Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile/Volume 3/Book 6/Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
The King encamps at Lamgué—Transactions there—Passes the Nile, and encamps at Derdera—The Author follows the King.
On the 12th of May we heard the king had marched to Tedda. Messengers from Begemder, and from Gusho of Amhara, had been constantly passing to and from his majesty, pressing Ras Michael to take the field as soon as possible, to prevent the utter destruction of the Agows, which Fasil every day was driving to accomplish. They put him, moreover, in mind, that the rains were begun; that, in Fasil's country, they were already sufficient to swell the many rivers they had to pass before they arrived at Burè; they desired him to reflect, that, with the armies they were bringing to his assistance, it was more necessary to save time than stay for a number of troops; lastly, that it was absolutely useless to wait for any reinforcement from Tigrè, but that he should rather march by Emfras, Foggora, and Dara, cross the Nile where it comes out of the lake; while they, with their united armies, passed at the bridge near the second cataract, sixteen miles below, burnt and laid waste Woodage, Asahel's country, and joined him at Derdera, between Court-ohha and the lake. This was precisely what Ras Michael himself had planned; it embraced the whole country of his enemy, and made his scheme of vengeance complete; hitherto not a word had transpired that could raise the smallest suspicion of treachery.
The 13th, by day-break, Netcho, Fit-Auraris to Ras Michael, passed in great haste below the town towards Foggora. The king had made a forced march from Tedda, and was that night to encamp at a house of Gusho's, near Lamguè. This was great expedition, and sufficiently marked the eagerness with which it was undertaken. The effects of the approach of the army were soon seen. Every one hid what was best in his house, or fled to the mountains with it. Emfras in a few hours was left quite empty: Ras Michael, advancing at the head of an army, spread as much terror as would the approach of the day of judgment. It was then
Cried havock, and let slip the dogs of war.
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 case 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 mould 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 nurse[1], 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 THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 401
Fit-Auraris has territories affigned him in every province that he ever panes through, ib has that of the Ras, if he commands in chief. Every governor of a province has alfo an officer of this name, who has a revenue allowed him within his own province. It is a place of great fatigue. Their pod is at different diftances from the van of the army, according to the circumftances of the war ; fometimes a day's march, fometimes four or fix hours. As he paffes 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 conftantly correfponds with the army ; whenever he fees the enemy, he fends immediate advice, and falls back him- felf, or advances farther, according as his orders are.
From Tfoomwa the king marched on, a fliort day's march, to Derdera, and encamped near the church of St Michael. Derdera, was a collection of fmall villages, between the lake Dembea and Court-ohha, where, it will be remembered, the agreement was the confederates mould inclofe Michael, and give him battle; but he had now loft all patience, as there was no appearance of either Guflio or Powuflen ; and being, be- fides, in an enemy's country, he began to proceed in his u- fual manner, by giving orders to lay wafte the whole adja- cent territory with fire and fword. The whole line of march, two day's journey in breadth from the lake, was fet on fire; the people who could not efcape were ilain, and every wan- ton barbarity permuted.
The king's paffage of the Kile was the fignal given for me to fet out to join him. It was the 18th of May, at noon, I left Emfras, my courfe being fouthward whilft in the plain
Vol, III. 3 E of 4 02 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
of Mitraha. At three o'clock we entered among a few hills of no confideration, and, foon after, began to coaft clofe along the fide of the lake Tzana ; we faw this day a great number of hippopotami ; fome fwimming in the lake at a fmall diftance, fome riling from feeding on the high grafs in the meadows, and walking, feemingly at great lei- fure, till they plunged themfelves out of fight. They are exceeding cautious and my while on land, and not to be ap- proached near enough to do execution with the beft rifle-gun. At four in the afternoon we halted, and palled the night at Lamgue, a villagefituated a few pacesfrom thefideof thelake.
On the 19th of May we left Lamgue about fix in the morning, our courfe fouth and by weft, and at eight we found ourfelves in the middle of twenty-five or thirty vil- lages called Nabca, ftretching for the length of feven or eight miles; a few minutes afterwards we came to the ri- ver Reb, which falls into the lake a little north- well of the place where we now were. Clofe by where the Reb joins the lake is a fmall village of Pagans, called Waito, who live quite feparate from the Abyflinians, and are held by them in utter abhorrence, fo that to touch them, or any thing that belongs to them, makes a man unclean all that day till the evening, feparates him from his family and friends, and excludes him from the church and all divine fervice, till he is warned and purified on the following day. Part of this averiion is certainly owing to their manner of feed- ing ; for their only profefuon is killing the crocodile and hippopotamus, which they make their daily fuflenance. They have a moft abominable flench, are exceedingly wan, or ill*. coloured, very lean, and die often, as is faid, of the loufy difeafe. There are, indeed, no crocodiles in the lake Tzana,
owing, THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 403
owing, as it is faid, to the catara&s, which they cannot get up. However, as they are amphibious animals, and walk very well on more, I think they might furmount this diffi- culty as eafily as the hippopotamus ; I rather think the caufe is the coldnefs of the water and climate, which does not agree with the crocodile, but much with the river-norie.
The Waito fpeak a language radically different from any of thofe in Abyffinia ; but though I have often endeavoured to get fome inlight into this, their religion, and cuftoms, I could never fo far fucceed as to be able to give the public any certain information. A falfe account in fuch cafes is certainly worfe than no account at all. I once defired the king to order that one of them might be brought to Gon- dar. Two men, an old and a young one, were accordingly brought from the lake, bur they would neither anfvver nor underftand any queftions ; partly, I believe, through fear, partly from obilinacy. The king at this became fo angry that he ordered them both to be hanged ; they feemed per- fectly unconcerned, and it was with fome difficulty I pro- cured their releafe; I never therefore made an experiment of that kind afterwards. The Abyffinians believe they are forcerers, can bewitch with their eyes, and occafion death by their charms even at a confiderable diflance. It is like- ly, if that had been fo, thefe two would have tried their power upon me, of which I do not recollect to have ever been ienfible.
We paffed the Reb at nine o'clock in the morning. It rifes high in the mountains of Begemder, and is one of thofe rivers that continue running the whole year, and has a tolerable ford, although it was vifibly increafed by rain.
3 E 2 We 4 o 4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
We continued our journey in fight of many villages till^ three quarters after twelve, we came to the river Gomara, where we ilaid in fearch of trees and herbs the reft of the day. At night we received a meffage from Ayto Adigo, Shum,. or governor, of Karoota. He was an officer of con- fidence of the Iteghe's ; had been a great friend of Mariam Barea's, one of whofe vaffals he was, and in his heart an in- veterate enemy to Ras Michael and the new fuccefiion. Ever fince the murder of Joas he had not ventured to Gon- dar. When I firft came there the Ras had given his houfe, as that of an outlaw, to me. Afterwards, as foon as he returned, I offered immediately to furrender it to him ; but he would not by any means accept ir, but afked leave to pitch his tent in one of the courts furrounded with walls, for it was a fpacious building. Perhaps it was the beft fi- tuation he could have chofen, for we did him great fervice by the means of Ozoro Either, as he was but very ill-looked upon, and was rich enough to be confidered as an object of Ras Michael's rapacity and avarice. Our neighbourhood occafioned us to pafs many evenings together, and we con- tracted a friendfhip, the rather becaufe he was a fervant cf the Iieghe, and we were known. favourites of Ozoro Either,.
SLdfri'CTr— '■ '■ iii m* 1&J7
CHAT.
- ↑ Maguzet.