The Abyssinians never could relish these cakes, which they said were bitter, and burnt their stomachs, as also made them thirsty. I do, however, believe this is the oat in its original state, and that it is degenerated everywhere with us. The soil of this country is a fine black mould, in appearance like to that which composes our gardens. The oat seems to delight in a moist, watery soil; and, as no underwood grows under the shadow of the trees, the plough passes without interruption. As there is likewise no iron in their plough, (for is it all composed of wood) the furrow is a very slight one, nor does the plough reach deep enough to be entangled with the roots of trees; but it is the north part of Maitsha, however, that is chiefly in culture; south of the Kelti all is pasture; a large number of horses is bred here yearly, for it is the custom among the Galla to be all horsemen or graziers.
All Aroossi is finely watered with small streams, though the Assar is the largest river we had seen except the Nile; it was about 170 yards broad and two feet deep, running over a bed of large stones; though generally through a flat and level country, it is very rapid, and after much rain scarcely passable, owing to the height of its source in the mountains of the Agows; its course, where we forded it, is from south to north, but it soon turns to the north-east, and, after flowing five or six miles, joins the Nile and loses itself in that river.
Immediately below this ford of the Assar is a magnificent cascade, or cataract. I computed the perpendicular height of the fall to be above 20 feet, and the breadth of the stream to be something more than 80; but it is so closely covered with trees or bushes, and the ground so uneven, that it needs great perseverance and attention to approach it nearly with safety; the stream covers the rock without leaving any part of it visible, and the whole river falls uninterrupted down with an incredible violence and noise, without being anyway broken or divided; below this cataract it becomes considerably narrower, and, as we have said, in this state runs on to join the Nile.
The strength of vegetation 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 jessamin 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 jessamin (called Leham) which becomes a large tree; but all the rest of the birds or flowers 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, our course being S. E. we had, for the first time, a distinct view of the high mountain of Geesh, the long-wished-for end of our dangerous and troublesome journey. Under this mountain are the fountains of the Nile; it bore from us S. E. by S. about thirty miles, as near as we could conjecture, in a straight line, without counting the deviations or crookedness of the road.
Ever since we had passed the Assar we had been descending gently through very uneven ground, covered thick with trees, and torn up by the gullies and courses of torrents. At two o’clock in the afternoon of the second of November we came to the banks of the Nile; the passage is very difficult and dangerous, the bottom being full of holes made by considerable springs, light sinking sand, and, at every little distance, large rocky stones; the eastern side was muddy and full of pits, the ground of clay: the Nile here is about 260 feet broad, and very rapid; its depth about four feet in the middle of the river, and the sides not above two. Its banks are of a very gentle, easy descent; the western side is chiefly ornamented with high trees of the salix, or willow tribe, growing straight, without joints or knots, and bearing long pointed pods full of a kind of cotton. This tree is called, in their language, Ha; the use they have for it is to make charcoal for the composition of gunpowder; but on the eastern side, the banks, to a considerable distance from the river, are covered with black, dark, and thick groves, with craggy-pointed rocks, and overshaded with some old, tall, timber trees going to decay with age; a very rude and awful face of nature, a cover from which our fancy suggested a lion should issue, or some animal or monster yet more savage and ferocious.
The veneration still paid in this country for the Nile, such as obtained in antiquity, extends to the territory of Goutto, and I believe very little farther; the reason is, I apprehend, that to this, and no lower, the country has remained under its ancient inhabitants. Below, we know Maitsha has been occupied within these few ages by Pagan Galla, transplanted here for political purposes; at Goutto, however, and in the provinces of the Agows, the genuine indigenæ have not emigrated, and with these the old superstition is more firmly rooted in their hearts than is the more recent doctrine of Christianity; they crowded to us at the ford, and they were, after some struggle, of great use in passing us, but they protested immediately with great vehemence against any man’s riding across the stream, mounted either upon horse or mule: they, without any sort of ceremony, unloaded our mules, and laid our baggage upon the grass, insisting that we should take off our shoes, and making an appearance of stoning those who attempted to wash the dirt off their cloaks and trowsers in the stream. My servants were by this provoked to return rudeness for rudeness, and Woldo gave them two or three significant threats, while I sat by exceedingly happy at having so unexpectedly found the remnants of veneration for that ancient deity still subsisting in such full vigour. They after this allowed us, as well as our horses and mules, to drink, and conducted me across the river, holding me on each side very attentively for fear of the holes; but the want of shoes was very inconvenient, the pointed rocks and stones at the bottom giving me several deep cuts on the soles of my feet; after this the beasts were led all to the same side with myself, also one servant was passed with the greatest care by these poor people. Woldo had tipt me the wink to cross as they desired me: except my single gun, all the fire-arms and servants remained with the baggage and Woldo; and now we soon saw what was his intention, and how well he understood that the country he was in belonged to Fasil his master.
There were between twenty and thirty of the Agows, old and young, some of them armed with lances and shields, and all of them with knives. Woldo took his small stick in one hand, sat down upon a green hillock by the ford with his lighted pipe in the other; he ranged my people behind him, leaving the baggage by itself, and began gravely to exhort the Agows to lose no time in carrying over our baggage upon their shoulders. This proposal was treated with a kind of ridicule by the foremost of the Agows, and they began plainly to insinuate that he should first settle with them a price for their trouble. He continued, however, smoaking his pipe in seeming leisure, and much at his ease, and, putting on an air of great wisdom, in a tone of moderation he appealed to them whether they had not of their own accord insisted on our crossing the river on foot, had unloaded our baggage, and sent the mules to the other side without our consent. The poor people candidly declared that they had done so, because none are permitted in any other manner to cross the Nile, but that they would likewise carry our baggage safely and willingly over for pay; this word was no sooner uttered, when, apparently in a most violent passion, he leapt up, laid by his pipe, took his stick, and ran into the midst of them, crying out with violent execrations, And who am I? and who am I then? a girl, a woman, or a Pagan dog like yourselves? and who is Waragna Fasil; are you not his slaves? or to whom else do you belong, that you are to make me pay for the consequences of your devilish idolatries and superstitions? but you want payment, do ye? here is your payment: he then tuckt his clothes tight about his girdle, began leaping two or three feet high, and laying about him with his stick over their heads and faces, or wherever he could strike them.
After this Woldo wrested a lance from a long, aukward fellow that was next him, standing amazed, and levelled the point at him in a manner that I thought to see the poor peasant fall dead in an instant: the fellow fled in a trice, so did they all to a man; and no wonder, for in my life I never saw any one play the furious devil so naturally. Upon the man’s running off, he cried out to my people to give him a gun, which made these poor wretches run faster and hide themselves among the bushes: lucky, indeed, was it for Woldo that my servants did not put him to the trial, by giving him the gun as he demanded, for he would not have ventured to fire it, perhaps to have touched it, if it had been to have made him master of the province.
I, who sat a spectator on the other side, thought we were now in a fine scrape, the evening coming on at a time of the year when it is not light at six, my baggage and servants on one side of the river, myself and beasts on the other, crippled absolutely in the feet by the stones, and the river so full of pits and holes, that, had they been all laden on the other side and ready, no one could have been bold enough to lead a beast through without a guide: the difficulty was not imaginary, I had myself an instant before made proof of it, and all difficulties are relative, greater or less, as you have means in your hands to overcome them. I was clearly satisfied that Woldo knew the country, and was provided with a remedy for all this; I conceived that this pacific behaviour, while they were unloading the mules, and driving them across the river, as well as his fury afterwards, was part of some scheme, with which I was resolved in no shape to interfere; and nothing convinced me more of this than his resolute demand of a gun, when no persuasion could make him stay within ten yards of one if it was discharged, even though the muzzle was pointed a contrary direction. I sat still, therefore, to see the end, and it was with some surprise that I observed him to take his pipe, stick, and my servants along with him, and cross the river to me as if nothing had happened, leaving the baggage on the other side, without any guard whatsoever; he then desired us all to get on horseback, and drive the mules before us, which we did accordingly; and I suppose we had not advanced about a hundred yards before we saw a greater number of people than formerly run down to where our baggage was lying, and, while one crossed the river to desire us to stay where we were, the rest brought the whole over in an instant.
This, however, did not satisfy our guide; he put on a sulky air, as if he had been grievously injured; he kept the mules where they were, and would not send one back to be loaded at the river-side, alledging it was unlucky to turn back upon a journey; he made them again take the baggage on their shoulders, and carry it to the very place where our mules had halted, and there lay it down. On this they all flocked about him, begging that he would not report them to his master, as fearing some fine, or heavy chastisement, would fall upon their villages. The guide looked very sulky, said but very little, and that all in praise of himself, of his known mildness and moderation; as an instance of which he appealed (impudently enough) to his late behaviour towards them. If such a one, says he, naming a man that they knew, had been in my place, what a fine reckoning he would have made with you; why, your punishment would not have ended in seven years. They all acknowledged the truth of his observation, as well as his moderation, gave him great commendations, and, I believe, some promises when he passed there on his return.
Here I thought our affair happily ended to the satisfaction of all parties. I mounted my horse, and Woldo went to a large silk bag, or purse, which I had given him full of tobacco, and he had his match and pipe in his hand, just as if he was going to fill it before he set out; he then unloosed the bag, felt it on the outside, putting first his three fingers, then his whole hand, pinching and squeezing it both withinside and without; at last he broke out in a violent transport of rage, crying that his gold was gone, and that they had robbed him of it. I had not till this spoke one word: I asked him what he meant by his gold. He said he had two ounces (value about 5l.) in his tobacco purse, and that some person had laid hold of them when the baggage lay on the other side of the water; that the Agows had done it, and that they must pay him for it. The despair and anguish that he had counterfeited quickly appeared in true and genuine colours in the faces of all the poor Agows; for his part, he disdained to speak but in monosyllables—So, so, and very well, and no matter, you shall see—and shook his head. We now proceeded on our journey; but two of the eldest among the Agows followed him to our quarters at night, where they made their peace with Woldo, who, I doubt not, dealt with them according to his usual mildness, justice, and moderation; a specimen of which we have already seen.
I confess this complicated piece of roguery, so suddenly invented, and so successfully carried into execution, gave me, for the first time, serious reflections upon my own situation, as we were in fact entirely in this man’s hand. Ayto Aylo’s servant, indeed, continued with me, but he was now out of his knowledge and influence, and, from many hints he had given, very desirous of returning home: he seemed to have no great opinion of Woldo, and, indeed, had been in low spirits, and disgusted with our journey, since he had seen the reception I first met with from Fasil at Bamba; but I had use for him till we should arrive at the house of Shalaka Welled Amlac, which was in the middle of Maitsha, and in the way by which we were to return. I had therefore been very kind to him, allowing him to ride upon one of my mules all the way. I had given him some presents likewise, and promised him more, so that he continued with me, though not very willingly, observing every thing, but saying little; however, to me it was plain that Woldo stood in awe of him, for fear probably of his master Fasil, for Aylo had over him a most absolute influence, and Guebra Ehud (Aylo’s brother) had been present, when Aylo’s servant set out with us from Bamba under charge of this Woldo.
To Woldo, too, I had been very attentive: I had anticipated what I saw were his wishes, by small presents and more considerable promises. I had told him plainly at Bamba, in presence of Fasil’s Fit-Auraris and Ayto Welleta Michael, (Ras Michael’s nephew) that I would reward him in their sight according to his behaviour; that I scarcely thanked him for his being barely faithful, for so he was accountable to his master, whose honour was pledged for my safety; but that I expected he would not attempt to impose upon me, nor suffer others to do so, nor terrify me unnecessarily upon the road, nor obstruct me in my pursuits, be sulky, or refuse to answer the inquires that I made about the countries through which we were to pass. All this was promised, repromised, and repeatedly sworn to, and the Fit-Auraris had assured me that he knew certainly this man would please me, and that Fasil was upon honour when he had chosen him to attend me, although he had then use for him in other business; and it is not less true, that, during the whole of our journey hitherto, he had behaved perfectly to the letter of his promise, and I had omitted no opportunity to gratify him by several anticipations of mine.
I had upon me a large beautiful red-silk sash, which went six or seven times round, in which I carried my crooked knife and two pistols; he had often admired the beauty of it, inquired where it was made, and what it might have cost. I had answered often negligently and at random, and I had thought no more of it, as his inquiries had gone no further. The time which he had fixed upon was not yet come, and we shall presently see how very dexterously he prolonged it.
We arrived, with these delays, pretty late at Goutto, (the village so called) and took up our lodgings in the house of a considerable person, who had abandoned it upon our approach, thinking us part of Fasil’s army. Though this habitation was of use in protecting us from the poor, yet it hurt us by alarming, and so depriving us of the assistance of the opulent, such as the present owner, who, if he had known we were strangers from Gondar, would have willingly staid and entertained us, being a relation and friend of Shalaka Welled Amlac.
As we heard distinctly the noise of the cataract, and had still a full hour and a half of light, while they were in search of a cow to kill, (the cattle having been all driven away or concealed) I determined to visit the water-fall, lest I should be thereby detained the next morning. As Fasil’s horse was fresh, by not being rode, I mounted him instead of driving him before me, and took a servant of my own, and a man of the village whom Woldo procured for us, as I would not allow him to go himself. Being well armed, I thus set out, with the peasant on foot, for the cataract; and, after riding through a plain, hard country, in some parts very stony, and thick-covered with trees, in something more than half an hour’s easy galloping all the way, my servant and I came straight to the cataract, conducted there by the noise of the fall, while our guide remained at a considerable distance behind, not being able to overtake us.
This, known by the name of the First Cataract of the Nile, did not by its appearance come up to the idea we had formed of it, being scarce sixteen feet in height, and about sixty yards over; but in many places the sheet of water is interrupted, and leaves dry intervals of rock. The sides are neither so woody nor verdant as those of the cataract of the Assar; and it is in every shape less magnificent, or deserving to be seen, than is the noble cataract at Alata before described, erroneously called the Second Cataract; for below this there is a water-fall, nearly west of the church of Boskon Abbo, not much above the place where we swam our horses over in May, and less than this first cataract of which I am speaking, and nearer the source; there is another still smaller before the Nile joins the river Gumetti, after falling from the plains of Sacala; and there are several still smaller between the fountains and the junction of the Nile with the river Davola; these last mentioned, however, are very insignificant, and appear only when the Nile is low: in the rainy season, when the river is full, they scarcely are distinguished by ruffling the water as it passes.
Having satisfied my curiosity at this cataract, I galloped back the same road that I had come, without having seen a single person since I left Goutto. Fasil’s horse went very pleasantly, he did not like the spur, indeed, but he did not need it. On our arrival we found a cow upon the point of being killed; there was no appearance of any such to be found when I set out for the cataract, but the diligence and sagacity of Woldo had overcome that difficulty. By a particular manner of crying through his hands applied to his mouth, he had contrived to make some beasts answer him, who were hid in an unsuspected bye-place, one of which being detected was killed without mercy.
It was now, I thought, the proper time to give Woldo a lesson as to the manner in which I was resolved to behave among the Agows, who I knew had been reduced to absolute poverty by Fasil after the battle of Banja. I told him, that since the king had given me the small territory of Geesh, I was resolved to take up my abode there for some time; and also, to make my coming more agreeable, it was my intention for that year to discharge them of any taxes which they paid the king, or their superior Fasil, in whose places I then stood. “Stay, says Woldo, don’t be in such a hurry, see first how they behave.”—“No, said I, I will begin by teaching them how to behave; I will not wait till their present misery prompts them to receive ill (as they very naturally will do) a man who comes, as they may think, wantonly for curiosity only, to take from them and their starved families the little Fasil has left them; the question I ask you then is briefly this, Do you conceive yourself obliged to obey me, as to what I shall judge necessary to direct you to do, during my journey to Geesh and back again?” He answered, By all means, or he could never else return to his master Fasil. “This, then, said I, is the line of conduct I mean to pursue while I am among the Agows; you shall have money to buy every thing; you shall have money, or presents, or both, to pay those that serve us, or that shew us any kindness, and when we shall join your master Fasil (as I hope we shall do together) you shall tell him that I have received his majesty’s rent of the Agows of Geesh, and I will enter a receipt for it in the king’s deftar, or revenue-book at Gondar, if we see him there, as I expect we shall, upon my return. I, moreover, undertake, that we shall gain more by this than by any other method we could have pursued.” “There is one thing, however, says Woldo, you would not surely have me free them the dues paid by every village where a king’s servant is employed to conduct strangers, as I am you.” “No, no, I do not go so near as that; we shall only buy what you would have otherwise taken by force for my use.”
“Some years ago, says Woldo, when I was a young man, in king Yasous’s time, a white man, called Negadé Ras Georgis, had both Geesh and Sacala given him by the king; he went there twice a-year, and staid a month or more at a time; he was a great hunter and drinker, and a devil for the women; he not only spent what he got from the village, but all the money he brought from Gondar into the bargain; it was a jovial time, as I have heard; all was merriment: The first day he came there, some of the men of Sacala, out of sport, disputing with three of the Agows of Zeegam, fell to it with their knives and lances, and four men were killed in an instant upon the spot; fine stout fellows, every one like a lion; good men all of them; there are no such days seen now, unless they come about when you are there, and then I shall have my share of every thing”. “Woldo, said I, with all my heart; I shall be otherwise employed; but you shall be at perfect liberty to partake of every sport, always excepting the diversion of killing four men.” But I had observed this day, with some surprise, that he doubted several times whether we were on the way to the fountains of the Nile or not; and I did not think this prospect of entertainment which I held out to him was received with such joy as I expected, or as if he meant to partake of it.
Strates had refused to go to the first cataract, having so violent an appetite that he could not abandon the cow; and, after my arrival, it was his turn to watch that night. When I was lain down to rest in a little hovel like a hog’s sty, near where they were sitting, I heard a warm dispute among the servants, and, upon inquiry, found Strates was preparing steaks on a gridiron to make an entertainment for himself while the rest were sleeping; these, on the other hand, were resolved to play him a trick to punish his gluttony. When the steaks were spread upon the gridiron, Woldo had undertaken to pour some fine dust, or sand, through the hole in the roof, which served as a chimney; and this he had done with success as often as Strates went to any distance from the fire. Not content, however, with the position in which he then was, but desirous to do it more effectually, he attempted to change his place upon the roof where he stood, thinking it all equally strong to bear him; but in this he was mistaken; the part he was removing to suddenly gave way, and down he came upon the floor, bringing half the roof and part of the wall, together with a prodigious dust, into the fire.
The surprise and sight of his own danger made Woldo repeat some ejaculation to himself in Galla. My servants, who were waiting the success of the scheme, cried, The Galla! the Galla! and Strates, who thought the whole army of wild Galla had surrounded the house, fell upon his face, calling Maruni! Maruni!—Spare me! spare me!—I was in a profound sleep when roused by the noise of the roof, the falling of the man, and the cry of Galla! Galla! I started up, and laid hold of a musket loaded with slugs, a bayonet at the end of it, and ran to the door, when the first thing I saw was Woldo examining his hurts, or burns, but without any arms. A laugh from without made me directly suppose what it was, and I was presently fully satisfied by the figure Strates and Woldo made, covered with dirt and dust from the roof; but, while they were entertaining themselves with this foolish trick, the thatch that had fallen upon the fire began to flame, and it was with the utmost difficulty we extinguished it, otherwise the whole village might have been burnt down.—I heard distinctly the noise of the cataract all this night.
It was the 3d of November, at eight o’clock in the morning, that we left the village of Goutto, and continued, for the first part of the day, through a plain country full of acacia-trees, and a few of other sorts; but they were all pollards, that is, stunted, by having their tops cut off when young, so that they bore now nothing but small twigs, or branches; these, too, seemed to have been lopped yearly. As there appeared no doubt that this had been done purposely, and for use, I asked, and was informed, that we were now in the honey country, and that these twigs were for making large baskets, which they hung upon trees at the sides of their houses, like bird-cages, for the bees to make their honey in them during the dry months; all the houses we passed afterwards, and the trees near them, were furnished with these baskets, having numerous hives of bees at work in them; the people themselves seemed not to heed them, but they were an excessive plague to us by their stings during the day, so that it was only when we were out in the fields, or at night in the house, that we were free from this inconvenience.
The high mountain of Berfa now bore south from us about ten miles distant; it resembles, in shape, a gunner’s wedge, and towers up to the very clouds amidst the lesser mountains of the Agow. Sacala is south south-east. The country of the Agows extends from Berfa on the south to the point of due west, in form of an amphitheatre, formed all round by mountains, of which that of Banja lies south south-west about nine miles off. The country of the Shangalla, beyond the Agows, lies west north-west. From this point all the territory of Goutto is full of villages, in which the fathers, sons, and grandsons live together; each degree, indeed, in a separate house, but near or touching each other, as in Maitsha, so that every village consists of one family.
At three quarters past eight we crossed a small, but clear river, called Dee-ohha, or the River Dee. It is singular to observe the agreement of names of rivers in different parts of the world, that have never had communication together. The Dee is a river in the north of Scotland. The Dee runs through Cheshire likewise in England; and Dee is a river here in Abyssinia. Kelti is the name of a river in Monteith; Kelti, too, we found in Maitsha. Arno is a well-known river in Tuscany; and we found another Arno, below Emfras, falling into the lake Tzana. Not one of these rivers, as far as I could observe, resemble each other in any one circumstance, nor have they a meaning or signification in any one language I know.
The church of Abbo is a quarter of a mile to our right, and the church of Eion Mariam bears east by south half a mile. We resumed our journey at half past nine, and, after advancing a few minutes, we came in light of the ever-memorable field of Fagitta. At a quarter past ten we were pointing to the south-east, the two great clans of the Agow, Zeegam and Dengui, being to the south-west; the remarkable mountain Davenanza is about eight miles off, bearing south-east by south, and the course of the Nile is east and west. Eastward still from this is the high mountain of Adama, one of the ridges of Amid Amid, which form the entrance of a narrow valley on the east side, as the mountains of Litchambara do on the west. In this valley runs the large river Jemma, rising in the mountains, which, after passing thro’ part of Maitsha, falls below into the Nile. The mountains from this begin to rise high, whereas at Samseen they are very low and inconsiderable. Adama is about ten miles from our present situation, which is also famous for a battle fought by Fasil’s father, while governor of Damot, against the people of Maitsha, in which they were totally defeated.
We now descended into a large plain full of marshes, bounded on the west by the Nile, and at ten and three quarters we crossed the small river Diwa, which comes from the east and runs to the westward: though not very broad, it was by much the deepest river we had passed; the banks of earth being perpendicular and infirm, and the bottom foul and clayey, we were obliged to dismount ourselves, unload the mules, and carry our baggage over. This was a troublesome operation, though we succeeded at last. I often regretted to Woldo, that he could not here find some of the good people like the Agows at the ford of the Nile; but he shook his head, saying, These are another sort of stuff; we may be very thankful if they let us pass ourselves: in the flat country I do not wish to meet one man on this side the mountain Aformasha.
In this plain, 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 is not here above 20 feet broad, and is nowhere above a foot deep. The church of Yasous was above three quarters of a mile to the west.
At one o’clock we ascended a ridge of low hills which terminates this plain to the south. The mountains behind them are called Attata; they are covered thick with brushwood, and are cut through with gullies and beds of torrents. At half past one we were continuing S. E.; in a few minutes after we passed a clear but small stream, called Minch, which signifies the Fountain. At two o’clock we arrived at the top of the mountain of Attata, and from this discovered the river Abola coming from the S. S. E. and in a few minutes passed another small river called Giddili, which loses itself immediately in a turn, or elbow, which the river Abola makes here below. At half past two we descended the mountain of Attata, and immediately at the foot of it crossed a small river of the same name, which terminates the territory of Attata; here, to the south, it is indeed narrow, but very difficult to pass by reason of its muddy bottom. The sun all along the plain of Goutto had been very hot till now, and here so excessively, that it quite overcame us: what was worse, Woldo declared himself so ill, that he doubted if he could go any farther, but believed he should die at the next village. Though I knew too much of the matter to think him in any danger from real disease, I saw easily that he was infected with a counterfeit one, which I did not doubt was to give me as much trouble as a real one would have done.
At three o’clock, however, we pushed on towards the S. E. and began to enter into the plain of Abola, one of the divisions of the Agow. The plain, or rather valley, of Abola, is about half a mile broad for the most part, and nowhere exceeds a mile. The mountains that form it on the east and west side are at first of no considerable height, and are covered with herbage and acacia-trees to the very top; but as they run south, they increase in height, and become more rugged and woody. On the top of these are most delightful plains, full of excellent pasture; the mountains to the west are part of, or at least join the mountain of Aformasha, where, from a direction nearly S. E. they turn south, and inclose the villages and territory of Sacala, which lie at the foot of them, and still lower, that is more to the westward, the small village of Geesh, where are the long-expected fountains of the Nile.
These mountains are here in the form of a crescent; the river runs in the plain along the foot of this ridge, and along the side of it Kasmati Fasil passed after his defeat at Fagitta. The mountains which form the east side of this plain run parallel to the former in their whole course, and are part of, or at least join the mountains of Litchambara, and these two, when behind Aformasha, turn to the south, and then to the S. W. taking the same form as they do, only making a greater curve, and inclosing them likewise in the form of a crescent, the extremity of which terminates immediately above the small lake Gooderoo, in the plain of Assoa, below Geesh, and directly at the fountains of the Nile.
The river Abola comes out of the valley between these two ridges of mountains of Litchambara and Aformasha, but does not rise there; it has two branches, one of which hath its source in the western side of Litchambara, near the center of the curve where the mountains turn south; the other branch rises on the mountain of Aformasha, and the east side of our road as we ascended to the church of Mariam. Still behind these are the mountains of Amid Amid, another ridge which begin behind Samseen, in the S. W. part of the province of Maitsha, though they become high only from the mountain of Adama, but they are in shape exactly like the former ridges, embracing them in a large curve in the shape of a crescent.
Between Amid Amid and the ridge of Litchambara is the deep valley now known by the name of St George; what was its ancient, or Pagan name, I could not learn. Through the middle of this valley runs the Jemma, a river equal to the Nile, if not larger, but infinitely more rapid: after leaving the valley, it crosses that part of Maitsha on the east of the Nile, and loses itself in that river below Samseen, near the ford where our army passed in the unfortunate retreat of the month of May: its sources or fountains are three; they rise in the mountains of Amid Amid, and keep on close to the east side of them, till the river issues out of the valley into Maitsha.
This triple ridge of mountains disposed one range behind the other, nearly in form of three concentric circles, seem 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 theatre 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 word122 in their language for it. It is also remarkable, though we had often violent hail at Gondar, and even when the sun was vertical, it never came but with the wind blowing directly from Amid Amid.
At ten minutes past three o’clock we crossed the small river Iworra, in the valley of Abola; it comes from the east, and runs westward into that river. At a quarter after four we halted at a house in the middle of the plain, or valley. This valley is not above a mile broad, the river being distant about a quarter, and runs at the foot of the mountains. This village, as indeed were all the others we had seen since our crossing the Nile at Goutto, was surrounded by large, thick plantations, of that singular plant the Ensete, one of the most beautiful productions of nature, as well as most agreeable and wholesome food of man. It is said to have been brought by the Galla from Narea, first to Maitsha, then to Goutto, the Agows, and Damot, which last is a province on the south side of the mountains of Amid Amid. This plant, and the root, called Denitch, (the same which is known in Europe by the name of the Jerusalem artichoke, a root deserving more attention than is paid to it in our country,) supply all these provinces with food.
We were but seldom lucky enough to get the people of the villages to wait our arrival; the fears of the march of the Galla, and the uncertainty of their destination, made them believe always we were detachments of that army, to which the presence of Fasil’s horse driven constantly before us very much contributed: we found the village where we alighted totally abandoned, and in it only an earthen pot, with a large slice of the Ensete plant boiling in it; it was about a foot in length, and ten inches broad, and was almost ready for eating: we had fortunately meat with us, and only wanting vegetables to complete our dinner. We appropriated to ourselves, without scruple, this ensete; and, by way of reparation, I insisted upon leaving, at parting, a brick, or wedge of salt, which is used as small money in Gondar, and all over Abyssinia; it might be in value about a shilling.
On the 4th of November, at eight o’clock we left our small village on the plain of Abola, without having seen any of the inhabitants; however, we were sure there were among them some who were curious enough to wish to look at us, for, in walking late at night, I heard several voices speaking low among the ensete-trees and canes. It was not possible to collect what they said in the low tone in which they spoke; and I should not probably have been much wiser, had they spoken louder, as their language was that of their country, the Agow, of which I did not understand one word; however, I thought I could distinguish they were women, the men apprehending we were enemies having probably taken refuge in the mountains above. I did every thing possible to surround or surprise one or two of these people, that, by good-usage and presents, we might reconcile them to us, and get the better of their fear; but it was all to no purpose; they fled much quicker than we could pursue them, as they knew the country, and it was not safe to follow them far into the wilderness, lest we might stumble upon people who might misinterpret our intentions.
I was determined to try whether, by taking away that scare-crow, Fasil’s horse, from before us, and riding him myself, things would change for the better: this I distinctly saw, that Woldo would have wished the horse to have gone rather without a rider, and this I had observed the night I went to the cataract from Goutto. Sitting on the king’s saddle, or in his seat at Gondar, is high-treason; and Woldo thought, at all times, but now especially, that his master was inferior to no king upon earth. I even attributed to that last expedition at Goutto his silence and apparent sickness ever since; but in this last circumstance I found afterwards that I was mistaken: be that as it would, my plan was very different from Woldo’s as to the horse, he was become a favourite, and I was resolved, in the course of my journey, to improve his talents so, that he should make a better appearance on his return to Gondar, than he did when I received him from Fasil at Bamba. I compounded, as I conceived, with Woldo’s scruples, by laying aside Fasil’s saddle, which was a very uneasy one, besides, that it had iron rings instead of stirrups; in short, as this horse was very beautiful, (as many of the Galla horses are) and all of one colour, which was of lead, without any spot of white, I hoped to make him an acceptable present to the king, who was passionately fond of horses. Here it may not be improper to observe, that all very great men in Abyssinia choose to ride horses of one colour only, which have no distinguishing mark whereby they may be traced in retreats, flights, or such unlucky expeditions: It is the king alone in battle who rides upon a horse distinguished by his marks, and that on purpose that he may be known.
There were many villages in this valley which seemed to have escaped the havock of war, nor had they that air of poverty and misery so apparent in all the other habitations we had seen. We were pointing nearly east south-east, when we passed the small river Googueri, which, like all the others on this side of the mountain, falls into the Abola. We then left the valley of Abola on our right, and began to travel along the sides of the mountains on the west. At three quarters after eight we passed a violent torrent called Karnachiuli, which falls from north-east into the Abola. At nine we again descended into the valley, and, a few minutes after, came to the banks of the Caccino, which flows from the north just above, and joins the Abola. Here we halted for a little to rest our men, and to adjust thoroughly the minutes of our journey, that the whole might appear in a distinct manner in the map that I intended to make on my return to Gondar.
At half past nine we again set out, and, a few minutes after, passed the river Abola, which gives its name to the valley into which we had descended, and receives many lesser streams, and is of considerable breadth. I could discover no traces of fish either in it or in any river since we left the Assar, from which circumstance I apprehend, that, in these torrents from the mountains, almost dry in summer, and which run with vast rapidity in winter, the spawn and fish are both destroyed in different seasons by different causes.
After coasting some little time along the side of the valley, we began to ascend a mountain on the right, from which falls almost perpendicularly a small, but very violent stream, one of the principal branches of the Abola, which empties itself into the Nile, together with the other branch, a still more considerable stream, coming from east south-east along the valley between Litchambara and Aformasha. At eleven o’clock our course was south by east, and we passed near a church, dedicated to the Virgin, on our left. The climate seemed here most agreeably mild, the country covered with the most lively verdure, the mountains with beautiful trees and shrubs, loaded with extraordinary fruits and flowers. I found my spirits very much raised with these pleasing scenes, as were those of all my servants, who were, by our conversation, made geographers enough to know we were near approaching to the end of our journey. Both Strates and I, out of the Lamb’s hearing, had shot a variety of curious birds and beasts. All but Woldo seemed to have acquired new strength and vigour. He continued in his air of despondency, and seemed every day to grow more and more weak. At a quarter past eleven we arrived at the top of the mountain, where we, for the first time, came in sight of Sacala, which extends in the plain below from west to the point of south, and there joins with the village of Geesh.
Sacala, full of small low villages, which, however, had escaped the ravages of the late war, is the eastermost branch of the Agows, and famous for the best honey. The small river Kebezza, running from the east, serves as a boundary between Sacala and Aformasha; after joining two other rivers, the Gometti and the Googueri, which we presently came to, after a short course nearly from S. E. to N. W. it falls into the Nile a little above its junction with the Abola.
At three-quarters past eleven we crossed the river Kebezza, and descended into the plain of Sacala; in a few minutes we also passed the Googueri, a more considerable stream than the former; it is about sixty feet broad, and perhaps eighteen inches deep, very clear and rapid, running over a rugged, uneven bottom of black rock. At a quarter past twelve we halted on a small eminence, where the market of Sacala is held every Saturday. Horned cattle, many of the greatest beauty possible, with which all this country abounds; large asses, the most useful of all beasts for riding or carriage; honey, butter, ensete for food, and a manufacture of the leaf of that plant, painted with different colours like Mosaic work, are here exposed to sale in great plenty; the butter and honey, indeed, are chiefly carried to Gondar, or to Buré; but Damot, Maitsha, and Gojam likewise take a considerable quantity of all these commodities.
At a quarter after one o’clock we passed the river Gumetti, the boundary of the plain: we were now ascending a very steep and rugged mountain, the worst pass we had met on our whole journey. We had no other path but a road made by the sheep or the goats, which did not seem to have been frequented by men, for it was broken, full of holes, and in other places obstructed with large stones that seemed to have been there from the creation. It must be added to this, that the whole was covered with thick wood, which often occupied the very edge of the precipices on which we stood, and we were everywhere stopt and entangled by that execrable thorn the kantussa, and several other thorns and brambles nearly as inconvenient. We ascended, however, with great alacrity, as we conceived we were surmounting the last difficulty after the many thousands we had already overcome. Just above this almost impenetrable wood, in a very romantic situation, stands St Michael, in a hollow space like a nitch between two hills of the same height, and from which it is equally distant. This church has been unfrequented for many years; the excuse they make is, that they cannot procure frankincense, without which, it seems, their mass or service cannot be celebrated; but the truth is, they are still Pagans; and the church, having been built in memory of a victory over them above a hundred years ago, is not a favourite object before their eyes, but a memorial of their inferiority and misfortune. This church is called St Michael Sacala, to distinguish it from another more to the southward, called St Michael Geesh.
At three quarters after one we arrived at the top of the mountain, whence we had a distinct view of all the remaining territory of Sacala, the mountain Geesh, and church of St Michael Geesh, about a mile and a half distant from St Michael Sacala, where we then were. We saw, immediately below us, 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. The lines of the poet came immediately into my mind, and I enjoyed here, for the first time, the triumph which already, by the protection of Providence, and my own intrepidity, I had gained over all that were powerful, and all that were learned, since the remotest antiquity:—