There is another ceremony with which I shall close, and this regards the women also, and I shall call it incision. This is an usage frequent, and still retained among the Jews, though positively prohibited by the law: “Thou shalt not cut thy face for the sake of, or on account of the dead110.” As soon as a near relation dies in Abyssinia, a brother or parent, cousin-german or lover, every woman in that relation, with the nail of her little finger, which she leaves long on purpose, cuts the skin of both her temples, about the size of a sixpence; and therefore you see either a wound or a scar in every fair face in Abyssinia; and in the dry season, when the camp is out, from the loss of friends they seldom have liberty to heal till peace and the army return with the rains.
The Abyssinians, like the ancient Egyptians, their first colony, in computing their time, have continued the use of the solar year. Diodorus Siculus says, “They do not reckon their time by the moon, but according to the sun; that thirty days constitute their month, to which they add five days and the fourth part of a day, and this completes their year.”
These five days were, by the Egyptians, called Nici, and, by the Greeks, Epagomeni, which signifies, days added, or superinduced, to complete a sum. The Abyssinians add five days, which they call Quagomi, a corruption from the Greek Epagomeni, to the month of August, which is their Nahaassé. Every fourth year they add a sixth day. They begin the year, like all the eastern nations, with the 29th or 30th day of August, that is the kalends of September, the 29th of August being the first of their month Mascaram.
It is uncertain whence they derived the names of their months; they have no signification in any of the languages of Abyssinia. The name of the first month among the old Egyptians has continued to this day. It is Tot, probably so called from the first division of time among the Egyptians, from observation of the helaical rising of the dog-star. The names of the months retained in Abyssinia are possibly in antiquity prior to this; they are probably those given them by the Cushite, before the Kalendars at Thebes and Meroë, their colony, were formed.
The common epoch which the Abyssinians make use of is from the creation of the world; but in the quantity of this period they do not agree with the Greeks, nor with other eastern nations, who reckon 5508 years from the creation to the birth of Christ. The Abyssinians adopt the even number of 5500 years, casting away the odd eight years; but whether this was first done for ease of calculation, or some better reason, there is neither book nor tradition that now can teach us. They have, besides this, many other epochs, such as from the council of Nice and Ephesus. There is likewise to be met with in their books a portion of time, which is certainly a cycle; the Ethiopic word is kamar, which, literally interpreted, is an arch, or circle. It is not now in use in civil life among the Abyssinians, and therefore was mentioned as containing various quantities from 100 years to 19; and there are places in their history where neither of these will apply, nor any even number whatever.
They make use of the golden number and epact constantly in all their ecclesiastic computations: the first they call Matqué, the other Abacté. Scaliger, who has taken great pains upon this confused subject, the computation of time in the church of Abyssinia, without having succeeded in making it much clearer, tells us, that the first use or invention of epacts was not earlier than the time of Dioclesian; but this is contrary to the positive evidence of Abyssinian history, which says expressly, that the epact was invented by Demetrius111, patriarch of Alexandria. “Unless, says the poet in their liturgy, Demetrius had made this revelation by the immediate influence of the Holy Ghost, how, I pray you, was it possible that the computation of time, called Epacts, could ever have been known?” And, again, “When you meet, says he, you shall learn the computation by epacts, which was taught by the Holy Ghost to father Demetrius, and by him revealed to you.” Now Demetrius was the twelfth patriarch of Alexandria, who was elected about the 190th year of Christ, or in the reign of the emperor Severus, consequently long before the time of Dioclesian.
It seems the reputation the Egyptians had from very old time for their skill in computation and the division of time, remained with them late in the days of Christianity. Pope Leo the Great, writing to the emperor Marcian, confesses that the fixing the time of the moveable feasts was always an exclusive privilege of the church of Alexandria; and therefore, says he, in his letter about reforming the kalendar, the holy fathers endeavoured to take away the occasion of this error, by delegating the whole care of this to the bishop of Alexandria, because the Egyptians, from old times, seem to have had this gift of computation given them; and when these had signified to the apostolic See the days upon which the moveable feasts were to happen, the church of Rome then notified this by writing to churches at a greater distance.
We are not to doubt that this privilege, which the church of Alexandria had been so long in possession of, contributed much to inflame the minds of the Abyssinians against the Roman Catholic priests, for altering the time of keeping Easter, by appointing days of their own; for we see violent commotions to have arisen every year upon the celebration of this festival.
The Abyssinians have another way of describing time peculiar to themselves; they read the whole of the four evangelists every year in their churches. They begin with Matthew, then proceed to Mark, Luke, and John, in order; and, when they speak of an event, they write and say it happened in the days of Matthew, that is, in the first quarter of the year, while the gospel of St Matthew was yet reading in the churches.
They compute the time of the day in a very arbitrary, irregular manner. The twilight, as I have before observed, is very short, almost imperceptible, and was still more so when the court was removed farther to the southward in Shoa. As soon as the sun falls below the horizon, night comes on, and all the stars appear. This term, then, the twilight, they choose for the beginning of their day, and call it Naggé, which is the very time the twilight of the morning lasts. The same is observed at night, and Meset is meant to signify the instant of beginning the twilight, between the sun’s falling below the horizon and the stars appearing. Mid-day is by them called Kater, a very old word, which signifies culmination, or a thing’s being arrived or placed at the middle or highest part of an arch. All the rest of times, in conversation, they describe by pointing at the place in the heavens where the sun then was, when what they are describing happened.
I shall conclude what further I have to say on this subject, by observing, that nothing can be more inaccurate than all Abyssinian calculations. Besides their absolute ignorance in arithmetic, their excessive idleness and aversion to study, and a number of fanciful, whimsical combinations, by which every particular scribe or monk distinguishes himself, there are obvious reasons why there should be a variation between their chronology and ours. I have already observed, that the beginning of our years are different; ours begin on the 1st of January, and theirs on the 1st day of September, so that there are 8 months difference between us. The last day of August may be the year 1780 with us, and 1779 only with the Abyssinians. And in the reign of their kings they very seldom mention either month or day beyond an even number of years. Supposing, then, it is known that the reign of ten kings extended from such to such a period, where all the months and days are comprehended, when we come to assign to each of these an equal number of years, without the correspondent months and days, it is plain that, when all these separate reigns come to be added together, the one sum-total will not agree with the other, but will be more or less than the just time which that prince reigned. This, indeed, as errors compensate full as frequently as they accumulate, will seldom amount to a difference above three years; a space of time too trivial to be of any consequence in the history of barbarous nations.
However, it will occur that even this agreement is no positive evidence of the exactness of the time, for it may so happen that the sum-totals may agree, and yet every particular sum constituting the whole may be false, that is, if the quantity of errors which are too much exactly correspond with the quantity of errors that are too little; to obviate this as much as possible, I have considered three eclipses of the sun as recorded in the Abyssinian annals. The first was in the reign of David III. the year before the king marched out to his first campaign against Maffudi the Moor, in the unfortunate war with Adel. The year that the king marched into Dawaro was the 1526, after having dispatched the Portuguese ambassador Don Roderigo de Lima, who embarked at Masuah on the 26th of April on board the fleet commanded by Don Hector de Silveyra, who had come from India on purpose to fetch him; and the Abyssinian annals say, that, the year before the king marched, a remarkable eclipse of the sun had happened in the Ethiopic month Ter. Now, in consulting our European accounts, we find that, on the second of January, answering to the 18th day of Ter, there did happen an eclipse of the sun, which, as it was in the time of the year when the sky is cloudless both night and day, must have been visible all the time of its duration. So here our accounts do agree precisely.
The second happened on the 13th year of the reign of Claudius, as the Abyssinian account states it. Claudius succeeded to the crown in the 1540, and the 13th year of his reign will fall to be on the 1553. Now we find this eclipse did happen in the same clear season of the year, that is, on the 24th of January 1553, so in this second instance our chronology is perfectly correct.
The third eclipse of the sun happened in the 7th year of the reign of Yasous II. in Magabit, the seventh month of the Abyssinians. Now Yasous came to the crown in 1729, so that the 7th year of his reign will be in 1736, and on the 4th day of October, answering to the 8th day of the month Tekemt, N. S. in that year, we see this eclipse observed in Europe.
As a further confirmation of this, we have dated the particulars
of a comet which, the Abyssinian annals say, appeared
at Gondar in the month of November, in the 9th
year of the reign of Yasous I. and as this comet was observed
in Europe to have come to its perihelion in December
1689, and as that year, according to our account, was
really the 9th of that king’s reign, no further proof of the
exactness of our chronology can possibly be required. By
means of these observations, counting backward to the rime
of Icon Amlac, and again forward to the death of Joas,
which happened in 1768, and assigning to each prince the
number of years that his own historians say he reigned, I
have, in the most unexceptionable manner that I can devise,
settled the chronology of this country; and the exact agreement
it hath with all the remarkable events, regularly and
sufficiently vouched, plainly shews the accuracy of this method.
If, therefore, in a few cases, I differ two or three years
from the Jesuits in their first account of this country, I do
not in any shape believe the fault to be mine, because there
are, at all these periods, errors in point of fact, both in Alvarez
and Tellez, much more material and unaccountable than
the mistake of a few years; and these errors have been adopted
with great confidence in the Hispania Illustrata, and some
of the best books of Portuguese history which have made
mention of this country.
I soon received an instance of kindness from Ayto Confu which gave me great pleasure on several accounts. On the south part of Abyssinia, on the frontiers of Sennaar, is a hot, unwholesome, low stripe of country, inhabited entirely by Mahometans, divided into several small districts, known by the general name of Mazaga. Of this I have often before spoken, and shall have further occasion in the sequel.
The Arabs of Sennaar that are on bad terms with the governor of Atbara, fly hither across the desert to avoid the rapine and violence of that cruel tyrant. The arrival of these produces in an instant the greatest plenty at Ras el Feel; markets are held everywhere; cattle of all kinds, milk, butter, elephants teeth, hides, and several other commodities, are sold to a great amount.
The Arabs are of many different tribes; the chief are the Daveina, then the Nile. These, besides getting a good market, and food for their cattle and protection for themselves, have this great additional advantage, they escape the Fly, and consequently are not pillaged, as the rest of the Arabs in Atbara are, when changing abodes to avoid the havock made by that insect. In return for this, they constantly bring horses from Atbara, below Sennaar, for the king’s own use, and for such of his cavalry who are armed with coats of mail, no Abyssinian horse, or very few at least, being capable of that burden.
Ayto Confu had many districts of land from his father Kasmati Netcho, as well as some belonging to his mother Ozoro Esther, which lay upon that frontier; it was called Ras el Feel, and had a sendick and nagareet, but, as it was governed always by a deputy who was a Mahometan, it had no rank among the great governments of the state. Besides these lands, the patrimony of Confu, Ras Michael had given him more, and with them this government, young as he was, from favour to his mother Ozoro Esther. This Mahometan deputy was named Abdel Jelleel, a great coward, who had refused to bring out his men, tho’ summoned, to join the king when marching against Fasil. He had also quarrelled with the Daveina, and robbed them, so that they traded no more with Ras el Feel, brought no more horses, and the district was consequently nearly ruined, whilst a great outcry was raised against Abdel Jelleel by the merchants who used to trade at that market, not having now money enough to pay the meery.
Ammonios, his Billetana Gueta, was the person Ayto Confu had destined to go to Ras el Feel to reduce it to order, and displace Abdel Jelleel; but Ras Michael had put him as a man of trust over the black horse under me, so he was employed otherwise. Confu himself was now preparing to go thither to settle another deputy in the place of Abdel Jelleel, and he had asked the assistance of troops from the king, by which this came to my knowledge.
The first time I saw Ozoro Esther, I told her, that, unless she had a mind to have her son die speedily, she should, by every means in her power, dissuade him from his journey to Ras el Feel, being a place where the bloody flux never ceased to rage; and this complaint had never perfectly left him since he had had the small-pox, but had wore him to a shadow. There could be no surer way therefore of destroying him than letting him go thither as he proposed. He had been for some time indeed taking bark, which had done him great service. His mother Ozoro Esther, the Iteghè, whose first favourite he was, and all his friends, now took the alarm, upon which the Ras forbade him positively to go.
Negade Ras Mahomet, of whom we have already spoken, brother to Hagi Saleh, who had procured me my first lodging at Gondar, was head of all the Mahometans in that capital, nay, I may say, in Abyssinia. He, too, was a favourite of the Ras, and shewed the same attachment to me, on account of Metical Aga, as had his brother Saleh. This man came to me one morning, and told me, that Yasine, whom I had brought with me to Abyssinia, and was recommended to me by Metical Aga, had married Abdel Jelleel’s daughter, and that a son of Saleh had married a daughter of Yasine’s. He said there was not a man in Abyssinia that was a braver soldier and better horseman than Yasine; that he had no love for money, but was a man of probity and honour, as indeed I had always found him; that the people of Ras el Feel, to a man, wished to have him for their governor in the room of Abdel Jelleel; and that all the Arabs, as well as Shekh Fidele, governor of Atbara, for Sennaar, wished the same.
Mahomet did not dare to speak for fear of Ozoro Esther, who was thought to favour Abdel Jelleel, but he promised, that, if Ayto Confu would appoint him instead of Abdel Jelleel, he would give him 50 ounces of gold, besides what Yasine should allow upon his settlement, and would manage the affair with Michael when he had leave so to do. He added, that his brother Saleh should furnish Yasine with 200 men from the Mahometans at Gondar, completely armed with their firelocks, and commanded by young Saleh in person.
I was not at this time any judge of the expediency of the measure; but one resolution I had made, and determined to keep, that I never would accept a post or employment for myself, or solicit any such for others. My reader will see, that, for my own safety, most unwillingly I had been obliged to break the first of these resolutions almost as soon as it was formed, and I was now deliberating whether it was not better that I should break the other for the same reason. Two things weighed with me extremely, the experience of Yasine’s prudence and attachment to me during the whole journey, and my determination to return by Sennaar, and never trust myself more in the hands of that bloody assassin the Naybe of Masuah, who I understood had, at several times, manifested his bad intentions towards me when I should return by that island.
I flattered myself, that great advantage would accrue to me by Yasine’s friendship with the Arabs and the Shekh of Atbara; and, having consulted Ayto Aylo first, I made him propose it to Ozoro Esther. I found, upon speaking to that princess, that there was something embroiled in the affair. She did not answer directly, as usual, and I apprehended that the objection was to Yasine. I was no longer in doubt of this, when Ozoro Esther told me Abba Salama had strongly espoused the cause of Abdel Jelleel, who had bribed him. Notwithstanding this, I resolved to mention it myself to Confu, that I might have it in my power to know where the objection lay, and give a direct answer to Yasine.
I saw Confu soon after at Koscam. His bark being exhausted, I brought him more, and he seemed to be much better, and in great spirits. The time was favourable in all its circumstances, and I entered into the matter directly. I was very much surprised to hear him say gravely, and without hesitation, “I have as good an opinion of Yasine as you can have; and I have as bad a one of Abdel Jelleel as any man in Gondar, for which, too, I have sufficient reason, as it is but lately the king told me peevishly enough, I did not look to my affairs, (which is true) as he understood that the district was ruined by having been neglected. But I am no longer governor of Ras el Feel, I have resigned it. I hope they will appoint a wiser and better man; let him choose for his deputy Yasine, or who else he pleases, for I have sworn by the head of the Iteghè, I will not meddle or make with the government of Ras el Feel more.”
Tecla Mariam, the king’s secretary, came in at that instant with a number of other people. I wanted to take Confu aside to ask him further if he knew who this governor was, but he shuffled among the crowd, saying, “My mother will tell you all; the man who is appointed is your friend, and I think Yasine may be the deputy.” I now lost no time in going to Ozoro Esther to intercede for the government of Ras el Feel for Yasine.
Among the crowd I met first Tecla Mariam, the king’s secretary, who taking me by the hand, said, with a laughing countenance, “O ho, I wish you joy; this is like a man; you are now no stranger, but one of us; why was not you at court?” I said I had no particular business there, but that I came hither to see Ayto Confu, that he might speak in favour of Yasine to get him appointed deputy of Ras el Feel. “Why don’t you appoint him yourself? says he; what has Confu to do with the affair now? You don’t intend always to be in leading strings? You may thank the king for yourself, but I would never advise you to speak one word of Yasine to him; it is not the custom; you may, if you please, to Confu, he knows him already. His estate lies all around you, and he will enforce your orders if there should be any need.”
“Pardon me, Tecla Mariam, said I, if I do not understand you. I came here to solicit for Yasine, that Confu or his successor would appoint him their deputy, and you answer that you advise me to appoint him myself.”—“And so I do, replies Tecla Mariam: Who is to appoint him but you? You are governor of Ras el Feel; are you not?” I stood motionless with astonishment. “It is no great affair, says he, and I hope you will never see it. It is a hot, unwholesome country, full of Mahometans; but its gold is as good as any Christian gold whatever. I wish it had been Begemder with all my heart, but there is a good time coming.”
After having recovered myself a little from my surprise, I went to Ayto Confu to kiss his hand as my superior, but this he would by no means suffer me to do. A great dinner was provided us by the Iteghé; and Yasine being sent for, was appointed, cloathed, that is invested, and ordered immediately to Ras el Feel to his government, to make peace with the Daveina, and bring all the horses he could get with him from thence, or from Atbara. I sent there also that poor man who had given us the small blue beads on the road, as I have already mentioned. The having thus provided for those two men, and secured, as I thought, a retreat to Sennaar for myself, gave me the first real pleasure that I had received since landing at Masuah; and that day, in company with Heikel, Tecla Mariam, Engedan, Aylo, and Guebra Denghel, all my great friends and the hopes of this country, I for the first time, since my arrival in Abyssinia, abandoned myself to joy.
My constitution was, however, too much weakened to bear any excesses. The day after, when I went home to Emfras, I found myself attacked with a slow fever, and, thinking that it was the prelude of an ague, with which I was often tormented, I fell to taking bark, without any remission, or, where the remission was very obscure, I shut myself up in the house, upon my constant regimen of boiled rice, with abundant draughts of cold water.
I was at this time told that there was a great commotion at Gondar; that a monk of Debra Libanos, a favourite of the Iteghè and of the king too, had excommunicated Abba Salama in a dispute about religion at the Itchegué’s house; and, the day after, Hagi Mahomet, one of Ras Michael’s tent-makers, who lived in the town below, through which the high road from Gojam passes, came to tell me, that many monks from Gojam had passed through the low town, and expressed themselves very much dissatisfied by hearing that a frank (meaning me) was in the town above. He said that when they came in sixes and sevens at a time, there was no fear; but when they returned altogether (as Michael sometimes made them do) they were like so many madmen; therefore, if I resolved to stay at Emfras, he wished I would order him send me some Mahometan soldiers, who would strictly act as I commanded them.
At the same time I received news that my great friend, Tecla Mariam, and his daughter of the same name, the most beautiful woman in Abyssinia after Ozoro Esther, were both ill at Gondar. There needed no more for me to repair instantly thither. I muffled my head up as great officers generally do when riding near the capital. I passed at different times above twenty of these fanatics on the road, six and seven together; but either they did not know me, or at least, if they did, they did not say any thing; I came to Ayto Aylo’s, who was sitting, complaining of sore eyes, with the queen’s chamberlain, Ayto Heikel.
After the usual salutation, I asked Aylo what was the matter in town? and if it was true that Sebaat Gzier had excommunicated Abba Salama? and told him that I had conceived these disputes about faith had been long ago settled. He answered with an affected gravity, “That it was not so; that this was of such importance that he doubted it would throw the country into great convulsions; and he would not advise me to be seen in the street.”—“Tell me, I beseech you, said I, what it is about. I hope not the old story of the Franks?”—“No, no, says he, a great deal worse than that, it is about Nebuchadnezzar:”—and he broke out in a great fit of laughter. “The monk of Debra Libanos says, that Nebuchadnezzar is a saint; and Abba Salama says that he was a Pagan, Idolater, and a Turk, and that he is burning in hell fire with Dathan and Abiram.”—“Very well, said I, I cannot think he was a Mahometan if he was a Pagan and Idolater; but I am sure I shall make no enemies upon this dispute.”—“You are deceived, says he; unless you tell your opinion in this country you are reckoned an enemy to both parties. Stay, therefore, all night, and do not appear on the streets;” and, upon my telling them I was going to Tecla Mariam’s, who was ill, they rose with me to go thither, for the strictest friendship subsisted between them. We met there with Ozoro Esther, who was visiting the beautiful Tecla Mariam in her indisposition. Seeing Aylo, Heikel, and me together at that time of night, she insisted that the young lady and I should be married, and she declared roundly she would see it done before she left the house. As neither of my patients were very ill, a great deal of mirth followed. Ozoro Esther sat late; there was no occasion for the compliment of seeing her home, she had above three hundred men with her.
After she was gone the whole discourse turned upon religion, what we believed or did not believe in our country, and this continued till day-light, when we all agreed to take a little sleep, then breakfast, and go to court. We did so, but Aylo went to Koscam, and Tecla Mariam to the Ras, so I met none of them with the king. When I went in he was hearing a pleading upon a cause of some consequence, and paying great attention. One of the parties had finished, the other was replying with a great deal of graceful action, and much energy and eloquence.—They were bare down to their very girdle, and would seem rather prepared for boxing than for speaking.
This being over, the room was cleared, and I made my prostration. “I do demand of you, says the king abruptly, Whether Nebuchadnezzar is a saint or no?” I bowed, saying, “Your majesty knows I am no judge of these matters, and it makes me enemies to speak about them.”—“I know, says he gravely, that you will answer my question when I ask it; let me take care of the rest.”—“I never thought, said I, Sir, that Nebuchadnezzar had any pretensions to be a saint. He was a scourge in God’s hand, as is famine or the plague, but that does not make either of them a wholesome visitation.”—“What! says he, Does not God call him his servant? Does he not say that he did his bidding about Tyre, and that he gave him Egypt to plunder for his recompence? Was not it by God’s command he led his people into captivity? and did not he believe in God, when Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego escaped from the fiery furnace? Surely he must be a saint.”—“I am perfectly satisfied, said I, and give my consent to his canonization, rather than either your majesty, or Abba Salama, should excommunicate me upon the question.” He now laughed out, and seemed greatly diverted, and was going to speak, when Tecla Mariam, and a number of others, came in. I withdrew to the side with respect, as the secretary had a small piece of paper in his hand. He staid about two minutes with the king, when the room filled, and the levee began. I wished Tecla Mariam might not be the worse for last night’s sitting up. “The better, the better, says he, much the better. You see we are becoming all good, day and night we are busy about religion.”—“Are you upon Nebuchadnezzar to-day, friend? said I; the king says to me he is a saint.”—“Just such a saint, I suppose, says he, as our Ras Michael, who, I believe, is jealous of him, for he is going himself to decide this dispute immediately. Go to the Ashoa112 and you will hear it.”
There was a number of people in the outer court of the king’s house, crying very tumultuously for a convocation of the church. At twelve o’clock there was no word of Michael at the palace; but I saw the members of the council there, and expected he was coming. Instead of this, the large kettle-drum, or nagareet, called the lion, was carried to the king’s gate, which occasioned great speculation. But presently proclamation was made in these words, given me by Tecla Mariam himself:—“Hear! hear! hear! they that pretend they do not hear this, will not be the last punished for disobeying:—Whereas many disorderly and idle persons have flocked to this capital for some days past, and brought no provisions for themselves or others, and have frightened the country people from coming to market, whereby all degrees of men, in this capital, are threatened with famine, and scarcity is already begun; this is, therefore, to give notice, That if any such people, after twelve o’clock to-morrow, be found in this city, or in the roads adjoining thereto, they shall be punished like rebels and robbers, and their fault not prescribed for seven years.”
And, in about ten minutes afterwards, another proclamation was made:—“The king orders four hundred Galla of his troops to patrole the streets all the night, and disperse summarily all sorts of people that they shall find gathered together; commands thirty horse to patrole between Debra Tzai and Kolla, thirty on the road to Woggora, and thirty on that to Emfras, to protect our subjects coming to market, and going about their other lawful business: They that are wise will keep themselves well when they are so.” There was no need of a second proclamation. The monks were all wise, and returned in an instant every man to his home. The Galla were mentioned to terrify only, for they did not exist, Ozoro Esther having cleared the palace of that nation; but the monks knew there would be found people in their place every bit as bad as Galla, and did not choose to risk the trial of the difference.
At this time a piece of bad news was circulated at Gondar, that Kasmati Boro, whom the Ras had left governor at Damot, had been beaten by Fasil, and obliged to retire to his own country in Gojam, to Stadis Amba, near the passage of the Nile, at Minè; and that Fasil, with a larger army of stranger Galla than that he had brought to Fagitta, had taken possession of Burè, the usual place of his residence. This being privately talked of as true, I asked Kefla Yasous in confidence what he knew of it. Upon its being confirmed, I could not disguise my sorrow, as I conceived that unexpected turn of affairs to be an invincible obstacle to my reaching the source of the Nile. “You are mistaken, says Kefla Yasous to me, it is the best thing can happen to you. Why you desire to see those places I do not know, but this I am sure of, you never will arrive there with any degree of safety while Fasil commands. He is as perfect a Galla as ever forded the Nile; he has neither word, nor oath, nor faith that can bind him; he does mischief for mischief’s sake, and then laughs at it.”
“Michael, after the battle of Fagitta, proposed to his army to pass the rainy season at Buré, and quarter the troops in the towns and villages about. He would have staid a year with them, to shew that Fasil could not help them, but he was over-ruled. At Hydar Michael (that is, in November next) all Abyssinia will march against him, and he will not stay for us, and this time we shall not leave his country till we have eaten it bare; and then, at your ease, you will see every thing, defend yourself by your own force, and be beholden to nobody; and remember what I say, peace with Fasil there never will be, for he does not desire it; nor, till you see his head upon a pole, or Michael’s army encamped at Burè, will you (if you are wise) ever attempt to pass Maitsha.” Memorable words! often afterwards reflected upon, though they were not strictly verified in the extent they were meant when spoken.
After Fasil’s defeat at Fagitta, and the affront he received at Assoa in the heart of his own country, he had continued his route to Burè, a district of the Agows, where was his constant residence. After this he had crossed the Nile into the country of Bizamo, and Boro de Gago had taken up his residence at Buré, when Michael returned to Gondar; but no sooner had he heard of his arrival in those parts than he marched with a number of horse, and forced his rival to retire to Gojam.
The Agows were all loyalists in their hearts, had been forced to join Fasil, but, immediately after his defeat, had declared for Michael. The first thing, therefore, Fasil did, when returned to Burè, was to attack the Agows on every side; a double advantage was sure to follow this victory, the famishing his enemies at Gondar, and converting so rich a territory to his own use, by extirpating the Agows, and laying it open to be possessed by his countrymen, the Galla, from Bizamo.
A very obstinate battle was fought at Banja, one of their principal settlements, in which the Agows were entirely defeated, seven of their chiefs killed, all men of great consequence, among whom was Ayamico, a very near relation of the king. The news were first brought by a son of Nanna Georgis, chief of the Agows, who escaped from the battle. Michael was at dinner, and I was present. It was one of his carousals for the marriage of Powussen, when young Georgis came into the room, in a torn and dirty habit, unattended, and almost unperceived, and presented himself at the foot of the table. Michael had then in his hand a cup of gold, it being the exclusive privilege of the governor of the province of Tigré to drink out of such a cup; it was full of wine; before a word was spoke, and, upon the first appearance of the man, he threw the cup and wine upon the ground, and cried out, I am guilty of the death of these people. Every one arose, the table was removed, and Georgis told his misfortune, that Nanna Georgis his father, Zeegam Georgis, the next in rank among them, Ayamico the king’s relation, and four other chiefs, were slain at Banja, and their race nearly extirpated by a victory gained with much bloodshed, and after cruelly pursued in retaliation for that of Fagitta.
A council was immediately called, where it was resolved, that, though the rainy season was at hand, the utmost expedition should be made to take the field; that Gusho and Powussen should return to their provinces, and increase their army to the utmost of their power; that the king should take the low road by Foggora and Dara, there to join the troops of Begemder and Amhara, cross the Nile at the mouth of the lake, above the second cataract, as it is called, and march thence straight to Buré, which, by speedy marches, might be done in five or six days. No resolution was ever embraced with more alacrity; the cause of the Agows was the cause of Gondar, or famine would else immediately follow. The king’s troops and those of Michael were all ready, and had just refreshed themselves by a week’s festivity.
Gusho and Powussen, after having sworn to Michael that they never would return without Fasil’s head, decamped next morning with very different intentions in their hearts; for no sooner had they reached Begemder than they entered into a conspiracy in form against Michael, which they had long meditated; they had resolved to make peace with Fasil, and swear with him a solemn league, that they were but to have one cause, one council, and one interest, till they had deprived Michael of his life and dignity. The plan was, that, in hopes to join with them, the army should pass by Dara and the mouth of the lake, as aforesaid, between that lake, called the lake of Dembea, on the north side, and another small lake, which seems formerly to have been part of the great one, and is called Court-ohha; on the south is the village of Derdera, and the church of St Michael. Here was to be the scene of action; as soon as Michael advanced to Derdera, Gusho and Powussen were to close him behind on the north; Fasil, from Maitsha, was to appear on his front from the south, whilst, between Court-ohha and the lake, in the midst of these three armies, Michael was to lose his liberty or his life. The secret was profoundly kept, though known by many; but every one was employed in preparations for the campaign on the king’s part, and no suspicion entertained, for nothing costs an Abyssinian less than to dissemble.
It had been agreed by Gusho and Powussen before parting, in order to deceive Michael, that, should Fasil retire from Buré at their approach, and pass the Nile into his own country, the King, Ras Michael, and part of the army should remain at Burè all the rainy season; that, upon the return of the fair weather, they were all again to assemble at Buré, cross the Nile into Bizamo, and lay waste the country of the Galla, that the vestige of habitation should not be seen upon it.
All this time I found myself declining in health, to which the irregularities of the last week had greatly contributed. The King and Ras had sufficiently provided tents and conveniencies for me, yet I wanted to construct for myself a tent, with a large slit in the roof, that I might have an opportunity of taking observations with my quadrant, without being inquieted by troublesome or curious visitors. I therefore obtained leave from the king to go to Emfras, a town about twenty miles south from Gondar, where a number of Mahometan tent-makers lived. Gusho had a house there, and a pleasant garden, which he very willingly gave me the use of, with this advice, however, which at the time I did not understand, rather to go on to Amhara with him, for I should there sooner recover my health, and be more in quiet than with the King or Michael. As the king was to pass immediately under this town, and as most of those that loaded and unloaded his tents and baggage were Mahometans, and lived at Emfras, I could not be better situated, or more at my liberty and ease, than there.
After having taken my leave of the king and the Ras, I paid the same compliment to the Iteghè at Koscam: I had not for several days been able to wait upon her, on account of the riots during the marriage, where the Ras required my attendance, and would admit of no excuse. That excellent princess endeavoured much to dissuade me from leaving Gondar. She treated the intention of going to the source of the Nile as a fantastical folly, unworthy of any man of sense or understanding, and very earnestly advised me to stay under her protection at Koscam, till I saw whether Ras, Michael and the king would return, and then take the first good opportunity of returning to my own country through Tigré, the way that I came, before any evil should overtake me.
I excused myself the best I could. It was not easy to do it with any degree of conviction, to people utterly unlearned, and who knew nothing of the prejudice of ages in favour of the attempt I was engaged in. I therefore turned the discourse to professions of gratitude for benefits that I had every day received from her, and for the very great honour that she then did me, when she condescended to testify her anxiety concerning the fate of a poor unknown traveller like me, who could not possibly have any merit but what arose from her own gracious and generous sentiments, and universal charity, that extended to every object in proportion as they were helpless. “See, see, says she, how every day of our life punishes 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, and of which you have in your own country a thousand larger, better, and cleaner, and you 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 every thing 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 in the street within sight of the gate of that temple where our blessed Saviour once lay.” This was said in the most melancholy tone possible, an unusual gloom hanging upon her countenance. Her desiring me, however, to stay at Koscam, till I knew whether the king and Michael would return or not, considering the large army they were to lead to the field, and the feebleness of the so often defeated Fasil, made me from that instant apprehend that there was something behind with which I was yet unacquainted.
Gold, and orders for cattle and provisions while at Emfras, followed this conversation with the queen; this, indeed, had never failed at other times, which, by Ayto Aylo’s advice, I never more refused. Here I cannot help observing the different manner in which three people did the same thing. When I received gold from Michael, it was openly from his hand to mine, without compliment, as he paid the rest of the king’s servants. When I received it from the king, it was likewise from his own hand; it was always when alone, with a fear expressed that I suffered myself to be straitened rather than ask, and that I did not levy, with sufficient severity, the money the several places allotted to me were bound to pay, which, indeed, was always the case. The queen, on the other hand, from whom I received constant donations, never either produced gold herself, nor spoke of it before or after, but sent it by a servant of hers to a servant of mine, to employ it for the necessaries of my family.
I confess I left the queen very much affected with the disposition I had found her in, and, if I had been of a temper to give credit to prognostics, and a safe way had been opened through Tigré, I should at that time, perhaps, have taken the queen’s advice, and returned without seeing the fountains of the Nile, in the same manner that all the travellers of antiquity, who had ever as yet endeavoured to explore them, had been forced to do; but the prodigious bustle and preparation which I found was daily making in Gondar, and the assurances everybody gave me that, safe in the middle of a victorious army, I should see, at my leisure, that famous spot, made me resume my former resolutions, awakened my ambition, and made me look upon it as a kind of treason done to my country, in which such efforts were then making for discoveries, to renounce, now it was in my power, the putting them in possession of that one which had baffled the courage and perseverance of the bravest men in all ages. The pleasure, too, of herborising in an unknown country, such as Emfras was, of continuing to do so in safety, and the approaching every day to the end of my wishes, chased away all those gloomy apprehensions which I imbibed from the appearance and discourse of the queen, and of which I now began to be ashamed.
Gondar, the metropolis of Abyssinia, is situated upon a hill of considerable height, the top of it nearly plain, on which the town is placed. It consists of about ten thousand families in times of peace; the houses are chiefly of clay, the roofs thatched in the form of cones, which is always the construction within the tropical rains. On the west end of the town is the king’s house, formerly a structure of considerable consequence; it was a square building, flanked with square towers; it was formerly four storeys high, and, from the top of it, had a magnificent view of all the country southward to the lake Tzana. Great part of this house is now in ruins, having been burnt at different times; but there is still ample lodging in the two lowest floors of it, the audience-chamber being above one hundred and twenty feet long.
A succession of kings have built apartments by the side of it of clay only, in the manner and fashion of their own country; for the palace itself was built by masons from India, in the time of Facilidas, and by such Abyssinians as had been instructed in architecture by the Jesuits without embracing their religion, and after remained in the country, unconnected with the expulsion of the Portuguese, during this prince’s reign.
The palace, and all its contiguous buildings, are surrounded by a substantial stone wall thirty feet high, with battlements upon the outer wall, and a parapet roof between the outer and inner, by which you can go along the whole and look into the street. There appears to have never been any embrasures for cannon, and the four sides of this wall are above an English mile and a half in length.
The mountain, or hill, on which the town is situated, is surrounded on every side by a deep valley, which has three outlets; the one to the south to Dembea, Maitsha, and the Agows; the second to the north-west towards Sennaar, over the high mountain Debra Tzai, or the Mountain of the Sun, at the root of which Koscam, the palace of the Iteghé, is situated, and the low countries of Walkayt and Waldubba; the third is to the north to Woggora, over the high mountain Lamalmon, and so on through Tigré to the Red Sea. The river Kahha, coming from the Mountain of the Sun, or Debra Tzai, runs through the valley, and covers all the south of the town; the Angrab, falling from Woggora, surrounds it on the N. N. E. These rivers join at the bottom of the hill, about a quarter of a mile south of the town.
Immediately upon the bank opposite to Gondar, on the other side of the river, is a large town of Mahometans of about a thousand houses. These are all active and laborious people; great part of them are employed in taking care of the king’s and nobility’s baggage and field-equipage, both when they take the field and when they return from it. They pitch and strike their tents with surprising facility and expedition; they load and conduct the mules and the baggage, and are formed into a body under proper officers, but never suffered, nor do they chuse, to fight on either side.
Gondar, by a number of observations of the sun and stars made by day and night, in the course of three years, with an astronomical quadrant of three feet radius, and two excellent telescopes, and by a mean of all their small differences, is in lat. 12° 34´ 30´´; and by many observations of the satellites of Jupiter, especially the first, both in their immersions and emersions during that period, I concluded its longitude to be 37° 33´ 0´´ east from the meridian of Greenwich.
It was the 4th of April 1770, at eight o’clock in the morning, when I set out from Gondar. We passed the Kahha, and the Mahometan town, and, about ten in the morning, we came to a considerable river called the Mogetch, which runs in a deep, rugged bed of flakey blue stones. We crossed it upon a very solid, good bridge of four arches, a convenience seldom to be met with in passing Abyssinian rivers, but very necessary on this, as, contrary to most of their streams, which become dry, or stand in pools, on the approach of the sun, the Mogetch runs constantly, by reason that its sources are in the highest hills of Woggora, where clouds break plentifully at all seasons of the year. In the rainy months it rolls a prodigious quantity of water into the lake Tzana, and would be absolutely unpassable to people bringing provision to the market, were it not for this bridge built by Facilidas; yet it is not judiciously placed, being close to the mountain’s foot, in the face of a torrent, where it runs strongest, and carries along with it stones of a prodigious size, which luckily, as yet, have injured no part of the bridge. The water of the river Mogetch is not wholesome, probably from the minerals, or stony particles it carries along with it, and the slatey strata over which it runs. We have many rivers of this quality in the Alps, especially between mount Cenis and Grenoble.
Delivered now from the strait and rugged country on the banks of the Mogetch, we entered into a very extensive plain, bounded on the east side by the mountains, and on the west by the large lake of Dembea, otherwise called the lake Tzana, or Bahar Tzana, the Sea of Tzana, which geographers have corrupted into the word Barcena. Rejoiced at last that I had elbow-room, I began the most laborious search for shrubs and herbs all over the plain, my servants on one side and I on the other, searching the country on each side of the road. It appeared to our warm imaginations, that the neighbourhood of such a lake, in so remote a part of the world, ought infallibly to produce something perfectly beautiful, or altogether new. In this, however, we were disappointed, as indeed we always were in meadows, and where grass grew so exuberantly as it did all over this plain.
At eleven o’clock we crossed the river Tedda; here the road divides: that branch to the east leads to Wechnè, in the wild, uncultivated territory of Belessen, famous for no production but that of honey.
We continued along the other branch of the road, which led south to Emfras. One mile distant on our left is the church of St George. About one o’clock we halted at the church Zingetch Mariam; and a few minutes after, we passed the river Gomara, a considerable stream rising in Belessen, which stands in pools during the dry weather, but had now begun to run; its course N. E. and S. W. across the plain, after which it falls into the lake Tzana.
At two we halted at Correva, a small village, beautifully situated on a gentle-rising ground, through which the road passes in view of the lake, and then again divides; one branch continuing south to Emfras, and so on to Foggora and Dara; the other to Mitraha, two small islands in the lake, lying S. W. from this at the distance of about four hours journey. The road from Correva to Emfras, for the first hour, is all in the plain; for the second, along the gentle slope of a mountain of no considerable height; and the remainder is upon a perfect flat, or along the lake Tzana.
The 5th of April, at five in the morning, we left our present station at Correva, where, though we had employed several hours in the search, we found very little remarkable of either plants or trees, being mostly of the kind we had already seen. We continued our road chiefly to the south, through the same sort of country, till we came to the foot of a mountain, or rather a hill, covered with bushes and thorny trees, chiefly the common acacia, but of no size, and seeming not to thrive. I pitched my tent here to search what that cover would produce. There were a great quantity of hares, which I could make no use of, the Abyssinians holding them in abhorrence, as thinking them unclean; but to make amends, I found great store of Guinea fowls, of the common grey kind we have in Europe, of which I shot, in a little time, above a score; and these, being perfectly lawful food, proved a very agreeable variety from the raw beef, butter, and honey, which we had lived upon hitherto, and which was to be our diet (it is not an unpleasant one, at least a part of it) till we reached Emfras.
At eight in the morning I passed through Tangouri, a considerable village. About a hundred yards on the right from this we have a finer prospect of the lake than even from Correva itself. This village is chiefly inhabited by Mahometans, whose occupation it is to go in caravans far to the south, on the other side of the Nile, through the several districts of Galla, to whom they carry beads and large needles, cohol, or Stibium, myrrh, coarse cloths made in Begemder, and pieces of blue cotton cloths from Surat, called Marowti. They are generally nearly a year absent, and bring in return slaves, civet, wax, hides, and cardomum in large beautiful pods; they bring likewise a great quantity of ginger, but that is from farther south, nearer Narea. It appears to me to be a poor trade, as far as I could compute it, considering the loss of time employed in it, the many accidents, extortions, and robberies these merchants meet with. Whether it would be ever worth while to follow it on another footing, and under another government, is what I am not qualified enough to say.
On the left of Tangouri, divided from it by a plain of about a mile in breadth, stands a high rock called Amba Mariam, with a church upon the very summit of it. There is no possibility of climbing this rock but at one place, and there it is very difficult and rugged; here the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages retreat upon any sudden alarm or inroad of an enemy.
At nine o’clock, after passing a plain, with the lake Tzana all the way on our right, in length about three miles, we came to the banks of the river Gorno, a small but clear stream; it rises near Wechnè, and has a bridge of one arch over it about half a mile above the ford. Its course is north and south nearly, and loses itself in the lake between Mitraha and Lamguè. A mile farther we arrived at Emfras, after a very pleasant, though not interesting excursion.
The town is situated on a steep hill, and the way up to it is almost perpendicular like the ascent of a ladder. The houses are all placed about the middle of the hill, fronting the west, in number about 300. Above these houses are gardens, or rather fields, full of trees and bushes, without any sort of order, up to the very top. Emfras commands a view of the whole lake, and part of the country on the other side. It was once a royal residence. On a small hill is a house of Hatzè Hannes, in form of a square tower, now going fast to ruin.
Emfras is in lat. 12° 12´ 38´´ N. and long. 37° 38´ 30´´ E. of the meridian of Greenwich. The distances and directions of this journey from Gondar were carefully observed by a compass, and computed by a watch of Ellicot’s, after which these situations were checked by astronomical observations of latitude and longitude in every way that they could be taken, and it was very seldom in a day’s journey that we erred a mile in our computation.
The lake of Tzana is by much the largest expanse of water known in that country. Its extent, however, has been greatly exaggerated. Its greatest breadth is from Dingleber to Lamguè, which, in a line nearly east and west, is 35 miles; but it decreases greatly at each extremity, where it is not sometimes above ten miles broad. Its greatest length is from Bab Baha to a little S. W. and by W. of that part, where the Nile, after having crossed the end of it by a current always visible, turns towards Dara in the territory of Alata, which is 49 miles from north to south, and which extent this lake has in length. In the dry months, from October to March, the lake shrinks greatly in size; but after that all those rivers are full which are on every side of it, and fall into the lake, like radii drawn to a center, then it swells, and extends itself into the plain country, and has of course a much larger surface.
There are forty-five inhabited islands in the lake, if you believe the Abyssinians, who, in every thing, are very great liars. I conceive the number may be about eleven: the principal is Dek, or Daka, or Daga113, nearly in the middle of the lake; its true extent I cannot specify, never having been there. Besides Dek, the other islands are Halimoon, nearer Gondar; Briguida, nearer Gorgora, and still farther in Galila. All these islands were formerly used as prisons for the great people, or for a voluntary retreat, on account of some disgust or great misfortune, or as places of security to deposit their valuable effects during troublesome times. When I was in Abyssinia, a few weeks after what I have been relating, 1300 ounces of gold, confided by the queen to Welleta Christos, her governor of Dek, a man of extraordinary sanctity, who had fasted for forty years, was stolen away by that priest, who fled and hid himself; nor would the queen ever suffer him to be searched after or apprehended.
On the 12th of May we heard the king had marched to Tedda. Messengers from Begemder, and from Gusho of Amhara, had been constantly passing to and from his majesty, pressing Ras Michael to take the field as soon as possible, to prevent the utter destruction of the Agows, which Fasil every day was striving to accomplish. They put him, moreover, in mind, that the rains were begun; that, in Fasil’s country, they were already sufficient to swell the many rivers they had to pass before they arrived at Burè; they desired him to reflect, that, with the armies they were bringing to his assistance, it was more necessary to save time than stay for a number of troops; lastly, that it was absolutely useless to wait for any reinforcement from Tigrè, but that he should rather march by Emfras, Foggora, and Dara, cross the Nile where it comes out of the lake; while they, with their united armies, passed at the bridge near the second cataract, sixteen miles below, burnt and laid waste Woodage, Asahel’s country, and joined him at Derdera, between Court-ohha and the lake. This was precisely what Ras Michael himself had planned; it embraced the whole country of his enemy, and made his scheme of vengeance complete; hitherto not a word had transpired that could raise the smallest suspicion of treachery.
The 13th, by day-break, Netcho, Fit-Auraris to Ras Michael, passed in great haste below the town towards Foggora. The king had made a forced march from Tedda, and was that night to encamp at a house of Gusho’s, near Lamguè. This was great expedition, and sufficiently marked the eagerness with which it was undertaken. The effects of the approach of the army were soon seen. Every one hid what was best in his house, or fled to the mountains with it. Emfras in a few hours was left quite empty: Ras Michael, advancing at the head of an army, spread as much terror as would the approach of the day of judgment. It was then