For, strict and just as he was in time of peace, or in preserving the police, the security of the ways, and the poor from the tyranny of the rich, he was most licentious and cruel the moment he took the field, especially if that country which he entered had ever shewn the least tincture of enmity against him.
About 11 o’clock in the morning the king’s Fit-Auraris passed. He was a near relation of Ayamico, one of the chiefs of the Agows who was a relation of the king, as I have before mentioned, and slain by Fasil at the battle of Banja. With him I had contracted a great degree of friendship; he had about 50 horse and 200 foot: as he passed at several places he made proclamation in name of the king, That nobody should leave their houses, but remain quiet in them without fear, and that every house found empty should be burnt. He sent a servant as he passed, telling me the king was that night to lie at Lamgué, and desiring me to send him what spirits I could spare, which I accordingly did, upon his providing a man who could protect the houses adjoining mine from the robbery and the violence of which the inhabitants were in hourly fear.
About the close of the evening we heard the king’s kettle-drums. Forty-five of these instruments constantly go before him, beating all the way while he is on his march. The Mahometan town near the water was plundered in a minute; but the inhabitants had long before removed every thing valuable. Twenty different parties of stragglers came up the hill to do the same by Emfras. Some of the inhabitants were known, others not so, but their houses had nothing in them; at last these plunderers all united in mine, demanding meat and drink, and all sort of accommodation. Our friend, left with us by the Fit-Auraris, resisted as much as one man could do with sticks and whips, and it was a scuffle till mid-night; at last, having cleared ourselves of them, luckily without their setting fire to the town, we remained quiet for the rest of the night.
On the 14th, at day-break, I mounted my horse, with all my men-servants, leaving the women-servants and an old man to take care of the house. It was very unsafe to travel in such company at such an hour. We crossed the river Arno, a little below Emfras, before we got into the plain; after which we went at a smart gallop, and arrived at Lamgué between eight and nine o’clock.
Early as it was, the king was then in council, and Ras Michael, who had his advisers assembled also in his tent, had just left it to go to the king’s. There was about 500 yards between their tents, and a free avenue is constantly left, in which it is a crime to stand, or even to cross, unless for messengers sent from the one to the other. The old general dismounted at the door of the tent; and though I saw he perceived us, and was always at other times most courteous, he passed us without taking the least notice, and entered the tent of the king.
Although my place in the household gave me free access to wherever the king was, I did not choose, at that time, to enter the back tent, and place myself behind his chair, as I might have done; I rather thought it better to go to the tent of Ozoro Esther, where I was sure at least of getting a good breakfast: Nor was I disappointed. As soon as I shewed myself at the door of the tent of that princess, who was lying upon a sofa, the moment she cast her eyes upon me, cried out, There is Yagoube! there is the man I wanted! The tent was cleared of all but her women, and she then began to enumerate of several complaints which she thought, before the end of the campaign, would carry her to her grave. It was easy to see they were of the slightest kind, though it would not have been agreeable to have told her so, for she loved to be thought ill, to be attended, and flattered; she was, however, in these circumstances, so perfectly good, so conversable, so elegant in all her manners, that her physician would have been tempted to wish never to see her well.
She was then with child by Ras Michael; and the late festival, upon her niece’s marriage with Powussen of Begemder, had been much too hard for her constitution, always weak and delicate since her first misfortunes, and the death of Mariam Barea. After giving her my advice, and directing her women how to administer what I was to send her, the doors of the tent were thrown open; all our friends came flocking round us, when we presently saw that the interval employed in consultation had not been spent uselessly, for a most abundant breakfast was produced in wooden platters upon the carpet. There were excellent stewed fowls, but so inflamed with Cayenne pepper as almost to blister the mouth; fowls dressed with boiled wheat, just once broken in the middle, in the manner they are prepared in India, with rice called pillaw, this, too, abundantly charged with pepper; Guinea hens, roasted hard without butter, or any sort of sauce, very white, but as tough as leather; above all, the never-failing brind, for so they call the collops of raw beef, without which nobody could have been satisfied; but, what was more agreeable to me, a large quantity of wheat-bread, of Dembea flour, equal in all its qualities to the best in London or Paris.
The Abyssinians say, you must plant first and then water; nobody, therefore, drinks till they have finished eating; after this the glass went chearfully about; there was excellent red wine, but strong, of the nature of cote-roti, brought from Karoota, which is the wine country, about six miles south-east from the place where we then were; good new brandy; honey-wine, or hydromel, and a species of beer called Bouza, both of which were fermented with herbs, or leaves of trees, and made very heady; they are disagreeable liquors to strangers. Our kind landlady, who never had quitted her sofa, pressed about the glass in the very briskest manner, reminding us that our time was short, and that the drum would presently give the signal for striking the tents. For my part, this weighed exceedingly with me the contrary way to her intentions, for I began to fear I should not be able to go home, and I was not prepared to go on with the army; besides, it was indispensibly necessary to see both the king and Ras Michael, and that I by no means chose to do when my presence of mind had left me; I therefore made my apology to Ozoro Esther, by a message delivered by one of her women, and slipt out of the tent to wait upon the king.
I thought to put on my most sedate appearance, that none of my companions in the king’s tent should see that I was affected with liquor; tho’ intoxication in Abyssinia is neither uncommon nor a reproach, when you are not engaged in business or attendance. I therefore went on as composedly as possible, without recollecting that I had already advanced near a hundred yards, walking on that forbidden precinct or avenue between the king’s tent and Ras Michael’s, where nobody interrupted me. The ease with which I proceeded, among such a crowd and bustle, soon brought my transgression to my mind, and I hurried out of the forbidden place in an instant.
I met several of my acquaintance, who accompanied me to the king’s tent. It was now noon; a plentiful dinner or breakfast was waiting, which I had absolutely refused to partake of till I had seen the king. Thinking all was a secret that had passed at Ozoro Esther’s, I lifted the curtain behind the king’s chair, and coming round till nearly opposite to him, I was about to perform the usual prostration, when in the very instant the young prince George, who was standing opposite to me on the king his brother’s right hand, stept forward and laid his hand across my breast as if to prevent me from kneeling; then turning to the king, who was sitting as usual in his chair in the alcove, Sir, says he, before you allow Yagoube to kneel, you should first provide two men to lift him up again, for Ozoro Esther has given him so much wine that he will never be able to do it himself.
Though it was almost impossible to avoid laughing, it was visible the king constrained himself, and was not pleased. The drink had really this good effect, that it made me less abashed than I otherwise should have been at this unexpected sally of the young prince. I was, however, somewhat disconcerted, and made my prostration perhaps less gracefully than at another time, and this raised the merriment of those in waiting, as attributing it to intoxication. Upon rising, the king most graciously stretched out his hand for me to kiss. While I was holding his hand, he said to his brother, coldly, Surely if you thought him drunk, you must have expected a reply; in that case, it would have been more prudent in you, and more civil, not to have made your observation.
The prince was much abashed. I hastened across the carpet, and took both his hands and kissed them; the laughers did not seem much at their ease, especially when I turned and stood before the king. He was kind, sensible, composed, and condescending; he complained that I had abandoned him; asked if I had been well-used at Emfras, and doubted that I had wanted every thing; but I sent you nothing on purpose, says he, because you said fasting would do you good after too much feasting at Gondar, and I knew that hunger would bring you soon back again to us. If your majesty, said I, takes the prince’s word, I have been carousing to-day in your camp more than ever I did at Gondar; and, I do assure your majesty, prince George’s reflections were not without foundation.
Come, come, says the king, Georgis is your firm and fast friend, and so he ought, he owes it to you that he is so able a horseman and so good a marksman, without which he could never be more than a common soldier. He has commanded a division of the army to-day;—“Of 500 horse, cries out the prince in extacy; and, when the king my brother to-morrow leads the van, you shall be my Fit-Auraris, if you please, when we pass the Nile, and with my party I shall scour Maitsha.” I should be very unhappy, prince, said I, to have a charge of that importance, for which I know myself to be totally unqualified; there are many brave men who have a title to that office, and who will fill it with honour to themselves and safety to your person. So you will not trust yourself, says the prince, with me and my party when we shall cross the Nile? Are you angry with me, Yagoube, or are you afraid of Woodage Asahel? Were you in earnest, prince, in what you now say, replied I, you suppose two things, both greater reproaches than that of being overtaken with wine. Assure yourself I am, and always shall be, your most affectionate and most faithful servant; and that I shall think it an honour to follow you in Maitsha, or elsewhere, even as a common horseman, though, instead of one, there were in it ten thousand Woodage Asahels. O ho! says the king, then you are all friends; and I must tell you one thing, Georgis is more drunk with the thoughts of his command to-day than any soldier in my camp will be to-night with bouza. And this, indeed, seemed to be the case, for he was else a prince rather reserved and sparing of words, especially before his brother.
Tell me, Yagoube, continues the king, and tell me truly—at that very instant came in a messenger from Ras Michael, who, going round the chair without saluting, spoke to the king, upon which the room was cleared; but I after learned, that news were received from Begemder, that Powussen and his troops were ready to march, but that two of Gusho’s nephews had rebelled, whom it had taken some time to subdue; that another messenger was left behind, but had fallen sick at Aringo, who, however, would come forward as soon as possible with his master’s message, and would be probably at the camp that night. He brought also as undoubted intelligence, that Fasil, upon hearing Ras Michael’s march, was preparing to repass the Nile into the country of the Galla. This occasioned very great doubts, because dispatches had arrived from Nanna Georgis’s son, the day before at Tedda, which declared that Fasil had decamped from Buré that very day the messenger came away, advancing northward towards Gondar, but with what intention he could not say; and this was well known to be intelligence that might be strictly and certainly relied upon.
On the 15th, the king decamped early in the morning, and, as prince George had said the night before, led the van in person; a flattering mark of confidence that Ras Michael had put in him now for the first time, of which the king was very sensible. The Ras, however, had given him a dry nurse114, as it is called, in Billetana Gueta Welleta Michael, an old and approved officer, trained to war from his infancy, and surrounded with the most tried of the troops of Tigré. The king halted at the river Gomara, but advanced that same night to the passage where the Nile comes out of the lake Tzana, and resumes again the appearance of a river.
The king remained the 15th and 16th encamped upon the Nile. Several things that should have given umbrage, and begot suspicion, happened while they were in this situation. Aylo, governor of Gojam, had been summoned to assist Ras Michael when Powussen and Gusho should march to join him with their forces of Begemder and Amhara, and his mother Ozoro Welleta Israel, then at Gondar, had promised he should not fail. This lady was younger sister to Ozoro Esther; both were daughters of the Iteghé. She was as beautiful as Ozoro Esther, but very much her inferior in behaviour, character, and conduct: she had refused the old Ras, who asked her in marriage before he was called from Tigrè to Gondar, and a mortal hatred had followed her refusal. It was therefore reported, that he was heard to say, he would order the eyes of Welleta Israel to be pulled out, if Aylo her son did not join him. It must have been a man such as Ras Michael that could form such a resolution, for Welleta Israel’s eyes were most captivating. She was then in the camp with her sister.
A single small tent had appeared the evening of the 15th on the other side of the Nile, and, on the morning of the 16th, Welleta Israel and the tent were missing: she boldly made her escape in the night. The tent had probably concealed her son Aylo, or some of his friends, to show her the passage; for the Nile there was both broad and deep, rolling along a prodigious mass of water, with large, black, slippery stones at the bottom. It was therefore a very arduous, bold undertaking for soldiers and men accustomed to pass rivers in the day-time; but for a woman, and in the night, too, with all the hurry that the fear of being intercepted must have occasioned, it was so extraordinary as to exceed all belief. But she was conducted by an intrepid leader, for with her deserted Ayto Engedan son of Kasmati Eshté, and consequently nephew to Ozoro Welleta Israel; but their own inclinations had given them still a nearer relation than the degree received from their parents, or decency should have permitted. All the camp had trembled for Welleta Israel; and every one now rejoiced that so bold an attempt had been attended with the success it merited. It was necessary, however, to dissemble before Michael, who, intent upon avenging the Agows against Fasil, carried his reflections at that time no further; for Aylo’s not coming was attributed to the influence of Fasil, whose government of Damot joins Gojam, and it was even said, that Welleta Israel, his mother, had been the occasion of this, from her hatred to Michael and her attachment to Fasil; the first cause was sufficiently apparent, the last had formerly been no less so.
On the 17th, after sun-rise, the king passed the Nile, and encamped at a small village on the other side, called Tsoomwa, where his Fit-Auraris had taken post early in the morning. I have often mentioned this officer without explanation, and perhaps it may now be right to state his duty. The Fit-Auraris is an officer depending immediately upon the commander in chief, and corresponding with him directly, without receiving orders from any other person. He is always one of the bravest, most robust, and most experienced men in the service; he knows, with the utmost exactness, the distance of places, the depth of rivers, the state of the fords, the thickness of the woods, and the extent of them; in a word, the whole face of the country in detail. His party is always adapted to the country in which the war is; sometimes it is entirely composed of horse, sometimes of foot, but generally of a mixture of both. He has the management of the intelligence and direction of the spies. He is likewise limited to no number of troops; sometimes he has 1000 men, sometimes 200. In time of real danger he has generally about 300, all picked from the whole army at his pleasure; he had not now about 50 horse, as it was not yet thought to be the time of real business or danger.
As the post of Fit-Auraris is a place of great trust, so it is endowed with proportionable emoluments. The king’s Fit-Auraris has territories assigned him in every province that he ever passes through, so has that of the Ras, if he commands in chief. Every governor of a province has also an officer of this name, who has a revenue allowed him within his own province. It is a place of great fatigue. Their post is at different distances from the van of the army, according to the circumstances of the war; sometimes a day’s march, sometimes four or six hours. As he passes on he fixes a lance, with a flag upon it, in the place where the king’s tent is to be pitched that night, or where he is to halt that day. He has couriers, or light runners, through which he constantly corresponds with the army; whenever he sees the enemy, he sends immediate advice, and falls back himself, or advances farther, according as his orders are.
From Tsoomwa the king marched on, a short day’s march, to Derdera, and encamped near the church of St Michael. Derdera, was a collection of small villages, between the lake Dembea and Court-ohha, where, it will be remembered, the agreement was the confederates should inclose Michael, and give him battle; but he had now lost all patience, as there was no appearance of either Gusho or Powussen; and being, besides, in an enemy’s country, he began to proceed in his usual manner, by giving orders to lay waste the whole adjacent territory with fire and sword. The whole line of march, two day’s journey in breadth from the lake, was set on fire; the people who could not escape were slain, and every wanton barbarity permitted.
The king’s passage of the Nile was the signal given for me to set out to join him. It was the 18th of May, at noon, I left Emfras, my course being southward whilst in the plain of Mitraha. At three o’clock we entered among a few hills of no consideration, and, soon after, began to coast close along the side of the lake Tzana; we saw this day a great number of hippopotami; some swimming in the lake at a small distance, some rising from feeding on the high grass in the meadows, and walking, seemingly at great leisure, till they plunged themselves out of sight. They are exceeding cautious and shy while on land, and not to be approached near enough to do execution with the best rifle-gun. At four in the afternoon we halted, and passed the night at Lamgué, a village situated a few paces from the side of the lake.
On the 19th of May we left Lamguè about six in the morning, our course south and by west, and at eight we found ourselves in the middle of twenty-five or thirty villages called Nabca, stretching for the length of seven or eight miles; a few minutes afterwards we came to the river Reb, which falls into the lake a little north-west of the place where we now were. Close by where the Reb joins the lake is a small village of Pagans, called Waito, who live quite separate from the Abyssinians, and are held by them in utter abhorrence, so that to touch them, or any thing that belongs to them, makes a man unclean all that day till the evening, separates him from his family and friends, and excludes him from the church and all divine service, till he is washed and purified on the following day. Part of this aversion is certainly owing to their manner of feeding; for their only profession is killing the crocodile and hippopotamus, which they make their daily sustenance. They have a most abominable stench, are exceedingly wan, or ill-coloured, very lean, and die often, as is said, of the lousy disease. There are, indeed, no crocodiles in the lake Tzana, owing, as it is said, to the cataracts, which they cannot get up. However, as they are amphibious animals, and walk very well on shore, I think they might surmount this difficulty as easily as the hippopotamus; I rather think the cause is the coldness of the water and climate, which does not agree with the crocodile, but much with the river-horse.
The Waito speak a language radically different from any of those in Abyssinia; but though I have often endeavoured to get some insight into this, their religion, and customs, I could never so far succeed as to be able to give the public any certain information. A false account in such cases is certainly worse than no account at all. I once desired the king to order that one of them might be brought to Gondar. Two men, an old and a young one, were accordingly brought from the lake, but they would neither answer nor understand any questions; partly, I believe, through fear, partly from obstinacy. The king at this became so angry that he ordered them both to be hanged; they seemed perfectly unconcerned, and it was with some difficulty I procured their release; I never therefore made an experiment of that kind afterwards. The Abyssinians believe they are sorcerers, can bewitch with their eyes, and occasion death by their charms even at a considerable distance. It is likely, if that had been so, these two would have tried their power upon me, of which I do not recollect to have ever been sensible.
We passed the Reb at nine o’clock in the morning. It rises high in the mountains of Begemder, and is one of those rivers that continue running the whole year, and has a tolerable ford, although it was visibly increased by rain. We continued our journey in sight of many villages till, three quarters after twelve, we came to the river Gomara, where we staid in search of trees and herbs the rest of the day. At night we received a message from Ayto Adigo, Shum, or governor, of Karoota. He was an officer of confidence of the Iteghé’s; had been a great friend of Mariam Barea’s, one of whose vassals he was, and in his heart an inveterate enemy to Ras Michael and the new succession. Ever since the murder of Joas he had not ventured to Gondar. When I first came there the Ras had given his house, as that of an outlaw, to me. Afterwards, as soon as he returned, I offered immediately to surrender it to him; but he would not by any means accept it, but asked leave to pitch his tent in one of the courts surrounded with walls, for it was a spacious building. Perhaps it was the best situation he could have chosen, for we did him great service by the means of Ozoro Esther, as he was but very ill-looked upon, and was rich enough to be considered as an object of Ras Michael’s rapacity and avarice. Our neighbourhood occasioned us to pass many evenings together, and we contracted a friendship, the rather because he was a servant of the Iteghè, and we were known favourites of Ozoro Esther.
On the 20th of May, between six and seven in the morning, as Adigo was not arrived, I sent the baggage and tents that we had with us forward with Strates, a Greek, who was an avowed enemy to all learned inquiries or botanical researches. My orders were to encamp at Dara, in some convenient place near the house of Negadé Ras Mahomet. In the mean time I staid expecting Ayto Adigo’s arrival; he came near eleven o’clock. As a temporary shelter from the sun, a cloak upon cross sticks was set up, instead of a tent, to save time. We sat down together to such fare as Adigo had brought along with him; it was a soldier’s dinner, coarse and plentiful. Adigo told me Kasmati Ayabdar, an uncle of Gusho, had left his house the night before, accompanied by the men of Foggora, the country where we then were of which he was governor, and had taken the high road to join the forces of Begemder.
Netcho, a near relation of the old queen, arrived from Kuara just as we were sitting down to dinner. He had about 50 horse and 200 foot, all bad troops, and ill armed; he was, however, a respectable, tried veteran, who having had many opportunities of becoming rich, gave the whole to his soldiers, and those of his dependents that lived with him; on which account he was extremely beloved, and it was hoped that, if the issue of this campaign was favourable, Ras Michael would make him governor of Kuara, in room of Coque Abou Barea, a man of a very different character, who had intruded himself into that province by the power of Fasil, and after maintained himself in it by open rebellion.
The mules that had hitherto carried my quadrant and telescopes being bad, I had luckily kept them behind, in hopes that either Adigo or Netcho would supply me with better; and I had now placed them upon the fresh mules I had obtained, and had not sent them on with the servants, and we were then taking a friendly glass. It was, I suppose, about noon, when we saw our servants coming back, and Strates also among the rest, stript of every thing that he had, except a cotton night-cap, which he wore on his head. The servants swam over the Gomara immediately, nor was Strates interrupted, but passed at the ford. They told us that Gusho and Powussen were in rebellion against the king, and confederated with Fasil, that they were advancing fast to cut off the Ras’s retreat to Gondar, and that Guebra Mehedin, and Confu, Powussen’s Fit-Auraris, had fallen in with our servants; and plundered them, as belonging to the king and the Ras.
I was, for some minutes, in the utmost astonishment at this torrent of bad news. Whether the others knew more than I, it is impossible to say; dissimulation, in all ranks of these people, is as natural as breathing. Guebra Mehedin and Confu were the Iteghé’s two nephews, sons of Basha Eusebius her brother, a worthless man, and his sons no better. They were young men, however, whom I saw continually at the queen’s palace, and to whom I should have gone immediately without fear, if I had known their houses had been in my way, and they happened to be near Lebec at the hot wells; notwithstanding their rank, they were of such dissipated manners, that they were of no account, but treated as castaways in the house of the queen their aunt, and never, as far as I knew, had entered into the presence of the king. I had often ate and drank with them, however, in the house of Ayto Engedan, their cousin-german, who was gone off with Welleta Israel his aunt, at the passage of the Nile as before mentioned. They had beat Strates, who was their intimate acquaintance, violently; as also two others of my servants, to make them confess in what package the gold was. They had taken from them also a large blunderbuss, given me by the Swedish consul, Brander, at Algiers; a pair of pistols, a double-barrelled gun, and a Turkish sword mounted with silver, which, as there was then no prospect of their being immediately needed, were sent forward with the baggage.
Netcho and Adigo, and all present, agreed that the whole was a fiction, and that, supposing the account to be true that Begemder and Amhara were in rebellion, young, wild, and worthless people, like Guebra Mehedin and Confu, could never be those pitched upon for the respectable office of Fit-Auraris. The worst that could be, as they conceived, was, that some misunderstanding might subsist between Ras Michael and the governors above named, but Fasil was undoubtedly the enemy of them all. They imagined therefore that this disgust, if any, would be soon got over, and concluded that it was highly absurd, in any case, to attack me, as they certainly knew that the queen, Powussen, and Gusho, would be full as ill-pleased with it as the king or Ras Michael. It therefore appeared to them, as it also did to me, that these wild, young men, had taken the first surmise of a rebellion, as a pretence for robbing all that came in their way, and that I, unfortunately, had been the first.
We were in the middle of this conversation when the parties appeared. They had, perhaps, an hundred horse, and were scattered about a large plain, skirmishing, playing, pursuing one another, shrieking and hooping like so many frantic people. They stopt, however, upon coming nearer, seeing the respectable figure that we made, just ready to pass the ford, which alone divided us. Our servants had neither seen Netcho nor Adigo, when they went in the morning, though they knew Adigo was expected, and these marauders hoped to have intercepted me, thinly accompanied, as they had done my baggage.
Guebra Mehedin and his brother approached nearer the banks than the rest, and a servant was sent from them, who crossed the river to us, upbraiding Ayto Adigo with protecting a Frank proscribed by the laws of their country, and also with marching to the assistance of Ras Michael, the murderer of his sovereign, offering at the same time to divide the spoil with him if he would surrender me and mine to him. Servants here, who carry messages in time of war between the contending parties, are held sacred like heralds. They are sent even with insults and defiances; but it is constantly understood that their errand protects them from suffering any harm, whether on the road, or when in words they perform these foolish, useless commissions.
Adigo and Netcho were above observing this punctilio with robbers. Some were for cutting the servant’s ears off, and some for carrying him bound to Ras Michael; I begged they would let him go: and Netcho sent word by him to Guebra Mehedin to get the goods and mules he had robbed us of together, for he was coming over to share them with him. The servants having given the messenger a severe drubbing with sticks, torn the cloth from about his middle, and twisted it about his neck like a cord, in that plight sent him back to Guebra Mehedin, and we all prepared to take the ford across the river. Guebra Mehedin, who saw his servant thus disgraced returning towards him, and a considerable motion among the troops, advanced a few steps with two or three more of his company, stretching forth his hand and crying out, but still at a distance that we could not hear. He was distinguished by a red sash of silk twisted about his head. I, with my servants and attendants, first passed the river at the ford, and I had no sooner got up the bank, and stood upon firm ground, than I fired two shots at him; the one, from a Turkish rifle, seemed to have given him great apprehensions, or else to have wounded him, for, after four or five of his people had flocked about him, they galloped all off across the plain of Foggora towards Lebec.
Netcho had passed the Gomara close after me, crying upon me to let him go first, but Adigo declared his resolution to go no farther. He hated Ras Michael; was a companion of Powussen and Gusho, as well as a neighbour, and wished for a revolution with all his heart. He, therefore, returned to Emfras and Karoota, and with him I sent five of my servants, desiring him to escort my quadrant, clock, and telescopes into the island of Mitraha, and deliver them to Tecla Georgis, the king’s servant, governor of that island. Adigo, being left alone by the servants, could not be persuaded but some great treasure was hid in those boxes. He, therefore, carried them to his house, and used the servants well, but opened and examined every one of the packages. Surprised to find nothing but iron and rusty brass, he closed them again, and delivered them safely to Tecla Georgis, there to be kept for that campaign.
Delivered now from the embarrassment of my baggage by the industry of Guebra Mehedin, and of my cases and boxes by my own inclination, we set out with Netcho to take up our quarters with Negadè Ras Mahomet at Dara, where we arrived in the afternoon, having picked up one of our mules in the way, with a couple of carpets and some kitchen furniture upon it, all the rest being carried off.
The object which now first presented itself, and called our attention, was Strates in a night-cap, in other respects perfectly naked, with a long gun upon his shoulder, without powder or shot, but prancing and capering about in a great passion, and swearing a number of Greek oaths, which nobody there understood a word of but myself. This spectacle was rather diverting for some minutes; at last Netcho, though I believe he was not over-well provided, gave him an upper cloak to wrap round him. It was not then warm, indeed, but it was not very cold. After recovering the mule, he got on between the panniers, and I advised him to put the smallest carpet about him, which he soon after did; he had not yet spoke a word to me from sullenness.
“Strates, said I, my good friend, lay aside that long gun, for you will fall and break it, besides, it hath not been charged since it was fired at Guebra Mehedin. If you carry it to strike terror, it is altogether unnecessary; for, if we had dressed you as you are now accoutred, when we sent you forward with the baggage to Dara, there is not a thief in all Begemder would have ventured to come near you.” He looked at me with a countenance full of anger and contempt, though he said nothing; but, in Greek, pronounced anathemas against the father of Guebra Mehedin, according to the Greek form of cursing. “Curse himself and his brother, said I, and not his father, for he has been dead these twenty years.”—“I will curse whom I please, says he, in a great passion, I curse his father, himself, and his brother, the Ras, and the king, and everybody that has brought me into such a scrape as I have been to-day. I have been stripped naked, and within an inch of having my throat cut, besides being gelded; and well may you laugh now at the figure I make. If you had seen those damned crooked knives, with their black hands, all begging, as if it had been for charity, to be allowed to do my business, you would have been glad for my making no worse figure to-night than I do with this carpet upon my head.”
“My dear Strates, said I, it is the fortune of war, and many princes and great men, who, at this moment I am speaking to you, live in the enjoyment of every thing they can desire, before a month expires, perhaps, will be stretched on the cold ground, a prey to the birds and wild beasts of the field, without so much as a carpet to cover them such as you have. You as yet are only frightened; though, it is true, a man may be as well killed as frightened to death.” “Sir, says he, in a violent rage, that I deny, it is not the same? a man that is killed feels no more, but he that is frightened to death, as I have been to-day, suffers ten thousand times more than if he had been killed outright.”—“Well, said I, Strates, I will not dispute with you; I believe they suffer much the same after they are dead; but you, I thank God, have only lost your cloaths, and you are now most comfortably, though not ornamentally, wrapped up in my carpet; as soon as we get to Dara, you shall be dressed from head to foot, by Negadé Ras Mahomet, at the expence of the king, in better cloaths than you ever wore in your life, at least since I knew you; only give me your gun till your passion is allayed; you know it is a valuable one; which I never quit.”
He then gave me the gun sullenly enough; and I continued, “I will this very night present you with one of the handsomest Turkish sashes that Mahomet has to sell. I saw him in the king’s house, with many new ones that he had procured, a little before I went to Emfras.” I cannot pretend to say whether his visage cleared up, for he was still perfectly hid with the carpet, as it began to grow cool as well as dark; but the sight of the lights in the houses of Dara, and the promise of the new cloaths and the sash, had very much softened his voice and expressions.
“Sir, says he, bringing his mule close up to mine, now, you are not in a passion, one may speak to you. Do you not think that it is tempting Providence to come so far from your own country to seek these d—n’d weeds and flowers, at the risk of having your throat cut every hour of the day, and, what is worse, my throat cut too, and of being gelded into the bargain? Are there no weeds, and bogs, and rivers in your own country? what have you to do with that d—n’d Nile, where he rises, or whether he rises at all, or not? What will all those trees and branches do for you when these horrid blacks have done your business, as they were near doing mine? He then made a sign towards his girdle with his fingers, which made me understand what he meant—“Nile, says he, curse upon his father’s head the day that he was born.”
“Strates, replied I gravely, he has no father, and was never born. Fertur sine teste creatus, says the poet.”—“There’s your Latin again; the poet is an ass and a blockhead, let him be who he will, continued Strates; and I do maintain, whether you be angry or not, that at Stanchio and Scio there are finer trees than ever you saw, or will see in Abyssinia. There is a tree, says he, that fifty men like you, spreading all your hands round about, would not be able to grasp it. Nay, it is not a tree, it is but half a tree; it is as old, I believe, as Methuselah: Did you ever see it?”—“I tell you, friend Strates, said I, I never was at Scio in my life, and, therefore, could not see it.”—“Nor at Stanchio?”—Yes, I have been at Stanchio, and have seen the large plane-tree there. I believe it may be about eighteen or twenty feet in circumference.”—“Galen and Hippocrates lived, adds he, there together, 2000 years before our Saviour: Did you ever hear that?”—“I have read, said I, Strates, that, about 500 years before Christ, Hippocrates did live there; but Galen was not born till 200 years after Christ. I do not recollect if he was ever at Stanchio; but, surely, never lived there with Hippocrates.”
Strates was in the middle of a declaration, that those were all falsehoods of Latins and Papists; and we were ascending, composedly enough, through a narrow, rocky road, thick-covered with high trees and bushes, when, just before our entrance into the village of Dara, a gun was fired, and the ball distinctly heard passing through the leaves among the branches. This occasioned a great alarm to our disputant, who immediately supposed that Guebra Mehedin, and all his robbers, were there expressly waiting for us; nor was he the only person that felt uneasily. Netcho, myself, and the generality of his officers, thought this was more than probable; we all therefore dismounted, loaded our fire-arms, halted till all our stragglers came up, and consulted what we were to do.
Strates, though tired and naked, found it was better to go back under his carpet, and, if possible, overtake Ayto Adigo, than take possession of his new cloaths from Negadé Ras Mahomet, with the risk of meeting Guebra Mehedin there. In vain I remonstrated to him, that he, of all others, had nothing to lose but Netcho’s old cloak and the carpet. His fears, however, made him think otherwise, nor could he banish his apprehensions of the crooked knives, and, what he called, the operation. Netcho having ordered and conversed with his men in his own language, which I did not understand, said after, with great composure and firm tone of voice, That he had come to lodge in the market-place of Dara that night, and would not be put out of his quarters by boys of the character of Mehedin and Confu; that, in his present circumstances, with the few troops he had, he did not seek to fight, but even with this force, such as it was, if attacked, he would not decline it.—Whatever country, or whatever distance of time and place heroes live at, their hearts are always in unison, and speak the same language on similar and great occasions. There old Netcho, without having ever heard of Shakespeare, repeated the very words that, 300 years ago, our great king Henry V. did before the battle of Agincourt:—
We had not advanced but a few paces, before two of the town came to us; the noise of our approach had been heard, and all the dogs had been barking for half an hour. Soon after, arrived a son of Negadé Ras Mahomet, who assured us all was in peace; that they had been expecting us and Ayto Adigo with us; that he heard nothing of Guebra Mehedin, only that he had retreated with great precipitation homewards across the plain, as they apprehended, from fear of the approach of our party. He had, indeed, for some days, been guilty of great irregularities; had slain two men, and wounded the son of Mahomet, the Shum, or chief of Alata, in attempting to take from him the revenue due from that territory to the king; after which they had been beat back by Mahomet without their booty, and nothing more was known of them.
This brought us to Negadè Ras Mahomet’s house, who killed a cow for Netcho, or rather allowed him to kill one for himself; for it is equal to a renunciation of Christianity to eat meat when the beast is slaughtered by a Mahometan. Strates, who from his infancy, in his own country, had fared on nothing else, was not so scrupulous, though he concealed it; he therefore had a very hearty supper privately with Negadé Ras Mahomet and his family, who very willingly promised to get his new cloaths ready by the next morning.
As I was myself, however, full of thoughts upon the difficulties and dangers I was already engaged in, and of the prospect of still greater before me, I had no stomach for either of their suppers, but ordered some coffee, and went to bed. After I lay down I desired Negadè Ras Mahomet to come to me, and, when we were alone, I interrogated him if he knew any thing of the rebellion in Begemder. At first he declared he did not; he laughed at the notion of Guebra Mehedin and Confu being Fit-Auraris to Gusho and Powussen, and said, that either of these generals would hang them the first time they came into their hands. He told me, however, that Woodage Asahel had been assembling troops, and had committed some cruelties upon the king’s servants in Maitsha; but this, he imagined, was at the instigation of Fasil, for he never was known to have been connected either with Powussen or Gusho. He told me after, under the seal of secrecy, that Ras Michael had halted two days at Derdera; that, upon a message he had received from Begemder, he had broke out into violent passions against Gusho and Powussen, calling them liars and traitors, in the openest manner; that a council had been held at Derdera, in presence of the king, where it was in deliberation whether the army should not turn short into Begemder, to force that province to join them; but that it was carried, for the sake of the Agows, to send Powussen a summons to join him for the last time: that, in the mean while, they should march straight with the greatest diligence to meet Fasil, and give him battle, then return, and reduce to proper subordination both Begemder and Amhara.
This was the very worst news I could possibly receive according to the resolutions that I had then taken, for I was within about fourteen miles of the great cataract, and it was probable I never again should be so near, were it even always accessible; to pass, therefore, without seeing it, was worse, in my own thoughts, than any danger that could threaten me.
Negade Ras Mahomet was a sober plain man, of excellent understanding, and universal good character for truth and integrity; and, as such, very much in the favour both of the King and Ras Michael. I therefore opened my intentions to him without reserve, desiring his advice how to manage this excursion to the cataract. “Unless you had told me you was resolved, says he, with a grave air, though full of openness and candour, I would, in the first place, have advised you not to think of such an undertaking; these are unsettled times; all the country is bushy, wild, and uninhabited, quite to Alata; and though Mahomet, the Shum, is a good man, my friend and relation, and the king reposes trust in him, as he does in me, yet Alata itself is at any time but a bad, straggling place, there are now many strangers, and wild people there, whom Mahomet has brought to his assistance, since Guebra Mehedin made the attack upon him. If, then, any thing was to befal you, what should I answer to the king and the Iteghè? it would be said, the Turk has betrayed him; though, God knows, I was never capable of betraying your dog, and rather would be poor all my life, than the richest man of the province by doing the like wrong, even if the bad action was never to be revealed, or known, unless to my own heart.”
“Mahomet, said I, you need not dwell on these professions; I have lived twelve years with people of your religion, my life always in their power, and I am now in your house, in preference to being in a tent out of doors with Netcho and his Christians. I do not ask you whether I am to go or not, for that is resolved on; and, tho’ you are a Mahometan, and I a Christian, no religion teaches a man to do evil. We both agree in this, that God, who has protected me thus far, is capable to protect me likewise at the cataract, and farther, if he has not determined otherwise, for my good; I only ask you as a man who knows the country, to give me your best advice, how I may satisfy my curiosity in this point, with as little danger, and as much expedition as possible, leaving the rest to heaven.”—“Well, says he, I shall do so. I think, likewise, for your comfort, that, barring unforeseen accidents, you may do it at this time, without great danger. Guebra Mehedin will not come between this town and Alata, because we are all one people, and the killing two men, and wounding Mahomet’s son, makes him a dimmenia115. At Alata he knows the Shum is ready to receive him as he deserves, and he is himself afraid of Kasmati Ayabdar, with whom he is as deep in guilt as with us, and here he well knows he dare not venture for many reasons.” “Ayabdar, said I, passed the Karoota three days ago.” “Well, well, replied Mahomet, so much the better. Ayabdar has the leprosy, and goes every year once, sometimes twice, to the hot wells at Lebec; they must pass near one another, and that is the reason Guebra Mehedin has assembled all these banditti of horse about him. He is a beggar, and a spendthrift; a fortnight ago he sent to me to borrow twenty ounces of gold. You may be sure I did not lend it him; he is too much in my debt already; and I hope Ras Michael will give you his head in your hand before winter, for the shameful action he has been guilty of to you and yours this day.”
“Woodage Asahel, said I, what say you of him?”—“Why, you know, replied Mahomet, nobody can inform you about his motions, as he is perpetually on horseback, and never rests night nor day; however, he has no business on this side of the water, the rather that he must be sure Ras Michael, when he passed here, took with him all the king’s money that I had in my hands. When day-light is fairly come, for we do not know the changes a night may produce in this country, take half a dozen of your servants; I will send with you my son and four of my servants; you will call at Alata, go down and see the cataract, but do not stay, return immediately, and, Ullah Kerim, God is merciful.”
I thanked my kind landlord, and let him go; but recollecting, called him again, and asked, “What shall I do with Netcho? how shall I rejoin him? my company is too small to pass Maitsha without him.”—“Sleep in peace, says he, I will provide for that. I tell you in confidence, the king’s money is in my hands, and was not ready when the Ras passed; my son is but just arrived with the last of it this evening, tired to death; I send the money by Netcho, and my son too, with forty stout fellows well armed, who will die in your service, and not run away like those vagabond Christians, in whom you must place no confidence if danger presents itself, but immediately throw yourself among the Mahometans. Besides, there are about fifty soldiers, most of them from Tigré, Michael’s men, that have been loitering here these two days. It was one of these that fired the gun just before you came, which alarmed Netcho; so that, when you are come back in safety from the cataract, they shall be, by that time, all on their march to the passage. My son shall mount with you; I fear the Nile will be too deep, but when once you are at Tsoomwa, you may set your mind at rest, and bid defiance to Woodage Asahel, who knows his enemy always before he engages him, and at this time will not venture to interrupt your march.”
As I have mentioned the name of this person so often, it will be necessary to take notice, that he was by origin a Galla, but born in Damot, of the clan Elmana, or Densa, two tribes settled there in the time of Yasous I. that he was the most intrepid and active partizan in his time, and had an invincible hatred to Ras Michael, nor was there any love lost betwixt them. It is impossible to conceive with what velocity he moved, sometimes with 200 horse, sometimes with half that number. He was constantly falling upon some part of Michael’s army, whether marching or encamped; the blow once struck, he disappeared in a minute. When he wanted to attempt something great, he had only to summon his friends and acquaintance in the country, and he had then a little army, which dispersed as soon as the business was done. It was Ras Michael’s first question to the spies; Where was Woodage Asahel last night? a question they very seldom could answer with certainty. He was in his person too tall for a good horseman, yet he was expert in this qualification by constant practice. His face was yellow, as if he had the jaundice, and much pitted with the small-pox; his eyes staring, but fiery; his nose as it were broken, his mouth large, his chin long and turned up at the end; he spoke very fast, but not much, and had a very shy, but ill-designing look. In his character, he was avaricious, treacherous, inexorable, and cruel to a proverb; in short, he was allowed to be the most merciless robber and murderer that age had produced in all Abyssinia.
Wearied with thinking, and better reconciled to my expedition, I fell into a sound sleep. I was awakened by Strates in the morning, (the 21st of May) who, from the next room, had heard all the conversation between me and Negadé Ras, and began now to think there was no safety but in the camp of the king. I will not repeat his wise expostulations against going to the cataract. We were rather late, and I paid little regard to them. After coffee, I mounted my horse, with five servants on horseback, all resolute, active, young fellows, armed with lances in the fashion of their country. I was joined that moment by a son of Mahomet, on a good horse, armed with a short gun, and pistols at his belt, with four of his servants, Mahometans, stout men, each having his gun, and pistols at his girdle, and a sword hung over his shoulder, mounted upon four good mules, swifter and stronger than ordinary horses. We galloped all the way, and were out of sight in a short time. We then pursued our journey with diligence, but not in a hurry; we went first to a hilly and rocky country, full of trees, mostly of unknown kinds, and all of the greatest beauty possible, having flowers of a hundred different colours and forms upon them, many of the trees were loaded with fruit, and many with both fruit and flowers. I was truly sorry to be obliged to pass them without more distinct notice; but we had no time, as the distance to the cataract was not absolutely certain, and the cataract then was our only object.
After passing the plain, we came to a brisk stream which rises in Begemder, passes Alata, and throws itself into the Nile below the cataract. They told me it was called Mariam Ohha; and, a little farther, on the side of a green hill, having the rock appearing in some parts of it, stands Alata, a considerable village, with several smaller, to the south and west. Mahomet, our guide, rode immediately up to the house where he knew the governor, or Shum, resided, for fear of alarming him; but we had already been seen at a considerable distance, and Mahomet and his servants known. All the people of the village surrounded the mules directly, paying each their compliments to the master and the servants; the same was immediately observed towards us; and, as I saluted the Shum in Arabic, his own language, we speedily became acquainted. Having overshot the cataract, the noise of which we had a long time distinctly heard, I resisted every entreaty that could be made to me to enter the house to refresh myself. I had imbibed part of Strates’s fears about the unsettledness of the times, and all the kind invitations were to no purpose; I was, as it were, forced to comply to refresh our horses.
I happened to be upon a very steep part of the hill full of bushes; and one of the servants, dressed in the Arabian fashion, in a burnoose, and turban striped white and green, led my horse, for fear of his slipping, till it got into the path leading to the Shum’s door. I heard the fellow exclaiming in Arabic, as he led the horse, “Good Lord! to see you here! Good God! to see you here!”—“I asked him who he was speaking of, and what reason he had to wonder to see me there.”—“What! do you not know me!” “I said I did not.”—“Why, replied he, I was several times with you at Jidda. I saw you often with Capt. Price and Capt. Scott, with the Moor Yasine, and Mahomet Gibberti. I was the man that brought your letters from Metical Aga at Mecca, and was to come over with you to Masuah, if you had gone directly there, and had not proceeded to Yemen or Arabia Felix. I was on board the Lion, with the Indian nokeda (so they call the captain of a country ship) when your little vessel, all covered with sail, passed with such briskness through the English ships, which all fired their cannon; and everybody said, there is a poor man making great haste to be assassinated among those wild people in Habesh; and so we all thought. He concluded, Drink! no force! Englishman! very good! G—d damn, drink!” We had just arrived, while my friend was uttering these exclamations, at the place where the Shum and the rest were standing. The man continued repeating the same words, crying as loud as he could, with an air of triumph, while I was reflecting how shameful it was for us to make these profligate expressions by frequent repetition, so easily acquired by strangers that knew nothing else of our language.
The Shum, and all about him, were in equal astonishment at seeing the man, to all appearance, in a passion, bawling out words they did not understand; but he, holding a horn in his hand, began louder than before, drink! very good! Englishman! shaking the horn in the Shum his master’s face. Mahomet of Alata was a very grave, composed man; “I do declare, says he, Ali is become mad: Does anybody know what he says or means?”—“That I do, said I, and will tell you bye-and-bye; he is an old acquaintance of mine, and is speaking English; let us make a hasty meal, however, with any thing you have to give us.”
Our horses were immediately fed; bread, honey, and butter served: Ali had no occasion to cry, drink; it went about plentifully, and I would stay no longer, but mounted my horse, thinking every minute that I tarried might be better spent at the cataract. The first thing they carried us to was the bridge, which consists of one arch of about twenty-five feet broad, the extremities of which were strongly let into, and rested on the solid rock on both sides; but fragments of the parapets remained, and the bridge itself seemed to bear the appearance of frequent repairs, and many attempts to ruin it; otherwise, in its construction, it was exceedingly commodious. The Nile here is confined between two rocks, and runs in a deep trough, with great roaring and impetuous velocity. We were told no crocodiles were ever seen so high, and were obliged to remount the stream above half a mile before we came to the cataract, through trees and bushes of the same beautiful and delightful appearance with those we had seen near Dara.
The cataract itself was the most magnificent sight that ever I beheld. The height has been rather exaggerated. The missionaries say the fall is about sixteen ells, or fifty feet. The measuring is, indeed, very difficult, but, by the position of long sticks, and poles of different lengths, at different heights of the rock, from the water’s edge, I may venture to say that it is nearer forty feet than any other measure. The river had been considerably increased by rains, and fell in one sheet of water, without any interval, above half an English mile in breadth, with a force and noise that was truly terrible, and which stunned and made me, for a time, perfectly dizzy. A thick fume, or haze, covered the fall all round, and hung over the course of the stream both above and below, marking its track, though the water was not seen. The river, though swelled with rain, preserved its natural clearness, and fell, as far as I could discern, into a deep pool, or bason, in the solid rock, which was full, and in twenty different eddies to the very foot of the precipice, the stream, when it fell, seeming part of it to run back with great fury upon the rock, as well as forward in the line of its course, raising a wave, or violent ebullition, by chaffing against each other.
Jerome Lobo pretends, that he has sat under the curve, or arch, made by the projectile force of the water rushing over the precipice. He says he sat calmly at the foot of it, and looking through the curve of the stream, as it was falling, saw a number of rainbows of inconceivable beauty in this extraordinary prism. This however I, without hesitation, aver to be a downright falsehood. A deep pool of water, as I mentioned, reaches to the very foot of the rock, and is in perpetual agitation. Now, allowing that there was a seat, or bench, which there is not, in the middle of the pool, I do believe it absolutely impossible, by any exertion of human strength, to have arrived at it. Although a very robust man, in the prime and vigour of life, and a hardy, practised, indefatigable swimmer, I am perfectly confident I could not have got to that seat from the shore through the quietest part of that bason. And, supposing the friar placed in his imaginary seat under the curve of that immense arch of water, he must have had a portion of firmness, more than falls to the share of ordinary men, and which is not likely to be acquired in a monastic life, to philosophise upon optics in such a situation, where every thing would seem to his dazzled eyes to be in motion, and the stream, in a noise like the loudest thunder, to make the solid rock (at least as to sense) shake to its very foundation, and threaten to tear every nerve to pieces, and to deprive one of other senses besides that of hearing. It was a most magnificent sight, that ages, added to the greatest length of human life, would not deface or eradicate from my memory; it struck me with a kind of stupor, and a total oblivion of where I was, and of every other sublunary concern. It was one of the most magnificent, stupendous sights in the creation, though degraded and vilified by the lies of a groveling, fanatic peasant.
I was awakened from one of the most profound reveries that ever I fell into, by Mahomet, and by my friend Drink, who now put to me a thousand impertinent questions. It was after this I measured the fall, and believe, within a few feet, it was the height I have mentioned; but I confess I could at no time in my life less promise upon precision; my reflection was suspended, or subdued, and while in sight of the fall I think I was under a temporary alienation of mind; it seemed to me as if one element had broke loose from, and become superior to all laws of subordination; that the fountains of the great deep were extraordinarily opened, and the destruction of a world was again begun by the agency of water.
It was now half an hour past one o’clock, the weather perfectly good; it had rained very little that day, but threatened a showery evening; I peremptorily refused returning back to Alata, which our landlord importuned us to. He gave us a reason that he thought would have weight with us, that he, too, had his meery, or money, to send to the king, which would be ready the next morning as early as we pleased. The mention of to-morrow morning brought all my engagements and their consequences into my mind, and made me give a flat refusal, with some degree of peevishness and ill-humour. I had soon after found, that he had otherwise made up this affair with Mahomet our guide; but being resolute, and, a moment after, taking leave of our kind Shum, we were joined by Seide his eldest son, and our English friend Drink, each upon a mule, with two servants on foot, his father, as he said, being unwilling to spare more people, as the whole inhabitants of Alata, their neighbours and friends, intended soon to surprise Guebra Mehedin, if a feasible opportunity offered.
Though we went briskly, it was past five before we arrived at Dara. Netcho had not stirred, and had procured another cow from Mahomet, of which all the strangers, and soldiers who remained, partook. Mahomet, I believe, out of kindness to me, had convinced them of the necessity of taking along with them the Shum of Alata’s money; and Netcho well knew that those who brought any part of the revenue to Ras Michael were always received kindly; and he was not interested enough in the cause to make more haste than necessary to join the king.
Strates was completely cloathed, and received his sash upon my arrival. He feigned to be wonderfully hurt at my having left him behind in my excursion to the cataract. At supper I began to question him, for the first time, what had happened to him with Guebra Mehedin. “Sure, Strates, said I, you two were once friends; I have dined with you together many a time at Ayto Engedan’s, and often seen you with him in Gondar.”—“Gondar! says he, I have known him these fourteen years, when he was a child in his father Basha Eusebius’s house; he was always playing amongst us at his uncle Kasmati Eshté’s; he was just one of us; nay, he is not now twenty-six.”
Strates proceeded—“We were crossing the plain below Dara, and not being inclined to go into the town without you, we made to a large daroo-tree, and sat down to rest ourselves till you should come up. As the ground was somewhat elevated, we saw several horses in the bed of a torrent where there was no water running, and, when these were pulled up the bank, their masters got immediately upon them. I conceived the one with the red sash upon his head was Guebra Mehedin, and presently eight or ten naked people, armed with lances and shields, came out of the hole nearest me. I was surprised, and thought they might be robbers, and, kneeling down upon one knee, I presented the large blunderbuss at them. On this they all ran back to their hole, and fell flat on their faces; and they did well; I should have given them a confounded peppering.”—“Certainly, said I, there is little doubt of that.”—“You may laugh, continued Strates, but the first thing I saw near me was Confu and Guebra Mehedin, the one with a red, the other a kind of white fillet tied round his forehead. O ho! friend, says Guebra Mehedin, where are you going? and held out his hand to me as kindly, familiarly, and chearfully as possible. I immediately laid down my blunderbuss, and went to kiss his hand. You know they are the good old queen’s nephews; and I thought if their house was near we should have good entertainment, and some merriment that night. I then saw one of their servants lift the blunderbuss from the ground, but apparently with fear, and the rest took possession of the mules and baggage. I began to ask Guebra Mehedin what this meant? and said accidentally, ente you! instead of speaking it entow, as you know they pronounce it to great people. Without further provocation he gave me a lash with his whip across the eyes, another behind took hold of your sword that was flung upon my shoulders, and would have strangled me with the cord if I had not fallen backwards; they all began then to strip me. I was naked in a minute as I was the hour I was born, having only this night-cap; when one of them, a tall black fellow, drew a crooked knife, and proposed to pay me a compliment that has made me shudder every time I have since thought of it. I don’t know what would have been the end of it, if Confu had not said, Poh! he is a white man, and not worth the scarifying: Let us seek his master, says Guebra Mehedin, he will by this have passed the Gomara; he has always plenty of gold both from the king and Iteghé, and is a real Frank, on which account it would be a sin to spare him. On this away they went skirmishing about the plain. Horsemen came to join them from all parts, and every one that passed me gave me a blow of some kind or other. None of them hurt me very much, but, no matter; I may have my turn: we shall see what figure he will make before the Iteghé some of these days, or, what is better, before Ras Michael.”
“That you shall never see, says Negadé Ras Mahomet, who entered the room in the instant, for there is a man now without who informs us that Guebra Mehedin is either dead or just a-dying. A shot fired at him, by one of you at the Gomara, cut off part of his cheek-bone; the next morning he heard that Kasmati Ayabdar was going to the hot waters at Lebec with servants only, and the devil to whom he belonged would not quit him; he would persist, ill as he was, to attack Ayabdar, who having, unknown to him, brought a number of stout fellows along with him, without difficulty cut his servants to pieces. In the fray, Tecla Georgis, a servant who takes care of Ayabdar’s horse, coming up with Guebra Mehedin himself, hurt as he was, struck him over the skull with a large crooked knife like a hatchet, and left him mortally wounded on the field, whence he was carried to a church, where he is now lying a miserable spectacle, and can never recover.” Strates could hold no longer. He got up and danced as if he had been frantic, sometimes singing Greek songs, at another time pronouncing ten thousand curses, which he wished might overtake him in the other world. For my part, I felt very differently, for I had much rather, considering whose nephew he was, that he should have lived, than to have it said that he received his first wound, not a mortal one, but intended as such, from my hand.