Chapter XXV: Book IV (10)

Mariam Barea, seeing no other way to save his province from ruin but by bringing the affair to a short issue, resolved likewise to keep his promise. He retired to Nefas Musa, and encamped in the farthest limits of his province: behind this are the Woollo Galla, relations of Amitzo the king’s parents. Joas and Ras Michael followed him without delay, and, having called in all the out-posts, both sides prepared for an engagement.

About nine in the morning, Mariam Barea presented his army in order of battle. Michael had given orders to Kefla Yasous and Welleta Michael how to form his. He then mounted his mule, and with some of his officers rode out to view Mariam Barea’s disposition. The king, anxious about the fortune of the day, and terrified at some reports that had been made him, by timid, or unskilful people, of the warlike countenance of Mariam Barea’s army, sent to the Ras, whom he saw reconnoitring, to know his opinion of what was likely to happen. “Tell the king,” says the veteran, “that a young man like him, fighting with a subject so infinitely below him, with an army double his number, should give him fair play for his life and reputation. He should send to Mariam Barea to encrease the strength of his center by placing the troops of Lasta there, or we shall beat him in half an hour, without either honour to him or to ourselves.” The king, however, did not understand that sort of gallantry; he thought half an hour in suspence was long enough, and he ordered immediately a large body of musquetry to reinforce Fasil, who commanded the center, and thereby he weakened his own right wing.

Michael, who commanded the right of the royal army, had placed himself and his fire-arms in very rough ground, where cavalry could not approach him, and where he fired as from a citadel, and soon obliged the left wing of the rebels to retreat. But the king, Kefla Yasous, and Lubo on the right, were roughly handled by the horse of Lasta, and would have been totally defeated, the king and Lubo having already left the field, had not Kefla Yasous brought up a reinforcement of the men of Siré and Temben, and retrieved the day, at least brought things upon an equal footing.

Fasil, with the horse of Foggora and Damot, and a prodigious body of the Djawi and Pagan Galla, desirous to shew his consequence, and confirm himself in his ill-got government by his personal behaviour, attacked the Begemder horse in the center so irresistibly, that he not only broke through them in several places, but threw the whole body into a shameful flight. Mariam Barea himself was wounded in endeavouring to stop them, and hurried away, in spite of his inclination, crying out in great agony, “Is there not one in my army that will stay and see me die like the son of Kasmati Ayo?” It was all in vain; Powussen, and a number of his own officers, surrounding him, dragged him as it were by force out of the field. The country behind Nefas Musa is wild, and cut with deep gullies, and the woods almost impenetrable; they were therefore quickly out of the enemy’s pursuit, and safe, as they thought, under the protection of the Woollo Galla. The whole army of Begemder was dispersed, and Michael early forbade further pursuit.

The account of this battle, and what preceded it, from the murder of the prince of Zaguè, is not in the annals or history of Abyssinia, which I have hitherto followed; at least it has not appeared yet, probably out of delicacy to Ozoro Esther, fear of Ras Michael, and respect to the character of Mariam Barea, whose memory is still dear to his country. But the whole was often, at my desire, repeated to me by Kefla Yasous, and his officers who were there, whom he used to question about any circumstance he did not himself remember, or was absent from; for he was a scrupulous lover of truth; and nothing pleased him so much as the thought that I was writing his history to be read in my country, although he had not the smallest idea of England or its situation.

As for the conversation before the battle, it was often told me by Ayto Aylo and Ayto Engedan, sons of Kasmati Eshté, who were with the Ras when he delivered the message to the king, and were kept by him from engaging that day in respect to Mariam Barea, who was married to their aunt Ozoro Esther.

The king and Lubo sent Woosheka to their friends among the Woollo, who delivered up the unfortunate Mariam Barea, with twelve of his officers who had taken refuge with him. Mariam Barea was brought before the king in his tent, covered with blood that had flowed from his wound; his hands tied behind his back, and thus thrown violently with his face to the ground. A general murmur which followed shewed the sentiments of the spectators at so woful a sight; and the horror of it seemed to have seized the king so entirely as to deprive him of all other sentiments.

I have often said, the Mosaical law, or law of retaliation, is constantly observed over all Abyssinia as the criminal law of the country, so that, when any person is slain wrongfully by another, it does not belong to the king to punish that offence, but the judges deliver the offender to the nearest relation of the party murdered, who has the full power of putting him to death, selling him to slavery, or pardoning him without any satisfaction.

Lubo saw the king relenting, and that the greatest crime, that of rebellion, was already forgiven. He stood up, therefore, and, in violent rage, laid claim to Mariam Barea as the murderer of his brother: the king still saying nothing, he and his other Galla hurried Mariam Barea to his tent, where he was killed, according to report, with sundry circumstances of private cruelty, afterwards looked upon as great aggravations. Lubo, with his own hand, is said to have cut his throat in the manner they kill sheep. His body was afterwards disfigured with many wounds, and his head severed and carried to Michael, who forbade uncovering it in his tent. It was then sent to Brulhé’s family in their own country, as a proof of the satisfaction his friends had obtained; and this gave more universal umbrage than did even the cruelty of the execution.

Several officers of the king’s army, seeing the bloody intentions of the Galla, advised Powussen, and the eleven other officers that were taken prisoners, to make the best use of the present opportunity, and fly to the tent of Michael and implore his protection. This they most willingly did, with this connivance of Woosheka, who had been intrusted with the care of them, and Lubo having finished Mariam Barea, came to the king’s tent to seek the unhappy prisoners, whom he intended as victims to the memory of Brulhé likewise. Hearing, however, that they were fled to Michael’s tent, he sent Woosheka to demand them; but that officer had scarce opened his errand, in the gentlest manner possible, when Michael, in a fury, cried out, Cut him in pieces before the tent-door. Woosheka was indeed lucky enough to escape; but we shall find this was not forgot, for his punishment was more than doubled soon afterwards.

At seeing Mariam Barea’s head in the hands of a Galla, after forbidding him to expose it in his tent, Michael is said to have made the following observation: “Weak and cowardly people are always in proportion cruel and unmerciful. If Brulhé’s wife had done this, I could have forgiven her; but for Joas, a young man and a king, whose heart should be opened and elated with a first victory, to be partaker with the Galla, the enemies of his country, in the murder of a nobleman such as Mariam Barea, it is a prodigy, and can be followed by no good to himself or the state; and I am much deceived if the day is not at hand when he shall curse the moment that ever Galla crossed the Nile, and look for a man such as Mariam Barea, but he shall not find him.” And, indeed, Michael was very well entitled to make this prophecy, for he knew his own heart, and the designs he had now ready to put in execution.

It is no wonder that these free communications gave the king reason to distrust Michael. And it was observed that Waragna Fasil had insinuated himself far into his favour: his late behaviour at the battle of Nefas Musa had greatly increased his importance with the king; and the number of troops he had now with him made Joas think himself independent of the Ras. Fasil had brought with him near 30,000 men, about 20,000 of whom were horsemen, wild Pagan Galla, from Bizamo and other nations south of the Nile. The terror the savages occasioned in the countries through which they passed, and the great disorders they committed, gave Ras Michael a pretence to insist that all those wild Galla should be sent back to their own country. I say this was a pretence, because Michael’s soldiers were really more cruel and licentious, because more confident and better countenanced than these strangers were. But the war was over, the armies to be disbanded, these Pagans were consequently to return home; and they were all sent back accordingly, excepting 12,000 Djawi, men of Fasil’s own tribe, and some of the best horse of Maitsha, Agow, and Damot.

This was the first appearance of quarrel between Fasil and Ras Michael. But other accidents followed fast that blew up the flame betwixt them; of which the following was by much the most remarkable, and the most unexpected.

At Nefas Musa, near to the field of battle, was a house of Mariam Barea, which he used to remove to when he was busy in wars with the neighbouring Galla. It was surrounded with meadows perfectly well-watered, and full of luxuriant grass. Fasil, for the sake of his cavalry, had encamped in these meadows; or, if he had other views, they are not known; and though all the doors and entrances of the house were shut, yet within was the unfortunate Ozoro Esther, by this time informed of her husband’s death, and with her was Ayto Aylo, a nobleman of great credit, riches, and influence. He had been at the campaign of Sennaar, and was so terrified at the defeat, that, on his return, he had renounced the world, and turned monk. He was a man of no party, and refused all posts or employments; but was so eminent for wisdom, that all sides consulted him, and were in some measure governed by him.

This person, a relation of the Iteghé’s, had, at her desire, attended Ozoro Esther to Nefas Musa, but, adhering to his vow, went not to battle with her husband. Hearing, however, of the bad disposition of the king, the cruelty of the Galla, and the power and ambition of Fasil, whose soldiers were encamped round the house, he told her that there was only one resolution which she could take to avoid sudden ruin, and being made a sacrifice to one of the murderers of her husband.

This princess, under the fairest form, had the courage and decision of a Roman matron, worthy the wife of Mariam Barea, to whom she had born two sons. Instructed by Aylo, early in the morning, all covered from head to foot, accompanied by himself, and many attendants and friends, their heads bare, and without appearance of disguise, they presented themselves at the door of Michael’s tent, and were immediately admitted. Aylo announced the princess to the Ras, and she immediately threw herself at his feet on the ground.

As Michael was lame, tho’ in all other respects healthy and vigorous, and unprepared for so extraordinary an interview, it was some time before he could get upon his feet and uncover himself before his superior. This being at last accomplished, and Ozoro Esther refusing to rise, Aylo, in a few words, told the Ras her resolution was to give him instantly her hand, and throw herself under his protection, as that of the only man not guilty of Mariam Barea’s death, who could save her and her children from the bloody cruelty and insolence of the Galla that surrounded her. Michael, sanguine as he was in his expectations of the fruit he was to reap from his victory, did not expect so soon so fair a sample of what was to follow.

To decide well, instantly upon the first view of things, was a talent Michael possessed superior to any man in the kingdom. Tho’ Ozoro Esther had never been part of his schemes, he immediately saw the great advantage which would accrue to him by making her so, and he seized it; and he was certain also that the king, in his present disposition, would soon interfere. He lifted Ozoro Esther, and placed her upon his seat; sent for Kefla Yasous and his other officers, and ordered them, with the utmost expedition, to draw up his army in order of battle, as if for a review to ascertain his loss. At the same time he sent for a priest, and ordered separate tents to be pitched for Ozoro Esther and her household. All this was performed quickly; then meeting her with the priest, he was married to her at the door of his own tent in midst of the acclamations of his whole army. The occasion of these loud shouts was soon carried to the king, and was the first account he had of this marriage. He received the information with violent displeasure, which he could not stifle, or refrain from expressing it in the severest terms, all of which were carried to Ras Michael by officious persons, almost as soon as they were uttered, nothing softened.

The consequences of the marriage of Ozoro Esther were very soon seen in the inveterate and determined hatred against the Galla. Esther, who could not save Mariam Barea, sacrificed herself that she might avenge his death, and live to see the loss of her husband expiated by numberless hecatombs of his enemies and murderers. Mild, gentle, and compassionate as, from my own knowledge, she certainly was, her nature was totally changed when she cast back her eyes upon the sufferings of her husband; nor could she be ever satiated with vengeance for those sufferings, but constantly stimulated Ras Michael, of himself much inclined to bloodshed, to extirpate, by every possible means, that odious nation of Galla, by whom she had fallen from all her hopes of happiness.

Fasil, as being a Galla, the first man that broke thro’ the horse of Begemder, and wounded and put to flight her husband Mariam Barea, was in consequence among the black list of her enemies. Fasil, too, had murdered Kasmati Eshté, who was her favourite uncle, fast friend to Mariam Barea, and the man that had promoted her marriage with him.

The great credit of Fasil with the king had now given Ras Michael violent jealousy. These causes of hatred accumulated every day, so that Michael had already formed a resolution to destroy Fasil, even though the king should perish with him. In these sentiments, too, was Gusho of Amhara, a man of great personal merit, of whose father, Ras Woodage, we have already spoken, who had filled successively all the great offices in the last reign. He was immensely rich; had married a daughter of Ras Michael, and afterwards six or seven other women, being much addicted to the fair sex, and was lately married to Ozoro Welleta Israel, the Iteghé’s daughter. Nor was he in any shape an enemy to wine; but very engaging, and plausible in discourse and behaviour; in many respects a good officer, careful of his men, but said to be little solicitous about his word or promise to men of any other profession but that of a soldier.

An accident of the most trifling kind brought about an open breach between the king and the Ras, which never after was healed. The weather was very hot while the army was marching. One day, a little before their arrival at Gondar, in passing over the vast plain between the mountains and the lake Tzana, (afterwards the scene of much bloodshed) Ras Michael, being a little indisposed with the heat, and the sun at the same time affecting his eyes, which were weak, without other design than that of shading them, had thrown a white cloth or handkerchief over his head. This was told the king, then with Fasil in the center, who immediately sent to the Ras to inquire what was the meaning of that novelty, and upon what account he presumed to cover his head in his presence? The white handkerchief was immediately taken off, but the affront was thought so heinous as never after to admit of atonement.

It must be here observed, that, when the army is in the field, it is a distinction the king uses, to bind a broad fillet of fine muslin round his head, which is tied in a double knot, and hangs in two long ends behind. This, too, is worn by the governor of a province when he is first introduced into it; and, in absence of the king, is the mark of supreme power, either direct or delegated, in the person that wears it.

Unless on such occasions, no one covers his head in presence of the king, nor in sight of the house or palace where the king resides: But it was not thought, that, being at such a distance in the rear, he was in the king’s presence, nor that what was caused by infirmity was to be construed into presumption, or weighed by the nice scale of jealous prerogative.

The armies returned to the valleys below Gondar, and encamped separately there, Fasil upon the river Kahha, and Ras Michael on the Angrab. Gusho was on the right of Michael and left of Fasil, a little higher up the Kahha, near Koscam, the Iteghè’s palace; but he was on the opposite side of the river from Fasil, where he had a house of his own, and several large meadows adjoining. Gusho’s servants and soldiers now began cutting their master’s grass, and were soon joined by a number of Fasil’s people, who fell, without ceremony, to the same employment. An interruption was immediately attempted, a fray ensued, and several were killed or wounded on both sides, but at last Fasil’s people were beat back to their quarters.

Gusho complained to Ras Michael of this violation of his property; and he being now in Gondar, and holding the office of Ras, was, without doubt, the superior and regular judge of both, as they were both out of their provinces, and immediately in Michael’s. Upon citation, Fasil declared that he would submit to no such jurisdiction; and, the case being referred to the judges next day, it was found unanimously in council, that Ras Michael was in the right, and that Fasil was guilty of rebellion. A proclamation in consequence was made at the palace-gate, superseding Fasil in his government of Damot, and in every other office which he held under the king, and appointing Boro de Gago in his place, a man of great interest in Damot and Gojam, and with the Galla on both sides of the Nile, and married to a sister of Kasmati Eshté’s, by another mother, otherwise a man of small capacity.

Fasil, after a long and private audience of the king in the night, decamped early in the morning with his army, and sat down at Azazo, the high road between Damot and Gondar, and there he intercepted all the provisions coming from the southward to the capital.

It happened that the house in Gondar, where Ras Michael lived, was but a small distance from the palace, a window of which opened so directly into it, that Michael, when sitting in judgment, could be distinctly seen from thence. One day, when most of his servants had left him, a shot was fired into the room from this window of the palace, which, though it missed Michael, wounded a dwarf, who was standing before him fanning the flies from off his face, so grievously, that the page fell and expired at the foot of his master. This was considered as the beginning of the hostilities. Nobody knew from whose hand the shot came; but the window from which it was aimed sufficiently shewed, that if it was not by direction, it must at least have been fired with the knowledge of the king.

Joas lost no time, but removed and encamped at Tedda, and sent Woosheka to Michael with orders to return to Tigré, and not to see his face; and, at the same time, declared Lubo governor of Begemder and Amhara. The Ras scarcely could be brought to see Woosheka; but did not deign to give any further answer than this, “That the king should know, that the proper persons to correspond with him as Ras, upon the affairs of the kingdom, were the judges of the town, or of the palace; not a slave like Woosheka, whose life, as well as that of all the Gallas in the king’s presence, was forfeited by the laws of the land. He cautioned him from appearing again in his presence, for if he did, that he should surely die.”

The next day a message came from the king, by four judges, forbidding the Ras again to drink of either the Angrab or the Kahha, but to strike his tents and return to Tigré upon pain of incurring his highest displeasure.--To this Michael answered, “That, true it was, his province was Tigré, but that he was now governor of the whole realm; that he was an extraordinary officer, called to prevent the ruin of the country, because, confessedly, the king could not do it; that the reason of his coming existed to that day; and he was very willing to submit it to the judges for their solemn opinion, whether the kingdom, at present in the hands of the Galla, was not in more danger from the power of those Galla than it was from the constitutional influence of Mariam Barea. He added, that he expected the king should be ready to march against Fasil, for which purpose he was to decamp on the morrow.” The king returned an absolute refusal to march: The Ras thereupon made proclamation for all the Galla, of every denomination to leave the capital, the next day, upon pain of death, declaring them outlawed, and liable to be slain by the first that met them, if, after twenty-four hours, they were found in Gondar or its neighbourhood, or, after ten days, in any part of the kingdom. After this, accompanied by Gusho, he decamped to dislodge Fasil from the strong post which he held at Azazo.

By the king’s refusal to march with Ras Michael in person, it was supposed that his household troops would not join, but remain with him to garrison his palace. Joas, however, was too far decided in favour of Fasil to remain neuter. Michael had encamped the 21st of April in the evening, on the side of the hill above Azazo, in very rough and rocky ground, as unfavourable for Fasil’s horse as the slope it had was favourable for Michael’s musquetry.

The battle was fought on the 22d in the morning, and there was much blood shed for the time that it lasted. A nephew of Michael, and his old Fit-Auraris, Netcho, were both slain, and Fasil was totally defeated. The Galla, who had come from the other side of the Nile, were very much terrified at Michael’s fire-arms, which contained what they called the zibib, or grape, meaning thereby the ball. Fasil retired quickly to Damot, to increase and collect another army again, and to try his fortune after the rains.

It happened, unfortunately, that among the prisoners taken at Azazo were some of the king’s black horse. These being his slaves, and subject only to his commands, sufficiently shewed by whose authority they came there. They were, therefore, all called before Michael; two of them were first interrogated, whether the king had sent them or not? and, upon their denying or refusing to give an answer, their throats were cut before their companions. The next questioned was a page of the king, who seeing, from the fate of his friends, what was to follow his denial, frankly told the Ras, that it was by the king’s special orders they, and a considerable body of the household troops, had joined Fasil the night before; and further, that it was the Armenian, who, by the king’s order, had fired at him, and killed the dwarf who was fanning the flies from him.

Upon this information all the prisoners were dismissed. The army returned the same night to Gondar, and, though they had been fasting all day, a council was held, which sat till very late, at the rising of which a messenger was dispatched to Wechné for Hatzé Hannes, who was brought to the foot of the mountain the next day. In the same night Shalaka Becro, Nebrit Tecla and his two sons, Lika Netcho and his two sons, and a monk of Tigré, called Welleta Christos, were sent to the palace to murder the king, which they easily accomplished, having found him alone. They buried him in the church of St Raphael, as we shall find from the regicide’s own confession, when he was apprehended, when we shall relate the particulars.

At the same time Michael exhibited a strange contrast in his behaviour to the Armenian, who had fled to the house of the Abuna for refuge. He sent and took him thence, and banished him from Abyssinia, but so considerately, that he dispatched a servant with him to Masuah to furnish him with necessaries, to see him embark, and save him from the cruelty and extortions of the Naybe.

HANNES II.

1769.

_Hannes, Brother to Bacuffa, chosen King--Is brought from
Wechné--Crowned at Gondar--Refuses to march against Fasil--Is
poisoned by Order of Ras Michael._

HANNES, a man past seventy years of age, made his entry into Gondar the 3d of May 1769. He was brother to Bacuffa, and having in his time escaped from the mountain, and being afterwards taken, his hand was cut off by order of the king his brother, and he was sent back to the place of his confinement.

It is a law of Abyssinia, as we have already observed, derived from that of Moses, that no man can be capable either of the throne or priesthood, unless he be perfect in all his limbs; the want of a hand, therefore, certainly disqualified Hannes, and it was with that intent it had been cut off. When this was objected to him in council, Michael laughed violently, and turned it into ridicule; “What is it that a king has to do with his hands? Are you afraid he shall not be able to saddle his own mule, or load his own baggage? Never fear that; when he is under any such difficulty, he has only to call upon me[100], and I will help him.”

Hannes, besides his age, was very feeble in body; and having had no conversation but with monks and priests, this had debilitated his mind as much as age had done his body. He could not be persuaded to take any share in government. The whole day was spent in psalms and prayers; but Ras Michael had brought from the mountain with him two sons, Tecla Haimanout the eldest, a prince of fifteen years of age, and the younger, called George, about thirteen.

Guebra Denghel, a nobleman of the first family in Tigré had married a daughter of Michael by one of his wives in that province. By her he had one daughter, Welleta Selassé, whom Michael in the beginning, while Joas and he were yet friends, had destined to be queen, and to be married to him. Hannes was of the age only to need a Shunnamite; and Welleta Selassé, young and beautiful, and who merited to be something more, was destined as this sacrifice to the ambition of her grandfather. A kind of marriage, I believe, was therefore made, but never consummated. She lived with Hannes some months in the palace, but never took any state upon her. She was a wife and a queen merely in name and idea. Love had in that frozen composition as little share as ambition, and those two great temptations, a crown and a beautiful mistress, could not animate Hatzé Hannes to take the field to defend them. Every possible method was taken by Michael to overcome his reluctance, and do away his fears. All was vain; he wept, hid himself, turned monk, demanded to be sent again to Wechné, but absolutely refused marching with the army.

Michael, who had already seen the danger of leaving a king behind him while he was in the field, and finding Hannes inexorable, had recourse to poison, which was given him in his breakfast; and the Ras, by this means, in less than six months became the deliberate murderer of two kings.

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 Gondar 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 Buré 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[101]! 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._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The city of Wolves, or Hyænas.]

[Footnote 2: She had several names, as I have before said, _Judith_ in Tigré, and in Amhara _Esther_.]

[Footnote 3: Conquetes de Portugais par Lafitan, vol. I. liv. ii. p. 90. Id. ibid. p. 144.]

[Footnote 4: It has been imagined that this number should be increased to seventy, but I have, followed the text; there would be little difference in the rashness of the action.]

[Footnote 5: A tribe of the Shepherds; all the rest, but the two first, unknown in Abyssinia at this day.]

[Footnote 6: Mountain of the Testimony.]

[Footnote 7: The Moors in general are much squarer, stouter-made men, than the Abyssinians.]

[Footnote 8: Probably Magwas, or Berhan Magwass, the Glory of Grace; a name often used by queens; for Mogessa has no signification, that I know, in any of the languages of Ethiopia.]

[Footnote 9: That is, while the family of Zaguè reigned, in Tigré, and that of Solomon in Shoa, before the restoration.]

[Footnote 10: Vid. Ludolf, lib. 3. No. 29. I have this letter at length prefixed to the large volume of Canons and Councils, a copy of which was sent by Zara Jacob to the monks in Jerusalem.]

[Footnote 11: St. Stefano in Rotondis.]

[Footnote 12: Francisco de Branca Leon.]

[Footnote 13: One of the steep mountains used for prisons.]

[Footnote 14: Another church on a hill, one of the quarters of Gondar. It signifies the Hill of Glory, or Brightness.]

[Footnote 15: Bilur, in the language of Samhar, signifies _fossile salt_; if it is coloured with any mineral, so as to be either red or green, it is, in this latter case, applied often to emeralds, and green-rock crystal.]

[Footnote 16: A race of very barbarous people, all shepherds, having great substance, and much resembling the nations of Galla. They are Pagans.]

[Footnote 17: The pomegranate of gold.]

[Footnote 18: The station of David.]

[Footnote 19: Betwudet is an officer that has nearly the same power as Ras; there were two of these, and both being slain at one battle, as we shall see in the sequel, the office grew into disuse as unfortunate.]

[Footnote 20: The literal translation of this is, _doubly sharp_, or _sharp to a fault_; a character he had gained in Portugal.]

[Footnote 21: See Marco Paulo’s Travels into Tartary.]

[Footnote 22: On the west side of the peninsula on the Atlantic.]

[Footnote 23: Vide Marmol, vol. i. cap. 37.]

[Footnote 24: Is a subject paying Capitation.]

[Footnote 25: Vid. David’s letter to Emanuel, king of Portugal 1524.]

[Footnote 26: Vide Map of Shoa.]

[Footnote 27: Or Governor.]

[Footnote 28: Vide Poncet’s travels, in his return through Tigré, p. 116. London edit. 12mo. 1709.]

[Footnote 29: In Barbary called _Mishta_, in Abyssinia, _Kagga_.]

[Footnote 30: This is a name of humility. He is a great officer, and has no care or charge of asses.]

[Footnote 31: Alvarez Histoire d’Ethiopic, p. 157.]

[Footnote 32: Canso el Gauri, and Tomum Bey.]

[Footnote 33: Selim I. emperor of the Ottomans.]

[Footnote 34: It was he who, as we have seen, slew the Moor Maffudi in single combat in the beginning of this reign.]

[Footnote 35: Constant in the faith.]

[Footnote 36: Tellez, lib. 2. cap. 27.]

[Footnote 37: Dated at Rome 16th Feb. 1555. See Tellez, lib. 2. cap. 22.]

[Footnote 38: See Bermudes’s account of these times, printed at Lisbon by Francis Correa, A. D. 1565.]

[Footnote 39: The Mountain of Gold.]

[Footnote 40: Purch. vol. 2.]

[Footnote 41: Ludolf, lib. 2. cap. 6.]

[Footnote 42: To Geshen or Wechné.]

[Footnote 43: See Le Grande’s History of Abyssinia.]

[Footnote 44: See the article Wanzey in the Appendix.]

[Footnote 45: Jerome Lobo Hist. of Abyssinia ap. Le Grande.]

[Footnote 46: The name of infant-king seems to have been given as a nick-name in Abyssinia, and is preserved to this day.]

[Footnote 47: We have mentioned this treaty in the reign of Icon Amlac.]

[Footnote 48: Then the metropolis upon the Lake Tzana.]

[Footnote 49: Register of the cattle; so the governor of Dembea is called.]

[Footnote 50: See the History of the rise of this monarchy in my return through Sennaar.]

[Footnote 51: A low territory at the foot of Lamalmon.]

[Footnote 52: It was probably part of the fruits of the new religion, and the work of his new religious advisers.]

[Footnote 53: The words, Boren, and Bertuma Galla, have no meaning in the Ethiopic.]

[Footnote 54: See the Map.]

[Footnote 55: See the provincial letters of the Jesuits in Tellez, lib. iv. cap. 5.]

[Footnote 56: Which signifies the Passage.]

[Footnote 57: This will be more enlarged upon hereafter.]

[Footnote 58: Tellez, lib. iv. cap. 38.]

[Footnote 59: It is apparently a speech in a passion, for this Sela Christos was one of the most learned of the Abyssinians; yet the words themselves, if literally translated, are scarcely intelligible.]

[Footnote 60: I have seen them often at Madrid.]

[Footnote 61: Called by the Agows, Krihaha.]

[Footnote 62: A name of the black Pagans bordering on Sennaar to the south-west.]

[Footnote 63: Astronom. de M. de La Lande, liv. 19. p. 366.]

[Footnote 64: See the article _kantuffa_ in the Appendix.]

[Footnote 65: The white mountain.]

[Footnote 66: The mountain of salt.]

[Footnote 67: By Chancellor of the Nation is meant the officer immediately next the consul, who keeps the records, and has a department absolutely independent of the Consul.]

[Footnote 68: Vid. Poncet.]

[Footnote 69: It is plain Poncet had no instruments for observation with him, nor was he probably acquainted with the use of them.]

[Footnote 70: To be described hereafter.]

[Footnote 71: See an elevation of this in my account of Axum.]

[Footnote 72: And there he wrote his Teliamede which supposes men were first created fishes, for which he was excommunicated. It was an opinion perfectly worthy of alarming the Sorbonne.]

[Footnote 73: Plin. vol. 1. lib. 6. cap. 30. p. 376.]

[Footnote 74: Father Bernat, a Frenchman.]

[Footnote 75: We have seen these were recommended by M. Maillet, the consul.]

[Footnote 76: This is not the king’s seal. It is the invention of some Mahometan employed to write the letters.]

[Footnote 77: See the letter itself, it is the last in Le Grande’s book, and in Latin, if I remember rightly.]

[Footnote 78: Vid. the letter as quoted above.]

[Footnote 79: Abdelcader, son of Ounsa, retired here.]

[Footnote 80: It signifies Justus.]

[Footnote 81: Vid general map.]

[Footnote 82: Juvenal, sat. 13. l. 163.]

[Footnote 83: Nisi malitia suppleat ætatem.]

[Footnote 84: Herod. lib. 3, par. 17, & seq.]

[Footnote 85: Supposed to be the Garamantica Vallis of Ptolemy.]

[Footnote 86: Dodswell’s dissertation of Hanno’s Periplus--Montesquieu, tom. I. lib. 21. cap. 11.]

[Footnote 87: This sensation of the savage in the heart of Africa seems to be unknown to the enemies of the slave-trade; they talk much of heat, without knowing the material suffering of the negro is from cold.]

[Footnote 88: There seems here some contradiction which needs explanation. It is said that the palace was burnt before Oustas went to his tent. How then could the soldiers assemble in it afterwards? The palace consists of a number of separate houses at no great distance, but detached from one another with one room in each. That where the coronation is performed is called Anbasa Bet; another, where the king sits in festivals, is called Zeffan Bet; another is called Werk Sacala, the gold-house; another Gimja Bet, or the brocade-house, where the wardrobe and the gold stuffs used for presents, or received as such, are laid. Now, we suppose Oustas in any one of these apartments, say Zeffan Bet, which he left to go to his tent, and it was then burnt; still there remained the coronation-house where the regalia was kept, which the soldiers locked up that it might not be used to crown Fasil, Oustas’s son, whom they thought the seven great men they had murdered conspired to place upon the throne after his father.]

[Footnote 89: Mistress to Yasous, and mother to David.]

[Footnote 90: But there can be no doubt both opinions are absolute heresy, in the most liberal sense of that word, as expressly denying our Saviour’s consubstantiality.]

[Footnote 91: This drum is of beaten silver; the Abyssinians say, that this metal alone is capable of conveying the sweet sound contained in a proclamation of peace. It was carried off by the rebels after the retreat of Serbraxos.]

[Footnote 92: Dek.]

[Footnote 93: A relict of the most precious kind, believed to have come from Jerusalem, and been painted by St Luke.]

[Footnote 94: About one hundred and eighty-six pounds, an ounce of gold at a medium being 10 crowns.]

[Footnote 95: This is a fish common in the Mediterranean, of the kind of anchovies, the common food of the galley-slaves, and lower sort of people.]

[Footnote 96: Noba, in the language of Sennaar, signifies Soldier; it is probably from this the ancient name of Nubia first came.]

[Footnote 97: A well near Karoota, immediately on the frontiers of Begemder.]

[Footnote 98: This is commonly done in times of trouble, to keep the townsmen in awe, as if fire was intended, which would not be in their power to quench.]

[Footnote 99: Nearly the same distinction as the silly one made in Britain between the French king and king of France.]

[Footnote 100: What made the ridicule here was, Michael was older than the king, and could not stand alone.]

[Footnote 101: They have the grape along with them.]

[Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent double quotes and capitalization are as in the original.

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]