The Life and Adventures of Bruce, the African Traveller Part 15

Thinking that the army was beaten and retreating, Bruce and his party mounted their horses to join it. Still it appeared to them scarcely possible that Fasil should defeat Ras Michael so easily, and with so short a resistance.

They had not gone far in the plain before, to their great surprise and delight, they had a sight of the enemy. A mult.i.tude of deer, buffaloes, boars, and various other wild beasts, alarmed by the noise of the army as it advanced, had been gradually driven before it.

The whole country was overgrown with wild oats, many of the villages having been burned the year before; and in this shelter the wild animals had taken up their abode in very great numbers. As the army turned to the left towards Karcagna, the silence and solitude on the opposite side induced these animals to turn to the right, where the Nile makes a very large semicircle, the Jemma being behind them, and much overflowed. When the army, therefore, instead of marching southeasterly towards Samseen, directed its course northwest, they fell in with these immense herds of deer and other beasts, who, confined between the Nile, the Jemma, and the lake, had no way to return but by the one they had come. Finding themselves encountered by men in every direction, they became desperate; and, not knowing what course to take, they at length fell an easy prey.

The soldiers, happy at the opportunity of procuring animal food, fired upon the beasts wherever they appeared; and this continued for nearly an hour. A numerous herd of the largest deer, called bohur, met Bruce and his party at full speed, apparently intending to run them down; some forced their way through, while others escaped across the plain.

The king and Ras Michael were in the most violent agitation of mind; for, though the cause of the firing was before their eyes, it was at this moment reported that Woodage Asahel had attacked the army; and this occasioned a general panic, every one being convinced that he was not far off. The firing, however, continued; the b.a.l.l.s flew in every direction; some few were killed, and many soldiers and horses were wounded: still they continued to fire, while Ras Michael stood at the door of his tent, crying, threatening, and tearing his gray locks at finding that the army was not under his command. The king, however, now ordered his tent to be pitched, his standard to be set up, his drums to beat (the signal for encamping), and then the firing immediately ceased.

But it was a long while before all the army could be made to believe that Woodage Asahel had not been engaged with some part of it that day.

Fortunately, he was not in a situation to avail himself of this favourable opportunity; for if he had then attacked Michael on the Samseen side with five hundred horse, the whole army would probably have fled without resistance, and been entirely dispersed.

Bruce was making his way towards the king's tent when he was met by a confidential servant of Kefla Yasous, who had that day commanded the rear in the retreat; an experienced officer, brave even to a fault, but full of mildness and humanity, and one of the most sensible and affable men in the army. He sent to desire that Bruce would come to him alone.

This he promised to do; but he first wished to seek for Strates and Sebastos, who were disabled on the road.

Bruce soon came up with them, and was exceedingly surprised to see them both lying extended on the ground; Strates bleeding at a large wound in his forehead, moaning in Greek to himself, and exclaiming that he had broken his leg, which he pressed with both his hands below the knee, apparently regardless of the gash in his head, which seemed to be a very serious one; while Sebastos scarcely said anything, but sighed piteously. Bruce asked him whether his arm was broke; he answered feebly that he was dying, and that his legs, arms, and ribs were broken. The by-standers, meanwhile, were bursting into fits of laughter.

Ali, Mohammed's servant, the only person who appeared concerned, said that it was all owing to Prince George, who had frightened their mules.

This prince was fond of horsemanship; he rode with saddle, bridle, and stirrups, like an Arab; and, though young, had become an excellent horseman, superior to any in Abyssinia. The manner in which two Arabs salute one another when they meet is this: the person inferior in rank or age presents his gun at the other when at about five hundred yards'

distance, charged with powder only; he then, keeping his gun still presented, gallops up to him, levels the muzzle, and fires just under his friend's stirrups or the horse's belly. This the Arabs do, sometimes twenty at a time; and one would think it impossible that they should escape being bruised or burned. The prince had learned this exercise from Bruce, and was highly delighted as he became perfect in it. Bruce had procured him a short gun, with a lock and flint instead of a match, and he shot not only true, but gracefully, on horseback. He had been hunting deer all the morning; and hearing that his friend Bruce had arrived, and seeing the two Greeks riding on their mules, he came galloping furiously with his gun presented, and, not seeing Bruce, fired a shot under the belly of Strates's mule, and then, turning like lightning to the left, he was out of sight in a moment.

Never was compliment less relished or understood. Strates had a couple of panniers upon his mule, containing two great earthen jars of hydromel; Sebastos, the king's cook, had also sundry jars and pots, besides three or four dozen drinking gla.s.ses; a carpet almost covered the animals and the panniers; and upon the pack-saddles, between these panniers, Strates and Sebastos rode. The mules, as well as their burden, belonged to the king, and the men were permitted to ride only because they were a little unwell. Strates went first, and, to save trouble, the halter of Sebastos's mule was tied to his companion's saddle, and thus the mules were fastened to, and followed one another. As soon as the explosion took place, Strates's mule, not accustomed to such noisy compliments, started, turned about, and threw his rider to the ground; when, trampling upon him, the animal began to run off, and, winding the halter around Sebastos, who was behind, dragged him to the ground among some stones. Both the mules began kicking at each other, or, rather, at each other's panniers and pack-saddles, until they broke everything that was in them. Nor did the mischief end here; for, in running away, they came like a bar-shot across the mule of Azage Tecla Haimanout, one of the king's criminal judges, a very feeble old man, who found himself suddenly thrown upon the ground and his ankle broke, so that he could not walk alone for several months afterward. As soon as a tent was pitched for the wounded, and Bruce had dressed Tecla Haimanout's foot, he went to the tent of Kefla Yasous, who instantly rose up and embraced him. He then told Bruce that Ras Michael had resolved to cross the Nile immediately, and march back to Gondar; and that they were just commencing this retrograde movement when they were interrupted by the firing.

On the 26th of May, 1770, Bruce marched with the army towards the Nile.

About four o'clock they reached the banks of the river. "From the time we had decamped from Congo," says Bruce, "it poured incessantly the most violent rain we had ever seen, violent claps of thunder followed close one upon another, almost without interval, accompanied with sheets of lightning, which ran on the ground like water; the day was more than commonly dark, as in an eclipse, and every hollow or footpath collected a quant.i.ty of rain, which ran into the Nile in torrents."

The Abyssinian armies pa.s.s the Nile at all seasons, though the appearance of the river is often terrific; but the Greeks crowded about Bruce in despair, lamenting that they had ever entered the country. The first person who crossed was a young officer, a relation of the king; he walked in with great caution, marking a track for the king to pa.s.s; but his horse, plunging into deep water, swam to the opposite side. The king followed next; then came the old ras on his mule, with several of his friends, swimming both with and without their horses, on each side of him, in a manner that appeared quite wonderful. Bruce and the king's troops now followed. The confusion which ensued it is impossible to describe; mules, horses, and men stuck for some time in the muddy landing-place, the latter screaming for help, when they were at length all hurried away by the stream. Rafts were made for some of the women; but the old ras sullenly insisted that Ozoro Esther, though she had actually fainted several times, should cross in the same manner that he had himself, and those who admired and pitied her swam by her side. It was said that the old ras had even been heard to declare, that if she could not pa.s.s, he had resolved to murder her, lest she should fall into the hands of his enemy, Fasil.

Two days after the pa.s.sage of the river, the ras, who, although he was one of the most aged and infirm men in the army, seemed to require neither sleep nor rest, engaged and defeated Fasil in the battle of Limjour; in consequence of which, Fasil, the following day, sent to inform Michael of the manner in which the king had been betrayed by Gusho and Powussen; and, offering his submission, he added, "that he never again intended to appear in arms against the king; that he would hold his government under him, and pay his contributions regularly."

Fasil, after this submission, was appointed governor of Damot and Maitsah.

"Late in the evening," says Bruce, "Ozoro Esther came to the king's tent. She had been ill and alarmed, as she well might, at the pa.s.sage of the Nile, which had given her a more delicate look than ordinary; she was dressed all in white, and I thought I seldom had seen so handsome a woman. The king had sent ten oxen to old Ras Michael, but he had given twenty to Ozoro Esther; and it was to thank him for this extraordinary mark of favour that she had come to visit him in his tent. I had for some time past, indeed, thought they were not insensible to the merit of each other. Upon her thanking the young king for the distinction he had shown her, 'Madam,' said he, 'your husband, Ras Michael, is intent upon employing, in the best way possible for my service, those of the army that are strong and vigorous; you, I am told, bestow your care on the sick and disabled, and by your attention they are restored to their former health and activity. The strong, active soldier eats the cows that I have sent to the ras; the enfeebled and sick recover upon yours, for which reason I sent you a double portion, that you may have it in your power to do double good.'"

Bruce had now violent threatenings of the ague, and retired to bed full of reflections on the extraordinary events that in a few hours had crowded upon one another.

On the 30th of May he reached Gondar, and on the 3d of June the army was encamped on the river below the town. "From the time we left Dingleber,"

says Bruce, "some one or other of the ras's confidential friends had arrived every day. Several of the great officers of state reached us at the Kemona; many others met us at Abba Samuel. I did not perceive that the news they brought increased the spirits either of the king or the ras: the soldiers, however, were all contented, because they were at home; but the officers, who saw farther, wore very different countenances, especially those that were of Amhara. I, in particular, had very little reason to be pleased; for, after having undergone a constant series of fatigues, dangers, and expenses, I was returned to Gondar, disappointed of my views in arriving at the source of the Nile, without any other acquisition than a violent ague. The place where that river rises remained still as great a secret as it had been ever since the catastrophe of Phaeton:

"Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus...o...b..m, Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet."

OVID, _Metam._, lib. ii.

"The frighted Nile ran off, and under ground Concealed his head, nor can it yet be found."

ADDISON--_Trans._

The king had heard that Gusho and Powussen, and all the troops of Belessen and Lasta, were ready to fall upon him in Gondar as soon as the rains should have so swelled the Tacazze that the army could not retire into Tigre; and it was now thought that the king's proclamation in favour of Fasil, especially in giving him Gojam, would hasten the movements of the rebels.

"As I had never despaired," says Bruce, "some way or other, of arriving at the fountains of the Nile, from which we were not fifty miles distant when we turned back at Karcagna, so I never neglected to improve every means that held out to me the least probability of accomplishing this end. I had been very attentive and serviceable to Fasil's servants while in the camp. I spoke greatly of their master; and, when they went away, gave each of them a small present for himself, and a trifle also for Fasil. They had, on the other hand, been very importunate with me, as a physician, to prescribe something for a cancer on the lip, as I understood it to be, with which Welleta Yasous, Fasil's princ.i.p.al general, was afflicted.

"I had been advised by some of my medical friends to carry along with me a preparation of hemlock or cicuta, recommended by Dr. Stork, a physician at Vienna. A considerable quant.i.ty had been sent me from France by commission, with directions how to use it. To keep on the safe side, I prescribed small doses to Welleta Yasous; being much more anxious to preserve myself from reproach, than warmly solicitous about the cure of my unknown patient. I gave him positive advice to avoid eating raw meat, to keep to a milk diet, and drink plentifully of whey when he used this medicine. They were overjoyed at having succeeded so well in their commission, and declared before the king 'that Fasil, their master, would be more pleased with receiving a medicine that would restore Welleta Yasous to health, than with the magnificent appointments the king's goodness had bestowed upon him.' 'If it is so,' said I, 'in this day of grace I will ask two favours.' 'And that's a rarity,' says the king; 'come, out with them. I don't believe anybody is desirous you should be refused; I certainly am not; only I bar one of them--you are not to relapse into your usual despondency, and talk of going home.'

'Well, sir,' said I, 'I obey; and that is not one of them. They are these: You shall give me, and oblige Fasil to ratify it, the village Geesh, and the source where the Nile rises, that I may be from thence furnished with money for myself and servants; it shall stand me instead of Tangouri, near Emfras, and in value it is not worth so much. The second is, that when I shall see that it is in his power to carry me to Geesh, and show me those sources, Fasil shall do it upon my request, without fee or reward, and without excuse or evasion.'

"They all laughed at the easiness of the request; all declared that this was nothing, and wished to do ten times as much. The king said, 'Tell Fasil I do give the village of Geesh, and those fountains he is so fond of, to Yagoube and his posterity for ever, never to appear under another name in the deftar, and never to be taken from him or exchanged, either in peace or war. Do you swear this to him in the name of your master.'

Upon which they took the two forefingers of my right hand, and one after the other laid the two forefingers of their right hand across them, then kissed them--a form of swearing used there, at least among those that call themselves Christians. And as Azage Kyrillos, the king's secretary and historian, was then present, the king ordered him to enter the gift in the deftar or revenue-book, where the taxes and revenue of the king's lands are registered. 'I will write it,' says the old man, 'in letters of gold; and, poor as I am, will give him a village four times better than either Geesh or Tangouri, if he will take a wife and stay among us, at least till my eyes are closed.' It will be easily guessed this rendered the conversation a cheerful one. Fasil's servants retired, to set out the next day, gratified to their utmost wish; and, as soon as the king was in bed, I went to my apartment likewise."

Bruce was now legally wedded to the "coy fountains" of the Nile; but, like the young Eastern prince, he was yet doomed to linger, till relentless Time should permit him to view the object of his warmest affection, the sole subject of his dreams and thoughts.

Very different notions, however, were occupying Michael and his officers. They were afraid to trust Fasil, and, besides, he could do them no service; the rain had set in, and he was gone home; the western part of the kingdom was ready to rise against the ras; Woggora also, to the north, immediately in Fasil's way, was in arms, and impatient to revenge the severities they had suffered when Michael first marched to Gondar; and the next morning the whole army was in motion.

Bruce had a short interview with the king. He frankly told him that he was weak in health, and quite unprepared to attend him to Tigre; that his heart was bent on accomplishing the only object which had brought him into Abyssinia; and that, should he be disappointed in effecting that object, he could only return to his country in disgrace. The young king appeared affected by Bruce's statement, and, with great kindness, desired him to remain for the present with the iteghe at Koscam.

Ras Michael having in vain urged certain brutal measures of violence on the king, now retired in disgust into his own province of Tigre. On the 10th of June, Gusho and Powussen entered Gondar; and for several months, the capital, as well as the country of Abyssinia, was convulsed with a series of petty disturbances.

CHAPTER XIII.

Bruce again attempts to reach the Fountains of the Nile, and succeeds.

Although the iteghe showed great aversion to Bruce's design of exploring the source of the Nile in times of such trouble and commotion, she did not positively forbid the attempt; and therefore, on the 28th of October, 1770, he and his party commenced the undertaking. Bruce's quadrant required four men, relieving each other, to carry it, and his timekeeper and telescopes employed two more. His difficulties, however, were now all in his own cause; he had no longer to expose himself to danger amid the quarrels and jarring interests of others; his _own_ great object was now before him--an object which he had long determined to attain, or to perish in the attempt.

After pa.s.sing a number of torrents, which were all rushing through the flat country of Dembea towards the great lake Tzana, they came to Gorgora, an elevated peninsula, running into the lake for several miles.

This is one of the pleasantest situations in Abyssinia. The eye pa.s.ses rapidly over the expansive lake, through which run the waters of the Nile; it then views with pleasure the flat, rich countries of Dembea, Gojam, and Maitsha; and the high hills of Begemder and Woggora terminate the prospect. It was this healthy, beautiful situation which was chosen by Peter Paez for the site of a most magnificent church and monastery.

On reaching the borders of the lake on the 30th, neither the fear of crocodiles nor of hippopotami could deter Bruce from swimming in it for several minutes: although the sun was exceedingly hot, he found the water intensely cold, owing to the streams which ran into it from the mountains.

Proceeding on their journey, they now met mult.i.tudes of peasants flying before Fasil's army, which, for some unknown purpose, he had suddenly put in motion. Fasil was at Bamba, a collection of small villages situated in a valley; and as Bruce knew it was in this chieftain's power to forward him in his object, he anxiously repaired to him. The following day he received a message to wait upon him, and his interview with this great rebel he thus describes:

"After announcing myself, I waited about a quarter of an hour before I was admitted. Fasil was sitting upon a cushion, with a lion's skin upon it, and another, stretched like a carpet, before his feet. He had a cotton cloth, something like a dirty towel, wrapped about his head; his upper cloak or garment was drawn tight about him over his neck and shoulders, so as to cover his hands. I bowed, and went forward to kiss one of them, but it was so entangled in the cloth that I was obliged to kiss the cloth instead of the hand. This was done, either as not expecting I should pay him that compliment (as I certainly should not have done, being one of the king's servants, if the king had been at Gondar), or else it was intended for a mark of disrespect, which was very much of a piece with the rest of his behaviour afterward.

"There was no carpet or cushions in the tent, and only a little straw, as if accidentally, thrown thinly about it. I sat down upon the ground, thinking him sick, not knowing what all this meant. He looked steadfastly at me, saying, half under his breath, 'Endet nawi? bogo nawi?' which, in Amharic, is, 'How do you do? are you very well?' I made the usual answer, 'Well, thank G.o.d.' He again stopped, as for me to speak. There was only one old man present, who was sitting on the floor mending a mule's bridle. I took him at first for an attendant; but, observing that a servant, uncovered, held a candle to him, I thought he was one of his Galla; but then I saw a blue silk thread which he had about his neck, which is a badge of Christianity all over Abyssinia, and which a Galla would not wear. What he was I could not make out: he seemed, however, to be a very bad cobbler, and took no notice of us.

"'I am come,' said I, 'by your invitation and the king's leave, to pay my respects to you in your own government, begging that you would favour my curiosity so far as to allow me to see the country of the Agows and the source of the Abay (or Nile), part of which I have seen in Egypt.'

'The source of the Abay!' exclaimed he, with a pretended surprise; 'do you know what you are saying? Why, it is G.o.d knows where, in the country of the Galla, wild, terrible people. The source of the Abay! are you raving?' repeats he again: 'are you to get there, do you think, in a twelvemonth, or more, or when?' 'Sir,' said I, 'the king told me it was near Sacala, and still nearer Geesh; both villages of the Agows, and both in your government.' 'And so you know Sacala and Geesh?' says he, whistling and half angry. 'I can repeat the names that I hear,' said I; 'all Abyssinia knows the head of the Nile.' 'Ay,' says he, imitating my voice and manner, 'but all Abyssinia won't carry you there, that I promise you.' 'If you are resolved to the contrary,' said I, 'they will not: I wish you had told the king so in time, then I should not have attempted it; it was relying upon you alone I came so far--confident, if all the rest of Abyssinia could not protect me there, that your word singly could do it.'

"He now put on a look of more complacency. 'Look you, Yagoube,' says he, 'it is true I can do it; and, for the king's sake, who recommended it to me, I would do it; but the chief priest, Abba Salama, has sent to me to desire me not to let you pa.s.s farther; he says it is against the law of the land to permit Franks like you to go about the country, and that he has dreamed something ill will befall me if you go into Maitsha.' I was as much irritated as I thought it possible for me to be. 'So, so,' said I, 'the time of priests, prophets, and dreamers is coming on again.' 'I understand you,' says he, laughing for the first time; 'I care as little for priests as Michael does, and for prophets too; but I would have you consider the men of this country are not like yours; a boy of these Galla would think nothing of killing a man of your country. You white people are all effeminate; you are like so many women; you are not fit for going into a province where all is war, and inhabited by men, warriors from their cradle.'

"I saw he intended to provoke me; and he had succeeded so effectually, that I should have died, I believe, if I had not, imprudent as it was, told him my mind in reply. 'Sir,' said I, 'I have pa.s.sed through many of the most barbarous nations in the world; all of them, excepting this clan of yours, have some great men among them above using a defenceless stranger ill. But the worst and lowest individual among the most uncivilized people never treated me as you have done to-day under your own roof, where I have come so far for protection.' He asked, 'How?'

'You have, in the first place,' said I, 'publicly called me Frank, the most odious name in this country, and sufficient to occasion me to be stoned to death, without farther ceremony, by any set of men, wherever I may present myself. By Frank you mean one of the Romish religion, to which my nation is as adverse as yours; and again, without having ever seen any of my countrymen but myself, you have discovered, from that specimen, that we are all cowards and effeminate people, like, or inferior to, your boys or women. Look you, sir, you never heard that I gave myself out as more than an ordinary man in my own country, far less to be a pattern of what is excellent in it. I am no soldier, though I know enough of war to see yours are poor proficients in that trade. But there are soldiers, friends and countrymen of mine, who would not think it an action to vaunt of, that, with five hundred men, they had trampled all your naked savages into dust.' On this Fasil made a feigned laugh, and seemed rather to take my freedom amiss. It was, doubtless, a pa.s.sionate and rash speech. 'As to myself,' continued I, 'unskilled in war as I am, could it be now without farther consequence, let me but be armed in my own country-fashion, on horseback as I was yesterday, I should, without thinking myself overmatched, fight the two best hors.e.m.e.n you shall choose from this your army of famous men, who are warriors from their cradle; and if, when the king arrives, you are not returned to your duty, and we meet again as we did at Limjour, I will pledge myself, with his permission, to put you in mind of this promise, and leave the choice of these men in your option.' This did not make things better.

"He repeated the word _duty_ after me, and would have replied, but my nose burst out in a stream of blood, and that instant a servant took hold of me by the shoulder to hurry me out of the tent. Fasil seemed to be a good deal concerned, for the blood streamed out upon my clothes. I returned, then, to my tent, and the blood was soon stanched by washing my face with cold water. I sat down to recollect myself, and the more I calmed, the more I was dissatisfied at being put off my guard; but it is impossible to conceive the provocation without having proved it. I have felt but too often how much the love of our native soil increases by our absence from it; and how jealous we are of comparisons made to the disadvantage of our countrymen by people who, all proper allowances being made, are generally not their equals, when they would boast themselves their superiors. I will confess farther, in gratification to my critics, that I was, from my infancy, of a sanguine, pa.s.sionate disposition; very sensible of injuries that I had neither provoked nor deserved; but much reflection from very early life, continual habits of suffering in long and dangerous travels, where nothing but patience would do, had, I flattered myself abundantly, subdued my natural p.r.o.neness to feel offences which common sense might teach me I could only revenge upon myself.

"However, upon farther consulting my own breast, I found there was another cause that had co-operated strongly with the former in making me lose my temper at this time, which, upon much greater provocation, I had never done before. I found now, as I thought, that it was decreed decisively my hopes of arriving at the source of the Nile were for ever ended; all my trouble, all my expenses, all my time, and all my sufferings for so many years were thrown away, from no greater obstacle than the whimsies of one barbarian, whose good inclinations I thought I had long before sufficiently secured; and, what was worse, I was now got within less than forty miles of the place I so much wished to see; and my hopes were shipwrecked upon the last, as well as the most unexpected, difficulty I had to encounter."

Shortly after Bruce had retired to his tent, Fasil sent to him two lean sheep, and a guard of men to protect him during the night. In the morning, twelve horses, saddled and bridled, were brought to him by Fasil's servant, who asked him which he would ride. Bruce left the man to select for him a quiet horse, and forthwith mounted the one which was offered to him.