion is believed still to exist in the church at Axum; but prayers, vows, and oblations, are equally made to the handicraft of any vain ecclesiastic, which may be held up to the admiring multitude as having been secreted in a cave during the inroad of the conquering Graan, and since revealed by a miraculous dream from Heaven. In the presence of the mysterious casket consists the only sanctity of the church. Heretics alone doubt of its inherent virtues; and every individual who professes Christianity must during life make his vows and oblations to the one he has selected, in order that after death he may enjoy the privilege of interment under its sacred influence. Young and old, rich and poor, prostrate themselves to the ground as the idol is carried in procession through the streets under the great umbrellas; and when replaced in its case in the holy of holies, the air is rent by the attendant priests with shouts of "The temple of the eternal God!" All the disqualifications of the Levitical law oppose entrance to the sacred edifice, and both the threshold and the door-posts must be kissed in passing. Like the Jews, the Abyssinians invariably commence the service with the Trisagion, "Holy, holy, holy, is God, the Lord of Sabaoth." The sweet singer of Israel danced before the Lord, and a caricature imitation remains, the chief point of Abyssinian worship. Capering and beating the ground with their feet, the priests stretch out their crutches towards each other with frantic gesticulations, whilst the clash of the timbrel, the sound of the drum, and the howling of harsh voices, complete a most strange form of devotion. The lessons are taken partly from the Scriptures, partly from the miracles of the holy Virgin and of Tekla Haimanot, the life of Saint George, and other foolish and fabulous works; but all are in the ancient Ethiopic tongue, which to the congregation is a dead letter; and the sole edification of a visit to the church is therefore comprised in the kiss that has been imprinted on the portal. In order to obtain the desired and enviable position of eating the bread of comparative idleness, a sacrifice is indispensable. The priest is restricted to the possession of a single wife; and on her demise or infidelity, no second marriage is authorised. A small portion of lore must, moreover, be imbibed--the Psalms of David must be carefully conned--and the mysteries of Abyssinian song and dance be fully penetrated, before the sacred office can be attained. The lessons of early youth are, however, speedily forgotten, and the constant repetition of the same words removes the necessity of retaining the character. Few in after years can read--still fewer respect the vow of chastity--and the employment of the morning hours of the Sabbath, and of the holydays, in dancing and shouting within the walls of the church, entitle the performer to all the immunities and comforts pertaining unto holy orders. In every clerical conclave the king possesses the supreme voice of authority; and the despotic monarch may in Shoa be justly regarded as the head of his own church. Loss of office is the great punishment inflicted by the spiritual court, which is composed of the assembled members of the individual church, and degradation is followed by the expulsion of the offending brother from the community. But the great hall of justice is not unfrequently graced with the presence of the refractory priest; and fetters in the dungeon, or banishment from the realm, maintain a wholesome fear of the royal power of investigation in matters ecclesiastical. The monk is admitted to the order of his choice by any officiating priest. A prayer is repeated, the skull-cap blessed with the sign of the cross, and the ceremony is complete. But a more imposing rite attends the oath of celibacy before the Abuna. The clergy assemble in numbers, and fires are lighted around the person of the candidate. His loins are bound about with the leathern girdle of Saint John, and the prayer and the requiem for the dead rise pealing from the circle. The _Glaswa_--a narrow strip of black cloth adorned with coloured crosses-- is then placed on the shaven crown, and shrouded from view by the enveloping shawl; and the archbishop, clad in his robes of state, having repeated the concluding prayer and blessing, signs with his own hand the emblem of faith over the various parts of the body. Education was in former days to be obtained alone from the inmate of the monastic abode, and a life of scanty food, austerity, and severe fasting, was embraced only by the more enthusiastic. But the skin-cloak, and the dirty head-dress, now envelope the listless monk, who, satisfied with a dreamy and indolent existence, basks during the day on the grassy banks of the sparkling rivulet, and prefers a bare sufficiency of coarse fare from the hand of royal charity, to the sweeter morsel earned by the sweat of his brow. Priest-ridden and bigoted to the last degree, the chains of bondage are firmly riveted around the neck of the infatuated Abyssinian. The most ridiculous doctrines must be believed, and the most severe fasts and penances must be endured, according to the pleasure and the fiat of the church. Uncharitable and uncompromising, her anger often blazes forth into the furious blast of excommunication; and for offences the most trivial, the souls of men are consigned to eternal perdition. Fasts, penances, and excommunication form, in fact, the chief props of the clerical power; but the repentant sinner can always purchase a substitute to undergo the two former, and the ban of the church is readily averted by a timely offering. Spiritual offences are indeed of rare occurrence; for murder and sacrilege alone give umbrage to the easy conscience of the native of Shoa, and all other crimes written in the book of Christian commandment have been well-nigh effaced from his tablet. Abstinence and the disbursement of suitable largesses to the priest and mendicant, are of themselves quite sufficient to ensure the requisite absolution for every sin committed in the flesh. The death-bed and the funeral feast are attended with much advantage to the temporal interests of the church. The choicest food is unsparingly dealt out, and the bereaved widow is glad to leave the management of her affairs to the assiduous father confessor, who is entertained in the house of all who can afford the expense. The dying man bestows a portion of his estate in this world for the bright hopes which absolution extends in that which is to come; and the holy sacrament is even administered after the soul has quitted the tenement of clay, in order that the superstition of grateful relatives may grant a rich reward for the blessing of the priest, and for his undeniable assurance of exemption from punishment hereafter. But the Abyssinian possesses no idea of the more salutary doctrine of Christianity. Polluted faith is here reflected in the mirror of depraved manners, and long severe fastings constitute the essence of his degenerate religion. The idol worship of saints has made rapid progress in the land, and the ignorance of the clergy is only to be equalled by the impurity of the lay classes. Their belief in Christianity, if that term can be applied, is strange, childish, and inconsistent; and bigoted to the faith of their ancestors, they abhor and despise all who refuse acquiescence in this their absurd confession:-- "That the Alexandrian faith is the only true belief. "That faith, together with baptism, is sufficient for justification; but that God demands alms and fasting, as amends for sin committed prior to the performance of the baptismal rite. "That unchristened children are not saved. "That the baptism of water is the true regeneration. "That invocation ought to be made to the saints, because sinning mortals are unworthy to appear in the presence of God, and because if the saints be well loved, they will listen to all prayer. "That every sin is forgiven from the moment that the kiss of the pilgrim is imprinted on the stones of Jerusalem; and that kissing the hand of a priest purifies the body in like manner. "That sins must be confessed to the priest--saints invoked--and full faith reposed in charms and amulets, more especially if written in an unknown tongue. "That prayers for the dead are necessary, and absolution indispensable; but that the souls of the departed do not immediately enter upon a state of happiness, the period being in exact accordance with the alms and prayers that are expended upon earth." All ideas regarding salvation are thus vague and indefinite; and vain; foolish doctrines have taken entire possession of the shallow thoughts of the Christian of Ethiopia. Born amid falsehood and deceit, cradled in bloodshed, and nursed in the arms of idleness and debauchery, the national character is truly painted in the confession of one of her degenerate sons:--"Whensoever we behold the pleasing ware, we desire to steal it; and we are never in the company of a man whom we dislike, that we do not wish to kill him on the spot." The uphill task of the missionary is therefore hard, and the wonder is that so much has been accomplished--not that the harvest is scanty. The example of a holy life cannot fail to produce a beneficial effect, and the preacher of the Gospel is acknowledged to possess every quality that is good, mild, and just; but disliked as a stranger of envied accomplishment, despised as an alien to the land, and hated by the jealous priesthood, the words of truth fall unheeded from lips the most eloquent, and the best directed endeavours prove of small avail. Perfectly satisfied with his own creed, the Abyssinian finds it easier to kiss the holy book than to peruse its contents, and to trust to the fast and the priestly absolution than to mould his conduct according to the Gospel; and it is not until commerce with the arts of civilised society shall have been introduced, that the barrier can be overcome, or one step be gained towards the restoration to the unhappy country of the true word of God. The bigotry of ages is confirmed by the self-pride and the excessive ignorance of the present race; and on the rising or on the unborn generation must rest the sole hope for a moral resurrection. Volume 3, Chapter XVII. ABYSSINIAN RITES AND PRACTICES WHICH WOULD APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN BORROWED FROM THE HEBREWS. The appellation of _Habeshi_, "a mixed and mingling people," is aptly exemplified in this strange medley of religion, to which the Jew, the Moslem, and the Pagan, has each contributed. A mixture from different nations, as stigmatised by the original term, the Abyssinians have garbled the faith of all their ancestors; and there is assuredly no Christian community in the whole world which has jumbled together truth and falsehood with such utter inconsistency as the vain church of Ethiopia. Many circumstances have conspired to render the nation more peculiarly susceptible of Hebrew influence. The first Christian missionary found the people idolaters and worshippers of the great serpent Arwe; but the ancestors of those Jews who to the present day exist in the country, unquestionably arrived long before the nation had embraced the Christian religion; and in their attempts to obtain a moral influence over their pagan hosts were far from being inactive in their adopted home. Thus the early Christian church, that of Egypt especially, by which many Hebrew customs had been embraced, was the more readily received when introduced into a nation amongst whom similar doctrines and practices were already in use. Boasting a direct descent from the house of Solomon, and flattering themselves in the name of the wisest man of antiquity, the emperors of Abyssinia preserve the high-sounding title of "King of Israel," and the national standard displays for their motto--"The Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed." The tradition of queen Maqueda has been ascribed to the invention of those fugitive Jews, who, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus, migrated into the northern states by way of the Red Sea--who disseminated it with the design of obtaining the desired permission to settle in the country, and whose descendants are the Falashas still extant among the mountains of Simien and Lasta. But whatever may be thought by others of the legend of descent, the firm national belief in the origin traced, will in a great measure account for the general inclination and consent to receive Hebrew rites and practices as they were from time to time presented. Jews as well as Christians believe the forty-fifth psalm to be a prophecy of the queen's visit to Jerusalem, whither she was attended by a daughter of Hiram the king of Tyre--the latter portion being a prediction of the birth of Menilek, who was to be king over a nation of Gentiles. Whatever the true date of their arrival, it is certain that the Hebrews have exercised a great influence upon the affairs of Abyssinia since the days of their dispersion; and although their religion was abjured by the nation on the promulgation of the Gospel, the children of Israel, moulding a portion of their worship on the formulae of the Christian faith, and esteemed as sorcerers and cunning artists in the land, found a safe asylum among the mountains, and exist to the present day, here as elsewhere, a separate and peculiar nation. With the destruction of the race of Solomon, the Jewish party for a time obtained the preponderance. Again, on the restoration of the legitimate dynasty, they were hunted among the mountains as a race accursed, and the feeling reigned paramount to sweep the wanderers from the face of the land. But the custom of ages had impressed the Hebrew practices too deeply to be removed. They were, in fact, regarded in the light of orthodox Christian doctrines; and, as might have been expected from a bigoted and superstitious people, the severest persecutions were enforced against the members of another creed, without the nation observing in how far they were themselves tainted with those very principles which in others they considered so justifiable to oppress. The Abyssinian Christian will neither eat with the Jew, nor with the Galla, nor with the Mohammadan, lest he should thereby participate in the delusions of his creed. The church and the churchyard are equally closed against all who commit this deadly sin; and the Ethiopian is bound by the same restrictions which prohibited the Jews from partaking of the flesh of certain animals. The act which is deemed disgraceful in the eyes of men, is regarded as a moral transgression, and is visited, as was the case in the Mosaic institution, by the stern reprimand of the priest. The penance of severe fasting, or of uneasy repose upon the bare ground, is enforced by the father confessor to efface the taint of the interdicted animal; and prayers must be repeated, and holy water plentifully besprinkled over the defiled person of that sinning individual who shall have dared to touch the meat of the hare, or the swine, or the aquatic fowl. "The children of Israel did not eat of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh." This in the Amharic language is termed _Shoolada_, and it is held unlawful to be eaten in Shoa, more especially to the members of the royal blood; a universal belief prevailing, that the touch of the unholy morsel would infallibly be followed by the loss of the offending teeth, as a direct proof of the just indignation of Heaven. The Jewish Sabbath is strictly observed throughout the kingdom. The ox and the ass are at rest. Agricultural pursuits are suspended. Household avocations must be laid aside, and the spirit of idleness reigns throughout the day. By order of the great council of Laodicea, the Oriental churches were freed from this burden; and the industrious gladly availed themselves of the ecclesiastical licence to work on the Saturday. Here, however, the ancient usage agreed too well with a people systematically indolent; and when, a few years ago, one daring spirit presumed, in advance of the age, to burst the fetters of superstition. His Majesty the king of Shoa, stimulated by the advice of besotted monks, issued a proclamation, that whoso violated the Jewish Sabbath should forfeit his property to the royal treasury, and be consigned to the state dungeon. Ludolf, the celebrated Strabo of Ethiopia, most accurately remarks, that there is no nation upon earth which fasts so strictly as the Abyssinians; and that they would rather commit a great crime than touch food on the day of abstinence. They not only boast with the Pharisee, "I fast twice a week," but pride themselves also upon their mortification of the flesh during half the year, whilst the haughty and self-sufficient monk vaunts his meagre diet as the only means of expiation from sin and evil desire. The Abyssinians, in common with other Christian communities who rigidly observe the fasts of Wednesday and Friday, advance as an argument, that the Jews seized our Saviour on the first of those days, and on the second carried into execution their design of crucifixion; but as this account differs from the evidence of the Gospel, which shows that the arrest took place upon the Thursday, the observance is most probably an imitation of the weekly fasts in existence among the Jews. The fast of the forty days before Easter is observed with much greater rigour than any other in Abyssinia; and the reckless individual who shall neglect the great "Toma Hodadi" cannot possess one sentiment of true religion in his heart. To the abstinence of this season especially are attached peculiar virtues which completely nullify the effect of every sin that may be committed throughout the residue of the year. According to the Jewish practice, all culinary utensils must be thoroughly cleansed and polished, to the end that no particle of meat or prohibited food may remain to pollute the pious intention. Journeys and travel are strictly interdicted; and from the Thursday until Easter morn no morsel should enter the lip, and the parched throat ought to remain without moisture. During the fast of the holy Virgin, children of tender years are not even exempted from the penance of sixteen days; and during the many and weary weeks of abstinence which roll slowly throughout the entire year, the Abyssinian priest would grant no dispensation to the famished mortal, "were he even to receive an immediate mandate from heaven." Sahela Selassie arose some years ago a mighty zealot in the cause; and perceiving that the custom was beginning to decline, proclaimed through the royal herald pains and penalties sufficiently severe to insure the future strict observance of the fast. The commands of the defender of the faith were, however, in one instance, transgressed by a soldier, during a military expedition; but his excuse of fatigue under a heavy load of the king's camp equipage was admitted; and although on similar occasions a certain licence is extended, still the monarch keeps a strict watch over the maintenance of church discipline. On the annual day of atonement, the Jews were obliged to confess their sins before a priest. In like manner the Abyssinians are commanded from time to time to perform the ceremony, during the great fast of Hodadi more particularly, and on Good Friday, the day of the Jewish expiation. And as the slave, in token of his freedom and dismissal, received the blow from the Roman praetor, so the penitent on absolution receives a stroke over the shoulders from a branch of the Woira tree, as a sign of his deliverance from sin and Satan. Like the Pagans of ancient and modern times, who placed between the most high God and themselves an inferior deity, the Abyssinians observe this species of idolatry, although the names of their tutelar spirits have been changed. Saint Michael and the holy Virgin are here venerated as in no other country in the world--the former as the martial leader of all the choirs of angels--the latter as chief of all saints, and queen of heaven and of earth; and both are considered as the great intercessors for mankind. The detrimental influence of this superstition is fully exemplified in the conduct of the nation. The mediator is ever employed when individual courage fails in impudent assurance or insatiable beggary. Time is uselessly wasted in importunity, which all believe must in the end prove successful; and the practice of invocation and intercession thus exerts the most baneful tendency even upon the daily dealings of life. Like the Jews of old, the Abyssinians weep and lament on all occasions of death, and the shriek ascends to the sky, as if the soul could be again recalled from the world of spirits. The Israelites employed hired mourners; but here the friends and relatives of the departed assemble for the same purpose, and the absence of any from the scene is ascribed to want of love and affection. As with the Jews, the most inferior garments are put on; and the skin is torn from the temples, and scarified on the cheeks and breast, to proclaim the last extremity of grief. In later days, the extravagance of mourning has been somewhat moderated, through the agency of a priest of the church of Saint George, who stood boldly forward to arrest a practice equally at variance with the sacred books of the country, and with the spirit of the New Testament. Excommunication was thundered upon all who should thenceforth indulge publicly in the luxury of woe; and the people trembled under the ban of the church. The death of a great governor soon confirmed the restriction. Being loved and esteemed by all classes, the prohibition was severely felt. The complaint was referred to the throne; and as the deceased was a man of rank, and a royal favourite withal, the clergy were commanded to grant absolution in this one instance. But Zeddoo, the stout-hearted priest, arose, and declared that he had no respect for persons, and that the words of truth must be defended to the death. The silence of the monarch enforced the ecclesiastical fiat; and to this day the drum is mute at the funeral wake, and the customary praise of the defunct is heard no more in the public resorts of the capital. The Talmud asserts that those who died piously remained in a state of active knowledge of all the occurrences of this world. Philo, the learned Jew of Alexandria, informs us, that the souls of the patriarchs pray incessantly for the Jewish nation, and the erudite rabbins alleged that angels are the governors of all sublunary things, and that each man and every country has a guardian angel for protection and direction. The Abyssinians carry this belief still further--they confidently anticipate the intercession and assistance of saints and angels in all spiritual and secular concerns, and invoke and adore them in even a higher degree than the Creator. All their churches are dedicated to one in particular, and the holy "tabot" is regarded as the visible representative of the celestial patron. The ark of Saint Michael accompanies all military expeditions, to insure success against the Gentiles; and that of Tekla Haimanot stands the palladium of the north, to preserve the empire from the attacks of the Mohammadan prince of Argobba. All the absurd ideas of the Jewish rabbins regarding the dead have been received and embraced by the fathers of Abyssinia. They maintain with the Romanists too, that the soul of the departed does not immediately enter into the kingdom of joy, but is conducted to an habitation situated in an invisible spot between the heaven and the earth, where it remains until the resurrection, in a state of happiness or torment, according to the alms and prayers bestowed by surviving relatives and friends. This Abyssinian "limbo" is supposed also to be occupied by the saints; and the absurdity is increased by the belief that intercession with the Almighty is absolutely necessary to absolve the Heavenly host from their spiritual imperfections, and insure their resting in peace until the coming of Christ. But the interest of the avaricious priest is concerned in the preservation of this doctrine, and a corner of the churchyard is sternly denied to all who die without death-bed confession, or whose relations refuse the fee and the funeral feast. The payment of eight pieces of salt, however, wafts the soul of a poor man to a place of rest, and the _tescar_, or banquet for the dead, places him in a degree of happiness according to the costliness of the entertainment. The price of eternal bliss is necessarily higher to the rich; whilst royalty is taxed at a still more costly rate, and the anniversaries of the deaths of the six kings of Shoa are held with great ceremony in the capital. Once during every twelve months, before the commencement of a splendid feast, their souls are fully absolved from all sin; and the munificence of their illustrious descendant is still further displayed in the long line of beeves which afterwards wends its way to the threshold of every church in Ankober. Volume 3, Chapter XVIII. THE PEOPLE. Ethiops, one of the twelve descendants of Cush, the son of Ham, said to have been begotten and buried at Axum, is regarded by the Abyssinians as their great progenitor. Shortly after the Flood, the grandson of Noah is believed to have advanced from the low country, then under the dominion of the sea and the marsh, until, after crossing a tract little fitted for the occupation of the shepherd, he ascended the highlands of Ethiopia, which afforded an inviting habitation to the parent stock, from which have emanated the different shoots of African population. Like most other Abyssinian legends, this version is somewhat at variance with received history, which assigns to Arabia the original seat of the Cushites. The strange medley of colour and feature observable at the present day, does not, however, overturn the theory of origin. The habits of the people and the peculiarly varied climate of their country, together with the usual result of mingling intercourse with the fairer and more beautiful among the various hordes of slaves which have for ages streamed through the land from the ravaged interior, are in themselves fully sufficient to account for the diversity. The connection with Arabia, commencing at a period the most remote, is known to have existed for many centuries. Armies from both nations respectively visited each other in wrath--merchants reciprocally sustained the intercourse. Later still, the family of the false Prophet found an asylum among the mountains of a country which, as a Christian state that was not overwhelmed by the resistless flood of Islamism, stands alone in the history of Eastern nations; and to the present day many peculiarities in the language, the laws, and the customs of both, continue to mark a common origin. Existing usages would also tend to confirm what was asserted in the days of Diodorus, that Egypt was originally colonised from Ethiopia, the very soil being brought down from the highlands by the floods of the Nile. Caucasian features predominate amongst the Amhara, notwithstanding that the complexion passes through every shade, from an olive brown to the jet black of the Negro. An approximation to the thick lip and flattened nose is not unfrequently to be seen; but the length and silkiness of the hair invariably marks the wide difference that exists between the two races. The men are tall, robust, and well formed; and the women, although symmetrically made, are scarcely less masculine. They are rarely beautiful; and their attempts are indeed ingenious to render hideous the broad unmeaning expanse of countenance bestowed upon them by nature. All savages esteem certain deformities to be perfection, and strive, by augmenting the wildness of their aspect, to enhance the beauty of their persons. Having first eradicated the eyebrows, the Amhara damsel paints a deep narrow curved line in their room with a strong permanent blue dye; thus imparting a look of vacancy and foolishness, which in the high-born dame is heightened by plastering the cheeks to the very eyes with a pigment of red ochre and fat. If not close shaven and encircled by a narrow greasy fillet of rag, the head is adorned with many minute rows of elaborate curls, which diverge from a common centre, and are besmeared with stale butter until the wig has assumed the appearance of an ordinary English beehive. The costume consists of a wide sack chemise with full sleeves, confined round the waist by a narrow girdle, and surmounted by a long winding sheet thrown over the head, and descending to the heels--very coarse and strong, and, like Ruth's veil, fully capable of containing six measures of wheat. Large black wooden studs in the lobe of the ear are on high days and holydays replaced by masses of silver or pewter, resembling a pile of hand-grenades, or the teething rattles employed in nurseries. Bracelets and anklets of the same metals, which, from their clumsiness, are aptly denominated "fetters," are worn by those who can afford such extravagance. Blue and gold-coloured beads are ingeniously wrought into a necklace by the wealthier, who never appear without a bandoleer of potent amulets, terminating in a huge bell-rope tassel; and the lady of rank completes her toilet by dyeing her hands and feet red with the bulb called _ensosela_, securely plugging up the nostrils with lemon-peel or some aromatic herb, so that the end of the bouquet may dangle before the mouth. From the king to the peasant the costume of the men consists of a large loose web of coarse cotton cloth, enveloping the entire person in graceful folds, but well-nigh incapacitating the wearer from exertion. Frequently disarranged, and falling ever and anon upon the ground, the troublesome garment must be constantly tucked up and folded anew about the shoulders, from which it is removed in deference to every passing superior. A cotton waistcloth of many yards in length is swathed about the loins, and a pair of very wide loose trousers, termed _senaphil_, hang barely to the knee. The sword, the spear, and the buckler, are the national weapons, and the first is girded to the loins of every male subject in the kingdom, be his profession what it may. Barely two feet in length, and highly curved, it rather resembles a sickle than an implement of war. It serves equally at the banquet and in the field; but being firmly lashed to the right side, protrudes most incommodiously behind, and is not to be detached from the scabbard unless by much grunting and personal exertion. The serf still appears in the raw fleece of the sheep, which he shifts according to the vicissitudes of the weather, "With the unfashion'd fur Rough-clad, devoid of every finer art. And elegance of life;" but during the journey or the foray, a cloak, composed of the prepared skin of the lion, the leopard, or the ocelot, is thrown over the shoulder of the better classes. Neither shoes nor sandals are ever employed. The despot and the wandering mendicant are alike bare-footed, and, unless by the clergy or the inmate of the monastery, no covering is worn over the head. A wooden skewer, displaying either a feather or a sprig of wild asparagus, is stuck in the hair of two-thirds of the nation, and the arm of every man of any note is encumbered either with an infinity of copper rings forming a gauntlet, with ponderous ivory armlets, or with a mass of silver which might serve as a shackle to a wild colt. In the absence of a razor, the men scrupulously denude their cheeks and chin with a pair of very indifferent scissors--a mode of proceeding which serves greatly to enhance the dirty appearance of their unwashed faces. Water, not less than coffee and tobacco, being studiously avoided, as savouring too strongly of abhorred Islamism, the Christian contents himself with rubbing his eyes in the morning with the dry corner of his discoloured robe; but the greatest attention is paid to the management of the hair with which nature has so liberally supplied him, and many hours are daily expended in arranging the mop into various and quaint devices. At one time-worn hanging in long clustering ringlets over the cheeks and neck--at another, frizzed into round matted protuberances; to-day fancifully tricked and trimmed into small rows of minute curls like a counsellor's peruke, and to-morrow boldly divided into four large lotus-leaved compartments. During the period of mourning, which extends to one year, black or yellow garments, or the ordinary apparel steeped in mire, must be worn; and on the demise of a relative or friend, both sexes scarify the cheeks by tearing from below each temple a circular piece of skin about the size of a sixpence; to accomplish which, the nail of the little finger is purposely suffered to grow like an eagle's talon. An ecclesiastical remonstrance to the throne, representing this practice to be in direct violation of the written law, "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead," long since obtained the promulgation of a royal edict directing its discontinuance; but it is still universally practised, and throughout the kingdom there is scarcely an individual to be seen, whether male or female, who has not at some period of life been thus horribly disfigured. The _mateb_, a small encircling cord of deep blue silk, chosen in reference to the smiling sky above, is the badge of debased Christianity throughout the land, and those who accidentally appear in public without it are severely censured by their pastors. Like other Eastern nations, the Amhara have no family name. They soon ripen and grow old. Girls become mothers at the early age of twelve, and are decayed before the summer of life has well commenced. It has been conjectured by Pliny, that the Orientals received their first hints in architecture from the swallow, and that, in imitation of the abode of the feathered instructor, their primeval essays were made in clay. Whence the Abyssinians obtained their ideas on the subject it were difficult to tell, but it is certain that they have made little progress whether in execution or in design. Their houses, constructed as in the earliest days, are still a mere framework of stakes sparingly bedaubed with a rude coating of mud. Here thieves can readily break through and steal; and of such a flimsy nature are the materials employed, that the morning sun often rises a witness to the truth of the scriptural metaphor, "He built his house upon the sand, and it was swept away by the rising flood." The windows, when any windows there be, are mere perforations in the wall, furnished with clumsy shutters, but unprovided with any transparent substance; and thus, if the ponderous door is closed against the searching fog, or the cutting wintry blast, all possibility of admitting light is precluded; whilst, excepting through the crevices in the plank, and the apertures of the cracked walls, there exists no exit for the smoke of the sunken wood fire, which thus fills the solitary apartment, blackens the low roof, and occasions frequent attacks of ophthalmia. Throughout, the most slovenly appearance pervades the dreary interior. Furniture is limited to a small wicker table, a bullock's hide, and a rickety bedstead abounding in vermin; and whilst the universal objection to the use of water, whether as regards the person or the apparel of the inmates, enhances the gloomy vista of cobweb desolation, dirt and filth choke up the surrounding enclosure. The absence of drains or sewers compels the population of the towns and villages to live in the miasma of decomposing matter and stagnant water. The comfort of space is never consulted--stables and outhouses are far beyond the notions of the proprietor; and in the absence of all tidiness or comfort in the arrangement of the yards, the unseemly dunghill, which in other countries is carried away to improve the soil, is here suffered to accumulate and rot before the entrance. Poisoning the atmosphere with its baneful exhalations, it is periodically swept away by the descending torrents to feed the rank weeds which fatten in the mire; but no attempt is to be seen at the small trim garden, or neat rustic porch, even in the lone farm-steadings which are scattered throughout the country. All alike present a dreary look of desertion. The poultry, and the mules, and the farm-stock, and the inhabitants, all reside under the same roof. Bare walls and slovenly thatch rise from a straggling wattle stockade, which environs the premises to preserve the inmates from the nocturnal attacks of the prowling hyena, and to impart the fullest idea of confinement and misery. Few trees break the monotony of the scene. No busy hum of glad labour is to be heard--no bustle or noise among the elders--no merry game or amusement among the children; and thus to the European visitor the whole appears strange, savage, and unnatural. With doors allowing free ingress to every injurious current, with roofs admitting the tropical rain, and sunken floors covered with unwholesome damp, it is only surprising that many more of the people of Shoa are not martyrs to disease. It is now nine years since an epidemic called _ougaret_ made its appearance at the capital, and, as might have been anticipated, spread with fearful virulence in the foul city. The iron drum of misfortune was heard by the credulous pealing over the land; and although a black bull was led through the streets, followed by the inhabitants carrying stones upon their heads in token of repentance, and the sacrifice of atonement was duly performed, one half of the whole population were speedily swept away. The monarch sought strict seclusion in the remote palace at Machal-wans, where he would see no person until the plague was stayed; and those who survived of his terror-stricken subjects fled for a season from a hill which was declared by the superstitious priesthood to have been blasted by a curse from heaven. Volume 3, Chapter XIX. SOCIAL AND MORAL CONDITION. In Shoa a girl is reckoned according to the value of her property; and the heiress to a house, a field, and a bedstead, is certain to add a husband to her list before many summers have shone over her head. Marriage is generally concluded by the parties declaring, before witnesses, "upon the life of the king," that they intend to live happily together, and the property of each being produced, is carefully appraised. A mule or an ass, a dollar, a shield, and a sheaf of spears on the one side, are noted against the lady's stock of wheat, cotton, and household gear; and the bargain being struck, the effects become joint for the time, until some domestic difference results in both taking up their own, and departing to seek a new mate. Matrimony is, however, occasionally solemnised by the church, in a manner somewhat similar to the observance of more civilised lands; the contracting parties swearing to take each other for life, in wealth or in poverty, in sickness or in health, and afterwards ratifying the ceremony by partaking together of the holy sacrament, and by an oath on the despot's life. But this fast binding is not relished by the inhabitants of Shoa, and it is of very rare occurrence. Favourite slaves and concubines are respected as much as wedded wives. No distinction is made betwixt legitimate and illegitimate children; and, to the extent of his means, every subject follows the example set by the monarch, who, it has been seen, entertains upon his establishment, in addition to his lawful spouse, no fewer than five hundred concubines. The king resides only for a few weeks at either of his many palaces; and whenever he proceeds to another, is accompanied by all his chief officers, courtiers, and domestics. At each new station a new female establishment is invariably entertained. All conjugal affection is lost sight of, and each woman is in turn cast aside in neglect. Few married couples ever live long together without violating their vow; and the dereliction being held of small account, a beating is the only punishment inflicted upon the weaker party. The jewel chastity is here in no repute; and the utmost extent of reparation to be recovered in a court of justice for the most aggravated case of seduction is but fivepence sterling! Morality is thus at the very lowest ebb; for there is neither custom nor inducement to be chaste, and beads, more precious than fine gold, bear down every barrier of restraint. Honesty and modesty both yield to the force of temptation, and pride is seldom offended at living in a state of indolent dependence upon others. The soft savage requires but little inducement to follow the bent of her passions according to the dictates of unenlightened nature; and neither scruples of conscience nor the rules of the loose society form any obstacle whatever to their entire gratification. The bulk of the nation is agricultural; but on pain of forfeiting eight pieces of salt, value twenty-pence sterling, every Christian subject of Shoa is compelled, whenever summoned, to follow his immediate governor to the field. A small bribe in cloth or honey will sometimes obtain leave of absence, but the peasant is usually ready and anxious for the foray; presenting as it does the chance of capturing a slave, or a flock of sheep, of obtaining honour in the eyes of the despot, and of gratifying his inherent thirst for heathen blood. The principal men of the country who may not be entrusted with government, spend their time in basking in the sun, holding idle gossip with their neighbours, lounging about the purlieus of the court, or gambling at _gebeta_ or _shuntridge_, [see Note 1] the management of the house being left to the women, and the direction of the farm to the servants and slaves. Visits are customarily paid early in the morning; and it is reckoned disreputable to enter a stranger's house after the hour of meals, because the etiquette of the country enforcing the presentation of refreshment, the unseasonable call is ascribed to a desire to obtain it. Whether in the cabinet or in the field, a great man is constantly surrounded by a numerous band of sycophants, and never for a moment suffered to be by himself. The custom of the country enjoins the practice; the cheapness of provisions favours the support of a large retinue; and through the lack of manufactories, the population is able to supply an unlimited number of idlers, who are willing to pick up a livelihood by any means that chance may present. But to the stranger the nuisance is a crying one. No privacy is to be enjoyed, for no retirement is ever permitted. A dozen naked savages are perpetually by one's side, restrained by no very correct ideas of order or decorum. Each intruder seizes the first object that comes within his reach, and attacks ears, teeth, and nose, with the most reckless indifference to appearance. The confused hum and the half-suppressed chatter are far from affording assistance during the hours of mental employment; and at the season of meals, or during the presence of illustrious visitors, the whole establishment, denuded to the girdle, crowd into the apartment to satisfy their own curiosity, under pretext of doing honour to their lord and master. On the first introduction of a stranger, an individual is selected from the establishment, and appointed the _baldoraba_, or "introducer." He is designed to illustrate the agency of the holy Virgin and of the saints, between the Redeemer and the sinning mortal. To him and to him alone can a visitor look for admittance into the house; and unless he be present, the monarch and the great man are alike invisible. Courtyards may be thronged with attendants, and the doors may seem invitingly accessible, but the _open sesame_ is wanting, and the repulsed party returns to his home disgusted with the insolence received. Time, however, gradually softens down the rigidity of this most inconvenient practice, which is at first so pertinaciously observed. Suspicion of evil design gives way on matured acquaintance; and after a certain probation, there is not much more difficulty experienced in gaining admittance to an Abyssinian hut, than to the lordly halls of the English nobleman. Respect is paid by prostration to the earth in a manner the most degrading and humiliating--by bowing the face among the very dust--by removing the robe in order to expose the body--and on entering the house, by kissing the nearest inanimate object. Every subject, of whatever rank, when admitted to the royal presence, throws himself flat before the footstool, and three times brings his forehead in contact with the ground. All stand with shoulders bare to the girdle before His Majesty, or any superior; but to equals the corner of the cloth is removed only for a time. Any thing delivered to a domestic must be received with both hands in a cringing attitude; and should a present be made, the nearest object, generally the threshold of the door, is invariably saluted with the lips. Amongst persons of rank, presents are frequently interchanged, and the utmost display is attempted on their delivery. Whenever anything was offered to us by our Amhara hosts, the articles were subdivided into a multiplicity of minute portions, placed in baskets covered with red cloth, consigned to a long train of bearers, and each component part of the gift exposed in turn to our view. Wild bulls and unruly he-goats, half as large as a donkey, were sometimes forcibly dragged into our sitting apartment, to the imminent danger and frequent pollution of all around. My personal inspection and approval was required to cocks and hens, unseemly joints of raw beef, loaves of half-baked dough, pots of rancid butter, sticky jars of honey, or leaky barilles of hydromel, sacks of barley, bundles of forage, and coarse overgrown cabbages; and any deviation from this established rule was certain to be visited with the most dire displeasure. Meals are taken twice during the day--at noon and after sunset. The doors are first scrupulously barred to exclude the evil eye, and a fire is invariably lighted before the Amhara will venture to appease his hunger--a superstition existing, that without this precaution, devils would enter in the dark, and there would be no blessing on the meat. Men and women sit down together, and most affectionately pick out from the common dish the choicest bits, which, at arm's length, they thrust into each other's mouth, wiping their fingers on the pancakes which serve as platters, and which are afterwards devoured by the domestics. The appearance of the large owlish black face bending over the low wicker table, to receive into the gaping jaws the proffered morsel of raw beef, which, from its dimensions, requires considerable strength of finger to be forced into the aperture, is sufficiently ludicrous, and brings to mind a nest of sparrows in the garden hedge expanding their toad-like throats to the whistle of the school-boy. Mastication is accompanied by a loud smacking of the lips--an indispensable sign of good breeding, which is send to be neglected by none but mendicants, "who eat as if they were ashamed of it;" and sneezing, which is frequent during the operation, is accompanied by an invocation to the Holy Trinity, when every by-stander is expected to exclaim, _Maroo_! "God bless you!" Raw flesh forms the grand aliment of life. It is not unfrequently seasoned with the gall of the slaughtered animal; but a sovereign contempt is entertained towards all who have recourse to a culinary process. The bull is thrown down at the very door of the eating-house; the head having been turned to the eastward, is, with the crooked sword, nearly severed from the body, under an invocation to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and no sooner is the breath out of the carcass, than the raw and quivering flesh is handed to the banquet. It is not fair to brand a nation with a foul stigma, resting on a solitary fact; but from my own experience I can readily believe all that is related by the great traveller Bruce of the cruelties practised in Northern Abyssinia. Sour bread, made from teff, barley, and wheat, is eaten with a stimulating pottage of onions, red pepper, and salt. _Dabo_, the most superior description of bread manufactured, is restricted to the wealthier classes; but there are numerous other methods employed in the preparation of grain, descending through all the grades of _hebest, anbabero, anabroot, deffo, amasa, debenia, demookta_, and _kitta_; the first four being composed of wheaten flour, and the remainder of teff, gram, juwarree, barley, and peas. Mead formed the beverage of the northern nations, and was celebrated in song by all their bards. It was the nectar they expected to quaff in heaven from the skulls of their enemies, and upon earth it was liberally patronised. In Shoa the despot alone retains the right of preparing the much-prized luxury, which, under the title of _tedj_, is esteemed far too choice for the lip of the plebeian. Unless brewed with the greatest care, it possesses a sweet mawkish flavour, particularly disagreeable to the palate of the foreigner; but its powers of intoxication, which do not appear to be attended with the after-feelings inseparable from the use of other potent liquors, extend an irresistible attraction to the Amhara of rank, who will never, if the means of inebriation be placed within his reach, proceed sober to bed. The branches of the _gesho_ plant are dried, pulverised, and boiled with water, until a strong bitter decoction is produced, which is poured off and left to cool. Honey and water being added, fermentation takes place on the third day. Chilies and pepper are next thrown in, and the mixture is consigned to an earthen vessel, closely sealed with mud and cow-dung. The strength increases with the age; and the monarch's cellars are well stored with jars filled thirty years ago, which, little inferior in potency to old Cognac, furnish the material for the nightly orgies in the palace. The _tullah_, or beer of the country, also possesses intoxicating properties, and if swallowed to the requisite extent, produces the consummation desired. Barley or juwarree, having been buried until the grain begins to sprout, is bruised, and added to the bitter decoction of the _gesho_. Fermentation ensues on the fourth day, when the liquor is closed in an earthen vessel, and according to the temperature of the hut, becomes ready for use in ten or fifteen more. The capacity of the Abyssinian for this sour beverage, which in aspect resembles soap and water, is truly amazing. In every house gallons are each evening consumed, and serious rioting, if not bloodshed, is too often the result of the festivity. Rising with the liquor quaffed, the fiercer passions gradually gain the entire ascendency, and guests seldom return to their homes without witnessing the broil and the scuffle, the flashing of swords and the dealing of deep cuts and wounds among the drunken combatants. If but a small portion of the grease which is so plentifully besmeared over the Christian persons of the Amhara were employed in the fabrication of candles, the long idle evenings might be passed in a more pleasant and profitable manner than in the swilling of beer like hogs, and the consequent brawling contentions which at present stigmatise their nocturnal meetings. On ordinary occasions, however, when not engaged in a debauch, the Abyssinian retires to his bed as soon as the shades of night close in. A bullock's hide is stretched upon the mud floor, on which, for mutual warmth, all the inferior members of the family lie huddled together _in puris naturalibus_. The clothing of the day forming the covering at night, is equitably distributed over the whole party; and should the master of the house require sustenance during the nocturnal hours, a collop of raw flesh and a horn of ale are presented by a male or female attendant, who starts without apparel from the group of sleepers, exclaiming _Abiet_! "My lord!" to the well-known summons from the famished _gaita_. Coffee, although flourishing wild in many parts of the kingdom, is at all times strictly forbidden on pain of exclusion from the church; and the priesthood have extended the same penal interdiction to smoking, "because the Apostle saith, that which cometh out of the mouth of a man defileth him." One half the year, too, which is reserved for utter idleness, is marked by an exclusion of all meat diet, under the penalty of excommunication. Eggs and butter are then especially forbidden, as also milk, which is styled "the cow's son." Nothing whatever is tasted between sunrise and sunset; and even at the appointed time a scanty mess of boiled wheat, dried peas, or the leaves of the kail-cabbage, with a little vegetable oil, is alone permitted to those who are unable to obtain fish, of which none are found in any of the upland rivers. Besides Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the twelve months, which are observed as holydays, the fast of the Apostles continues eighteen days, that of the holy Virgin sixteen, Christmas seven, Nineveh four, and Lent fifty-six. During all these, labouring men are strictly prohibited from every employment, and, as they desire their souls to be saved, are compelled to live like anchorites, to the serious diminution of their bodily strength. This is encouraged and promoted by the king; yet there is no system more baneful than that of devoting so many precious days to idleness and vice, and none forming a more fatal obstacle to the amelioration of the people. Where such a waste of time as this is sanctioned by religion, how deeply laid must be the foundation of mental ignorance! Six months out of the twelve devoted to listless idleness is indeed an immense source of evil, and God, who has placed men here for useful and worthy exertion, is not likely to reward them for their sloth. But throughout Abyssinia the evil is in full force. In arts, in industry, and in social as well as in moral existence, her sons are shrouded under a dense cloud of ignorance. Want of education denies them the relaxation of intellectual employment--little amusement varies the dull routine of a life awed by the church, by the king, and by the nobles; and an unprofitable existence having been passed in this world, the spirit passes away without any very distinct idea being entertained of what is to happen in the next. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1. _Gebeta_ is a game something allied to backgammon, but played with sixty-four balls, stored in twenty cavities on the board. _Shuntridge_ is, with few deviations, the Arab game of chess. Volume 3, Chapter XX. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. Geez, the ancient Ethiopic, was the vernacular language of the shepherds. Until the fourteenth century of the Christian era it remained that of the Abyssinian empire, and in it are embodied all the annals of her religion. After the downfall of the Zeguean dynasty, and the restoration of the banished descendants of Solomon, Amharic became the court language, to the complete exclusion of the Geez. It prevails in Shoa, as well as in all the provinces included between the Taccaze and the blue Nile, and is thus spoken by the greater portion of the population of Abyssinia. The province from which the language has derived its appellation is at the present day in occupation of the Yedjow, and other Mohammadan Galla tribes, who speak a distinct dialect; but the fact of "Amhara" being a term held synonymous with "Christian," would prove that it must formerly have exerted pre-eminent influence in the empire. Of Semitic origin, and acknowledging the Ethiopic as its parent, the Amharic displays much interchange with the surrounding African languages--those, especially, which are spoken by the Danakil, the Somauli, the Galla, the people of Argobba, and those of Hurrur and of Gurague. The cognate dialect peculiar to Tigre has received much less adulteration from other tongues, and consequently preserves a closer similitude to the Ethiopic; and this circumstance may be traced to the greater intercourse maintained with a variety of foreign nations by the versatile and unstable population in the south. Amharic excepted, none of the many languages extant in Abyssinia have assumed a written form. The Ethiopic characters, twenty-six in number, are the Coptic adaptation of the Greek alphabet, modelled upon the plan of the Arabic, deranged from their former order, and rendered rude and uncouth by the fingers of barbarous scribes. Each individual consonant, being subjected to variations of figure correspondent with the number of the vowels, produces a prolific kaleidoscope mixture, which might have been deemed sufficient. But the ingenious phonologist who applied these to the Amharic tongue, has superadded seven foreign letters, each undergoing seven transformations by the annexure of as many vowel points; and these, with the addition of a suitable modicum of diphthongs, complete a total of two hundred and fifty-one characters, of the separate denomination of any of which, notwithstanding that most have possessed names from all antiquity, it may not perhaps be considered extraordinary that the most erudite in the land should profess entire ignorance. When the Egyptian monarch interdicted the employment of the papyrus, parchment was invented. The Jews very early availed themselves of the _charta pergamena_, whereupon to write their Scriptures. The roll is still used in their synagogues; and being introduced into Abyssinia on the Hebrew emigration, it continues the only material used by the scribe. His ink is a mucilage of gum-arabic mixed with lamp-black. It acquires the consistency of that used in printing, and retains its intense colour for ages. The pen is the reed used in the East, but without any nib, and the inkstand is the sharp end of a cow's horn, which is stuck into the ground as the writer squats to his task. But it must be confessed that the Abyssinian scribe does not hold the pen of a ready writer; and the dilatory management of his awkward implement is attended with gestures and attitudes the most ludicrous. Under many convulsive twitches of the elbow, the tiny style is carried first to the mouth, and the end having been seized between the teeth, is masticated in a sort of mental frenzy. Throughout the duration of this necessary preliminary, the narrow strip of dirty vellum is held at arm's length, and viewed askance on every side with looks of utter horror and dismay; and when at last the stick descends to dig its furrow upon the surface, no terrified school-boy, with the birch of the pedagogue hanging over his devoted head, ever took such pains in painting the most elaborate pothook, as does the Abyssinian professor of the art of writing, in daubing his strange hieroglyphics upon the scroll. As with the Chinaman, each individual character must, on completion, be scrutinised from every possible point of view, before proceeding to the next. Every word must be read aloud by the delighted artist, spelt and re-spelt, and read again; and the greasy skin must be many times inverted, in order that the happy effect may be thoroughly studied. During each interval of approval, the destructive convulsions of the jaw are continued, to the complete demolition of the pencil, and, long before the termination of the opening sentence, European patience has become exhausted at the scene of awkward stupidity, and the gross waste of valuable time which it involves. Seventeen years have been employed in transcribing a single manuscript, and an ordinary page is the utmost that can be produced by one entire day's steady application. A book is composed of separate leaves enclosed between wooden boards, usually furnished with the fragment of a broken looking-glass for the toilet of the proprietor, and carefully enveloped in a leathern case. The contents being of a sacred nature, and generally in an unknown tongue, they are looked upon with the eye of superstitious credulity, and more especially venerated if embellished with coloured daubs and an illuminated title-page. The pictorial art is still far behind the middle ages of Europe; and the appearance of the limner arranging his design with a stick of charcoal, or tilling in the gaudy partitions with the chewed point of a reed dabbled in the yolk of an egg, which is placed on end before him, proves sufficiently diverting. The conceits of some of the most celebrated masters also afford a fund of amusement. Christ stilling the tempest is a subject fraught with perplexity to those who have never seen either a maritime vessel or the "great water," and firearms are placed somewhat before their invention in the hands of the heroes of antiquity. Our common father in the enjoyment of Paradise is at the present day invariably depicted with an emblazoned buckler, a sprig of asparagus, and a silver sword; and his erring partner appears with a bushy beehive wig most elaborately buttered, and with silver ear-rings resembling piles of cannon shot. But although doubts exist as to the complexion of the first parents of mankind, the fact is not a little complimentary to the heretic Franks, that the fairest skin is given to saints, angels, and the "dead kings of memory," whereas black or blue are the colours invariably employed in depicting his Satanic majesty. One hundred and ten volumes [Vide Appendix] comprise the literature at this day extant in Abyssinia; but tradition records the titles of other works, which it has already been said were deposited for security in the islands of the lake Zooai, at the period of the Mohammadan inroads. Of the accumulated lore of ages, four manuscripts only are written in the language at present spoken and understood; and, with exception of the Holy Scriptures, the whole is little more than a tissue of absurd church controversy and lying monkish legend. Four monstrous folios, styled Senkesar, which are to be found in every church, briefly record the miracles and lives of the numerous saints and eminent persons who receive adoration in Abyssinia; and on the day ordered by the calendar for the service of each, his biography is read for the edification of all those of the congregation who comprehend the Ethiopic tongue. A host of pious worthies thus preside over every day of the entire year; and fables of the most preposterous kind, detailed with scrupulous minuteness, are vouched for upon unexceptionable authority. Idle legends form the delight of the people of Shoa. The Ethiopic saint is nothing inferior to his western brethren. He performs yet more marvellous miracles, leads a still more ascetic life, and suffers even more dreadful martyrdom; whence he is proportionably adored in the native land of credulity, superstition, and religious zeal. Between apocryphal and canonical books no distinction is made. Bel and the Dragon is read with as much devotion as the Acts of the Apostles, and it might be added, with equal edification too; and Saint George vanquishing his green dragon is an object of nearly as great veneration as any of the heroes in the Old Testament. But the stores of literature being wholly bound up in a dead letter, few excepting the priests and _defteras_ can decipher them, and many of these learned men are often more indebted to the memory of their early youth than to the well-thumbed page in their hand. The ignorance of the nation is indeed truly deplorable; for those children only receive the rudiments of an education who are designed for the service of the church; and the course of study adopted being little calculated to expand the mind of the neophyte, a peculiar deficiency is presented in intellectual features. The five churches of Ankober have each their small quota of scholars, but the aggregate does not amount to eighty out of a population of from twelve to fifteen thousand! Abyssinia, as she now is, presents the most singular compound of vanity, meekness, and ferocity--of devotion, superstition, and ignorance. But, compared with other nations of Africa, she unquestionably holds a high station. She is superior in arts and in agriculture, in laws, religion, and social condition, to all the benighted children of the sun. The small portion of good which does exist may justly be ascribed to the remains of the wreck of Christianity, which, although stranded on a rocky shore, and buffeted by the storms of ages, is not yet wholly overwhelmed; and from the present degradation of a people avowing its tenets, may be inferred the lesson of the total inefficacy of its forms and profession, if unsupported by enough of mental culture to enable its spirit and its truths to take root in the heart, and bear fruit in the character of the barbarian. There is, perhaps, no portion of the whole continent to which European civilisation might be applied with better ultimate results; and although now dwindled into an ordinary kingdom, Habesh, under proper government and proper influence, might promote the amelioration of all the surrounding people, whilst she resumed her original position as the first of African monarchies. Volume 3, Chapter XXI. THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. Ever since the arrival of the British Embassy in Shoa, the king's attention had been occupied with controversies, which, during a period of sixty years, have perplexed the Abyssinian divines. The doctrines which His Majesty conceives to be most conducive to salvation are, unfortunately, diametrically opposed to the historical facts and clear evidence of the Gospel; but as summary deposition and confiscation of property is the sure meed of heresy, he bids fair in due process of time to promulgate a most curious creed of his own. At the expense of a bloody civil war, Gondar, with Gojam, Damot, and all the south-western provinces of Amhara, have long maintained the three births of Christ--Christ proceeding from the Father from all eternity, styled "the eternal birth;" his incarnation, as being born of the holy Virgin, termed his "second or temporal birth;" and his reception of the Holy Ghost in the womb, denominated his "third birth." The Tigre ecclesiastics, on the other hand, whose side is invariably espoused by the primate of Ethiopia, deny the third birth, upon the grounds that the reception of the Holy Ghost cannot be so styled--the opinions of both parties being at variance with the belief of the Occidental churches, which, on the evidence of the Gospel, believe that our blessed Saviour received the Holy Ghost at his baptism in his thirtieth year, immediately prior to the commencement of his preaching. Further, the Gondar sectarians assert that Christ received the Holy Ghost by the Father, whilst those of Tigre affirm that, being God himself, he gave the Holy Ghost unto himself. This creed has obtained for the latter faction the opprobrious epithet of _Karra Haimanot_, "the Knife of the Faith," in allusion to their having lopped off an acknowledged scriptural truth. Asfa Woosen, grandsire to Sahela Selassie, being assured by his father confessor, a native of Gondar, that in event of his embracing the doctrine of the three births, the district of Morabeitie, already conquered by Emmaha Yasoos, but not at that period completely annexed to Efat, should be permanently secured to him through the spiritual influence of the church, adopted it without hesitation. Until within the last few years the belief was limited to the monarchs of Shoa; but the hospitality of the reigning sovereign attracting to his dominions numerous visitors from the north and west of Abyssinia, the latent flame was quickly fanned; and the dispute reaching a great height, was at length brought before the despot, who put an end to it by issuing a royal proclamation, under the solitary tree at Angollala, "That he who should henceforth deny the three births of Christ, should forfeit his property, and be banished the realm." Aroe, a eunuch from Gondar, shortly disseminated another curious doctrine, which asserts that the human soul possesses knowledge, fasts, and worships in the womb, and immediately on separation from the body renders an account on high. On the recent nomination of the Alaka Wolda Georgis to be head of the Church, and of Kidana Wold to be the Alaka of Debra Libanos, three monks set out to Gondar for the purpose of denouncing them, as being opposed to this creed. Ras Ali, erroneously concluding that they denied the three births, sent to Sahela Selassie to inquire how it happened that he had seceded from the faith of his forefathers by the appointment of the two individuals in question. Hereat the Negoos waxing wroth, exclaimed, "Am I then the vassal of Ras Ali, that he thus interrogates me?" But reflection showed him the propriety of avoiding a dispute which must have involved serious consequences, and with his usual temporising policy he sent a reply declaratory "that he had not abjured the belief of his ancestors." The monks of Debra Libanos having thus failed in their attempt to remove the newly-appointed Alakas, next sought to accomplish their purpose by the establishment of their creed throughout the kingdom, and gaining numerous proselytes, the disputes had soon reached the climax. After fruitless efforts to satisfy the interests of all concerned, His Majesty sought to escape participation in the quarrel, by referring the parties to Gondar; but Zenama Work, the Queen-dowager, well assured that Ras Ali and the head of the monks would decide against the sect whose doctrines she espoused, denied a passage through Zalla Dingai, and thus compelled the whole to return to Ankober. As had been anticipated, this step resulted in the complete triumph of the Gondar eunuch, and the consequent dismissal with disgrace of the Alaka Wolda Georgis, chief of the church of Shoa, the Alakas of Saint Michael, Saint George, Aferbeine, Kondie, Aramba, Debra Berhan, and Angollala; of the king's confessor; of Wolda Haimanot, great Alaka of Mans, chief of thirty-eight churches, styled _Bala Wamber_, "the Master of the Chair," from his possessing the privilege of sitting in the royal presence on an iron stool; and of numerous other priests, whose property was confiscated by the crown, and who received sentence of banishment from the kingdom. On the herald proclaiming under the palace gate at the capital that the belief of the knowledge of the human soul in the womb should henceforth be received by all classes, under similar pains and penalties, public thanksgivings were offered in the victorious churches; and the priests, forming triumphant processions through every street of the town, chanted psalms amid the shrill acclamations of the women, and the din of the sacred drums. The defeated party, on the other hand, complained loudly that they had been dismissed without an impartial hearing; the monarch having simply observed that the fact of their not proceeding to Gondar, as commanded to do, sufficiently proved their error. This they disclaimed, and after requesting to be convinced upon the Scriptures, added, "Will the king adjudge the faith as he adjudges moveables and lands?" But the despot cut the matter short in these words:--"Enough, you are dismissed; and since you will not receive the faith of my forefathers, by their manes, and by the holy Trinity, I swear that you may beg your bread through the land, rather than that one of your creed should be received again into the bosom of the church." The success of the Debra Libanos sectarians was speedily followed by discussions relative to the equal adoration due to the holy Virgin and her Son, whilst the despotic and ill-advised proceedings of His Majesty raised a storm throughout the entire realm. The ban of excommunication was instantly resorted to--the curse of the church was pronounced upon the triumphant party--the priests who passed it, after having been seized and compelled to accord absolution, were expelled the kingdom-- and a brave and courageous leader seemed alone wanting, to induce those who had been defeated to raise the standard of revolt once more in a religious war. Volume 3, Chapter XXII. CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES. Abyssinia had for fifteen years been left without an archbishop, when Abba Salama, a Coptic youth, nominated by the hundred and ninth occupant of the chair of Saint Mark, arrived at Gondar to enter upon the functions of his sacred office. Oubie, the tyrannical ruler of Tigre, had, with diplomatic sagacity, despatched an expensive mission to the Alexandrian Patriarch, to solicit a successor to the post so long vacant by the death of Abba Kerlos--a wily measure, involving the sacrifice, indeed, of lands and ecclesiastical revenues, but securing to himself a sure political preponderance among the manifold rulers in the North, who know no law but that of the strongest. Heretofore the dignity had invariably been conferred on some bigoted old monk, extracted from one of the convents of Saint Anthony--the only monastic order recognised by the Coptic church. Much against his will, the patriarch elect was often dragged by force from his cloister, where he had passed years of abstinence and mortification, and being duly exalted to the episcopal throne, on which the residue of his days were to be passed, he never failed to impart a full share of ignorance and superstition. But the new primate, raised at the early age of twenty-two years to the pontificate of Ethiopia, and invested with despotic powers, proved, fortunately for the country, to be possessed of abilities of a very superior order, whilst his mind had been expanded by a liberal education at Cairo under the Reverend Dr Lieder, a pious and learned missionary of the Church of England. One of the first steps of the new Abuna was to depute a confidential servitor to Shoa, as the bearer of a letter of compliments to myself, expressive of his desire to cultivate a friendly understanding, and urging on me a speedy visit to his court. War had for some months past been raging on the western frontier betwixt Goshoo, the ruler of Gojam, and his son Birroo, who had risen in open rebellion, and the messenger brought a confirmation of the long-rumoured defeat of the former, and of the forces of Ras Ali, which had been sent to his assistance. The return of killed and wounded is in this country never suffered to fall short of the reality, and on the present occasion it had certainly not lost by the distance it had travelled. "It was a little before nightfall," said the turbaned priest, "that the rival armies, countless as blades of grass, came in sight of each other at Ungatta, on the banks of the Suggara. Before the morning dawned, Birroo, who occupied the upper ground, moving down to the attack, secured the fords of the river. The action presently opened with a heavy fire of musketry and matchlocks, which did great execution. Five thousand warriors were slain--two thousand five hundred stand of arms were captured--Liban, who commanded, was, with several of his principal chiefs, taken prisoner--and Goshoo was compelled to seek the inviolable sanctuary afforded by the monastery of Dima Georgis. Five governors were hewn alive down the middle; and the conqueror, after standing up to his neck in water for three days, as an atonement for the slaughter he had committed among a Christian people, sent to Ras Ali a horse with its mane, tail, and ears cut off, and a pair of new trousers greatly soiled, with a haughty message to the effect, that these were but types of the fate that yet awaited his liege lord!" The month of January had now come round; and the arrival of queen Besabesh, who invariably precedes the movements of the court by one day, proclaimed the advent of the Negoos to celebrate at the capital the festivities of the Abyssinian Christmas. Her Majesty had become extremely indisposed from the long journey, and was desirous of receiving medical aid; but it being contrary to the court etiquette that the royal consort should be seen by any male, an interview could not be accorded. Seated in a small closed tent, the hand of the illustrious patient was passed outside through a tiny aperture; and, although eunuchs further embarrassed conversation, a condescending voice inquired, in reply to some common-place civilities, on the part of Dr Kirk, "If I did not befriend the foreigners, pray who is there else to do so?" Entertaining such a bigoted aversion to every Mohammadan custom, it cannot fail to appear singular that the licentious court of Shoa should have preserved one of the most objectionable--the seclusion of females. Yet such is the extreme jealousy on this point, that although from our first arrival the queen had expressed herself in the most friendly terms, and almost daily sent me through her maids of honour trifling presents of mead or bread, coupled with complimentary inquiries, an introduction, under any circumstances, was quite impracticable. From day to day, however, the most curious applications were still preferred for beads, trinkets, cloth, and perfumery, and the utmost disappointment was evinced at my making no demand in return. "I possess honey and I possess butter, and have fowls and eggs in abundance," was the undeviating message. "Why do not my children ask for what they want? All I have is theirs, for all that they have is mine!" Even when residing at a distance, I continually received laconic notes on scrolls of parchment varying in breadth from one inch to three, bearing neither signature nor superscription, and tightly rolled up in wax. Their contents revealed some newly conceived fancy, such as might have been expected from a queen that eats raw beef. "The brass in your country is like gold," formed the sum and substance of one epistle, "and you might therefore order the bracelets to be made of the pattern sent by the hands of Dinkenich;" [i.e. "She is beautiful."--One of Her Majesty's Abigails.] and again, "May this letter come to the hands of the English commander. Are you well? are you well? are you quite well? That the soap may not end quick, you will send it in large quantities, saith Besabesh." Not long after Her Majesty's arrival, she sent me an unfortunate child, recently purchased from a Gurague slave caravan, with a request that _Hubsheeri_ might be exchanged for some clear salad oil which had met with special approval "for medicine for the face;" and great surprise was elicited by my reply, "that such a course of proceeding would involve disgrace and criminality, inasmuch as the unchristian-like traffic in human beings was held in abhorrence beyond the great water." But in this matter the Emabiet was not singular. Certain of the courtiers, who considered themselves under obligations, had previously tendered us "strong Shankela slaves" as a Christmas gift, and all had been equally at a loss to comprehend our motives in refusing. Amongst the followers that I had brought from India was a native of Cabool, who acted in capacity of tailor, and his proficiency in the needle involved a most unreasonable tax upon his services. Day after day for weeks and months had he been in attendance at the palace; and when at length, under the royal eye, he had completed a sumptuous _burnoos_ [cloak], on the elaborate embroidery of which half the treasures in the _gemdjia_ house were lavished, the king, in the plenitude of his munificence, sent by the hands of Ayto Melkoo a shabby cotton cloth, value three shillings and sixpence, with a half-starved goat, and a message that "it was Christmas, and the tailor might eat." Hajji Mirza was furious. "Take back these gifts to your Shah," he growled indignantly; "I want none of them. By the beard of the prophet, I'm the son of a Pathan; and praise be to Allah, the meanest overseer of a village in Afghanistan is possessed of greater liberality than Sahela Selassie." This _tirade_ had fortunately been delivered in a tongue not familiar to the ears of the king's Master of the Horse, who was meanwhile diligently occupied with the Pathan's needle and scissors. Having taken the bag out of his hands, and extracted a scrap of red cloth, he had carefully fashioned a minute cross, which, with elbows squared, he was now proceeding to stitch over a hole in the lower part of his striped cotton robe. "Why do you do that?" inquired the tailor, peevishly, in broken Amharic, not relishing the interference in his department, and anxious also to exhibit his own talents. "Let me darn it for you, and then there will be no blemish." "No," replied the party addressed, with great gravity declining the proffered assistance. "Don't you know that the hole has been burnt, and therefore that it _must_ be repaired with another colour?" In Abyssinia, as in other parts of Christendom, the festival of the nativity is a season of frolic and rejoicing, during which people display the strength of their piety by the quantity of beef that they can consume; the principal difference being, that it is here eaten raw instead of roasted. Our cook, a Portuguese from Goa, had been frequently summoned to the palace for the royal edification in culinary matters, but although he was a _bona fide_ Christian, and wore a "mateb" too, the king could never persuade himself to partake of any of the viands prepared by his hands. Loaf sugar being now employed in the manufacture of a Christmas cake, His Majesty, after attentively watching operations, enquired, as a matter of course, "How they made it white? Was the ox whose blood was employed killed in the name of the holy Trinity?" "Certainly not." "Then it might remain," was the abrupt rejoinder. "_Ye noor_--I don't want it; it doth not please me." The Abyssinians, assigning to the world an existence of 7334 years, refer the birth of Christ to the five thousand five hundredth after the creation. Thus eight years have been lost in the computation of time, and their Anno Domini 1834 corresponded with the Christian era 1842. On the 4th of January, which was Christmas eve, the usual contest took place on the king's meadow between the royal household and the dependents of the Purveyor-General and the Dedj Agafari. A cloth ball having been struck with a mall, a struggle for its possession follows, and the party by which it is thrice caught in succession being declared victorious, enjoys the privilege of abusing the vanquished during the ensuing two days of festivity, the first of which is celebrated by the male, the second by the female portion of the population. Every tongue is unloosed; and the foulest slander may be heaped upon the most illustrious, as well as upon the holiest personages in the land, the monarch alone excepted. His Majesty's partisans gained the day, and we were summoned to the palace to witness their Christmas exhibition. Filling the courtyard, they danced and recited before the throne couplets defamatory of all the principal functionaries present, not omitting the Lord Bishop, who appeared to consider himself infinitely complimented by the vices whereof he stood accused. Bodily imperfections were not overlooked; asses and dromedaries afforded frequent comparisons; and the fat of the corpulent State-Gaoler, who sat a witness to the festivities, was declared sufficient to light the entire capital during the approaching public entertainment, which, given at the expense of the defeated chiefs, closed the disgraceful Saturnalia in riot and debauchery. Volume 3, Chapter XXIII. FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY. But by far the greatest holiday of the Abyssinian year is held on the Epiphany, styled Temkat, [i.e. Baptism] when the baptism of our Lord, by John, in the river Jordan, is commemorated with extraordinary pomp. He who neglects to undergo the annual purification enjoined on this day by the Ethiopic church, is considered to carry with him the burden of every sin committed during the preceding twelve months, and to be surely visited by sickness and misfortune, whereas those who perform the rite, are believed to have emerged thoroughly cleared and regenerated. On the evening preceding this festival, the priests of all the churches in Ankober and the environs, carrying the holy _tabots_ under gaudy canopies, assembled in the open space, termed Arada, immediately in front of the palace. Here, according to custom, they were received by the governor of the town, who, after falling prostrate on his face before the arks, escorted the procession to the river Airara--the clergy dancing and singing, whilst the female portion of the inhabitants lining the hill-side, indulged in the shrillest vociferation. A tent for each church had been erected on the bank; and a temporary dam being thrown across the stream, the night was spent in chanting appropriate hymns and psalms. Long before dawn, the pent up waters having been blessed by the officiating priest, the entire population, the young, the old, the wealthy, and the indigent, gathered from many miles round, casting off their habiliments, flocked promiscuously into the pool--even babes who were unable to totter being thrown in by their naked mothers. Not the slightest modesty was evinced by either sex, all mingling together in a state of perfect nudity, and affecting, under the light of innumerable torches and flambeaux, which shed the broad glare of day over the disgraceful scene, to believe that a supernatural veil concealed each other's shame. The sacrament of Christ's supper was then administered, accompanied by rites and ceremonies highly unbecoming the solemnity of this most sacred of Christian institutes. The multitude next proceeded to devour a pile of loaves, and to drain accumulated pitchers of beer, supplied by the neighbouring governors. Here too the most indecent excesses were committed. Declaring themselves to have swallowed a specific against intoxication, the clergy indulge to any extent they please, and each priest vying with his brother in the quantities he shall quaff, avers that if "the whole of the Lord's bread and the Lord's wine" be not consumed on the spot, a famine will arise throughout the land! Festivities terminated, the officiating dignitaries, robed and mitred, preceded the holy arks and canopies in grand procession to the capital, singing hallelujahs. Holding in their left hands cymbals in imitation of David, and in the right the ecclesiastical staff, wherewith various absurd gesticulations are described, they danced and sang for some time in front of the palace gate. As usual, the performance displayed the most uncouth attitudes, and the least graceful figures. The beard and the crutch, and the aged face, and the sacred calling, were but ill in unison with the mountebank capers undertaken; and the actors rather resembled masks at the carnival than holy functionaries of the church. "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests," is a passage of Scripture which the clergy of Shoa interpret to their own advantage. "Who are the foxes," they invariably inquire, "but the kings and the governors of the land, who seek only after worldly vanities? and who the birds but the priests and bishops, who in hymns and hallelujahs thus fly upwards, and build their nests in heaven?" The clergy are distinguished from the laity by a beard, and by a monstrous white turban encumbering the head. This is designed to typify Moses covering his face on his descent from the Mount, when he had received the tables of the law. Their sacred persons are usually shrouded in a black woollen cloak, studded with emblems of the faith, and furnished with a peaked hood. The sacerdotal vest was first embroidered by command of Hatze David, the father of Saint Theodorus, to commemorate the arrival from Jerusalem of a fragment of the true cross on which Christ died; and officiating priests are expected to appear in one of these, composed either of scarlet or party-coloured cloth. A silver or brazen cross and a slender crutch are the never-failing accoutrements of the priest; and on all occasions of ceremony, the mitre, the censer, and the great umbrellas are conspicuous objects. Long rods, furnished with streaming pennants, manufactured of the light pith of the juwarree, in alternating bands of red and white, were carried by the host of dirty boys who swelled the procession; and after the labours of the day were over, these emblems of regeneration were hung up in the churches as votive offerings. On the conclusion of the exhibition, the clergy dispersed under a salvo of musketry to their respective churches, and individuals who, from any unavoidable circumstance, had been precluded from participating in the general immersion, were then privately baptised, males and females being alike divested of every portion of apparel, and plunged into a large reservoir prepared for their reception. Four years have elapsed since Sahela Selassie underwent this lustration, wherein he was wont annually to participate, but from which he is now held exempt, in consideration of the height of his power. Although in a state of perfect nudity, a cloth was held around him during the ceremony--a privilege to which neither virgins nor females of the highest rank are ever admitted. Pots and pans that have been defiled by the unclean touch of a Mohammadan, are on this day purified by immersion in the water that has been blessed by the priest. Among many other superstitions there exists a firm belief, that all mules and horses that are not led forth to exercise on the festival of _Temkat_ will die during the ensuing year. It is considered to be "a day of great splendour;" and on pain of excommunication, every good Christian is bound to appear clad in his best habiliments, and in all the trinkets he can muster, to the end that he may prostrate himself before the ark which he has adopted. If enforced with rigour, excommunication is in fact a capital punishment, for it is _interdictio aqua et igne_. No one can speak to, or eat, or drink with the proscribed person, nor even enter his house. The offender can neither buy nor sell, nor visit. He cannot recover debts. He may be murdered at pleasure by any ruffian who will take the trouble to cut his throat, and when dead his body cannot be buried. The bell, book, and candle are to be hired by any disappointed enemy, and the hooded priest may be purchased to perform the ceremony; but the undertaking in some cases is not without its attendant danger. The cells of the state prison frequently enclose the rash fanatic who wantonly interferes with the royal salvation. Scanty fare and close confinement eventually insure absolution, and the martyr to religious intolerance is summarily banished from the realm. Another powerful antidote is found in the _argumentum baculinum_, which, when persuasively applied to the shoulders of arrogant church pride, by the sturdy sinews of Europe especially, possesses a wonderful efficacy in allaying the storm. A century has not elapsed since excommunication was performed upon one of the fair sons of the North. The turbaned bearer of the bell, book, and candle, was quietly introduced into the domicile, and his countenance fell as he perceived the object of his visit armed with a formidable cudgel. "My father must have been mistaken," was the exordium that greeted his astounded ear, as the staff descended with an equally startling salutation--"My father never could have proposed the excommunication of his dear friend." Again the weapon pattered upon the priestly back; and during full five minutes an able running commentary was supported by frequent playful taps over the head, to quicken the clerical understanding. This powerful appeal concluded, the crest-fallen functionary willingly withdrew his ban, and bestowing entire absolution, slunk back to his cell, mentally resolved to interfere no more with the incomprehensible European, who neither displayed terror at the curse of the church, nor entertained respect for the sacred persons of her ministers. Unquies, the Bishop of Shoa, had long meditated the adoption of extreme measures towards the British escort, whom he declared to be no better than Mohammadans, since it was notorious that they did not kneel when the holy ark passed, and had no hesitation in partaking of flesh slaughtered by an infidel, instead of in the name of the holy Trinity. No one, however, could be found sufficiently bold to undertake the customary process where the Irish soldier was concerned; and the king's "strong monk" had been fain at length to content himself with the clandestine promulgation of his spiritual denunciation for the many heresies committed. The honorary distinctions conferred by the monarch for the destruction of the elephant first produced a good effect, which was still increased by the presentation of the silver shield that distinguishes the highest functionaries in the land; and although the opinions of the clergy generally were still far from favourable, there was a certain influential priest who invariably found it convenient to pass the long dreary evenings over the Residency fire. The pious father evinced no disinclination to participate in the good things of this world; and whilst sipping his strong drink, it was his delight to speculate upon scriptural grounds whether the skin of Eve was really white or black, and to prove that locusts could never have been tasted by John the Baptist, because they form the food of the unclean Mohammadan. Edifying topics such as these were doubtless handled with greater eloquence than either abstinence, or the mortification of the flesh. Proceeding on his annual visit to Debra Libanos, the principal resort of those who prey upon the credulity of the public, the devout father at length stood voluntarily forward as the advocate of the Gyptzis; and so eloquently did he explain away the non-observance of fasts and other imputed heresies, that a wax taper of which we had made him the bearer was actually lighted in the sanctuary of Saint Tekla Haimanot, and an immediate revulsion thereby created in the ecclesiastical sentiments entertained throughout the entire realm. Volume 3, Chapter XXIV. EXCURSION TO BERHUT, ON THE SOUTH-EASTERN FRONTIER OF SHOA. I deemed it to be an object of great geographical importance that the flying survey of the kingdom of Shoa should be completed by a visit to the country forming the boundary to the south-east, famous for its numerous volcanoes, recently in full activity, and hitherto untrodden in any part by European foot. A pretext presented itself in the existence of the wild buffalo in the lower districts; but it was necessary, in the first instance, to overcome the royal scruples, which opposed our attempting the chase of that animal. This I at length succeeded in doing; and the despot being made to comprehend that his children ran less risk of being demolished than he had formerly chosen to believe, vouchsafed the desired permission. The requisite instructions were issued to men in authority to promote the views of those "whom the king delighteth to honour;" and, preceded by queen Besabesh, His Majesty then set out on his annual visit to Mesur Meder. "There is one point," he observed, when we proceeded to take leave, "on which I wanted to consult you. The locusts are destroying the crops, and the priests have been unable by their prayers to arrest their progress. Have you no medicine to drive them away?" Ayto Wolda Hana, under whose immediate orders are all the second-class governors in the realm, had received commands to summon to Ankober the Misleyni [Literally "Like myself"] or vice-governor, of Berhut and of the plains lying betwixt the Casam and the Hawash--a tract inhabited partly by the Adaiel, whose nominal fealty is preserved through the influence of Wulasma Mohammad, and partly by the Karaiyo Galla, over whom the Negoos asserts more substantial jurisdiction. But many days elapsed without the appearance of that worthy, whom His Majesty had delegated to make efficient arrangements for our journey; and Deftera Sena, chief of the king's scriveners, having, after twelve hours of close application, contrived to complete a written representation to the throne, a courier was despatched with it on horseback to the royal camp. No Abyssinian will ever think of declaring himself the bearer of an express, unless pointedly questioned upon that head, nor will he then relinquish possession until distinctly ordered so to do. On the return of the special messenger, who had been three days absent on the service confided to him, I asked him for the answer, but my application was followed by none of the usual fumbling among the folds of his girdle for the tiny scroll in its wax envelope; and the caitiff was finally fain to confess, that on being summoned to the presence of his sovereign at Mesur Meder, and commanded to deliver up the document with which he had been charged, he for the first time recollected that it had been mislaid at Ankober! But a peasant, who fortunately fell in with the missing parchment by the road-side, had carried it, in accordance with the immutable law of the realm, straightway to the king, who immediately, upon becoming aware of the contents, and long before Deftera Sena had completed a duplicate copy, deputed Mamrie Salomon, now chief of the eunuchs, to see his royal intentions on my behalf carried into instant effect. A number of tribute-bearers from Berhut were on the point of returning to their district; they were forthwith pressed for the transportation of our baggage, and all minor difficulties being at length overcome, we quitted the capital on a cold morning towards the close of March. Immediately beyond the church dedicated to Aboo, one of the most celebrated of Abyssinian saints, the path struck off to the southward along the course of the Airara, which, from the diminutive mill-stream of the Chaka, soon assumes a more brawling demeanour, and receives numerous tributaries from the mountains on either side, its deep channel cutting so smoothly through the trap rock, as to wear the appearance of being artificially formed. This valley is extremely varied in width, extending in some parts from six to seven miles, whilst in others it is reduced to a mere ravine by the converging spurs of the two great ranges. Throughout, the scenery is tame, the cliffs being flat and naked, and the vegetation restricted to a small scrubby species of dwarf acacia, interspersed with the euphorbia, styled _kolqual_--the charcoal obtained from which is preferred in the manufacture of gunpowder. But wheresoever the plough could be held, there the hand of industry had been busy, and for the first eight miles there was little uncultivated soil. In these parts the rains descend with extreme violence; and having, in the first instance, scooped up and carried away all the rotten debris, each succeeding deluge has added its mining activity and perseverance, until the entire mountain range, for miles, presents the singular appearance of a succession of perfectly isolated cones, the apices of many being crowned by villages or by the dwellings of great men, whilst the sloping sides are smoothed and levelled with the utmost nicety. The valley is thickly peopled, flourishing hamlets peeping out in every direction; but, as in other parts of the country, the best of the land, whether arable or pasture, pertains to the crown--Bukerfine, one of the richest farms in the district, having been conferred upon Misht Malafeya [i.e. "The Lady Excellent."], a royal concubine, by whom the king has a favourite daughter. Many monasteries dotting the wooded peaks, are here visible in all the pride of place above the residence of the common herd--their localities no doubt tending to rivet the chains of the infatuated Abyssinian. Priestly intimations issuing from a temple often shrouded from human ken under impenetrable fog, are received with increased attention, and the thunder of excommunication commands utter abasement and prostration of spirit, when fulminated from these grand scenes of elementary strife. The revenues of many of the villages passed are appropriated to the service of the church; those of Moi-Amba, containing upwards of two hundred houses, being appropriated to the cathedral of Saint Michael in Ankober. A few hours' journey had substituted the heat of a tropical climate for the cool breezes of the mountains; and the momentarily increasing temperature afforded sufficient proof of the rapid declination of the route, even had it not led along the banks of the Airara, which, having been crossed and recrossed a dozen times, was now tumbling down through a succession of foaming cascades, with a sound most refreshing to the ear. Emerging at length from its walls of basalt, and joined by the Kubanoo, bearing a large body of water from the west, it expands into a broad channel, and is employed in irrigating the extensive cotton plantations which every where abound on its borders. The stream is diverted by a simple pile of pebbles; but the elevated aqueducts, somewhat ingeniously termed _masalel waha_, "the water-ladder," are constructed with infinite care, and passing frequently along narrow ledges, are widened by means of wooden tressels supporting a trough of brushwood and shingle. A sufficient supply is thus raised to nurture the magnificent cotton plants, the stems of many of which measuring seven, eight, and nine inches in girth, support a crop that, on arriving at maturity, does justice to these gigantic proportions. Shortly after the accession of Sahela Selassie, His Majesty marched to the Kubanoo, for the purpose of holding a conference with the Adaiel; and his armoury being in those days by no means so well furnished as it now is, the array of old matchlocks was regarded by the Moslems with the utmost contempt and derision. A rush was made during the night upon the royal camp--many of the Christians were slain--and whilst the remnant, with their youthful sovereign, fled in dismay to the stronghold of the capital, the treacherous assailants returned undisturbed in triumph to their desert plains. Kittel Yellish, the village at which we proposed to halt, had been represented by our guides to be situated within a very moderate march of Ankober; but the Abyssinians possess not a better idea of the measure of distance than of the value of time; and, after eight hours passed in the saddle, we took refuge about sunset in the Moslem hamlet of Manyo, a cluster of huts crowning the summit of a cone, and overlooking a wild uncultivated tract, intersected by a labyrinth of tremendous ravines, arched over by the thorny branches of the acacia, and other vegetation of a strictly tropical aspect. Swine, agazin, and some of the smaller species of antelope, here abound to such an extent, that the peasants attempt no crop but cotton, exchanging the raw material for what they need of other produce. The village was strongly fortified in all directions against the inroads of the leopard and hyena, by palisades enclosing a stiff thorn fence; and there being no room even for the smallest tent, we passed the night in a shed rudely thatched with the leaves of the papyrus, which would not have been tenable for five minutes in the alpine regions that we had quitted in the morning. Volume 3, Chapter XXV. THE ROYAL GRANARY AT DUMMAKOO. The reception that we experienced at the hands of the virago who owned this comfortless hovel, had been neither hospitable nor flattering. In the temporary absence of her husband, the wrinkled beldame considered herself to be vested with charge of the hamlet, and for a full hour after our arrival, standing in the dark porch of her adjacent house, she had exerted her cracked voice in a tissue of shrill comments levelled against the impropriety of entering private demesnes unannounced. The first crowing of the cock invited a renewal of her far from melodious clamour, and it was not silenced without much difficulty, even by the jingle of silver crowns. The road now descended to the Umptoo, a rapid stream, with a broad stony bed, which rises in the lofty mountain Assagud. Cotton, in its most perfect state of cultivation, clothed all the level terraces. The papyrus, here, as in Egypt, designated _pheela_, fringed the banks of the stream in close thick patches; the honey-sucker, arrayed in green and gold, flashed in the morning sun, as it darted among the flowering acacias; birds of rare plumage filled the tangled brushwood; and the fantastic forms of the circumjacent mountains enhanced the beauty of the wild scene. But every man's hand was armed for strife. The peasant carried spear and shield, and wore the sword girded to his loins; and the site of his habitation had been carefully selected with a long look-out on all sides as a precaution against attack and invasion. Leaving the bed of the river, which measured some eighty yards across, the path ascended a ridge running east and west, and deriving its appellation from the conspicuous peaks of Golultee and Demsee. To the eastward, through a wide gap in the mountains, could be seen a long reach of the Airara, now expanded into a noble river, by the junction of the Umptoo, and glittering under its numberless channels, which bear in the rains a vast volume of water to the Casam, to be poured eventually into the Hawash. From the summit of the pass in the direction of Ankober, a strange view extended for a distance of thirty or forty miles--a broken abyss of hill tops seeming as though the waves of the troubled ocean had been suddenly petrified in their progress--Mamrat, the monster billow, shewing above all in the far horizon, as the last barrier arrested in fall career. The belt of rugged hills of limestone slate, through which the course lay, is an almost uninhabited waste of neutral ground, forming the boundary betwixt the Christian and Moslem subjects of Shoa. A few goats alone found a sufficiency of food among the scanty leaves of the now withered acacias; and the human denizens of the soil were wild as their rocky mountains. Fleeing at the approach of the white men, they took up a secure position on the very summit of the loftiest peaks, and looked down with evident mistrust upon the cavalcade, which was sufficiently well armed, and formidable in point of number, to instil terror into the bosom of all conscious of the wrath of princes, and of tribute rashly withheld. The termination of this sultry range forms an abutment upon the country of the Adaiel, whence is derived all the sulphur employed in the manufacture of gunpowder in the royal arsenals; and specimens which were picked up by the way would lead to the inference that the vein continued even beyond the point at which we crossed. Like that of the Umptoo, the bed of the Korie, another tributary of the Casam, to which the road next descended, is bordered with luxuriant cotton cultivation, and in many parts overgrown with tangled papyrus. Shut in by a deep valley, it threads the mountainous district of Dingai-terri, and many wild bananas were seen luxuriating on its moist banks. The dusty path led on through a jungle composed chiefly of a bastard description of the Balm of Gilead, which being crushed under the foot, scented the whole atmosphere. On our arrival near the Moslem cemetery, below Kittel Yellish, the civility of the governor of the district was evinced in the display, on skins beneath the trees, of every article considered necessary for Christian sustenance during this most holy season of Lent--bread, beer, and water proving truly acceptable to the Abyssinian followers, already much distressed by the intense heat of a nearly vertical sun, to which they were so little inured. A wild roguish-looking Moslem dervish, decked in a rosary of large brown berries, and carrying a staff of truly portentous dimensions, here introduced himself as an acquaintance made many months previously at Dathara, upon which grounds he considered himself entitled to share in the repast. Leading a roving and an idle life, and armed with scrip and water-flagon, he had for years subsisted upon the alms of the superstitious followers of the Prophet; and if judgment might be formed from his sleek exterior, they had not been niggard of their contributions. Grey, water-worn precipices, with deep semicircular basins at their base, now flanked the road, a formation of limestone occasionally out-cropping beneath a thick stratum of basalt. After crossing the bed of the Meynso, we gained a more level tract, over which a gallop of five miles led to Dummakoo, one of the royal granaries, where, by His Majesty's commands, our head-quarters were to be established. This village, constructed on a knoll three thousand feet below the level of Ankober, is situated in a fine, open, undulating country, well populated, and intersected by numerous milk-bush hedges. Richly-cultivated, and fanned by a cool breeze, it afforded a most agreeable contrast to the barren sultry hills through which the greater part of our course had lain. The lofty range of Mentshar and Bulga, rising to an extinguisher-like cone called Megasus, was the principal feature in the landscape; and at the foot of these mountains, which abound in coal, sinks the valley of the Casam, which was to form the scene of coming operations. One of the king's numerous magazines for grain and farm produce extends its long barn-like front in the centre of the hamlet, every house of which is screened by a tall green hedge; and that the safety of the royal stores has been alone consulted in the selection of the site, is sufficiently proved by the fact of the inhabitants being compelled to drive their cattle many miles on either side for their daily draught of water, whilst the long-tressed Mohammadan damsels are fain to trudge with a heavy jar at their back to a remote pool, carefully fenced and barricadoed. All agricultural operations connected with the royal farm at Berhut, are annually performed by the surrounding population _en masse_. Several heavy showers which had recently fallen having fully prepared the ground for the reception of the seed, a vast concourse of rustics had collected from the entire district--the inhabitants of each hamlet bringing their own oxen and implements of husbandry; so that in the course of a very few hours many hundred acres, already ploughed, were sown and harrowed by their united efforts, the praises of the despot being loudly sung throughout the continuance of the tributary labour, which is similarly exacted in all parts of the kingdom. On the crop arriving at maturity, a sheaf is cut and presented in token of joy to the governor of the district. The reaping and threshing again call for the assembly of the agricultural population; and the harvest-home having been celebrated with suitable festivity, the accessions to the royal granaries are duly registered by scribes delegated on the part of the crown. Upon a rising ground about a mile from Dummakoo, is held the monthly market of the district. Tradition asserts that one of the inhabitants of a neighbouring hamlet saw in a dream that the Imam Abdool Kadur, appearing upon this hill, picked up a stone, and in a loud voice proclaimed that the spot belonged henceforth to himself; and no sooner had the pious disciple of the Prophet declared his vision, than the site was adopted by the unanimous voice of the assembled multitude for the celebration of the bazaar, which, in the lapse of a few generations, has become one of considerable importance. Almost immediately upon our arrival I received a visit from Habti Mariam, [i.e. "The property of the Virgin"] the vice-governor, whose residence is at Wurdoo, the principal village of the Berhut district. He explained that his non-appearance to escort the party from Ankober had arisen from severe ophthalmia, contracted during a recent visit to the hot low country. Some very potent amulets had been now attached to various parts of his body in order to remove the disorder; and the good man was moreover provided with a large raw onion, with which he rubbed his eyes alternately during the interview. It has already been mentioned that the influence of Wulasma Mohammad extends along the whole of the Moslem districts of the eastern frontier; and it had now been advantageously exerted in the despatch of a body of his immediate retainers, commanded first to announce to the Adaiel on the border our intention of visiting their country, and afterwards to escort us thither. In order to counteract any offensive demonstration to which this unusual excursion might give rise, Habti Mariam had issued orders to assemble his levy, in accordance with strict injunctions received from his royal master to secure the safety of his "European children," upon penalty of loss of liberty and government. The greatest difficulty was, however, experienced in persuading his followers to undertake the much-dreaded journey to the lower regions, as well from their unanimous detestation of the intense heat, as their innate dread of the lawless population; and he was finally compelled to put them to the blush by a declaration of his resolve to perform the king's behest at all risks in his own person; when a handful of the boldest setting the example, the lists were speedily filled to the number of two hundred and fifty, which force had been considered by the Negoos as sufficient for the excursion. Volume 3, Chapter XXVI. ADEN ON THE CASAM RIVER, THE TERRITORY OF THE ADEL SUB-TRIBE GAREEMRA DAMOOSA. A canopy of thick clouds clinging to the high hills of Ankober had indicated that rain still continued to deluge the more elevated regions; but on the wide undulating plains of Berhut, the thermometer in the tents stood at 105 degrees; and although the sky was occasionally overcast in the morning, the sun shone with due tropical fervour up to the day fixed for departure to the low country. It was still dark when the cavalcade filed past the church of Saint George, which, ornamented with a triangle of ostrich eggs as a spire, stands at the extremity of the village; and as every Abyssinian lip in succession saluted with a pious kiss the rough bark of the kolqual trees by which it is fenced round, many an offering was vowed for individual safe return from the dangerous expedition. Dawn of day found the party at the termination of the tract of table-land claimed by the crown; and the sun, as he rose behind the lofty peak of Assibote, lighted our descent by the Dodoti pass, a winding path overhanging the valleys, which still lay in darkness. Commanding a boundless prospect across the burning plains below, it leads by a very judiciously selected line, with a gradual descent of eighteen hundred feet, over barren mountain ridges rapidly diminishing in height, to the foot of the Abyssinian range, where, watered by the Casam, stretches the Adel district of Aden; and beyond, wild, desolate, and hot, and surrounded by extensive white desert tracts, rise the isolated craters of Saboo and Fantali. The entire mountain-side is well-peopled by Mohammadan subjects of Shoa, whose progenitors arriving from the country of the sun with the great invader Graan, selected this as the location most congenial to their habits, and with it bequeathed to their descendants all the ancestral aversion to a cold climate. A stronger and more athletic race than the Amhara, the dark-eyed females present features far more feminine and agreeable than their coarse highland sisters, with forms more becomingly attired. The hot dusty hamlets and scattered farm houses, which crown many of the peaks, are surrounded by extensive cultivation. The square domiciles, constructed of loose stones with mud terraces, afford sufficient accommodation both for owner and cattle, and the rich stores of grain proclaim a life of industry and abundance. The retinue of the governor increased rapidly with his advance. Every hamlet now poured forth its quota; and before reaching the Fotah river, he mustered in horse and foot full four hundred retainers. For some miles the road wound along the dry channel of the mountain torrent, the banks rising on either side steep and perpendicular, so as to form a deep chasm, partially obstructed by huge masses that had been precipitated from above. Here and there a solitary Karaiyo hamlet met the eye--the flocks and herds assembled in the neighbourhood of the only well, around which the heathen maidens, in rude leathern petticoats, fearlessly drew water, proclaiming a district dependent upon Shoa. Debouching at length upon the plain of the Casam, the increase of temperature was at once perceptible; and the feeble breeze could not be felt through the mass of acacias and wild aloe which in full blossom covered the entire face of the country. We were here joined by a weather-beaten old warrior, covered with silver decorations for valour, who had lost an eye by the spear of the Galla. He was to act in capacity of guide; and an hour through the low jungle brought us to the river at a point where the width is from seventy to eighty yards, a strong stream of turbid water running through a rocky channel, in parts choked with groves of tamarisk. Skirting the northern bank for a considerable distance across hot loose boulders and hard volcanic terraces, we gained a prominent height, whence the view extended over the lowest valley threaded by the well-wooded Casam, the whole reach of which was covered with great herds of homed cattle. Here the cavalcade halted, and was presently joined, from a group of Adel wigwams, by Godana, one of the braves of the Gareemra Damoosa, carrying a broad-headed spear, and wearing his lank hair twisted into thin cords. A long and animated conference ensued, through the medium of an interpreter; in the course of which it was set forth, on the part of the puissant warrior, that the appearance of so large a body of the Amhara had led his tribe to apprehend meditated hostilities; that their flocks and herds were grazing in the vale below, peaceably tended by their young men and maidens; and that as the unwonted descent of such a host of Christians could not fail to create great alarm, he was desirous, before authorising further advance, to be more distinctly apprised of the nature and object of the visit. It was explained by the governor, "that the sole intention was to hunt buffaloes--that the white men were the special guests of the king; and having already slain elephants at Giddem, His Majesty sought to honour his friends the Adaiel, by the performance of equally extraordinary feats in their country:--concluding with the assurance, that the fear of the Ittoo Galla having alone dictated the presence of so many followers, both Godana and his people might rest satisfied that the visit was in good faith, and perfectly pacific." The cattle having first been driven to a distance, the Christian chivalry were finally, after much demur, permitted to descend into the bed of the Casam, and there to enjoy the shelter afforded by groves of spreading tamarinds which grace its shady banks, the elders of the tribe being meanwhile summoned to debate the subject more fully. Parties of the Adel population of the adjoining district of Desse now sauntered up by threes and fours, and tall, gaunt, meagre savages they were--their loins girded by a scant and filthy rag, but each equipped with a serviceable creese, a battered shield, and a spear decked with some trophy of the chase. The scowling downcast eye, habitually half closed against the glare of their parched plains--the dissatisfaction so legibly written on every face--the sun-burnt bushy wig--the pinched features--the loose shambling gait--the air of insolent independence-- and not least, the rank disagreeable odour--all combined to proclaim them members of the great family peopling this sultry desert for hundreds of miles, and differing but slightly in manners or in appearance throughout the entire of the wide extended tract. In the course of another fierce palaver, it was intimated that many expected to die before the affair should be terminated; but the promise of handsome remuneration to the survivors worked successfully upon Adel cupidity. After devouring the greater portion of our own supply of bread, which to those who till not the ground forms an unheard of luxury, they unanimously expressed their resolution of acceding to the royal wishes, and of leading the way to their choicest preserves. Greatly to the horror of Moslem antipathy, the river had meanwhile been dragged of many of its finny inhabitants by the Amhara, who are permitted to eat fish _ad libitum_, although prohibited from touching either flesh or fowl during the tedious fast of Lent. Under the guidance of a party selected by the tribe, we now continued our route along the bank of the river; and after passing a volcanic fissure, which winds for miles between high walls of black lava to the very foot of the Fantali crater, a halt was called upon a spot lower down the Casam, where grass was abundant. Here we bivouacked among huge loose boulders; and between the bold headlands which bound the stream, numerous glimpses were obtained of its distant course. Thermal springs were stated to exist in the vicinity of Fantali, now about six miles distant to the south. Although said to have emitted no smoke within the memory of the present generation, this hill was pictured as a fiery furnace, and a desert waste, inhabited only by gins and demons-- doubtless a less formidable race than the Ittoo and Aroosi Galla, who continually prowl over the intervening plain. The presence of these predatory neighbours, added to our former experience of Adel treachery, and the habitual apathy and timidity of every Amhara escort, enforced the necessity of precaution in so wild a spot; and in spite of the fatigue entailed by the sultry march, we accordingly maintained throughout the night a disciplined vigilance by a revival of the long-neglected rules of "watch and ward." Volume 3, Chapter XXVII. TRIUMPH OVER THE FOREST BULL. Almost before break of day we were in the saddle; and having passed the lava-blocks which bounded the camp, we came upon a level tract entirely composed of hard clay. Wide-spreading camel-thorn acacias in full blossom, with their rich perfume, loaded the morning air even to satiety, and in long lines and clumps separated the outskirts into a succession of delightful glades of the most inviting aspect, which promised to teem with wild beasts of every variety. Five of the principal Adaiel attended us on horseback, together with a chosen band of mounted Moslems, from the retinue of Habti Mariam, decked out in the flaunting spoils of lions and leopards which had fallen to their prowess. This motley group of wild riders set off at a furious pace across the flat, some scouring after every insignificant animal that was descried, whilst others, truer wood-craftsmen, diligently scanned the ground over which they galloped. Last night's traces of the wanton strength of the elephant were visible among the noble trees. Huge branches, twisted from the stem, lay scattered in various quarters, and, together with the fresh footmarks of the devastators, those of a herd of buffaloes were presently discovered. I made many ineffectual attempts to decrease the number of the rabble train, the disturbance they created having the effect, like the tail of the rattle-snake, of warning all of the approach of enemies. Several troops of agazin, throwing back their long spiral horns, fled at our approach. Myriads of clamourous guinea fowl, whirring above the grove in every direction, spread the alarm far and wide; and the quarry we sought, driven deeper and deeper into the dark recesses, finally took shelter in a sea of tangled bulrushes, which skirted the borders of numerous rivulets of running water that pour their muddy tribute into the Casam. During several hours thus fruitlessly passed, the exertions of the retinue were most unremitting to prevent success; but they grew weary at last, and I then succeeded in inducing a small party on foot, with three of the governor's braves, to precede me into the covert. Here the cast of a few hundred yards revealed the tracks of a buffalo, and we carried the trail through thick groves of wild tamarisk, whose shady boughs, meeting over-head, formed natural bowers and arcades. The tumult had now ceased, and we stole in Indian file through fields of tall flags, preserving the strictest silence, and carefully avoiding contact with every projecting twig. At intervals, the fresher traces of the quarry demonstrated that he was close at hand, and we had not advanced more than half a mile before a measured splashing of water in the broad channel below gave notice of his actual presence. The leading Adel cast a keen glance through the intervening screen of blue tamarisk, and looking me significantly in the face, pointed to both his eyes. Creeping cautiously to the brink of the river bank, where it rose perpendicularly to the height of twenty feet, I perceived a noble buffalo rolling from side to side, as he waded indolently across the stream, which reached above his girth, ever and anon whisking his tasselled tail to dislodge a host of persecuting flies. His intention evidently was to land immediately below the ambush that I had taken; and as less than fifty yards intervened, each step that he advanced rendered the target more unfavourable. Not a second therefore was to be lost. A two-ounce ball through the point of the shoulder, though it tumbled the unwieldy animal on his haunches, did not sufficiently paralyse his giant strength to bring him fairly down, and before I could obtain my double-barrelled rifle, he had burst from the eddying water, and plunged into the adjacent thicket. No trace of blood rewarded the closest scrutiny; and, after a few minutes' deliberation, my attendants pronounced the animal unscathed; but finding me positive as to the spot in which the bullet had taken effect, and firmly resolved not to abandon the quest, they made several able casts among the tall flags that waved over the rivulet. Fifteen minutes passed on without a whisper--then a low whistle from the thicket proclaimed the success of Koorbo the Adel, who had recovered the wounded beast, recumbent in the darkest recesses of the tamarisk grove. Advancing, with my rifle cocked, towards the spot where the red eyes gleamed through the gloom, I could perceive the white saliva streaming in bellropes from his mouth, whilst his breathing was hard and husky. Rising as I approached, he made a faint charge, but his strength was on the wane, and as he stumbled across a prostrate bough, a bullet through the heart brought him headlong to the earth. The conquest of this noble beast, standing upwards of nineteen hands at the wither, would have afforded me pleasure under any circumstances, since I had never previously killed one of the same species; but there were other considerations which rendered its demolition subject for especial exultation. In spite of every existing disadvantage, the avowed object of our toilsome journey to the hot plains of the Adaiel had now been fully accomplished, to the delight and the amazement of my savage allies, whereas to have returned to the king without a trophy, after His Majesty's sage remarks upon the subject of buffalo-hunting, would, in the eyes of every one, have proved a blot on the escutcheon of the hitherto triumphant Gyptzis. No sooner had the unwieldy monster fallen in its last struggles, than Adam, the chief of the braves, having severed the windpipe with true Mohammadan skill, advanced at the head of his band, and falling prostrate on the ground, kissed my feet. To allay my thirst, a shield full of water was brought from the river. Every creese was then drawn, and the solid hide, after being removed with all expedition, was, for the convenience of carriage, divided into six portions suited for bucklers. Repeated blows from a heavy stone detached the great crescent horns from the beetling brow; and these, with the ears, hoofs, and tufted tail, we bore off as trophies to be laid at the royal footstool. Elated at the conquest of a formidable and much-dreaded beast, whose destruction by this rude people--a feat sometimes occupying many days-- is esteemed equivalent to the slaughter of eight Pagans in battle, the excited savages were presently retracing their steps through the intricacies of the wilderness. Flourishing the spoils aloft in earnest of victory, they alternately whistled and chanted their wildest war-dirge, and the deep chorus raised at intervals made the recesses of the grove to ring again. Awaiting my return with some anxiety, Ayto Habti Mariam, surrounded by his array of warriors, was seated beneath the spreading arms of a venerable acacia, which leaned in hoary pride over the bank of the bubbling Casam. Godana, the Adel brave, galloping wildly into the ring, vaulted from his rude saddle, and casting a sixth of the hide contemptuously upon the ground, declared the feat to be achieved! During the performance of the war-dance, by which his gaunt and sinewy frame was long violently convulsed, he sprang from side to side, quivering his spear with the most ferocious gestures, and chuckling in imitation of vultures revelling over their prey. His exhibition concluded, the other doughty heroes who had been present at the death, each in his turn, flung his trophy upon the earth; and the whole, with shouts, and yells, and war-whoops, accompanied by all manner of savage antics, triumphed over the spoils of the slain. Greatly to our disappointment and surprise, the governor now intimated the necessity of our returning forthwith to the high country. The prolific covert teeming with game of every description, a respite of only one day was earnestly and repeatedly solicited, but in vain. The Amhara, who had embarked in the rash enterprise with the utmost reluctance, oppressed by the direct influence of the solar rays, and most anxious to terminate their sojourn on a perilous border, heretofore untrodden by Christian foot, with unanimous voice declared their provisions to be at an end; whilst the Adaiel, who still mistrusted the motive of the visit, and, now that the avowed object had been accomplished, would hear of no further tarry on their frontier, urged as an argument for instant departure, that the Ittoo, "having heard the reports of the rifles, would not fail to be down in strength during the night." Desultory hostilities are continually waged between these wild borderers, whose broils and feuds are endless; and not six months had passed away since five hundred Pagans, bursting over the frontier, had plundered the Moslem valleys. But the tocsin, resounding from village to village, was promptly responded to by the gathered population, who pursued the marauders--recovered all the booty wherewith they were laden--and left the bodies of one hundred and twenty a prey to the vultures of the air. Although a brave soldier, Habti Mariam was evidently apprehensive of a brawl in some quarter, and very unwilling to incur the responsibility. "You came," he repeated, "to hunt buffaloes; and by God's aid you have succeeded. My control extends not to these disturbed districts; and if blows should be struck, what account shall I render unto the king my lord?" Further remonstrance being obviously useless, the Adaiel were assembled, and complimentary speeches having been delivered laudatory of their assistance, an Abyssinian, cloth and a handful of German crowns were placed among them for division. Godana, on the part of his avaricious tribe, made an oration in reply; and waxing more and more animated as he drew towards the conclusion of the harangue, ended by praying in a loud voice, "that Allah might conduct the princely visitors in safety to their homes, and cause their spear-blades to prevail over every foe!-- that the eyes of their adversaries might be blinded in battle--that plenty might crown their harvests, and blood, as now, ever bedew their hunting trail!" And during the pause that followed the interpretation of each of these benedictions, the governor, with his assembled host, ejaculated "Amen!" We had recrossed the Casam, and commenced the ascent of the hills, when the sudden appearance of a colony of pig-faced baboons, crowning the bank of the volcanic cleft, gave birth for some minutes to an apprehension amongst the Amhara, that the much-dreaded Ittoo were already hovering on the flank. But certain playful bounds on the part of the suspected objects soon dispelled the illusion; and the setting sun saw us safely encamped on a height overlooking a bend of the river, where a group of thermal springs issue from the sod-grown channel at a temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and flow steaming on beneath a grove of odoriferous fan-palms. Celebrated for their sanative properties, these baths were speedily thronged by all who laboured under any real or imaginary ailment; and notwithstanding that they shrunk from the extreme heat, which threatened to scald a European finger, the immersion was perseveringly continued by a succession of patients so long as the daylight lasted. Volume 3, Chapter XXVIII. RETURN TO DUMMAKOO. In the absence of a standing army, it is truly astonishing by what magic spell the inhabitants of these remote portions of His Majesty's dominions are bound to his rule. Owing to the difficulties inseparable from the introduction of an armed force for their chastisement, and the inaccessible nature of their fastnesses, no situation could be more favourable to revolt and to rebellion. But it is obvious that the wily policy of government will prove successful, so long as the fear of the Galla is strong in the breast both of Christian and Mohammadan, and so long as the name of Sahela Selassie shall continue to act as a potent talisman upon all the savage, turbulent, and refractory spirits who people his disunited empire. During the early portion of the night, the shrill crowing, as of an hundred cocks, might have induced the belief that the wild camp stood in the neighbourhood of Ankober, where chanticleer taxes his throat almost incessantly; but the sound to which the wild hills now rung was soon ascertained to proceed from the Amhara pickets. With a view to compensate in some measure for the brief sojourn conceded to us in the low country, we were hurried off the moment the morning star appeared, in order to beleaguer a field of reeds occupying the bed of the Casam. It was said by the governor to terminate in a _cul de sac_, and to be one great den of lions, no fewer than eight having fallen under the spears of the Adaiel in an attack made some years previously. Our path traversed the deep broken bed of the river, the lofty castellated walls of which, rising sternly in the moonlight, were garrisoned by a legion of baboons, and before dawn we halted on a sheet of bare rock, over which a small stream of water fell by a time-worn channel into a deep dark basin;--many hundred acres of tall waving flags, interspersed by shady tamarind trees, stretching away over the long reach beyond. But the capabilities of the place proved to have been greatly exaggerated; and, although certainly harbouring a vast number of the _felinae_, it was far too extensive and too tangled--too impervious to man, and too unassailable by fire--to admit even of a chance of success. An agazin and an oryx, of which numbers fled in all directions, were hunted down by the host of retainers, aided by their dogs. A feeble attempt was then made to dislodge the inmates of the wide covert, by a general screaming and clattering of shields on the outskirts; and this notable display of _venerie_ being concluded without any good result, the cavalcade wended its way homeward. Mounting on the left side, with the assistance of his spear, the Amhara, when in the saddle, does not by any means ride well. Frequent falls are precluded by the high bulwarks of wood and leather which fortify his position; but his seat is awkward and ungainly: and few cavaliers can be said to possess the noble science of equitation. Whilst violently kicking with the naked shanks, and retaining the stirrup in the grasp of the great toe, they tug violently at the cruel and barbarous bit to urge the horse to speed; and the blood is presently to be seen streaming from the mouth, as the tortured animal tosses its head in agony. The bridle is especially powerful and severe; long cheeks being attached to an indented bit, whilst a solid iron ring embraces the lower jaw, and acts like a tightened curb. The saddle is of Tartar form, and consists of two light splinters, which leave a clear space for the spine, and connect a high wooden pommel for the suspension of the shield, with a cantle equally high. Firmly sewn together with wet thongs, the tree is padded, covered with a loose skin, and furnished with stirrup-rings, just sufficiently capacious to embrace the first toe of the shoeless equestrian. The Abyssinian horse would in England be considered under-sized, and deficient in make and bone; but the breed is hardy, enduring, and sure-footed, and, from its cheapness, might with advantage be exported to our Indian possessions. Colts reared among the Galla are deservedly held superior, the reckless character of the wild pagan rider impelling them over the most difficult ground, and thus imparting a degree of boldness and confidence which is rarely to be found in the Amhara steed. In Shoa the absence of roads precludes the use of wheeled carriages; and established custom forbidding the employment of the team in agriculture, the gelding is reserved exclusively for the saddle, whilst mares and stallions are very rarely ridden. The art of shoeing is unknown, and no attention is paid to the care of the hoof, which, being extremely hard, for a time bids defiance to the stony ground; but many of our hunters were already beginning to suffer from the want of a farrier. The horse is by all considered a very inferior animal to the mule, whose soft agreeable pace accords much better with the general indolent habits of the Abyssinian, and whose patience and surety of foot among the steep rocky mountains are sufficiently appreciated. The prices given are consequently larger, and the care taken of the latter is proportionably greater. Whilst the steed, scantily supplied with old straw, runs in the pasture during every season of the year, the mule, on the failure of the herbage, is pampered on barley and on the best of teff fodder, and, sheltered from the cold bleak wind, remains a constant inmate of the master's dwelling, on terms of close intimacy with the family. Twenty-five or thirty miles within the day are rarely exceeded--the high hills to be ascended, and the deep rugged valleys to be traversed, rendering a longer stage almost impracticable. The usual pace of the sure-footed mule is three miles an hour, but when the road is level, the amble is increased to five, and the pedestrians of the party still continue to retain their place. A saddled steed is led in the train; and, excepting in the hereditary dominions of Shoa, the traveller is fain to keep a good look-out for the roving Galla, and to do battle on the moment, if occasion requires. On again reaching the gorge of the Fotah river, the governor, surrounded by the most puissant of his chivalry, and preceded by a band of bold spearmen, each decorated with some flaunting trophy of the chase, advanced with a measured war-dance, and a martial chorus. These triumphant strains were continued with little intermission during the whole of the steep ascent, in spite of the intense heat of the sun, which shot forth with greater fervour than ever. Dense clouds of dust and sand, such as might be raised by a charge of ten thousand cavalry, whirled up towards the sultry sky from the scene of recent exploits; and the Amhara, already fanned by the cooler breeze of the highlands, looked down upon the execrated plain with joy at their deliverance from its burning atmosphere. From each hamlet along the route the inhabitants sallied forth with shrill acclamations to greet our return. The entire female population of Dummakoo, receiving the white strangers near the church dedicated to the tutelar saint of England, led the way with kettle-drums and shouts of welcome; and for many hours after arrival within the dark walls of the king's granary, every quarter of the village resounded with choral music. A visit of congratulation was immediately paid to us by a diminutive gentleman, who boasted descent in a direct line from the celebrated Graan, and whose more immediate ancestors possessed the vice-gerency of the greater part of the country just visited. Ali Qui occupied a farm in the vicinity of Dummakoo, and he was accompanied by his tall, fair, dark-eyed daughter, clothed in crimson, and loaded with amulets and amber necklaces. Possessing the Abyssinian accomplishment of begging in the very highest perfection, the worthy Moslem presented ajar of milk, and requested the loan of a few hundred dollars to pay for his estate, whilst the coquettish damsel brought a loaf of bread, and exerted her powers of eloquence to bring about an application to the throne for the restoration of her parent to his hereditary dignities. She was known by the eccentric appellation of _Amesa Karetse_, or "fifty crowns"--a title bestowed in commemoration of a fine to that amount levied on the day of her nativity upon Ali Qui, as a punishment for the escape of a state prisoner consigned to his custody. The easy and ingenious mode of extortion by _mamalacha_ exists in full force throughout the land, and all are equally amenable both to its abuses and to its privileges. Bringing any article within his means, no matter what, the begging petitioner hands it over to his superior as a memento for any thing that he has the assurance to demand. Servants offer a stick or a bundle of grass, and ask for swords, clothes, and money; whilst chiefs and the highest officers of state, present to the throne a pot of butter or a cloth, and seek to receive in return a horse, or a mule, or an embroidered garment. If the _mamalacha_ be received, the case is hopeless; and indeed the custom of the country requires that the extortioner should be never met with a negative. Thus, on the occasion of loss by fire or other casualty, the sufferer makes the round of his acquaintance, who each contribute a mite to the subscription; and wonderful licence being given to imposture, the individual upon whom fortune has laid a heavy hand, soon waxes more wealthy than before. No petitioner ever enters the presence of his superior unless furnished with an offering according to his worldly means, as a bribe to secure favour and good-will. Cattle and honey, cloth, wood, and even stones, are presented; and this system is invariably observed in all quarrels and dissensions, where either party desires reconciliation. Without the intervention of a mediator, this cannot be effected. A third individual is therefore sought, who will undertake the arrangement, and to his hands the affair is consigned. The king himself often accepts the office, and of course is very rarely unsuccessful. Inferiors come into the presence of their official master with large stones upon their heads; and, prostrating themselves upon the earth, seek forgiveness of their offences, which, at the intercession of the all-powerful mediator, is seldom withheld. The oath by His Majesty's life is the most potent in use. If adjured by the death of Sahela Selassie, non-compliance can be visited by punishment; and the wilful breach of the solemn obligation renders the perjured party liable to penalties the most severe. From the highest to the lowest, all classes are most pertinacious beggars. Whatsoever is seen is surely demanded,--guns, knives, scissors, beads, cloth, mirrors, and dollars. The love of acquiring property stifles every sense of shame; and no compunction is felt in asking for the cloak from off the stranger's back. The Amhara even take a pride in this national failing, and boast that the child, before coming into the world, will stretch forth its hand to receive a gift; whilst tradition extols as highly praiseworthy and deserving of imitation the conduct of a certain great Abyssinian chief, who on his death-bed desired that his body might be interred in the track of a caravan, in order that, if possible, his spirit might be in the way of receiving a dole from the passing merchant! Volume 3, Chapter XXIX. VISIT TO THE KARAIYO GALLA. As each evening closed, the appearance over the high range of Bulga was magnificent. Dark clouds, occasionally pierced by a bright ray of the sinking sun, drove in dense volumes across this mountain wall; and as they rolled on towards the lofty cone of Megasus, they revealed in their track the precipitous and rugged nature of bluffs which had before presented an unbroken surface. Rain not unfrequently fell during the night, and penetrating the flimsy cotton awnings as if they had been cullenders, rendered an umbrella necessary towards the protection of the damp pillow. Resolved to view the mysterious Fantali from the country of the Karaiyo Galla, whence might be determined the interesting question of its activity or quiescence, I planned an excursion with Captain Graham to the lake Muttahara, whose glassy bosom, surrounded by great belts of yellow grass, and stretching along the western base of the volcano, we had regarded with intense curiosity, as it sparkled under the beams of the setting sun. Absence of water on the road rendered it imperative that our party should be limited; and the insuperable aversion displayed by every follower to a second expedition to the low country caused little disappointment. Many had already suffered severely from inflammation of the eyes; and greater difficulty could hardly have been experienced in obtaining volunteers for the most desperate forlorn hope--the Aroosi beyond the Hawash, a tribe distinguished for surpassing ferocity, being declared the bitter enemy of every Christian and Mohammadan. The governor had already proceeded in advance, to collect his vassals; and on the morning fixed for our departure a heavy white fog, such as is wont to envelope the capital of Shoa during three-quarters of the year, veiled the entire face of nature. The first five miles led across the richly-cultivated terrace of Berhut, amid numerous hamlets which gradually became visible as the mist ascended. Aingodiye, on the top of the pass, together with the entire district of that denomination, pertains to the Lady Asagash, who, decked in her holiday costume, politely sallied forth, with her train of household slaves and handmaidens, to greet the passing strangers. This portly dame, whose appearance is truly indicative of her wealth, was the favourite concubine of the famous Medoko at the period of his assassination; and having been suffered by the despot to retain the extensive domains conferred upon her paramour during the days of his glory, a thrifty disposition has swelled her hoard of corn, oil, and beeves, beyond all bounds. In her retinue came a disconsolate couple chained together by the wrists--thieves no doubt--and said to be man and wife, whom the Woizoro facetiously declared it had been found requisite to link by bonds stronger than those of wedlock, in order to counteract a decided disinclination to the society of the husband, evinced by the inconstant spouse in three several elopements. Descending by a steep pass through the district of Goorooreza--a perfect wilderness of rugged mountains--we crossed the river of that name near its junction with the Casam, and shortly afterwards the Casam itself, from which all the villages for many miles round derive their supply of water. Taking its source in the elevated plains of Germama, this tributary of the Hawash escapes through the mountains by a deep defile, worn in the lapse of ages by the autumnal torrents, betwixt Mentshar and Bulga. Thence it winds on beneath perpendicular bluffs jutting out from the high table-land. Of these the principal is the frowning promontory of Gougou, which, like a natural fortress, abruptly terminates the Tudla Mariam plateau, extending to Angollala in one uninterrupted terrace, celebrated for the capsicums and fine cotton wool raised by its Christian population. From the bed of the Casam the road wound up the Choba ravine, through a fissure formed near the point of junction by two gigantic blocks of granite, which confine the rugged defile to just sufficient width for the transit of a mule. The stupendous mass wore the appearance of having been hurled in remote ages from the summit of the impending cliff, the force of the concussion rending it in twain, and forming the key to a road, which by a handful of resolute men might be defended against the mightiest host. An ascent of one thousand feet over the Woleecha mountain, by a narrow path worn in the columnar trap, led to another elevated plateau, where, after the arrival of the governor, the staff was set up for the night at the Moslem village of Seeagur, eleven miles from Dummakoo. The threshing-floor whereon our tent was erected, standing upon one of the many tongues of table-land that intersect the district of Wolagur, looked down a long lone valley bounded on the opposite side by the perpendicular wall of Boorkikee, upon the verge of which, surrounded by a milk-bush hedge, rose the secluded church of Saint George, the last Christian edifice of Mentshar. The sudden termination of the terrace, which abruptly drops into the country of the Galla, commanded an extensive prospect over the wilderness of Taboo, bounded by the distant blue hills of the Gamoo and Aroosi. Rising among the Sama Galla, and overflowing the level land in the season of its height, the Taboo, like most of the secondary streams in this district, is dissipated by the fiery heat of the plains before reaching the Hawash. Double the number of retainers, both horse and foot, to that which actually appeared on the morrow, had been summoned; but many preferred paying the fine incurred by absence, to accompanying their liege lord into jungles hitherto little trodden by the Christian. A respectable retinue was, however, in attendance; and we set out at an early hour for the lake Muttahara. A rugged winding descent, due south, led to the foot of the Wolagur range, whence an extensive tract stretches away to Fantali, beautifully wooded, covered with flocks and herds, and disclosing in every direction the beehive cabins of the Karaiyo, a tribe equally rich in cattle and in pasture land. It is now fifteen years since an Amhara expedition under the Dech Agafari overran this then independent district from the highlands of Mentshar. The inhabitants, flying for shelter to their thick hook-thorn coverts, sustained little loss in killed; but the whole of their wealth was swept away, and thirty thousand fat beeves were presented to the monarch on the plains of Angollala, as an earnest of successful foray. Since that period the Karaiyo have been nominally dependent on Shoa, paying an annual tribute of twenty oxen, and the left tooth of every elephant entrapped or found dead--a mild taxation, with which they are sufficiently content to abstain from revolt, although the hold over them is too slight to admit of farther impost--the principal advantage derived from their submission being the interposition of a barrier against the inroads upon the Amhara frontier of the savage Aroosi. The Karaiyo territory, extending about forty miles in length by thirty in breadth, consists of a succession of open uncultivated plains, covered with luxuriant shade, and intersected by low ranges of grassy hills, dotted with spreading trees--altogether a highly enviable site for a small nomade tribe, although much scourged by the neighbouring Aroosi, and presenting the very theatre for a hasty inroad. Portions of the district often suffer much from drought; but a most opportune fall of rain the preceding night had completely deluged the country, and poured into every pool along the route a plentiful supply of muddy water. Taking an easterly direction towards Fantali, we passed numerous well-peopled hamlets, occupying all the secluded nooks, and as wealthy in flocks and herds as if the Amhara besom had never swept the land. From constant exposure to the heat and glare, and the habit of closing the eyelid to increase the power of vision, the swarthy features of even the youngest of the blinking inhabitants were deeply furrowed with premature wrinkles, which, with a turn-up nose, and the greasy unbecoming Galla costume, rendered those who had numbered many seasons, truly hideous. In an easterly direction the course was bounded by the great isolated crater of Saboo, yawning in the very centre of a well populated plain, and said to have been in full activity in the time of Sahela Selassie's grandsire, who reigned only thirty years ago; an assertion which was fully borne out by the recent appearance of the lava streams. The long-horned oryx, with great herds of antelope, grazed around every pool--the latter little disturbed by the presence of those who tended the flocks of sheep and goats, and whose groups of circular wigwams peeped forth in every sequestered corner. An ancient crone of surpassing ugliness, attired in a leathern petticoat flounced with cowrie shells, was busily engaged by the way-side in transferring muddy water to her scrip, and looking up, was perfectly horrified at the appearance of a white face on the opposite border of the puddle. For a few seconds her old yellow teeth chattered audibly, and then, satisfied that there was no deception, she called loudly upon the goddess Ateti, threw herself back upon the ground, and became a prey to abject despair. Resuming a southerly course from the foot of the crater, our path led at right angles over a tract where broken abysses, lava dykes, and brilliant belts of verdure, were jumbled together in strange confusion. At an early hour in the afternoon we reached Inkoftoo, the principal Karaiyo kraal in the district of Kadecha Dima. Standing beside an extensive pool, screened on all sides by luxuriant trees, it was strongly fortified by stiff thorn-branches against the inroads of the lion; formidable troops of which, roaming almost unmolested, commit great havoc among the cattle, and had only the night before carried off a youth belonging to the village. It wanted still some miles of the spot in which Habti Mariam had resolved to encamp, near the borders of the Muttahara lake, whose placid surface, not less than two miles across, extended almost to the base of Fantali. The chief of Inkoftoo had seen a rhinoceros in the morning, among the dense thicket of hook-thorns covering the declivity of a hill on the way; but although one of the governor's braves, elevating his sheep-skin mantle upon the point of his lance, charged the assembled multitude in the king's name to abstain from clamour and from interference with the arrangements made for beating up the quarters of the "_ouraris_," the clattering hoofs of the advancing cavalcade presently put the animal to flight towards the Hawash. It were difficult to determine whether the fear of the Aroosi or of wild beasts now predominated in the minds of our Amhara escort. In spite of a heavy fall of rain, large watch-fires were kindled in various parts of the lone bivouac, and not a single eye was closed until the day had fairly dawned. Volume 3, Chapter XXX. THE WILDERNESS OF TABOO. Extensive morasses, environing the sedge-grown borders of the Muttahara water, proved it to be far below its wonted boundaries, and precluded all access to Fantali, even had the timidity of the guides been sufficiently overcome to induce them to acquiesce in a visit; but the non-existence of any active volcano for more than thirty years was confirmed by all. The Kobedemtoo and the Gobakoobee districts form the limit of His Majesty's Karaiyo possessions, within a few miles of the Hawash, and thither we proceeded in the morning. Arriving near the mountain Sadeka, one of the outposts of the Aroosi, whence the wooded line of the river could be traced for miles through the naked plains, I took the bearings of the conical peak of Serie, and of other conspicuous landmarks. But the appearance of a small party of armed savages in the distance soon induced precipitate retreat on the part of our escort, who by no means relished the delay. A band of treacherous barbarians had only a few weeks previously made a descent upon the Karaiyo cattle, and after putting all the herdsmen to the spear, were hurrying off with the booty, when they were pursued in force, and put to flight with the loss of twelve of their number. Another predatory visit was daily anticipated; and the caution was in every mouth, "If two warriors be perceived upon the same horse, ask no questions, but shoot them without mercy." Sahela Selassie has never yet attempted an expedition in person against these war-hawks, nestled in the lap of the mountains, who fight stark naked, and are besmeared with lard from head to foot. Merciless, and of predatory habits, they are represented as extremely powerful in battle, and are the terror of every surrounding tribe--two warriors usually bestriding the same steed, and aiding each other with barbed lances jagged like the teeth of a saw, and with bucklers manufactured to imitate the shell of the tortoise. Subsisting entirely by plunder, the cultivation of their high cold hills is but little attended to; salt, which forms the principal article of barter with Gurague, and other inland bordering countries, being obtainable in unlimited quantities from the lake Laghi, two days' journey from Serie, one of the principal market towns. Noora Hoossain is the capital of the Aroosi Galla, who are all followers of the Prophet; and the principal towns of their adjacent neighbours the Ittoo, a race of mixed Mohammadans and Pagans, are Chercha and Metokoma. The rhinoceros was said to abound in the Karaiyo neighbourhood; but Habti Mariam would consent to no further sojourn on this dangerous border with so limited an escort, and at noon retraced his steps to the village of Inkoftoo. Here all the braves and principal men of the tribe were gathered to recount their recent exploits with the predatory Aroosi, as well as the particulars attending the slaughter of an elephant's calf that had fallen under their united lances a few weeks previously. A spear wound having stupified the beast, hundreds of warriors rushed in and overwhelmed it. Every participator in this notable achievement, which is one of extremely rare occurrence, now displayed on his person some distinguishing ornament or feather, whilst the doughty hero who claimed first blood, strutted about under a perfect load of sable and green plumes, brass chains, and massive ivory armlets, precisely similar to those worn by the ancient Egyptians. Not quite satisfied as to the object of the visit, the Karaiyo had collected the whole of their great droves of cattle in the precincts of the hamlet. Amongst them were many splendid _sanga_, with wide-spreading horns upwards of six feet in length; under which they moved as majestically as the stag "proud of his twelve tynes." A heavy storm of dust obscured the entire face of the landscape in the direction of Saboo; arriving near to which, a path struck off to the westward to the encamping ground on the side of the Kozi mountain, above a snug Karaiyo hamlet, whence provisions were obtained. The Amhara followers, although still restricted by the fast of Hodadi from participation in animal food, were fain to encase their naked and blistered feet in portions of the hide of an ox slaughtered for the entertainment of the more fortunate Mohammadans; the fields of lava lately traversed, like the "iron stones" celebrated in the travels of the Jesuit fathers of old, being "like the dross that cometh from the furnace, and so sharp-pointed withal, that they spoiled a pair of new shoes in a day." The next object was to visit the far-famed volcanic well of Boorchutta, on the frontier of Mentshar, bordering upon the wilderness of Taboo, which was to form the limit of our wanderings. Shortly after gaining the summit of the Kozi mountain, the road wound along the very brink of the crater of Winzegoor, from whose monstrous chasm the entire adjacent country has been recently overflowed; and three miles beyond it we halted preparatory to the passage of a dangerous defile, said to teem with the execrated Aroosi hordes, and to form their favourite ambuscade. A council of war was held. The troops being formed into a dense body, a _woho_ was appointed to prevent straggling, and to command the rear-guard. Scouts proceeded in advance to reconnoitre, and the strictest silence having been enjoined, the order was for once obeyed. Dismounted men and grazing horses descried on the impending heights of Boobisa soon caused dire alarm; and consternation reached the climax when, on gaining the gorge of the hills overlooking the wilderness of Taboo, the scouts ran in breathless, with intelligence that a large body of cavalry occupied a rising ground not two miles from the van. The jingling bells around the necks of the mules having been muffled, the party, drawn up in battle array, advanced with the utmost caution, until the gleaming of the white garments and cross-emblazoned shields of the fancied foes proved them to be none other than the Mentshar detachment of horse under Ayto Nigdoo, who had been expressly called out to reinforce the Amhara in event of the Aroosi being abroad on a foray. Having joined the allies, who had in their turn been equally disconcerted at the appearance of the forces of Habti Mariam, we proceeded to cross the valley of Jiggra Mulkinia, "the place where the guinea fowls feed." This fine level plain, hemmed in by high hills, presented a perfect garden of wild flowers blossoming amid a most luxuriant second crop of grass, the result of a late conflagration. Many hundreds of the white-rumped _mhorr_ browsed on it undisturbed, and the pintado and the partridge seemed to be without end. A belt of dog-rose bushes, camel-thorns, and a highly aromatic undergrowth which bordered the base of the range styled Jujjuba Kulla, harboured a small herd of elephants, and they were soon perceived luxuriating among the young juicy reeds. But the retinue contrived as usual to put the whole to flight; and under a furious thunder-storm, which in ten minutes covered the plain with pools of water, the cavalcade, drenched to the skin, arrived at a late hour on the skirts of the Boorchutta water, where the night was to be passed. This singular well, which wears the semblance of the crater of a gigantic mine, is situated in the bosom of the almost perpendicular mountain of Jujjuba Kulla. One narrow passage, of barely sufficient width for an elephant, leads to the water, which lies at the bottom of a deep narrow gully with inaccessible banks. Rising to the height of two hundred feet, they are crossed by vermilion bands of lava, honeycombed with a thousand cavities and fissures, and overgrown in parts with the most brilliant vegetation. Enormous blocks of black rock, which choke this channel for the last hundred yards, form a sort of parapet to the front of the pool, which measures sixty feet in diameter, and gives "no bottom." The still, brimstone-coloured waters were glassy smooth, and not a breath stirred within the deep suffocating crater, where the fall of a pin produced an echo like that of a whispering gallery. Black martins wheeled over-head--pigeons cooed amid the clefts and crannies-- and hairy baboons grimaced and chattered on the impending cliffs, from which trailed numberless fantastic roots, laid bare by the torrent that at certain seasons pours into the well from the ravine above. There being no other water for many miles around this reservoir, it forms the resort of all the numerous wild animals in the neighbourhood; and the narrow passage bore ample testimony to the nocturnal visits of the elephant and rhinoceros. The inhabitants of all the adjacent hamlets deriving their supply hence, the Aroosi frequently lay in ambush to cut off their watering parties. Boorchutta is, in fact, the arena of constant conflicts; and not a month had elapsed since the ruthless barbarians slaughtered thirty-three Moslems, losing four of their own number in the skirmish. Bowers of green boughs were constructed for the accommodation of the two governors; and the whole of the retainers, standing to their arms with loins girt, danced and sang throughout the night around blazing watch-fires, which threw great masses of light into the shadowy abyss, and imparted the wildest effect to the scene of blood. The night passed without any alarm, whether from assassin or wild beast; and in order to complete the tour of the eastern frontier, an excursion was made at early dawn through the wilderness of Taboo to the Bosut hills; the rich meadows which intervene, being tenanted by the Gamoo Galla, a pastoral tribe, beyond whom are the rebel Loomi. On terms of friendship with Sahela Selassie, and even acknowledging a sort of nominal fealty to Shoa, we did not anticipate that our appearance would have caused alarm; but the natives believing the party of five hundred horse and foot to denote an irruption of the Aroosi, drove off their cattle with all expedition to the summits of the fastnesses, and abandoning their villages, were to be seen clustering on the heights in momentary expectation of attack. Nothing could exceed the luxuriance of the shady forests of Taboo, which bore evidences throughout of the presence of the elephant, and abounded in the pie-bald oryx, the agazin, the hartebeest, and the mhorr--clamourous troops of guinea fowl, which covered every open glade, completing the contrast to the silent regions of Shoa, so generally destitute of animal life. Several splendid antelope had fallen to Graham's rifle and my own, before the impatient entreaties of the governor compelled us to set out on our return. We arrived before sunset at the village of Adelada, which occupies the summit of a steep saddle-backed hill, and is under the control of Ayto Nigdoo. Near it is the well of Wulawula, which, although smaller, is not very dissimilar from that of Boorchutta, a sleepy, funnel-shaped hollow, likewise owing its existence to igneous agency. Crossing the Koorkuru, the Gubraiyo Sagur, and the Cosso rivulets, which are severally dissipated in the plain of the Karaiyo, we re-ascended to Wolagur, and returned the following day to Dummakoo, laden with numerous valuable accessions to natural history, and in possession of as much information as our opportunities enabled us to collect relative to this interesting but unsettled border. Volume 3, Chapter XXXI. THE KINGDOM OF SHOA. "Natura beatis Omnibus esse dedit, si quis cognoverit uti." Although the majestic fabrics, the pillars of porphyry, and the Corinthian domes of early writers, now exist only in the tradition, Ethiopia yet retains the fresh vegetation of a northern soil, the vivifying ardour of a tropical sun, and the cloudless azure of a southern sky. Palaces and fanes, gardens and gushing fountains, have long since departed; but there still remains a fertile country possessing vast capabilities, a salubrious and delightful climate, and a race of beings whose existence under absolute and complete despotism, presents a striking contrast to that of the idle and improvident Adaiel, whose pride and whose boast is a banner of independence. Whatever Abyssinia may once have been, it is not to be expected that she should, under a great lapse of time, again take place among those countries which are peculiarly happy, opulent, or abundant. All her prevailing customs and practices are utterly at variance with existing laws for the creation, consumption, and distribution of wealth. A heavy taxation is levied on the produce of the field. Monastic and clerical establishments are fostered to the ruin of the people. The venal judges are paid by fees on the suits which they decide; and popular superstition and imposture possess the royal sanction for abuse. Nothing useful is ever taken into consideration; here are no roads or bridges to facilitate traffic, no schools for the instruction of the rising generation. The improvements of life have stopped at the satisfying point "of barren, bare necessity;" and fear and prejudice unite to deter the inhabitants from visiting foreign climes, so as to improve their benighted country, by introducing the discoveries in modern science. But although thus ignorant of comfort even in their highest enjoyments, the people are yet considerably emerged from that state of society which is denominated barbarian, and practise a species of agriculture which the fertility of the soil has heretofore blessed with an abundant return. Throughout the kingdom the eye is greeted by extensive cultivation; and the art of husbandry in Shoa has far eclipsed the advances made by any nation hitherto visited on the western coast. Under certain despotic conditions, private property in the land is every where established. There are few forests or wastes, excepting those impracticable for pasture or cultivation. The village and the farm-steading are uniformly secure from predatory bands or hostile neighbours, and although thickly inhabited, the country is unburdened by any over-population. The processes of preparing the ground are somewhat complex; a primitive plough is in use to the exclusion of the African hoe, and considerable industry is evinced in collecting and distributing the waters for artificial irrigation. The science of husbandry is nevertheless little understood; the implements of culture are few, and of the rudest construction; the various modes of assisting nature are unknown; and unless some civilised power interferes for good, a great length of time must necessarily elapse before the habits and prejudices of the uncultivated nation can be overcome for its own advantage. Situated in the middle of the torrid zone, and composed of groups and ranges of lofty mountains overlooking wide plains and deep valleys, equally under the influence of the tropical rains, the climate at different elevations is of the most varied description. The high table-land, which is clothed with moderate vegetation, and destitute of wood, is at all times cool and healthy, and often extremely cold. Here there is no winter, "Such as when birds die In the deep forest, and the fishes lie Stiffened in the translucent ice." The coolness of the mountain breeze is pleasant and refreshing, and the timely cessation of the rain allows a healthful rest to vegetation. The low wooded valleys, on the other hand, are close, unwholesome, and insufferably hot. During the cold season the thermometer on the summit of the range stands at about 30 degrees, a thin coating of ice covers the pools, and the country is white under a mantle of hoar frost. Below, the quicksilver mounts to 90 degrees, and the total absence of ventilation renders the heat still more oppressive. At the termination of the rains, Fever, with all her attendant horrors, spreads her pestilential wings over the most beautiful locations; and during the month of September even the wild birds for a time forsake the poisoned atmosphere, to seek the more congenial breezes of the upper regions. The amazing fertility of the vales is beyond all conception. Every species of crop attains the most gigantic proportions. The rich soil and the nurturing shelter, the abundant supply of water, and the ardent rays of the sun, all combine to crown the hopes of the husbandman; and these situations would have stood prominent as perfect in the creation, had nature blessed them with a climate corresponding in character to their lovely appearance. On the mountain-side, the vegetation is somewhat inferior in luxuriance--a fact that may be accounted for by the angle at which the sun's rays meet the ground, their power of imparting heat varying in proportion. As the eastern face of the range rises almost perpendicularly, it can only during half the day receive them at all, and for many hours in the warmest part of the afternoon, it is thus entirely in the shade. On the elevated plateau, a succession of well-watered undulations of pasture and arable land, extend in endless continuation to the view, undisturbed by a solitary tree, their scattered villages and farm houses proclaiming a country which has long enjoyed the blessings of peace. From the centre of this table-land, the craggy mountains rise in magnificent ranges, clothed in part with majestic forests, and graced by the wild rose, the myrtle, the eglantine, and the jessamine; whilst at its foot repose the rich and smiling valleys, hid in all the luxuriance of tropical foliage, from the gigantic sycamore, beloved of the heathen Galla, and measuring upwards of forty feet in circumference, to the light and elegant acacia, which distils the much-prized gum. On the table-land the best soil is found on the sheltered hill-side, of a rich brown colour, and along the river bank where there is a loamy alluvial deposit. Black earth is occasionally met with on the mountains, where it may probably have originated in the decomposition of those forests to which tradition gives existence in ancient days, but of which no other vestige now remains. In the valleys, those which form the governments of Giddem and Geshe especially, the richest black soil prevails throughout; and blessed with an abundant supply of rain, and with a mild genial climate, they produce all the crops known in Abyssinia, whilst the soil on the surrounding mountain-side, light, loose, and gravelly, would be found well adapted for the growth of coffee and tea. Abyssinia is happy in a most copious supply of water, the gates of heaven being opened twice during the year to the flooding of every river and streamlet, and to the complete soaking of the earth. The "rain of bounty" commences in February, and lasts for thirty days, and the "rain of covenant" setting in before the termination of June, pours down with extreme violence throughout July, August, and September--at which period is produced that never-failing increase of the Nile to which Egypt is also indebted for her fertility. Immediately after these down-pourings, nature, who had remained bound up in the preceding drought, bursts forth into a thousand interesting forms. Pastures and meadows are clothed in cheering green; the hills and dales are adorned with myriads of beautiful and sweet-scented flowers, and the sides of the mountain ranges become one sheet of the most luxuriant cultivation. Long after the rains are over, a heavy dew falls during the night; and under its vivifying influence the plants continue to shoot forth, refreshed by the coolness of the morning breeze, and strengthened by the strong heat of the mid-day sun. By the provident husbandman two crops are every year garnered in, without the land being impoverished; and whilst the corn is being reaped in one field, the seed is but just sown in another. The cattle are employed in ploughing up the fertile soil of one estate, whilst in the next the muzzled ox is trampling out its recently yielded treasures; and all the various operations of husbandry, from the breaking up of the ground to the final winnowing of the corn, may be simultaneously witnessed on one and the same farm. "Hic ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus aestas, Bis gravidae pecudes, bis pomis utilis arbor." Forty-three species of grain and other useful products are already cultivated in Abyssinia. After supplying the immediate wants of the working classes, and those of a herd of clerical drones who devour the fruits of their honest labour, there remains a considerable surplus, which is bartered to the lazy Adaiel for the produce of his salt lake--a field that without ploughing or sowing yields an inestimable crop. But if only a small portion of European knowledge were to be instilled into the mind of the Christian cultivator, the kingdom of Shoa, possessed of such unbounded natural advantages, might be rapidly raised from its present condition, and made one inexhaustible granary for all the best fruits of the earth. Volume 3, Chapter XXXII. TERMINATION OF THE FAST OF LENT. Immediately upon our return from the eastern frontier, the king sent his confidential page with a message of congratulation on my recent success against the much-dreaded buffalo, and requested that we would visit him early the ensuing morning. In accordance with the etiquette invariably observed after a long absence, I laid "pleasing things" on the royal footstool, together with the trophies of the chase, and His Majesty listened with great interest to a detail of our adventures among his Adel subjects. On my returning thanks for the injunctions issued to the governor of Berhut and his subordinates, as well as for the royal permission to visit a portion of the realm hitherto unviewed by Europeans, the most friendly assurances were repeated, that "he could not suffer his children to depart until they should have viewed the entire of his dominions." During this interview. His Majesty remained seated on a hassock before the fire, and had laid aside every portion of his usual reserve. _Akodamas_, or silver coronets, with chain pendants, of the model worn by himself on occasions of triumph, and conferred as the last honour upon those who distinguish themselves in war or in the chase, were now presented to us, together with massive silver bracelets, accompanied by many complimentary speeches upon the issue of the expedition:--"You have slain elephants and buffaloes, and are powerful in arms against the wild beasts of which my people are afraid," concluded the despot. "You have overwhelmed me with rifles and other delightful inventions from the countries beyond the great sea, and must receive at my hands those things which my kingdom produces, in order that they may be worn on all proper occasions. You are my brothers." Striped cotton robes of Abyssinian manufacture followed; and three horses with plated silver bridles were subsequently presented, which, although like other royal gifts in Shoa, of ridiculously inferior quality, were valuable as tokens of favour that are lavished upon those alone who enjoy the most exalted place in His Majesty's estimation. They did not fail to produce the desired effect upon popular opinion; and sycophants who had before taxed us with an intention to seize the throne--to extinguish the race of Solomon, and to bring a curse upon the land by the atrocious process of burning the royal bread--now found it convenient to alter their sentiments, and to confer upon the foreign guests the ennobling, but not very enviable, appellation of "the king's brothers." The tedious fast of Hodadi, which for forty days had been observed in commemoration of Lent by every individual of the population whose age exceeded thirteen years, was now about to terminate. During the three days which are termed _kenona_, the priests had neither eaten bread nor drunk water, but had remained in the churches singing and praying incessantly both day and night. In accordance with the practice of the primitive Church, the monarch observed total abstinence throughout this period, and on Good Friday sent me a message, "that his people would eat nothing for forty hours, but that as he knew the Gypts did not keep strong fasts, he had commanded the purveyor-general to send to the residency the usual daily supplies of bread, beer, and hydromel." On Easter even we were invited to the palace to witness their celebration of the royal victories, held according to immemorial custom during Passion Week. Sahela Selassie was clad in the plainest of garments, and appeared much enfeebled and emaciated by rigorous mortification, but was in high spirits at the prospect of speedy release from the irksome penance. On this joyful occasion offerings are invariably made to the throne; and every individual of the crowd present, whether great or small, advancing in turn, contributed a mite according to his means--the wealthier bringing cotton cloths, and the more indigent, logs of wood, earthen jars, or stones of a description fitted for building. Bands of warriors next entered the carpeted courtyard, howling the war-chorus; and after the lapse of a few seconds, the gigantic Tunkaiye, who had earned new laurels, and been severely wounded during a recent foray against the Gentiles, dashed into the arena on horseback. Richly attired, bedizened with feathers, _saretis_, and silver decorations, and escorted by a troop of fifty mounted retainers, he galloped up and down, recounting his valorous exploits, and pointing to the scars earned in the service of his royal master, shouted defiance to the enemies of the state. Eighty turbaned priests, in solemn procession, next entered the court, clad in their sacerdotal vestments. Preceded by the great embroidered umbrellas of the church dedicated to Saint George, they filed slowly into the space vacated by the warriors, the holy ark being supported by antique Egyptian figures, robed in long musty-looking habiliments of chequered hues, crowned with heavy mitres, and bearing in their hands rods of green rushes, bronze bells, crosses, and censers of burning incense, with an image of the Madonna, and a crucifix; for whilst hating the Papists with all their hearts, the Abyssinians nevertheless cherish many of the superstitions and buffooneries of the church of Rome. Having formed a semicircle before the throne, the priests, although much exhausted by their long abstinence, continued, during half an hour, to dance and chant the words of the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, "Christ was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." A portion of the Dominical orison followed. Their united harsh voices were accompanied by the music of tambourines and kettle-drums, thumped with excessive violence, and by the jingle of the _tsnasin_, the Abyssinian timbrel. This is the _sistrum_, an instrument supposed to be included under the Hebrew term _tzitzelem_, and being composed of a frame and moveable bars of sonorous metal, it produces sounds which can best be compared to the rattle of the poker upon the tongs. Seven long years are passed in learning to play these instruments, which are ascribed to Saint Yareed, an Abuna under the Emperor Guebra Maskal, [i.e. "Servant of the Cross"] and the reputed inventor of church music in all its various branches. The constant practice of many hours during each day might not unreasonably be expected to lead to greater perfection than is displayed. From four in the morning until nine, in every church in the kingdom, a similar clatter and noise is maintained, for the honour of the Christian religion, not only on the Sabbath, but on all the numerous holydays and festivals throughout the twelve months. Howling and screaming are the most appropriate terms by which to express the hoarse muster of cracked and ill-modulated voices; and the band of stout priests who, by their song, nightly preserve the royal person from the influence of evil demons, must be acknowledged to have selected a right cunning stratagem by which to deter the approach of those spirits, at least, that are gifted with any musical taste. The rehearsal of the praises and martial achievements of the reigning sovereign occupied another half hour, during which the dancing was even more energetic, and the music more boisterous than ever. Taking their seats before the throne, the priests of Saint George, fairly worn out by their exertions, at length made way for those of "our Lady," who, after the enaction of similar absurdities, were followed in succession by those of Medhanalem, Aferbeine, and Saint Michael, the latter distinguished by the massive embossed silver umbrella. As the united body rent the air with renewed encomiums on the royal prowess in arms, dictated to them line by line by one of the Alakas, His Majesty enquired of me whether similar ceremonies were performed before the sovereigns of Egypt during the holy institution of Lent?--whether the Coptic priesthood there were not less elegantly habited than the Abyssinian dignitaries present?--and whether the Ethiopic fasts were observed in Saint Thomas's town, as India is invariably styled by the Abyssinians, or in any other part of the Christian world? The edifying conversation was, however, suddenly interrupted by the cessation of the priestly voices. Rising and standing on the throne, the monarch now received in succession, at the hands of the dwarf father confessor, the carved croziers of brass or silver, belonging to the numerous functionaries of the five churches, many hundreds in number; and with exemplary devoutness, he raised all in turn to his lips. With each sacred symbol of the season, was handed a rod of green rushes, and every person present followed the royal example, by wreathing a fillet about his brows, to be worn during the residue of the day. Largesses, with new silver crosses, were then presented to the several Alakas, who were invested with striped cotton robes, and charged with alms for distribution to the poor. During this tedious process, whereof the king seemed no less heartily weary than ourselves, Tekla Mariam, the state scrivener, had been carefully extracting, from an endless succession of envelopes and dirty cotton bags and wrappers, something which he appeared equally desirous to conceal and to disclose. Drawing me mysteriously into a dark corner, he partially revealed a rudely carved block of wood, presenting nothing very remarkable in its appearance, but evidently much-prized by the possessor. "You will have perceived," whispered the learned man, in a scarcely audible voice--"you will doubtless have perceived that this is a fac-simile of the table of the law delivered to Moses on the Mount. It requires nothing but the Ten Commandments; and of these I have no question that you will be able to furnish me with a copy in the unknown tongue." Oxen, assembled for consumption in the city on the termination of the great fast, completely choked the road down from the palace. Of five hundred head brought together with this munificent design, there was not one that appeared to possess another hour of natural existence, all being diseased, and so horribly emaciated as to recall vividly to mind the aged pensioners of a Hindoo cattle asylum in the East. Many had actually died since their arrival within the enclosure, and it appeared wonderful whence so many sickening objects had been collected. Yet the liberality of the monarch was vaunted and extolled by all who were to share it; and it was unanimously declared that the fault rested solely with the public officers who had been entrusted with the royal commands. His Majesty, who, during Passion Week, had been very regular in his vigils and attendance at divine service, passed the greater part of the night in Saint Michael's church, and on the first crowing of the cock on Easter morning, broke his long fast. The feasting now became general. The five hundred oxen having been slaughtered, were devoured raw in the various quarters of the city; and whether in eating or in drinking, every inhabitant appeared exerting himself to the utmost to make up as expeditiously as possible for the weary restraint that had been imposed on his appetite. Numbers were soon to be seen ranging the streets in brutal intoxication; whilst the court buffoon, at the head of a party of drunken fiddlers, made his way to the dwelling of every person of note, and recited his praises in a series of extemporaneous couplets. According to immemorial custom, two state-prisoners were liberated from Goncho, on the occasion of these festivities; the royal clemency not however extending to any of the hapless and unoffending members of the blood-royal, who have shared the dungeon from infancy. During one week a public table is kept by the viceroy, to which the town's people of every grade resorting, drunken brawls and broken heads are diurnal occurrences. Oxen, bread, and beer, were liberally supplied, by the royal command, to the long train of worthless menials at the Residency; and in such high good humour were the priesthood, that, forgetting all their former maledictions and denunciations, they were pleased to ascribe a recent heavy fall of rain, which had proved highly beneficial to the husbandman, solely to the agency of "the king's strong strangers." Volume 3, Chapter XXXIII. FESTIVITIES OF EASTER. Easter day, instead of being celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox, is in Abyssinia kept one lunation later. On its recurrence, we received a special invitation to the annual public banquet held in the palace; and, whilst ascending the hill in full uniform, were preceded by the capering leader of the royal band. "Let me sing--I will sing," he exclaimed, as the attendants would have restrained his antics--"why should not the father of song dance before the fathers of gold?" Tents had been erected in the courtyard, and a separate repast provided for the members of the British Embassy. Countless crowds, decked out in their gayest apparel, filled every avenue and enclosure; and long files of slaves, with jars, baskets, and trenchers, hurrying to and fro from the kitchens and magazines, proclaimed the extensive nature of the preparations making for the regal entertainment. In the morning at eight o'clock, the doors of the great hall were thrown open, and a burst of wild music from the royal band ushered in the company to a spacious barn-like apartment, the dingy aspect of which formed a strong contrast to the galaxy of light that illumines regal hospitality in Europe. Holding high festival to the entire adult population of the metropolis, who for six weeks past had subsisted on cow-kail and stinging-nettles, the king reclined in state within a raised alcove, furnished with the wonted velvet cushions and tapestries, and loaded with silver ornaments--the abridgement of ancient Ethiopic magnificence. Priests, nobles, warriors, baalomaals, and pages, stood around the throne, which was flanked by a long line of attendants, bearing straight silver falchions of antique Roman model, belonging to the different churches. Bull-hides carpeted the floor; and the lofty walls of the chamber, although destitute of architectural decoration, were hung throughout with a profusion of richly-emblazoned shields, from each of which depended a velvet scarf or cloak of every colour in the rainbow. A low horse-shoe table of wicker-work, supported upon basket pedestals, extended the entire length of the hall. Thin unleavened cakes of sour teff heaped one upon the other served as platters. Mountains of wheaten bread piled in close contiguity, and crowned with fragments of stewed fowls, covered the groaning board. Bowls containing a decoction of red pepper, onions, and grease, were flanked by long-necked decanters of old mead; and at short intervals stood groups of slaves carrying baskets crammed with reeking collops of raw flesh just severed from the newly-slain carcass. Taking their seats in treble rows upon the ground, the crowded guests were each provided with his own knife, fashioned like a reaping-hook, and serving him equally in the battlefield and at the banquet. Four hundred voracious appetites, whetted by forty days of irksome abstinence, were constantly ministered to by fresh arrivals of quivering flesh from the courtyard, where oxen in quick succession were being thrown down and slaughtered in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Barilles and capacious horns filled with hydromel of intoxicating age were rapidly drained and replenished under the eye of the monarch; and strings of eunuchs with the females pertaining to the royal kitchen, clad in gala dresses and striped cotton robes, passed and repassed continually with interminable supplies of bread to rebuild the demolished fabric on the uprising of each satiated group. Again the great doors were thrown open, and another famished set entered, amid the increasing din. Harpers and fiddlers played, danced, and sang with untiring perseverance; and ever and anon one of the king's female choristers lifted up her shrill voice with the most extravagant panegyric on the hospitality and munificence of her royal master, or burst forth into unqualified eulogy on the liberality of his British guests. "In stature like the lance he bears, His godlike mien the prince declares; And fam'd for virtue through the land, All bow to Saloo's just command. "The sabre feels the royal grasp. And Pagans writhe in death's cold clasp; The Galla taste the captive fare. And dread the vengeance which they dare." "Our warriors tremble at the sight of the mighty elephant, but he sinks prostrate beneath the guns of the white men--Weiho, weiho, "They are a brave nation. "We have been loaded with strange gifts, for the white men hold in their hands the keys of health and wealth--Weiho, "They are a great nation. "Then hail to the friends who came o'er the wide water, Strangers and guests from a far distant land; And welcome to Shoa, the fortune which brought her The lords of the daring and generous hand." The royal band, which occupied the vacant space between the tables, is composed of many wind instruments of various lengths and sizes--the _embilta_ having a perforation to which the lips are applied as in the flute, whilst the _malakat_ is fashioned after the form of a trombone. No performer possesses above one pipe, nor, like the Russian, is he master of more than one note. Tune there is none--each playing according to the dictates of his own taste, unguided by any musical scale. After the hoarse and terrible blast of the trumps, the symphony falls soft upon the ear; and it was on this occasion curiously contrasted with the deep thunder of the _kubbero_, which pealed without intermission from the secret apartments of the queen. The harp, styled _bugana_, is a truly strange fabrication of wood, leather, and sheep's entrails. It presents the appearance of an old portmanteau which has been built upon by children with the rudest materials, in imitation of the lyre of the days of Jubal. Possessing five strings, and used only as an accompaniment to the voice, the monotonous notes produced are in strict unison with the appearance of the instrument; and even in the halls of Menilek, where the chords are struck by a master finger, they shed "no soul of music," and might be mute with advantage. What then is to be said of the Abyssinian fiddle, whose squeaking voice presided at this festive board? Alas! the inharmonious sounds elicited by the grating contact of the bow might lead to the conclusion that the unhappy spirit of music was confined in the interior, and uttered harsh screams and moans as fresh tortures were inflicted upon her agonised sinews! A gourd, or a hollow square of wood, is covered with a skin of parchment as a sounding-board, and furnished with a rude neck and a single string. Years of practice have imparted to Daghie, the court buffoon, an extraordinary degree of excellence; but even he is not Paganini; and every amateur performer in the realm considering himself at perfect liberty to scrape throughout the day with soul-harrowing perseverance, unlucky, indeed, must be pronounced the site of that residence which is adjacent to the proprietor of a _masanko_. As Easter day drew on to its close, the riotous mirth of uncontrolled festivity waxed louder and louder within the palace walls, whilst quarrels and drunken brawls prevailed throughout the city. The carousal continued until dark, by which time the bones of three hundred and fifty steers had been picked--countless measures of wheat had been consumed-- and so many hogsheads of potent old hydromel had been drained to the dregs, that, saving the royal and munificent host, scarcely one sober individual, whether noble or plebeian, was any where to be seen. Volume 3, Chapter XXXIV. SAINT GEORGE'S DAY. At Kondie, in the church dedicated to the patron saint of England, lie interred the remains of Woosen Suggud, and thither, according to wont, the despot proceeded on Saint George's day. The sepulchre of the departed monarch is screened from gaze amid a sombre grove of evergreen juniper, assuming the shapes, some of the cedar, others of the cypress and the yew:-- "Dark trees still sad when others' grief is fled, The only constant mourners o'er the dead." Kings alone are honoured with a coffin. Manufactured of sweet wood, and perforated with many apertures, it is placed on stone trestles amid clouds of frankincense, and after a season removed into the mausoleum; the walls of which are usually bedaubed with clumsy designs, intended to commemorate the exploits in the hunting field, the military actions, and the heroic achievements of the royal occupant. His Majesty's orisons at the shrine of his father being concluded, he turned his steps to the palace, now fast falling to decay, which formed the scene of the assassination of the despotic tyrant. Surrounded by the former capital of Shoa, it occupies the bleak summit of one of the loftiest mountains in the range, and commands a magnificent prospect over the greater portion of Efat. Mamrat, now diminished from thirteen to one thousand feet, no longer loomed a giant. Through the clouds which flitted across its stern bosom lay revealed the only path by which the royal treasures are accessible; and the white peak of Woti, rising from dense masses of timber, and terminating in a basaltic column, now formed the most conspicuous feature in the rugged landscape. "You observe those woods," inquired His Majesty, pointing after a long silence to the gloomy forests which stretched away towards the long white storehouses of Aramba: "they conceal a cavern into which no creature can enter and five. The man who should venture one step beyond the entrance would be seen no more. If a dog goes in, or a bird, or even a serpent, it will surely die. There is no bottom to that cave, and none can say whither it leads. Formerly people went to cut wood in the neighbourhood. A man lost his way, and was unheard of for months. His friends believed him dead. They mourned for him, and scratched their temples, and he was forgotten. Suddenly he re-appeared, reduced to a skeleton, and looking like a ghost. They brought him to me to know what should be done with him. He had lived like the _gureza_ upon wild berries, and when I asked him what he had seen, he replied that he had seen the devil. Woti is a bad place, and the forests take fire, and all my subjects fear to go thither." A catastrophe of this nature had recently taken place; and a quantity of fuel stored for the royal kitchen having been destroyed, it was the king's present object to ascertain the extent of damage sustained. Ayto Wolda Hana exerted his cracked voice in loud complaints of others, and so that himself escaped the much-dreaded censure, the old man evidently cared not much who suffered. Herein he was so far successful, that the sub-governor of the district was fined in the amount of one hundred dollars, about ten times the value of property destroyed, and every male inhabitant of the neighbourhood received sentence of imprisonment. The cold summit of Kondie is clothed with heather and with the _jibera_, a lofty species of _lobelia_, which attains the height of fifteen or twenty feet. As it is believed to exert a prejudicial effect upon the passer by, and often to cause death, the royal cortege waged active war against every plant by the way-side--His Majesty in person sustaining a part in hostilities designed to counteract the evil influence. Bands of warriors charging on horseback, delivered their spears simultaneously, and the doomed tree, if not cut over, was at least transfixed by a score of shafts. Excelling in skill, the monarch betted heavily upon every throw, and rarely did he lose. At forty yards the lance left his hand with unerring precision, and perforating the soft pulpy stem immediately below the bushy head, often passed quite through, to fall on the other side. "Where did the commander learn to throw a spear?" he suddenly exclaimed in merry mood, elevating his voice, and looking round towards the spot on which I was taking share in the proceedings. "Now, _Gaita_," he continued, as I approached, "I will give you a mule if you hit that tree, and if you do not, by the death of Woosen Suggud you shall forfeit your best rifle." Frequent practice having rendered me tolerably expert, my first lance fortunately passed through the stem, and the second threw its crown upon the ground. His Majesty was obviously satisfied; but whilst the mule completely escaped his treacherous recollection, my "best rifle," alas! had been already doomed to change hands. It remained but a brief period in those of the lawful proprietor, and Ayto Habti, the master armourer, was to be seen the very next morning engraving on the barrel with punch and hammer certain ominous Amharic characters, signifying, "Sahela Selassie, who is the Negoos of Shoa, Efat, and the Galla." Hunting down the partridge with dogs occupied the residue of the day. Parties stationed themselves at intervals along the heather-grown slopes of the hills, where the bird abounds, and by dint of unceasing persecution kept the victim selected so perpetually on the wing, that after three or four long flights it was unable to rise again. Many were thus killed with sticks, or taken alive; but wherever His Majesty was forthcoming, he rested a long double-barrelled fowling piece over the shoulder of an attendant to insure steady aim--and the wearied quarry, believing itself safe in a bush, was suddenly blown to atoms. Northern Abyssinia was now in a more disturbed state than ever; and numerous youths who had attempted to proceed to Gondar for the purpose of being ordained, had been compelled to abandon the journey, and return to Ankober. They brought tidings of an engagement between Ras Ali and Dedjasmach Oubie [see Note 1], which had been fought at Salem Okko, in the vicinity of Debra Tabor. The Ras being personally opposed to his rebel vassal, was believed to have fallen early in the day. His rumoured death proving the signal for disorder and retreat, the camp was left in possession of the enemy, who consigned it to the flames, under the conviction that victory was theirs. But the leader had merely fled; and as the evening closed, his partisans, recovering from their panic, rallied, and fell with irresistible fury on the victors, who were little prepared for further hostilities, and the execrated tyrant Oubie, who carries with him the curses of his oppressed subjects, was, with his two sons, made prisoner. Abba Salama, the Abuna, who is equally respected by all parties, was in the camp of the vanquished, but the holy man found an honourable asylum. The spiritual despotism exercised by the primate from the first moment of his arrival in Abyssinia calls vividly to mind the period when the mandates of the pope were as implicitly obeyed, and his ghostly influence similarly dreaded, by the potentates of Europe; and independently of his spiritual power, which exalts him greatly above the most potent of the rulers of the land, his holiness is far from being contemptible as a temporal prince. The hundred and eighth successor to Saint Mark the Evangelist, reclining in his humble divan within the Coptic quarters at Grand-Cairo, surrounded by the dignity of coffee and pipes, would ill recognise his juvenile delegate at Gondar, where both these luxuries are held in abomination, could he behold him in the enjoyment of revenues many times in excess of his own--ordaining a thousand priests in a single day--and receiving the homage of all the proud actors engaged in the troubled drama of Abyssinian politics. War had not visited Shoa; but the peace of many a family was yet destined to be disturbed by an arbitrary proceeding on the part of the crown. As the period of the king's departure from the capital drew nigh, many of the royal slaves who had voluntarily sold their liberty during the great famine of Saint Luke, [each year is in Abyssinia dedicated to one of the four Evangelists, according to the order of the Gospels,] casting themselves at the footstool of the throne, implored the restoration of their freedom in consideration of many long years of servitude. Enraged at what he termed the ingratitude of those whom he had fed when they must otherwise have starved, His Majesty, labouring under a strange infatuation, bade them "begone," and, in utter defiance of all the existing laws of the realm, that day promulgated an edict through the royal herald, that from thenceforth the progeny of all his numerous slaves, whether the offspring of free fathers or of free mothers, should be accounted his sole property, and forthwith render themselves to be enrolled by his drivers, in order to have their daily task allotted. The capital was in a state of wild confusion and consternation. Weeping and wailing resounded in every hut, and no Abyssinian possessed sufficient courage to oppose the dictates of the angry despot. The presence of the British Embassy now proved of that salutary and commanding influence which humanity and civilisation must ever exert over barbarity and savage ignorance. Deeming the opportunity imperative, and considering the chance of success to be well worth the risk of a misunderstanding with the court, I earnestly entreated His Majesty to reflect, "that the name of Sahela Selassie, hitherto so beloved of all, would lose a portion of its lustre and brightness. That all men are mortal. That kings do not reign for ever; and that the groans of his unhappy subjects, the props of his power and kingdom, who had heretofore lived in the enjoyment of the liberty to which they were born, but were now pining heart-broken in the thraldom of slavery, would add little to the comfort of the close of his illustrious life." My petition was accompanied by the enquiry, "how I should be able to represent his proceedings to the Government by which I had been sent?" and it was attended with the most satisfactory results. The king, who had still the fear of God before his eyes, avowed, "that the act had proceeded in a hurried moment of wrath, and that his European children had made him thoroughly sensible of its injustice and cruelty." The offensive proclamation was on the instant annulled; and four thousand seven hundred unfortunate victims to its promulgation, released from the house of bondage, and from the degrading shackles of slavery, after they had renounced all hope of redemption, returned to their homes and to their families, blessing as they went the name of "the white men." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1. Dedjasmach, often contracted to Dedjach, signifies "the warrior of the door," and is the title of governors under the puppet emperor of Ethiopia. As in the Ottoman empire the Pacha is distinguished by the number of his tails, so is the Dedjasmach by the number of his kettle-drums. He is entitled to one for each province under his control, and loses no opportunity of finding his account in the troubled waters by asserting independence. Volume 3, Chapter XXXV. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE IN SHOA. The annals of slavery point clearly to war as the principal cause of the monstrous crime of selling our fellow-creatures like cattle in the market. One nation having taken from another a greater number of captives than could be exchanged on equal terms, it is easy to comprehend how the victors, finding the maintenance of their prisoners expensive and inconvenient, first compelled them to work for their daily bread. Emerged from the limited wants of savage life, man next saw productions of art, which he eagerly coveted; and lacking habits of industry by which to earn them for himself, he compelled all whom his superiority enabled him to bring under subjection to pass their lives in labouring for his advantage. In Africa especially, where the human passions are unbridled, and man emulates the ferocity of the beast of prey, war proves a never-drying spring of misery and bondage, and slavery is the inevitable lot of all who are not slain on the battlefield, or massacred in the sacking of towns and villages. The weak and unsuccessful warrior, who sues for mercy beneath the uplifted spear of his opponent, purchases existence at the expense of liberty; and in time of famine the freeman often becomes a voluntary slave, in order to avoid the greater calamity of inevitable starvation. By the philosophic and reflecting mind death would doubtless be esteemed the lighter evil of the two, but the untutored savage, fainting with hunger, thinks with Esau of old, "Behold, I am at the point to die--what profit shall this birthright do to me?" Crime, necessity, insolvency, the inhumanity of a harsh creditor, a spirit of retaliation in petty disputes, and the sordid love of gain, for which parents will even sell their own children, severally assist in feeding the demand for slaves--the law of every African state either tolerating or directly sanctioning the evil; and wherever the Mohammadan faith prevails, frequent predatory incursions, characterised by the most atrocious violence, are made into the territories of all neighbouring infidels, who are systematically hunted down and entrapped as a religious duty. Slaves in Africa are thus in proportion to the freemen of about three to one; but although the number of individuals reduced to a state of bondage by the operation of the above causes, and the destruction created, both as regards life and property, is immense, the whole combined are but as a single grain of dust in the balance, when compared with the slavery, the destitution, and the desolation, that is daily entailed by the unceasing bloody struggles betwixt state and state. Towns and villages are then obliterated from the face of the earth, and thousands upon thousands of the population, of whatever age or sex, are hurried into hopeless captivity. In a country reft into ten thousand petty governments, the majority of which are independent and jealous one of the other; where every freeman, inured to arms from the first hour that he is capable of bearing them, pants for an opportunity of displaying his valour in the field; where the cherished recollection of hereditary feuds; the love of plunder inherent in every savage breast, and the bigoted zeal of religious enthusiasts, all conspire to afford hourly pretexts for war--the sword of desolation is never suffered to rust within the scabbard. The fact of one nation being stronger than another is even sufficient; and whilst hostilities, originating frequently in the most frivolous provocations, are prosecuted with relentless fury, robbery on a great and national scale, forming one of the chief features of African character, is almost universally prevalent. Here it is perpetrated by no concealed or proscribed ruffian; neither is it limited to those poorer tribes who are exposed to the temptation of rich caravans skirting their borders in progress to distant lands. Each needy soldier seeks with his sword to redress the unequal distribution made by the hand of fortune. The most distinguished warrior chieftains consider it a glory to place themselves at the head of an expedition undertaken solely for purposes of plunder; and the crime of stealing human beings in order to sell them into foreign markets, which, with all its attendant cruelty, is so widely practised throughout the benighted continent, is one in which the greatest of her sovereigns do not hesitate to participate. The following narrative by a native of the village of Suppa, in Enarea, detailing the history of his capture and subsequent vicissitudes, may be taken as a fair specimen of the usual circumstances attending the transfer of the kidnapped victim from one merciless dealer to another, in his progress to Abyssinia through the interior provinces which form the focus of slavery in the north-east. "When twenty years of age, whilst tending my father's flocks, an armed band of the Ooma Galla, with whom my tribe had long been in enmity, swept suddenly down, and took myself with six other youths prisoners, killing four more who resisted. Having been kept bound hand and foot during five days, I was sold to the Toomee Galla, one of the nearest tribes, for thirty _amoles_ (about six shillings and three-pence sterling). The bargain was concluded in the Toomee market-place, which is called Sundaffo, where, in consequence of the dearness of salt, two male slaves are commonly bought for one dollar; and after nightfall, the Mohammadan rover by whom I had been purchased, came and took me away. "Having been kept bound in his house another week, I was taken two days' journey with a large slave Caravan, and sold privately to the Nono Galla for a few ells of blue calico. My companions in captivity were assorted according to their age and size, and walked in double file, the stout and able-bodied only, whereof I was one, having their hands tied behind them. In Meegra, the market-place of the Nono, I was, after six weeks' confinement, sold by public auction to the Gumbitchu Galla for forty pieces of salt (value eight shillings and fourpence). Thence I was taken to the market-place which is beyond Sequala, on the plain of the Hawash, and sold for seventy pieces of salt to the Soddo Galla, and immediately afterwards to Roque, the great slave-mart in the Yerrur district, where I was sold for one hundred _amoles_" being one pound sterling. "From Roque I was driven to Alio Amba, in Shoa, where a Mohammadan subject of Sahela Selassie purchased me in the market of Abd el Russool for twelve dollars; but after three months, my master falling into disgrace, the whole of his property was confiscated, and I became the slave of the Negoos, which I still am, although permitted to reside with my family, and only called upon to plough, reap, and carry wood. Exclusive of halts, the journey from my native village occupied fifteen days. I was tolerably fed, and not maltreated. All the merchants through whose hands I passed were Mohammadans; and until within a few stages of Alio Amba, I was invariably bound at night, and thus found no opportunity to escape. Prior to my own enslavement, I had been extensively engaged as a kidnapper, and in this capacity had made party in three great slave hunts into the country of the Doko negroes beyond Caffa; in the course of which, four thousand individuals of both sexes were secured." From Enarea and Gurague, the two slave-marts principally frequented by the dealers in human flesh who trade through the Abyssinian states, the traffic is conducted to the sea-coast _via_ Sennaar, Argobba, Aussa, and Hurrur--importations into Shoa passing through the kingdom by two great highways from the interior. The first is by Ankober to the market-place of Abd el Russool, where purchases are eagerly made by the caravan traders from Hurrur, Zeyla, and Tajura; the other by Debra Libanos to the market of Antzochia adjoining Asselleli, the frontier town on the north, whence they pass through Upper Abyssinia to Massowah and Raheita, supplying also the Aussa caravans, which come to Dowwe, on the frontier of Worra Kaloo. In addition to a tax of one in every ten, Sahela Selassie possesses the right of pre-emption of all slaves that pass through his dominions, his governors selecting and submitting for the royal approval those which appear best worthy of consideration, when a price placed by the holder on the head of each is modified by His Majesty at pleasure. A transit duty of four pieces of salt is further levied upon every individual, male or female, of whatever age, exposed for sale or barter; and the number annually exported by the roads above named being estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand, the revenues derived from the traffic in his fellow-men by the Christian monarch may be averaged at eight hundred pounds. His Majesty's household slaves, male and female, exceed eight thousand. Of the latter, three hundred are concubines of the royal harem; and of the former, fifty are eunuchs. The residue of both sexes are employed in a variety of servile offices, and they each receive a portion of barley sufficient to compose two small loaves. Beyond this they must provide their own maintenance: many whose business it is to fetch fuel from the royal forests, being, however, suffered to dispose of whatever wood they can carry away in addition to the load imposed; whilst the whole, after the due performance of their allotted task, are permitted, according to their respective functions, to hire themselves to private individuals. Slavery is hereditary, not only on the side of the mother, but also on that of the father; and if a free woman weds a slave, her progeny becomes the property of the owner of her husband. But the bondsmen of the king, it has been seen, form an exception to this rule, their offspring being free if born of a free woman--a privilege which may be traced to the circumstance of the royal slaves having a stated duty to perform, for which a certain daily allowance of food is granted; whereas the whole time and labour of the slave of the commoner are at the exclusive disposal of the master, who supports the wife also. Marriage between free persons and the slaves of His Majesty are thus by no means unfrequent; the bondsman, after the performance of his allotted task, enjoying liberty to return daily to his family, and to appropriate the residue of his time. A child born in slavery receives subsistence, in a limited proportion, from the moment of coming into the world, the liabilities of bondage being incurred from the cradle. As a check on those who reside with a free parent in various parts of the kingdom, an annual census of the whole is taken by the royal scribes, when those who are ascertained to have acquired a competent age are summoned to their task at one of the royal establishments; and it too often happens that when incapacitated by infirmity from further labour, the daily dole is discontinued through the parsimony of the servants of the crown. Caravans, consisting of from one hundred to three thousand individuals of all ages, pass through Shoa during the greater portion of the year. Three-fourths are young boys and girls, many of them quite children, whose tender age precludes a sense of their condition. Even adults are unfettered, and the majority are in good spirits, all being well fed and taken care of, although many of both sexes arrive in a state of perfect nudity. Surrounded by the rovers on horseback, they are driven promiscuously along the road, males and females being separated at the termination of each march, and made to sit in detached groups comprising from ten to fifteen souls, who are deterred from wandering by the exhibition of the whip; but this is rarely used, except for the chastisement of the unruly, who may seek to effect their escape. In the eyes of every African, the value of a slave increases in the ratio of his distance from the land of his nativity, the chance of his absconding being reduced in the same proportion. The usual prices in the Shoan market are from ten to twenty German crowns; but females possessing superior personal attractions often fetch from fifty to eighty, which outlay is returned three-fold in Arabia. The profits accruing from the trade are thus obviously large; and notwithstanding the murders which are annually perpetrated by freebooters on the road to the sea-coast, the mortality can scarcely be said to exceed that under the ordinary circumstances of African life. The hebdomadal sale of human flesh which takes place in the public market at Abd el Russool, the disgusting parade of victims, and the sensuality of the savage purchasers, are sufficient to draw forth every sentiment of indignation, and to elicit every feeling of sympathy; but it must be confessed that slavery in this portion of Africa, excepting as regards the powers pertaining to it, is in fact little more than servitude. The newly-captured become soon reconciled to their lot and condition, their previous domestic life having too often been one of actual bondage, although not nominally so. And even in the sultry plains of the Adaiel, few individuals of the long droves that are daily to be seen on their weary march to the coast with Danakil caravans, afford indications of being tortured with regret at the loss of their freedom, and of their native land, or with recollections of the verdant plains whence avarice and cruelty have torn them. From the governor to the humblest peasant, every house in Shoa possesses slaves of both sexes, in proportion to the wealth of the proprietor; and in so far as an opinion may be formed upon appearances, their condition, with occasional, but rare exceptions, is one of comfort and ease. Mild in its character, their bondage is tinctured with none of the horrors of West Indian slavery. The servitude imposed is calculated to create neither suffering nor exhaustion. There is no merciless taskmaster to goad the victim to excessive exertion--no "white man's scorn" to be endured; and, although severed from home, from country, and from all the scenes with which his childhood had been familiar, his lot is not unfrequently improved. Naturalised in the house of his master, he is invariably treated with lenity--usually with indulgence--often with favour; and under a despotic sovereign, to whom servile instruments are uniformly the most agreeable, the caprices of fortune may prefer the exile to posts of confidence and emolument, and may even exalt him to the highest dignities. Volume 3, Chapter XXXVI. INTRODUCTION OF SLAVERY INTO ABYSSINIA. Although the history of North-eastern Africa is very imperfectly recorded, it is certain that Carthage, Egypt, and Ethiopia, early acquired and long maintained a prevailing influence therein. The Carthaginians possessed themselves of nearly the whole of the northern portion, whilst the Egyptians and Ethiopians occupied the east to the very centre. The extension of these great empires tended considerably to limit the trade in human flesh, and the world being in feud in every quarter, needed not to be supplied with slaves from Africa. But this aspect of affairs was materially altered so soon as these three empires, losing their power, became subdivided into sundry governments, the diffusion of Christianity and civilisation in Europe and Asia meanwhile restricting the slave-trade to the African continent. Although not generally representing the character which their name implies, the Christians of the Occident and Orient had at least given up the system amongst themselves; and by the former especially it was very little practised until after the discovery of America, when it was revived and encouraged by the Spaniards; and the Negro being considered better fitted for hard labour than the aborigines of the New World, Africa began to be regarded as the slave-mart for the whole universe. About the same period Ethiopia was first invaded by numberless hordes of Pagan Galla, migrating from the south; and not long afterwards Graan, the fanatic Mohammadan enemy, commenced the overthrow of this then powerful empire, which was speedily dismembered, and has never since been able to regain its former limits. The heathen intruders soon relaxing in their united efforts against the Christians, those Galla tribes which had settled on Abyssinian ground began to contest among themselves for the supremacy over the newly-acquired territory, and to enslave each other. The Mohammadans, who had meanwhile gained a footing in the disturbed country, being slave-dealers by profession, greedily availed themselves of the opportunity afforded by these intestine divisions to trade in Pagan prisoners, females especially, who possess the recommendation of superior personal attractions to the generality of "Afric's dark daughters"--and thus the traffic spread rapidly around Abyssinia. Partly from fear of then enemies, and partly from being less interested in slavery than the Moslems, the Christians no longer ventured beyond the frontiers of the country they retained, and the avenues to the sea-coast, as well as those through the Galla tribes in the interior, thus fell together with the whole commerce into the hands of the bigoted disciples of the Prophet. They devoted their lives to the purchase and sale of human flesh, a trade with which they connected the propagation of their faith, and their market was ever supplied by the out-pouring of innumerable prisoners of war from the distant nations of the interior. The origin of the slave-trade in these quarters may thus be referred to the commencement of hostilities therein, and to the presence of Mohammadans, by whom it was fostered and encouraged. Grain and cattle excepted, the wild and greedy Galla possessed not a single commodity to barter for the alluring foreign wares exhibited by the rover, but his captured foe presented the ready means of supplying whatsoever he coveted. The empire of Abyssinia being dismembered and enfeebled by the tide of invasion, its rulers, far from seeking to crush the hostilities that prevailed among the Gentiles, naturally rejoiced to see intestine feuds raging throughout a nation, which, if united, could have swept away the small remnant of Ethiopic power, once so predominant. The Christians, moreover, had become so corrupted by evil example, that, in lieu of opposing a barrier to the advance of slavery, they shortly adopted and encouraged the debasing traffic. Those provinces especially which were separated from the principal seat of government not only afforded a market to numbers of Pagan prisoners, but extended to the dealer in slaves a safe road by which thousands were annually exported to Arabia; and Shoa, Efat, Gurague, and Cambat, the southernmost provinces of Abyssinia, having more especially suffered at the hands of the Galla hordes, it is not difficult to understand how, in a confused political and ecclesiastical state of things, the detestation entertained towards their heathen persecutors prompted the population to purchase as drudges those of their enemies who had been captured in war. When the rulers of Shoa began to extend their dominions, and to subdue the nearer tribes of Galla invaders, Christianity was propagated by the sword; but the Mohammadan traders, far from being checked or arrested in their dealings, were only induced to extend their traffic to more remote regions of north-eastern Africa. Instead of purchasing slaves at Ankober, as had been their wont when that capital was still in Pagan hands, they were compelled, after its recapture, to seek their victims in Gurague, and beyond. Those provinces of Abyssinia wherein the seat of government was established after the demolition of the Ethiopic empire, preserved more or less of their ancient customs, which sanctioned the enslavement of a captured enemy for the term of seven years, according to the Mosaic law; and the practice is to the present day retained in Gojam and Tigre--the inhabitants of these states neither buying nor selling slaves, but consigning to a few years of bondage all prisoners from the wild tribes of Shankela taken in war. The enslavement of this heathen people, who are often barbarously hunted down for sport, is defended upon the grounds that so fierce, swarthy, and bestial a race, existing in the rudest possible form of savage state, must be the accursed of mankind, and entirely beyond the pale of natural rights. But the Christians of Western and Northern Abyssinia condemn this opinion of their brethren in the south and east; and Tekla Georgis, the late emperor of Gondar, having catechised a number of Shoan ecclesiastics as to the reason of their countenancing slavery and slave polygamy, reprobated both proceedings in the severest terms. The separation of Shoa from the imperial sway of Northern Abyssinia, by the Galla invasion, was, as may be supposed, far from improving the morals of the people. The first rulers of Shoa, aspiring to ascendency over all the minor independent principalities, were fain to tolerate a variety of abuses which had crept into the Abyssinian church during the reign of anarchy, confusion, and barbarism; and, however well they might have felt inwardly disposed to work the reformation of their subjects, they durst not, in the infancy of their power, attempt the suppression of a custom to which the entire population of the subjugated districts were so strongly wedded. Moreover, they had begun to follow the example of the Gondar dynasty in respect to the hospitable entertainment by the crown of all foreigners and strangers; to which end a large establishment being indispensable for the preparation of the daily maintenance styled "dirgo," they considered that the manual labour could better be performed by slaves selected from among the thousands that annually passed through their dominions than by their own free subjects. The parsimony of their national character also doubtless favoured this introduction of slavery as a domestic institution. The sovereign was above all things desirous of acquiring a reputation for munificence without actually impairing the state revenues; and he felt anxious at the same time to pave the road to popularity by relieving his subjects of that drudgery which would have led to an aversion towards visitors, highly inimical to the royal interests. All despotic rulers are prone to greater confidence in the slave than in the freeman; and Abyssinian sophistry probably led the first kings of Shoa to argue, that hospitality extended towards strangers and pilgrims in the land would vindicate in the sight of Heaven the infliction of bitter bondage upon those who at that period, even more than at the present day, were execrated and abhorred. The unceasing wars, wherein the feudal subjects of Shoa were personally engaged, being unfavourable for agricultural pursuits, they were not slow in imitating the example set by their monarch, as well in household slavery as in slave polygamy. Both king and people believed that the wretch exported from Africa was destined to Christian countries beyond the seas, where the truths of the Gospel would be imparted to him; and hence the slaveholder in Shoa, although prohibited from dealing in the flesh and blood of his fellow-creatures as a trade, was permitted to resell Mohammadan or Pagan purchases, who refused to embrace the religion of Ethiopia. Slavery amongst the Galla tribes is cradled and nursed in the unceasing intestine feuds of that savage and disorganised people; but the circumstances attending its existence in Gurague, although resting upon the same basis, are somewhat different in character. Since the period that the heathen inroads first cut off that Christian country from the ancient Ethiopic empire, and foes begirt it on all sides like wild beasts prowling for their prey, it has been thrown into a position of peculiar misfortune, and would gladly seek repose by placing itself again under the protection of its legitimate sovereign. For this boon it has often applied to Sahela Selassie; but from motives of prudence he has not chosen to extend either his visits or his authority beyond the frontier village of Aimellele. Occupying about one and a half degree of longitude, by one degree of latitude, and swarming with population, Gurague is at this moment in a state similar to Palestine of old, whereof the Scripture saith, "There was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes." In the absence of a supreme head, each village or community elects its own temporary governor, who is perpetually removed by the cabals and caprice of the people. Whilst the Galla make constant predatory inroads from without, anarchy reigns within. A multitude of private feuds animate the turbulent population; and there being neither king nor laws, it is not surprising that every man should stretch forth his hand to kidnap his neighbour. Among the southern portions especially, in the domicile or in the open street, the stronger seizes upon the weaker as his bondsman, and sells him to the greedy Mohammadan dealers, who hover round like a host of hungry vultures, and are ever at hand with their glittering gewgaws; the innate love of which induces brother to sell sister, and the parent to carry her own offspring to the market. Annually pouring out many thousands of her sons and daughters in every direction, this wretched Christian province, a prey to lawless violence, and the theatre of every monstrous and detestable crime, cries aloud for the intervention of the philanthropist. Gurague is the very hotbed of slavery in Eastern Africa, north of the equator; and it claims the earnest attention of all who are interested in the suppression of the evil. None of the surrounding countries would seem to be unvitiated by the baneful influence of the slave-trade; and all are sunk in the lowest and most grovelling superstition. Susa, Korchassie, Wollamo, Cambat, with every other isolated principality once appended to the ancient empire, although still professing the mild tenets of the Christian faith, take an active part in the capture and sale of their fellow-savages. Villages are fired, and the inhabitants seized as they fly in terror from the flames that envelope their wigwams; and the aged and the infirm are butchered, because unfit for drudgery. The new-born babe is torn from its parent in the hour of its birth to be ruthlessly immolated at the shrine of the idol; and the shores of Lake Umo are white with the bleaching bones of hapless female victims, who have been selected from the drove for their superior charms, and have been launched into its depths by the superstitious Moslem slave-driver, to propitiate the genius of the water! Volume 3, Chapter XXXVII. OPERATION OF LEGITIMATE COMMERCE UPON THE SLAVE-TRADE IN NORTH-EASTERN AFRICA. A review of the nature and actual extent of slavery in Christian Abyssinia, where the exile is sold and purchased--of the circumstances attending his loss of liberty in the countries whence he is stolen and exported--and of the various causes and passions that conspire to favour the continuance of the internal commerce in human flesh--leads naturally to the consideration of the remedy. This is no new subject. It is one which has been illustrated by the eloquence of British senators, and by the pen of many private philanthropists, who have devoted their energies to the restitution of the lost rights of man, and have sought, under God's blessing, to dry up the baneful springs that for so many ages have filled to overflowing the fountain of African misery. Bondage has been shown to arise in wars and intestine feuds, and to be nurtured by evil passions, by avarice, and by worldly interest. The excitement and delight of the foray, the surprise, and the captivity which follows, are by all tribes in Africa regarded as the highest themes of their glory. The gratification of power, sensuality, and revenge, are difficult of eradication; and the easy though infamous acquisition of property, is a permanent incentive to violence of all kinds. The interests, also, by which the diabolical and debasing traffic is supported are not those of a few individuals. It is interwoven with the government, the commerce, the wants, and the revenues of many nations. The tribe that mourns to-day the loss of its young men and maidens, is ready on the morrow with heart and hand to carry on amongst others the work of captivity; and the victor of one hour may be vanquished the next. The kings and rulers of the land profit by the transit of slave caravans through their dominions--the countries all derive gain from the inhuman barter--the intermediate clans have each their share in the traffic--the merchant on the sea-coast drives a most profitable trade--and the lazy Arab to whom the wretched beings are finally consigned, has existed too long in a state of utter indolence and inactivity, willingly to assist himself many of the ordinary laborious avocations of life. Commerce being a school for the improvement of nations, it may safely be anticipated that the important treaty concluded by Great Britain with the king of Shoa will tend to the temporal and intellectual advancement of the now ignorant and degraded natives of the north-eastern interior, in proportion to the extent of their intercourse with enlightened Europeans. The supply of foreign manufactures, which the African deems indispensable, has always been, and still is, exclusively in the hands of Mohammadan merchants, declared slave-dealers, who will receive human beings only in exchange for their wares. A strong inducement to the continuance of the traffic will therefore be removed by the visits of men whose tacit example, without any declamation against slavery, cannot fail to have a beneficial influence upon untutored races, who have hitherto been taught and compelled to believe that their wants cannot be supplied unless through the medium of the barter of their fellow-creatures. The restoration of tranquillity to the provinces, which can alone be effected by a legal trade, must have the important result of putting an end to the exportation of slaves, which is here liable not only to the same objections as on the western coast, but to the still greater evil, that the victims carried away are chiefly Christians, who inevitably lose in Arabia not only their liberty but also their religion. The Mohammadan dealer being solely dependent for his supply of European manufactures on the brokers located in various parts of the coast--keen, artful, and rapacious Banians--he must speedily be driven from the market by the British merchant, who will at the same time create numberless new wants, to satisfy which the native will be goaded to industrious habits. The majority, both of people and rulers, will soon be enabled to comprehend the disadvantage of a trade which swallows up the flower of the population; and will open their eyes to the fact, that temporal wealth, far from being diminished, as they now believe, by the operation of such a measure, would in reality be much augmented. They will at the same time perceive that the regular supply of European trinkets, so inestimable in their eyes, depends in a principal measure upon the tranquillity of the country; and since slaves are no longer in demand as an article of barter, they will generally be better disposed to permit and to bring about that state of peace and quietude which is so essential to mercantile pursuits. An entrance to countries now only accessible by means of commerce, and at the pace of a merchant caravan, will thus be afforded, and a friendly understanding established, which may be expected to pave the way to the introduction of more effectual measures towards decreasing the supply of slaves in the quarters whence they are derived. European commerce conveying the strongest tacit argument against the traffic in human flesh, so long the staple business of all, must favour the speedy formation of advantageous treaties with many native chiefs for its entire suppression within their dominions--treaties which could not be proposed without prejudice so long as the slave-trade, deeply rooted, continues so intimately connected with the habits, pursuits, and interests of the whole population. Time is of course requisite to bring about the consummation desired to mercantile enterprise. The avarice of some of the more ignorant and degraded potentates may long induce them to retain the emoluments arising from the sale of their subjects, notwithstanding the more than equivalent revenues afforded by legitimate transit duties; but as establishments which are now fostered and fattened on the hotbed of slavery become gradually extinguished, the nefarious traffic cannot fail, in equal proportion, to disappear before the golden wand of commerce. In all those interior countries to the south, whence slaves are principally drawn, the mass of the miserable population would hail the advent of European intervention, towards the preservation of their liberty. The Christian would find repose beneath the treaty concluded by the white man, and the wild Galla would cease to have an interest in the continual hostilities which now supply the market with human beings. It might reasonably be conjectured, that if it be practicable to conclude an anti-slavery treaty with any African ruler, it must be especially so with one professing the tenets of the Christian faith, and who may thus be supposed capable of receiving moral arguments--with a despot whose every will is law, who is guided chiefly by avarice and by self-interest, and who considers that the importation of slaves has a tendency to introduce heathenish ceremonies among his subjects. Sahela Selassie is already fully sensible of the possibility of dispensing with slavery as a domestic institution, by the adoption of European machinery, and of the practice of other Abyssinian states, where money is dispensed to the visitor in lieu of _dirgo_, or daily maintenance. His superstitions may be worked upon with the best effect by the fear of entailing the curses and imprecations of many thousand enslaved fellow-creatures who annually pass through his dominions; and his eyes have been opened to the fact, that the whole of these wretched beings become converts to Mohammadanism--a faith upon which every Abyssinian looks down with abhorrence. The same voice that at European intercession commanded the release of many hundred Galla prisoners of war, could at once order the abrogation of domestic slavery within the kingdom; but its abolition before the establishment of British commerce shall have rendered His Majesty independent of the slave-dealing Adaiel would be delusive. It would do harm instead of doing good; and whilst it led to little actual reduction of human misery, it would arouse the worst passions of the entire surrounding Mohammadan population. For Shoa is at this moment solely dependent upon the Danakil trader, not only for every description of foreign merchandise, but also for salt, which here constitutes the chief circulating medium of the realm; and the first inducement to the importation of this indispensable commodity, is found in the great profits derived from the traffic in slaves purchased at Abd el Russool. In Shoa, too, every Christian subject is more or less interested in the continuance of slave importations; and notwithstanding that the trammels of the despot, who receives unbounded homage, render each in fact a bondsman, he is in no danger of being kidnapped and driven into slavery. No one would dare to disobey the royal fiat; but, involving as it must great personal hardship to all, it could not fail to be attended with universal loss of popularity to the monarch. No such difficulty would attend the formation of a treaty of suppression in the northern provinces of Christian Abyssinia, where slavery in the true acceptation of the term has no existence, excepting in so far as it is carried on by the Moslem traders, of whom both ruler and people are comparatively independent. Thus in Gondar and Tigre, where domestic slavery is neither practised nor advocated by prince or subject, the external traffic might readily be crushed, and with the greatest advantage, through the friendly sentiments entertained by the present patriarch. The spiritual influence exerted by Abba Salama over the mind of all classes, high as well as low--the spell by which he holds his supreme power--is acknowledged by every province, however remote, which constitutes a remnant of the ancient Ethiopic empire. Access to hitherto sealed portions of the interior, by which the objects of humanity would not less be forwarded than those of commerce, science, and geography, can thus readily be obtained through his assistance. They offer gold in return for the blessings of Christianity and civilisation, and are believed to be accessible also from the coast of the Indian ocean. But it ought not to be forgotten in England, that, independently of other considerations, the surest hopes of working any favourable change in the present degraded state of the Abyssinian church, or of substantially promoting the views of philanthropy in Ethiopia Proper, must be considered to rest solely upon the good feeling, the potent influence, and the professed assistance of his holiness the Abuna, and that one better disposed is not likely ever to fill the episcopal throne at Gondar. Volume 3, Chapter XXXVIII. COMMERCE WITH THE EASTERN COAST OF AFRICA. The highlands included betwixt Abyssinia and the equator are unquestionably among the most interesting regions in Africa, whether viewed with reference to their climate, their soil, their productions, or their population. When the Ethiopic empire extended its sway over the greater part of the eastern horn, they doubtless supplied myrrh and frankincense to the civilised portions of the globe, together with the "sweet cane," mentioned by the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, as being brought "from a far country." The slave caravan still affords a limited outlet to their rich produce; but the people, ignorant and naturally indolent, are without protection, and they possess no stimulus to industry. Vice alone flourishes amongst them, and their fair country forms the very hotbed of the slave-trade. Hence arise wars and predatory violence, and hence the injustice and oppression which sweep the fields with desolation, bind in fetters the sturdy children of the soil, and cover the population with every sorrow, "with lamentation, and mourning, and woe." It has already been remarked, that in early times, as early probably as the days of Moses, the authority of Egypt extended deep into the recesses of Africa, and there is reason to believe, at later dates, far into those countries to the southward of Abyssinia which are accessible from the shores of the Indian Ocean. The eastern coast, from beyond the Straits of Bab el Mandeb, in all probability as far south as Sofala, the Ophir of Solomon, was well-known to the enterprising merchants of Tyre, and to the sovereigns of Judea. In still later periods, the conquering Arabs, when they had become followers of the false prophet, extended their sway over all this coast as far as the twenty-fifth degree of south latitude. The remains of their power, of their comparative civilisation, and of their religion, are found throughout to the present day; and notwithstanding that their rule had greatly declined when the Portuguese first landed on this part of Africa, four hundred years ago, it was still strong and extensive, and constant commercial intercourse was maintained with India. No portion of the continent has, however, excited less modern interest than the eastern coast; owing perhaps to the extreme jealousy with which the Portuguese have guarded its approach, and withheld the limited information gained since the days of Vasco de Gama. The illiberal spirit of their government, both civil and ecclesiastic, has had the natural effect of degrading those maritime tribes placed in immediate juxta-position with the white settlers, and of effectually repelling the more spirited and industrious inhabitants of the highlands, whose prudence and independence have baffled attempted inroads. Many a fair seat of peace and plenty, vitiated by the operation of the slave-trade, has been converted into a theatre of war and bloodshed; and the once brilliant establishments reared by the lords of India and Guinea, now scarcely capable of resisting the attacks of undisciplined barbarians, here, as elsewhere, exhibit but the wreck and shadow of their former vice-regal splendour. Although free to all nations, the eastern coast, from Sofala to Cape Guardufoi, has in later years been little frequented by any, save the enterprising American, whose star-spangled banner is often found in parts where others would not deign to traffic; and who, being thus the pioneer through untried channels to new countries, reaps the lucrative harvest which they are almost sure to afford. English ships from India have occasionally visited the southern ports for cargoes of ivory and ambergris, but, in the absence of any rival, the Imam of Muscat is now, with his daily increasing territories, fast establishing a lucrative monopoly from Mombas and Zanzibar. In most of the interior countries lying opposite to this coast, to the south of Shoa, the people unite with an inordinate passion for trinkets and finery, a degree of wealth which must favour an extensive sale of European commodities. In Enarea, Caffa, Gurague, Koocha, and Susa, especially, glass-ware, false jewellery, beads, cutlery, blue calico, long cloth, chintz, and other linen manufactures, are in universal demand. That their wants are neither few nor trifling may be satisfactorily ascertained, from the fact that the sum of 96,000 pounds sterling, the produce of the slave-trade from the ports of Berbera, Zeyla, Tajura, and Massowah, is only one item of the total amount annually invested in various foreign goods and manufactures, which are readily disposed of even at the present price of the monopolist; who being generally a trader of very limited capital, may be concluded to drive an extremely hard bargain for his luxurious wares. It would be idle to speculate upon the hidden treasures that may be in store for that adventurous spirit who shall successfully perform the quest into these coy regions--for time and enterprise can alone reveal them. But it is notorious that gold and gold dust, ivory, civet, and ostrich-feathers, peltries, spices [see Note 1], wax, and precious gums, form a part of the lading of every slave caravan, notwithstanding that a tedious transport over a long and circuitous route presents many serious difficulties; and that the overreaching disposition of the Indian Banian and of the Arab merchant, who principally divide the spoils on the coast of Abyssinia, offer a very far from adequate reimbursement for the toil and labour of transportation. No quarter of the globe abounds to a greater extent in vegetable and mineral productions than tropical Africa. The extent to which it contributed to the trade of antiquity has been ably investigated by Mr J.A. Saint John, in his learned enquiry into the manners and customs of ancient Greece [volume 3, chapter 13]. In the populous, fertile, and salubrious portions lying immediately north of the equator, the very highest capabilities are presented for the employment of capital, and the development of British industry. Coal has already been found, although at too great a distance inland to render it of any service without water communication; but we may reasonably infer that it exists in positions more favourable for the supply of the steamers employed in the navigation of the Red Sea; and I received the most positive assurances that it is to be obtained within a reasonable distance of Massowah. Cotton of excellent quality grows wild, and might be cultivated to any extent. The coffee which is sold in Arabia as the produce of Mocha is chiefly of wild African growth; and that species of the tea-plant which is used by the lower orders of the Chinese, flourishes so widely and with so little care, that the climate to which it is indigenous would doubtless be found well adapted for the higher-flavoured and more delicate species so prized for foreign exportation. Every trade must be important to Great Britain which will absorb manufactured goods and furnish raw material in return. Mercantile interests on the eastern coast might therefore quickly be advanced by increasing the wants of the natives, and then instructing them in what manner those wants may be supplied, through the cultivated productions of the soil. The present is the moment at which to essay this; and so promising a field for enterprise and speculation ought not to be neglected. The position of the more cultivated tribes inland, the love of finery displayed by all, the climate, the productions, the capabilities, the presumed navigable access to the interior, the contiguity to British Indian possessions, and the proximity of some of the finest harbours in the world, all combine inducements to the merchant, who, at the hands even of the rudest nation, may be certain of a cordial welcome. If, at a very moderate calculation, a sum falling little short of 100,000 pounds sterling can be annually invested in European goods to supply the wants of some few of the poorer tribes adjacent to Abyssinia; and if the tedious and perilous land journey can be thus braved with profit to the native pedlar, what important results might not be anticipated from well-directed efforts, by such navigable access as would appear to be promised by the river Gochob? The throwing into the very heart of the country now pillaged for slaves a cheap and ample supply of the goods most coveted, must have the effect of excluding the Mohammadan rover, who has so long preyed upon the sinews of the people; and this foundation judiciously built upon by the encouragement of cultivation in cotton and other indigenous produce, might rear upon the timid barter of a rude people the superstructure of a vast commerce. At a period when the attention of the majority of the civilised world, and of every well-wisher to the more sequestered members of the great family of mankind, is so energetically directed towards the removal of the impenetrable veil that hangs before the interior, and fosters in its dark folds the most flagrant existing sin against nature and humanity, it could not fail to prove eminently honourable to those who, by a well-directed enterprise, should successfully overcome the obstacles hitherto presented by the distance, the climate, and the barbarity of the continent of Africa. But lasting fame, and the admiration of after-ages, are not the only rewards extended by the project. A rich mercantile harvest is assuredly in store for those who shall unlock the portals of the Eastern coast, and shall spread navigation upon waters that have heretofore been barren. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1. Ginger is exported in great quantities from Gurague; and amongst other indigenous spices, the _kurarima_, which combines the flavour of the caraway with that of the cardamom. Volume 3, Chapter XXXIX. NAVIGATION OF THE RIVER GOCHOB. To put down the foreign slave-trade, without first devising honest occupation for a dense, idle, and mischievous population of Africa, would seal the death-warrant of every captive who, under the present system, is preserved as saleable booty. Hence it must be admitted, that to inculcate industry and to extend cultivation by voluntary labour, are indispensable stepping-stones towards the ultimate amelioration of a people who do not at present possess the elements for extended commerce. To create these would be to change the destinies of the Negro, by including him within the league of the rights of man; and habits of industry must rapidly raise him from savage ignorance to that state of improvement which is essential to fit him for the privileges of a freeman. The present very limited exports of this immensely populous continent, which do not amount in value to those of Cuba, with only twelve hundred thousand inhabitants, must be reckoned among the chief causes of her misery and thraldom. Few, if any, of the commodities bartered with other nations are the production of capital, labour, or industry, and in the minds of the whole population the ideas of prosperity and of a slave-trade are inseparable. But if all that is coveted could be placed within honest reach, in exchange for the produce of the soil, the hands which should cultivate it will never afterwards be sold. "Legitimate commerce," writes Sir Fowell Buxton, "would put down the slave-trade, by demonstrating the superior value of man as a labourer on the soil, to man as an object of merchandise. If conducted on wise and equitable principles, it might be the precursor, or rather the attendant, of civilisation, peace, and Christianity to the unenlightened, warlike, and heathen tribes, who now so fearfully prey upon each other to support the slave-markets of the New World; and a commercial system upon just, liberal, and comprehensive principles, which guarded the native on the one hand, and secured protection to the honest trader on the other, would therefore confer the richest blessings on a country so long desolated and degraded by its intercourse with the basest and most iniquitous portion of mankind." The average cost of a seasoned slave in Cuba is 120 pounds sterling; but it has been seen that in Enarea and other parts of the interior he may be purchased for ten pieces of salt, equivalent to two shillings and a penny--for a pair of Birmingham scissors, or even for a few ells of blue calico. Hence it may be inferred that the hire of the freeman would be in the same ratio; and if so, it is obvious that this cheap labour, applied to a soil as productive as any in the world, would ensure to African tropical produce the superiority in every market to which it might be introduced. Able advocates of the cause of humanity have upon these grounds clearly demonstrated, that, in order to suppress completely the foreign traffic in human flesh, it is only necessary to raise, in any accessible point affording the readiest outlet, sugar, coffee, and cotton, and to throw these yearly into the market of the world, already fully supplied by expensive slave labour. The creation of this cheap additional produce would so depress the price current in every other quarter, that the external slave-trade would no longer be profitable, and would therefore cease to exist. The baneful climate of Africa is the obstacle which has hitherto opposed the introduction of agriculture, and the chief object in seeking geographical information has been to discover some point whence the object may be accomplished with safety. That point is presented in the north-eastern coast, where, from no great distance inland to an unknown extent, the spontaneous gifts of nature are transcendently abundant--the people are prepared by misfortune to welcome civilised assistance--the soil is fertile and productive, and the climate, alpine and salubrious, is highly congenial to the European constitution. All these countries are believed to be accessible from the Juba, more commonly called the Govind, which is said to rise in Abyssinia, and to be navigable in boats for three months from its mouth. Its _embouchure_ is in the territories of the friendly sheikhs of Brava, seven in number, the hereditary representatives of seven Arab brothers, who were first induced to settle on that part of the coast by the lucrative trade in grain, gold, ambergris, ivory, rhinoceros' horns, and hippopotamus' teeth. They were formerly under the protection of Portugal; but even the remembrance of that state of things has nearly passed away from the present generation. From Mombas, which is the most northern possession of Syyud Syyud, the Imam of Muscat, the coast as far as the equator is in occupation of the Sowahili, a quiet and intelligent race of Moorish origin, and thence to Zeyla, which is now in the hands of Sheikh Ali Shermarki, the entire population is Somauli. The climate, even so far south as Mombas, is notoriously good; and the government affords a striking contrast to that of the western coast, where the regions in corresponding latitudes are subject to bloody despotism, such as is submitted to by none but the ignorant savage. Measures at once simple and profitable, might therefore be adopted by the purchase or rent of land on this river, which is conjectured to be the Gochob, and would seem to promise easy access to the very hotbed of slavery. It has been well remarked by McQueen, in his Geographical Survey, that "rivers are the roads in the torrid zone;" and should the stream now under consideration fortunately prove fitted for navigation, the introduction through its means of the essential requisites to the happiness and the emancipation of the now oppressed continent, could not fail to confer the most inestimable advantages. The power of Abyssinia, once so extended in this quarter, was known even to the Delta of the Niger. It was from the sovereigns of Benin that the Portuguese first heard of the glories of "Prester John;" and as it is quite certain that a communication did formerly exist, "by a journey of twenty moons," through the countries in the upper course of the Egyptian Nile, there seems no reason to doubt that it might be readily renewed. Of the salubrity of the regions in which all these streams take their source, no question can be entertained. Ptolemy Euergetes, when sovereign of Egypt, penetrated to the most southern provinces of Ethiopia, which he conquered, and he has described his passage to have been effected, in some parts, over mountains deeply covered with snow. Those portions of the continent which are blessed with the finest climate, and with the largest share of natural gifts, and which teem with a population long ravaged by the inroads of the kidnapper, must be of all others the most eminently fitted to receive, and the most capable of bringing to maturity, the seeds which can alone form the elements of future prosperity. And what nation is better qualified to confer such inestimable gifts, or more likely to profit by them, when judiciously bestowed, than Great Britain? The most civilised nations are those which possess the deepest interest in the spread of civilisation, and none more than herself are deeply interested in the speedy suppression of the traffic in human beings. No beneficial change can ever be anticipated, so long as the population of the interior remain cut off from all communication with enlightened nations--so long as they are visited only by the mercenary rover, and are hemmed in by fanatic powers, whose policy it is to encourage this monstrous practice. The Mohammadans are not only traders for the sake of slaves almost exclusively, but they are, as respects the greater portion of interior Africa, jealous, reckless, commercial rivals. It is not, therefore, surprising that they should exert all the influence which they possess from the combination of avarice, ignorance, prejudice, and religion, to exclude foreign influence; and without roads, or any efficient means for the conveyance of heavy merchandise, it is not to be expected that the ignorant despot of the interior will ever think of making his slaves or his subjects cultivate produce of great bulk and laborious carriage, in order to procure in exchange articles which he requires, whilst with very trifling labour and still more trifling expense, they can be driven even to the most remote market, and there sold or exchanged. But few people are more desirous or more capable of trading than the natives of Africa; and the facility with which factories might be formed is sufficiently proved by experience in various parts of the continent. Abundance of land now unoccupied could be purchased or rented at a mere nominal rate, in positions where the permanent residence of the white man would be hailed with universal joy, as contributing to the repose of tribes long harassed and persecuted. The serf would seek honest employment in the field, and the chiefs of slave-dealing states, gladly entering into any arrangement for the introduction of wealth and finery, would, after the establishment of agriculture, no longer find their interest in the flood of human victims, which is now annually poured through the highlands of Abyssinia. I trust that these remarks upon the importance of such a communication as the Gochob may prove to afford to the countries in which it is situated, will not be considered either tedious or superfluous. Much has been written upon the policy which has seen, in many a barbarous location, the future marts of a boundless and lucrative commerce--the centres whence its attendant blessings, knowledge, civilisation, and wealth, would radiate amongst savage hordes. Here are no deserts, but nations already prepared for improvement, and countries gifted by nature with a congenial climate, and with a boundless extent of virgin soil, where the indigo and the tea-plant flourish spontaneously, and where the growth of the sugarcane and of every other tropical productions may be carried to an unlimited extent--regions affording grain in vast superabundance, and rich in valuable staples--cotton, coffee, spices, ivory, gold dust, peltries, and drugs. But although thus surrounded by natural wealth, and placed within reach of affluence and happiness, the denizens of these favoured regions imperatively require the fostering care of British protection, to become either prosperous, contented, or free. Volume 3, Chapter XL. THE SECOND WINTER IN SHOA. Another dreary season of rain, and of mist, and of heavy fog, had now set in; the lance and the shield of the Christian had been suspended in the dark windowless hall, and the war-steed ranged loose over the swampy meadow. During three long months the weather seldom permitted us to quit our damp miserable habitation at Ankober, but I found ample occupation in endeavouring to put into some kind of order the notes from which these three volumes have been prepared. My assistants were also busily engaged in the various departments which I had allotted to them, and in spite of the gloomy light afforded by oiled parchment, a highly valuable collection of maps, drawings, and reports, had been completed before any change was observable in the weather. Within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, the floods had never continued longer nor wuth greater violence. Morning after morning the heavy white clouds still clung above the saturated metropolis. Every hollow footpath had been converted into a muddy stream, and each deep valley had become a morass, impassable to the equestrian; whilst the swollen Hawash had inundated the lowlands for many miles on either side of its serpentine banks. Amongst the few events which occurred to disturb the monotony of our second winter in Shoa, was the annual audience given, towards the close of July, by the king to the Adaiel and Hurrurhi, residing in the market town of Alio Amba. Our old acquaintance, Kalama Work, having been detected in practising extensive peculation, had first undergone imprisonment in the _madi beit_, under the watchful eye of Wolda Hana, and was eventually stripped of his property, and turned forth upon the wide world a beggar. Abd el Yonag, the Hurrur consul, who possessed in eminent perfection the arts of fawning and flattery, had, during the _interregnum_, turned to good account his insatiable taste for power and intrigue. He was formally nominated to the vacant government, and when we entered the raised balcony occupied by the king, the wily old slave-dealer, duly girded with the silver badge of office and authority, occupied the disgraced governor's seat at the footstool of the throne. Armed with creese, and spear, and shield, the kilted band whirled howling into the courtyard, performing their savage war-dance. The precincts of the palace rung to their wild yells; and the vivid pantomime of throat-cutting and disembowelment was enacted to the life, in all its pleasing varieties. "_Moot! moot! moot_!" shouted each prevailing warrior of note, shaking his sun-blanched locks, and ominously quivering his heavy lance, as he sprang in turn to the front, for the approval of the Christian monarch. "Is he dead? Is he dead?" "_Burdhoo! Burdhoo_! you've slain him! you've slain him!" returned the turbaned pedlar, facetiously clapping his hands on behalf of his royal patron--"_Burdhoo! Burdhoo_!" and ere the hero of this gratifying applause had retired, another and another brave had commenced his vaunting exhibition in front of the sable ranks, or was in the act of ripping up the foe who in mock conflict had sprung like a tiger across his adversary's loins, to grasp him as in a vice betwixt the muscles of his thighs. The court buffoon was meanwhile diligently plying his occupation, by capering through the ranks with his unsheathed reaping-hook, and chattering in ludicrous imitation of the Moslem barbarians--his successful mimicry eliciting shouts of applause, notwithstanding that the reality, as enacted in the hot valleys below, had, on more occasions than one, been calculated to leave no very agreeable recollections in the mind of the Amhara audience. At the motion of the herald, the assembled warriors now squatted their meagre, wiry forms before the raised alcove, each resting upon his spear-staff, and peering over his shield, according to the undeviating custom of the Bedouin savage. "Are you all well? Are you well? Are you quite well?" repeated the dragoman who interpreted His Majesty's salutations.--"How have you passed your time? Are your wives and all your children happy, and are your houses prosperous? Have your flocks and your herds multiplied, and are your fields and your pastures covered with plenty?"--"_Humdu lillah! Humdu lillah_!" "Praise be unto God!" was the unvarying reply.--"How are you, and how have you been? We are the friends of Woosen Suggud, your father, who ruled before you, and we will always deal with you as our fathers dealt with your fathers who are now dead. We are near neighbours. May Allah keep our people and their children's children at peace the one with the other!" Cloths were now presented to the principal men, and oxen having been apportioned to their retainers, each rose in turn, and patted the extended hand of the monarch with his own palm; one atrocious old ruffian, who concluded the ceremony raising himself in his sandals and grasping the fingers of the king so firmly, that he had nearly succeeded in plucking him from his elevated throne. His Majesty, although obviously little pleased at the practical joke, had sufficient command of temper to take it in good part, but no doubt inwardly congratulated himself upon the happy termination of the wild levee. It had been fully illustrative of the tact and diplomatic sagacity employed in the maintenance of ascendency over the more intractable portion of his nominal subjects, and in the cultivation of amicable political relations with the neighbouring states. Wulasma Mohammad, as chief agent, sat in regal dignity on this important occasion, and his dragoman, a native of Argobba, was the medium of communication. The throat of this man exhibited from ear to ear a conspicuous seam, pointed out by the by-standers as the work of his own hands. Great, indeed, must have been the desperation which at the present day could impel such an attempt at self-destruction on the frontiers of Shoa. One mile beyond, in any direction, would of a surety supply numbers of volunteers for the task, from amongst those whose throat-cutting proficiency had so creditably been displayed during the recent pantomime. Early in the month of August, the festival of Felsata brought a repetition of the customary skirmishes between the town's people and the slave establishment of the king. For the edification of a numerous concourse of spectators, the miry lane leading to the church of "Our Lady" was attacked and defended with heavy clubs, shod with rings of iron; and after a severe conflict, the servile invaders were finally driven from the field, with blood streaming from numerous broken heads, which were brought to the Residency to be repaired. During the fortnight's fast that ensued in celebration of the Assumption, the rough diversion was frequently repeated, and abstinence from food appeared to have soured the temper of the entire population. On the succeeding festival of the Transfiguration, styled "Debra Tabor," the capital was illuminated. Whilst boys, carrying flambeaux, ran singing through the streets, every dwelling displayed such a light as its inmates could afford,--none, however, of the old cotton rags besmeared with impure bees'-wax shining very luminously through the thick drizzling mist. One of the principal of the royal storehouses at Channoo, on the frontier, was at this period struck by lightning, and totally burnt to the ground. The king as usual was keeping fast at Machal-wans, and thither, according to custom, every nobleman and governor in the land flocked to offer condolence. Many were the long faces on the road, for the greatest consternation pervaded all classes; and the fat Wulasma in particular, on his way to break the dismal tidings to his despotic master, having the consequences of the late conflagration at Woti still fresh in his recollection, was observed to be in a state of extreme mental perturbation and anxiety. "Alas!" exclaimed the king, when, in accordance with etiquette, we contributed our mite of consolation--"Alas! that magazine was built by my ancestor Emmaha Yasoos. It measured six hundred cubits in length, and ninety spans in breadth, and it was piled with salt to the very roof. There is no salt in my country. I feared a rupture with the Adaiel who bring it from below, and I therefore stored up large quantities that my people might never want. Now the lightning has taken all; but who can repine?--for it was the will of God." Volume 3, Chapter XLI. THE GOTHIC HALL. The models and plans of palaces that had been from time to time prepared by Captain Graham, had imparted to the royal mind a new architectural impulse; and after much deliberation with himself, he had finally come to the resolution of expending the timber requisite towards the erection of a chaste Gothic edifice. In the selection of the design. His Majesty displayed unlooked-for taste; for although as a penman his talents rank immeasurably in advance of the most accomplished of his scriveners, his skill as an artist had proved very circumscribed. It was nearly exhausted in the delineation of a nondescript bird, perched upon a tree-top, and did wuth difficulty extend to the one-legged fowler, gun in hand, who was conjectured to be planning its destruction. At the royal desire, I had frequently executed likenesses of the court favourites, and they were invariably acknowledged with much merriment; but, although repeatedly urged, no persuasion could induce the despot to sit for his own, from a firm belief in the old superstition, that whosoever should possess it, could afterwards deal with him as he listed. "You are writing a book," he remarked to me on one occasion, with a significant glance, as I was in the act of completing a full-length portrait of himself, which I had contrived to make unobserved from his blind side--"I know this to be the case, because I never inquire what you are doing that they do not tell me you are using a pen, or else painting pictures. This is a good thing, and it pleases me. You will speak favourably of myself; but you shall not insert my portrait, as you have done that of the Negoos of Zingero." Such was the title with which His Christian Majesty was invariably pleased to dignify his heathen brother, Moselekatse, whose acquaintance he had made through the frontispiece to my "Wild Sports in Southern Africa." The Abyssinians have from time immemorial expended an entire tree in the reduction to suitable dimensions of every beam or plank employed in their primitive habitations; and it is not therefore surprising that Sahela Selassie should have been equally delighted and astonished at the economy of time, labour, and material attending the use of the cross-cut saw. From age to age, and generation to generation, the Ethiopian plods on like his forefathers, without even a desire for improvement. Ignorance and indolence confine him to a narrow circle of observation from which he is afraid to move. Strong prejudices are arrayed against the introduction of novelties, and eternal reference is made to ancestral custom. But in a country where the absence of timber is so remarkable and inconvenient, the advantages extended by this novel implement of handicraft was altogether undeniable. "You English are indeed a strange people," quoth the monarch, after the first plank had been fashioned by the European escort. "I do not understand your stories of the road in your country that is dug below the waters of a river, nor of the carriages that gallop without horses; but you are a strong people, and employ wonderful inventions." Meanwhile the platform required for the new building advanced slowly to completion. The crowd of idle applicants for justice who daily convened before the tribunal of "the four chairs" were pressed into the service; and whenever His Majesty returned from an excursion in the meadow, the entire cortege might be seen carrying each a stone before his saddle in imitation of the royal example. Early one morning Graham received a message from the impatient despot to announce that the day being auspicious, he was desirous of seeing one post at least erected without delay. Greatly to his satisfaction the door-frames, which had previously been prepared by the carpenters of my escort, were simultaneously raised; and it being ascertained that the sub-conservator of forests had neglected to make the requisite supplies of timber, the delinquent was, with his wife and family, sentenced to vacate his habitation forthwith, and to bivouac _sub divo_ during twenty days upon the Angollala meadow--a punishment not unfrequently inflicted for venial derelictions of duty, and attended during the more inclement seasons with no ordinary inconvenience. But the endless succession of holydays, during which no work can be performed, interfered in a much greater degree with the completion of the rising structure--it being superstitiously imagined that any portion of a work erected on the festival of a saint, with the aid of edged tools, will infallibly entail a curse from above. No little delay arose also from the whims and caprices of His Majesty, who could never satisfy himself that the doors and windows occupied the proper places. On this subject his ideas wandered perpetually to the ruins of a certain palace on the banks of the Nile, which he had visited whilst hunting the wild buffalo--"It is overgrown with trees and bushes," was his lucid description, "and it has two hundred windows, and four hundred pillars of stone, and none can tell whence it came." On lawful days, however, the soldiers continued to work as diligently as the quantities of hydromel would permit, with which they were supplied by the royal munificence; and at length the Gothic hall was complete. It had been amusing in the interim to watch the persevering industry of an unfortunate gun-man of the body-guard, who was constructing a hut immediately below the palace. Whensoever the vigilant eye of the church permitted, he would add to the frail wall of his circular dwelling a few layers of loose stone which, with his own single labour, he had collected in the meadow; but each morning's dawn revealed to his sorrowing eyes some monstrous breach in the unstable fabric, which, like Penelope's web, was never nearer to completion, and his patience being fairly exhausted, he finally gave up the task in despair. The novel style of architecture introduced by the Gyptzis, so immeasurably superior in elegance, stability, and comfort, to anything before witnessed in Shoa, and combining all these recommendations with so limited an expenditure of material, afforded an undeniable contrast to the adjacent tottering pile upon vaults on which Demetrius the Albanian had expended three years of labour. Beyond the rude fabrics of the neighbouring states, where the more common manufactures have attained a somewhat higher cultivation, the palace of the king can boast of no embellishment saving the tawdry trappings which decorate the throne--gaudy tapestries of crimson velvet loaded with massive silver ornaments, but ill in keeping with the clumsy mud walls to which they are appended, and serving to render the latter still more incongruous by so striking a contrast. But the new apartments were elegantly furnished throughout, and with their couches, ottomans, carpets, chairs, tables, and curtains, had assumed an aspect heretofore unknown in Abyssinia. "I shall turn it into a chapel," quoth His Majesty, accosting Abba Raguel, and patting the little dwarf familiarly upon the back--"What say you to that plan, my father?" As a last finishing touch, we suspended in the centre hall a series of large coloured engravings, which the cathedral of Saint Michael might well have envied, for they represented the chase of the tiger in all its varied phases. The domestication of the elephant, and its employment in war, or in the pageant, had ever proved a stumbling-block to the king, who all his life had been content to reside in a house boasting neither windows nor chimneys, and who reigned not in the days when "the Negus, arrayed in the barbaric pomp of gold chains, collars, and bracelets, and surrounded by his nobles and musicians, gave audience to the ambassador of Justinian, seated in the open field upon a lofty chariot drawn by four elephants superbly caparisoned." [Gibbon.] The grotesque appearance of the "hugest of beasts" in his hunting harness, struck the chord of a new idea. "I will have a number caught on the Robi," he exclaimed, "that you may tame them, and that I too may ride upon an elephant before I die." A favourite governor from a remote frontier province was standing meanwhile with his forefinger in his mouth gazing in mute amazement at the wonders before him. "This place is not suited for the occupation of man," he at length exclaimed in a reverie of surprise, as the monarch ceased:--"this is a palace designed only for the residence of the Deity, and of Sahela Selassie." Volume 3, Chapter XLII. THE "PRO REX OF EFAT" IN TRIBULATION. Although we had found small reason to be flattered with our first reception in the kingdom of Shoa, at the hands of a Christian ruler who had sought alliance with Great Britain, it was nevertheless matter of notoriety that no previous visitors had, under any circumstances, been treated with one-hundredth part of the same courtesy and condescension, or had experienced such unequivocal marks of confidence and favour. Formed on the most liberal scale, and supplied with all that was likely to add to its weight in such a country, the embassy was almost from the outset admitted to terms of perfect equality with the haughty despot, yet numberless diplomatic troubles were still interposed by the general ignorance of the many, and by the envy and jealousy of a few. No veil had been thrown over the deep-rooted enmity of the bigoted and powerful priesthood, who, to serve their own sinister purposes, cunningly contrived to construe the costly gifts of the British Government into tribute to the illustrious descendant of the house of Solomon; but the assertion carried its own refutation. In a weak moment Comus Unquies, "the king's strong monk," so far forgot the dignity due to his station, as to barter his bishop's staff to the heretic Gyptzis for a pair of Birmingham scissors! European medicines had rescued three thousand patients from the jaws of death; and improved intercourse with the monarch finally dispelled the jealousy created in a suspicious breast by the treasonable designs imputed to the foreign visitors, who were found to have brought no king or queen in a box, and to entertain designs neither upon the sceptre nor upon the church of Ethiopia. The opposition of inimical functionaries dressed in fleeting authority, exposed us to a train of persecutions, trifling perhaps in themselves, but amounting in the aggregate to more than martyrdom. Few of the commands issued were obeyed so much in the spirit as to the letter. _Eshee_, or _Basanye_ [i.e. "Very well."], although doubtless signifying assent, did not always bring compliance with even the most trifling application for assistance. The king was too polished to say "No," when he had inwardly resolved to do nothing; and an uneducated despot, who has never known any law but his own absolute will, and who lives for himself alone; who considers and claims as his property every thing in the country over which he wields the arbitrary sceptre, and whose only idea of wealth, power, and happiness, is centred in individual existence, can so ill understand the wants of others, that His Majesty's offences towards his guests, founded in Oriental suspicion, might rather be termed sins of omission than of commission. Covetous, and eager for novelties, Sahela Selassie never fails to wish for every thing that comes under his observation, but, like a child with a new toy, soon weary of looking at the bauble, though still vain of its possession, he casts it aside to be hoarded in the mouldy vaults of some distant magazine. The savage is the same under every possible form, and in every grade and position--the one stealing what he covets, whilst another, seeking plausible pretexts, obtains possession through low cunning and stratagem. Among such a nation of beggars as the people of Southern Abyssinia, it was not always easy to satisfy the rapacity of fastidious extortioners. All wanted "pleasing things"--many demanded dollars to defray the cost of slaves that they had purchased, but for whom they could not pay; and for months after my arrival, requisitions for our own private property were unceasing on the part also of the monarch. Neither compulsory measures nor direct applications were ever employed; but the means resorted to were not the less certain of success. With that duplicity and want of candour which ever marks uncivilised man, he was wont to send underhand communications, or meanly to depute his emissaries to reveal his desires and his intentions in a manner which, in so despotic a land, could leave no doubt of authenticity; and an offer of the article coveted being forthwith made, His Majesty hesitated not, in the presence of his agents, to deny all cognisance of the transaction, or to swear by the saints that he never sought the property tendered for his acceptance. Persuasion would not induce him to receive it at once, and thus to terminate the matter; but no sooner had it been removed from his sight, than his creatures were again at work with even greater activity than before; and rude taunts of breach of promise, with not-to-be-mistaken hints, veiled under the cloak of friendship, were certain to instigate a second and a third offer, which invariably elicited an avowal of the disinclination entertained to "receive the property of his children," but uniformly ended in his accepting it "as a free gift from the heart," acknowledged in all gratitude by the benediction--"God restore it to thee, my son! May the Lord glorify and reward thee!" Chief of all the sycophants who bask in the favour of the monarch, may be ranked Wulasma Mohammad, who, in finesse, plausibility, and the manifold specious devices that are employed to cover total want of sincerity, can find no equal in the kingdom of Shoa. Lavish in professions of friendship, he never suffered to escape an opportunity of gratifying his inwardly-cherished animosity. Presents were frequently exchanged--the sugarcane and the bunch of green gram, which are the symbols of hearts knit together in the bonds of unity, arrived with the same regularity as the week, coupled, of course, with a description of some "pleasing thing" that was not to be found in Goncho. The lemon, denoting by its aromatic fragrance the beauties of permanent amity, was ever sure to follow the receipt of the desired article. Professions daily grew more profuse, and complimentary inquiries, which constitute the very essence of friendship, waxed more and more frequent; but although the regard entertained "amounted even to heaven and earth," and although every aid and assistance was volunteered, no packet of letters ever arrived to the address of the Gyptzis, neither did any courier ever depart for the sea-coast without being subjected to a tedious detention on the frontier at the hands of the despotic state-gaoler. On the first of these occasions, the king, before sending the packet to the Residency, had taken the trouble of breaking the seal of every individual cover with his own royal fingers; and a protest having been entered against a procedure so utterly foreign to European ideas of propriety. His Majesty inquired, with well-feigned simplicity, "Of what use should my children's letters be to me, who understand not their language?" Remonstrances were in like manner made to the Abogaz touching his interference in such manners; but as the crafty old fox screened himself behind total ignorance of the value attached to written documents, and volunteered better behaviour, the subject was set at rest. But although letters were now thoroughly understood to be held in higher estimation even than fine gold from Gurague, the evil, far from being abated, became greater and greater, until at last it was no longer to be borne. Promises made, were made only to be broken; and a serious complaint was at last carried to the throne at Angollala, representing that another packet had been secreted during an entire fortnight in the fortified vaults of Goncho. After stoutly denying all knowledge of it, until convicted by incontrovertible evidence, and then declaring it to be deposited, for safety-sake, in the custody of his brother Jhalia, who was absent on the frontier, the Wulasma was commanded to set out forthwith upon the quest, and to return at his peril empty-handed. "Our friendship has ceased for ever," muttered the burly caitiff betwixt his closed teeth as he descended the ladder--"for through your means the king hath become wroth with his servant." "Let his friendship go into the sea," quoth His Majesty, who had overheard this appalling announcement--"Is not he an accursed Moslem? Look only to me. Have I not always told you that my people are bad? Ye have travelled far into a strange land, and are to Sahela Selassie even as his own children. Ye have no relative but me." The escape of the rebel Medoko had formerly led to the suspension of the Abogaz from rank and office for a period of two years, during which he danced attendance upon the monarch with shoulders bared, as is the wont of the disgraced noble. His troubles had now returned. "My ancestors owed a debt of gratitude to Mohammad's father," continued His Majesty, after a pause, "and I would fain overlook his faults; but this insolence is no longer to be borne. I have removed the drunkard from office, confiscated his goods and chattels, and by the death of Woosen Suggud, I swear, that unless you intercede, there can be no hope of his restoration to favour." Down came the ex-Wulasma in a furious passion, boiling with old hydromel, and flushed with his rapid ride:--"How should I know that you wanted these vile letters?" he exclaimed, throwing the packet scornfully upon the ground--"I have done nothing. What offence have I committed, that I am thus to suffer through your means?--There is a proverb, that `the dog of the house is faithful to its master, whereas he who cometh from beyond is worse than a hyena.'" But a week had wrought a wonderful change in the sentiments of the humbled grandee, whose beeves were indeed grazing in the royal pastures, whilst his jars of old mead reposed in the royal cellars. He at whose sullen nod the subjects of Efat quailed, and whose presence was as an incubus to the state-prisoners in Goncho, had been, at the representation of a foreigner, stripped of wealth and power, and, in accordance with the usage of the country, was now fain to wait during a succession of days upon those whom he had injured. Seating himself at the door of the tent in sackcloth and ashes, he sent in two friends, who came, according to the custom of the country, to serve as mediators. "Behold, I am reduced to the condition of a beggar," was his abject message, "and have no support but in your intercession. My children are deprived of their bread, and they starve through the faults of their father." The Commander-in-chief of the Body-Guard was spokesman on behalf of the caitiff. He brought me, as a _mamalacha_, a huge Sanga horn, filled to the brim with the liquor that he loved, and ushered himself in with his customary string of complimentary enquiries, "_Endiet aderachoon? Ejegoon dahenaderachoon? Dahena sanabatachoon? Dahena karamoon? Ejegoon dahena natchoon_?" "How have you passed the night? Have you rested very well? Have you been quite well since our last interview? How have you spent the rainy season? Are you in perfect health?" "Half the people of Habesh," he resumed, in his husky voice, when each of these points had been satisfactorily disposed of--"have ears like a hill, and they cannot hear--the residue are liars. Furthermore, one-half are thieves and drunkards, and the remainder are cowards." There was no refuting the arguments adduced in support of this position, and his eloquence proved quite irresistible. A solemn oath was therefore administered upon the Koran, by which the suppliant, who united in his own person all the attributes embraced in this able classification, became pledged never again to interfere with messengers bearing letters to or from the low country. His pardon was finally obtained; and he was once more invested with the silver sword of office: nor is it easy to determine whether the disgrace or the restoration of the fat frontier functionary created the greater sensation throughout the realm. "What can you expect from that besotted old man?" inquired Ayto Melkoo, who had been a silent spectator of all that passed, and who hated both the Abogaz and his mediator with equal intensity. "Did you never hear that the Negoos was once displeased with me, and that I passed a few months beneath the grates at Goncho; and furthermore, that when the royal order came to set me at large, the State-Gaoler was drunk, and never thought again of his prisoner for a full fortnight? _Sahela Selassie ye moot_! May the king die if it be not so!--the infidel may swear as long as he pleases, ay, and take his sacred book to witness; but how can you suppose that he will ever be able to think of these letters of yours?" Volume 3, Chapter XLIII. THE BEREAVEMENT. A calamity shortly afterwards overtook the Master of the Horse, whose spouse--a gift from the monarch to his faithful subject--was seized with alarming influenza, and became an object of universal attention. The first intimation of the disorder being serious was received from himself, when he came one morning to Graham's tent, in order to perform the interesting operation of shaving with a notched razor that he invariably patronised, and also to demand how it occurred that our inquiries were not more frequent. The not dispatching couriers daily to ascertain how each of your acquaintance fares and has rested, is perhaps the greatest offence that can be committed against Abyssinian etiquette. "Send to me" is a caution invariably given; and such being an indispensable ceremony when people are believed to be well, what must not be exacted when it is supposed that they are invalids? If hourly inquiries be not made, the best friends are sure to become the worst; and in every case the amount of real solicitude felt, is estimated by the frequency of "amicable correspondence." "The patient's uvula has been cleverly plucked out with a silken thread," observed the visitor exultingly, when his toilet was happily completed:--"the thorax has been well scarified, and furthermore, we are giving _ya medur oomboi_ [Cucumis Africanus, Linn]. This medicine is infallible; but remember," he added, lowering his voice, and looking suspiciously round to see that no eaves-dropper profited by the wisdom he was about to impart in confidence--"remember that it must be gathered by a finger on which there is a silver ring, or, by Michael, it possesses no virtue whatever." The good lady did not, however, long stand in need either of treatment or inquiry. She closed her bright eyes shortly after swallowing the infallible nostrum, administered by her quack husband in a jorum of oatmeal gruel, stirred with honey and rancid butter to such a consistency that the spoon would stand--and death left her barely time for confession and absolution. Every priest in the neighbourhood was instantly called in to the rescue; and the _enchifchif_ [i.e. belt of charms and amulets] and _mateb_ having been immersed in water, and restored to the body, the sacrament was administered; and under the blazing light of the torch, prayers were chanted for the soul of the deceased until the morning dawned. Then commenced the frantic shrieks of the female crowd that flocked to the house of mourning. Cloths were torn in shreds from the bosom, and the skin plucked from the temples, whilst the low moaning dirge was at frequent intervals interrupted by the hysterical sob of some new arrival, who came to add her voice to the dismal coronach, and to excite renewed bursts of lamentation. Preceded by the gay orange umbrellas of the church of the "Covenant of Mercy," the funeral procession wound up the palace hill. A pall of printed Surat chintz, supported by six bearers, was waved alternately with a fanning motion, whilst a numerous train of mourners followed, with loud wails, all having their hands clasped behind their neck in token of the triumph obtained by Death over Sin. The corpse was laid in the sacred edifice, surrounded by twelve lighted tapers betokening purity of life; and when these were nearly consumed, they were lowered with the bier into the sepulchre. The head was laid to the west, in order that on the morn of resurrection the face might be towards the rising sun. A quantity of frankincense was deposited in the grave; and a copy of the book styled _Lefafa Zadik_, "The supplication of Righteousness," having been placed on the body, the mortal clay was returned whence it came, "ashes to ashes, and dust to dust." Ecclesiastics alone possess the privilege of a last resting-place within the walls of the church, or on the eastern side, four paces from the porch. The aristocracy occupy the north, and warriors, women, and children, the south and west. All who die without confession or absolution are either interred by the highway-side or in some unconsecrated ground. Governors, men of rank, and all wealthy commoners who have not during life worked in wood, iron, or precious metals, are covered in the sepulchre with the green branches of the juniper; but smiths and artificers being regarded as sorcerers, every care is taken to keep them under ground when once deposited, to which end great stones are heaped over the body, and the earth is well trampled and secured. Funeral obsequies concluded, the dirge of mourning, as usual, gave place to the notes of the violin, for harpers and fiddlers usually attend to the last resting-place the mortal remains of the great, and exert their utmost endeavours to raise the spirits of the return party by the liveliest airs. At the funeral feast which followed, oxen and sheep were freely slaughtered, and charity was liberally distributed, in order that _requiems_ might be chanted during forty consecutive days for the soul of the departed. It has been shown that the Abyssinian Christian, whilst execrating Mohammadanism, and forswearing all its abominations, can take unto his bosom four wives and more, and that the solemnisation of matrimony is almost the only occasion on which the priest is not called in. Such had ever been the case in the house of the Master of the Horse, who was nevertheless inconsolable under his present bereavement. Certain malicious whispers had flown abroad, to the effect that applications of the cudgel were sometimes resorted to by the epicure in support of his marital authority; but whether true or without foundation, these scandalous tales were known to have been circulated by Dinkoo, a mischief-making brat, with the falsest of tongues, and the offspring of one whose divorce, from incompatibility of temper, had left the deceased undisputed mistress of the premises, whereas of the matchless "_Etagainya_" now no more, the neighbours were ever wont to exclaim, "Where shall you find her equal?" At the appointed season, Graham and myself went in compliance with Abyssinian custom, to pay a visit of condolence, after having with considerable difficulty succeeded in shaking off the attentions of the court buffoon, who, with his wonted politeness, exerted somewhat _mal-a-propos_ to so melancholy an occasion, insisted upon the exercise of his ingenuity in the comic drama. The widower, enveloped in a black woollen mantle, was seated in a gloomy corner, the very personification of mourning--his temples deeply scarified with his little finger nail, as were those also of the wrinkled old woman who wept beside him. In an opposite corner, equally the victim of grief, and supported by the family priest with cross, crutch, and cowl, sat Marietta, a fat daughter of the former unfortunate union, who, like her mother, had been wedded and divorced, and having taken shelter again under her father's roof, was now sobbing aloud. "God hath taken her," said one of the guests, breaking silence after the conclusion of the customary salutations. "The life of man is in His hand." "Alas!" sobbed the bereaved, "that it had pleased Heaven to spare her until after you had left Abyssinia, that I alone might have found cause for affliction. Who could prepare _shiro_, and _wotz_, and _dilli_, like Etagainya? When was the house ever destitute of _quanta_ or of _qualima_? [Note 1] and who ever asked for _tullah_ or for _tedj_, that she did not reply, `_Malto_,' There is abundance? `_Waiye, waiye_,' Woe is me. Where shall I find her equal? But there could have been no ring on the finger that gathered the _medanit_!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1. _Shiro_, a sauce composed of peas or lentils boiled with grease and spices. _Wotz_, another, consisting of grease and red pepper. _Dilli_, a third abominable condiment. _Quanta_, sun-dried flesh. _Qualima_, sausages. Volume 3, Chapter XLIV. THE GREAT ANNUAL FORAY. Another Abyssinian year had floated away upon the stream of time, and again the return of spring had been celebrated by the green fillet of _enkotatach_, by the tournament in the bright meadows of Debra Berhan, and by the plaintive ditty of the king's Guragues, who, with yellow garlands of the cross-flower wreathed among their raven tresses, once more chanted away their three days of privileged inebriety. As September drew towards a close, it had been confidently predicted that the rain would terminate according to its "covenant;" but it still poured on with unabated violence, and the review of Maskal was achieved under a pitiless deluge, which exerted its best endeavours both to mar the pageant, and to extinguish the evening bonfire raised in honour of Saint Helena. But the beat of the _nugareet_, and the voice of the herald beneath the solitary tree at Angollala, proclaimed the great annual foray as heretofore; and the plain below the palace hill was soon dotted with the black woollen tents of the leaders of cohorts. There were the governors of Bulga and of Mentshar, and of Morat and Morabeitie, and Efrata and Antzochia, and of Mahhfood and of Shoa-Meda, with all their subordinates, each surrounded by his own retainers; and the rear division of this feudal host was placed under the command of Besuenech, now governor of Giddem, the father of the king's grand-nephew, who fell the preceding year upon the fair plains of Germama. Led on to victory by the holy ark of Saint Michael, the great crimson umbrellas streamed again through the barrier wall at the head of the Christian chivalry. Twenty thousand troopers pursued the route of the Sertie Lake to the Metta Galla, occupying the plains immediately contiguous to the valley of Finfinni, who were now the victims marked out for spoliation. The despot had so invariably passed this tribe without offering any molestation, that the heathen were little prepared for the thunderbolt that was about to fall, and of which the first intimation was afforded in the simultaneous invasion of the entire district. Overwhelmed by the torrent of desolation which had so suddenly burst in, four thousand five hundred Gentiles of all ages were butchered by the "soldiers of Christ," and of these the greater number were shot from trees that they had ascended in the vain hope of eluding observation. Three hapless individuals were thus barbarously destroyed by the hands of Sahela Selassie, who for the first time led his troops to the summit of the mountain Entotto--the ancient capital of Ethiopia-- and, taking formal possession, appointed the arch-rebel Shambo to the government, under the title of "_Shoom_ of all Gurague." Forty-three thousand head of cattle were on this occasion swept away to replenish the royal pastures, and the rich prize had been obtained with the loss of only nine of the king's liege subjects. Of the heroes who fell, one was torn by a lion in the deep juniper forest, and another basely assassinated by his comrade in arms, whose disfigured corse was subsequently left in retribution to the hyenas; whilst a third, a priest of extraordinary piety, and the father of the young page Besabeh, was transfixed by the spear of a Pagan who sat concealed amid the branches of a tree, beneath which the holy man rode in a rash attempt to secure a fugitive. The king's Master of the Horse wore the vaunting green _sareti_ for having achieved the capture of a child scarce five years of age; and upwards of one thousand captives, chiefly women and young girls, swelled the barbaric pomp of triumphal entry to Angollala. I considered that the opportunity had again arrived, when a remonstrance from the Embassy would promote the release of these unfortunate slaves; and after reminding His Majesty of his noble conduct with respect to the prisoners taken during the preceding foray, I entreated him not to tarnish, in the eyes of the civilised world, the reputation he had acquired for mercy, but to prove, by his present conduct, that he was indeed influenced by the true principles of Christianity. Under Providence, my application was again crowned with success, and with a few exceptions, all were liberated without ransom. "I listen to your words," said His Majesty, as he issued the fiat of release, "in order that the name of Sahela Selassie may not be broken." Sad indeed are the atrocities perpetrated by the undisciplined armies of Ethiopia, when disputing the abstruse mysteries of Abyssinian divinity, or seeking, in the relentless fury of religious hate, to exterminate a heathen and stranger nation by a series of crusades, undertaken as an acceptable vindication of the sacred symbol of Christianity. "Her badge of mercy blazons half their shields; Sword hilts are fashion'd as memorials of it: This sign of man's forgiveness leads to battle! Whilst every tyrant hangs its ensign out, In scorn of justice, from his battlements; Mail'd prelates march before it to the field-- Priest fights with priest, and both sides under it! This sign and pledge of mercy!" The people of Shoa have fully adopted that spirit of merciless destruction which impelled the Israelites to destroy their enemies from the face of the earth. Considering themselves the lineal descendants of those heroes of ancient history who were arrayed against the enemies of the Lord, they are actuated by the same motives and feelings which led the bands of Judah to the massacre. The foe is a Pagan, who does not fast, nor kiss the church, nor wear a _mateb_. All feelings of humanity are thrown to the winds; and a high reward in heaven is believed to await the king and the blood-thirsty soldier for the burning of the hamlet, the capture of the property, and the murder of the accursed Gentile. The words of absolution from the mouth of the Father Confessor usher in the ruthless slaughter; and the name of the Most High is wantonly employed to consecrate the ensuing scenes of savage atrocity. That the minds of the people should not be more disturbed and alienated from agricultural pursuits, by the continual military expeditions which they are thus called upon to make, cannot fail to appear extraordinary. Probably the selfishness of the despot, in his appropriation of the lion's share of the spoil, has exerted a salutary influence in checking innate restlessness; and the subject has been instructed in a rough school, that there is more profit to be derived from holding the plough than from wielding the sword: for it is certainly the fact, that when the foray is over, the war-horse is turned loose in the meadow, and the partisan willingly returns to his peaceful avocations in the field. But these campaigns bring annually a repetition of the most atrocious and monstrous barbarity, and none who have witnessed the unhallowed proceedings of the Amhara warrior, can fail to offer up a fervent prayer that the time may be hastened, when nations shall be knit together in the bonds of love, and when true Christianity shall reign paramount in every heart. December had now commenced, but a dense gloomy mist still enveloped the hill of Anko, and torrents of rain continued to deluge the country, at a season when the smiling sun had been wont to shine over the land. The fair face of heaven was utterly obscured. The ripe crops lay rotting upon the ground; and as the inhabitants waded with difficulty through the deep mire which filled every street and lane of the capital, the exchange of mournful salutations was followed by a foreboding shake of the head at the daily increasing price of provisions. The season was unusually rigorous, and the soaked firewood sputtering upon the hearth, gave not out one atom of genial heat. On the bleak summit of the Abyssinian alps every thing was cold and clammy to the touch; and a searching wind, creeping up the damp sides of the hill, entered at each crevice in the mud wall, and rendered the situation of the inmates of the frail houses even more miserable than usual. As the evening of the 6th of December closed in, not a single breath of air disturbed the thick fog which still brooded over the mountain. A sensible difference was perceptible in the atmosphere, but the rain again commenced to descend in a perfect deluge, and for hours pelted like the discharge of the bursting water-spout. Towards morning there came on a violent thunder-storm, and for some minutes the entire scene was fearfully illuminated by the dazzling fire of heaven; and every rock and cranny re-echoed from the succeeding crash of the hurtling thunder. Deep darkness again settled over the mountain. Suddenly the earth groaned and trembled to its very centre: the hill reeled and tottered like a drunken man; and a heavy rumbling noise, like the passage of artillery wheels, was followed by the shrill cry of mortal despair. Dreadful indeed were the consequences of this shock. The earth, saturated with moisture, had slidden like an avalanche from the steep rugged slopes, and huge boulders, tilted from their muddy beds, were thrown into the glens below. Houses and cottages were buried in the dark _debris_, or shattered to fragments by these monstrous masses bounding on their course with terrific rapidity. Large trees were torn from their roots, and daylight presented to the eyes of the affrighted inhabitants a strange scene of ruin. Perched upon the apex of the conical peak, the palace had, on the preceding evening, frowned over the capital in all the security of its numerous encircling palisades; but now, shorn of their bristling protection, those buildings that had not been overthrown, stood naked and exposed. Twenty open breaches, as though heavy batteries had been playing for a fortnight on the devoted hill, laid bare the approaches to the very porch of the banqueting-hall; and palings and palisades, forced from their deep foundations, lay broken and mingled together, strewed over the entire face of the eminence. The roads along the scarp were completely obliterated. Tall green shrubs reclined with their roots reversed among the wreck; and not one vestige of the fragile tenements could be discovered in the bare earthy tracts which disfigured the mountain-side, and marked the disastrous course of the treacherous slip. The more vigilant inmates had, with the loss of all their little property, found barely time to rush from their houses, and huddled together in shivering groups totally denuded of clothing, had passed the remnant of the night in all the pangs of cold and terror; whilst in the market-place lay extended the stark discoloured bodies of numerous victims that had been already extricated from the slimy ruins, and were placed in the _Arada_ for recognition by surviving relatives, if any there were. The shrieks of the mourners added to the distress of the scene. The hymn of entreaty rose high in the mist from every church throughout the town; and bands of priests, carrying the holy cross, marched in solemn procession through the miry streets, beating their breasts and calling aloud upon Saint Michael the Archangel, and upon Mary the mother of the Messiah, to intercede for them in this the day of their affliction. Sweeping desolation had spread for miles along the great range: houses with their inmates and household gear had been scattered in fragments over the mountain-side; and the voice of wailing from the green hill top and from the sheltered nook, announced the many victims that were thus immaturely buried in the dark bosom of the earth. The destruction varied considerably according to situation and locality. Some villages were entirely smothered under the descending tons of heavy wet soil, and the inhabitants of others grieved only for their cattle, their crops, and their farm-steading; but the loss of life and property was altogether immense; and although the tremulous shock had been before frequently experienced, a similar to the present calamity had not befallen the country within the memory of man. For many nights afterwards, as the thick mist still continued to enfold the mountain in its dark shroud, and the sloppy rain plashed heavily over the denuded rocks, the air at the close of each dull evening was filled with the plaintive sounds of hymn and prayer. The deep voice of the priesthood pealed incessantly from the churches; and groups of bewildered females, collected in every corner of the streets, bowed themselves to the ground, whilst calling in strangely wild cadence upon the Virgin, who is the Mediator, and upon all the saints and guardian angels, to preserve the believers in Christ from impending ruin--for the wise men who deal in sorcery had proclaimed that the present throe was only the harbinger of the wrath of Heaven, which would one day sweep the high mountain of Anko with all her inhabitants utterly from the face of the earth. Volume 3, Chapter XLV. LIBERATION OF THE PRINCES OF THE BLOOD-ROYAL OF SHOA. Humanity to his own subjects must be considered a distinguishing feature in the character of the reigning despot. He is ignorant, but not stupid--to his foes fierce, but not implacable; and although his manifold good qualities are sullied by the part he sustains in the odious traffic in his fellow-men--a moral plague which has by its baneful influence contaminated the whole of this quarter of the globe-- he had, on more occasions than one, evinced an unlooked-for readiness to open his eyes to his errors. Possessed of faults inseparable from the absolute semi-barbarian, he had, nevertheless, been found mild, just, clement, and almost patriarchal in his government:--he is a monarch whom experience has proved worthy to reign over a better people, and to be possessed of an understanding and of latent virtues requiring nought save cultivation to place him, in a moral and intellectual point of view, immeasurably in advance of other African potentates. Whilst indulging in the agreeable conviction that the endeavours of the British Embassy had been successful in arousing a monarch, who exercises so wide an influence over the destinies of surrounding millions, to a sense of the wickedness and degradation attaching in civilised lands to barter in the flesh and blood of our fellow-men, it occurred to me that he might be exhorted, with the best prospect of success, to break through the barbarous precautionary policy under which those members of the royal house who possess a contingent claim to the crown, and in other Christian realms would hold the highest offices and honours within its gift, had, through every generation since the days of the son of David, been doomed to chains in a living grave. And from the fortunate fact of the issue male of the present reign being limited to two, I derived the pleasant hope, that if a statute so jealously guarded during nearly three thousand years, could now for once be infringed, it would not, in all probability, be revived on the monarch's demise. Entertaining the liveliest fears of death, his manifold superstitions were ever the most easily awakened during sickness, when the actions of his past life crowded up in judgment before him. It was on these occasions that, in order to quiet his conscience, he made the most liberal votive offerings to the church and to the monastery, and that he gained the greatest victories over his deep-rooted avarice; and it was on these occasions, therefore, that the chord of his latent good feeling might obviously be touched with the happiest result to the cause of humanity. That singular blending of debauchery and devotion which marks the royal vigils, has seriously impaired a constitution naturally good. During a long succession of years the Psalms of David and the strongest cholera mixture have equally shared the midnight hours of the king; and although scarcely past the meridian of life, he is subject to sudden spasmodic attacks of an alarming character. In one of these his restoration had been despaired of both by the priests and the physicians; and the voice of wailing and lamentation already filled the precincts of the palace. Scarcely was it light ere a page came to my tent with an urgent summons to the sick chamber. We found the despot pale and emaciated, with fevered lip and bloodshot eye, reclining upon a couch in a dark corner of the closed veranda, his head swathed in white cloth, and his trembling arms supported by bolsters and cushions. Abba Raguel, the dwarf Father Confessor, with eyes swollen from watching, was rocking to and fro, whilst he drowsily scanned an illuminated Ethiopic volume, containing the lives of the martyrs; and in deep conversation with the sick monarch was a favourite monk, habited like an Arab Bedouin in a black goat's hair cameline and a yellow cowl, but displaying the sacred cross in his right hand. The loud voice of the priesthood arose in boisterous song from the adjacent apartment: strings of red worsted had been tied round the monarch's thumbs and great toes; and the threshold of the outer chamber was bedewed with the still moist blood of a black bullock, which, when the taper of life was believed to be flickering in the socket, had been thrice led round the royal couch, and, with its head turned towards the East, was then slaughtered at the door, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. "My children," said His Majesty in a sepulchral voice, as he extended his burning hand towards us--"behold, I am sore stricken. Last night they believed me dead, and the voice of mourning had arisen within the palace walls, but God hath spared me until now. Tell me the medicine for this disease." A febrifuge having been prepared, we attempted to follow the etiquette of the Abyssinian court, by tasting the draught prescribed; but the king, again extending his parched hand, protested against this necessity. "What need is there now of this?" he exclaimed reproachfully: "do not I know that you would administer to Sahela Selassie nothing that could do him mischief? My people are bad; and if God had not mercy on me to restore me, they would deal evil with you-- and to strip you of your property would even take away your lives." I had oftentimes complimented the king upon the mildness and equity of his rule, and upon the readiness with which he gave ear to intercession on behalf of the slave. The implicit confidence which had supplanted all fear and suspicion in the breast of His Majesty, now favoured a still stronger appeal to his humanity, to his magnanimity, and to his piety. I urged him to take into favourable consideration the abject condition of his royal brothers--victims to a tyrannical and unnatural statute, the legacy of a barbarous age, which for centuries had resulted in such incalculable misery and mischief. I reminded him that it belongs unto those who wield the sceptre to triumph over prejudices; and that by the liberation of many innocent captives, of whom, though possessing the strongest claim that blood can give, he had perhaps scarcely even thought during his long and prosperous reign, he would perform an act alike acceptable to Heaven, and calculated to secure to himself on earth an imperishable name. "And I will release them," returned the monarch, after a moment's debate within himself. "By the holy Eucharist I swear, and by the church of the Holy Trinity in Koora Gadel, that if Sahela Selassie arise from this bed of sickness, all of whom you speak shall be restored to the enjoyment of liberty." The sun was shining brighter than usual, through a cloudless azure sky, when we all received a welcome summons to witness the redemption of this solemn pledge. The balcony of Justice was tricked out in its gala suit; and priests, governors, sycophants, and courtiers, crowded the yard, as the despot, restored to health, in the highest spirits and good humour, took his accustomed seat upon the velvet cushions. The mandate had gone forth for the liberation of his brothers and his blood relatives, and it had been published abroad, that the royal kith and kindred were to pass the residue of their days free and unfettered near the person of the king, instead of in the dark cells of Goncho. There were not wanting certain sapient sages who gravely shook the head of disapproval at this fresh proof of foreign influence and ascendency, and who could in nowise comprehend how the venerable custom of ages could be thus suddenly violated. The introduction of great guns, and muskets, and rockets, had not been objected to, although, as a matter of course, the spear of their forefathers was esteemed an infinitely superior weapon. Musical clocks and boxes had been listened to and despised, as vastly inferior to the jingling notes of their own vile instruments; and the Gothic cottage, with its painted trellises, its pictures, and its gay curtains, although pronounced entirely unsuited to Abyssinian habits, had been partially forgiven on the grounds of its beauty. But this last innovation was beyond all understanding; and many a stupid pate was racked in fruitless endeavours to extract consolation in so momentous a difficulty. The more liberal party were loud in their praises of the king and of his generous intentions; and the royal gaze was with the rest strained wistfully towards the wicket, where he should behold once again the child of his mother, whom he had not seen since his accession, and should make the first acquaintance with his uncles, the brothers of his warrior sire, who had been incarcerated ere he himself had seen the light. Stern traces had been left by the constraint of one-third of a century upon the seven unfortunate descendants of a royal race, who were shortly ushered into the court by the state-gaoler. Leaning heavily on each other's shoulders, and linked together by chains, bright and shining with the friction of years, the captives shuffled onward with cramped steps, rather as malefactors proceeding to the gallows-tree, than as innocent and abused princes, regaining the natural rights of man. Tottering to the foot of the throne, they fell as they had been instructed by their burly conductor, prostrate on their faces before their more fortunate but despotic relative, whom they had known heretofore only through his connection with their own misfortunes, and whose voice was yet a stranger to their ears. Rising with difficulty at the bidding of the monarch, they remained standing in front of the balcony, gazing in stupid wonder at the novelties of the scene, with eyes unaccustomed to meet the broad glare of day. At first they were fixed upon the author of their weary captivity, and upon the white men by his side who had been the instruments of its termination--but the dull, leaden gaze soon wandered in search of other objects; and the approach of freedom appeared to be received with the utmost apathy and indifference. Immured since earliest infancy, they were totally insensible to the blessings of liberty. Their feelings and their habits had become those of the fetter and of the dark dungeon. The iron had rusted into their very souls; and, whilst they with difficulty maintained an erect position, pain and withering despondency were indelibly marked in every line of their vacant and care-furrowed features. In the damp vaults of Goncho, where heavy manacles on the wrists had been linked to the ankles of the prisoners by a chain so short as to admit only of a bent and stooping posture, the weary hours of the princes had for thirty long years been passed in the fabrication of harps and combs; and of these relics of monotonous existence, elaborately carved in wood and ivory, a large offering was now timidly presented to the king. The first glimpse of his wretched relatives had already dissipated a slight shade of mistrust which had hitherto clouded the royal brow. Nothing that might endanger the security of his reign could be traced in the crippled frames and blighted faculties of the seven miserable objects that cowered before him; and, after directing their chains to be unriveted, he announced to all that they were Free, and to pass the residue of their existence near his own person. Again the joke and the merry laugh passed quickly in the balcony--the court fool resumed his wonted avocations; and, as the monarch himself struck the chords of the gaily-ornamented harp presented by his bloated brother Amnon, the buffoon burst into a high and deserved panegyric upon the royal mercy and generosity. "My children," exclaimed His Majesty, turning towards ourselves, after the completion of this tardy act of justice to those whose only crime was their consanguinity to himself--an act to which he had been prompted less by superstition than by a desire to rescue his own offspring from a dungeon, and to secure a high place in the opinion of the civilised world--"My children, you will write all that you have now seen to your country, and will say to the British Queen, that, although far behind the nations of the white men, from whom Ethiopia first received her religion, there yet remains a spark of Christian love in the breast of the king of Shoa."