Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile/Volume 2/Book 4/Chapter 12
TECLA HAIMANOUT II.
1769.
Succeeds his Father Hannes—His Character and prudent Behaviour—Cultivates Michael's Friendship—Marches willingly against Fasil—Defeats him at Fagitta—Description of that Battle.
Tecla Haimanout succeeded his father. He was a prince of a most graceful figure, tall for his age, rather thin, and of the whitest shade of Abyssinian colour, such are all those princes that are born in the mountain. He was not so dark in complexion as a Neapolitan or Portugueze, had a remarkably fine forehead, large black eyes, but which had something very stern in them, a straight nose, rather of the largest, thin lips, and small mouth, very white teeth and long hair. His features, even in Europe, would have been thought fine. He was particularly careful of his hair, which he dressed in a hundred different ways. Though he had been absent but a very few months from his native mountain, his manners and carriage were those of a prince, that from his infancy had sat upon an hereditary throne. He had an excellent understanding, and prudence beyond his years. He was said to be naturally of a very warm temper, but this he had so perfectly subdued as scarcely ever to have given an instance of it in public. He entered into Ras Michael's views entirely, and was as forward to march out against Fasil, as his father had been averse to it.
From the time of Hannes's accession to the throne, Tecla Haimanout called Michael by the name of Father, and during the few slight sicknesses the Ras had, he laid by all his state, and attended him with an anxiety well becoming a son. At this time I entered Abyssinia, and arrived in Masuah, where there was a rumour only of Hatzé Hannes's illness.
The army marched out of Condar on the 10th of November 1769, taking the route of Azazo and Dingleber. Fasil was at Buré, and had assembled a large army from Damot, Agow, and Maitsha. But Welleta Yasous, his principal officer, had brought together a still larger one, from the wild nations of Galla beyond the Nile, and this not without some difficulty. The zibib, or bullet, which had destroyed so many of them at Azazo, had made an impression on their minds, and been reported to their countrymen as a circumstance very unpleasing. These wild Pagans, therefore, had, for the first time, found a reluctance to invade their ancient enemies the Abyssinians.
Fasil, to overcome this fear of the zibib, had loaded some guns with powder, and fired them very near at some of his friends, which of course had hurt nobody. Again he had put ball in his gun, and fired at cattle afar off; and these being for the most part slightly wounded, he inferred from thence that the zibib was fatal only at a distance, but that if they galloped resolutely to the mouth of the gun, the grape could do no more than the first gun he fired with powder had done to those he had aimed at.
As soon as Fasil heard that Michael was on his march, he left Burè and advanced to meet him, his wish being to fight him if possible, before he should enter into those rich provinces of the Agows, from whence he drew the maintenance of his army, and expected tribute. Michael's conduct warranted this precaution. For no sooner had he entered Fasil's government, than he laid waste all Maitsha, destroying every thing with fire and sword. The old general indeed being perfectly acquainted with the country, and with the enemy he was to engage, had already fixed upon his field of battle, and measured the stations that would conduct him thither.
Instead of taking up the time with spreading the desolation he had begun, after the first two days, by forced marches he came to Fagitta, considerably earlier than Fasil expected. This field that Michael had chosen, was rocky, uneven, and full of ravines in one part, and of plain smooth turf on the other, which divisions were separated by a brook full of large stones.
The Nile was on Ras Michael's left, and in this rugged ground he stationed his lances and musquetry; for he never made great account of his horse. Two large churches, St Michael and St George, planted thick with cedars, and about half a mile distant from each other, were on his right and left flanks, or rather advanced farther before his front. A deep valley communicated with the most level of these plains, descending gently all the way from the celebrated sources of the Nile, which were not more than half a day's journey distant. Michael drew up his army behind the two churches, which were advanced on his right and left flanks, and among the cedars of these he planted 500 musqueteers before each church, whom the trees perfectly concealed; he formed his horse in front, knowing them to be an object the Galla did not fear, and likely to lead them on to charge rashly. These he gave the command of to a very active and capable officer, Powussen of Begemder, one of those eleven servants of Mariam Barea, whose lives Michael saved, by protecting them in his tent after the battle of Nefas Musa. He had directed this officer, with a few horse, to scour the small plain, as soon as he saw the Galla advancing into it from the valley.
As soon as the sun became hot, Fasil's wild Galla poured into the plain, and they had now occupied the greatest part of it, which was not large enough to contain his whole army, when their skirmishing began by their driving Powussen before them, who fled apparently in great confusion, crossed the brook, and joined the horse, and formed nearly between the churches. The Galla, desirous to pursue, were impeded by the great stones, so that they were in a crowd at the passage of the brook.
Ayto Welleta Gabriel, factor to Ozoro Esther, was intoxicated with liquor, but he was a brave man, very active and strong, and of a good understanding, though, according to a custom among them, he, at times, to divert the Ras, played the part of a buffoon. In this character, with his musquet only in his hand, he, though on foot, skirmished in the middle of a party of Powussen's horse. When they turned to fly, Welleta Gabriel found it convenient to do so likewise, and he crossed the brook without looking behind him. Upon turning round, he saw the Galla halt, as if in council, in the bed of the rivulet, and taking up his gun as a bravado, he levelled at the crowd, and had the fortune to hit the principal man among them, who fell dead among the feet of the horses.
A small pause ensued; the cry of the Zibib! the Zibib! immediately began, and a downright confusion and flight followed. The Galla, already upon the plain, turned upon those coming out of the valley, and these again upon their companions behind them. The cry of Zibib Ali[1]! Zibib Ali! was repeated through the whole, spreading terror and dismay wherever it was heard. Nobody knew what was the misfortune that had befallen them. Welleta Yasous, who commanded the van, was carried away by the multitude flying: Fasil, who was at the head of the Damot and Agows, had not entered the valley, nor could any one tell him what was the accident in the plain.
Even Michael himself, (as I have heard him say) when, sitting upon his mule on a small eminence, he saw this extraordinary confusion and retreat, was not able to assign any cause for it. Though no man on these occasions had more presence of mind, he remained for a time motionless, without giving any orders. The troops, however, that lay hid in the groves of cedars before the churches, who had been silent and attentive, and Powussen, who commanded the horse which had been skirmishing, saw distinctly the operation of Welleta Gabriel, and the confusion that had followed it; without loss of time they attacked the Galla in the valley, and were soon joined by Gusho and the rest of the army.
Fasil, in despair at a defeat of which he knew not the cause, came down among the Galla, fighting very bravely, often facing about upon those that pressed them, and endeavouring at least to retreat in some sort of order; but the musqueteers from the church, commanded by Hezekias, instead of entering the valley, had advanced and ascended the hills, so that from the sides of them, in the utmost security, they poured down shot upon the fliers beneath them.
Fasil here lost a great part of his army; but seeing a place in one of the hills accessible, he left the valley, and ascended the side of the mountain, leading a large body of his own troops; and, having gained the smooth ground behind the musqueteers, he came up with them, whilst intent only upon annoying the Galla, and cut 300 to pieces. Content with this advantage, and finding his army entirely dispersed, he passed the sources of the Nile at Geesh, descended into the plain of Assoa, and encamped near Gooderoo, a small lake there, intending to pass the night, and collect his scattered forces.
Michael's army had given over pursuit, but Powussen, with some chosen horse of Lasta and Begemder, followed Fasil upon his track, and came up with him a little before the dusk of the evening, on the side of the lake. Here a great slaughter of wounded and weary men ensued: Fasil fled, and no resistance was attempted, and the soldiers, satiated with blood, at last returned, and pursued the enemy no further.
It was the next day in the evening before Powussen joined the camp, having put to the sword, without mercy, all the stragglers that fell in the way upon his return. The appearance of this man and his behaviour made Michael's joy complete, who already had begun to entertain fears that some untoward accident had befallen him.
This was the battle of Fagitta, fought on the 9th of December 1769, on the very ground in which Fasil, just five years before, had murdered Kasmati Eshté. Those philosophers, who disclaim the direction of a divine Providence, will calculate how many chances there were, that, in a kingdom as big as Great Britain, the commission of a crime and its punishment should both happen in one place, on one day, in the short space of five years, and in the life of one man.
The extraordinary severity exercised upon the army of the Galla, after the battle, was still as apparent as it had been in the flight. Woosheka, of whom we have had already occasion to speak, fell in among the horse of Powussen and Gusho, and being known, his life was spared. He was cousin-german to Lubo, but a better man and soldier than his relation, and, in all the intrigues of the Galla at Gondar, was considered as an undesigning man, of harmless and inoffensive manners. He had been companion of Gusho, and many of the principal commanders in the army, and, after the defeat at Nefas Musa, had the guard of Powussen and the eleven officers, whom he suffered to escape into Michael's tent, as I have already said, while Lubo was murdering Mariam Barea. He had been, for a time, well known and well esteemed by Ras Michael, nor was he ever supposed personally to have offended him, or given umbrage to any one. As he was a man of some fortune and substance, it was thought the forfeiture of all that he had might more than atone for any fault that he had ever committed.
It was therefore agreed on the morning after Powussen's return from the pursuit, that Gusho and he, when they surrendered this prisoner, should ask his life and pardon from the Ras, and this they did, prostrating themselves in the humblest manner with their foreheads on the earth. Ras Michael, at once forgetting his own interest, and the quality and consequence of the officers before him, fell into a violent and outrageous passion against the supplicants, and, after a very short reproof, ordered each of them to their tents in a kind of disgrace.
He then sternly interrogated Woosheka, whether he did not remember that, at Tedda, he had ordered him out of the country in ten days? then, in his own language of Tigré, he asked, if there was any one among the soldiers that could make a leather bottle? and being answered in the affirmative, he ordered one to be made of Woosheka's skin, but first to carry him to the king. The soldiers understood the command, though the miserable victim did not, and he was brought to the king, who would not suffer him to speak, but waved with his hand to remove him; and they accordingly carried him to the river side, where they flayed him alive, and brought his skin stuffed with straw to Ras Michael.
It was not doubted that Ozoro Esther, then in the camp, had sealed the fate of this wretched victim. She appeared that night in the king's tent dressed in the habit of a bride, which she had never before done since the death of Mariam Barea. Two days after, having obtained her end, she returned triumphant to Gondar, where Providence visited her with distress in her own family, for the hardness of her heart to the sufferings of others.
During this time I was at Masuah, where, by reason of the great distance and interruption in the roads, these transactions were not yet known. Hatzé Hannes was still supposed alive, and my errand from Metical Aga that of being his Physician. I shall now begin an account of what passed at Masuah, and thence continue my journey to Gondar till my meeting with the king there.
END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
- ↑ They have the grape along with them.