Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile/Volume 3/Book 5/Chapter 10
CHAP. X.
Geographical Division of Abyssinia into Provinces.
At Masuah, that is, on the coast of the Red Sea, begins an imaginary division of Abyssinia into two, which is rather a division of language than strictly to be understood as territorial. The first division is called Tigré, between the Red Sea and the river Tacazzé. Between that river and the Nile, westward, where it bounds the Galla, it is called Amhara.
Whatever convenience there maybe from this division, there is neither geographical nor historical precision in it, for there are many little provinces included in the first that do not belong to Tigré; and, in the second division, which is Amhara, that which gives the name is but a very small part of it.
Again, in point of language, there is a variety of tongues spoken in the second division besides that of Amhara. In Tigrè, however, the reparation as to languages holds true, as there is no tongue known there but Geez, or that of the Shepherds.Masuah, in ancient times, was one of the principal places of residence of the Baharnagash, who, when he was not there himself, constantly left his deputy, or lieutenant. In summer he resided for several months in the island of Dahalac, then accounted part of his territory. He was, after the King and Betwudet, the person of the greatest consideration in the kingdom, and was invested with sendick and nagareet, the kettle-drum, and colours, marks of supreme command.
Masuah was taken, and a basha established there soon after, as we have seen in the history, in the reign of Menas, when the Baharnagash, named Isaac, confederated with the Turkish basha, and ceded to him a great territory, part of his own government, and with it Dobarwa, the capital of his province, divided only by the river Mareb from Tigré. From this time this office fell into disrepute in the kingdom. The sendick and nagareet, the marks of supreme power, were taken from him, and he never was allowed a place in council, unless specially called on by the king. He preserves his privilege of being crowned with gold; but, when appointed, has a cloak thrown over him, the one side white, the other a dark blue, and the officer who crowns him admonishes him of what will befal him if he preserves his allegiance, which is signified by the white side of the cloak; and the disgrace and punishment that is to attend his treason, and which has fallen upon his predecessors, which he figures to him by turning up the colour of mourning.
Besides the dignity attending this office, it was also one of the most lucrative. Frankincense, myrrh, and a species of cinnamon, called by the Italians Cannella, with several kinds of gums and dyes, all very precious, from Cape Gardefan to Bilur, were the valuable produce of this country: but this territory, though considerable in length, is not of any great breadth; for, from south of Hadea to Masuah, it consists in a belt seldom above forty miles from the sea, which is bounded by a ridge of very high mountains, running parallel to the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, as far as Masuah.After Azab begin the mines of fossile salt, which, cut into square, solid bricks of about a foot long, serve in place of the silver currency in Abyssinia; and from this, as from a kind of mint, great benefit accrues also.
From Masuah the same narrow belt continues to Suakem; nay, indeed, though the rains do not reach so far, the mountains continue to the Isthmus of Suez. This northern province of the Baharnagash is called the Habab, or the land of the Agaazi, or Shepherds; they speak one language, which they call Geez, or the language of the Agaazi. From the earliest times, they have had letters and writing among them; and no other has ever been introduced into Abyssinia, to this day, as we have already observed.
Since the expulsion of the Turks from Dobarwa and the continent of Abyssinia, Masuah has been governed by a Naybe, himself one of the Shepherds, but Mahometan. A treaty formerly subsisted, that the king should receive half of the revenue of the customhouse in Masuah; in return for which he was suffered to enjoy that small stripe of barren, dry country called Samhar, inhabited by black shepherds called Shiho, reaching from Hamazen on the north to the foot of the mountain Taranta on the south; but, by the favour of Michael, that is, by bribery and corruption, he has possessed himself of two large frontier towns, Dixan and Dobarwa, by lease, for a trifling sum, which he pays the king yearly; this must necessarily very much weaken this state, if it should ever again have war with the Turks, of which indeed there is no great probability.
The next province in Abyssinia, as well for greatness as riches, power, and dignity, and nearest Masuah, is Tigrè. It is bounded by the territory of the Baharnagash, that is, by the river Mareb on the east, and the Tacazzè upon the west. It is about one hundred and twenty miles broad from E. to W. and two hundred from N. to S. This is its present situation. The hand of usurping power has abolished all distinction on the west-side of the Tacazzè; besides, many large governments, such as Enderta and Antalow, and great part of the Baharnagash, were swallowed up in this province to the east.
What, in a special manner, makes the riches of Tigré, is, that it lies nearest the market, which is Arabia; and all the merchandise destined to cross the Red Sea must pass through this province, so that the governor has the choice of all commodities wherewith to make his market. The strongest male, the most beautiful female slaves, the purest gold, the largest teeth of ivory, all must pass through his hand. Fire-arms, moreover, which for many years have decided who is the most powerful in Abyssinia, all these come from Arabia, and not one can be purchased without his knowing to whom it goes, and after his having had the first refusal of it.
Sire, a province about twenty-five miles broad, and not much more in length, is reckoned as part of Tigré also, but this is not a new usurpation. It lost the rank of a province, and was united to Tigré for the misbehaviour of its governor Kasmati Claudius, in an expedition against the Shangalla in the reign of Yasous the Great. In my time, it began again to get into reputation, and was by Ras Michael's own consent disjoined from his province, and given first to his son Welled Hawaryat, together with Samen, and, after his death, to Ayto Tesfos, a very amiable man, gallant soldier, and good officer; who, fighting bravely in the king's service at the battle of Serbraxos, was there wounded and taken prisoner, and died of his wounds afterwards.
After passing the Tacazzè, the boundary between Sirè and Samen, we come to that mountainous province called by the last name. A large chain of rugged mountains, where is the Jews Rock, (which I shall often mention as the highest), reaches from the south of Tigré down near to Waldubba, the low, hot country that bounds Abyssinia on the north. It is about 80 miles in length, in few places 30 broad, and in some much less. It is in great part possessed by Jews, and there Gideon and Judith, king and queen of that nation, and, as they say, of the house of Judah, maintain still their ancient sovereignty and religion from very early times.
On the N.E. of Tigré lies the province of Begemder. It borders upon Angot, whose governor is called Angot Ras; but the whole province now, excepting a few villages, is conquered by the Galla.It has Amhara, which runs parallel to it, on the south, and is separated from it by the river Bashilo. Both these provinces are bounded by the river Nile on the west. Begemder is about 180 miles in its greatest length, and 60 in breadth, comprehending Lasta, a mountainous province, sometimes depending on Begemder, but often in rebellion. The inhabitants are esteemed the best soldiers in Abyssinia, men of great strength and stature, but cruel and uncivilized; so that they are called, in common convention and writing, the peasants, or barbarians of Lasta; they pay to the king 1000 ounces of gold.
Several small provinces are now dismembered from Begemder, such as Foggora, a small stripe reaching S. and N. about 35 miles between Emfras and Dara, and about 12 miles broad from E. to W. from the mountains of Begemder to the lake Tzana. On the north end of this are two small governments, Dreeda and Karoota, the only territory in Abyssinia that produces wine, the merchants trade to Caffa and Narea, in the country of the Galla. We speak of these territories as they are in point of right; but when a nobleman of great power is governor of the province of Begemder, he values not lesser rights, but unites them all to his province.
Begemder is the strength of Abyssinia in horsemen. It is said, that, with Lasta, it can bring out 45,000 men; but this, as far as ever I could inform myself, is a great exaggeration. They are exceeding good soldiers when they are pleased with their general, and the cause for which they fight; otherwise, they are easily divided, great many private interests being continually kept alive, as it is thought industriously, by government itself. It is well stocked with cattle of every kind, all very beautiful. The mountains are full of iron-mines; they are not so steep and rocky nor so frequent, as in other provinces, if we except only Lasta, and abound in all sort of wild fowl and game.
The south end of the province near Nefas Musa is cut into prodigious gullies apparently by floods, of which we have no history. It is the great barrier against the encroachments of the Galla; and, by many attempts, they have tried to make a settlement in it, but all in vain. Whole tribes of them have been extinguished in this their endeavour.
In many provinces of Abyssinia, favour is the only necessary to procure the government; others are given to poor noblemen, that, by fleecing the people, they may grow rich, and repair their fortune. But the consequence of Begemder is so well known to the state, as reaching so near the metropolis, and supplying it so constantly with all sorts of provisions, that none but noblemen of rank, family, and character, able to maintain a large number of troops always on foot, and in good order, are trusted with its government.
Immediately next to this is Amhara, between the two rivers Bashilo and Geshen. The length of this country from E. to W. is about 120 miles, and its breadth something more than 40. It is a very mountainous country, full of nobility; the men are reckoned the handsomest in Abyssinia, as well as the bravest. With the ordinary arms, the lance and shield, they are thought to be superior to double the number of any other soldiers in the kingdom. What, besides, added to the dignity of this province, was the high mountain of Geshen, or the grassy mountain, whereon the king's sons were formerly imprisoned, till surprised and murdered there in the Adelan war.
Between the two rivers Geshen and Samba, is a low, unwholesome, though fertile province, called Walaka; and southward of that is Upper Shoa. This province, or kingdom, was famous for the retreat it gave to the only remaining prince of the house of Solomon, who fled from the massacre of his brethren by Judith, about the year 900, upon the rock of Damo. Here the royal family remained in security, and increased in number, for near 400 years, till they were restored. From thenceforward, as long as the king resided in the south of his dominions, great tenderness and distinction was shewn to the inhabitants of this province; and when the king returned again to Tigrè, he abandoned them tacitly to their own government.
Amha Yasous, prince at this day, and lineal descendant of the governor who first acknowledged the king, is now by connivance sovereign of that province. In order to keep himself as independent and separate from the rest of Abyssinia as possible, he has sacrificed the province of Walaka, which belonged to him, to the Galla, who, by his own desire, have surrounded Shoa on every side. But it is full of the bravest, best horsemen, and best accoutred beyond all comparison of any in Abyssinia, and, when they please, they can dispossess the Galla. Safe and independent as the prince of Shoa now is, he is still the loyalist, and the friend to monarchy he ever was; and, upon any signal distress happening to the king, he never failed to succour him powerfully with gold and troops, far beyond the quota formerly due from his province. This Shoa boasts, likewise, the honour of being the native country of Tecla Haimanout, restorer of the line of Solomon, the founder of the monastery and Order of the monks of Debra Libanos, and of the power and wealth of the Abuna, and the clergy in general, of Abyssinia.
Gojam, from north-east to south-east, is about 80 miles in length, and 40 in breadth. It is a very flat country, and all in pasture; has few mountains, but these are very high ones, and are chiefly on the banks of the Nile, to the south, which river surrounds the province; so that, to a person who should walk round Gojam, the Nile would be always on his left hand, from where it went south, falling out of the lake Tzana, till it turns north through Fazuclo into the country of Sennaar and Egypt.
Gojam is full of great herds of cattle, the largest in the high parts of Abyssinia. The men are in the lowest esteem as soldiers, but the country is very populous. The Jesuits were settled in many convents throughout the province, and are no where half so much detested. The monks of Gojam are those of St Eustathius, which may be called the Low Church of Abyssinia. They are much inclined to turbulence in religious matters, and are, therefore, always made tools by discontented people, who have no religion at all.
On the south-east of the kingdom of Gojam is Damot. It is bounded by the Temci on the east, by the Gult on the west, by the Nile on the south, and by the high mountains of Amid Amid on the north. It is about 40 miles in length from north to south, and something more than 20 in breadth from east to west. But all this peninsula, surrounded with the river, is called Gojam, in general terms, from a line down through the south end of the lake to Miné, the passage of the Nile in the way to Narea.It is surprising the Jesuits, notwithstanding their long abode in Gojam, have not known where this neighbouring country of Damot was situated, but have placed it south of the Nile. They were often, however, in Damot, when Sela Christos was attempting the conquest and conversion of the Agows.
On the other side of Amid Amid is the province of the Agows, bounded by those mountains on the east; by Burè and Umbarma, and the country of the Gongas, on the west; by Damot and Gafat upon the south, and Dingleber on the north.
All those countries from Abbo, such as Goutto, Aroosi, and Wainadega, were formerly inhabited by Agows; but, partly by the war with the Galla beyond the Nile, partly by their own constant rebellions, this territory, called Maitsha, which is the flat country on both sides of the Nile, is quite uninhabited, and at last hath been given to colonies of peaceable Galla, chiefly Djawi, who fill the whole low country to the foot of the mountains Aformasha, in place of the Agows, the first occupiers.
Maitsha, from the flatness of the country, not draining soon after the rains, is in all places wet, but in many, miry and marshy; it produces little or no corn, but depends entirely upon a plant called Ensete[1], which furnishes the people both with wholesome and delicate food throughout the year. For the rest, this province abounds in large fine cattle, and breeds some indifferent horses.Upon the mountains, above Maitsha, is the country of the Agows, the richest province still in Abyssinia, notwithstanding the multitude of devastations it has suffered. They lie round the country above described, from Aformasha to Quaquera, where are the heads of two large rivers, the Kelti and Branti. These are called the Agows of Damot, from their nearness to that province, in contradistinction to the Agows of Lasta, who are called Tcheratz-Agow, from Tchera, a principal town, tribe, and district near Lasta and Begemder.
The Gafats, inhabiting a small district adjoining to the Galla, have also distinct languages, so have the Galla themselves, of whom we have often spoken; they are a large nation.
From Dingleber all along the lake, below the mountains bounding Guesgué and Kuara, is called Dembea. This low province on the south of Gondar, and Woggora the small high province on the east, are all sown with wheat, and are the granaries of Abyssinia. Dembea seems once to have been occupied entirely by the lake, and we see all over it marks that cannot be mistaken, so that this large extent of water is visibly upon the decrease; and this agrees with what is observed of stagnant pools in general throughout the world. Dembea is called Atté-Kolla, the king's food, or maintenance, its produce being assigned for the supplying of the king's household. It is governed by an officer called Cantiba; it is a lucrative post; but he is not reckoned one of the great officers of the empire, and has no place in council.
South from Dembea is Kuara, a very mountainous province confining upon the Pagan blacks, or Shangalla, called Gongas and Guba, the Macrobii of the ancients. It is a very unwholesome province, but abounding in gold, not of its own produce, but that of its neighbourhood, these Pagans—Guba, Nuba, and Shangalla. Kuara signifies the sun, and Beja (that is Atbara, and the low parts of Sennaar, the country of the Shepherds, adjoining) signifies the moon, in the language of these Shangalla. These names are some remains of their ancient superstitions. Kuara was the native country of the Iteghè, or queen-regent, of Kasmati Eshté, Welled de l'Oul, Gueta, Eusebius, and Palambaras Mammo.
In the low country of Kuara, near to Sennaar, there is a settlement of Pagan blacks called Ganjar. They are mostly cavalry, and live entirely by hunting and plundering the Arabs of Atbara and Fazuclo. Their origin is this: Upon the invasion of the Arabs after the coming of Mahomet, the black slaves deserted from their masters, the Shepherds, and took up their habitation, where they have not considerably multiplied, otherwise than by the accession of vagrants and fugitives, whom they get from both kingdoms. They are generally under the command of the governor of Kuara, and were so when I was in Abyssinia, though they refused to follow their governor Coque Abou Barea to fight against Michael, but whether from fear or affection I know not; I believe the former.
The governor of Kuara is one of the great officers of state, and, being the king's lieutenant-general, has absolute power in his province, and carries sendick and nagareet. His kettle-drums are silver, and his privilege is to beat these drums even in marching through the capital, which no governor of a province is permitted to do, none but the king's nagareets or kettle-drums being suffered to be beat there, or any where in a town where the king is; but the governor of Kuara is intitled to continue beating his drums till he comes to the foot of the outer stair of the king's palace. This privilege, from some good behaviour of the first officer to whom the command was given, was conferred upon the post by David II. called Degami Daid, who conquered the province from the Shepherds, its old inhabitants.
Nara, and Ras el Feel, Tchelga, and on to Tcherkin, is a frontier wholly inhabited by Mahometans. Its government is generally given to a stranger, often to a Mahometan, but one of that faith is always deputy-governor. The use of keeping troops here is to defend the friendly Arabs and Shepherds, who remain in their allegiance to Abyssinia, from the resentment of the Arabs of Sennaar, their neighbours; and, by means of these friendly Arabs and Shepherds, secure a constant supply of horses for the king's troops. It is a barren stripe of a very hot, unwholesome country, full of thick woods, and fit only for hunting. The inhabitants, fugitives from all nations, are chiefly Mahometans, but very bold and expert horsemen, using no other weapon but the broad sword, with which they attack the elephant and rhinoceros.
There are many other small provinces, which occasionally are annexed, and sometimes are separated, such as Guesgué, to the eastward of Kuara; Waldubba, between the rivers Guangue and Angrab; Tzegadé and Walkayt on the west side of Waldubba; Abergalè and Selawa in the neighbourhood of Begemder; Temben, Dobas, Giannamora, Bur, and Engana, in the neighbourhood of Tigré, and many others: Such at least was the state of the country in my time, very different in all respects from what it has been represented. As to the precedency of these provinces we shall further speak, when we come to mention the officers of state and internal government in this country.
- ↑ See the article ensete in the appendix.