Chapter VIII: Book V (6)

Angot is now in possession of the Galla, whose chief, Guangoul, is the head of the western Galla, once the most formidable invader of Abyssinia. The other branch of the Tacazzé rises in the frontiers of Begemder, near Dabuco; whence, running between Gouliou, Lasta, and Belessen, it joins with the Angot branch, and becomes the boundary between Tigré and the other great division of the country called Amhara. This division arises from language only, for the Tacazzé passes nowhere near the province of Amhara; only all to the east of the Tacazzè is, in this general way of dividing the country, called Tigrè, and all to the westward, from the Tacazzé to the Nile, Gojam, and the Agows, is called Amhara, because the language of that province is there spoken, and not that of Tigré or Geez. But I would have my reader on his guard against the belief that no languages but these two are spoken in these divisions; many different dialects are spoken in little districts in both, and, in some of them, neither the language of Tigrè nor that of Amhara is understood.

I have already sufficiently dwelt upon the ancient history, the names, manners, and people that inhabit the banks of this river. It was the Siris (or river of the dog-star) whilst that negro, uncivilized people, the Cushites of the island of Meroë, resided upon its banks. It was then called the Tan-nush Abay, or the lesser of two rivers that swelled with the tropical rains, which was the name the peasants, or unlearned, gave it, from comparison with the Nile. It was the Tacazzè in Derkin or the dwelling of the Taka, before it joined the Nile in Beja, and it was the Astaboras of those of the ancients that took the Nile for the Siris. It is now the Atbara, giving its name to that peninsula, which it incloses on the east as the Nile does on the west, and which was formerly the island of Meroë; but it never was the Tekesel, as authors have called it, deriving the name from the Ethiopic word Taka, which undoubtedly signifies, fear, terror, distress, or sadness; I mean, this was never the derivation of its name. Far from this idea, our Tacazzé is one of the pleasantest rivers in the world, shaded with fine lofty trees, its banks covered with bushes inferior in fragrance to no garden in the universe; its stream is the most limpid, its water excellent, and full of good fish of great variety, as its coverts are of all sorts of game.

It must be confessed, that, during the inundation, these things wear a contrary face. It carries in its bed near one-third of all the water that falls in Abyssinia; and we saw the mark the stream had reached the preceding year, eighteen feet above the bottom of the river, which we do not know was the highest point that it arrived at. But three fathoms it certainly had rolled in its bed; and this prodigious body of water, passing furiously from a high ground in a very deep descent, tearing up rocks and large trees in its course, and forcing down their broken fragments scattered on its stream, with a noise like thunder echoed from a hundred hills, these very naturally suggest an idea, that, from these circumstances, it is very rightly called the _terrible_. But then it must be considered, that all rivers in Abyssinia at the same time equally overflow; that every stream makes these ravages upon its banks; and that there is nothing in this that peculiarly affects the Tacazzè, or should give it this special name: at least, such is my opinion; though it is with great willingness I leave every reader in possession of his own, especially in etymology.

At half an hour past eight we began a gradual descent, at first easily enough, till we crossed the small brook called Maitemquet, or, _the water of baptism_. We then began to descend very rapidly in a narrow path, winding along the side of the mountain, all shaded with lofty timber-trees of great beauty. About three miles further we came to the edge of the stream at the principal ford of the Tacazzé, which is very firm and good; the bottom consists of small pebbles, without either sand or large stones. The river here at this time was fully 200 yards broad, the water perfectly clear, and running very swiftly; it was about three feet deep. This was the dry season of the year, when most rivers in Abyssinia ran now no more.

In the middle of the stream we met a deserter from Ras Michael’s army, with his firelock upon his shoulder, driving before him two miserable girls about ten years old, stark-naked, and almost famished to death, the part of the booty which had fallen to his share in laying waste the country of Maitsha, after the battle. We asked him of the truth of this news, but he would give us no satisfaction; sometimes he said there had been a battle, sometimes none. He apparently had some distrust, that one or other of the facts, being allowed to be true, might determine us as to some design we might have upon him and his booty. He had not, in my eyes, the air of a conqueror, but rather of a coward that had sneaked away, and stolen these two miserable wretches he had with him. I asked where Michael was? If at Buré? where, upon defeat of Fasil, he naturally would be. He said, No; he was at Ibaba, the capital of Maitsha; and this gave us no light, it being the place he would go to before, while detachments of his army might be employed in burning and laying waste the country of the enemy he had determined to ruin, rather than return to it some time after a battle. At last we were obliged to leave him. I gave him some flour and tobacco, both which he took very thankfully; but further intelligence he would not give.

The banks of the Tacazzé are all covered, at the water’s edge, with tamarisks; behind which grow high and straight trees, that seem to have gained additional strength from having often resisted the violence of the river. Few of these ever lose their leaves, but are either covered with fruit, flower, or foliage the whole year; indeed, abundantly with all three during the six months fair weather. The Bohabab, indeed, called, in the Amharic language, Dooma, loses its leaf; it is the largest tree in Abyssinia; the trunk is never high; it diminishes very regularly from the top to the bottom, but not beautifully; it has the appearance of a large cannon, and puts out a multitude of strong branches, which do not fall low, or nearly horizontal, but follow a direction, making all of them smaller angles than that of 45°. The fruit is of the shape of a melon, rather longer for its thickness; within are black seeds in each of the cells, into which it is divided, and round them a white substance, very like fine sugar, which is sweet, with a small degree of very pleasant acid. I never saw it either in leaf or flower; the fruit hang dry upon the branches when they are deprived of both. The wood of this tree is soft and spungy, and of no use. The wild bees perforate the trunk, and lodge their honey in the holes made in it; and this honey is preferred to any other in Abyssinia.

Beautiful and pleasant, however, as this river is, like every thing created, it has its disadvantages. From the falling of the first rains in March till November it is death to sleep in the country adjoining to it, both within and without its banks; the whole inhabitants retire and live in villages on the top of the neighbouring mountains; and _these_ are all robbers and assassins, who descend from their habitations on the heights to lie in wait for, and plunder the travellers that pass. Notwithstanding great pains have been taken by Michael, his son, and grandson, governors of Tigré and Siré, this passage had never been so far cleared but, every month, people are cut off.

The plenty of fish in this river occasions more than an ordinary number of crocodiles to resort hither. These are so daring and fearless, that when the river swells, so as to be passable only by people upon rafts, or skins blown up with wind, they are frequently carried off by these voracious and vigilant animals. There are also many hippopotami, which, in this country, are called Gomari. I never saw any of these in the Tacazzè; but at night we heard them snort, or groan, in many parts of the river near us. There are also vast multitudes of lions and hyænas in all these thickets. We were very much disturbed by them all night. The smell of our mules and horses had drawn them in numbers about our tent, but they did us no further harm, except obliging us to watch. I found the latitude of the ford, by many observations, the night of the 26th, taking a medium of them all, to be 13° 42´ 45´´ north.

The river Tacazzè is, as I have already said, the boundary of the province of Sirè. We now entered that of Samen, which was hostile to us, being commanded by Ayto Tesfos, who, since the murder of Joas, had never laid down his arms, nor acknowledged his neighbour, Michael, as Ras, nor Hannes the king, last made, as sovereign. He had remained on the top of a high rock called _the Jews Rock_, about eight miles from the ford. For these reasons, as well as that it was the most agreeable spot we had ever yet seen, we left our station on the Tacazzè with great regret.

On the 27th of January, a little past six in the morning, we continued some short way along the river’s side, and, at forty minutes past six o’clock, came to Ingerohha, a small rivulet rising in the plain above, which, after a short course through a deep valley, joins the Tacazzè. At half past seven we left the river, and began to ascend the mountains, which forms the south side of the valley, or banks of that river. The path is narrow, winds as much, and is as steep as the other, but not so woody. What makes it, however, still more disagreeable is, that every way you turn you have a perpendicular precipice into a deep valley below you. At half past eight we arrived at the top of the mountain; and, at half past nine, halted, at Tabulaqué, having all the way passed among ruined villages, the monuments of Michael’s cruelty or justice; for it is hard to say whether the cruelty, robberies, and violence of the former inhabitants did not deserve the severest chastisement.

We saw many people feeding cattle on the plain, and we again opened a market for flour and other provisions, which we procured in barter for cohol, incense, and beads. None but the young women appeared. They were of a lighter colour, taller, and in general more beautiful than those at Kella. Their noses seemed flatter than those of the Abyssinians we had yet seen. Perhaps the climate here was beginning that feature so conspicuous in the negroes in general, and particularly of those in this country called Shangalla, from whose country these people are not distant above two days journey. They seemed inclined to be very hard in all bargains but those of one kind, in which they were most reasonable and liberal. They all agreed, that these favours ought to be given and not sold, and that all coyness and courtship was but loss of time, which always might be employed better to the satisfaction of both. These people are less gay than those at Kella, and their conversation more rough and peremptory. They understood both the Tigrè language and Amharic, although we supposed it was in compliance to us that they conversed chiefly in the former.

Our tent was pitched at the head of Ingerohha, on the north of the plain of Tabulaqué. This river rises among the rocks at the bottom of a little eminence, in a small stream, which, from its source, runs very swiftly, and the water is warm. The peasants told us, that, in winter, in time of the rains, it became hot, and smoked. It was in taste, however, good; nor did we perceive any kind of mineral in it. Tabulaqué, Anderassa, and Mentesegla belong to the Shum of Addergey, and the viceroy of Samen, Ayto Tesfos. The large town of Hauza is about eight miles south-and-by-east of this.

On the 28th, at forty minutes past six o’clock in the morning, we continued our journey; and, at half past seven, saw the small village Motecha on the top of the mountain, half a mile south from us. At eight, we crossed the river Aira; and, at half past eight, the river Tabul, the boundary of the district of Tabulaqué thick covered with wood, and especially a sort of cane, or bamboo, solid within, called there Shemale, which is used in making shafts for javelins, or light darts thrown from the hand, either on foot or on horseback, at hunting or in war.

We alighted on the side of Anderassa, rather a small stream, and which had now ceased running, but which gives the name to the district through which we were passing. Its water is muddy and ill-tasted, and falls into the Tacazzè, as do all the rivers we had yet passed. Dagashaha bears N. N. E. from this station. A great dew fell this night; the first we had yet observed.

The 29th, at six o’clock in the morning, we continued our journey from Anderassa, through thick woods of small trees, quite overgrown, and covered with wild oats, reeds, and long grass, so that it was very difficult to find a path through them. We were not without considerable apprehension, from our nearness to the Shangalla, who were but two days journey distant from us to the W. N. W. and had frequently made excursions to the wild country where we now were. Hauza was upon a mountain south from us; after travelling along the edge of a hill, with the river on our left hand, we crossed it: it is called the Bowiha, and is the largest we had lately seen.

At nine o’clock we encamped upon the small river Angari, that gives its name to a district which begins at the Bowiha where Anderassa ends. The river Angari is much smaller than the Bowiha: it rises to the westward in a plain near Mentesegla; after running half a mile, it falls down a steep precipice into a valley, then turns to the N. E. and, after a course of two miles and a half farther, joins the Bowiha a little above the ford.

The small village Angari lies about two miles S. S. W. on the top of a hill. Hauza (which seems a large town formed by a collection of many villages) is six miles south, pleasantly situated among a variety of mountains, all of different and extraordinary shapes; some are straight like columns, and some sharp in the point, and broad in the base, like pyramids and obelisks, and some like cones. All these, for the most part inaccessible, unless with pain and danger to those that know the paths, are places of refuge and safety in time of war, and are agreeably separated from each other by small plains producing grain. Some of these, however, have at the top water and small flats that can be sown, sufficient to maintain a number of men, independent of what is doing below them. Hauza signifies _delight_, or _pleasure_, and, probably, such a situation of the country has given the name to it. It is chiefly inhabited by Mahometan merchants, is the _entre-pot_ between Masuah and Gondar, and there are here people of very considerable substance.

The 30th, at seven in the morning, we left Angari, keeping along the side of the river. We then ascended a high hill covered with grass and trees, through a very difficult and steep road; which ending, we came to a small and agreeable plain, with pleasant hills on each side; this is called Mentesegla. At half past seven we were in the middle of three villages of the same name, two to the right and one on the left, about half a mile distance. At half past nine we passed a small river called Daracoy, which serves as the boundary between Addergey and this small district Mentesegla. At a quarter past ten, we incamped at Addergey, near a small rivulet called Mai-Lumi, the river of limes, or lemons, in a plain scarce a mile square, surrounded on each side with very thick wood in form of an amphitheatre. Above this wood, are bare, rugged, and barren mountains. Midway in the cliff is a miserable village, that seems rather to hang than to stand there, scarce a yard of level ground being before it to hinder its inhabitants from falling down the precipice. The wood is full of lemons and wild citrons, from which it acquires its name. Before the tent, to the westward, was a very deep valley, which terminated this little plain in a tremendous precipice.

The river Mai-Lumi, rising above the village, falls into the wood, and there it divides itself in two; one branch surrounds the north of the plain, the other the south, and falls down a rock on each side of the valley, where they unite, and, after having run about a quarter of a mile further, are precipitated into a cataract of 150 feet high, and run in a direction south-west into the Tacazzé. The river Mai-Lumi was, at this time, but small, although it is violent in winter; beyond this valley are five hills, and on the top of each is a village. The Shum resides in the one that is in the middle. He bade us a seeming hearty welcome, but had malice in his heart against us, and only waited to know for certainty if it was a proper time to gratify his avarice. A report was spread about with great confidence, that Ras Michael had been defeated by Fasil; that Gondar had rebelled, and Woggora was all in arms; so that it was certain loss of life to attempt the passage of Lamalmon.

For our part, we conceived this story to be without foundation, and that, on the contrary, the news were true which we had heard at Siré and Adowa, _viz._ That Michael was victorious, and Fasil beaten; and we were, therefore, resolved to abide by this, as well knowing, that, if the contrary had happened, every place between the Tacazzè and Gondar was as fatal to us as any thing we were to meet with on Lamalmon could be; the change of place made no difference; the dispositions of the people towards Michael and his friends we knew to be the same throughout the kingdom, and that our only safety remained on certain and good news coming from the army, or in the finishing our journey with expedition, before any thing bad happened, or was certainly known.

The hyænas this night devoured one of the best of our mules. They are here in great plenty, and so are lions; the roaring and grumbling of the latter, in the part of the wood nearest our tent, greatly disturbed our beasts, and prevented them from eating their provender. I lengthened the strings of my tent, and placed the beasts between them. The white ropes, and the tremulous motion made by the impression of the wind, frightened the lions from coming near us. I had procured from Janni two small brass bells, such as the mules carry. I had tied these to the storm-strings of the tent, where their noise, no doubt, greatly contributed to our beasts safety from these ravenous, yet cautious animals, so that we never saw them; but the noise they made, and, perhaps, their smell, so terrified the mules, that, in the morning, they were drenched in sweat as if they had been a long journey.

The brutish hyæna was not so to be deterred. I shot one of them dead on the night of the 31st of January, and, on the 2d of February, I fired at another so near, that I was confident of killing him. Whether the balls had fallen out, or that I had really missed him with the first barrel, I know not, but he gave a snarl and a kind of bark upon the first shot, advancing directly upon me as if unhurt. The second shot, however, took place, and laid him without motion on the ground. Yasine and his men killed another with a pike; and such was their determined coolness, that they stalked round about us with the familiarity of a dog, or any other domestic animal brought up with man.

But we were still more incommoded by a lesser animal, a large, black ant, little less than an inch long, which, coming out from under the ground, demolished our carpets, which they cut all into shreds, and part of the lining of our tent likewise, and every bag or sack they could find. We had first seen them in great numbers at Angari, but here they were intolerable. Their bite causes a considerable inflammation, and the pain is greater than that which arises from the bite of a scorpion; they are called _gundan_.

On the 1st of February the Shum sent his people to value, as he said, our merchandise, that we might pay custom. Many of the Moors, in our caravan, had left us to go a near way to Hauza. We had at most five or six asses, including those belonging to Yasine. I humoured them so far as to open the cases where were the telescopes and quadrant, or, indeed, rather shewed them open, as they were not shut from the observation I had been making. They could only wonder at things they had never before seen.

On the 2d of February the Shum came himself, and a violent altercation ensued. He insisted upon Michael’s defeat: I told him the contrary news were true, and begged him to beware lest it should be told to the Ras upon his return that he had propagated such a falsehood. I told him also we had advice that the Ras’s servants were now waiting for us at Lamalmon, and insisted upon his suffering us to depart. On the other hand, he threatened to send us to Ayto Tesfos. I answered, “Ayto Tesfos was a friend to Ayto Aylo, under whose protection I was, and a servant to the Iteghé, and was likelier to punish him for using me ill, than to approve of it, but that I would not suffer him to send me either to Ayto Tesfos, or an inch out of the road in which I was going.” He said, “That I was mad;” and held a consultation with his people for about half an hour, after which he came in again, seemingly quite another man, and said, he would dispatch us on the morrow, which was the 3d, and would send us that evening some provisions. And, indeed, we now began to be in need, having only flour barely sufficient to make bread for one meal next day. The miserable village on the clift had nothing to barter with us; and none from the five villages about the Shum had come near us, probably by his order. As he had softened his tone, so did I mine. I gave him a small present, and he went away repeating his promises. But all that evening passed without provision, and all next day without his coming, so we got every thing ready for our departure. Our supper did not prevent our sleeping, as all our provision was gone, and we had tasted nothing all that day since our breakfast.

The country of the Shangalla lies forty miles N. N. W. of this, or rather more westerly. All this district from the Tacazzé is called, in the language of Tigré, Salent, and Talent in Amharic. This probably arises from the name being originally spelled with (Tz), which has occasioned the difference, the one language omitting the first letter, the other the second.

At Addergey, the 31st day of January, at noon, I observed the meridian altitude of the sun, and, at night, the passage of seven different stars over the meridian, by a medium of all which, I found that the latitude of Addergey is 13° 24´ 56´´ North. And on the morning of the 1st of February, at the same place, I observed an immersion of the second satellite of Jupiter, by which I concluded the longitude of Addergey to be 37° 57´ east of the meridian of Greenwich.

On the 4th of February, at half past nine in the morning, we left Addergey: hunger pressing us, we were prepared to do it earlier, and for this we had been up since five in the morning; but our loss of a mule obliged us, when we packed up our tent, to arrange our baggage differently. While employed at making ready for our departure, which was just in the dawn of day, a hyæna, unseen by any of us, fastened upon one of Yasine’s asses, and had almost pulled his tail away. I was busied at gathering the tent-pins into a sack, and had placed my musket and bayonet ready against a tree, as it is at that hour, and the close of the evening, you are always to be on guard against banditti. A boy, who was servant to Yasine, saw the hyæna first, and flew to my musket. Yasine was disjoining the poles of the tent, and, having one half of the largest in his hand, he ran to the assistance of his ass, and in that moment the musket went off, luckily charged with only one ball, which gave Yasine a flesh wound between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. The boy instantly threw down the musket, which had terrified the hyæna and made him let go the ass; but he stood ready to fight Yasine, who, not amusing himself with the choice of weapons, gave him so rude a blow with the tent-pole upon his head, that it felled him to the ground; others, with pikes, put an end to his life.

We were then obliged to turn our cares towards the wounded. Yasine’s wound was soon seen to be a trifle; besides, he was a man not easily alarmed on such occasions. But the poor ass was not so easily comforted. The stump remained, the tail hanging by a piece of it, which we were obliged to cut off. The next operation was actual cautery; but, as we had made no bread for breakfast, our fire had been early out. We, therefore, were obliged to tie the stump round with whip-cord, till we could get fire enough to heat an iron.

What sufficiently marked the voracity of these beasts, the hyænas, was, that the bodies of their dead companions, which we hauled a long way from us, and left there, were almost entirely eaten by the survivors the next morning; and I then observed, for the first time, that the hyæna of this country was a different species from those I had seen in Europe, which had been brought from Asia or America.

CHAP. VII.

_Journey over Lamalmon to Gondar._

It was on account of these delays that we did not leave Addergey till near ten o’clock in the forenoon of the 4th of February. We continued our journey along the side of a hill, through thick wood and high grass; then descended into a deep, narrow valley, the sides of which had been shaded with high trees, but in burning the grass the trees were consumed likewise; and the shoots from the roots were some of them above eight feet high since the tree had thus suffered that same year. The river Angueah runs through the middle of this valley; after receiving the small streams, before mentioned, it makes its way into the Tacazzé. It is a very clear, swift-running river, something less than the Bowiha.

When we had just reached the river-side, we saw the Shum coming from the right hand across us. There were nine horsemen in all, and fourteen or fifteen beggarly foot-men. He had a well-dressed young man going before him carrying his gun, and had only a whip in his own hand; the rest had lances in theirs; but none of the horsemen had shields. It was universally agreed, that this seemed to be a party set for us, and that he probably had others before appointed to join him, for we were sure his nine horse would not venture to do any thing. Upon the first appearance, we had stopped on this side of the river; but Welleta Michael’s men, who were to accompany us to Lamalmon, and Janni’s servant, told us to cross the river, and make what speed we could, as the Shum’s government ended on this side.

Our people were now all on foot, and the Moors drove the beasts before them. I got immediately upon horseback, when they were then about five hundred yards below, or scarcely so much. As soon as they observed us drive our beasts into the river, one of their horsemen came galloping up, while the others continued at a smart walk. When the horseman was within twenty yards distance of me, I called upon him to stop, and, as he valued his life, not approach nearer. On this he made no difficulty to obey, but seemed rather inclined to turn back. As I saw the baggage all laid on the ground at the foot of a small round hill, upon the gentle ascent of which my servants all stood armed, I turned about my horse, and with Yasine, who was by my side, began to cross the river. The horseman upon this again advanced; again I cried to him to stop. He then pointed behind him, and said, “The Shum!” I desired him peremptorily to stop, or I would fire; upon which he turned round, and the others joining him, they held a minute’s counsel together, and came all forward to the river, where they paused a moment as if counting our number, and then began to enter the stream. Yasine now cried to them in Amharic, as I had done before in Tigré, desiring them, as they valued their lives, to come no nearer. They stopt, a sign of no great resolution; and, after some altercation, it was agreed the Shum, and his son with the gun, should pass the river.

The Shum complained violently that we had left Addergey without his leave, and now were attacking him in his own government upon the high-road. “A pretty situation,” said I, “was ours at Addergey, where the Shum left the king’s stranger no other alternative but dying with hunger, or being ate by the hyæna.”

“This is not your government,” says Janni’s servant; “you know my master, Ayto Aylo, commands here.”--“And who is attacking you on the road?” says the Sirè servant. “Is it like peaceable people, or banditti, to come mounted on horseback and armed as you are? Would not your mules and your foot-servants have been as proper? and would not you have been better employed, with the king and Ras Michael, fighting the Galla, as you gave your promise, than here molesting passengers on the road?”--“You lie,” says the Shum, “I never promised to go with your Ras;” and on this he lifted up his whip to strike Welleta Michael’s servant; but that fellow, though quiet enough, was not of the kind to be beaten. “By G--d! Shum,” says he, “offer to strike me again, and I will lay you dead among your horse’s feet, and my master will say I did well. Never call for your men; you should have taken the red slip off your gun before you came from home to-day to follow us. Why, if you was to shoot, you would be left alone in our hands, as all your fellows on the other side would run at the noise even of your own gun.

“Friends, said I, you understand one another’s grievances better than I do. My only business here is to get to Lamalmon as soon as possible. Now, pray, Shum, tell me what is your business with me? and why have you followed me beyond your government, which is bounded by that river?”--He said, “That I had stolen away privately, without paying custom.”--“I am no merchant, replied I; I am the king’s guest, and pay no custom; but as far as a piece of red Surat cotton cloth will content you, I will give it you, and we shall part friends.”--He then answered, “That two ounces of gold were what my dues had been rated at, and would either have that, or he would follow me to Debra Toon.”--“Bind him and carry him to Debra Toon, says the Siré servant, or I shall go and bring the Shum of Debra Toon to do it. By the head of Michael, Shum, it shall not be long before I take you out of your bed for this.”

I now gave orders to my people to load the mules. At hearing this, the Shum made a signal for his company to cross; but Yasine, who was opposite to them, again ordered them to stop. “Shum, said I, you intend to follow us, apparently with a design to do us some harm. Now we are going to Debra Toon, and you are going thither. If you chuse to go with us, you may in all honour and safety; but your servants shall not be allowed to join you, nor you join them; and if they but attempt to do us harm, we will for certain revenge ourselves on you. There is a piece of ordnance,” continued I, shewing him a large blunderbuss, “a cannon, that will sweep fifty such fellows as you to eternity in a moment. This shall take the care of them, and we shall take the care of you; but join you shall not till we are at Debra Toon.”

The young man that carried the gun, the case of which had never been off, desired leave to speak with his father, as they now began to look upon themselves as prisoners. The conversation lasted about five minutes; and our baggage was now on the way, when the Shum said, he would make a proposal:--“Since I had no merchandise, and was going to Ras Michael, he would accept of the red cloth, its value being about a crown, provided we swore to make no complaint of him at Gondar, nor speak of what had happened at Debra Toon; while he likewise would swear, after having joined his servants, that he would not again pass that river.” Peace was concluded upon these terms. I gave him a piece of red Surat cotton cloth, and added some cohol, incense, and beads for his wives. I gave to the young man that carried the gun two strings of bugles to adorn his legs, for which he seemed most wonderfully grateful. The Shum returned, not with a very placid countenance; his horsemen joined him in the middle of the stream, and away they went soberly together, and in silence.

Hauza was from this S. E. eight miles distant. Its mountains, of so many uncommon forms, had a very romantic appearance. At one o’clock we alighted at the foot of one of the highest, called Debra Toon, about half way between the mountain and village of that name, which was on the side of the hill about a mile N. W. Still further to the N. W. is a desert, hilly district, called Adebarea, the country of the slaves, as being the neighbourhood of the Shangalla, the whole country between being waste and uninhabited.

The mountains of Waldubba, resembling those of Adebarea, lay north of us about four or five miles. Waldubba, which signifies _the Valley of the Hyæna_, is a territory entirely inhabited by the monks, who, for mortification’s sake, have retired to this unwholesome, hot, and dangerous country, voluntarily to spend their lives in penitence, meditation, and prayer. This, too, is the only retreat of great men in disgrace or in disgust. These first shave their hair, and put on a cowl like the monks, renouncing the world for solitude, and taking vows which they resolve to keep no longer than exigencies require; after which they return to the world again, leaving their cowl and sanctity in Waldubba.

These monks are held in great veneration; are believed by many to have the gift of prophecy, and some of them to work miracles, and are very active instruments to stir up the people in time of trouble. Those that I have seen out of Waldubba in Gondar, and about Koscam, never shewed any great marks of abstinence; they ate and drank every thing without scruple, and in large quantities too. They say they live otherwise in Waldubba, and perhaps it may be so. There are women, also, whom we should call Nuns, who, though not residing in Waldubba, go at times thither, and live in a familiarity with these saints, that has very little favour of spirituality; and many of these, who think the living in community with this holy fraternity has not in it perfection enough to satisfy their devotion, retire, one of each sex, a hermit and a nun, sequestering themselves for months, to eat herbs together in private upon the top of the mountains. These, on their return, are shewn as miracles of holiness,--lean, enervated, and exhausted. Whether this is wholly to be laid to the charge of the herbs, is more than I will take upon me to decide, never having been at these retirements of Waldubba.

Violent fevers perpetually reign there. The inhabitants are all of the colour of a corpse; and their neighbours, the Shangalla, by constant inroads, destroy many of them, though lately they have been stopped, as they say, by the prayers of the monks. I suppose their partners, the nuns, had their share in it, as both of them are said to be equally superior in holiness and purity of living to what their predecessors formerly were. But, not to derogate from the efficaciousness of their prayers, the _natural cause_ why the Shangalla molest them no more, is the small-pox, which has greatly reduced their strength and number, and extinguished, to a man, whole tribes of them.

The water is both scarce and bad at Debra Toon, there being but one spring, or fountain, and it was exceedingly ill-tasted. We did not intend to make this a station; but, having sent a servant to Hauza to buy a mule in room of that which the hyæna had eaten, we were afraid to leave our man, who was not yet come forward, lest he should fall in with the Shum of Addergey, who might stop the mule for our arrears of customs.

The pointed mountain of Dagashaha continued still visible; I set it this day by the compass, and it bore due N. E. We had not seen any cultivated ground since we passed the Tacazzè.

The 5th, at seven o’clock in the morning, we left Debra Toon, and came to the edge of a deep valley bordered with wood, the descent of which is very steep. The Anzo, larger and more rapid than the Angueah, runs through the middle of this valley; its bed is full of large, smooth stones, and the sides composed of hard rock, and difficult to descend; the stream is equally clear and rapid with the other. We ascended the valley on the other side, through the most difficult road we had met with since that of the valley of Sirè. At ten o’clock we found ourselves in the middle of three villages, two to the right, and one on the left; they are called Adamara, from Adama a mountain, on the east side of which is Tchober. At eleven o’clock we encamped at the foot of the mountain Adama, in a small piece of level ground, after passing a pleasant wood of no considerable extent. Adama, in Amharic, signifies _pleasant_; and nothing can be more wildly so than the view from this station.

Tchober is close at the foot of the mountain, surrounded on every side, except the north, by a deep valley covered with wood. On the other side of this valley are the broken hills which constitute the rugged banks of the Anzo. On the point of one of these, most extravagantly shaped, is the village Shahagaanah, projecting as it were over the river; and, behind these, the irregular and broken mountains of Salent appear, especially those around Hauza, in forms which European mountains never wear; and still higher, above these, is the long ridge of Samen, which run along in an even stretch till they are interrupted by the high conical top of Lamalmon, reaching above the clouds, and reckoned to be the highest hill in Abyssinia, over the steepest part of which, by some fatality, the reason I do not know, the road of all caravans to Gondar must lie.

As soon as we passed the Anzo, immediately on our right is that part of Waldubba, full of deep valleys and woods, in which the monks used to hide themselves from the incursions of the Shangalla, before they found out the more convenient defence by the prayers and superior sanctity of the present saints. Above this is Adamara, where the Mahometans have considerable villages, and, by their populousness and strength, have greatly added to the safety of the monks, perhaps not altogether completed yet by the purity of their lives. Still higher than these villages is Tchober, where we now encamped.

On the left hand, after passing the Anzo, all is Shahagaanah, till you come to the river Zarima. It extends in an east and west direction, almost parallel to the mountains of Samen, and in this territory are several considerable villages; the people are much addicted to robbery, and rebellion, in which they were engaged at this time. Above Salent is Abbergalè, and above that Tamben, which is one of the principal provinces in Tigrè, commanded at present by Kefla Yasous, an officer of the greatest merit and reputation in the Abyssinian army.

On the 6th, at six o’clock in the morning, we left Tchober, and passed a wood on the side of the mountain. At a quarter past eight we crossed the river Zarima, a clear stream running over a bottom of stones. It is about as large as the Anzo. On the banks of this river, and all this day, we passed under trees larger and more beautiful than any we had seen since leaving the Tacazzé. After having crossed the Zarima, we entered a narrow defile between two mountains, where ran another rivulet: we continued advancing along the side of it, till the valley became so narrow as to leave no room but in the bed of the rivulet itself. It is called Mai-Agam, or the water or brook of jessamin and falls into the Zarima, at a small distance from the place wherein we passed it. It was dry at the mouth, (the water being there absorbed and hid under the sand) but above, where the ground was firmer, there ran a brisk stream of excellent water, and it has the appearance of being both broad, deep, and rapid in winter. At ten o’clock we encamped upon its banks, which are here bordered with high trees of cummel, at this time both loaded with fruit and flowers. There are also here a variety of other curious trees and plants; in no place, indeed, had we seen more, except on the banks of the Tacazzé. Mai-Agam consists of three villages; one, two miles distant, east-and-by-north, one at same distance, N. N. W.; the third at one mile distance, S. E. by south.

On the 7th, at six o’clock in the morning, we began to ascend the mountain; at a quarter past seven the village Lik lay east of us. Murass, a country full of low but broken mountains, and deep narrow valleys, bears N. W. and Walkayt in the same direction, but farther off. At a quarter past eight, Gingerohha, distant from us about a mile S. W. it is a village situated upon a mountain that joins Lamalmon. Two miles to the N. E. is the village Taguzait on the mountain which we were ascending. It is called Guza by the Jesuits, who strangely say, that the Alps and Pyreneans are inconsiderable eminences to it. Yet, with all deference to this observation, Taguzait, or Guza, though really the base of Lamalmon, is not a quarter of a mile high.

Ten minutes before nine o’clock we pitched our tent on a small plain called Dippebaha, on the top of the mountain, above a hundred yards from a spring, which scarcely was abundant enough to supply us with water, in quality as indifferent as it was scanty. The plain bore strong marks of the excessive heat of the sun, being full of cracks and chasms, and the grass burnt to powder. There are three small villages so near each other that they may be said to compose one. Near them is the church of St George, on the top of a small hill to the eastward, surrounded with large trees.

Since passing the Tacazzé we had been in a very wild country, left so, for what I know, by nature, at least now lately rendered more so by being the theatre of civil war. The whole was one wilderness without inhabitants, unless at Addergey. The plain of Dippebaha had nothing of this appearance; it was full of grass, and interspersed with flowering shrubs, jessamin, and roses, several kinds of which were beautiful, but only one fragrant. The air was very fresh and pleasant; and a great number of people, passing to and fro, animated the scene.

We met this day several monks and nuns of Waldubba, I should say _pairs_, for they were two and two together. They said they had been at the market of Dobarké on the side of Lamalmon, just above Dippebaha. Both men and women, but especially the latter, had large burdens of provisions on their shoulders, bought that day, as they said, at Dobarkè, which shewed me they did not wholly depend upon the herbs of Waldubba for their support. The women were stout and young, and did not seem, by their complexion, to have been long in the mortifications of Waldubba. I rather thought that they had the appearance of healthy mountaineers, and were, in all probability, part of the provisions bought for the convent; and, by the sample, one would think the monks had the first choice of the market, which was but fit, and is a custom observed likewise in Catholic countries. The men seemed very miserable, and ill-clothed, but had a great air of ferocity and pride in their faces. They are distinguished only from the laity by a yellow cowl, or cap, on their head. The cloth they wear round them is likewise yellow, but in winter they wear skins dyed of the same colour.

On the 8th, at three quarters past six o’clock in the morning, we left Dippebaha, and, at seven, had two small villages on our left; one on the S. E. distant two miles, the other on the south, one mile off. They are called Wora, and so is the territory for some space on each side of them; but, beyond the valley, all is Shahagaanah to the root of Lamalmon. At a quarter past seven, the village of Gingerohha was three miles on our right; and we were now ascending Lamalmon, through a very narrow road, or rather path, for it scarcely was two feet wide any where. It was a spiral winding up the side of the mountain, always on the very brink of a precipice. Torrents of water, which in winter carry prodigious stones down the side of this mountain, had divided this path into several places, and opened to us a view of that dreadful abyss below, which few heads can (mine at least could not) bear to look down upon. We were here obliged to unload our baggage, and, by slow degrees, crawl up the hill, carrying them little by little upon our shoulders round these chasms where the road was intersected. The mountains grow steeper, the paths narrower, and the breaches more frequent as we ascend. Scarce were our mules, though unloaded, able to scramble up, but were perpetually falling; and, to increase our difficulties, which, in such cases, seldom come single, a large number of cattle was descending, and seemed to threaten to push us all into the gulf below. After two hours of constant toil, at nine o’clock we alighted in a small plain called Kedus, or St Michael, from a church and village of that name, neither beast nor man being able to go a step further.

The plain of St Michael, where we now were, is at the foot of a steep cliff which terminates the west side of Lamalmon. It is here perpendicular like a wall, and a few trees only upon the top of the cliff. Over this precipice flow two streams of water, which never are dry, but run in all seasons. They fall into a wood at the bottom of this cliff, and preserve it in continual verdure all the year, tho’ the plain itself below, as I have said, is all rent into chasms, and cracked by the heat of the sun. These two streams form a considerable rivulet in the plain of St Michael, and are a great relief both to men and cattle in this tedious and difficult passage over the mountain.

The air on Lamalmon is pleasant and temperate. We found here our appetite return, with a chearfulness, lightness of spirits, and agility of body, which indicated that our nerves had again resumed their wonted tone, which they had lost in the low, poisonous, and sultry air on the coast of the Red Sea. The sun here is indeed hot, but in the morning a cool breeze never fails, which increases as the sun rises high. In the shade it is always cool. The thermometer, in the shade, in the plain of St Michael, this day, was 76°, wind N. W.

Lamalmon, as I have said, is the pass through which the road of all caravans to Gondar lies. It is here they take an account of all baggage and merchandise, which they transmit to the Negadé Ras, or chief officer of the customs at Gondar, by a man whom they send to accompany the caravan. There is also a present, or awide, due to the private proprietor of the ground; and this is levied with great rigour and violence, and, for the most part, with injustice; so that this station, which, by the establishment of the customhouse, and nearness to the capital, should be in a particular manner attended to by government, is always the place where the first robberies and murders are committed in unsettled times. Though we had nothing with us which could be considered as subject to duty, we submitted every thing to the will of the robber of the place, and gave him his present. If he was not satisfied, he seemed to be so, which was all we wanted.

We had obtained leave to depart early in the morning of the 9th, but it was with great regret we were obliged to abandon our Mahometan friends into hands that seemed disposed to shew them no favour. The king was in Maitsha, or Damot, that is to say, far from Gondar, and various reports were spread abroad about the success of the campaign; and these people only waited for an unfavourable event to make a pretence for robbing our fellow-travellers of every thing they had.

The persons whose right it was to levy these contributions were two, a father and son; the old man was dressed very decently, spoke little, but smoothly, and had a very good carriage. He professed a violent hatred to all Mahometans, on account of their religion, a sentiment which seemed to promise nothing favourable to our friend Yasine and his companions: but, in the evening, the son, who seemed to be the active man, came to our tent, and brought us a quantity of bread and bouza, which his father had ordered before. He seemed to be much taken with our fire-arms, and was very inquisitive about them. I gave him every sort of satisfaction, and, little by little, saw I might win his heart entirely; which I very much wished to do, that I might free our companions from bondage.